Strategies to Create the Best Performing Paid Search Campaigns

Clients demand marketing agencies to be their digital strategic partners by improving existing online strategies and campaigns. Complete adaptability is required to keep up with new trends, useful marketing tools and the ever-changing requirements of advertising platforms – and to?outsmart your clients’ competitors.

The quality of ads and campaigns is improving - fast.?As are the opportunities. To Boost your Paid Search Ad Campaigns, it is essential to?optimize existing data feeds,?utilizing?increased visibility?and?transparency of available data?- and?embracing new technologies?that focus on improving ROAS, making campaigns?more profitable and maximizing ROI.

Better data matches better results

The first step in optimizing your data feed is of course?making sure that the data quality is matching all your customers’ needs.?By developing a clear approach based on?the minimum requirements for product feeds and generatingfields that your organization needs, you can establish a?comprehensive in-company strategy for feed optimization.

A profound approach for product feed requirements improves?continuity and structure?and offers?dedicated procedures,?where everyone involved can rely on. Creating?a ‘clean’ blueprint for tasks such as naming conventions and identifying your data-needs for setting up rules, offers you a?head start in knowing which product data you need and how your teams can?quickly convert or customize this data in well-performing campaigns – completely in line with your agency’s approach.

Dominate the endgame

Start with your output: what do you want to achieve and how do you want to do this? By knowing your endgame, you know which data you need to reach your goals – and how to instruct your client. Get your client to submit all the essential data to all columns and build a rock-solid feed.

And don’t forget to regularly check your rules. Maybe you’ve excluded new products in an earlier stage and you’re missing?out on precious visitors. By periodically controlling your rules and feeds – and in saying this we strongly advise to set a?monthly reminder for yourself – you know exactly what is happening. Just to be sure and completely up-to-speed on?new opportunities.

Don’t depend on developers

We’ve all been there. Every time you want to add a feed or expand Paid Search activities, you hit the wall that is called the web-developer. In digital marketing, speed and the ability to quickly seize opportunities help you optimize campaigns and improve performance. Luckily the days you were subject to the web-developers schedule are over.

A feed-management tool helps you?create a PPC strategy?built to last.?By bringing numerous datasources and feeds down to one powerful master feed, a feed- management tool is here to?help you grow and save time.

Increase the quality of your data by enriching the current data, setting up rules and merging them to meet the needs of relevant export platforms and keep your information automatically updated. Paid Search is a specialism. On all sides of the board.

Low prices lure large crowds

If your products are in demand, pricing often makes the?difference. Because let’s be honest: everybody is alwaysinterested in the best deals. Which is exactly why choosing an unconventional strategy could prove to be worth the risk.

Try running a test on your most inexpensive ads for a certain range or product category to increase traffic. When potential customers visit the website, offer them a variety of similar or?alternate products –?with improved quality and improved margins?– by using a product feed tool. The biggest gains??More traffic and a reduced CPC.

Back by popular demand

The most popular ads deserve added attention. The good thing about working with a ton of data is that you can get insights into almost anything.

A feed management tool summarizes the best performing ads, for example based on the last 7 days. By automating theseweekly check-ins, you can?automatically ‘air’ these ads?to a?relevant Google carousel by using Google Sheets – or even build an own script for maximizing airtime and visibility.

Always come out on top

The price is right! Everyone gets a kick out of getting their?desired product for the best price. And this offers you agolden opportunity to stand out. By developing a strategy for promotional products – or sale items – you can get ahead of your competitors without even knowing that you?offer the best price for a product.

By adding set rules, such as?discount rates, percentages and prices,?in the XML and master feed products areautomatically placed in the right category feed. With the right rules set you could show ads based on queries for a particular brand or product type,?making your ads even more custom and personalized.

Customers get the guaranteed best deal for their desired product and you have the upper hand in very competitive markets. And good to know: once the created strategy is fully automated and product prices, stocks and the duration of a promotional campaign are checked daily.

Be an early responder

The landscape of search and display ads is changing. With responsive search ads and responsive display ads on the rise, the use of responsive varieties is a must.?Google is?doubling down on automation and already announced that standard text-ads will no longer be available in the near future.

Instead, Google will not only compose the best performing ads based on five to ten variations of descriptions on its own,it will also select the?best-fitting image for ads.?So start testing with responsive search and responsive display, share your data and?make sure that Google is your Paid Search super-sidekick of the future.

Countdown timers trigger urgency

Did you know that customers are more motivated by the fear of missing out than the idea they buy something for the best price? Adding a little FOMO to your campaign can help you get in customers’ heads – without them even knowing.?Capitalizing on this psychological force is a useful trick to improve the performance of your campaigns and easy to add thanks to the?countdown timer.

By including a countdown in your campaigns, ads get just that bit?more personal?and add some?psychological pressure to take immediate action, ultimately boosting?click-through rates and conversions. Countdown timers are?easily customizable for every client or campaign and increase urgency.?After setting an end date in the headline or description, ads will include a real-time countdown making your campaigns?stand-out from competitors.

It’s a numbers game

Numbers play their part in online advertising. Especially when you want to reach a certain audience which knows exactly what they’re looking for.?Let’s say your client?specializes in plumbing parts or tools and supplies for electricians. These specific products often have a unique parts number.

The average customer mainly uses a broad or less specific query, where specialists and technicians know exactly whichpart or product they need.?By adding model numbers or serial numbers to your product feeds you immediately move up in the funnel, while also broadening the ad-range. Numbers improve numbers in a number of industries and areas.

Analyze your quality score

Everyone knows that a good quality score (QS) matters. The better your QS, the more Google and other platforms are happy to serve your campaigns and ads for the right price at the right position. To make sure your QS is up to your and market standards, apply quality score scripts.

These scripts track your QS over a longer period of time and indicate if your actions and optimizations are successful andwhat these efforts effectively bring to the table. Analyzing and?tracking scripts, as well as monitoring scripts that check for?account abnormalities, help you stay on top of performance.

Get on board the POAS train

Historically ROAS (Return On Ad Spend) has been the preferred and leading metric for the performance of campaigns. But more and more agencies are jumping on the?POAS train. Profit On Ad Spend is becoming the new way of?working in ecommerce metrics. And it’s coming fast.

POAS tells you exactly what your efforts bring to the business in regards to profit and income. Now that’s a KPIthat is worth its data in gold – or bitcoin.

By having a better understanding of how campaigns perform, you can prioritize products in the XML feed based on margins.?And better margins and increased revenues means happy clients.?Unrolling a POAS based approach starts with?selecting and identifying the categories or products that are?most promising to boost revenues. By filtering out the top- performing products based on margins and revenues you can?prioritize these products in the XML feed through adding the margin-value.

Converse conversions

To really make a difference– and show the added value of Paid Search campaigns – your first priority in working?with clients is all about working with the right data. You want to have something to show for.?By obtaining historical and current data in terms of conversions (sales) both offlineand online you have clear insights in focus products and popular items.

These insights are of great value when creating a PPC?strategy. And not just for what your efforts bring to the table, but also in?demonstrating additional results and sales opportunities your campaigns have provided to clients.?Results that often offer surprising and uncharted results in?product popularity or Search queries.

Make sure to build dashboards that help you illustrate and substantiate that your campaign is worth every euro or dollar spent. Be it in online sales or in encouraging customers to make a store visit.

Budget based branding

As we all know, advertising is all about balancing budgets. You want to reach your target audience, for instance by running ads for popular brands or products, without depleting your budget.

The best performing Paid Search campaign is based on finding the right mix between getting noticed in all the right places and utilizing your visibility by?displaying the products with the most viable margins?and generating more revenue.

To be successful,?‘keep on testing’ is the motto.?Yes, you have to pay top-dollar for certain campaigns but by managing your budget and keeping a close eye on revenues of products with attractive margins, you’re able to?forecast performance for marketing campaigns.?Especially when all your data is as?complete as possible, you can report high-quality forecast data to your customer – obviously subject to certain variables that?are just out of your control.

Master the master rules

Master rule groups are a feature that help?you create rules for every export channel. Create several groups and execute them for multiple exports. Very convenient if you need to apply changes for a number of different channels.?The master rules set rapidly becomes the backbone of your advertising feed?– and basically all?your Paid Search activities. The master rules are attached to various channels. By creating basic rules in the master set?you can apply changes to all generated campaigns and channels.

For instance: depending on the time of the year, shipping times can vary for clients.?Whether it’s a worldwide?(online) shopping frenzy such as Black Friday or when it’s that time of year and Christmas comes around.?You want your ads and campaigns to provide accurate information for customers.?When shipping takes longer than usual,?you can easily change this information?for all campaigns and channels by simply?modifying your master rules set.?Saving valuable time and massively reducing manual work.

Of course, some rules will be specific to certain channels based on specific requirements. Others might be needed for all exports in general.?Adding them to newly implemented master rule groups can be a true time-saver.

Use a feed management tool

The goals in ecommerce sound so simple, but are quite?hard to tackle in such a highly competitive field: reach your target audience, drive traffic to your online shop, and make?your products or services visible are just some challenges every online marketer is facing.

Feed management can support you in facing these challenges and equips you for a future where advertising and sellingonline can be done more effectively.?Increasing return on investment (ROI) and boosting Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).?Take text and shopping ads to the next level by utilizing your?product feed to create thousands of automated campaigns, ad-groups, ads, and keywords.

Double down on data-quality

Clients often provide incomplete or unclear data for product feeds. If you manage to do feed management the correct way you will increase the quality of your data feed as well as experience a greater ease to meet the exact needs of relevant export platforms.

Feed management allows you to organize products and automatically update product information in various formats, matching all requirements of price comparison sites,?marketplaces and affiliate networks, which in the end helps to facilitate accurate advertising as well as optimizing customers’?experience and expectations.?For a healthier feed, accurate advertising and an optimal presentation of products to reach the largest audience.

Create relevant and unique ads

A PPC tool offers many advantages, such as generating?relevant and distinctive ads, and helps?minimizing manual work.?The added entry options allow you to fully focus on all your items, optimizing ads with?powerful entries?and easily generate automated campaigns, ad-groups, ads and keywords.?Increasing relevance while limiting manual work.

User generated content

No better advertisement than a happy customer. Applying user generated content in ads boosts engagement and increases your shopping experience. In particular clients?with a large social following or presence can benefit fromthis personal and relatable way of advertising.

YellowGrape developed a tool that?automatically messages users that post a picture or story, wearing, applying or using products of their customers.?After consent of the customer, the tool shows generated product ads on prospect level and creates?highly personalized and relevant ads in a genuine environment.

Final Thoughts

The online market is rapidly shifting towards an economy of scale and niches. Either you’re one of the biggest or you operate within a niche. The bigger marketplaces are taking over. Make more to earn more. But, there will always be opportunities for SMEs who?have something unique to offer.