A presentation on how ecommerce websites can maximise revenue and ROI from pay per click campaigns by Ann Stanley, MD of Anicca Digital

1. @annstanley

2. @annstanley
Winning PPC tactics for
ecommerce websites
by
Ann Stanley
March 2013

3. @annstanley
Agenda
1. Google results – what the searcher sees?
2. Shopping results and Product Listing Ads
3. Ad Extensions
4. Location and call extensions
5. New enhanced ads
6. Remarketing and other ad formats
7. Tracking and reporting
8. Optimising for Revenue and ROI

4. @annstanley
Ecommerce landscape
On-site Sales
On-site sales
Sales from Search from other sources
marketing
(Email, affiliates, display ads, social,
(PPC, SEO, mobile, shopping comparison,
Merchant Centre) voucher sites)
Conversion optimisation
Other
Shopping platforms off-site sales
& market places
(Social, Mobile, drop shipping,
(Amazon, eBay) daily deals sites)
Off-site Sales

5. @annstanley
1) Google results –
what the searcher sees?

6. @annstanley
Google results for [luggage]
Product Listing
Pay per click ads
ads
Local business
listings
Organic or
natural search Pay per click
results ads

7. @annstanley
2) Shopping results and
Product Listing Ads

8. @annstanley
Summary of different shopping results in Google
Keywords =
Samsonite luggage
Organic shopping
results AdWords Products Map and
Product Listing ads
ad extension Local listings
(Merchant Centre)

9. @annstanley
Shopping results

10. @annstanley
Product extensions
• Product extensions adds product description
and price to a normal ad
• Just link each campaign to your Merchant
Centre
• Only appears in top 3 and rarely shown

11. @annstanley
Examples of Product Listing Ads

12. @annstanley
Setting up Product Listing ads
1. Live Merchant Centre Account with active feed from your
product database
2. Add your AdWords ID into Merchant Centre
3. Within AdWords link each campaign to Merchant Centre using
Product extensions section of Ad Extensions tab
4. Create a campaign just for PLA
5. Create ad groups for each product category or brand - during
this process you will need to select the ad type of “product
listing ad” but you do not need to select any keyphrases
6. For each ad group create a target in the Autotarget tab, this
must relate to the content of your original database or CSV file
uploaded to Merchant Centre

13. @annstanley
Product listing ads - Autotargets

14. @annstanley
See search terms that triggered PLA

15. @annstanley
Dynamic search ads
• Can be used in addition to PLA ads e.g. when
you do not have a Merchant Centre account
• Create campaign and ad groups to target a
specific category or section of your site
• Create dynamic ads on Ads tab
• Use Autotarget tab to target by Title tag,
Category, URL or page content

16. @annstanley
Creating Dynamic Search ads

17. @annstanley
3) Ad Extensions

18. @annstanley
Use of ad extensions?
Pros Cons
• Makes your ad stand out • Appears <10% of the time
• More information for user • Some only appear in top 3
• Users more likely to click on positions e.g. Sitelinks
your ad (probably the • Can cause bid inflation
headline)
• Achieve higher click through
rate (CTR) and Quality Score

19. @annstanley
Ad Extensions - Sitelinks

20. @annstanley
Social extensions

21. @annstanley
App extensions (mobile and tablets)

22. @annstanley
Communication extension – beta test
• Most advertisers do not have access to this
extension, because it is still in beta

23. @annstanley
Star rating (not an extension!)

24. @annstanley
4) Location and call extensions

25. @annstanley
Localised results

26. @annstanley
Local listings

27. @annstanley
Local listing (in Google+)

28. @annstanley
Call and location extensions

29. @annstanley
Click to call

30. @annstanley
Call Extension data

31. @annstanley
5) New Enhanced Ads

32. @annstanley
Enhanced ads
Before After
Devices Separate campaigns, with Combined campaign – use bid
separate budgets, bids, ads, modifiers to turn mobile bids up or
URLs and keyphrases down
No control over desktops and
Tablets (combined campaign only)
Bid inflation expected
Geo-targeting Separate campaigns for each Combined – but easy bid modifier
target area for each location
Scheduling Turn campaign on and off (15 Combines time and bid adjustment
mins) with bid modifiers with results screen
Sitelinks Simple to set-up at campaign Additional control – e.g. ad groups
level and mobiles
Data lost when links changed Additional and saved reports
Offer ad Not available Create offer for use in store
extension

33. @annstanley
Mobile campaigns
• Simpler to set-up but:
– Can’t have separate campaigns for each
device
– Only manage the bid for mobiles, less
control of other aspects e.g. ad, URL etc…
– Lack of control e.g. for mobile only
websites, tablet specific campaigns
– Expected to lead to bid inflation, as
everyone is forced to use mobile

34. @annstanley
Bidding by device and results

35. @annstanley
Bids by location (on settings tab)

36. @annstanley
Scheduling – new format

37. @annstanley
Schedule details

38. @annstanley
Sitelinks
• Flexibility: can be added at ad group level
• More detailed reporting: Find out the number of clicks that occurred on any
part of your ad, every time an individual Sitelink appeared. Break down the
statistics by campaign, ad group or ad.
• Data retention: Edit your Sitelink extension without resetting its performance
statistics.
• Customised Sitelinks for mobile
• Scheduling with start and end dates

39. @annstanley
Offer extension

40. @annstanley
6) Remarketing and
other ad formats

41. @annstanley
Remarketing in AdWords (aka stalking)

42. @annstanley
Remarketing results

43. @annstanley
Remarketing results
Client 1 Client 2 Client 3 Client 4
View- Conv. View- Conv. Conv. View- Conv. View- Conv.
Conv. (1- through rate (1- Conv. (1- through rate (1- (1-per- through rate (1- Conv. (1- through rate (1-
Campaign per-click) Conv. per-click) per-click) Conv. per-click) click) Conv. per-click) per-click) Conv. per-click)
TOTAL 445 84 1.7% 2833 220 2.57% 559 118 2.44% 862 1716 1.06%
Brand 39 0 6.7% 413 0 8.99% 433 0 5.13% - - -
Remarketing 9 84 2.3% 54 215 3.11% 15 118 1.34% 179 1716 3.06%
Competitors - - - 216 0 2.01% - - - 184 0 1.88%
Vouchers 29 0 15.26%
• Remarketing in Google is on a CPC basis but its success has pushed the prices up (one
account has increased from 78p to £1.38 in a year)
• Retargeting is also available outside of Google via ad-serving networks or Demand
Side Platforms (DSP) – mainly sold on a CPM basis
• Facebook have just launched Facebook Exchange in the UK (via a limited number of
distributors) - offering Retargeting and Behavioural targeting on a CPM basis

44. @annstanley
Promoted video and YouTube ads

45. @annstanley
Video campaigns in AdWords interface

46. @annstanley
7) Tracking and reporting

47. @annstanley
Tracking in AdWords
• Make sure all buyers are automatically returned from the
payment gateway to a ‘thank you’ page on your site
• PPC conversion tracking code should be added on your
‘thank you’ page
• Use Dynamic PPC conversions code to bring in sales value
• Track both “1 conversion per click” and “Many
conversions per click”
• Link your accounts so Analytics data is imported into
AdWords (bounce rate, time on site, pages per visit, %
new visitors)
• Use of imported Goals for other conversions e.g. Calls,
Event tracking (e.g. downloads or video plays)

48. @annstanley
Dynamic PPC script
with conversion value
The actual field used will
depend on your shopping
cart and the program used
to write your ecommerce
software e.g. php

49. @annstanley
Campaign data in AdWords

50. @annstanley
Conversions Attribution –
top paths leading to a sale
Assisted click – in conversion path
Last click before a conversion

51. @annstanley
Integration of channels
(last click vs. assisted click)

52. @annstanley
Search funnel data in AdWords

53. @annstanley
Call tracking & optimisation
• Phone tracking software is now available to determine
the keywords that triggered a phone call from your
website
• Ideal for sites where conversions are also taken over
the phone as well as online
• Dynamic code is added to your website, which
generates unique phone numbers every visit
• If the number is called it is redirected to your normal
phone number, with the option to record the call
• The users’ referral data is sent to the tracking software
and a virtual page is fired and tracked in Analytics
• A Goal can be set-up in Analytics and imported back
into AdWords to allow “Call Optimisation”

54. @annstanley
Goals in Analytics and
Conversion data in AdWords

55. @annstanley
8) Optimisation for
Revenue and ROI

56. @annstanley
Managing PPC – what’s important?
• Campaign set-up – granular structure with thousands of target keyphrases. Use of
campaign settings such as devices and geo-targeting to increase relevancy and
Quality Score
• Quality Score – Google’s measure of relevancy – it affects your position and how
much you pay (e.g. QS of 8/10 you pay half as compared with 4/10)
• Click through rate – use ad extensions to make them more relevant and stand out,
pause phrases and ads with a CTR below 1%, otherwise this drags down your QS
• Position and bidding – you may have to bid lower (cost per click) and settle for
position 3-6 to avoid the bidding war of position 1-3, where the CPC will be too
high!
• Conversion rates – use of landing pages and ad testing to maximise conversion
rates
• Cost per acquisition (CPA) – most sites have a typical conversion rate of 1%. Your
cost per sale (or lead) will be 100 x your cost per click – how much is a sale worth
to you?
• Revenue and ROI – optimising for revenue and ROI is normally the primary
objective of ecommerce websites (as compared to conversion rates and CPA)

57. @annstanley
Cost & Revenue data in AdWords

58. @annstanley
Cost & Revenue data in Analytics

59. @annstanley
ROI on Clicks tab (Analytics)

60. @annstanley
New cost comparison data in Analytics

61. @annstanley
Designed for importing other
advertising costs e.g. MSN

62. @annstanley
AdWords example

63. @annstanley
Summary
• Google has more new features to help advertisers maximise their clicks and
conversions
• Google Shopping will shortly be paid results only!
– Product Listing ads (PLA) are the main method to display shopping results
– PLA conversion rates are high but CPC is increasing (big brands dominate)
– Dynamic search ads do not stand out as much, there is limited control and are less
effective
• Ad extensions allow advertisers to augment their ads with extra information:
– Making ads stand out - encouraging click throughs (CTR)
– Some only displayed in top 3 positions and usually <10% of impressions
• Local presence (Google+ page) and mobile ads are also important – but the
new enhanced campaigns have received a mixed response!
• Remarketing (stalking) continues to be effective but bid inflation has now
made traditional contextual Display too expensive
• Integration between AdWords and Analytics (and dynamic conversion
tracking); now allow easier optimisation based on revenue and ROI

64. @annstanley
Thank You
Ann Stanley
@annstanley
ann@anicca.co.uk
www.anicca.co.uk