Google Shopping vs Google Search Ads ... Which is better for eCommerce?

Many people think that for eCommerce products you only need to run Google Shopping Ads and then they double down on this mistake by setting up there campaign just by pressing a couple of clicks in their shopify store! 

This is wrong on so many levels and the only thing that it will achieve is you wasting a lot of money on Google Ads.

So in this video I am going to take you through the benefits & negatives of both Google Shopping Campaigns & Google Search Campaigns for eCommerce and then actually share with you my 3 Tier Strategy that you should be using to make sure that people don’t just click on your ads but actually buy your product.

Shopping Ads are beneficial as they give you:

•  Highly visible top of page results & on desktops if you don’t get the top of page you will then get highly visible right column.
•  Image focussed ad, so they get to see your product.
•  Allow you to show promotions & offers such as "free delivery".
• Show the customer your product price.

The last positive of shopping ads in that they show your price is also a big negative.

•  So while it is a positive because it pre-qualifies your buyer and you are less likely to have people click on your ad if it too expensive - meaning that you have not wasted your money on someone who was never going to be able to afford your product. 

So the BIG issue with shopping ads is that your competitors can start a price war with you, in order win the clicks and sales.

And the biggest risk of this is that if that competitor is a big box department store or large online shopping site they can undercut your product to the point of that initial sale actually ends up not being profitable but they continue with that price as they are then confident in their upselling and cross selling to one of their hundreds or thousands of different products.

So if you are a small business with only a small collection of products ONLY running shopping ads opens you up to a big risk of competitors undercutting your price & forcing you out of the market 

•  It is a big negative as people just can undercut your price by $5-$10 for lower priced products or by $50 - $100 on higher priced products to win that click & sale.

That is why for any eCommerce product I also ALWAYS run search ads: and the reason for this is that while a negative of search ads is that people may not see your product price. 

The major benefit of search ads over shopping ads for eCommerce campaigns is that you are able to add extended sales copy in your Ads in order to sell your product over your competitors product.

The other big benefit of Search Ads that many people don’t talk about is your ability to add in Ad Extensions which increase the size of an ad increasing the screen realestate that your ad takes.

Which is especially important on mobile devices as getting your in position #1 means that people have to scroll past your ad before they even see competitors ads.

 So now we get to the part where I will share the strategy that you should be using for your ecommerce product in Google. And it actually includes 3 different campaigns:

1. You need to run a shopping campaign which focusses on your priority products and these are products that all rate well in the areas of:

•  Price: there are no current competitors that are currently under cutting your price
•  Sales Volume & Profit Margin: the products you target with your shopping campaign should not only have a good profit margin but they are also in the price range that they will generate sales every day. The reason for why sales volume is important is because Google’s algorithm performs better for products that return regular sales each day
•  Brand or Product Awareness: this might be your core product or the product that you are most known for - meaning that this product can overcome any price wars because people know that your product is better than all others in the market. In this case you just need to be aware of any major department stores or resellers that are selling your product for a lower price.

2. Then also run a Search Campaign which focuses on your most profitable products:

•  You want to focus your search campaign on your most profitable products because you will be able to use the extra lines of Ad Copy along with Ad Extensions such as: Sitelinks, callouts, promotion extensions and the Countdown timer feature.
•   This is beneficial for your most profitable products because you are able to sell your products on any benefits or unique selling points that only your product has - rather than your ads be focussed predominately on price as in the case in shopping ads.

3. The final part of the is strategy is to also run a Remarketing campaign using image ads on the display network. 

The advantage of adding in this 3rd campaign is that you then continue to re-target your ads to people until they complete a purchase.

For success with this strategy because you are only showing these ads to people who have recently visited your website you can tailor the message and even offer a limited time discount in order to entice them to finish their sale today.

An extra benefit of this campaign is that because you only pay per click - but people are not actually searching for your product as they are seeing your ads on the display network

People might see you image ads another 5 times before they click on your ad & to complete their purchase but you only pay for the click.

Meaning that after their first interaction with a search or shopping ads they continue see your product and branding for the next 30-60 days.