5 Key Mistakes That E-Commerce Businesses Make With Google Ads
E-commerce businesses are relatively (we say that loosely) simple to set-up but when it comes to driving customers to the website, a number of companies get things wrong. In this case, we’re talking specifically about those visitors via Google Ads.
Let’s take a look at 5 key mistakes e-commerce businesses are making when investing in Google Ads.
Not Using Google Shopping
Google Shopping has been around for a little while now (eventually rebranded from Froogle and Google Product Search in 2012) but it is surprising to us how many e-commerce websites, still don’t have a Google Shopping campaign set up within their account.
If you sell products, you need to have a presence on Google Shopping. You can service your potential customer with great imagery alongside text ads and link straight to the product they’re looking for.
Admittedly, a Google Shopping feed can have its complications during the set-up process but it is a must-have if you have an online store. The only real downside is that, as more businesses use it, the CPC will rise as competition does.
Poor Quality Product Photos
Let’s face it, your imagery should already be clear, focused and inviting so this advice is a given. That said, we continue to see businesses spending money on promoting imagery that is not the highest quality. Invest in getting great photography because it is worth the money.
Cart Abandonments
What happens to your customers once they add things to their basket and then leave? Do they disappear into the abyss? Do they decide to go over to a competitor?
Whatever it is they do, make sure you reach out to these escape artists with a targeted remarketing campaign. You can target people who visit the cart, abandon items, has previously ordered and people who have visited other areas of your site too. Keep them engaged!
Lack of Optimised Products
The next thing is to ensure your products are as optimised as possible. By this we mean, fill in the details of the product as accurately and in as much detail as you can. This includes the product title, product description, Global Trade Item Number (GTIN), Manufacturer Part Number (MPN), pricing, shipping and so on.
If you have a competitor that seems to rank well, either organically or within Google Shopping, look at their products to see how they have optimised their products. Chances are, if they’re showing a lot of the time for what you’ve searched, then they are doing something right.
Understanding the Competition
This leads us to your competitors quite nicely.
You should know you your competition is online to start with and then from this, you can do some investigative work to find out what activity they are doing to drive visits to their website. A lot of companies, online and offline, tend to forget about the activity their competitors do and just focus on the fact that their competitors just exist.
If you’ve seen an advert from one of your competitors (and we don’t suggest you click on your competitors' advert because this drives up the CPC and is bad news for you too), try to understand what their intent is, how that advert looks and what is the messaging? These will help you not only work out what kind of keywords they are showing for but it also gives you a benchmark on how bad or good your adverts/products are.
If you have an e-commerce business and would like some help making your paid search campaigns to work more effectively for you, then get in touch with one of our experts today.
