6 tips for successful ecommerce search campaigns
From labeling best practices to maximizing automated bidding, these tips will streamline your ecommerce advertising efforts.
Having a clear ecommerce search strategy is essential – especially during the holidays.
Ready to refine your PPC approach?
Success will hinge on seamless collaboration between sales, marketing, and media teams.
The specifics may vary, but the following tips offer universal guidance.
1. Label everything
Consistent and coherent use of labels will be a key asset for retail ad accounts. Apply labels at every level possible:
- Campaign.
- Ad group/asset group.
- Ad.
- Keyword.
Labels, like any naming convention, should be logical, contain necessary information and be agreed upon by all team members.
Make sure to include:
- Relevant date ranges for ad reports.
- Helpful bidding information (e.g., “revenue”).
- The labeler’s initials for easy tracking.
Remember to apply the labels once created, as they are not automatically applied at any level.
2. Differentiate campaign types
Ecommerce campaign types vary by advertiser. This makes it more challenging to decide which to launch and when during a sales cycle.
Performance Max, Search, and Demand Gen campaigns each have pros and cons for retail.
Meanwhile, Google’s AI Overviews may soon impact ecommerce by serving ads.
When selecting a media mix, define unique goals and KPIs for each campaign type.
For instance, if using Performance Max and Search with a 3X ROAS goal, it might be more effective to prioritize PMax with a higher ROAS goal and larger budget.
Demand Gen works well alongside PMax and/or Search provided it has distinct objectives, such as increasing add-to-cart revenue or driving new customer acquisition.
It should be treated as mid-upper funnel and launched with metrics like conversion value or acquisition goals, rather than a ROAS target.
Dig deeper: Lead gen vs. ecommerce: How to tailor your PPC strategies for success
3. Leverage automation
Google’s latest automation features (e.g., broad match, value-based bidding, Performance Max, automatically created assets, etc.) have left many advertisers skeptical about their potential performance gains.
However, for most ecommerce businesses and retailers, these tools are designed specifically to leverage revenue signals and drive performance improvements.
Bidding to revenue – or ideally net profit, once available to all advertisers – is crucial for retail success in paid search.
Broad match aids in understanding customer intent and offers valuable query data insights on how shoppers search for products or brands.
Leveraging these automation tools saves optimization time, drives higher ad rank and enhances competitiveness in the retail landscape.
AI Overviews often appear for informational or educational queries above search ads. Automated bidding is a critical component of running media alongside AI, not against it.
Paid campaigns should be optimized with conversion goals on a website, ideally with assigned values, to ensure they reach shoppers at the right place and time – including placements within AI Overviews.
4. Take advantage of automated rules
Using automated rules is a best practice for ecommerce. This is especially true when planning sales in advance to ensure they go live and pause at the right times.
For multiple sales running simultaneously, automated rules for campaigns, ads or keywords can help manage promotions efficiently.
Aligning these rules with labels adds another layer of control, allowing you to enable or pause assets based on existing labels.
Also, consider using conversion value rules if a specific conversion action is the goal of a sale or campaign (e.g., building an email list before a future promotion).
5. Record learnings in real time
Keeping detailed notes alongside a change/optimization log is invaluable. Taking a few minutes daily to track events provides critical context for clients, other teams or future team members.
- Did a conversion tag break? Which one?
- Was the website down for any amount of time?
- How about the product feed?
- Did a product go viral on TikTok, leading to a surge in brand searches?
These records are immensely helpful for planning and collaboration.
Additionally, coordinating with customer support, either in real time or during post-campaign debriefs, adds valuable insights.
For example, understanding changes in return rates, customer feedback or product updates can inform new releases and highlight key features in ad copy.
Dig deeper: How to optimize your ecommerce ad spend and budget for the best ROI
6. Directionally learn from prior years
Learning from prior years is essential when planning a holiday sprint, sale or product launch.
Pulling historical data helps identify trends, such as whether customers add items to their cart a week before a sale, if new customer acquisition spikes during promotions or if returning customers spend significantly more during November and December.
These insights enable better strategies for conversion value rules, customer acquisition and bid targets.
However, avoid relying solely on past performance to measure success. The retail landscape, optimization tools and competitive environment are evolving rapidly, with new trends or viral products emerging unpredictably.
After a campaign ends, recap performance using tools like Google Trends for both brand and non-brand product data. Mid-campaign checks can also be valuable.
Explore third-party tools like Semrush, Similarweb or Spyfu for insights into competitor spend and category performance. (Free versions work well, too!)
Smarter PPC tactics for retail success
The holiday season presents an opportunity for ecommerce success and refining your PPC strategy can make all the difference.
Optimize your retail campaigns for maximum impact by implementing best practices such as strategic labeling, leveraging automation and learning from historical data.
As you move forward, focus on aligning your teams, tools and tactics to deliver seamless and data-driven campaign execution.
Post-campaign, analyze results deeply to extract insights that inform future strategies. With the above tips, your PPC campaigns can drive revenue and customer growth well beyond the holiday rush.
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