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by Mike Vestil 

Maximize Your Campaigns Using Google Ads For eCommerce

Google Ads is an online advertising service that helps you reach potential customers interested in a product or service you offer. The service allows businesses to serve ads and track their performance, as well as to measure, manage, and optimize their ad campaigns.

Google Ads can be used as part of your business marketing strategy to drive traffic to your eCommerce store. The service offers a wide range of features that one can use to create effective ad campaigns, including keyword targeting, bid optimization, and ad placement.

This article will discuss how you can use a Google Ads account to make money and drive traffic to your eCommerce store, along with the benefits of using the service. We will also provide tips for creating effective ad campaigns that offer you the latest information to help make the most of your Google Ads budget. Let's get started.

When used correctly, Google Ads can be an extremely effective way to drive traffic to your eCommerce store.

Google Ads And Their Benefits

Google Ads offers several benefits, including:

  • The ability to measure and track the performance of your ads: You can use Google Ads to count how many clicks and conversions your ads are getting, as well as track your return on investment (ROI) and other key metrics.
  • The ability to target a broad audience: Google Ads allows you to target potential customers all over the world.
  • The ability to optimize your Google search campaigns: You can use Google Ads' built-in optimization tools to help you fine-tune your campaigns and improve their performance.

Must-Know Terms When Running Google Ads For eCommerce

Let's now speak about the essential Google Ads concepts for eCommerce:

Campaign

A campaign is a collection of ad groups, sets of ads that share a common theme. For example, you might create a campaign for your "Summer Sale" that contains several ad groups, each with a different set of ads.

Ad Group

An ad group is simply a collection of one or more ads that share a common theme and target the same audience.

An ad is an individual advertisement that you create to promote your business. Ads can be text-based,  video-based, or image-based and can be targeted to specific audiences.

Keyword

A keyword is a word or phrase that you use to target your ads. When someone searches on Google using one of your keywords, your ad may be displayed in the search results.

Not having more than 20 keywords in a campaign is recommended, as having too many keywords will dilute your campaign effectiveness.

Negative Keyword

A negative keyword is a word or phrase that you add to your campaign to prevent your ads from being displayed when someone searches on Google using that keyword. For example, if you sell women's clothing, you might add the keyword "men's" as a negative keyword so that your ads will not be displayed when someone uses this search term.

Negative Keyword

Image Credit: http://karooya.com

Landing Page

A landing page is the web page where someone arrives after clicking on your ad. It is essential to have a well-designed and user-friendly landing page to ensure that potential customers do not leave your site without taking any action.

Ad Extensions

Further information can be displayed with your ads, such as your business address, phone number, or website URL. Ad extensions can help improve the visibility and click-through rate of your ads.

Ad Extensions

Image Credit: http://wordstream.com

There are a variety of ad extensions that you can use in your Google Ads campaigns, including:

  • Extensions for price
  • Extensions for promotion
  • Extensions for calling
  • Extensions for location
  • Extensions for affiliate locations
  • Extensions for apps
  • Extensions for Lead forms (still in beta mode)
  • Sitelinks*
  • Callout extensions*
  • Structured snippets*

The last three items (marked *) are all extensions recommended by Google to be used by every business - especially beginners looking to start an eCommerce business and becoming known in their industry.

Campaign Type

There are five types of Google Ads campaigns that you can create, each with its own set of goals and targets. The available campaign types are:

  • App Campaigns
  • Search Network
  • Display Network
  • Google Shopping
  • Video Ads campaigns

App Campaigns

This type of campaign is designed for businesses that want to promote their mobile apps. App campaigns allow you to target potential users based on their interests and browsing history and can be used to drive traffic to your app's listing in the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.

Search Network Campaigns

This type of campaign is designed for businesses that want to drive traffic to their website or landing page. When someone searches on Google using one of your keywords, your ad may be displayed in the search results.

The search network is an excellent option for businesses that want to generate leads or sales. It is also the most cost-effective way to advertise, as you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.

Display Network Campaigns

This type of campaign is designed for businesses that want to promote their products or services on websites other than Google. The display network includes millions of websites and apps to place your ads.

The display network can be an excellent option for businesses that want to reach a large audience with their ads. However, it is essential to target your ads carefully, as not all websites and apps are relevant to your business.

Google Shopping Campaigns

This type of campaign is designed for businesses that want to sell their products or services online. Google Shopping allows you to create a custom shopping feed of your products, which one will use to create a search engine results page (SERP) listing when someone searches for one of your keywords.

Google Shopping Campaigns

Image Credit: http://neilpatel.com

The Google Shopping campaign type is an excellent option for businesses to increase traffic and conversions from online shoppers.

Video Campaigns

This type of campaign is designed for businesses that want to promote their videos online. Video campaigns allow you to target potential viewers based on their interests and browsing history and can be used to drive traffic to your video content.

Daily Budget

When creating a Google Ads campaign, you must set a daily budget. This is the maximum amount you want to spend on your campaign each day.

Your budget will be spread out evenly over the day, so you will never exceed your daily budget limit. However, it is essential to note that your budget will only be used when your ads are eligible to show. This means that if there are no available slots for your ad at any given time, you will not spend your budget.

Bidding Strategies

There are various options available to you when it comes to bidding, all depending on the campaign type that you choose.

Let's have a look at these options:

  • CPC (Cost Per Click)
  • vCPM (Cost Per Thousand Viewable Impressions)
  • CPV (Cost Per View)
  • ECPC (Enhanced Cost Per Click)
  • Maximize Conversions
  • Maximize Clicks
  • Manual CPC

Let’s look in more detail at each of these bidding strategies.

CPC (Cost Per Click)

CPC bidding is the most common bidding strategy, and it is used when you want to pay for each click on your ad. This type of bidding is best for businesses to generate leads or sales.

vCPM (Cost Per Thousand Viewable Impressions)

With vCPM bidding, you will pay for every 1,000 impressions of your ad. This type of bidding is best for businesses looking to increase brand awareness.

CPV (Cost Per View)

CPV bidding is a unique option that allows you to pay for video views. This type of bidding is best for businesses that want to drive traffic to their video content.

ECPC (Enhanced Cost Per Click)

ECPC bidding is a unique option that allows Google to update your manual bid based on results to increase your chances of getting the most traffic possible.

Maximize Conversions

Maximize Conversions bidding is an option that allows you to automatically optimize your bids to help you get the most conversions possible.

Manual CPC

With Manual CPC bidding, you will set your maximum bid for each click on your ad. This type of bidding is best for businesses looking to bid as high as possible for high competition keywords that are important to their business.

Quality Score

Google Ads assigns a quality score to each of your ads, and this score is used to determine how often Google will show your ad. The higher your quality score, the more likely your ad will show.

The best way to improve your quality score is to make sure that your ad meets Google's guidelines and is relevant to the keywords that you are targeting. You can also improve your quality score by using high-quality images and videos in your ad and ensuring that your landing page is well-designed and user-friendly.

Display URL

The display URL is the address that will be displayed in your ad. You can use this to make your ad look more professional or direct people to a specific page on your website.

Make sure that you use the same domain name in both the display URL and the destination URL, and make sure that the destination URL is HTTPS. Also, ensure that your display URL is short and to the point. This will help people end up on the page they expect when they click on your ad.

Destination URL

The destination URL is the page's address you want people to visit when they click on your ad. This should be the final destination for your customers and not a page that contains further advertising or marketing.

In other words, the destination URL should be the landing page for your product or service.

Headline

The headline is the text that will be displayed at the top of your ad, and it should be eye-catching and relevant to your target audience. You should also make sure that it is brief and to the point.

google ads Headline

Image Credit: http://support.google.com

Description

The description is the text displayed below the headline, and it should provide more information about your product or service. You should make sure that it is concise and easy to understand, and the text itself should be easy to read.

CTA (Call To Action)

You should also use a call-to-action in your ad, as this will encourage people to click on your ad and visit your website.

Some popular CTA phrases include:

  • "Shop now"
  • "Buy now"
  • "Get started"
  • "Sign up today"
  • "Learn more"

CVR (Conversion Rate)

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the process of making changes to your website to increase the number of conversions that you get. This can include changing the design of your website, improving your copy, and adding videos or images.

You can use Google Ads to track your conversion rate for each campaign and then use this information to make changes to your website. You should also test different website versions to see which one performs better.

Finding your conversion rate is as easy as taking your total conversions and dividing them by the number of clicks that your ads got.

Optimization

This is the process of making changes to your bids, targeting, and budget to improve your campaign's performance. You should constantly optimize your campaigns to get the most out of your advertising budget.

There are several things that you can do to optimize your Google Ads campaign, including:

  • Adjusting your bids
  • Targeting different demographics
  • Refining your keywords
  • Changing your budget

You can ensure that you're getting the most bang for your buck by optimizing your campaign.

Impressions

Impressions refer to the number of times that your ad was shown. This metric is important because it tells you how often people see your ad.

You can use impressions to measure the success of your campaign, and you should aim for a high number of impressions to increase your chances of getting clicks.

Steps For Creating Successful Google Ads Campaigns

Let's now look at some simple steps that you can follow to create successful Google Ads campaigns:

Define Your Goals

The first step in setting up a Google Ads campaign is to define your goals. What do you want to achieve with your campaign? Do you want to generate more leads, increase sales, or get more website traffic?

Once you know what you want to achieve, you can tailor your campaign to achieve those goals.

The various options are the following:

  • Sales: Probably the easiest to explain, having a sales goal means that you want to maximize the revenue generated from your Google Ads campaign.
  • Leads: If you're looking for customers, you'll want to set a goal for the number of leads that you generate through your campaign. This could be the number of people who fill out a contact form or the number of people who download a white paper or ebook.
  • Web Traffic: You may simply want to increase traffic to your website - in which case you'll want to set a goal for the number of clicks that your ad receives.
  • Product and Brand Consideration: Another common goal is to get people thinking about your product or service. This might include getting them to visit your website or even making a purchase.
  • Brand Awareness and Reach: Finally, if you're looking to increase awareness of your brand, you'll want to set a goal for the number of people who see your ad.

Choose Your Google Campaign Audiences

When choosing your targeting alternatives, you must first select your geographic regions and languages. To access your choices, click on 'Location options.'

Choose Your Google Campaign Audiences

Image Credit: http://zorbasmedia.com

This will allow you to target people in specific countries, regions within a country, or cities. You can also target by language.

You can then drill down based on demographics, intents, and interests to target people more likely to be interested in your product or service.

Choose Your Bidding And Ads Budget

Here, you will choose your budget for the day and how you want to bid for your ads.

You can choose to have a daily budget or a lifetime budget. With a lifetime budget, your ad will continue to run until you've spent your entire budget.

With a daily budget, your ad will stop running at the end of the day once your budget has been reached.

There are also the Standard and Accelerated options, which determine how quickly your ads are shown. Standard is the default option, while Accelerated will show your ads more rapidly but burn through your budget quickly.

Next up, you'll choose the bidding strategy you want to use. Based on what I discussed above, you can decide which one to use.

You'll also be able to set up the following item:

  • Conversions: If you use eCommerce conversion tracking, you'll be able to import your conversion tracking code from Google Analytics, and Ads will automatically begin tracking conversions.
  • Ad Campaign Rotation: This will determine how often your ads are shown. You can choose to have them delivered evenly (the default), or you can choose to show them more or less often, depending on what you think will work best for your campaign.
  • Ad Campaign Schedule: Here, you'll be able to set the start and end dates for your ad campaign.

Include Your Ads Extensions

As we discussed initially, having ads extensions will enhance your ad and make it more noticeable.

There are a variety of extensions, but I'm going to focus on the most common ones that you'll want to use as an eCommerce business:

  • Call Extensions: This will add a phone number to your ad, which people can click on to call you directly.
  • Sitelink Extensions: This will add links to specific pages on your website.
  • Review Extensions: This will allow customers to leave reviews of your product or service.

Setting Up Your Ad Groups

Now it's time to set up your ad groups.

There are standard and dynamic ad groups. With standard ad groups, you create the ads and choose the keywords that they will be associated with.

Dynamic ad groups are created automatically by Ads based on what potential customers type into Google before they see your ad.

Next up, you'll choose your keywords.

These are the words or phrases people will use to find your product or service.

You'll want to ensure that they're relevant to what you're selling and that you're not paying for clicks on irrelevant keywords.

Create Your Ads

Now it's time to create your ad.

This will be the first thing potential customers see, so you'll want to make sure that it's eye-catching and informative.

Here you will also choose the match type for your keywords. These are :

  • Broad Match: This will match your keywords with any search term that contains at least one of your keywords.
  • Broad Modifier Match: This will show your ads if the keywords in the searched query are either in a similar variant or exact form.
  • Phrase Match: This will match your keyword phrase as it enters the search bar.
  • Exact Match: This will only match if the searcher enters your keyword phrase precisely into the search bar.

Add Your Negative Keywords

You'll now want to add your negative keywords in Google Ads.

These are words or phrases that you don't want your ad to be associated with.

Adding negative keywords will help improve the quality of your traffic and ensure that you're not paying for clicks on irrelevant terms.

You can also use the Ads Keyword Tool to find related keywords that you may not have thought of.

Create The Actual Ad

Now it's time for the creative part.

You'll want to create an ad that is eye-catching and informative.

The process is straightforward. All you have to do is enter a headline and two description lines, as well as the display URL and destination URL.

From a copywriting point of view, ensure that your headline is engaging and that your descriptions give enough information for the person to want to click on your ad to know more.

You can do this by solving a problem that people are experiencing. For example, if the problem a person is going through is one of the following:

  • "I don't know how to start a blog."
  • "I don't have time to start a blog."
  • "I don't know what to write about on my blog."

In this case, you could create an ad along the lines of:

  • “We can help. Our experts will create a custom blog for you, complete with all the content you need to get started.”
  • “Start Creating Blog Posts That Attract Readers and Convert Them Into Customers - Click Here for Your Free Training Series.”

You can also speak about the features that your product or service has.

  • "Our ad campaign manager allows you to target your audience by location, age, and interests."
  • "Our blog writing service will help you create content that is both informative and SEO friendly."

As stated, always include a call to action in your ad.

  • "Visit our website to learn more."
  • "Call us today to learn more about our services."
  • "Download our free eBook to learn more about starting a blog."

Tracking Your Results

Once you've set up your campaign and your ads have gone live, it's essential to track the results so that you can make changes as needed.

You can use the Ads Conversion Tracking Tool to track how many people have visited your website after clicking on your ad.

This will help you determine whether or not your campaign is successful and whether or not you need to make changes.

You can also use Google Analytics to track additional information, such as how long people stay on your website and which pages they visit.

Both of these tools are essential for tracking the success of your ads campaign. They will help you determine whether or not your campaign is successful and inform you of any changes you need to make.

Keep An Eye Out For Your Budget To Ensure There Is No Weird Ad Spend

It's also essential to ensure you're not going over your budget. You can do this by checking the relevant column in your Ads account. This will tell you how much money you've spent on your campaign so far.

If you notice that you're going over budget, it may be time to adjust your settings - budgeting is an essential part of any Ads campaign, and it's something that you'll need to keep an eye on throughout the life of the campaign.

Various Types Of Ads To Run For eCommerce Businesses

With the above out of the way, it’s time to discuss the various ads that might be beneficial for eCommerce businesses.

Let's have a look at them.

Google Search Ads

These typically show up at the top of search results. Based on the user's search terms, the ad will include a short headline, a short description, and the URL of the website.

Google Search Campaign ads are a great way to reach potential customers who are already interested in what you have to offer.

They're also very effective, as they typically have a high click-through rate (CTR) if the chosen keywords are the correct ones.

Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs)

These ads are great for those with a large inventory who want to ensure that their ads are showing up for as many relevant searches as possible.

DSAs use Google's "Dynamic Ads" technology to create ads based on your website's content automatically.

Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs)

Image Credit: http://searchengineland.com

This means that you don't have to create separate ads for each product - the ad will be generated dynamically based on what's available on your website.

This can be an excellent option for those with a large inventory who want to make sure they reach as many potential customers as possible.

The downside is that these might be considered as more of an advanced feature, so it may take some time to set them up correctly.

Google Remarketing Ads

If you have more than one thousand people that have clicked on your ads, you can run a Google remarketing ad.

Google Remarketing Ads are great for those who want to re-engage with past customers or reach potential customers who have already shown an interest in what they have to offer.

They're also very effective, as they have a higher click-through rate than other types of ads.

Google Shopping Ads

Using data from the Merchant Center (which can include images, pricing, SKUs, and more), Shopping Ads allow you to create a product listing ad that will show up on Google.com when someone is searching for a commerce-related term.

Shopping Ads are a great way to get your product before potential customers who are already interested in what you have to offer.

They're also very effective, as they can help solve an issue that potential customers are facing, which is finding the right eCommerce product to solve their problem.

Smart Google Shopping (Performance Max) Campaigns

This is a newer ad campaign designed to help you get the most out of your Shopping Ads.

Smart Shopping Campaigns automatically adjust your bids and budget based on what's performing well. This means that you don't have to worry about making manual adjustments - the campaign will do it all for you.

This can be an excellent option for those who want to ensure they're getting the most out of their Shopping Ads.

Google Display Network

If you want your ads to appear on third-party websites across the internet, you'll want to use The Google Display campaign network.

Google's Display Network is a great way to reach potential customers who might not be on Google searching for what you have to offer - but are instead browsing the internet and come across your Google ad.

The downside is that it can be more challenging to target potential customers accurately, so it may take some experimentation to find suitable targeting options.

YouTube Ads

While not strictly on Google, YouTube is part of the Google advertising family.

YouTube Ads are a great way to reach potential customers who are already interested in what you have to offer. They can also be used by those looking to start YouTube affiliate marketing and become successful at it.

They're very effective, and people that watch YouTube Ads are more likely to take action, primarily if you target the right buying keywords.

There are various types of ads that you can run on YouTube:

  • TrueView Ads: These are the most common type of YouTube Ads and allow people to skip them if they wish to, but they are also great at getting the action you desire.
  • Bumper Ads: Bumper ads, like unskippable commercials, are short, six-second advertisements that users are forced to watch.
YouTube Ads

Image Credit: http://mybasis.com

Creating and converting YouTube Ads can be a little more complex than some of the other types of ads, but it can be well worth the effort.

Ensure that you grab the viewer's attention quickly and keep the message clear and concise - you only have a few seconds to make an impression.

You can also use subtitles and sound effects to grab attention and ensure that your ad stands out from the rest.

Conclusion

There are various types of Google ads that you can use to reach potential customers interested in what you have to offer.

Each type of ad has its strengths and weaknesses, so it's important to experiment until you find the ones that work best for you and your business.

Remember to keep your message clear and concise and make sure that your ads stand out from the rest. 

This will help ensure that you are able to build a business that does not burn you out, get the most out of your advertising efforts, and allow you to reach your advertising goals both short and long-term.

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About the author 

Mike Vestil

Mike Vestil is an author, investor, and speaker known for building a business from zero to $1.5 million in 12 months while traveling the world.

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