10 Variables an eCommerce PPC Company Can Help You Manage

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PPC - Pay-Per-Click

If you can set up a Google AdWords account, write, and post ads in ten minutes all on your own, why would you want to shell serious cash out to an eCommerce PPC company to do it for you?

Well, in a word, because eCommerce PPC management is not a walk in the park. Sure, you can set up your account and start bidding on keywords, hopefully bringing in new customers thereby. However, like all aspects of digital marketing, “it’s not quite that simple.”

Running an efficient eCommerce PPC campaign that actually pays for itself – no, pays for itself and generates an appreciable return – requires analytical planning and continuous optimization. The following are just a handful of ways an eCommerce PPC company can help you generate the highest return on your paid search investment.

1. Weak ad copy
Your eCommerce PPC campaign will suffer right out of the gate if your ad copy doesn’t attract attention and generate clicks. Actually, every other aspect of your campaign mentioned here will fail if the ad copy fails. In order for a paid search campaign to be successful, it must offer targeted, creative ad copy. It’s pay-per-click; if no one clicks, it’s lost.

A qualified eCommerce PPC company will enlist a team of market analysts and professional copywriters to perform a deep dive into your industry in order to understand just what type of content appeals to your target audience. From there, they perform A/B testing and other continuous optimization to ensure that your ads are attracting attention from your target audience.

2. High clicks, low conversions (plus landing page development)
Another common problem with eCommerce PPC campaigns is that they occasionally generate a large volume of clicks that ultimately don’t convert. This is problematic because merchants end up paying for each click without generating any revenue to offset the cost.

There are countless reasons that a set of ads could generate clicks that don’t convert. A common problem is an ad that directs traffic to a poorly developed or terribly aligned landing page. This is, however, only a single issue. There are plenty of others – and occasionally only a thorough analysis of user behavior will reveal the disconnect.

Rest assured, however, that a dedicated PPC analyst will be on high alert for this issue, will pinpoint the issue that serves as the discouraging factor for conversions, and take the requisite steps to rectify it.

3. High impressions, low clicks
You can also keep track of how many impressions a set of ad copy will receive. A common problem here is a set of ads that get tons of impressions, but very few clicks. This indicates a few things; one is that your keyword research was well-done, another could be that your ad copy is off for some reason or another.

If your ad copy shows up in front of a lot of qualified searches, something else is off. It could be that you need to more keenly refine your keyword strategy. It could be that you need to redraft your ad copy. It could also be that you need to do some more closely aligned device or time-of-day targeting.

4. Device targeting
Believe it or not, shoppers on some devices are more likely to convert through the same set of ads that would not result in conversions on another device. That is to say, mobile shoppers have preferences and so do desktop shoppers. Keying in on this is one of the continuous optimizations that eCommerce PPC specialists will make to an ongoing campaign in order to extract the most value.

5. Geographic targeting
Buyers in different areas all have different tastes. Perhaps the similar ad groups can be defined by the same keywords in different places, but the ad copy needed to appeal to each will differ by location. These are just some of the nuanced differences that may present in different localities. Nonetheless, it is critical to track them all – and that’s just the sort of thing for which an eCommerce PPC company has an abundance of time.

6. Time-of-day targeting
It’s also the case that some ad variants will result in higher clicks and conversions at some times of the day than at others. This could be due in part to subtle changes in the audience (for the same keywords) that occur around the clock.

The solution? Watch consumer behavior and adjust accordingly; if it makes sense only to show a certain group of ads to a certain audience between specific hours, so be it. An eCommerce PPC specialist will determine that for you in order to maximize your conversion rates.

7. Efficient bidding tactics
You don’t want to be bidding on keywords that aren’t going to result in conversions. What you want to do is bid on the keywords or groups that will result in conversions, given all of the factors at work on a campaign.

A PPC specialist will closely watch the performance of all of your ad groups, ensuring that your spending is well advised and as efficient as possible. Over time, a PPC expert will be able to shave down the fat on your bidding strategy, ensuring you pay the least and make the most.

8. Remarketing and retargeting
Sometimes expertly crafted, perfectly targeted and placed ads, with landing pages that tend to convert, just don’t produce. But in some of these instances, it isn’t due to an issue with optimization. It could just be an inexplicable fluke of user behavior.

Sometimes, their intent to buy is high, but not high enough. These types of shoppers might click on an ad, absorb some content, and bounce, even when all they needed was just a little push to convert. For some of them, that little push comes in the form of remarketing or retargeting.

Pushing a remarketing or retargeting campaign involves displaying specific ads to interested users, based on their past behavior, again (hence re- in remarketing or retargeting). Oftentimes, the second or third time around, these ads will result in conversions.

9. Negative keyword exclusion
Setting negative keywords will help prevent your ads from displaying in the feeds of users who are unlikely to convert, or who are likely to click but not convert. Narrowing these down as closely as possible is critical to driving down the cost of a campaign, as clicks that don’t convert will ultimately equate to wasted spend.

10. A/B testing to catch miscellaneous areas for improvement
Finally – but still importantly – A/B testing can provide an added boost to the health of an eCommerce PPC campaign simply because there are some aspects of PPC that are difficult to quantify. When it’s impossible to codify or track a pattern using analytical regressions and other formulas, an A/B campaign simply to track the nuances of behavior can help you identify user preferences that are otherwise inexplicable. Simply put, an A/B testing process is just one extra layer of optimization that can help your PPC ads perform better.

These are just some of the most central items a dedicated eCommerce PPC company can help you manage, all with the ultimate goal of driving down your CPC (cost per click) and driving up your ROI (return on investment), for higher profit margins and maximized revenue.

If you’d like to learn more about any of these aspects of a PPC campaign or you’d like to see better performance from your current PPC campaign, contact the digital marketing experts at 1Digital? Agency. With plenty of client success stories to lean on and years of experience delivering highly targeted, highly successful PPC campaigns, their specialists will be glad to assist.

You can learn more at their website, 1DigitalAgency.com, or by contacting them directly at 888-982-8269 or by email at [email protected].

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