Search is continually growing as an important revenue source for e-commerce businesses. But it can be a difficult area to manage, especially if your business has thousands of SKUs, fast-changing stock, and ever-changing prices and promotions. Bidding by keyword in standard search campaigns will always give us the most control. However, it is easy for these campaigns to become out of date with what is on site, and can be time-consuming to build if the product is not going to be around for long.
On top of regular search, we have the use of two campaign types based on website and feed content that function in a very dynamic way: shopping and dynamic search ads. The automated element of these campaign types utilizes time efficiently and allows you to use your marketing budget effectively.
1. Shopping Campaigns
Every e-commerce client should have one because they are fantastic. The compulsory migration from Product Listing Ads (PLAs) recently to the new interface has shaken this environment up a little. Some functionality has been lost, but there are lots of new features, so if you haven’t already done so then now is the time to be perfecting your structure and optimizations before the Christmas rush.
Shopping campaigns are great at allowing us to organize our inventory and push key lines. Use the product group layering to gather similar products together so you can bid based on performance. Make the most of the campaign priorities to push your most important inventory. If your search queries are very brand-heavy, there is also now the potential to create a brand term campaign as well as a generic term campaign so you can optimize on these searches separately. The previous product meant we had to work with a combined CPA, so this is a great step forward for advertisers.
2. Dynamic Search Ads
If you have a fast turnover, dynamic search ads are great at covering all of the inventory on your site. These have been around for a while now so I won’t go into too much detail. Managing a keywordless campaign can be a little daunting, as it feels like you’re losing the control. However, as long as you exclude the page URLs of irrelevant content and are regularly making use of the search query report, it is a great way to cover all of your inventory. These campaigns offer a really relevant journey for consumers by matching Web pages to relevant search queries and creating a tailored advert. If you only have a product live for a short period, this is a much more efficient way of advertising on these areas, rather than building out lists of product specific keywords. You still set two description lines, so the ads are in line with both the season and the promotional messaging used throughout your other marketing activities.
3. Dynamic Search Ads With Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA)
If you are trying to find extra cover in your account with strong results, this is the place to start: it provides all the benefits of remarketing for search combined with all the benefits of dynamic search ads.
It is not immediately obvious how to set these up in the interface, as setting up a DSA campaign does not allow you to add audiences. Creating a search campaign using the campaign type “all features” and adding dynamic targets and audiences to this will give you the desired effect.
As with all RLSA campaigns, you can tailor really specific audiences that you know have previously engaged well with your brand. Breaking your audiences up will allow for a stronger bidding strategy: add higher bid adjustments for users who go deeper into the site and who go on to purchase, and less for users who got to the homepage and left again.
Any search term that matches to your site will show this user a relevant ad. This is a great way of increasing reach on your accounts. It’s also likely to drive lots of insight into which products on your site are working, which can be used as a tool to inform your main search strategy.
In four months, Christmas will be over. If you’re running a site with constant change shopping campaigns, a combination of dynamic search ads and RLSA are really powerful in covering your whole inventory. The automatic aspect of them gives you a really effective way to use your marketing budget in search throughout the Christmas season, making your campaigns as flexible and as fast-moving as your business.
