10 tips for new online store advertising in Google

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amasty

10 min readFeb 25, 2022

Say you have just started your e-commerce business. Congratulations! But what to do next? You need to promote it somehow to attract first customers. SEO usually takes several months to start getting first results, and paid advertising (PPC) can help your business to become noticeable on the market.

There are many advertising systems that you can use to promote your store, but Google Ads stands out the most. Over 80% of businesses worldwide trust Google Ads, and people are 4 times more likely to click ads on Google compared to other ad networks. Google Ads is quite flexible and allows you to catch almost any audience. However, there are some businesses to what this ad network won’t suit, for example:

Innovative products without formed demand. Say you invented hi-tech sneakers for swimming. People just don’t know about your product yet, so they don’t google it. In this case, it’s better to work with influencers and spread the word about your product on social networks.
Niche products with a very narrow target audience, for example, if you are selling software for insurance companies. These products have a very small search volume, and if you use more popular keywords, for instance, insurance, you will spend a lot of money showing your ad to an irrelevant audience.
Products or businesses that are subject to Google restrictions. Some products are not allowed to be promoted via Google Ads. After promoting sex toys, fireworks, weapons, politics, some types of medicine and food, your account can be banned by google.
Very small local businesses. For example, if you sell some handmade earrings, it may be just too expensive to use Google Ads. I recommend you consider other promotion tools like social networks and ads there.

So if your business doesn’t fall under any of these categories, let’s dive in and see what you need to keep in mind while working on your first Google Ads campaign.

#1. Set up detailed analytics

Before starting any campaign, you need to prepare your Google Analytics account, check if it works correctly, and connect it with GAds. Thus, you will be able to track your ads performance and be sure you spend money effectively.

Here are the main steps on how to do it:

Yes, I know this process requires a lot of time and patience, but you need to do it only once. And, what is more important, without all these actions, any advertising campaign will be senseless because you want to be able to see results. Running an advertising campaign without analytics is like trying to find a black cat in a dark room.

#2. Check your website performance

Another thing you need to do before launching any advertising is test your website. No matter what ad settings you choose if users will leave your website because it has bugs or loads slowly. Test your website speed and click through the checkout process to make sure it is simple and convenient. Think about any potential stoppers that can scare away your potential customers.

#3. Start your Google advertising with a Search or Shopping campaign

There are many different types of advertising available in your GAds account. But for your first-ever Google Ads campaign, I recommend choosing between Search and Shopping campaign types.

Google Search Ads

This is the oldest and the most popular type of advertising. These ads are displayed on the search results page, and here is what it looks like:

Google uses the following algorithm to show your ad:

You choose keywords you want to target and set your bid for clicks
Based on the combination of factors, including bid, quality of your website and ad, Google prioritizes ads
Google shows your ad to people that you these or similar keywords in their search queries
You pay for every user that clicks on your ad (Pay-per-click model)

Here is the guide on how to create a Search campaign in Google Ads.

I want to highlight 2 important points about this type of campaign:

Search Campaigns are based on keywords, so the results mostly depend on how thoughtful you choose them.
When you configure your first campaign, make sure that the Search Network checkbox is selected and the Display Network is disabled. Otherwise, your ad will be also shown in the GDN, and spend more money:

Google Shopping Ads

And the second type of Google Ads campaign I would recommend to new e-commerce businesses is Shopping Ads. This type of ad helps you draw attention to specific products in your store. Here is what it looks like:

This type of campaign will be especially helpful if you have a big store with a large number of different products in the catalog.

Unlike Search ads, Shopping campaigns base their algorithms on product data instead of keywords. You need to upload product information like prices, SKUs, and images to the Google Merchant Center. Google will analyze this data and match a user’s search to your product ads.

Here is the guide on how to create a Shopping campaign in Google Ads.

#4. Define your budget

The most popular question regarding paid ads is how much is enough to spend on ads, and sadly, it’s the one that is the hardest one to answer. Your daily and monthly budgets depend on multiple factors, including your marketing strategy and profitability. Luckily, you can set a fixed amount of daily budget for every campaign you launch, so Google won’t be able to spend all your money at once. Don’t be scared if one day you’ll notice that Google has spent more than the defined daily budget. According to Google rules, your monthly budget can’t be higher than your daily budget multiplied by 30.4:

I recommend starting with a daily budget of US$10 to US$50 and checking how your campaign is performing. If the budget you set is too low, you will see the Limited by Budget status. This means that this amount is not enough for the whole day, and your campaign was stopped at some point. The system will recommend the needed sum, but it is not able to change it automatically. Also, you can use Performance Planner and Keyword Planner tools in your Google Ads account to get a general idea about your potential budget.

#5. Choose relevant keywords

Keywords are the basis of Search campaigns’ success. To find keywords, Google offers a built-in Keyword Planner. You can find it in your GAds account in the Tools and Settings. The keyword planner has 2 main options: Start with keywords and Start with a website:

I recommend using both of them. The Start with keywords option will help you find synonyms to your main keywords. And the Start with a website option allows you to enter your competitors’ websites and get keywords based on this information. It’s important to mention that you need to use specific catalog pages instead of the homepage.

Keep in mind that your keywords shouldn’t be very general. If you are not sure about some specific keywords, just google it and check what types of information google shows you. If you see how-to guides, blog articles, videos, FAQs, etc., it means that such keywords have a lower potential to bring you first buyers. For example:

“iPhone 13” is a general keyword. We don’t know what kind of information users are looking for
“buy iPhone 13 pro max” is a much more precise keyword because we understand that the user wants to buy this smartphone.

#6. Add negative keywords

If you want to cut off unnecessary traffic and irrelevant queries(for example if you noticed irrelevant keywords in the Keyword Planner), you can use negative keywords when creating your campaign. Unlike default keywords, they guarantee that your ad won’t be shown for requests with these words. There are 2 types of the most common negative keywords:

General like guide, manual, example, salary, intern
Field-specific, for example, there is Magento — an e-commerce platform, and magenta the color

Also, there are pre-made lists of such keywords, but you need to double-check them before using them.

#7. Don’t start with broad keyword match type

At the moment, there are 3 types of keyword matches in Google Ads:

Broad
Phrase
Exact

The wider the match type, the more synonyms and similar meanings of this keyword Google will use. It’s important to understand that the Exact match option doesn’t mean that the query will be equal to the keyword. You still will get some synonyms.

Even though Google recommends using the Broad match type, I would not recommend launching the first campaign with a broad match type. There is a chance that until the Google algorithms understand which queries suit you best, you will waste a lot of time and money.

#8. Start with manual bidding

Following the trend on process automation, Google offers several automated bid strategies:

These strategies can be extremely useful, but they require a lot of data about past campaigns for successful work. If you start with automated bidding right away, you risk losing money on machine learning. Some experts recommend using automated bidding when you have at least 15 conversions for the last 30 days. The more conversion you have, the faster algorithms will learn.

I recommend starting with manual bidding. This way, you will have more control over the ad campaign, and you can be calm about the amount of money spent. You can even use highly competitive keywords. Just set the same bid for all the keywords. Then, you will see what rate the system recommends. Keywords with a low bid will receive the Below first page bid status:

However, you will still get impressions for keys with Below First Page Bid, only in a smaller volume.

#9. Set the locations targeting

Say you have worldwide shipping. Does it mean you need to show your ad globally? No. It’s better to choose several regions that are the most valuable for you. Even if you don’t have statistics yet, just think about where your potential customers can be located and which of these countries has the most buying potential.

Also, I recommend creating separate campaigns for every country because bidding in different countries can vary. For example, a $1 bid for the USA is too low but is enough for Brazil. As an alternative, you can use Bid Adjustments by country. For example, if you see that there are no impressions in the top region, you can increase your bid by 50%. Or vice versa, if one region spends the entire budget, you can decrease your bid by 80%.

When you configure a campaign, you need to pay attention and choose the Presence option:

Otherwise, your ad will be shown to all the people that are interested in this country.

#10. Configure relevant landing pages

A final tip I want to share with you is about landing pages. You need to lead people to the pages of your website that correspond with the keywords. Don’t use your homepage for every campaign. In a while, you can check your bounce rate and see what page is more appealing for users.

In the end, I want to highlight that you shouldn’t be afraid to start your first Google Ads campaign. You have a lot of tools to control the budget and bids. You need to understand that it’s impossible to think through all the little details before starting, but you always can optimize your camping and adjust strategy:

Check the Search Terms report in your account to see for what queries your ads were shown, add negative keywords, and look for new relevant keywords. Analyze your campaigns by country, device, demographic and adjust your bids, if needed.

Also, to define if the advertising is cost-effective, I recommend tracking these main metrics:

Return on investment (ROI). This parameter shows the effectiveness of your advertising. It is calculated using the following formula:

Cost/Transaction. This parameter shows the cost of one transaction. We do not always can influence revenue, and you need to understand how much you spend on every purchase.

And that’s it! Good luck!