Maximize efficiency for paid e-commerce campaigns

We are seeing a significant increase in digital ad spend around the world. The pandemic has led to changes in consumer behavior that have led to a new era of e-commerce. Most people around the world have increased their reliance on online shopping, and brands have invested more money and attention in direct-to-consumer business.

According to a report by Oberlospending on digital advertising in 2022 grew by 15.6% compared to 2021. The report also says that the growth of digital advertising shows no signs of stopping and growth is expected to continue for the next few years.

If you run a business that sells products, you definitely should embrace e-commerce to drive growth. However, while neglecting ecommerce isn’t an option, there are numerous other brands online that could be stiff competition for your products, so it’s important for you to improve your strategy to stay both relevant and visible.

Important things to consider before starting a campaign

Make sure your website is SEO-friendly (search engine optimized) and has an intuitive design. A well-structured ecommerce site can help you achieve the kind of results you are looking for.

It is extremely crucial to create an ad that resonates with your potential customers. You should create a detailed customer profile with the following steps.

• Decide who your target audience is. Do you target young men who enjoy outdoor activities? Middle-aged moms? Adults with elderly parents?
• Once you’ve determined your target audience, you should understand what they’re looking for. Analyze their needs and try to find out their interests. What hobbies or goals might your target audience have? What interferes with their ability to do these things?
• Turn these obstacles – these weaknesses – into your milestones and try to address the problems they pose.

How to maximize efficiency for your paid e-commerce campaigns

If you are looking to establish positive and sustainable brand awareness online and improve your revenue from online sources, fine-tuning your online strategy is vital.

Here is a list of key tactics that you need to use for best results. While we’ll be talking specifically about Google Ads, many of these tactics are broadly applicable to any paid advertising service you use.

Optimize your product data feed

• The data in the Google product feed determines the performance of your campaign, which seriously affects your ROI. Therefore, optimization is key.
• Make sure the title is simple so your audience can understand everything they need to know about your product just by reading it. Such headlines can also help you get maximum exposure on search engines like Google.
• Instead of the Google product feed, if you prefer to use a spreadsheet, make sure you include all possible information about the product such as color, size, material, age range of potential customers, and so on.
• Select the correct product categories and subcategories and align them with the appropriate product types. Not doing this can seriously damage your sales.
• A quality product feed management tool helps you track your performance, which is critical, as you can make the necessary changes to your advertising campaigns based on your performance.

Refine your campaign using negative keywords

• Nothing is perfect in this world, and that also includes the Google Shopping system. While Google Shopping Ads are a boon to marketers, imperfect keyword targeting is a big deal as search results can sometimes display your products with irrelevant search keywords. For example, if you sell running shoes, but not other running accessories, you don’t want your ads to run to buyers who won’t buy.
• If you show up for these keywords that won’t lead to purchases, your ad campaigns may experience high spend but terrible conversion ratios, low click-through rates, and low ROI and ROAS.
• Implementing a negative keyword strategy in your Google Shopping advertising campaigns can prevent your ads from showing when certain search phrases are used. This in turn can increase the ROAS and ROI of your campaigns.
• Using negative keywords in your advertising campaigns can prevent unwanted clicks, thus helping you save money by improving your ad’s click-through rate.

Highlight your sales, discounts and special offers

• Every customer loves a great offer as they have the opportunity to save by buying something.
• If you want to move your products quickly, showing discounts and special offers is a great way to get it. While running specials and offers, you need to specifically mention this, and if you really want to stand out in the field, you should post announcements related to these deals and offers.

Use single product ad groups

• Single Product Ad Groups (SPAG) allow marketers to set bids for each product individually. A SPAG allows you to pause individual products that don’t give you the expected results. SPAGs also give you the ability to create negative keywords for specific products.
• A SPAG allows you to identify your best-selling and least-selling products, which will help you group them accordingly into performing and non-performing categories.
• A SPAG is a very useful tool, as it allows you to make changes at the product level and create keywords for your product and check the offers at the market level.

Try Google Showcase Ads

• Google Showcase Ads presents product images and prices directly on the results page. These ads expand when clicked and display a personalized product description and catalog of related products. These ads allow you to group related products and present them together to showcase your brand or business.
• Google Showcase Ads can improve your sales performance and the efficiency of your paid campaigns as they allow you to highlight your products using high-quality digital images. You will be able to see them at the top of the SERP (search engine results page), above the paid search ads.

Create a good post-purchase experience

• Considering the stiff competition from other brands and competitors online, it’s very important to encourage repeat purchases, as they are often far less expensive than converting first-time buyers.
• A strong checkout experience and post-purchase considerations will help build strong customer loyalty that will make second and third purchases more likely.
• Use customer data wisely once it is acquired. This will improve the customer retention rate. You can group your customers based on how much they bought and how many times they bought. You can then provide exclusive discounts and offers to your loyal customers accordingly.

Important points to remember when creating an e-commerce site

Here are some key points you need to consider when building an ecommerce website.

• Make sure your website is mobile-friendly. Many users use mobile devices for online searches, in fact most online searches are performed on mobile devices. Build your site mobile easy to use ensures that customers can browse your site on their mobile devices smoothly.
• Different users prefer different payment methods. Therefore, it’s important to offer multiple payment options, as customers can cancel their purchase if they can’t find their preferred payment option on your e-commerce site. For example, you might offer a regular credit card payment option, in addition to PayPal or Google Pay.
• Keep the sales process simple. Even customers who are not computer or mobile savvy should be able to complete their purchase smoothly. A simple and straightforward experience can offer your customers an effortless and seamless experience when purchasing.

Final thoughts

It is important for each brand to take the time to stand out and speak to their audience. Try to identify ways you can engage your audience as it can help drive more data acquisition and increase brand loyalty.

The strategies mentioned in this post can help you improve the efficiency of your advertising campaigns, and implementing them correctly will pay off handsomely in the long run.

Andy Beohar is Vice President of Seven atoms, a Google and HubSpot certified agency in San Francisco. Andy develops and manages inbound and paid marketing campaigns with positive ROI for B2B and technology companies. Connect with Andy on LinkedIn or Twitter.

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