Running web advertisements is one of the important ways to attract more customers to your e-commerce site.
For those placing an ad for the first time, the first thing they will worry about is probably, "Where should I place my ad?"
In conclusion, we recommend that you start by focusing on listing ads and shopping ads .
In this article, I would like to introduce the recommended types and features of advertisements for e-commerce sites, as well as some points to consider when placing advertisements.
table of contents
- Why are "listing ads" and "shopping ads" recommended for EC site advertising?
- Characteristics of listing ads and key points when placing ads
- Features of Shopping Ads and Key Points to Consider When Placing Them
- Key points of listing ads and shopping ads and specific operational examples
- Three things you need to know before running your ads
- lastly
Why are listing ads and shopping ads recommended for EC site advertising?
There are three main reasons why we recommend it:
① It can appeal to users who are highly motivated to purchase
In order to increase sales through e-commerce sales, the number of visitors is important, but the conversion rate (CVR) is also important.
In order to get quick results when advertising, it is important to properly approach the customer demographic that is looking for your product.
In particular, listing ads and shopping ads have a high conversion rate because they promote products when direct or highly relevant words are searched for.
② High cost-effectiveness
Both listing ads and shopping ads are shown to users who are already searching for related terms, making them more cost-effective than more broadly targeted ads.
In particular, with shopping ads, you can determine whether you are interested in a product before clicking based on images and product information, which helps reduce unnecessary advertising charges.
3. Easy to operate even for first-time users
When running advertisements, creating and replacing creatives takes up a lot of time. For businesses that frequently change products or run special features, creating creatives takes time. Furthermore, if you are not creating the creatives yourself, you will have to communicate with in-house and external production staff.
As we will explain in more detail later, listing ads and shopping ads do not require the creation of creative content such as banners. You can start using them by simply preparing a catchy slogan and description, and linking product information to Google Ads.
Therefore, for those who are not familiar with advertising, we recommend these two first in order to become familiar with the operations.
Characteristics of listing ads and key points when placing ads
Listing ads are ads that appear on the search results screen when you search, and are also called "search-linked ads." The main search engines that advertise in Japan are Google and Yahoo!
Because the ads are displayed as text, they can be placed by simply preparing a minimum amount of ad copy and the keywords you want to display, making them easy to get started with even for e-commerce managers who are new to running ads.
Benefits of PPC
Since you can specify keywords for the words that users search for, it is a cost-effective form of advertising that makes it easy to reach users who are actively searching.
You can also create advertising copy, making it easy to express the needs of your product and its differentiating features.
Budgets can be set from as little as 1,000 yen, making it easy to get started with advertising.
Disadvantages of PPC
Since the effectiveness of advertising depends on the keywords you set, it is necessary to closely manage your advertising, such as by understanding word trends and closely examining ineffective words.
Also, because it is a text-only display, images may be more appealing to users who are not clear about their needs, and other ads may be more appropriate.
When placing a listing ad, is it better to advertise it on Google or Yahoo!?
To conclude, we recommend prioritizing advertising on Google.
Since Google has a market share of over 70% among search engines in Japan, it is more efficient to focus on Google, especially if you have a limited budget.
On the other hand, Yahoo, a search engine that has long been familiar in Japan, has many users who are in a relatively older age group, so if the target demographic of your e-commerce products matches that, you may want to consider advertising with them.
Features of Shopping Ads and Key Points to Consider When Placing Them
Shopping ads are ads that can approach customers by displaying product images, price information, stock status, etc. on Google search results screens and websites.
The big difference with listing ads is that product sales information can be provided visually before the user clicks, so users who come through ads are more likely to become customers who will make a purchase.
When placing an ad, you will need to create an account with Google Merchant Center and register data (feed) for the products you want to sell on your e-commerce site.
Basically, you manage product information in Google Merchant Center, and manage advertising status and effectiveness on the Google Ads screen.
Benefits of Google Shopping Ads
Because product sales information can be provided before a user clicks, users who come from ads are more likely to make a purchase. In addition, because images are displayed, visibility is high, and shopping ads are more effective than text expressions such as listing ads, especially in genres where product images affect purchase rates (such as fashion).Disadvantages of Google Shopping Ads
Unlike listing ads, you cannot specify search terms, so product information affects search results. While setting unintended search terms using excluded words, you need to check that product information such as product names are relevant to the expected search terms of target users. In addition, since traffic flows directly to product pages, it is important to take measures to navigate within the page in order to increase the purchase price.Key points of listing ads and shopping ads and specific operational examples
(Google Ads recommended by our company)
Key points for using listing ads
*Since expanded text ads will be discontinued at the end of June 2022, we are now using responsive search ads.
Register multiple headings and descriptions as much as possible
You can register 15 headings of 15 full-width characters each, and 4 descriptions.
Within this, headlines and descriptions that are highly relevant to the search term are combined and displayed in an optimized format.
As you use your ad, the match rate between search words and ad copy will increase, so we recommend registering multiple headlines and descriptions and using them accordingly.
You need a minimum of three headlines and two descriptions, but machine learning will create various patterns and use them efficiently, so if possible, register more than the minimum number of words.
Once you submit the above, the effectiveness of your ad will be judged. The criteria for effectiveness are based on the measurement of the relevance, quality, and diversity of your ad copy, and the results are "Incomplete," "Low," "Average," "High," or "Very High." Set it up with the intention of getting an effectiveness rating of "High" or higher.
Create a website with search keywords in mind
It is important to create your ad headline (title) and description based on the search terms users will use.
However, if you use a lot of similar words, the display patterns will be the same, so try to avoid using words that have the same meaning.
Get into the habit of checking your search terms
Once you start using it, one thing you should make a habit of is checking the "search terms" on the ad management screen.
By looking at the search terms, you can check whether the words you set as your expectations match the words actually searched. If unintended words are searched for and they are clearly not leading to conversions, please check whether the word match type settings are correct and whether the content of the heading matches.
Learn how to set up keyword match types here .
Shopping Ads Operational Points
Keep your product data up to date in your Google Merchant Center feed
Especially in EC, product replacements and sales are often carried out, so the product inventory status may not be up to date. In stores with a large number of products, the inventory may not be displayed depending on the situation, so be sure to check it regularly.
Set excluded words to improve advertising effectiveness
Unlike listing ads, shopping ads cannot be set by specifying search terms. To avoid being displayed with unintended words, you can set exclusion keywords from the "search terms" introduced in listing ads.
Even if you have set it to search for products, it may be displayed as a match with other services in the world. Also, if you have a physical store in the country, search terms when searching for a store in a nearby area rather than searching for a product may also be included. In order to increase conversions, we recommend that you exclude such words.
Enriching product name information
For the product name, you need to include necessary information and important attributes, such as the brand name, age group, gender, size information, color, etc.
These settings are important to make the search terms more consistent with the intended results. Also, since there is a limit to the number of product names that can be displayed, try to place the most important information at the beginning of the product name.
*Detailed submission regulations are listed below.
Click here for submission rules for listing ads Click here for submission rules for shopping ads
Specific operational examples
Food manufacturer Advertising focused on gift products
We mainly place listing ads and shopping ads.
For listing ads, we use responsive search ads, and enter the maximum number of headlines and descriptions so that the appropriate combination can be set by machine learning. We set keywords while checking the number of clicks and conversion rate in "Search terms" on the management screen and judging the appropriateness of the match type.
During operation, some keywords that were converting in searches for the headline were missing, so they were corrected and settings were made to increase the match rate. In addition, for shopping ads, the products displayed were concentrated on the URL of popular main gift products, and page improvements were made to navigation measures within that URL. Product name enrichment was also implemented as described in the points above.
As a result, the gift campaign we carry out every year has increased the number of conversions from advertisements by 20% or more compared to the previous year.
Caution! Examples of cases where advertising efficiency does not increase even with exposure
Fashion brand manufacturer
Shopping ads in stores with thousands of fashion items
Although there was traffic to the product page, conversions did not increase because popular sizes and colors were out of stock.
→When placing a shopping ad, make sure to check that the product is in stock (especially the size or standard color) before placing the ad.
Three things you need to know before running your ads
The strength of web advertising is that it allows you to approach your company's target customer base.
If you do not decide on the purpose before placing the above advertisements, the exposure of the advertisement will be too broad, resulting in inefficient operation. Please keep the following points in mind before placing an advertisement.
① Setting target buyers
Let's also take another look at the "target purchasing demographic."
We recommend that you also dig deeper into factors such as the gender and age group you are targeting, as well as the lifestyle of the customers you want to purchase from.
Some ads have a feature that allows you to narrow down your exposure to specific criteria such as "lifestyle, interests, and hobbies," so carefully considering your targeting here will lead to efficient advertising.
② Product differentiation
Think about what makes your product different from others and differentiate it from the competition.
For example, by reaffirming your company's strengths, such as free shipping or limited or rare items, you can include this in your advertising catchy copy.
It is also important to check product trends. Apart from the best selling times of the year, if you make it a gift item, check the trends in advance when considering the expansion of sales methods, such as where you might have the opportunity to sell it. This is important because when you actually place an advertisement, you need to place it in advance rather than based on trends.
③ Setting KPIs
It is also necessary to set KPIs in order to review advertising.
When running advertising for the first time, before setting KPIs, be sure to remember the following indicators that will help you judge the cost-effectiveness of your advertising.
Conversions (CV)
Results of acquisitions, purchases, and applications
Cost per acquisition (CPA)
"Cost Per Action" stands for how much advertising money was spent to acquire each customer.
It can be calculated as follows: CPA (yen) = cost / number of conversions (conversions). It is an important indicator when customer acquisition is set as the KPI. For example, in a business that sells products that lead to repeat products from the first product, CPA is used as a criterion to determine whether the first product was acquired efficiently.
ROAS
An acronym for "Return On Advertising Spend." It is an indicator that shows the ratio of sales generated to advertising costs.
ROAS (%) can be calculated as follows: Sales via advertising ÷ Amount spent on advertising. For e-commerce sites, it is important to increase sales and profits, so let's take a look at ROAS to determine which advertising is cost-effective.
lastly
Since the price of products is fixed in e-commerce sales, it is important to generate interest in your products and convert them efficiently.
If you are someone who is thinking about running ads in the future, or if you have just started running ads and are unsure of what priorities to set, we recommend that you use the points above as a reference.
