Keywords have been a fundamental aspect of pay-per-click advertising pretty much since its inception and, for many, they still are. For retail though, things have changed considerably over recent years.
Whilst keywords still hold some importance for the retail sector too, a number of developments within Google Ads has meant other ways for retailers to make sales through PPC.
Google Shopping Continues To Rise
Many online retailers will already know the importance of Google Shopping to their business but it continues to grow and be used by more and more companies.
Google Shopping is highly focused on product targeting rather than keyword targeting, which reduced the importance of keywords. With the Google Shopping impressions continuing to improve, traditional text ads are trending in the opposite direction.
Local Ads Could Soon Appear Without Keywords
Another area that has seen extreme growth over the past couple of years is local intent. In 2016, Google introduced location extensions which could be added to traditional keyword campaigns and meant we could show local information on both Google searches and Maps searches.
Whilst these clicks originate from text ads, Google has hinted at a number of developments that will reduce the role of keyword targeting for local advertising in the near future.
Dynamic Search Ads Aren’t Going Anywhere
After originally being introduced by Google in 2011, Dynamic Search Ads have been a staple of Google Ads for a while now. DSA’s were a great way to plug holes in any keyword gaps in your strategy, but they’re becoming a more integral part to your campaigns. Dynamic Search Ads allow Google to determine which queries are relevant to pages on an advertiser’s website automatically, and without keywords.
Whilst DSA’s, in our opinion, need a bit of work and a large negative keyword list to work to their full attention, they are important when moving to a more Google Shopping focused approach as they help advertisers stay visible for new queries with text ads, maintaining coverage across multiple channels.
So, although saying keywords are dead for the retail sector seems a bit over dramatic and perhaps untrue at this point, they are definitely making their way out. The reasons for this are because all of the above are taking more and more traffic away from traditional text ad campaigns.
Of course, keywords will always play some part in overall strategies, they may be less used in PPC for retailers.
If you’d like to know more about how your business could benefit from Google Ads,
contact one of our experts today.
