4 Things You Should Know About eCommerce Advertising
Most eCommerce companies are doing some form of online advertising. If you’ve established an eCommerce business, it’s likely that advertising has been pretty high up on your list of concerns. Here are 4 things you should know about eCommerce advertising.
ECommerce Advertising is an Investment in your SEO
Google’s Panda update has made it so that websites with thin or poor content don’t always rank as high for popular keywords, and Google is placing a lot of emphasis on other ranking factors like social media signals and user satisfaction. This means that if you want a good ranking for popular keywords working with gotmojo or other reputable agencies is the key. Investing in your eCommerce advertising campaigns is going to have a direct impact on your organic web traffic and lead generation rates.
Ranking in the top three spots for popular keywords can drive a lot of extra traffic to your site, which leads to more sales. Businesses with an SEO rank above 6 are shown 935% more often in Google results! Plus, customers who click on your site from Google results already know what they’re looking for. This means that if you can provide them with the right product quickly and easily, they’ll be much more likely to buy from you than if they had to go through an intermediary like Amazon.
ECommerce Advertising is Much More Than Google Shopping Ads
ECommerce advertising is a huge topic that covers a variety of different online marketing campaigns. In short, it’s anything that draws attention to your store and gets people to buy from you. This includes:
Google Ads (Search, Display, and Shopping)
For the most part, this is how people think about eCommerce advertising. Google Ads include ad campaigns that drive customers to your store organically (when people search for the specific keywords you’re targeting), as well as campaigns that show on high-traffic websites like classified listings, social media, and email newsletters.
Facebook Ads
Facebook ads are some of the most effective ad campaigns for eCommerce businesses. Since 2013, FB has been giving retailers “product catalogs,” which allows you to upload and show your entire product catalog (similar to Google Shopping) on Facebook’s platform and target shoppers based on their preferences and previous purchase history on your site.
Retargeting Ads
This is a tactic that’s designed to drive sales from previous visitors to your website by targeting users with ads that generally show on websites they visit after visiting your store. Retargeting ads are generally pretty effective because they’re showing people ads for things they already expressed interest in (by visiting yours).
Social Media Advertising
Facebook isn’t the only game in town for social media advertising. You can also advertise on Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram to drive sales directly from users who see your ad on these sites.
Affiliate Marketing
This is an online marketing tactic where you encourage your customers to promote your products on their own websites or social media pages (if they have them). You give them a special link, or affiliate code, that tracks the product to your site. They can then use this code when discussing or promoting your product on their own websites/social media pages. When someone buys from this affiliate link, you pay them a commission (usually around 9-15%) for the sale.
You Have To Set Up A Landing Page For Each Campaign
One of the biggest mistakes new eCommerce advertisers make is that they don’t create a specific landing page for each of their campaigns. Since Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and affiliate marketing all work slightly differently, you need to use different URLs for each ad campaign. Let’s say you’re running an FB ad that’s driving traffic directly to your site’s homepage, and at the same time, you’re running an affiliate marketing program where users can get a special coupon code for 15% off. You’ll need to set up one landing page for your FB ad, and another for your affiliate links.
You Need To Measure KPIs
Your key performance indicators (KPIs) for your eCommerce Advertising campaigns should be the number of leads you get from each campaign and what kind of ROI they’re generating. KPIs will vary based on the channels you use, but there are a few that are universal:
Cost Per Lead (CPL)
A lead can be anything from someone submitting their email address to a phone call or purchase made on your site. Your cost per lead refers to how much it costs you to get a qualified customer. This can be calculated by taking your total ad spend and dividing it by the number of leads you got from a specific campaign.
ROI (Return on Investment)
ROI is a measure of how much revenue a business makes in relation to its investment. In eCommerce, this typically means you’d take the amount you spent on a campaign and divide it by the number of leads or sales that campaign generated, then multiply by 100 to get a percentage.
ECommerce advertising is a great way for online retailers to get high-quality traffic, leads, and sales. You can reach customers who are already looking for what you have to offer and drive them directly to your landing page. Paid ads also go through an intermediary, which makes it easier for you to control the selling process and convert more of those leads.
