As a marketer, deciding whether Ecommerce PPC is a good investment option is a tough call. The Ecommerce space is getting crowded and brands need a marketing strategy that helps them secure a valuable space in the SERPs.
Ecommerce PPC is an online advertising model that promotes a digital store and its products through paid ads. The pay-per-click (PPC) for ecommerce sites is an advertising strategy that allows store owners to pay only for the ad clicks. Such ads bring conversion-friendly traffic to the website and increase the overall ROI.
But when it comes to investing capital, businesses need assurance. Mere words, and long lists of strategies are not enough to make the final decision.
It is such a good question with no solid answers. Well, that was the case up till now. We recently studied the top 100 Shopify Ecommerce websites to understand their take on PPC ads. Through this study, we reveal the extent to which Ecommerce PPC ads are prevalent in the industry that will be useful for making better marketing decisions.
Ecommerce PPC ads target ready-to-buy shoppers and are independent of unpredictable algorithm changes, unlike SEO. PPC advertisements are applicable across every channel, be it search engines, social media, or websites.
PPC is a data-driven marketplace. Ad auctions, ranks, and results depend on metrics like the maximum bid and quality score that determines ad relevance through factors like CTR, the keyword used, past performance on SERP, etc. By tracking Shopify ads regularly, marketers can understand what they need to do to curate impactful advertisements.
If Ecommerce marketers bid correctly, their ad secures the top rank in the SERPs in a few hours. It reduces ad spending, brings more traction, and pushes for brand awareness. Plus, the brand appears directly at the top of its competitors and acts as the first responder to every relevant consumer query.
Ecommerce PPC ads allow businesses to target customers based on their locations, attributes, interests, most used channels, etc. It takes personalisation to a whole new level with strategies like retargeting.
In the research, we also noticed that 75% of the PPC for Ecommerce sites pivoted towards search ads, which appear as results on search engine queries. Google Ads turned out to be the most liked platform for paid search ads.
The top 100 Shopify stores included websites from 11 categories, out of which the clothing industry has the highest percentage of PPC ads: 91.6%. It was followed up closely by other categories like electronics, makeup, etc., with a 90% PPC ad usage.
A homepage is the nerve centre of a brand. It has all the information regarding the latest offers, new arrivals, category listings, social media handles, etc., and acts as the brand’s digital storefront. A business utilises this page as a comprehensive online tour of what it does and offers.
So Ecommerce brands using homepages as a PPC landing page is no shocker, as it encompasses every information brands want to share with their audience. The rest of the 34% of Shopify stores use the collection or product pages as landing pages for PPC ads.
Among 100 different Shopify ads utilising homepages as PPC landing pages, one site used an actual landing page. Magic Spoon is a cereal brand that redefines breakfast with nutritious cereal options. Though the top-performing ad of Magic Spoon was still directed towards their homepage, an ad that connected to a compelling landing page stood out.
The Ecommerce landing page uses specific keywords like keto cereal and keto-friendly cereal to target an audience that wants their breakfast cereal to be diet-friendly. Let’s talk about some magnetic features of this Shopify landing page:
The storytelling behind the copy of Magic Spoon’s landing page is indeed magical. It showcases a deep understanding of target consumer problems and boldly addresses them through a short and direct copy.
The design and colours used on the post-click landing page create a positive impact. They complement the brand’s presentation and products, equating to enticing first impressions.
Highlighting a product’s USPs is a crucial practice on landing pages. Magic Spoon does it right with its comparison chart that uses images to present data in an easy and fun way. For website owners using WordPress, incorporating a WordPress chart plugin can simplify the process of creating visually appealing and informative comparison charts.
The landing page uses social proofs at different folds of the page to gain consumer confidence. On a closer look, the customer testimonials and reviews from other big companies incentivise the brand’s message.
“72% of top 100 Ecommerce websites use Facebook Ads.”
Social media advertising allows Shopify businesses to get closer to their customers by helping them create hyper-personalised ad landing pages. Shopify store owners can share videos, images, and user-generated content(UGC) that reaches a large audience in minutes. With social media ads, customers get solutions based on their past queries without extensive research, and brands get introduced to quality leads.
Facebook Ads is one of the most popular social media advertising platforms that follow the PPC advertising model. As Facebook and Instagram have the same parent company, Meta, Ecommerce store owners can choose to run the same ads for both platforms, which is what 72% of the Shopify Ecommerce websites are doing.
While only 1% choose to utilise Instagram Ads, the selection of social media advertising channels heavily depends on the presence of your target audience on a particular platform.
The stats show that most of the top 100 Shopify stores are using Ecommerce PPC ads. Does that mean that new businesses should also directly jump into paid marketing?
That’s not necessary. To succeed in search engine marketing, business owners must excel in organic and paid marketing. In comparison, organic marketing requires less investment of money but more time and vice versa for paid ads. So it becomes essential to balance both types of marketing strategies.
As an Ecommerce store owner, the paid advertising space can be overwhelming. So here are some tips to get started:
Using the right keywords is critical for all types of marketing efforts to succeed. Right keywords mean phrases or words consistent with the target audience’s search queries.
For starters, marketers prefer long-tail keywords as they often match with the exact phrase entered into the search engine. By employing such keywords in the Ecommerce PPC ad copy and landing page, businesses can create a seamless user experience for the incoming traction.
Understanding which ad element leads an ad’s success or setbacks helps create better campaigns. Keeping a close eye on the PPC ad analytics helps pin down the areas that need improvement. Ecommerce store owners can also A/B test for multiple ad copies targeting the same page to understand what suits their brand better.
For example, in our survey, we discovered that, on average, all the top-performing PPC landing pages of various brands have 35 ads targeting that page.
Related: Landing Page Conversion Rate Optimisation Tips: Clarity is Everything
Dynamic targeting ads are for those store owners who have been in the Ecommerce space for a long time and wish to expand their landing page marketing. Ecommerce brands have a plethora of products to offer and sometimes it can become a task to choose for which product an ad should get placed.
According to Google Ads, “ Ideal for advertisers with a well-developed website or a large inventory, Dynamic Search Ads use your website content to target your ads and can help fill in the gaps of your keyword-based campaigns.”
Such campaigns generate dynamic landing pages and ad headlines using content from your website and match them with relevant search queries. Marketers just need to add a description to complete the ad and launch it.
Along with the right keywords, don’t forget to add negative keywords to your ad campaigns. Negative keywords are those phrases for which you don’t want your Shopify ads to appear. For example, if your website or landing page doesn’t offer free content, then ‘free’ is a negative keyword for any ad campaigns related to it.
Even though the prime motive of Shopify PPC advertising is to bring traffic to a web page, we need to focus on traffic that converts into quality leads and customers.
Related: SEO Landing Page vs. PPC Landing Page – Best Practices
Whether an Ecommerce PPC ad will connect to a landing page or a homepage depends on the aim of the ad. If the Shopify PPC ad aims to attract a larger section of the audience and generate brand awareness without explicitly focusing on lead generation, then a homepage is a better option.
But marketers who want to launch ad campaigns with specific aims for a product should prefer landing pages that creatively advocate for everything a product or service has to offer.
Related: Landing Page vs Product Page Debate: Which is Better?
There are 59M+ website visits in our dataset. The sites get 6M+ to 2K visitors per year, which includes big to small businesses. 86% of them are US companies, and the rest are from UK and Australia. Data was collected in June of 2022.
We have used tools like Ahrefs, SimilarWeb, and Facebook Ads Library to collect and verify the data. We hope our research will help you make better marketing decisions.
Ecommerce PPC ads have an amazing potential to push for more relevant traction to desirable web pages and increase the chances of securing quality leads. Our survey provides a look into how the Shopify stores have accepted paid marketing as a viable way of reaching out to the audience. By balancing social media and search-paid ads, Shopify store owners have created a multiple-channel ad verse that offers a smooth transition of visitors to leads.
Need help with your Shopify conversions? At Apexure, we can help you understand what your Shopify store might lack. Contact us today!
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Founder & CEO of Apexure, Waseem worked in London’s Financial Industry. He has worked on trading floors in BNP Paribas and Trafigura, developing complex business systems. Waseem loves working with Startups and combines data and design to create improved User Experiences.
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