A lot of brands are trying out paid ad campaigns online. This is evident because you see ads bombarded in every direction, for almost everything you search for.
eCommerce businesses run PPC advertising because they know that if you can make your business top-of-mind when someone is in the buying zone, you can direct business to your side.
In short, PPC campaigns for eCommerce are all about appearing before the right audience at the right time. You are competing for the attention of your target buyers by appearing in front of those who search for or those interested in your product.
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What is PPC advertising?
In traditional advertising, brands pay for the space the ads appear in, which can be a billboard, newspaper, or time frame in a television ad. However, the advent of digital marketing introduced a whole new method of advertising.
Just as the name signifies, pay-per-click (PPC) is a type of online advertising in which the advertiser only pays for the ad when the user clicks on it. PPC ads are run across different platforms including search engine results pages and social media platforms.
Ads that come on top of many search results are examples of PPC campaigns run by brands.
eCommerce PPC will include the promotion of products and services offered by your brand. You can run ads that target a specific demographic, interest, location or based on the action they took.
How does PPC work for eCommerce?
To run PPC ads, you will have to create an ad account in the platform you want ads run on. You can choose to run ads on the keywords or phrases users search for or are interested in. Since multiple brands will be interested in running ads on the same keywords, you will have to place bids on the one you need.
When the ad campaign is launched, it will be shown to users who search for the keyword or who show similar interests on social media.
Related read: 5 Types of Instagram ads that convert
The platform or search engine will then determine how the ads will be run based on its algorithm. Some of the factors that influence which ads to show and in what order include the bid amount, relevance of the ad to the keyword, and quality of the ad creative.
How much does a PPC campaign cost?
PPC campaign costs vary according to the keywords or phrases you want to target. A report shows the average cost is $2.59 per click. This means that each time a person clicks on your ad, it will cost you this amount. The cost per click will be high according to the demand of each keyword you target.
You can set budgets when running PPC ads for your eCommerce brand. Remember: spending a lot does not mean you will get better results. It all depends on how you optimize your campaigns. We’ll discuss some best practices you can follow in the coming sections.
Why you should consider PPC marketing for your eCommerce brand
Running PPC campaigns for your eCommerce brand has many benefits: you can bring in more revenue, increase brand awareness, and test out the demand of the product you sell. Here’s how:
Faster results
As compared to other forms of marketing like social media and SEO, PPC advertising brings quick results.
While organic marketing strategies will take months or even years to show results, PPC has the potential to drive traffic to your eCommerce website within minutes after the campaign is launched. You can run ads on multiple platforms simultaneously and increase brand awareness.
Reach your target audience
You may have noticed that you get shown ads that are related to your preferences. How does this happen?
The biggest benefit of running PPC ads is that you can target a highly specific audience that would be more interested in buying your product. You can choose who should see your ads according to their location, interests demographics and other features.
On some platforms, you can also target people based on their behaviour, what content they’ve engaged with, and other past online activity. This will allow you to reach your ideal buyer.
Budget-friendly and cost-effective
You can run and manage PPC ads for your eCommerce brand with a budget you set. You only pat when a user clicks on the ad. If you optimise your campaign, landing page/website, you can increase click-through-rate and conversions, and get your money’s worth.
You can also easily control the the keywords you’re targeting or ad placement.
Highly measurable and results-oriented
If you’ve done have created marketing campaigns before, you know that measuring and analyzing is an important part. You can track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as click-through-rates (CTR), conversions and return-on-investments (ROIs).
You get solid numbers that can measure the success of your campaigns in real-time. You can analyze these results and make data0backed decisions to improve the campaigns in the future.
If you create a landing page with a platform like Instamojo, you can easily track the results of your campaign.
Test campaigns
Running PPC ad campaigns will take up a good part of your marketing budget. The good thing is you can test out how well your planned campaign can bring results.
Conduct A/B split tests using various ads to determine which one generates the most return on investment. Once you have identified the best-performing ad, you can increase the frequency of displaying it.
How to improve your PPC campaign results
Here are some things to keep in mind when running a PPC campaign for your eCommerce brand.
Focus on high-performing keywords
The first step is to find out keywords that are related to your product or service offerings. You can do this manually through Google searches or make use of keyword research tools like Semrush and Ahrefs.
Related read: Keyword strategies for your eCommerce brand
Ideally, keywords for your PPC campaigns should include both short and long-tailed keywords that match search queries. Make it a mixture of keywords that focuses on a broader audience as well as users who are more likely to make a purchase.
Once you have identified a keyword related to your product, find out matching keywords and bid on each of them. In most cases, the more specific the keyword is, the higher the quality of traffic. This is because you offer exactly what the searcher is looking for.
Even though the amount of traffic sent to your eCommerce site will be lesser, the ROI will be higher.
Optimize your product page or landing page
The results of your PPC campaigns also depend on the quality of your eCommerce website or landing page. In some cases, you will have to look into optimizing landing pages or product pages rather than improving the PPC campaign elements.
Check the analytics of your website and observe if the bounce rate is too high. In this case, you will need to optimize your website. Firstly, check if the page load time is high. If it takes too long to load, optimize speed by compressing image sizes.
To increase conversions, here are a few steps to optimize product or landing pages:
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Headlines and attractive images that mirrors the ad
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Catchy CTA button
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Compelling product descriptions that is related to your keyword
- Clean design
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Presents the offer that was promised in your ad
Related read: How to optimize your landing page for more conversions
Optimize your ad text and creative
Optimizing ad text in PPC campaigns is crucial to achieving better results. To optimize your ad text, it’s important to use relevant keywords, write compelling headlines, include a strong call-to-action (CTA), highlight unique selling points (USPs), use ad extensions, and continuously test and refine your ads.
A successful PPC campaign starts with a good online store
Creating a successful PPC campaign goes beyond simply creating an effective advertising campaign. It starts with building a solid online store that offers an excellent user experience, has good load time, and a top-notch product catalogue.
By ensuring that your eCommerce website is optimized for conversions, you can provide a seamless shopping experience for your customers and make the most of your budget. So, if you’re looking get leads and sales from PPC ads, don’t forget to invest in your online store first.
