If you are learning about advertising for your ecommerce store, you have likely encountered numerous articles and videos on Facebook Ads; there really isn’t that much of an emphasis on Google Ads.

Google Ads truly is the unsung hero of ecommerce, and in this article, we’re going to give you an overview of Google Ads as well as go through 10+ reasons why you need Google Ads for Ecommerce Store.

What is Google Ads?

Google Ads is an advertisement platform developed by Google, where advertisers can bid to display ads, product listings, or videos to online users. The Google Ads platform runs on pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, meaning you have to pay every time a visitor clicks your ad.

This contrary to Facebook, where you will pay for the impression, meaning each time your ad is shown to a prospective customer, regardless of whether they click or not.

Google Ads
Google Ads
With Google Ads, you pay for the click. It’s important to note that Google Ads doesn’t only operate on the search platform; it’s actually everywhere. We will go over this in more detail next:

What are the different types of Google Ads?

Google has four different types of ads that you can run. Fortunately, all of this is done within the same platform.

Search Network

Google search ads are the most popular choice for advertisers but also the most expensive.

This is because when a user is actively searching for a product, it’s more likely that the buyer intent is already there, thus increasing the chance of a conversion.

Search Network
Search Network

The cost per click CPC will vary based on your sector; this is due to competitors bidding on the same clicks.

For example, this means that in the insurance sector, the advertiser can typically afford to spend a lot more for a click as conversions will generate more revenue than other sectors.

Display

Google’s display network claims to cover 90% of internet users worldwide. Display ads will show up on any website across the Google display network as a banner/box at the side or top of a page.

Display
Display
This ad was displayed because of my interest in Shopify

The ad will be appropriate to the user’s interests which you can set by creating custom audiences; you can find out more about these here.

Display ads are seen as a cheaper form of traffic to your store. However, whilst the ads may be somewhat relevant to the user, the buyer intent may not necessarily be like that of search ads.

Videos

This operates the same way as to display ads, where you can create custom audiences to ensure your ads are relevant to the user. The only difference is this will largely be displayed on Google’s own video sharing platform, YouTube.

Videos
Videos

Video ads generally have much better CTR (Click-Through-Rate) potential as they can be far more engaging to the user than display ads. If the buyer intent isn’t there, you may be able to generate it through a high-quality video.

Shopping

Google Shopping is effective because it allows the seller to showcase a high-quality image on the product listing and the product in question’s price.

It also runs off the search network within Google, and so buyer intent is high using this method:

Shopping
Shopping

The only drawback is the process to be approved for Google Shopping can be a little long-winded.

Additionally, every product you list will also need approval. This is because Google wants to be sure the ads are relevant to the users and weed out potential misleading/scam ads.

For more information about Google Shopping, check out this article here. Now that we’ve gone through the different types of Google Ads, let’s look at why you would want to use them for your ecommerce store:

12 reasons to use Google Ads for ecommerce

Google Ads can benefit your store in many ways and may well be the advertisement solution you are looking for.

High return on investment

Companies can spend thousands of dollars in pulling customers further down the sales funnel every day. Google Ads can bring you customers that are already further down the sales funnel and ready to buy, especially when using the search network.

High return on investment
High return on investment

With the sheer amount of data that Google collects on users, it’s a safe bet that the ads will always be very appropriate to the user’s interests.

2. Quick results

With Facebook Ads, you’ll normally have to spend up to $1,000 before the AI figures out who your best customer demographic is. However, with Google Ads, again, especially on the search network, it really doesn’t take any time to start seeing results.

We would advise staying away from Google Ads smart campaigns; they are anything but smart unless you have a few thousand dollars to spend on it before you start seeing results.

Manually setting your maximum bid per click is more appropriate for those with smaller budgets.

3. Increases leads and customers

Google Ads can benefit your store in many ways. However, it’s important to remember that when a customer visits your store, they may not convert on the first visit to your store.

Remember that a visit without a sale is not always a lost opportunity.

A lead is a visit that either subscribes to a mailing list or sent through a query; they may turn into a customer later on.

Fortunately, Google Ads has a great feature called google ads ecommerce conversion tracking conversion tracking, which can attribute a sale to a particular visit when using them. This is recorded even if the sale doesn’t happen on the first visit, which is very nice data to have.

Increases leads and customers
Increases leads and customers

Should you decide to let Google’s AI take control of the bidding, it will suggest a target CPA (Cost Per Action), as shown above, which could potentially increase your sales/leads.

It would be best to attempt this once you have a minimum of 50+ sales in 30 days; this ensures Google has collected enough conversion data. Google will then bid higher or lower per click based on the user’s likelihood of converting into a sale.

4. High-quality traffic

As mentioned earlier, Google Ads brings high-quality traffic as you will find that visits to your ecommerce store via Google will bring a higher conversion rate. This is because the users are more likely to have buyer intent if they search for the product you are selling.

It’s important to note here that the Google Ads search network is only beneficial to your business if your product is already known; people will not be searching for a product they don’t know exists.

In this case, Facebook Ads may be a better bet as they appeal more to impulse buys.

5. You learn about your market

Google Ads provide a huge wealth of data about your best-performing markets.

Once you have made a few sales on your ecommerce store, you will soon know who your best audiences are just by looking at the data Google gives to you:

You learn about your market
You learn about your market

As you can see from the above, the above Google Ads shows me that the 65+ age group was the best for conversions; however, a bulk of the revenue came from the 25-34 group.

Again, this is useful information that I would never have known without Google Ads.

6. Amazing integration

Google Ads also provides amazing integration with their Google Analytics platform, which will give you even more insights into which ads and audiences are performing better than others. It also provides integration into ecommerce platforms such as Shopify or WooCommerce to enable you to monitor and manage your ad campaigns in one place.

7. Great customer service

When your begin to start scaling your ecommerce store and your monthly ad spend increases, it won’t be long before a Google Ads representative gets in touch with you.

Your dedicated representative will always be but an email away; they offer advice on improving your ad effectiveness because they legitimately want you to grow.

However, please note that their goal is to get you to spend more on ads, but they certainly are more helpful than pushy in this regard.

Great customer service
Great customer service
Know exactly what you’ve paid for with Google Ads billing

From a billing perspective, they are crystal clear how much you have paid for and on which campaigns.

8. Customers worldwide

The largest benefit of running an ecommerce store is having access to a worldwide market; you can target your ads to anywhere at all in the world with Google Ads.

But on the flip side, did you know that this would equally benefit you for more local traffic if that’s what you’re looking for?

Especially during the last year, where many brick and mortar businesses are moving online due to national lockdowns, the benefit of local advertising is extremely underrated.

9. In-depth analytics

Google Ads platform is a great way to gain a broad insight into who your visitors are and how much it costs you to turn visits into customers.

In-depth analytics
In-depth analytics
Google Ads shows you the average cost per conversion

As you can see above, it also shows what the conversion rate is.

Of course, the more visits and sales you get, the more accurate their analytics will be. By knowing your cost per conversion, you can have more control over your ad spend and better understand your potential for scalability.

Additionally, Google Ads provides an amazing insight into competitors bidding on the same keywords. As you can see below, they also show competitors top of page rate and how much they outrank you on the keywords.

Get insights into who your competitors are with Google Ads

For more information about doing keyword research for Google Ads, check out our other article here.

10. Control over your budget

If you have come this far in your research into ecommerce, then you may already know that your advertisement spend is one of (if not the highest) overhead you will have. So getting this under control early on is an absolute must.

With Google ads, you are in total control over your budget by setting your maximum CPC and even a monthly budget.

Control over your budget
Control over your budget

If you want to learn more about setting the right Google Ads budget for ecommerce stores, feel free to check out our article here.

11. Engaged shoppers

This is quite a big one, Google Ads brings engaged shoppers right to your product page.

As customers are actively searching for your product, you will already have them at the second step of the purchase funnel and, in turn, increasing the likelihood of them purchasing on their first visit to your ecommerce store.

Engaged shoppers
Engaged shoppers

Not to bash too hard on Facebook in comparison, but as mentioned earlier, their advertisement platform has more of an emphasis on impulse purchases. As a result, however, the conversion rate will usually be lower than that of Google Ads.

12. Easy to start

Last but most certainly not least, Google Ads is so easy to get started. You don’t need to spend a huge amount before you start seeing results, and it takes you through getting started in an effortless step by step method through their campaign wizard.

Easy to start
Easy to start

As mentioned earlier, just be wary of falling into a Smart Campaign if you don’t have a lot of money to start with, the wizard will usually try to propose this.

So, is Google Ads really worth it?

People are turning to Google Ads largely due to the buyers intent which will ultimately help their bottom line as they are spending less per conversion.

In my humble opinion, the integration between Google Ads and their Google Analytics platform is the best in the business. It truly helps the retailer know who their customers are.

With such insights, it enables them to cut out what isn’t working and lean further into what is.

Being in control of your budget, more specifically as a business in its infancy, is a huge deal, and Google Ads Ecommerce Strategy knows this.

This advertising model empowers the smaller businesses, all whilst gently nudging them into scaling with their incredible insights and ad representatives only an email away.

So now that we have given you 12 reasons why you may need Google Adửods for ecommerce store, do you think it’s worth it? Seriously, please drop us a comment and let us know!

And if you’re wondering now if you can use Google Ads for dropshipping as well, then check out this article here.