All-Access Guide:10 Tips to DominateE-Commerce Accounts

ALL-ACCESS GUIDE:10 Tips to Dominate E-Commerce Accounts

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Managing an e-commerce account can be a nightmare.

You’re probably already targeting all of the basic product-based keywords, meaning it’s tough to build things out much further.

To make things more complicated, margins are often extremely tight. You need to get your ads in front of the RIGHT audience at the RIGHT time to keep ROI high.

The good news is, there’s always room for expansion and improvement.

According to Google, 15% of searches are completely unique and have never been searched for before! And tools like remarketing make conversion rate optimization easier than ever.

In this guide, we’ll share five tips for finding and capitalizing on unique new e-commerce keyword combinations, as well as five remarketing audiences that e-commerce advertisers must target to increase sales.

Sometimes it’s tough to think outside of the box, so why not commission Google to do the work for you? Rather than operating like traditional, keyword-based campaigns, Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs) leverage the power of Google’s organic web crawling technology to determine when to serve your ads.

Creating a DSA campaign is a cinch.

Technically, you can add DSAs to a search campaign that is set to all features, but we recommend creating standalone DSA campaigns. All you need to do is set up dynamic ad targets, which are based on your site content. AdWords will use this data to identify a list of product categories.

If a site is well-indexed, there are typically plenty of categories to choose from. If you want to focus your campaign on a specific product category or brand, you can get more granular and set ad targets for specific webpages. This allows you to create your own category based on a URL, page title, or page content.

You can then create ad groups to target specific categories or sections of your site. Next, create description lines for your ads (AdWords will add in a dynamically-generated headline and landing page), sit back, and let AdWords run the show.

#1 Dig Through Your Dynamic Search Ad Queries

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Keep in mind, if you’re running additional search campaigns, you may wish to set your existing keywords as negatives for DSA campaigns. This ensures that you’re not cannibalizing your current keywords and are only leveraging DSAs to find brand new terms.

So...where are my e-commerce keywords?!

You may be wondering, how the heck can these keyword-free DSA campaigns be leveraged to find new keywords?

AdWords actually provides a list of all of the search queries that your dynamic ads are matched to. Head to the Auto Target tab > See Search Terms section to check it out. This list is a goldmine for e-commerce advertisers. Not only will it help you identify obvious terms that you’ve forgotten to include in your account, you’re also likely to find new terms that you never would have thought to bid on.

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#3 Spy on Your Competitors

There’s nothing wrong with a little good-natured spying, in the name of client success. While you can’t directly access their account details, there are a few crafty ways to identify e-commerce terms they’re likely to be bidding on.

The best part is, you don’t need to be a hacker to find these.

#2 Riff Off Your Shopping Feeds

Nine times out of ten, the e-commerce clients that you inherit will already have Shopping campaigns up and running.

The feeds used to manage these campaigns are a treasure chest worth of e-commerce keyword ideas.

Take the top products from their feed lists and plug them into AdWords’ Keyword Planner.

From there, you can get a good sense of the search volume for these items and identify other terms related to them.

Just be sure to set geo-targeting for each search, to ensure you’re getting accurate traffic estimates.

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#4 Hit Up Pinterest’s Promoted Pins

You can also scout out competitors’ terms using WordStream’s Competitive Website Crawler. Just plug in your competitors’ URL and we’ll scrape the site to identify prominent terms that they’re likely to be bidding on.

One sneaky tactic is to hit up the Keyword Planner, which has a feature that lets you drop in a URL to see which terms people are using to land on the site.

AdWords’ expectation is that you’ll use it for your own site, but you can actually input any URL.

So, plug your competitors’ landing pages into the “your landing page” section and go to town.

The tool will provide you with sets of keyword ideas and ad group ideas, all featuring terms that your competitor is probably bidding on.

This tactic is actually the brain child of SEO pro Clay Cazier, which we learned a few months ago and have become huge fans of (check out his original article here).

You can use Pinterest to get a solid understanding of the semantic phrases people are using to discuss your clients’ products and, because it has more of a sales/retail focus than other social media sites, it’s a great venue for conducting retail specific keyword research.

WordStream Inc. All rights reserved. WordStream technologies are protected by pending US patents

From there, plug in a term related to the pin. Pinterest will then spit back a list of related themes that can spark excellent ad group/keyword ideas.

This tactic is useful because it does not solely provide semantically-related variations of your seed keyword.

It also includes terms that users associate with this word, giving you great insights into what your audience is interested in.

Do a little brainstorming on these terms and you’re guaranteed to come up with some unique new keywords!

If your client has a Pinterest for Business account, try using Promoted Pins to discover new keywords. Clay recommends initiating a Promoted Pins campaign and selecting the pin that best represents the one of your head terms.

WordStream Inc. All rights reserved. WordStream technologies are protected by pending US patents

Here at WordStream, we’re huge advocates of using Search Terms Reports to generate new keyword and negative keyword ideas. In fact, we even have a tool that helps you do this task more efficiently!

You can certainly use this tactic to build out existing ad groups, but when it comes to e-commerce PPC accounts, we recommend paying extra special attention to your Shopping Campaigns’ search queries.

#5 Turn to Your Shopping Search Query Reports

Remember, Shopping Campaigns operate solely based on a product feed, rather than keyword groupings. However, Google does track a list of queries that trigger the ads.

Check this list regularly to identify their best performing search queries. Then, plug the top terms into the Keyword Planner to confirm that they have sufficient volume. If so, they’re probably worth adding to your search ad groups.

This list will certainly give you a leg up the next time you’re faced with doing keyword research for a new e-commerce client. Let’s take it a step farther; what other tried and true tactics should retailers be considering?

What about remarketing?

A retail marketer who isn’t utilizing remarketing is like a fisherman with no bait. Similarly, your chances of catching a fish (or conversion) are much smaller if you don’t have the proper tools to do so.

I’ve been doing a lot of in-store and online shopping lately, and the majority of stuff I’ve purchased thus far has been a product of smart remarketing.

Whether it’s when I’m scrolling through my Facebook feed and that wine rack I was browsing on Etsy pops up, or when I’m browsing recipes and the J Crew sweater I previously left un-purchased in my shopping cart reappears to remind me that their 20% off deal is about to expire.

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The bottom line is that remarketing should be a top priority for all marketers, but it’s especially important for e-commerce retailers during prime-time selling season. The problem is some retail marketers are limiting their reach and strategy by running their remarketing campaigns on autopilot and not targeting the right people, at the right time, with the right messages.

Here are a few audiences that all retail marketers should be targeting:

#6 Remarket to New Visitors with a First-Time Incentive

Most marketers start with an all-visitors remarketing campaign, showing the same one or two ads to each and every site visitor. While this isn’t necessarily a bad tactic for gaining brand recognition, retailers need to ensure that aside from just going after everyone with generic ads, they are providing an incentive to return.

Since new visitors are typically at the top of your marketing funnel, you need to treat them as such. They’re still warming up to your brand, as they’ve visited your site, but haven’t converted. There’s something holding them back, which often has to do with trust and their incentives to purchase.

It’s like a new friend or acquaintance asking you on a date. Why should you go out with them when there’s so many fish in the sea? Then that person offers to take you to your favorite restaurant, and you’ve reconsidered your rejection.

The same goes for remarketing.

These new leads need to be incentivized, so when remarketing to new site visitors, make sure to give them a boost to entice them to buy.

See the ad on the next page where HelloFresh remarketed with a first-time discount of $35!

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#7 Remarket Based on Product Categories

This tip seems obvious, yet many marketers are failing to do it.

Naturally, if someone visits a particular product page, they’re interested in that product, right? Unless your landing pages are mislabeled, you should be following-up with these browsers to remind them about their previous curiosity.

For instance, let’s say you sell apparel for men and women. You wouldn’t want to show a man browsing for a jacket a generic ad for your company, or an ad for a women’s dress, right? You’d want to show them the exact pair of pants they just looked at.

There are several companies that do this well.

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Just the other day, I was looking for a simple dress for an upcoming party.

A couple hours later, a remarketing ad reminded me of my need, and during my lunch break, I went to the store and purchased the dress.

Would I have bought a dress regardless?

Most likely, but from Express? Probably not, but this ad reminded me that I already found one I liked, and that there happens to be a store in close proximity to my office.

#8 Remarket to Re-Awaken Abandoned Shoppers

Did you know that the average human has a shorter attention span then a goldfish? I kid you not, the modern-day shopper is extremely distracted, and it’s only going to get worse as technology evolves.

For instance, on the average night, how many devices do you interact with? Personally, I watch TV while scrolling through my Instagram feed, while checking emails on my iPad, while reading digital marketing articles on my MacBook.

The reality is we’re all consistently multitasking throughout the day. Even at work with your cell phone by your side, your coworkers surrounding you, and meeting notifications popping up, it can become quite hard to get things done.

Introducing the abandoned shopper!

This set of individuals doesn’t necessarily have attention deficit disorder, but rather they’re a product of modern-day society and we need to treat them as such by remarketing to abandoned cart shoppers.

Several brands constantly do this to me. The other day, I had a pair of men’s shoes in a shopping cart to purchase for my dad, and then my colleague started talking about ordering pizza and that pair of suede loafers was left in the dust.

Setting these lists up is as easy as creating a product category based on what the URL contains. Just do it, your new customers will thank you.

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#9 Remarket to Upsell Active Buyers

A large part of a retail marketer’s job is determining how to create returning shoppers. Since an individual average order value is often low, the most value doesn’t necessarily come from the large pool of one-time shoppers, but rather the shoppers that become loyal customers.

To move your customer relationship beyond the first date, start using smarter remarketing tactics to form a long-term relationship with each and every shopper. The best way to do this is by creating remarketing lists of active buyers with ads to resell them on related products that may be of interest.

Luckily, this advertiser targeted me with the exact item and a catchy message.

What I love about this ad is that the copy is catchy, slightly humorous:“You left without your shoes…”

Moral of the story?

Create remarketing lists targeting shoppers who abandoned their cart with catchy messages to entice them to return.

Let’s say someone purchased a tennis racket from your online sports store.

You wouldn’t show them ads for soccer balls, right?

Rather, you want to follow them around with a tennis racket case or tennis outfit to go along with their new racket.

“If a shopper buys your shampoo, then remarket a deep conditioner to them,” says WordStream’s Senior Paid Search Specialist Jaclyn Jordan. “Be aware of what products complement the one your customers have previously purchased and remarket to gain more sales through the same customers.”

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#10 Remarket to re-Sell Buyers After a Certain Time Period

Last but not least, you should be remarketing to people who have run out of your product or are in-market for more!

For instance, let’s say you’re selling razor blades.

How long does a razor typically last?

Right around the point where a buyer is likely running low, you should be remarketing to remind them to buy more.

One company who does a great job with this is the Dollar Shave Club. Recently they have even started to target women too, see the example to the left!

You may be wondering whether they’d just buy it on their own without seeing an ad.

Sure, this may happen, but more often than not, people get lazy. They might see another brand on sale in CVS and buy it there, but if you catch them with an enticing ad beforehand, they’re more likely to become a brand loyalist and purchase from you.

So go forth and take on that new e-commerce client. Remember, there is always room for account improvement and with these killer tactics you should be able to look like a PPC pro!

ABOUT WORDSTREAM

WordStream Inc. provides software and services that help marketers get the maximum results from their online marketing efforts. WordStream’s easy-to-use software allows for more effective paid search and social campaigns with the 20-Minute Work Week, a customized workflow that guides marketers through steps that can greatly improve their AdWords, Bing, Yahoo, and Facebook campaigns, plus tools for call tracking, keyword optimization, and more. WordStream also offers an award-winning free PPC tool, the AdWords Performance Grader, which evaluates users’ Google AdWords accounts and provides valuable tips for improvement. WordStream is a Google Premier Partner.