The Ecommerce Marketer‘s Guide to PPC Advertising in 2024

As an ecommerce business, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising has likely become a key part of your marketing strategy and budget. And for good reason – with the continued growth of online shopping, PPC remains one of the most effective ways to get your products in front of high-intent shoppers and drive revenue.

In fact, ecommerce businesses now make up the single largest share of Google Ads spend, accounting for nearly 40% in 2023. But with this growth has come fierce competition and increased complexity that can make PPC challenging for even experienced ecommerce marketers. Average cost-per-click (CPC) continues to rise each year while return on ad spend (ROAS) is getting squeezed.

To succeed with ecommerce PPC in 2024, marketers need to get smarter and more strategic to find new opportunities for growth. In this guide, we‘ll break down five key areas of opportunity you can start leveraging today to get more from your PPC efforts and stay ahead of the curve.

Opportunity 1: Maximize Value from Low-Funnel Keywords

One of the best opportunities for ecommerce advertisers is to capture high-intent searchers who are at the bottom of the purchase funnel by targeting ultra-specific keywords. These are terms that include product details like:

• Model numbers
• Part names or numbers
• UPC codes
• SKU numbers

Searchers using these terms already know exactly what they‘re looking for and are likely very close to making a purchase. As a result, these keywords tend to have low search volume but extremely high conversion rates, often 5-10x higher than more general terms. They are also less competitive, translating to lower average CPCs.

By building out campaigns and ad groups focused on these high-value, low-funnel keywords, you can attract the most qualified traffic and drive purchases very efficiently. To find relevant keywords, dig into your search query reports and identify queries that include these specific details, then add them as new targeted keywords.

You can also use your product feed to generate relevant keywords and ensure your ads show for long-tail searches related to your product catalog. While expanding to thousands of ultra-specific keywords takes work, the payoff in higher ROAS and lower average CPA makes it well worth the effort.

Opportunity 2: Improve Ad Copy and Landing Page Experience

Another big area of opportunity is in optimizing your ad copy and post-click landing page experience to better align with searcher intent. With so much competition in the ecommerce space, your ads need to clearly communicate your unique value proposition and give searchers confidence to click through.

One tactic is to include transparent pricing information directly in your ad copy. This helps qualify clicks and reduce wasted spend by making sure searchers have the right expectations before clicking through. You can also experiment with other value props, special offers, and bits of social proof to entice clicks and differentiate your brand.

Once a searcher gets to your landing page, it‘s crucial that it delivers on what was promised in your ad copy and provides a seamless user experience. Make sure your landing pages match the intent of the keyword and ad, with a prominent call-to-action and easy path to purchase.

You can also leverage audience insights and behavioral data to personalize the copy and offers on your landing pages for different segments. And be sure to A/B test different versions of your post-click experience to home in on what performs best. Lastly, improving landing page load speed, especially on mobile, has become a critical factor for both ad quality and conversion rates.

Opportunity 3: Expand into Newer Ad Formats and Platforms

To reach ecommerce audiences across more of their purchase journey, consider expanding your PPC efforts into newer ad formats and platforms in 2024. Running Google Shopping ads, for example, allows you to showcase your products with rich imagery and pricing info to searchers with high commercial intent.

Amazon has also become a huge player in the PPC space with their Sponsored Products. While this puts you in direct competition with Amazon, it allows you to get your products in front of their huge audience of active shoppers. Facebook also offers dynamic product ads that retarget shoppers based on their browsing history and behavior on your site.

Video ads on YouTube are another great way to build brand awareness and create remarketing lists of engaged shoppers to convert down the line. The Google Display Network lets you expand your reach even further and engage shoppers across 2 million websites with a variety of targeting options.

The key is to start with small test budgets to validate new channels and gain learnings before scaling up what works. It also takes research to determine which channels and formats are most relevant based on where your specific audience spends their time online.

Opportunity 4: Get More Strategic with Competitor Targeting

Targeting competitor terms is a common tactic in PPC, but marketers need to be strategic to use it effectively. You want your ads to show up when a searcher is considering a competitor, allowing you to differentiate your brand and potentially win that sale. But you can waste a lot of budget if you‘re not smart about it.

First, avoid using a competitor‘s trademarked terms or brand name directly in your ad copy, as this can get your ads rejected or cause legal issues. Instead, focus on the non-branded keywords that are relevant to your shared audience.

Next, do your research to understand which competitors are ranking well organically and buying PPC ads on the keywords that matter most to your business. You can use auction insights reports to see who you‘re competing with for important terms. From there, mine their ad copy and landing pages for new keyword ideas you may be missing.

Keep in mind that competitor targeting with PPC is often a short-term tactic for keywords where you lack great organic visibility. There‘s no sense in getting into a bidding war that ends up draining your budget, especially on expensive head terms. Dig deeper for longer-tail keywords that offer better ROI.

Opportunity 5: Improve Measurement of PPC‘s Impact on Total Revenue

The only way to keep optimizing your ecommerce PPC campaigns is to truly understand what‘s driving real business results. Many marketers still rely on a last-click attribution model to measure conversions and ROAS, but this ignores all the crucial touchpoints leading up to the sale.

In 2024, marketers should strive to better measure the impact of PPC on total revenue by looking at the full picture of a customer‘s path to purchase. Use multi-touch attribution reports in Google Ads and Analytics to analyze assisted conversions and see how many sales started with a paid search click before ultimately converting through another channel like organic search or email.

You can also pass backend sales and revenue data into Google Ads for more accurate reporting on ROI. To understand the incremental lift of your PPC campaigns, try comparing results to a control group that was only exposed to organic search results over the same time period. These kinds of insights will guide you in setting the right budgets and targets.

Take Your Ecommerce PPC to the Next Level in 2024

PPC remains a powerful lever for growth, but ecommerce marketers need to evolve their approach to get the most from this channel in an increasingly competitive landscape. By expanding into lower-funnel keywords, improving ad copy and landing pages, testing new formats, getting strategic with competitors, and measuring full-funnel impact, you can find new pockets of opportunity to fuel growth in 2024 and beyond.

Of course, properly executing on these opportunities takes planning, great creative, smart bidding, and continuous optimization. But even incremental gains in key areas can compound into meaningful improvements in ROAS and total revenue over time.

For more tactical PPC advice, including an in-depth guide to structuring your shopping campaigns, check out the additional resources below. And if you need expert help identifying opportunities in your PPC accounts, consider reaching out to a Premier Google Partner agency. Here‘s to a profitable 2024!

Additional Resources:
[Link 1] [Link 2]