Here at Global Search Marketing, we have a wide and varied client base. With ranges in budgets, services offered and target audiences, it’s a joy to be able to work across such a wide range of industries. It helps to ensure that myself and the team are always learning new techniques, new industries and new strategies to continually improve a client’s return from PPC.
Ecommerce clients are certainly a big part of our client base. The internet is a perfect place to reach the biggest consumer bases on the planet, and Search based digital marketing is often a highly profitable ground for websites that look to sell their products online. So often we’re asked what we think the best strategy is for these clients. In our experience, what combination of services will help ecommerce clients to yield the best results.
Well, here are the Holy Trinity of Ecommerce Services for ecommerce marketing. There are a huge number of avenues that sellers can potentially go down, but here are the 3 that I feel are the cornerstone of every successful ecommerce client. I’ll also add in 3 other potential areas to explore which will compliment these areas to really get your Ecommerce Marketing firing.
Search Ads
Starting with the obvious, Google search ads are the best possible place to start for any ecommerce client. The principle hasn’t changed much since AdWords began. People search for things related to your products, you bid on keywords related to your products, users click through to your website. This is a fundamental concept, but one that has been added to over many, many years.
The starting point is much the same as it’s always been, but there are huge numbers of factors that it’s vital to get right. Are you bidding on the most appropriate keywords? Are you hitting the right geographic areas? Are you sending the right message to your customers on mobile searches? Are customers being shown the correct extensions, the list goes on. When search ads are fully swinging, then are often the most important part of an online strategy. Not just on Google, though it’s easy to get blindsided and think that all there is to online marketing is Google. Bing has a very strong network which works in pretty much the same way. So if you’re hitting your targets on Google, chances are Bing will not only hit the same targets, but may even offer you a greater ROI.
You could also try: Dynamic Search ads.
Dynamic search ads are something that has come a very long way over the last 2 years. Now if your site is set up correctly AdWords can help to do this for you. By looking at your website and selecting the most appropriate page for your customers query, you can help to ensure that you don’t miss a single search.
Google Shopping Ads
Again, this may seem fairly obvious, but Shopping has become a remarkably powerful platform since the change to the previously free market place. By submitting a feed to Google’s merchant centre, you can get into the biggest shop window in the world. It’s a highly competitive market place, but if your offering is competitive, Google Shopping is the place to showcase your products.
The level of detail that it’s possible to go into with these campaigns is incredible and vital in order to maximise your return from this program. If your feed is set up correctly, then you can break down your products based on a whole host of different details, including brands, categories, price range etc. This makes it possible to adjust your KPI’s based on return on investment. You can focus specifically on brands and categories that you know are going to generate you the most revenue. With customer seeing your products and price, when they click through to your website they are highly qualified to then go on and purchase your products.
You could also try: Bing Shopping
Maybe not as powerful as Google, but Bing’s market share is ever increasing. With a system (again) very similar to Google, Bing shopping is potentially an untouched market place. Most online stores seem to be focusing on Google. So, getting into Bing now could be a great way to just boost your return.
Dynamic Remarketing
So, you’ve got the customer to your site, and they, for whatever reason, decide they’re not going to buy from you at this time. Could be they’re just browsing, could be that they want to compare your prices with your competitors. Even if you can get 10-20% of customers completing a purchase on your website, you are still missing out on 80-90% of potential customers.
One thing the internet has done is offered users massive choice in who they buy from and they may choose different sellers for a variety of different reasons. So, if you’ve got a good reason for them to choose you, it’s important that you don’t let them forget. Getting customers back is easier than finding new ones. So, if they’ve shown an interest in what your selling, it’s time to drive them back to your website.
Dynamic remarketing is a powerful tool to do just that. In a market place that is becoming more and more competitive by the day, staying in front of your customer is the best way to ensure that they choose you. If they’ve viewed a particular product or group of products on your website, then Dynamic Remarketing reminds them constantly of the products that they looked at on your site and with the option to shout about one of your USP’s (unique selling points) at the same time. Even if they’ve abandoned an item in the cart, you can make sure they remember what that product was. You can even offer a discount potentially to these users to ensure that they come back to you again and complete that purchase.
You could also try: Facebook Dynamic Remarketing
Not Bing this time. Facebook remains one of the most used websites in the world and as such ignoring marketing opportunities here would surely be a fatal error. The process is again very similar, with users shown ads based on products that they showed interest on your website. It completes the picture, ensuring that you have a powerful presence online.
Conclusion
So there you have it. Three different services, all with one goal. The true beauty here though it how these three services complement each other. They work together to ensure that you can get your products sold with the best ROI.
Shopping and Search probably have the strongest synergy. A user who sees both a shopping ad and a search ad for the same product from the same company has twice as much chance of choosing you. It completes the picture, and in a highly competitive environment, it ensures that you have the presence to stand out from your competition. Dynamic remarketing then completes the process by further showcasing you and your products to these users.
A user who visits your site to browse your products via a search ad, then comes back to view a particular product, finally returns via Dynamic Remarketing (or after seeing one of your ads) to complete the purchase. You have established 3 points of contact with your customer. The more points of contact, the more likely you are to complete the sale.