It’s easier than ever to start an eCommerce store. There are apps and plugins that can take care of just about anything you need. While that can mean that it’s easier to succeed online, it also means that there is more competition in eCommerce. So what can your eCommerce business do to stand-out in a highly competitive field? We recommend Google Ads. Your competition is likely already advertising, so let’s look at how you can effectively leverage Google Ads to beat your competitors.
How Google Ads Can Set You Apart From The eCommerce Competition
Having optimized Google Ads can mean that your products are the first thing a consumer sees when searching for related keywords. They will show ahead of unoptimized Google Ads and organic search results. So it’s important that you’re not only advertising in Google but that your ads are set up to make the most of it.
Google Shopping Ads
eCommerce retailers can get ahead of the competition with Google Shopping Ads. Google Shopping Ads allow retailers to show their products to consumers searching for the products they sell. Consumers will see the product image, price, title and description. The ads show if a search term matches the product titles and descriptions in your shopping feed. Ensuring that your titles and descriptions match the way people search is essential in making sure that your Shopping Ads appear ahead of the competition. Smart Shopping Ads also allow you to remarket and prospect to prospective customers with product based banner ads on the Google Display Network.
Google Search Ads
Google Search Ads allow eCommerce businesses to appear ahead of their competition in the Google Search listings. If correctly optimised, retailers are able to appear at the top of search results with a text ad that details their product, service, brand or unique selling propositions to encourage a click. Search Ads can target any keyword that you want to show for but making sure your product/service and ad are relevant to the search is essential in appearing at the top of the results page. We do not recommend targeting keywords that include your competitors brand name. Your competitors’ ads will be far more relevant to these search terms which will result in high costs for you and a lower ad position.
Google Display Ads
Display Ads can help eCommerce businesses increase brand awareness among consumers with an interest in their industry. Along with allowing you to display banners to people who have been searching for relevant keywords, you can also target consumers that have been on your competitors websites. eCommerce advertisers can create Custom Intent and Custom Affinity audiences targeting URLs. This allows you to get your brand and products in front of your competitors customers.
Optimisations To Appear Above Your eCommerce Competition on Google
As mentioned above, you don’t just need to be in Google Ads to beat the competition, you need to be optimised. So let’s look at what you can do in Google Shopping & Search to give you the best chance of outranking the rest.
Google Shopping Ads
Optimizing a Google Shopping feed is the most tangible action you can take to improve your ranking among your competitors in Google Shopping. The more relevant your feed, and as such shopping ads, are to searches, the more likely your ads are to appear. There are many steps you can take to optimize your Shopping feed attributes but the best place to start is with your product titles.
The title of your Ad can let consumers know about your product’s specifications i.e the brand, size and colour. Being as descriptive as possible allows you to appear for all relevant searches. Whether or not you show for a search will be down to what’s included in your product title. For example, if there are two Shopping ads for the same dress, one has the title “Orange Pleated Maxi Dress Size 14” and another “Summer Dress”, the more descriptive ad is more likely to match to specific search terms ahead of simpler competition.
Google Search Ads
The most tangible action you can take to improve your Google Search Ad ranking is to optimize your Google Quality Score. If your Quality Score is high and your budget and bid strategy is correct, you will give yourself the best opportunity to get relevant clicks, and appear above the competition.
Your ad quality is made up of three important metrics;
To improve ad relevance on your focus Google Ads keywords you need to split them into single keyword ad groups. A single keyword ad group is exactly as it sounds; within your campaign, ensure you have a separate ad group for every keyword you are targeting. The ads showing within the ad group will always be relevant to the search terms matching to your respective keyword; taking ad relevance out of the equation.
Exp. CTR% requires you to create ad copy and extensions that encourage a user to click your ad. If your products are price competitive, include your price in your ad. If you have competitive USPs such as free shipping or free returns, look to include that in your copy. Also remember to include sitelink extensions, callout extensions, promotion extensions and structured snippets that show a consumer what they can get from your store.
With Exp. CTR% there’s an inevitable element of trial and error. Analyse what headlines and descriptions are driving a higher click through rate and optimise towards those.
Doing this for a handful of keywords should be relatively simple. Doing this for websites with 1000s of keywords and a changing inventory every day? Well it’s just about impossible. That’s where Dynamic Creative’s software can help. Read more about our Google Search Ads Management plans to understand how we optimise Search Ads at scale.
Other Tools To Beat Your eCommerce Competition
Auction insights
Auction insights are a tool within Google Ads to help eCommerce retailers understand where their ads sit among their competitors. You can find auction insights under campaigns or ad groups in Google Ads. At the top of the page switch from campaigns/ad groups to the auction insights tab. Here you can find stats such as ad impression share and how often your ads were at the top of the search results page.
This allows you to see who you’re up against for the keywords you’re targeting; letting you know where you might need to make optimisations to improve your ad position. As mentioned, you can target URLs with your Google Display ads so having an understanding of related businesses can help your ad targeting.
Merchant Center Tools: Best Sellers & Price Comparison Tool
Google Merchant Center offers several tools to help eCommerce retailers grow their business. You can use these tools to stay competitive and ensure you match the competition.
Best Sellers Report
The ‘Best Sellers Report’ in Merchant Center provides a list of top products & brands for certain industry categories. It also allows retailers to see if they have top performing products in their feed and in stock.
By giving you this information, the tool allows online retailers to identify product gaps and expand their inventory. This will also help retailers identify priorities for restocking products. eCommerce businesses advertising in Google Shopping will be able to get a leg up on their competition with industry statistics on what their customers are buying. This will also help advertisers correctly identify priority products and categories in their Google Shopping Ads.
You can find the best sellers report under ‘Growth’ on the left-hand-side panel of your Google Merchant Center dashboard.
Price Competitiveness Report
Under the growth tab in Google Merchant Center, you can also find a Price Competitiveness Report. This tool helps eCommerce retailers improve their website’s competitiveness in a similar fashion to the Best Sellers Report. Here, users can see how their prices stack up to the industry benchmark on eligible products.
Google uses GTINs to create a benchmark price for certain products in any given country. This will allow users to compare their prices to the industry standard and if possible, lower them.
Final Word: Competition in eCommerce
Staying competitive in eCommerce is difficult but Google Ads provides a platform for retailers to be able to. The key thing to staying competitive in Google Ads is staying relevant to the customer. If you can match a customer’s needs through your advertising, better than your competitors can, you’re going to get more traffic, a better ad position and as a result, more sales.
Make sure that you’re advertising in Google and are optimised to be visible to consumers that are actually searching for the products you sell.
