As a business owner you may have heard of Google Ads but you might not know what they are, how they can be used, or why they can be incredibly beneficial for your online marketing efforts.
Well wonder no longer – to give your SEO and ecommerce store a boost we delve into Google Ads including a short introduction, and some best practices to observe when creating your marketing.
Google Ads - A Simple Introduction
- Did you know that according to some statistical data, Google holds over 80% of the Ad marketing share. This makes it by far the leading platform in this field and puts Google Ads far above the other options.
- How can you ignore Google Ads based on those stats? Google Ads allows you to produce customized adverts that are displayed in various different ways including on the search results of the Google search engine, their vast network of partner websites, and YouTube videos.
- This platform uses a PPC model – Pay per Click. So you only pay when a positive action happens such as a click, an impression, or an engagement. This means you can easily control your Google Ads marketing budget.
- As a general overview, there are nine different types of ecommerce Google Ads that you can employ including:
- – Search Ads
- – Display Ads
- – Shopping Ads
- – Video Ads
- – Universal App Ads
- – Discovery Ads
- – Local Ads
- – Smart Ads
- – Performance Max Ads
- Each one offers something different and allows you to target your customers in different ways. For example, display ads are shown on websites and mobile apps and customers see them when visiting a website.
- Google Ads can also be linked with your Google Analytics account so you can get even more data and analyze every aspect of your campaigns for continual improvement.
5 Best Practices to Observe for Your Google Ads
You should now have a basic idea of what Google Ads is – it’s a powerful tool to create adverts that appeal to your customers and are displayed in various ways such as on websites, videos, and ecommerce sites.
So how do you get the most out of your Google Ads and boost your ecommerce traffic and sales? This is something that will take time, and creating a successful ecommerce campaign isn’t something that you will achieve overnight. But the five practices below will help start you on the right path.
1. Plan extensively before publishing your first ad
The first ad you create will take a long time to produce and publish. Over time, you will get better at creating ads and managing them so don’t worry about the initial slowness.
To try and reduce the time taken and ensure you are successful immediately though, it is a great idea to spend time learning the platform and planning your first advert. Consider what you want to achieve, and who your target customers are.
Take time to do keyword research too and consider using keywords that you already prioritize on your eCommerce site SEO. The more planning you do, and the more information you gather before creating your first ad, the better the results should be.
2. Experiment to find the best results
It is important to realize that you might not create the perfect Google Ad the first time. The great thing about the platform is the PPC method which means that if your first advert is unsuccessful, you will hardly pay anything for it!
You can also use this to your advantage to experiment and try different ad copy and types. With all the different ad types available like video, display, and shopping, you can see which ones work best for your business and which copy gets the most exposure and conversions.
Virtually every part of each Google Ad is flexible so you really do have great control and can fine-tune things to your advantage.
3. Try to create contextual ads
Context is hugely important in the world of Google Ads and it is known that contextual ads are 1.6x more interesting and 10x likely to generate engagement. Contextual means the adverts relate to some type of current society trend or event. There is a tool called Google Trends that you can use to find current highly searched phrases to potentially include in your contextual ads.
4. Create multiple variations of your ads
As mentioned above, a single ad may have limited success or reach. The PPC model gives you the flexibility to produce multiple variations of the same ad to get better results.
For example, you could target different keywords in the ad copy. Alternatively, you could use different images or variations of headings. Subtle changes like this and publishing multiple versions of the same ad really can help.
If you find that one variation is more successful you could drop the other ones and repeat the process with different types of ads.
5. Consider what your competition is doing
It is also possible to keep tabs on your competitors and even create ads based on keywords they are using. This is known as competitor keyword bidding.
For example, perhaps you know that customers commonly search for a specific phrase to find your competitors’ products. You could create adverts targeting these keywords to, to try and redirect traffic and provide them with a viable alternative.
It’s always important to be cautious when using competitor bidding, however – you don’t want to potentially upset a huge competitor who has vastly more resources as they could simply outbid you.
Make the Most of Your Google Ads and Boost Your SEO Strategy
Google Ads can be an incredibly powerful marketing and SEO tool and creating ecommerce Google ads can really help drive traffic to your store and get those all important conversions and sales.
It does require work, research, and a careful approach, however, and enlisting the help of an ecommerce PPC agency could be beneficial. They can help you research keywords, understand your target customer, and create adverts that will bring the maximum results.
