5 Things That May Be Hurting Your eCommerce PPC Campaign [That Effective eCommerce PPC Management Can Fix]

If you listen to anyone in digital marketing, before long you’ll probably think that within a few minutes, if you have a few dollars to spend, you can launch a Google AdWords campaign and start sending traffic directly to your eCommerce website.

That is true, in a manner of speaking.

But there’s more to it than that. Without effective eCommerce PPC management, most campaigns will just fall flat. They have a propensity to be endless money pits if you don’t carefully target your ads and bid on the right keywords.

The point is not to spend money. It is to make as much money as possible for each dollar you spend.

Spending is required, but it must be done wisely.

With that preface set, here are five common problems with eCommerce PPC campaigns that effective eCommerce PPC management can fix.

1. No negative keywords defined

In PPC advertising, we have such things as negative keywords. These are keywords you set that you specifically don’t want your ads to show up for.

You might want to prevent impressions associated with certain search terms for a whole variety of reasons, but the main one is because some keywords may sound like they’re relevant to your ads, but in reality, are just not aligned on search intent.

When your ads display for keywords that have a search intent that your landing pages will not meet, you have a very low chance of generating conversions.

But viewers might still click and bounce, resulting in pay-per-click fees. That’s where this comes from, anyway!

So, it’s important that your eCommerce PPC management partner properly sets negative keywords to keep your ads from displaying for irrelevant search terms.

2. Not allocating enough marketing budget to the bid strategy

Keeping bid costs low might sound like a good strategy to improve the efficiency and leanness of your campaign, but in reality, it’s just a great way to get no impressions at all.

There are search terms you don’t want to show up for – don’t get us wrong. Just see the first section here. But there are search terms you need to show up for. These are the ones associated with the members of your target market that have the highest willingness to buy.

To get there, you need not only to invest in keyword research but to be willing to outbid your competitors on the keywords that will get you those impressions.

Sometimes you need to spend money to make money.

3. Flat ad copy

Flat ad copy is rarely the biggest problem associated with a PPC campaign, but be that as it may, it can still be a killer.

Usually, it’s only really bad when your competitors just have a great copy that makes people want to click.

Think about it. You need to get clicks to get sales. You don’t just want to get clicks, but if you don’t, nothing happens!

An experienced copywriter on a PPC marketing team has the ability to really change a PPC campaign for the better, especially if flagging ad copy is the culprit that is costing the campaign clicks.

4. Landing pages that make no sense

If you’re going to meet the goals of your campaign, it is imperative that your landing pages are conversion rate organized.

For the vast majority of eCommerce PPC campaigns, the goals will be sales and revenue-oriented. In these campaigns, “conversion oriented” means those pages better make it easy for visitors to buy.

If users click your ads with the expectation of buying a pair of shoes, you had best not put any obstacles in their way.

“Buy Now” and “Add to Cart” badges can both help guide users’ behavior, as can one-page checkouts. Make it as easy as possible, and make sure the landing page is aligned with search intent and user expectations.

5. Bad targeting

Finally, bad targeting can be a serious nail in the coffin of a bad PPC campaign.

What does this mean? Well, in addition to showing up only for relevant search terms (think negative keyword and bid strategy) your PPC ads should also be targeted as closely as possible to the members of your audience that are most likely to convert.

Specifically, ads can be targeted according to age, location, sex, other demographic factors, devices, time of day, behavior and purchasing habits, and much more.

It is expressly the job of your eCommerce PPC account manager to determine your buyer personas and make sure that your ad campaign strategy only displays your ads to them.

Otherwise, your eCommerce business is paying to pitch ads to people that may click (costing you money and potentially driving up your cost-per-click) but will never buy.

eCommerce PPC Management That Moves According to Your Goals

Paid advertising can pay itself off in spades – when you make a wise initial investment.

We recommend partnering with the eCommerce experts at 1DigitalⓇ Agency (1DigitalAgency.com).

They have many years of experience developing and implementing effective PPC marketing campaigns for clients in a wide range of industries – and the success of their PPC strategies hinges on targeting, keyword research, and continuous optimizations.

Contact them today at 888-982-8269 to start with a free eCommerce PPC audit to uncover key areas for opportunity.