Ecommerce PPC Management Guide for 2023

Author: Andrea Ozello
Updated on 5/25/2023

Online purchasing – for both B2C and B2B environments – is more popular than ever, and that is likely not going to change anytime soon. And in order to compete with big-box stores or perhaps other B2B companies also selling products online, you need to make sure you are doing your due diligence with your online marketing campaign to get results.

At Sixth City Marketing, we are a digital marketing agency with extensive experience in helping ecommerce websites like your own improve profits through PPC marketing services. Below, we’ve put together a complete guide to ecommerce PPC, which includes our best tips and strategies to help you generate more sales from your online store.

Essential Things to Know About Ecommerce PPC Marketing

What Is PPC Management?

Before we get into ecommerce PPC, let’s start with the basics and define what PPC actually is. Pay-per-click (PPC) is a form of digital marketing in which advertisers pay a fee for each time a user clicks on their ad. This type of marketing can be used on both search engines and social media platforms.
PPC management is the process of overseeing and handling a pay-per-click account. This process typically includes campaign and budget setup, ad spend monitoring, making campaign adjustments, and more. With consistent and diligent management, PPC campaigns can be one of the most effective and quickest ways to grow your sales online.

How Does PPC Marketing Work for Ecommerce?

Now, we’ll take a quick look at ecommerce PPC advertising and what it entails. ecommerce PPC is a digital marketing strategy that uses PPC ads to promote online stores and the products offered.

The Benefits of Utilizing PPC for Ecommerce

Pay-per-click plays a vital role in the success of your online business. Through ecommerce advertising, you can capture target audiences and drive them directly to your store. Here are a few other key benefits of this marketing channel:

• Gain new, qualified traffic to your website almost immediately
• Increase revenue by appealing to the right users
• Complete control over your budget
• Advanced targeting tools allow you to aim your ads at hyper-specific audiences
• Measurable, data-driven results help determine the effectiveness of your PPC efforts

Our Ecommerce Pay-Per-Click Services

If increasing sales and having control over your budget is important to you, Sixth City Marketing can give you the PPC help your ecommerce campaign needs. When you choose to work with our PPC company, you will receive top-tier services like the following:

In-Depth Keyword Strategy

Ensuring we are targeting the best terms to bring in conversions is one of the most important aspects of pay-per-click. Our ecommerce team will perform extensive research for your business and work with you to determine what terms we should target.

In-House Ad Writing

To help attract your ideal customer, we will write concise and persuasive ads that will make users searching for your products click through to your site. Not to mention, our team has 25+ collective years of writing experience as marketers.

Advanced Competitor Research

One of the top ways we can help your campaigns be successful is by having a clear look at what others targeting the same terms as you are doing. We use a variety of tools that allow us to assess what we can do to make sure you stay ahead of the pack.

Design for Conversion

While getting users to click on your ads is key, in order to help them make actual purchases, we will need to ensure that your site has proper conversion optimization approaches in place that make it easy and accessible to buy your products.

Detailed Monthly Reporting

Getting you results is our #1 focus, and in order to make sure we are transparent about how your ecommerce PPC campaigns are going, we will send you a monthly report detailing everything you need to know, including purchases, your overall ad spend, and more.

Ongoing Account Monitoring

By adding irrelevant searches to a negative keyword list, making sure you are on track to meet your set budget, and more, there are a variety of tasks we complete every month to make sure your campaign is operating at its best. A successful PPC campaign requires diligence monitoring and maintenance.

Dedicated Customer Service

When you partner with our agency, you will work directly with an account manager who will be there for you at all times, along with the actual PPC strategist who will be working on your account.

FAQs About Ecommerce PPC

• Do I need to have Google Analytics for PPC?
  If you do not have GA on your site already, we can easily set up a free account for you. We can help install the code on your site and make sure it is integrated and functioning properly with your paid campaign.
• Will I be able to monitor the searches that lead to clicks?
  If we run ads on Google, this will be possible! Inside the Google Ads interface, you can see what types of things people are searching for that not only enabled them to click on your ad but also which ones turned into sales.
• Do I have to run ads on social media sites?
  Not at all; however, we have had great success with various ecommerce industries, especially retail, on Facebook and Instagram. We would be happy to discuss this in your strategy session.
• Can you do more than just PPC?
  Yes! As a full-service agency, we can easily help your ecommerce site with SEO, email marketing, and web design.
• Do I need to know who I want to target?
  If you need assistance in either narrowing or broadening your targeting based on how your current campaigns are going, our team of PPC experts will be able to provide feedback and direction as part of our strategy.

How to Build an Effective Ecommerce PPC Campaign

If you want your pay-per-click campaigns to be successful, a proper structure is crucial. You’ll want to capitalize on the key elements of pay-per-click to help increase store traffic and sales. Here are some of our main tips:

Set Your Budget

Start by establishing a realistic budget for your ecommerce PPC campaign. Keep in mind that you’ll be paying for each click your ad receives. Setting an appropriate amount each month will keep you from overspending or underspending.

Keyword Analysis 

Choose keywords that are most relevant to your business and that your audience is most likely to find you for. Put together a complete list of the terms you want to target by putting yourself in the shoes of your ideal customer. What are they going to be searching for?

In addition, make sure to exclude, or negate, any keywords that you do not want your ads showing for. Adding negative keywords helps to drive more relevant traffic and, ultimately sales.

Define Your Target Audience

Determining your ideal customer is an important step in building your PPC campaign. What is your typical demographic? What are the interests of your intended user? Narrowing down your audience as much as possible will help improve the overall quality of the campaign.

Targeting can be refined by location, user interest and intent, age, income level, language, and more.

Optimized Content

Once you have a budget, keywords, and targeting in place, it’s time to focus on content. Start by optimizing the product pages on your website to include updated information and product descriptions. Next, make sure to create ad copy that highlights your product attributes and will encourage users to click. Finally, a strong landing page will determine whether or not that user is going to convert. Use compelling copy and strong CTAs to reinforce the messaging in your ads.

Provide a Smooth User Experience

Creating a simple, efficient shopping experience for online users can significantly increase the volume of your sales. To design a store that is as user-friendly as possible, make sure to include clear descriptions and messaging, high-quality images, and a seamless cart/checkout process.

Questions About PPC for Ecommerce and More

• Do I need to have Google Analytics for PPC?
  If you do not have GA on your site already, we can easily set up a free account for you. We can help install the code on your site and make sure it is then integrated with your new landing pages we create so the data all flows into one profile.
• Will I be able to monitor the searches that lead to clicks?
  If we run ads on Google, this will be possible! Inside the Google Ads interface, you can see what types of things people are searching for that not only enabled them to click on your ad but also which ones turned into leads.
• Do I have to run ads on social media sites?
  Not at all, however, we have had great success with various ecommerce industries, especially retail, on Facebook and Instagram. We would be happy to discuss this in your strategy session.
• Can you do more than just PPC?
  Yes! As a full-service agency, we can easily also help your ecommerce site with SEO, email marketing, and also web design.
• Do I need to know who I want to target?
  If you need assistance in either narrowing or broadening your targeting based on how your current campaigns are going, our team of PPC experts will be able to provide feedback and direction as part of our strategy.