Pay-Per-Click (PPC) marketing does exactly what the name suggests. You publish an ad and only pay when someone clicks on it.
One of the key advantages of PPC advertising is that it gives you a high level of control. With PPC, you can target a specific audience based on their search behaviors, interests, and demographic characteristics to bring in the kind of traffic that's perfect for your ecommerce business.
PPC also allows you to specify keywords you want to target (and the ones you don't!) and set ad budget caps. You can also choose between different types of PPC advertising like social media advertising, Google shopping ads, and display ads.
With that in mind, good PCC management is essential if you want to get the most out of your marketing budget. Of course, if you want to outsource your PCC management, you have the option to choose a PPC agency. But we've put together this guide, so you don't have to.
We'll take you through PPC management, why it's so important, and give you some best practices to follow to help drive sales.
What is PPC management?
PPC management involves overseeing and optimizing your ecommerce brand's paid advertising campaigns. This includes monitoring budgets, analyzing data on ad performance, and constantly testing.
The key goals of ecommerce PPC management are to ensure your ads reach your target audience and entice ad viewers to click. That means you'll need to conduct research to target the right keywords, test ad copy, adjust budget caps, and align your campaigns with your overall ecommerce advertising strategy to optimize your results.
Why is PPC management important?
PPC can be a highly effective form of advertising for ecommerce businesses. In the US, spending on paid search ads is projected to be over $300 billion by 2024. No wonder it's such a popular channel: PPC allows you to quickly reach your target audience and bring traffic to your online store, resulting in increased ecommerce sales and conversions.
But these results don't just happen by chance. Good ecommerce PPC management is crucial to ensuring that your PPC campaign is successful and brings a high return on investment (ROI).
Without proper PPC management, you risk wasting money on ineffective ads. Or worse, sending your ads to the wrong audience and not reaching potential customers at all.
PPC management best practices
Here are some best practices that'll help you get the most out of your ecommerce PPC ads.
Define your ecommerce goals
One of the most critical steps in ecommerce PPC management is defining your ecommerce goals. This will help inform the direction of your PPC strategy and ensure that all of your efforts are aligned with achieving these goals.
Your goals may include increasing website traffic, generating leads, increasing sales and conversions, or expanding into new markets. It's important to be clear on what you hope to achieve with your PPC campaigns so you can tailor your strategy accordingly.
Research your target audience
You need to research your potential customers to make sure your campaign reaches the right people. This involves studying your competition, using keyword research tools, and surveying your current customers.
Paid search ads target people via the keywords they search for and their location, while social media PPC focuses on targeting people with different demographics and interests.
For social media ads, your focus should be on defining the demographic features (age, gender, education, etc.) and preferences of your audience.
For paid search ads, you'll need to conduct some keyword research. Once you've identified a list of potential keywords your audience might search for, you should test them to see which ones generate the best results. You can do this by creating separate ad campaigns for each keyword group, measuring their performance over time, and adjusting as needed.
Utilize negative keywords
In addition to choosing the right keywords, ecommerce PPC management for paid search ads also involves using negative keywords. Negative keywords are words or phrases that you add to your campaign to prevent your ads from being triggered by irrelevant searches.
For example, if you're selling exclusively silver jewelry, you may want to add the keyword "gold" as a negative keyword. This will ensure that your ads aren't shown when someone searches for "gold jewelry" on Google.
Write compelling copy for your PPC ads.
When writing ad copy for a PPC campaign, it's vital to keep the following tips in mind:
Keep your copy brief and to the point (make sure you keep to character limits)
For search ads, make sure your keywords are included in your ads
Include persuasive call-to-actions in your ads with action phrases like "buy now" or "find out more"
Create unique and attention-grabbing headlines
Use descriptive language that will resonate with your target audience
Inject some personality into your ads to stand out from the competition
Link your ad to a great product detail page
Here's an example ad for our imaginary silver jewelry brand:
Looking for beautiful silver jewelry? | Genuine silver designs | Pieces from top designers
Enjoy free shipping on all orders over $50!
Shop our range of stunning designs now
If you're creating social media or display ads, you'll also want to select some enticing imagery for your campaign.
Use remarketing campaigns
Remarketing campaigns are a great way to improve the ROI of your ecommerce PPC campaigns. There are several different ways to use remarketing, including retargeting visitors who visited your site.
Retargeting visitors who have spent time browsing your site is a great way to salvage lost sales. You can do this by creating a custom audience based on people who have already visited your website. Google Ads, for example, allows you to target people who visited your site or browsed a specific product or service. Then, you can create a campaign of Google Search Ads specifically for this audience and offer them a discount or free shipping on their order.
Analyze data and tweak your campaign
The key to effective ecommerce PPC management is constant testing and adjusting of your campaigns. You should use data on ad performance to make informed decisions about what works and what doesn't. Try different keywords, copy and images, adjust your ad spend caps, and change your bid prices. Then, study the results to see what works best for you. This will help you find the most effective strategies and maximize ROI from your campaigns.
PPC campaigns are one part of an effective ecommerce strategy
While managing an effective ecommerce PPC campaign is an excellent start if you're looking to boost sales, you'll also want to perfect other areas of your ecommerce strategy. PPC management should also be used in conjunction with other techniques such as SEO, social media, and SMS marketing to drive the most success.
Check out our 9 Proven Strategies to Increase Sales For Ecommerce.