PPC for Retailers: 7 Tips for Exceptional Campaign Management

In this article I discuss PPC advertising for clothing retailers that are running campaigns in Google Ads but need some ideas or help to turn them into exceptional campaigns. I offer you seven tips that will help you continue improving the main areas of your campaigns.

 

Campaign management can be hard especially for clothing retailers because people will often shop around and it may not be clear what they are actually looking for. And the search intent of some of your keywords will not be clear.

 

And as you run the ads, you’ll continue to spend and often see a low conversion rate despite your updates. However, there are some key things to do to help you to be more successful. And I’ve listed some of the most important ones here.

 

1. Setup conversion tracking

 

Effective PPC marketing for clothing retailers includes setting up conversion tracking to track online and offline sales. In Google Ads this is possible on the Conversions page in the Tools & Settings section in your account.

 

 

There are a number of conversion tracking options as the screenshot above shows. You can setup website tracking to track actions on your website like when people purchase or use a contact form. And this includes tracking online sales, link clicks, page views and signups.

 

You can also track phone call conversions. And this includes calls from ads, and calls to a number on your website and clicks on a number on your mobile site.

 

And you can import conversions from Google Analytics or another source. If you’ve setup e-commerce tracking or goal tracking in Google Analytics, you can import these into your account.

 

2. Add new negative keywords

 

Part of management of your Search and Standard Shopping campaigns should include adding negative keywords to block searches that are not relevant. So, you should regularly check your search terms reports to see what searches you’re getting.

 

Next to each search query, you have an option to select it and add it as a negative keyword if it is not relevant for your business.

 

And you can add the negative keywords at the campaign or ad group levels or to a negative keyword list.

 

 

3. Check Recommendations

 

The Recommendations page is a very helpful page where you can see suggestions to improve your campaigns. These are created by the machine learning system when it finds opportunities to improve your campaigns in areas like keywords, bid strategies, conversion tracking, audience segments and more.

 

 

But you should check that the recommendations are relevant before applying them. And if any are not relevant, then dismiss them and give a reason why, to help the machine learning system send better recommendations in the future.

 

4. Find new keywords

 

One of the important recommendations you are likely to see is a list of keywords that could help improve your campaigns. This will show a list of keywords in different match types like phrase and exact match and you can add them to your campaigns.

 

However, like other recommendations and as mentioned above, first check that the keywords are relevant for your business. Because adding any that are not will waste your budget on searches that are not relevant.

 

Also, use the Keyword Planner tool in your account to find new keywords to add to your Search campaign. If you’ve been running ads for some time, you may want to expand the searches you are targeting, and adding new keywords will usually help.

 

 

5. Update bid strategy

 

Another recommendation you’re like to see is to update your campaign’s bid strategy. If you’ve been running your campaign for some weeks or months and have had a substantial amount of traffic, you’re likely to see a recommendation to change to a Smart bidding strategy.

 

This is especially the case if you started with a manual bidding strategy or another automated bid strategy like Maximise Clicks.

 

 

But, like other recommendations, check if it’s relevant to your requirements and goals before applying it. That’s because changing a bid strategy is a big change that could have a major impact on your conversions.

 

6. Launch product ads

 

To setup shopping ads to promote your products, you’ll need to submit a product feed to Google. So, first you’ll need to create a Google Merchant Centre account and then upload your feed there or provide it in the various ways that are available.

 

 

You can also use the website scan option to create the product feed and submit your products. This is faster and helps you get started quicker without having to create a spreadsheet of all the products you want to advertise.

 

Next, you’ll need to link your Merchant Centre and Google Ads accounts. And then you will create the shopping campaign in Google Ads and promote your products. And they will appear in the search results and on the Shopping tab on Google.

 

 

7. Check Quality Scores

 

A search marketing campaign for retailers includes quality scores which show how the keywords are performing. This shows how the keywords are performing for three factors that determine the quality scores: Expected Click Through Rate, Landing Page Experience and Ad Relevance.

 

 

Improving these three factors helps to improve your quality scores. So, your aim should be to get them as close to 10/10 as possible.

 

Case Study

 

Wombat is a clothing retailer of leather products inspired by the Australian outdoors and designed in the UK. The products are stylish and premium but not at a luxury fashion brand level of price. They needed help setting up Google Ads campaigns and I setup Shopping and Search campaigns that led to a big drop in the CPC to 17p and an overall increase in sales. Read the full case study.

 

Get in Touch

 

I setup and manage PPC campaigns for clothing retailers that want to drive sales online. As a Google Ads specialist, I have many years experience working on Search and Shopping campaigns for clothing retailers and I’d be happy to help. Contact me below to discuss.