Running ads to offers on your ecom store really does a lot of heavy lifting for your brand. Using the likes of Google’s network (Search ads, Shopping ads on Youtube ads), can really accelerate the growth of your brand.
These traffic sources offer a huge amount of customers for the things you sell. Using these platforms correctly can deliver more branding, more customers and even help to build out your brand’s lifetime value of your customers.
But here’s the thing…
These platforms are complicated and need nurturing when running campaigns. You have to look at the data you are receiving from your campaigns and find out what areas of your sales funnel is performing and under-performing.
Developing solutions to problems is key and knowing what to do saves your campaign time and money.
In today’s case study, I want to go over a problem we faced with an ad on Google search and what we did to correct that problem.
Problem Within The Campaign
This particular brand sells alcohol from their online store. They are based in Singapore. The issue with the campaign was that the ad we used to drive traffic was receiving low click through rates. Ie. The ad wasn’t attracting enough clicks to the site.
This also resulted in high cost per clicks. The ad wasn’t getting enough clicks to the site… and the visitors it was acquiring were coming in at a cost higher than we would have desired. So we were faced with two issues.
What Did We Do To Correct This Issue?
In order to fix this problem with the ad, we had to test other variables in order to improve the clickthrough rate (CTR) of the ad, which would also result in lowering the cost per click (CPC’s). Google rewards advertisers that have a good performing account and history with lower CPC’s when ads generate a good CTR over time.. This is because you’re delivering a good user experience with your ad if it’s getting clicked on consistently from your target audience.
So…
We changed the Ad headlines and Descriptions. We tested different offers like “free delivery”, “extended delivery timings”, “product sale” related offers and offers on “bulk purchase”. We also tried different ad types.
What Results Did We Achieve By Taking These Actions on The Campaign?
We tested responsive ads and different expanded ads. We received CTR as high as 40% and different ads resulted in different cost per acquisitions (CPA’s). We kept the best ad running and tested new ads with winning ads.
Why Was This Hypothesis a Success?
If truth be told… even with a good understanding of your market, sometimes you don’t always know for sure what offer you advertise can hit a nerve with your target audience.
Thats why its so important to test offers, adcopy and even creatives (if you need to use them). It’s always advised by Google and Facebook to create at least 3-4 ads per ad group/adset and test their performance. This way the Ad platforms get an opportunity to test various ads and target audiences over a period of time and focus on the best performing ads.
What Would We Do Next Time To Get Better Results On The CTR?
We recommend that it’s always best to test different offers and USPs along with different ad types like dynamic keywords insertion ads, responsive ads and general expanded text ads to test in terms of CTR, CPC and cost per acquisition (CPA).
You need to test this for a reasonable period of say one month and then keep the best performing ads and test them against the new ads (control and treatment) with new headlines, new ad types and new offers.
Testing these elements during festive and seasonal periods like Mother’s day, Valentines day, Christmas etc will help to figure out more reasons why people click on your ad and drive the right type of targeted traffic to your offers with the end goal of making that all important sales conversion.
Ads are just one part of your sales funnel when driving traffic via ad platforms. You need to make sure your landing pages and cart/check out pages are optimized to help you deliver a smooth sales experience for your prospects and customers.
At the end of the day… it’s your ad from a traffic platform that garners your target audience’s interest. If you don’t have enough visitors to your sales funnel, you’ll find it hard to generate sales. The ad is the first element in your sales funnel that prequalifies your prospect/customer. Its job is to influence them on making a decision to purchase with you. Getting your visitor excited about what you offer and moving them from point “A” (Ad) to point “B” (your landing page)
Your product pages, shopping cart and checkout process are just as important and need to be congruent with each other so that you offer a smooth sales experience for your visitor.
