03 Aug High Return Google Ad Strategies for Ecommerce Businesses

Inexpensive Ad Campaigns With a High Return

The first strategy for achieving a high return on your Google ads for almost any ecommerce business is to run a “Brand” search campaign. The screenshot below shows a month example of one of our CPG (consumer packaged goods) clients brand campaign. The “All conv. Value / cost” is the ROAS (return on adspend) over a 30 day click and/or view time period.

This type of campaign focuses on the bottom of the marketing funnel. It should help “scoop up” potential customers as well as guide existing customers back to your online shop. In our experience, this campaign has worked best when the targeting is based solely on the business name and product names.

A couple additional notes on this campaign style. Your CPC (cost per click) should be very low for your business name keywords and product keywords. If it is not, (at least less than $1 but this will vary depending on your business/product) then you most likely need to adjust your ad copy and/or landing page.

Google Ads are More Than Just “Search” Ads

Although this is a new section, we are carrying on the idea of “high return, low cost” campaign strategies. Here is an example of this type of campaign from that same CPG client we referenced above:

The above screenshot shows a 9.4 ROAS on a middle of the funnel retargeting “display” ad! This type of ad will show images of your products to your specified target audience across multiple websites partnered with Google. These display ads can definitely be tricky to set up. It is especially tricky to make sure your spend isn’t getting wasted on or with games or other unrelated placements and audiences. BUT if you have the right set up, display ads can give you some of the cheapest clicks for very targeted audiences (more on that targeting later)!

Another campaign often overlooked with Google ads is the Google Shopping Ad Campaign.

This campaign will require setup on the side of your website (WordPress and Shopify work best in our experience) and a Google Merchant account. Like the display campaign, this campaign gives very cheap cpc and great value. Part of that great value comes from the fact that DPA shopping campaigns show images of your product on Google search based on searches related to your products. Seeing your product on a Google search page gives your product more authority and a lot more ad “real estate” (more space for users to see and click on your ad).

“In-market” Audience Targeting For New Potential Customers

Although the example screenshots have been from retargeting and “warm” campaigns, Google definitely does a great job targeting new potential customers. One of our favorite and successful ways to target new potential customers is to use custom “In-market” audiences.

Like it says in the Google screenshot above, this type of audience is “actively” searching and considering BUYING something like your product. You just need to make sure to get 50+ keywords and/or phrases to create this type of audience. Another great idea is to use 50+ url’s of blogs related to your products.

Final Thoughts on High Return Google Ad Strategies for Ecommerce Businesses

There are of course several other audience types and campaign strategies to achieve the best Google Ad results for your ecommerce business. YouTube can be a cheap and successful way to branch out and win new customers. It can also work well for retargeting existing customers who DON’T use Facebook and Instagram.

Although we said Google is more than just search ads, that doesn’t mean search ads don’t work. We recommend testing search ads for finding new potential customers. We would also warn that these types of campaigns can be very competitive and will get expensive  if done incorrectly.

Again, it can be difficult (eg compared to Facebook ad targeting) to make sure that adspend is spent on the right audiences. Make sure your location settings are correct and your placements negate any games or other placement unrelated to your target audience(s).

If you are an ecommerce company interested in hiring an agency to run your ads, we would love to talk! Schedule a call with us by clicking here. You can also chat with us now by clicking here.

Thanks for reading and best of luck with your online advertising efforts!