Optimizing Text Ads for Retail

Optimizing AdWords
Text Ads for Retail
How Retail Advertisers Can Drive More Product Conversions with Text
R E T A I L A D V E R T I S E R C O U R S E

Before We Get Started
Session Recordings Will Be Sent Next Week
Q&A Following the Presentation
Submit Questions In the Chat Box to the Right
Logistics Speakers
Jon Gregoire
Director of Marketing
CPC Strategy
David Weichel
Director of Paid Search
CPC Strategy

What’s been your experience managing text
ads over the last 12 months?
Poll For The Audience
AdGooroo:
“On average the top 20 advertisers spent a whopping 63% of their
Desktop Paid Search budget on Product Listing Ads, with only 37%
devoted to traditional text ads.”
(Data from Q2 2014)

• Founded in 2007
• Over 300 active retail clients
• Top 50 fastest growing company in San Diego 3 years running
• Recognized as an Official Google Shopping Partner
• Custom-built retail search technology platform, CAPx
Solutions
 Retail-focused Paid Search (PPC)
 Google Shopping Management
 Shopping Channel Management
 Amazon Sales Acceleration
CPC STRATEGY HAS BEEN FEATURED ON
DELIVERING LASTING RESULTS FOR OUR CLIENTS
VISIT CPCSTRATEGY.COM

www.CPCStrategy.com | 619.501.6138 | contact@cpcstrategy.com
Evolution of Retail Text Ad Inventory

David Weichel
Director of Paid Search
 Head of Paid Search strategy and innovation at CPC Strategy
 Featured speaker at SMX Advanced, SMX East, MivaCon
 Leads all product development with CPC’s in-house PPC
technology

Course Overview
• Allowing Shopping Campaign Performance Data to Inform Text Ad Strategy
• Framework for a Retail-Focused Campaign Architecture
• Essential Automated Rules to Apply
• Optimizing Ad Copy for Retail
• Leveraging Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSAs)
• Q&A

Start with Shopping
Allowing Shopping Campaign Performance Data to Inform Text Ad Strategy
• Google’s retail-specific ad program should undoubtedly be the starting point
• Text and Shopping ads don’t exist in a vacuum
• Shopping will return the valuable, product-level information you need to build out text
campaigns effectively

What Data is Valuable?
Spotting Your Opportunities
• If it doesn’t convert on Shopping, move on
• Brand & product-level sales volume
• Impression share (take w/ a grain of salt)
Search Terms Data
• Representative of how real people search for your products
• Spot new themes & trends in language
• Aggregate stats are the most useful here
• Inform new keyword targets, negatives & ad copy

Recommended Budget Allocation
Follow The ROAS
• Shopping campaigns generally see better returns than text
 Drive budget here until you see diminishing returns
 Restructure your campaigns to make sure budget is going to top performers
• Text can drive higher volume for high-demand brands
 Generally higher CPCs, higher CPA, lower ROAS
 Historically low performers don’t flip on a dime without doing something drastic
• Optimize for the highest net return
Text Ad Optimization Can Be A Long, Phased Process
• Invest into Shopping for more immediate returns

Campaigns & Ad Groups that Matter in Retail
Framework for a Retail-Focused Campaign Architecture
Inventory Driven Targeting
• Category/Type
• Brand
• Collection
• Specific products – name or SKU
Audience Driven Targeting
• Gender & age
• Area of need, or purpose
 e.g. “lighting for interior designers”

Dynamic Search Ads
• Highly recommended for all retail advertisers
• Ad headlines & LP URLs are automatically generated
• Great way to quickly break out campaigns with product targets
• Generally cheaper traffic & can convert well
• Scalable way to “fill in the gaps”

Mobile Ads
• Very cautious when it comes to mobile
• Only push mobile if you have a mobile-friendly site
• On average, down-bid by -70%
• Huge for retailers with B&Ms and driving local in-store traffic
• Link your Google My Business page

Automated Rules
Essential Automated Rules to Apply
Keeping Up With A Dynamic Product Catalog
• Pause ads/keywords if out of stock (OOS)
 OOS text on landing pages
 Create separate OOS feed
• Pause ads/keywords if LP reaches a 404 error
• Pause ads/keywords pointing to low quality search results pages
 “No Results Found”
 Only 1 product result

Ad Parameters & Ad Customizers
Ad Parameters
• Numbers only
• Assigned at keyword level
• Include product price in ad copy
Ad Customizers
• Numbers & text accepted
• Assigned at multiple levels – ad group, keyword, campaign.
• Dynamically insert attributes like price, brand, etc.
• Countdown sales timer
• Must rotate alongside a non-Customizer ad

Automated Bidding Rules
• Should be geared towards your ROAS targets
 “If…Then…” rules
 Prevent runaway spend on non-converters
 Be cognizant of the limitations of Adwords conversion tracking
• If you care about CPA, same logic applies
• Methods for implementing bid automation
 Adwords scripts
 Adwords Automated Rules

Bare Minimum
Optimizing Ad Copy for Retail
• Seller Ratings Annotations
• Google Trusted Stores
• 3rd Party Review Sites
 e.g. eKomi, Shopper Approved, BizRate, TrustPilot, etc.
• Targeted Sitelinks
• Address the stage of the funnel
• For top-of-the-funnelads, sitelinks should highlight known-converters
 Top Selling brands & products
• For bottom-of-the-funnel ads, highlight your store value props
 e.g. No-Hassle Return Policy, or Free 2-day Shipping

Tweaking Ad Copy
Optimizing Ad Copy for Retail
Relevance (And Bolding) Is Key
• Better Quality Scores, improved ad position, lower cpcs
• Use the exact keyword text in the ad if possible
Don’t Lose The ‘Voice’ In Your Copy
• Address the stage of the funnel and seek to push the shopper closer to a purchase
• Highlight meaningful value props for that stage
• Brand-specific, but product agnostic e.g. “mens nike shoes”
• Mention your best-selling styles in the copy
• Product-specific e.g. “mens nike free 5.0”
• e.g. Free shipping, 24/7 customer service, 90-day return policy, etc.

What are RLSAs?
Leveraging Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSAs)
• Allows advertisers to customize ads and tweak bids based on past behavior
• ROI-driven advertisers typically shy away from the more top-of-the-funnel, educational queries
• Pro: Better COS results
• Con: Gives up significant market share
• Default lists – 30 day cookie window:
• All Visitors
• General Viewers
• Product Viewers
• Shopping Cart Abandoners
• Past Buyers

How RLSAs Should Fit into Your Strategy
• Opportunity to expand your top-of-funnel reach
• Do you have a system in place for measuring customer LTV?

Refining RLSA Strategy
Be cognizant of the minimum requirements
• 1,000 user list size for RLSA
• Use historical performance to inform custom audience segments
Take advantage of custom parameters and values in the remarketing tag
• e.g. ‘Product viewers’ can span multiple brands, types, etc.
• Include Brand, Collection, or Category/Product Type
• Refined targeting & bid adjustments
Consider segmenting by recency:
• Cart Abandoners, past 24 hours: +50% bid adj
• Cart Abandoners, 2-7 days ago: +25% bid adj
• Cart Abandoners, 8-30 days ago: +10% bid adj

Evaluate Your Investment in AdWords Text Ads
Questions for David?
Submit your questions in the chat box on the right
CPCStrategy.com

Optimizing Text Ads for Retail

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