Amazon, Data Analytics, Market Research, Marketing Strategy, PPC, Shopify, Wix, WooCommerce

12 Proven PPC Strategies for your E-Commerce Site

In the dynamic realm of e-commerce, effective PPC (pay-per-click) management is like a skilled captain guiding their ship to success. It means using paid ads to bring in the right visitors, increase sales, and take your online business to new heights.

Picture your e-commerce website as an attractive island in a big digital ocean. With E-commerce PPC management, you become the smart navigator, placing targeted ads like guiding lights to lead potential customers to your stores. Each click is like a precious gem, showing that someone is interested in what you offer and might make a purchase.

In this blog, we’ll simplify things and share 11 effective PPC strategies to make your online store more visible and increase sales.

Let’s jump into practical tips that can really make a difference for your online business.

Power of E-commerce PPC Management

In the competitive world of e-commerce, it’s crucial to find ways to stand out and bring potential customers to your website. E-commerce PPC management is a helpful tool to achieve just that. In the US, it’s expected that spending on paid search ads will be more than $300 billion by 2024.

Getting the Right Visitors

Do you know that according to a study by WordLead, 65% of people click on ads when they buy things? PPC, or pay-per-click advertising, is a type of online advertising where you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. This means you’re spending money only on the people who are most likely interested in what you’re offering.

With PPC, you can aim your ads at specific keywords, demographics, and interests. This way, you reach the right people at the right time when they’re likely searching for what you sell.

Boosting Sales

By bringing in targeted traffic to your website, PPC can help increase your sales. A recent study by HubSpot found that businesses using PPC generate, on average, twice as many sales as those that don’t.

It’s important to know that PPC can be complex and potentially expensive. Having a smart plan is crucial to get the most out of your investment.

This involves —

understanding your target audience,
choosing the right keywords,
and setting practical budgets.

It also means keeping an eye on your results and making changes as needed.

With careful planning and execution, PPC becomes a powerful tool for bringing in the right visitors and boosting sales for your e-commerce website.

Keyword Research and Selection

In the world of e-commerce PPC, picking the right words is like getting the foundation ready for your dream house. It’s about choosing the best building blocks, known as keywords, to attract the perfect customers to your online store.

Think of your e-commerce website as a treasure chest full of amazing products, each waiting to be found by excited customers. With good keyword research, you become like a mapmaker, showing potential customers the way to your hidden treasures.

Long-tail Keywords: Finding Your Niche

While broad, generic keywords might seem appealing, they often lead to a sea of irrelevant traffic. Instead, focus on long-tail keywords—these are more specific phrases that directly relate to what you’re selling. They bring in a more specific audience, making it more likely they’ll buy something.

Keyword Research Tools: Your Digital Guide

Finding the right words can be a bit overwhelming, but don’t worry, there are tools to help. Keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, and Ahrefs give you information about —

how often words are searched,
how many others are using them,
and suggest related words.

They’re like a digital compass helping you find the best keywords that might have been overlooked.

Crafting Compelling Ad Copy

In the competitive world of e-commerce PPC, making compelling ad copy is like painting a picture that grabs the attention of potential customers. It’s about using words to persuade them to click on your ad and explore what you have to offer. With well-chosen words, you can turn clicks into sales, transforming casual browsers into loyal customers.

Highlighting Product Benefits: The Core of Persuasion

The benefits of your product are the most important part of your ad copy. Showcase the special qualities that make your products stand out and address what your customers need. Show the practical benefits they can get and how your products can make a positive change in their lives.

Emphasizing Unique Selling Points: Standing Out

In a crowd of competitors, your unique selling points (USPs) are what make you different. Figure out what makes your products special and emphasize these features in your ad copy.

Using Clear Calls to Action (CTAs): Showing the Way

Once you have their attention, guide potential customers to the next step with clear calls to action (CTAs). Use action words like “Shop Now,” “Learn More,” or “Sign Up” to be clear about what you want them to do. Make the path to making a purchase very clear.

A/B Testing: Improving Your Approach

Not all ad copy works the same for everyone. Different people respond to different messages. Use A/B testing to try different versions of your ad copy, experimenting with different headlines, descriptions, and CTAs. This helps you find what resonates best with your target audience.

Tailored Ad Copy: Making Personal Connections

Your customers are unique individuals with different needs and preferences. Customize your ad copy for different buyer personas, addressing their specific needs and wants. Speak their language, connect with what they care about, and create ad copy that feels personal to them.

Dynamic Product Ads

Dynamic Product Ads (DPAs) are a useful tool for online stores that want to show personalized and relevant ads to their customers. These ads automatically display products that match what the user has looked at before, their interests, and what they’ve searched for.

DPAs work by taking information about your products from your online store and creating a dynamic product feed. This feed is then used to show ads to users based on what they’ve been doing online. For example, if someone has been looking at shoes, DPAs can show them ads for similar shoes.

Benefits of DPAs

DPAs have several advantages for online stores, such as:

By showing users products that they are interested in, DPAs can help to increase the likelihood that they will make a purchase.

DPAs create a more personalized and relevant experience for customers, leading to higher satisfaction.

By targeting ads more effectively, DPAs can reduce advertising costs and improve the return on investment (ROI) of your PPC campaigns.

Setting Up a Dynamic Product Feed

To use DPAs, you’ll need to set up a dynamic product feed, which is a list of your products with images, descriptions, and prices. Tools like Google Merchant Center and Facebook Business Manager can help you create this feed.

DPAs can be customized based on various user signals, such as:

Browsing history: Showing products the user has viewed, added to their cart, or bought.

Interests: Determined by past purchases, search history, and social media activity.

Location: Targeting ads based on the user’s geographic location.

Device: Showing ads based on the device the user is using, like desktop, mobile, or tablet.

Remarketing and Retargeting

In the fast-paced world of e-commerce, just getting people to visit your website isn’t enough. It’s crucial to re-engage those who have shown interest but haven’t bought anything yet. That’s where remarketing and retargeting come in for e-commerce PPC management.

What is Remarketing?

Remarketing is a type of online advertising that lets you show ads to people who have interacted with your website or app before. This includes those who visited certain pages, added items to their cart, or left without completing a purchase.

What is Retargeting?

Retargeting is a specific kind of remarketing that uses cookies to track users’ online activities on different websites. This way, you can show them ads for your products or services, even when they’re not on your site.

Benefits of Remarketing and Retargeting

Using remarketing and retargeting can bring several advantages to online businesses:

Increased brand awareness: By showing ads to people who have already interacted with your brand, you can increase their brand awareness and keep your brand top-of-mind.

Improved conversion rates: Reminding people about your products or services can encourage them to return to your site and make a purchase.

Reduced advertising costs: Targeting ads to people already interested in your brand can lower your overall advertising costs.

Creating Targeted Ads with Audience Segments

When setting up remarketing or retargeting campaigns, you can divide your audience into different segments based on factors:

Pages visited: Target people who checked specific pages on your site, like product pages or the checkout page.

Cart abandonment: Target people who added items to their cart but didn’t finish the purchase.

Past purchases: Target people who have bought from you before.

Offering Special Discounts to Retargeted Users

To encourage people targeted through retargeting to make a purchase, consider offering them special discounts. This could be a percentage off their next purchase, free shipping, or a bonus product.

Leveraging Ad Extensions

Ad extensions in e-commerce PPC management are additional pieces of information that you can add to your Google Ads to make them more visible and informative. They can help you to —

improve your click-through rates (CTRs),
increase your conversion rates,
and reduce your advertising costs.

There are a number of different ad extensions available, but some of the most common and most effective for e-commerce businesses include:

Sitelink Extensions

Sitelink extensions allow you to show up to four additional links below your ad. These links can take users to specific sections of your website, such as product pages, category pages, or your “About Us” page. This can help users quickly and easily find the information they’re looking for, which can lead to increased conversions.

Sitelink Extension Best Practices

There are a few things you can do to get the most out of your sitelink extensions, including:

Use relevant and specific link text: Clearly identify each link with accurate and relevant text.

Promote popular categories and products: Highlight your best-selling categories and featured products.

Include special offers and promotions: Showcase limited-time offers, discounts, and seasonal deals.

Link to informative pages: Direct users to pages with detailed product descriptions, specifications, and reviews.

Callout Extensions for Value Propositions

Callout extensions are like little salespeople in your ads. They use concise and compelling language to highlight your key selling points and promotions. By using callout extensions effectively, you can make your ads more visible, informative, and persuasive, which can lead to increased traffic, sales, and a better return on investment for your PPC campaigns.

Here are some examples of how callout extensions can be used for e-commerce businesses:

A clothing store could use callout extensions to highlight free shipping, fast delivery, and easy returns.
An electronics store could use callout extensions to promote limited-time discounts on new products.
A furniture store could use callout extensions to showcase its wide selection of products and its in-home assembly services.

Additional Tips

Use a variety of callout extensions to keep your ads fresh and engaging.
Use strong calls to action in your callout extensions to encourage users to take action.
Test different callout extensions to see which ones perform best for your business.

Data-Driven Optimization

In the fast-paced realm of e-commerce PPC, success depends on using data to make smart choices. Think of e-commerce PPC as a vast landscape, and data is like a hidden treasure waiting to be found. Looking at this data is like having a guide that helps you find the hidden treasures and make your ads better.

Regularly checking and understanding the data shows how well your keywords, ads, and campaigns are doing. It helps you make smart choices to improve your ads continuously. Since the market and how people act online change a lot, regularly looking at the data ensures your ads change too, always aiming for good results.

Monitoring and Adjusting Campaign Performance

Keeping an eye on your campaign numbers is like checking how healthy your PPC is. It helps you understand how well your campaigns are doing and where you can do better.

Important things to check are —-

Click-through rate (CTR): This tells you the percentage of people who click on your ad. A high CTR means your ad is interesting.

Conversion rate: This shows the percentage of people who do what you want, like buying something. A high conversion rate means your ad is making people take action.

Just like weeds mess up a garden, underperforming things in your PPC can mess up your success. Data analysis helps you find these underperformers and fix them.

Underperforming keywords: These are words that aren’t getting clicks or turning into sales.

Underperforming ads: If an ad isn’t getting clicks or making people do what you want, you might need to change the words or pictures.

Underperforming campaigns: If a whole campaign isn’t doing well, there might be big issues. You might need to change how you’re targeting people, bidding, or making your ads. Getting professional help could be a good idea, too.

A/B Testing for Continuous Improvement

In the world of e-commerce PPC, A/B testing is akin to conducting a science experiment. It’s about trying out different versions of your ad parts to see which one your audience likes the most.

You can try A/B testing on different ad parts, such as:

Headlines: The interesting introduction that grabs attention and sparks interest.

Images: The pictures that tell a story and show what your product or service is about.

Calls to action (CTAs): The words that encourage users to do something specific.

Landing pages: The pages users see after clicking on your ad, making sure they have a smooth and interesting experience.

By making changes based on the test results, you can:

Get more clicks.
Increase actions.
Make your whole campaign work better.

Optimizing for Mobile Users

In today’s digital world, most people use their phones to go online. For e-commerce businesses, it’s not just good but necessary to make sure their online ads work well on mobiles.

Embracing mobile optimization is akin to opening the doors to a vast market of potential customers eager to engage with your brand and make purchases on their smartphones.

Creating Mobile-Friendly Ads and Landing Pages

When someone on a mobile clicks on your ad, the page they go to should work well on their phone. Mobile-specific landing pages are made to load fast, be easy to use, and not have too many distractions. They focus on the important stuff so users can quickly find what they need and do what you want them to do.

Short and Powerful Ads for Mobiles

People on mobiles don’t like reading a lot. When you make words for mobile ads, keep them short, clear, and interesting. Talk about the best parts of your product or service, using strong words and convincing language.

Easy Buying on Mobiles

On phones, every step to buy something is important. Make it easy for people to buy by making the buying process simple. Use ways to pay that work well on mobiles, let people buy with one click, and ask for only the information you really need.

Conversion Tracking and ROI Measurement

In the dynamic world of e-commerce PPC, conversion tracking and ROI measurement are like the keys to unlocking the true value of your campaigns. They provide you with the insights you need to understand the impact of your efforts, identify areas for improvement, and refine your strategies for better results.

Conversion tracking is like having a special code-breaker tool that helps you understand how well your online ads are working. When you track conversions, you can learn important things such as:

Which words, ads, and campaigns are making people actually buy something or do what you want?
How much money are you making from your online ads?
The return on investment (ROI) of your online ads helps you see if you are making a profit overall.

ROI is like a financial scorecard that measures the profitability of your PPC investments. It’s calculated by dividing the total revenue generated from your PPC campaigns by the total cost of those campaigns. A positive ROI indicates that your PPC efforts are generating a profit, while a negative ROI suggests that you need to refine your strategies.

Setting Up Conversion Tracking

Setting up conversion tracking involves implementing tracking codes on your website to identify when a user takes a desired action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.

Google Analytics is a powerful tool for setting up and managing conversion tracking. It allows you to:

Configure conversion goals: Define the specific actions you want to track, such as completed purchases or form submissions.

Assign conversion values: Assign monetary values to different conversion actions, providing a more comprehensive understanding of your ROI.

Track multiple conversion types: Monitor a variety of conversion actions, including sales, sign-ups, downloads, and lead generation.

Calculating Return on Investment (ROI)

Return on investment (ROI) is a crucial metric for evaluating the profitability of e-commerce PPC campaigns. It measures the net profit generated from PPC campaigns relative to the amount invested. By calculating ROI, businesses can assess the effectiveness of their PPC campaigns and make informed decisions about allocating their advertising budget.

Formula for Calculating ROI

ROI = (Revenue from PPC campaigns – Cost of PPC campaigns) / Cost of PPC campaigns

Measuring Costs and Revenue

To calculate ROI, you need to accurately measure both the costs and revenue associated with your PPC campaigns.

Costs: The costs of PPC campaigns include advertising expenses, such as pay-per-click (PPC) charges, as well as any additional costs associated with managing and optimizing the campaigns.

Revenue: The revenue generated from PPC campaigns is typically measured as the total sales or other desired actions attributed to PPC traffic. This can be tracked using conversion tracking tools.

Significance of Understanding ROI

Understanding the ROI of your PPC campaigns is essential for several reasons:

Profitability Assessment: ROI provides a clear indication of whether your PPC campaigns are generating a positive return on investment.

Campaign Optimization: By analyzing ROI data, you can identify which keywords, ad groups, and campaigns are performing well and which ones require improvement.

Budget Allocation: ROI insights can guide your decision-making process when allocating your advertising budget across different campaigns and channels.

Example

Consider an e-commerce store that generates $10,000 in revenue from its PPC campaigns and incurs a total cost of $5,000 for these campaigns. The ROI for these campaigns would be:

ROI = ($10,000 – $5,000) / $5,000 = 1

This indicates that the PPC campaigns are generating a positive ROI of 100%.

Wrapping Up

In closing, mastering E-commerce PPC management is the key to unlocking the full potential of your online store. The 11 reliable PPC strategies act like a guide for success in the ever-changing world of online marketing. Starting from picking the right keywords to making interesting ads, adjusting for mobile use, and using data to make smart choices—each strategy is important for getting seen by more people and making more sales. Remember, it’s not just about getting clicks; it’s about using a smart plan to help people find and buy what they want on your online store.

If you need a professional E-Commerce PPC Management Service, choose Visibility Fix. We promise the fastest, easiest way to boost sales using Google Ads. Schedule a FREE session to learn the secrets of achieving 10x eCommerce revenue growth now.

FAQs

What is a good PPC strategy?

A good PPC strategy involves targeting the right audience and optimizing landing pages for their interests, increasing the chances of engagement.

What is the most used PPC system in marketing today?

The most used PPC system in marketing today is Google Ads, holding a significant market share of 28%.

Do you need SEO for PPC?

No, you don’t need SEO for PPC, but they can be used together to improve your overall marketing results. SEO helps your website rank higher in organic search results, while PPC allows you to pay to have your ads displayed at the top of search results. Using both SEO and PPC can help you reach a wider audience and drive more traffic to your website.

What are CPC and CPA in PPC strategy?

CPC, or cost per click, is what you pay for each click on your ad. CPA, or cost per acquisition, is the average cost to get a customer through your ad campaigns.

How many keywords should I have in each ad group?

For better organization and relevance, aim for around 20-25 keywords per ad group.

What are the Quality Score and Ad Rank in PPC strategy?

Quality Score is a measure of how good your ad and website are, used by platforms like Google Ads. On the other hand, Ad Rank is where your ad shows on the search results, based on things like bid, Quality Score, and ad extensions.

Should I get a PPC agency or do it in-house?

Hiring a PPC agency gives you experts, saves time, and gives you access to advanced tools. They use different PPC tools and Google Analytics to improve your campaigns on computers and phones.

“Slow down and enjoy life. It’s not only the scenery you miss by going to fast – you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.”

– Eddie Cantor

Morbi leo risus, porta ac consectetur ac, vestibulum at eros. Nulla vitae elit libero, a pharetra augue. Nullam id dolor id nibh ultricies vehicula ut id elit. Cras mattis consectetur purus sit amet fermentum. Duis mollis, est non commodo luctus, nisi erat porttitor ligula, eget lacinia odio sem nec elit.

Curabitur blandit tempus porttitor. Morbi leo risus, porta ac consectetur ac, vestibulum at eros. Fusce dapibus, tellus ac cursus commodo, tortor mauris condimentum nibh, ut fermentum massa justo sit amet risus. Cras mattis consectetur purus sit amet fermentum. Maecenas faucibus mollis interdum.