A huge mistake I see so many Ecommerce businesses owners making is pouring all their budget into one type of campaign like Performance Max or Shopping. These work on their own but aren’t as efficient as they could be since they don’t hit every part of the funnel. To get users interested and eventually convert, you need to be running three different types of campaigns in order to really nurture users; we need to be building awareness, consideration and eventually driving users to convert which usually takes more than a potential customer just seeing your ad once on the SERP.
Don’t Skip The Basics
Firstly, to make sure you’re scooping up those high intent users, you should be running Search campaigns for all your products. Good old-fashioned Search seems to get overlooked these days but it’s still one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal for converting people who are in-market for what you’re offering. If you’ve got a lot of products, you can get started with your top sellers and add more as you go but I’d recommend covering your entire catalogue with Search ads. A lot of people think they can get away with just a Shopping campaign or PMax but in my accounts, I see adding Search can up to 2x our sales volume with the ROAS often outperforming PMax. The fact these are a little more manual with plenty of room for optimisation too gives this a lot of room for longevity and they can easily be adjusted as your business priorities change.
Embrace Machine Learning
Next, you should definitely be running Performance Max to keep driving those sales - aside from Search campaigns this is the bread and butter of the Ecommerce activity we run at Big Flare. This campaign is driven by machine learning, letting you appear all over Google’s inventory but making sure you get in front of the right user at the right time. Start by putting your most successful products in one campaign, set up audience signals before you launch and let the campaign learn over time.
It’s Never Too Soon To Start Retargeting
Finally, you should be running retargeting campaigns on YouTube.. This is your opportunity to scrape up any potentially missed conversions due to abandoned carts or people simply forgetting the brand. Video’s a powerful way to remind people why they were interested in purchasing from you in the first place and CPMs are relatively low. Don’t expect ROAS to be quite as high as the other campaigns here BUT it’s worth investing a little in users who were close to converting but need a little extra push - otherwise you’re leaving revenue on the table.
If your campaigns are reaching people in all these places, you’ll start seeing some real growth in brand awareness and sales.