We have several articles where we talk about whether Google Ads for Online Stores is the right choice for your business.
If you are interested in Google Ads and want to launch a campaign (or have already launched one), this article will lay out the prerequisites you need before you get started.
Business planning for an online store
Essential things before creating a Google Ads campaign
Essentially.. we forbid you (with love) from creating Google Ads campaigns until you secure the following six elements:
- Budget for monthly expenses
- 90 days to prove the concept
- Website with product feed
- Unique selling proposition
- Products in stock, rather than single items
Budget for monthly expenses
Think of your monthly budget at the beginning as an investment.
You are buying data you need to understand what works and what does not, and where to make changes - for a reasonable period of time.
With this investment, Google will start building an audience specifically for you, which you will benefit from later. And it will be worth it! You *must* have a large enough ad budget to gather enough accurate data for testing and future optimization.
For example.. we will not start working with a client whose budget is under 800 BGN/month.
Budget under 800 BGN per month? Wait until your means are large enough for you to afford it.
Google is a learning algorithm. The first three months will be the most "painful" part of your campaigns, which brings us to the next requirement:
90 days to prove the concept
It is worth repeating that Google is a learning machine. Learning takes time.
In fact, we are asking Google to perform quite an impressive behavioral analysis.
Once you set up your campaign, Google learns:
When customers interact with your ads
How many times users click on your ads
Which location is appealing and people click on those ads
How long it takes for the prospect visitor to return to the site
Through which channels they return
Which products and pages they view
Once Google has all this data, it determines how many other potential customers match the same behavior pattern and follow a similar cycle.
So, for a 15-day sales cycle (which means it took 15 days from the moment the customer first clicked your ad to the moment they made a purchase), you may need to wait a full month before you start seeing sales. It takes a full month for Google to start collecting data for testing and optimization.
By day 90, you will have enough data to understand whether the campaign works long term or not.
Website with product feed
This may sound obvious, but here goes:
Your ads will send potential customers to your site. Therefore, you need an attractive, easy-to-navigate website packed with tools such as Google Product Feed, Google Conversion Tracking and Google Analytics.
Do not forget that your "product feed" is much more than a CSV file with product titles, descriptions, GTIN codes and prices.
For online stores, the product feed is fundamentally important and determines the success of your campaign.
When it comes to platforms, especially those that integrate with Google Ads, WordPress is our favorite.
A large enough margin to fund your ads
Launching ad campaigns costs money. Do your profit margins allow you to fund those campaigns?
Look, you can have a 100% profit margin, but if you are selling products for 2 BGN, the campaigns may not be profitable.
In other words, your products need to have a sufficiently high price (with a profit margin); otherwise, you will have to rely on customers adding more products to their cart.
Unique selling proposition
The more saturated the market is, the harder it will be to win with Google Ads. So what makes you different?
And *um* being the cheapest option is not the answer.
Think about your favorite products: what makes them your favorites? What are your rules for purchase and shipping, product returns and payment? Product quality? The materials used?
Your unique selling proposition is key to the success of your campaigns - especially longevity and traffic return. After all, it is six times cheaper to sell to an existing customer than to a new one.
No single-item products
If you have personalized products (for example, products customized with engravings, colors, greeting text or photos), this is not specifically for you.
When it comes to one-time offers, Google Ads will not work.
To be clear.. one-time offers refer to products you can sell only once.
Here is the problem:
When you make a sale through Google Ads, Google's job is to try to recreate every cycle. It is a learning machine!
Since you have a product that you can sell only once, Google has no way to recreate that process.
Google uses GTIN to identify and categorize products; when you sell the single product (single GTIN), that code disappears forever (bye-bye, valuable data).
Do you make handmade products?
Think about creating multiple copies of the same type and simply acknowledge that they may differ slightly in design due to the nature of handmade production.
Your first sale is always the most expensive one in Google Ads. You do not want every sale to be the first one.
Business planning and Google Ads advertising for online stores
Now, assuming you have all six mandatory items sorted, here are five important but not mandatory elements you should keep in mind:
- Multiple SKUs
- Product financing
- Strong lifetime value
- Lifestyle images
- Existing traffic from purchases
Multiple SKUs for "liked" products is a super idea.
Here is what we mean:
If a customer says, I need product A.
You have product A - and 10,000 versions of it (different colors or designs), it is much more likely that your customer will buy more than one unit; in this way, the average purchase value will increase.
Product financing
Payment and product financing options such as Affirm and Zip.comade it possible for customers to make smaller payments over several weeks instead of one large upfront payment.
These options led to a big jump in purchases and order value, especially among sellers of higher-priced products. The most interesting part? You receive the full amount upfront!
Add product financing options to your site as soon as possible.
Lifetime value (LTV)
Knowing each customer's LTV (Life-Time-Value) and how many purchases they make on average within a year allows you to set lower ROAS targets and higher targets for your CPA. That means you can scale and grow your business faster.
For example, if your average cart value is 100 BGN, but customers usually buy three times within 12 months, the average value becomes 300 BGN..
Lifestyle images
This type of imagery (i.e. images of your product "in action" and used by people in everyday life) allows your customers to visualize how to use your product.
Existing traffic
If you have existing traffic (from social media or email lists, for example), Google uses this information to find matches within its own ecosystem/user base.
In other words, instead of starting from scratch, existing traffic gives Google some guidance that helps it reach the right people.
Business planning for online stores: Offer design
Who is your customer?
Can you describe your product to a stranger?
Ultimately, customers do not buy products - they buy feelings, results and solutions.
What your customer has (or does not have) before buying your product - and what they gain after they do.
How do they feel before your product — and how do they feel afterward?
How does your company make people feel?
If marketing is what makes people buy, a brand is what makes people stay - even if there are other similar ones nearby.
If you do all of the above, you will have the perfect foundation for building a strong brand.
Optimize your existing products
Let's make sure your products and offers are as valuable as possible. There are three ways to achieve this:
Increase actual value
We are not talking about raising the price of your products here.
Instead, think about how you can get customers to buy more from you. There are several ways to do this:
Bundles! If you have two products that usually go together, offer them as a bundle at a discounted price. You increase the value the customer gets, but you also increase your profitability.
Of course, the price is "discounted," but you save money on shipping and fulfillment while increasing your cart value.
Subscriptions! For consumable products (or any other products that can be bought repeatedly), consider offering a subscription-based model that guarantees repeat purchases.
We have seen firsthand how some subscription models have the same acquisition cost as a one-time purchase.
One-click upsell!
When a customer makes a payment, offer products that can be easily added to their cart with one click.
Increase visual value
Do not underestimate the power of descriptions and images.
Here is something interesting: online shoppers are at a disadvantage because they cannot tangibly see and feel products the way they would in a physical store. However, this can be a great opportunity for you to stand out.
Give the viewer a complete virtual experience of your product: describe the benefits of your products, not just the features. Show your product in action with lifestyle images so users can visualize themselves using it. Describe the product in a clear and easy-to-understand way.
Perceived value is more valuable than actual value.
That is the reason they buy.
Additional benefits
Likewise, think about any additional creative ways you can add value to your products. This can take the form of extra content (think product demos, how-to videos, and tutorials), building a community around your product through social media and forums, or early access to purchase.
Growth and optimization models
Once you start attracting more customers and sales, here are a few ways to optimize your growth:
✔️ Never stop selling
It has been proven (scientifically!) that people are in different states of mind when making a purchase and when deciding whether they want to buy.
Customers are likely to buy another product immediately after purchasing something because they are in a "buying" state.
Take advantage of this window!
Give customers multiple opportunities to add products based on their initial purchase.
✔️ Build your email list / email marketing
When it comes to e-commerce, email has the potential to bring in more money than any other marketing channel.
Honestly, you do not want to spend a lot on paid traffic forever (Google Ads and the like)! Email marketing is one of the most affordable marketing channels.
Need to collect more email addresses from your audience?
✔️ Loyal customers
It is more expensive to acquire new customers than to sell to existing ones. Take advantage of that.
✔️ Build social proof
Customers buy from brands they trust. Social proof has the power to attract new customers. Do not be afraid to ask your customers for recommendations and reviews.
In short, that is everything you need to know before launching a campaign for your e-commerce store in Google Ads.
Click here to contact us regarding:
- If you would like us to create a Google Ads campaign for your business
- Optimization of existing Google Ads campaigns. We will find opportunities you did not suspect.
- Optimization of your website to increase sales.
