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Fourth quarter: how to develop and exploit your audiences?

Posted on by Adenlab Adenlab


Businesses are growing, and visits to e-commerce sites explode in the fourth quarter. During these last three months of the year, good remarketing techniques and targeting are essential for visibility.

What to do? Why do we pay more attention in the fourth quarter ? What are the factors to take into account to make the difference?

See also: Guarantee the success of your sponsored campaigns with targeting, remarketing and your audiences

Boost your sales in the 4th quarter

Stronger shopper demand at the end of the year

The fourth quarter corresponds to the months from September to December. During this period, Internet users are doing more product research, and your audience and traffic will increase.

That’s why your targeting needs to be extremely well thought-out, and your digital communication needs to be effective.

With the arrival of the cold and bad weather, and especially the festive season, consumers are spending more time in front of their screens (computers and mobiles).

The seasons motivate us to change our wardrobe or make changes at home. Find family gifts or prepare orders for sales or Black Friday;
It’s the perfect time to be visible and present to meet demand.

November and December are the most important gift-buying months of the year, and the search for gifts begins as early as the beginning of October.

Mintel 2018

Important dates at the end of the year

From September to December, there are several major events to boost sales: Halloween, New Year’s Eve, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
This is a time when consumer spending is at its peak. It’s essential to create communication campaigns and target your audiences.

If we talk about Black Friday alone, we should remember:

  1. growing French interest in the event
  2. Black Friday didn’t slow Christmas growth in December 2018
  3. Mobile accounted for 69% of the traffic for clothing websites during Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Evolution of Black Friday and sales from 2017 to 2018

To keep up with the competition, one of our tips is also to review your keyword targeting and the themes you want to cover.

Consumers conduct new searches and are more likely to buy your products.

Why not combine your audience parameters with keywords such as “Christmas gift ideas”, “black friday promotions” or “50% cyber monday”.

See also: Guarantee the success of your sponsored campaigns with targeting, remarketing and your audiences

The power of remarketing

During these end-of-year months, you need to implement a remarketing strategy.
You need to re-engage Internet users who perform a certain number of actions on your site.

Without the act of buying, the prospects who came to your site must not forget your existence. and be visible as soon as your prospect is ready to buy.

Your online store needs to establish itself as the expert in your industry. With Facebook Ads and Google Ads, you can easily target these pre-qualified audiences, who mustn’t forget you.

Be responsive to ensure the customer experience

The biggest orders arrive during Black Friday and the month of December. As demand increases, e-tailers need to be ready. Black Friday isn’t just about sales on the day.

The effect of this event lasts over time: we’re no longer talking about a day, but rather a week of promotion. All these factors need to be taken into account if you are to have enough stock on hand for the boxes 😉

Purchases can also be extremely well thought-out. Some consumers spot before and then buy during promotions. We need to take advantage of this practice with remarketing on Google and Facebook.

They need to see the product, but also feel that it’s an exceptional offer that won’t be repeated. The fear of not taking advantage of the discount motivates them to buy.

See also: Create a Dynamic campaign with products from your catalog on Facebook.

Conclusion

During the fourth quarter, e-tailers have great sales opportunities. To be successful, it’s essential to have well-configured remarketing campaigns and target audiences.

Our team is available to discuss and support you at these strategic moments of the year. We’ll be happy to discuss your SEA strategies, and you’ll benefit from the expertise of a Google Partner Premier-certified SEA agency, specialized in e-commerce campaigns.

Google Ads and Facebook Ads: How to ensure the success of your campaigns with Audience Settings and Remarketing

Posted on by Adenlab Adenlab


When developing your business and e-commerce, you want to reach the widest possible audience to ensure your company’s growth and profitability. But to convert and build loyalty, you need to be able to address the right people with the right message , and not just the general public.

In the article below, we’ll review the principles of targeting and persona, essential for formulating your strategy for acquiring new customers and prospects. We’ll focus on the different audience optimization levers we can implement on your Google and Facebook campaigns.

Contents

Personas
Creativity and the seductive message
The customer journey
Exploiting audiences and retargeting
The different types of Audiences and their interests

Audience targeting levers are extremely important in managing campaigns on search engines, the Display advertising network and social networks.

Unlike physical stores, which have a conversion rate of 55%, e-merchant sites convert between 1% and 3% of visitors. So it’s essential to attract visitors with a clear interest in your products and services.

Persona: the key to understanding your customers

To optimize your approach and ensure successful communication, it’s essential to establish one or more customer profiles. These are known as personas. This has many advantages: 1 Understand their problems and present the ideal solution 2 Identify your audience to target your Google campaigns and Facebook ads 3 Identify their habits to be present in the right place at the right time The persona study allows you to put yourself in your audience’s shoes and find the right words.

How do you create a persona?

To identify the real problems and habits of your audience, you need to think deeply. Put yourself in the shoes of your ideal customer.

List their demographic and behavioural data, consumer habits, daily problems…
One possible approach is to create a typical day: from dawn to dusk, what does your ideal customer do?

There are several sites that allow you to create personas using just a few pieces of data: SurveyMonkey, UseForge, Up Close and Persona or Personapp.

Example: Here’s my simplified persona

Example: Here’s my simplified persona

The process of setting up a persona is not necessarily a simple one, and can take time (brainstorming, teamwork, etc.).

On the other hand, once you’ve done it or redone it, it opens up new possibilities, new ideas for improving your offers and, of course, your acquisition campaigns.

It’s a very rich exercise that I recommend doing as a team.

See also: Building your audience on Facebook : foolproof techniques to implement

Creativity: Address your prospects with an attractive message

Convey the right message on the right medium, and maintain the high quality of your advertising.

Now that you know your customers better and want to guarantee a return on investment from your campaigns, you need to convey the right message on the right medium, and keep the quality of your advertising (image, video, content, text) at a high level.

In fact, targeting and persona work won’t be enough if the quality of the ads and advertising creatives isn’t up to scratch.

Nielsen Catalina Research study: 47% of ROI is attributed to the quality of advertising creative

Nielsen Catalina Research study

The quality of the images and the message is still a major factor in attracting new customers. What resonance will the ad have after it has been seen?
The Nielson study is clear: 47% of ROI is attributed to the quality of the creative.

With the right design, we can ensure optimal distribution on the various channels: search engines, Display, social networks ….

See also: how to find the right themes to captivate your audience?

The customer journey and the purchasing decision

Towards an ever more complex customer journey

Consumer behavior has evolved in recent years, and has become increasingly complex.

10 years ago, a customer’s path to purchase was still relatively straightforward, but today there are many more interaction points before a purchase or conversion on your site.

You need to be seen in the right place, at the right time, with the right message.

This means delivering your ads across multiple formats and channels, and paying particular attention to performance, budget allocation and sales/conversion attribution analysis.

**See also: Dynamic campaigns and catalog distribution on Facebook

Customer journey “Before” :

Shopping on an e-commerce site

Today’s customer journey:

Today, the purchasing process is more complex

In fact, the evolution of cell phones and the number of screens per household are multiplying the points of contact with your customers.

“With nearly 5 billion mobile users worldwide, 6 screens per household
in France, and more than half of all searches carried out on Google in France and worldwide from a smartphone, the points of contact between consumers and brands have multiplied.”
Roland Duffau, Google

To better understand this evolution, Google and Facebook, as well as agencies like Adenlab, have invested heavily in Machine Learning (AI) technologies.

These learning algorithms enable marketers to make the most of the signals of intent left by Internet users as they navigate the web.

How to leverage audiences and retargeting (or remarketing) with Google Ads campaigns?

The different types of audiences offered by Google enable you to reach individuals along their decision-making paths.

Whether for traffic prediction, virtual assistants, fraud detection… Machine Learning is at the heart of Google Ads or Facebook Ads tools.

The use of Machine Learning algorithms today makes it possible to simplify complex tasks and focus on business objectives, define qualified audiences, and then let the algorithms determine who to engage as relevant prospects.

Below, we’ll illustrate the different types of audiences offered by Google, which enable us to reach individuals along their decision-making paths.

Use an audience-based approach in your Google Ads accounts

In recent years, one of the major challenges for Google Ads has been to break down the silos between ad formats and audiences:

In the past, when we wanted to target an audience with high purchase intent, we preferred the Google Shopping format (and sometimes the text format).

Today, with the right Audience settings, when we target “buyers”, we use Google Shopping, Text Ads, but above all what’s changing is that we also use the Display Network and YouTube!

In terms of targeting, Google Ads technology has clearly evolved, making it possible to use many more formats and distribution channels to achieve your growth and ROI objectives.

What are the main types of Audiences and how can they be used in your targeting strategy?

We leave “traces” everywhere on the web (and anonymously). Every day, we emit signals that are stored (thanks to cookies), analyzed and interpreted;
This makes it possible to understand and categorize behavior and people into different audiences.

Read more: Google Analytics secrets: Integrating specialized e-commerce audience lists

These audience categories can be used to manage campaigns on Google Ads or Facebook Ads. They enable us to target and prioritize a certain type of person according to our campaign objectives.

Ex: If our goal is to gain more visibility for my brand, I’ll target a demographic audience and an affinity audience.

Illustration of audience typologies in relation to your conversion funnel

Audience demographics

Generally used to target (or exclude) a large audience, they can be used to promote your company by segmenting users according to age, gender, income, profession or family composition (married or not, children…).

Example in Google Ads of a demographic audience selection: here Parental status

Here’s an example in Google Ads of demographic audience selection, by parental status.

See also: Audience exclusion, or how not to wear out your prospects?

Affinity Audiences and Personalized Affinity Audiences

These audiences will enable us to target an audience that is close to your buyers and has been identified as having a real interest in your products and services; in fact, it’s their lifestyle, habits and interests that are analyzed.

Custom affinity audiences will allow you to combine additional parameters in Google Ads, such as keywords to target, Urls and site content, the types of places your prospects frequent, and the applications they’re likely to use.

Example of audience selection by buying behavior

Example of a center of interest

Life event

These audiences allow us to target people who are going through occasional events in their lives, such as weddings, births, but also moves…

Its audiences have multiple needs.
If we take the example of a birth, I can assure you that Google searches for “strollers”, “cribs”, “do I make a good father” will be regular searches. Definitely worth implementing!

Market audiences

With market audiences, you target people who are actively looking for your products and seriously considering buying them.

This is an audience you must activate in your campaigns, as it’s generally more ROI-intensive and even closer to the profile of your current customers and buyers.

Similar audiences

As the name suggests, similar audiences target people whose behavior is very similar to that of your existing customers;

These audience lists are updated in real time! And your ads will be shown to people who have something in common with your ideal customers and prospects.

Selection of audiences similar/similar to your regular site traffic

Retargeting (or remarketing) audiences

Re-targeting “known” audiences who have come to your site is often a winning strategy, and doesn’t require too much budgetary effort.

In fact, the people who have come to your site already have a relatively strong intention to buy, and above all, they know you.

However, not every visitor to your site has the same value: you need to segment and distinguish between visitors who have left without doing anything, and those who have abandoned their purchasing process and are therefore much more likely to convert on your site.

Audience Customer Match

To target and exclude this audience, you first need to import your e-mail database into Google Ads.

This audience will also be very useful for creating similar audiences.

Conclusion

These audience typologies are much the same for Facebook ads. As a result, a wide range of approaches can be devised to develop your sales:

  1. Target by interests
  2. Your competitor’s fans or your fans’ friends
  3. Age groups, professions, Facebook activities, geographical locations…
  4. Family status (children, couple, married): useful for advertising events such as Mother’s Day, Father’s Day or Valentine’s Day.

However, before taking the plunge, we recommend an observation phase on Google Ads and Google Analytics.

Over a relatively short period of time (depending on the traffic of your campaigns) you can identify the audiences that best meet your objectives. This observation phase will enable you to refine your segmentations and subsequently optimize your visibility and budget allocation.

Don’t hesitate to consult us for your acquisition strategies and the implementation of audience strategies on Google and Facebook.
Our SEA Agency, certified Google Partner Premier and Facebook Ads, applies different methods and uses various automation tools to develop the accounts of E-Commerce customers.

We specialize in high-volume projects and work on catalogs with a large number of references.

Google Ads: Evolutions and changes that you absolutely must implement in your Google Ads campaigns!

Posted on by Adenlab Adenlab

To get 2020 off to a flying start, we’ve selected 8 Google Ads evolutions from this year, 2019, that are having and will continue to have an impact on the year ahead.

In addition to presenting these updates, Natalya Donnat – Adenlab’s Director of Operations, comments on each of them and gives you her opinion and the results obtained with these various new features.
The article is comprehensive and rich in information that you can use for your own E-commerce or lead acquisition campaigns.
Of course, we’re available for face-to-face discussions. So don’t hesitate to contact us and ask for more information on how we can help you manage your Google Ads campaigns and reach your goals in 2020!

New audiences for Google Ads search campaigns

Two new audience segments for more effective targeting

The first update we’d like to introduce to you is the new audience types offered by Google Ads;
Indeed, for our teams and our customers, audience targeting offers significant opportunities for growth and profitability, as well as numerous advantages. We’ve made it a priority in our SEA campaign management.

It was in October that Google announced the official launch of new affinity audience segments in Points of Interest and seasonal event segments in “In-Market Audiences”.

  • Affinity Audiences (user interests and habits)

The Affinity audience segment is a group of consumers who have expressed an interest in a particular subject. To determine whether someone qualifies for this affinity audience, Google takes into account factors such as search history, frequently visited web pages…

In its October announcement, Google used the example of a company selling camping equipment. If this were your company, your goal would be to reach your prospects by retargeting keywords such as “camping tent”. With the affinity audience, you’ll be able to target this keyword while simultaneously associating an affinity audience like “Running enthusiasts.”

In the example below, the “Running enthusiasts” audience segment represents

In other words, affinity audiences for text ads enable you to refine your targeting, make your ads more effective, deliver a more compelling message, and increase your click-through and conversion rates.

Audiences by “User interests and habits
  • Seasonal Buying Audiences (in Market Audiences)

In-market audiences” allow you to limit the reach of your ads to users who are actively looking for a product or service like yours.
In fact, the new seasonal shopping audiences (= Christmas shopping, Back-to-school shopping, Black Friday shopping, Mother’s Day shopping), will allow you to target consumers who are actively looking for a product or service for a specific occasion (= Christmas shopping, Back-to-school shopping, Black Friday shopping, Mother’s Day shopping).

Market audiences and seasonal purchasing segments

“Indeed, this is good news for our customers, whose objectives are often focused on growth and profitability.
The affinity and in-market audiences have enabled us to target the right person at the right time, and the creation of these new segments to be all the more refined in our adjustments and optimize budgets and expenditure.
Some results obtained: We used affinity and in-market audiences for an advertiser in the Cosmetics sector. Audiences were applied to the Search network and Youtube. Using the “Black friday” segment, the advertiser recorded a 28% improvement in conversions and a 42% reduction in acquisition costs.”
Natalya Donnat – Adenlab Operations Manager

We’ve written several articles on the subject of audience strategies. You can, however, read or re-read “How to guarantee the success of your campaigns with Audience parameters and Remarketing“.

How to apply Google Ads intelligent bidding strategies?

Expanding audiences on the display network

A simple new tool for expanding your most promising audiences

With audience enlargement, the objective is clear: reach more buyers with the same budget!
“an audience enlargement tool makes it possible to reach more users in order to generate more conversions for the same average cost per acquisition (CPA).“

Like Facebook’s “lookalike” audiences,Google’s audience expansion tool lets you expand your display campaigns by reaching new prospects who behave in the same way as the users you’re already targeting, i.e. increasing impressions, clicks and conversions without affecting your budget.

New audience enlargement parameters for display campaigns

“Audience Expansion is ideal for advertisers who make a minimum of 30 conversions per month, who want to increase their conversion volume while keeping the same acquisition cost, and who have no budget restrictions or restrictions on appearing on different sites.
We recommend testing this feature for a minimum of 3 weeks, as the tool is based on historical data and recorded matchings, and we have seen a real increase in conversions with a constant Acquisition Cost after 4 weeks of testing.”
Natalya Donnat – Adenlab Operations Manager

"average position" of ads: a metric removed

For more accurate metrics and analysis

It was in February that a big change in google reporting was introduced with the removal of “average position” from Google Ads metrics.
This metric has long been tracked and optimized by traffic managers, advertisers and agencies and which has been removed from our metrics on September 30, 2019.
Google has decided to remove the metric in favor of a newer, more accurate metric that was rolled out at the end of 2018:

  • Absolute Top impression rate, i.e. in 1st position.
  • the “Top” impression rate, which corresponds to the 3 ads at the top of the page.

Since smart bidding solutions are becoming increasingly important, manual bidding strategies are becoming less and less useful.

Google Ads invites advertisers to consult :

  • the ” Search Absolute top impression share“, which reflects impressions associated with the Top Absolute location
  • Search Top IS“, a similar indicator but for Top positions, not Absolute positions

“The average position indicator was very important for many of our customers, who wanted to monitor their positioning on the search network. However, this indicator did not reflect real visibility coverage. We may be in 1st position, but only 10% of the time. We worked with our customers to learn how to use this new indicator. Our customers’ campaigns have gained in accuracy and performance.”
Natalya Donnat – Adenlab Operations Manager

Lead form ad extension

To facilitate the generation of inbound contacts (leads) via your mobile traffic

Since mobile traffic has overtaken desktop traffic, web users are becoming less patient and more demanding about the quality of your pages and website. Speed and simplicity are the keys to converting new customers and prospects on mobile.

In a bid to help advertisers convert more leads on mobile, Google recently launched a brand new ad extension:
thelead form extension
For the moment, the extension is still in Beta in France and active only on Mobiles.

With this extension, you’ll be able to collect all the contact details you need from your prospect without it leaving Google’s search engine (search results). The aim is to eliminate as much friction as possible for your prospect.
What’s more, if a user is logged into their Google account when they see your ad, they can access the form (by clicking on it) already pre-filled with their details.
On the other hand, they don’t need to go to your site: good or bad idea, it’s up to you to test!

Objective: to make your mobile conversion rates take off.
Lead form extensions seem like a great new option, but these ad extensions do have some limitations:

  • Lead form extensions will only appear in search campaigns.
  • Lead form extensions will only appear on mobile devices and tablets.
  • You cannot create lead form extensions at account or ad group level. Each lead form extension can only be applied at campaign level.
  • Certain sensitive industries (such as healthcare) will not be able to collect personal information using form extensions. Visit the restrictions page for this extension
  • The use of the personal information you collect using form extensions must comply with the privacy policy provided by your company, with Google’s data collection policies and, of course, with the regulations of your users’ country.

Adenlab Lead Form Extension

“We have tested this new extension on several B2B customers. The advantage of the extension is that we can choose for ourselves the level of detail via the form that we want to have: Surname, first name, e-mail address, telephone number, address, etc.
Initial observations: Very little data has been recorded since the launch. We’ve sensed a certain reluctance on the part of Internet users to leave contact details via the form. We’re going to continue the test and will let you know our findings very shortly”.
Natalya Donnat – Adenlab Operations Manager

Conversions" taken into account at campaign level rather than account level

To refine and optimize your Google Ads campaign objectives

And yes, “Conversions” can now be taken into account at campaign level, not just at account level.

You may think that this is of little interest or that it doesn’t add much to your management, but beware, it’s a major change for your performance and the optimization of your objectives.
Let’s go back to the principle of tracking conversions in your google ads accounts;
And I’m going to take the example of a B2B E-commerce site whose conversion objective is twofold:

  • conversion 1: obtaining leads via a form
  • conversion 2: sell products directly on your site

These are 2 very important types of conversions for the site, yet totally different to manage in terms of optimization and campaign management.
Before this new feature, and the arrival in force of Google’s smart bidding algorithms, it wasn’t really possible to effectively distinguish between these 2 conversions in the account. And I do mean in the account.

Indeed, for these smart (automatic) bidding strategies, there was no way of determining which specific conversion objective was the most useful for a particular campaign.
In fact, and to return to the example of the B2B site, if you build a campaign whose objective is to generate leads via a form, and your prospect finally converts by buying a product, this action would be counted as a conversion even if this wasn’t the campaign’s objective (since the conversion objective should have been the validation of a form).

From now on, with conversions at campaign level, you can specify to Google that the only conversion objective that counts for this campaign is the validation of a form, and that the other objectives set up in your account have no importance for this campaign.

Bumper video creation tool - 6-second video

To improve the effectiveness and impact of your video and Youtube campaigns

The tool was unveiled at the Google Marketing Live conference. It allows anyone with a video under 90 seconds to create a series of ready-to-use 6-second Youtube video ads. Given the cost of editing a video, this is a pretty powerful tool.
The real problem is the production of the 90-second video, which for many advertisers on Google is neither a reality nor an exploited means of communication due to its cost.
However, this lever seems to have proved its effectiveness (at least for Lipton 😉 You can find thecase study carried out by Lipton Ice Tea, Google and Marketing Scan:** 13% more sales thanks to Bumper Ads**.

Given the amount of time spent by Internet users on YouTube, we advise you to position yourself on this platform. Don’t hesitate to reread our article on Youtube: An advertising channel for Ecommerces?

Example of Renaud Scenic’s Video Bumber:

Videos in Responsive Display Ads

Make your Display ads even more attractive

A reminder about Google’s responsive display ads: this feature allows you to prepare your images and ads so that they can adapt and be displayed automatically on the multiple formats and inserts available on Google’s network of partner sites.
I.e. image ads in formats such as :

Different formats for Google Display Network images and ads

Google’s algorithms combine the images and automatically optimize them according to the content of the web page and the size of the user’s screen.

However, until March, content for these formats could only be images and gifs. Since then, advertisers have also been able to use video content in their responsive display ads.

Video integration in Display Responsive format

Here are three reasons to use this feature:

  • Get more impressions: Google prefers responsive display ads to standard banners.
  • More clicks: Responsive display ads – especially those with video content – are more attractive than standard banner ads.
  • More accessible and simpler: Unlike standard banners – which require time, resources and expertise to constantly optimize – responsive banners are semi-automated.

Find out more on Google’s official Responsive Display Ads page.

Gallery Ads

A visual format to be tested on Google search engine results (SERP)

This is the brand-new mobile advertising format unveiled at Google Marketing Live and currently available in beta version to selected advertisers.

Here is the example given by Google at the time of the official announcement:

advertise Gallery Ads
Example of a Gallery Ads ad

As you can see, an Illustrated Ad appears at the top of the search results (SERP) with a carousel of eight images that can be scanned. There’s a clickable title and a display URL, and below each image is a brief description.
What’s more, you can submit three titles for your ad, giving you the opportunity to test different ad combinations to optimize your click-through rate.

Google’s initial tests have shown that illustrated ads generate 25% more engagement (measured by clicks and swipes) than standard Text ads.

“For our part, at Adenlab, we’ve been able to implement it on several customers. The tests are quite convincing, with an improvement in the click-through rate of +18% and an improvement in the conversion rate of +12% on average. Image quality plays a vital role, and we recommend testing this type of ad with high-quality images.”
Natalya Donnat – Adenlab Operations Manager

Find out more about Google’s official information on Gallery Ads.

Conclusion

In recent years, Google Ads has undergone many changes and evolutions. Testing and choosing the right options is the key to developing your campaigns and your Google Ads account. At Adenlab – SEA Agency, we know that it’s necessary to work on these new features and share our experience with our customers. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you need :

  • Restructure your Google Ads account
  • Boost your performance and sales
  • Internationalize your campaigns
  • …

See you soon!

Google Ads: advertisements to attract new customers and grow your business

Posted on by Adenlab Adenlab

What types of advertising does Google Ads offer? Which formats are best suited to sales or lead acquisition?

Today, Google offers a wide range of services, including hosting, cloud services, mapping and much more.

But the best-known and most profitable for Google is its Google Ads advertising system.

With over 90% of searches carried out on its search engine, Google reigns supreme in digital advertising, along with Facebook.

What’s more, for companies and e-tailers using Google Ads as an advertising lever, the return on investment is immediate, and 50% of people who click on an ad are more inclined to buy than others – those who click on the free, “natural” SEO links.

Google Ads enables companies of all sizes and budgets to create targeted advertisements for people who are actively searching for their service.

It’s a powerful lever for reaching more Internet users and a targeted clientele of consumers.

But how do you use this tool provided by the Internet giant? How can you ensure that your campaigns meet your business objectives and become a real advantage for your company or online store?

Increase sales and attract new customers

Google Ads key figures

Many companies choose to create Google ads to showcase their products and services. This approach is strategic for many businesses. This is because

awareness of companies increases by 80% thanks to Google Ads.
63,000 Google searches are carried out every second.
90% of online searches are carried out on Google.
Google has a 73% market share in digital advertising.
65% of companies have a Pay per click campaign
46% of clicks on search engines go to the first three paid ads.
35% of users buy a product within 5 days of searching on Google.

The benefits of Google Ads for your business

If you haven’t already, integrating Google ads into your acquisition strategy will bring you a number of benefits.

You’ll be instantly visible, adapting your ads to the searches and requests of Internet users, and arousing the interest of your future customers.

You’ll be able to personalize your ads according to your different prospects and, above all, track your sales targets.

Be immediately visible

Once you’ve created campaigns in your Google Ads account, you’ll have the opportunity to position yourself immediately in Google’s top search results.

Your budget will depend on the type of keyword you’ve selected, the number of products in your catalog and, more generally, the structure and objectives of your campaigns.

Positioning your site in Google’s top results is extremely important, given that 75% of Internet users are content to see only the top 5 sites on the first page of search results.

Generate consumer interest and attract new customers

Internet users want to find information quickly and easily.
Being in first position in the Google search engine can give your company a click-through rate of 34.36% for computers and a click-through rate of 31.35% on smartphones.

On high-demand searches, this can lead to very significant traffic. That’s why you need to target the terms that will bring you conversion and a high volume of business.

Quickly adapt and change your offers and ads

With Google Ads, you can update the content of your offer and review your ads instantly.

This is obviously a major advantage over search engine optimization, which can take some time to attract qualified traffic.

For example, if you want to integrate a new range into your e-commerce or a new presentation, you’ll have to wait a few months before conquering the keywords related to this novelty (in search engine optimisation).

With Google Ads, changes and evolutions are directly taken into account.

Improve the accuracy of your targeting

Google gives companies using Google Ads the ability to target users as effectively as possible, so that ads are only shown to people who might be interested in the products.

Customize the audience parameters to suit your target.
We also suggest setting up a retargeting strategy.

Tailor your strategy to your objectives

The search engine provides you with advertising formats adapted to your initial strategy and defined objectives.

For example, ads are designed specifically for product sales. To take this a step further, Google has created form extensions for lead acquisition.

This evolution is in line with new business needs. With the decision funnel, leads are more likely to become loyal customers.

To sum up:

  1. Paid positioning enables us to address web users who are in an active search phase: this traffic is therefore highly qualified (much more so, for example, than banner traffic).

  2. Advertisers can choose the keywords on which they wish to be present.

  3. The billing model is “per click” (CPC), so the advertiser only pays for the traffic that actually arrives on the site.

  4. The bidding system enables the advertiser to control the maximum CPC it is prepared to spend on each keyword (the more targeted a word, the more profitable it can be to offer a high bid, as the conversion will be good).

  5. Market tracking tools enable sales to be attributed to each word: we can therefore calculate the cost of acquisition for each keyword and adapt bids according to the results observed.

  6. The campaign can be monitored and modified almost in real time

  7. Versus Search Engine Optimization ➔ traffic generation is immediate.

What are the different types of campaign and when should they be activated?

Before creating a campaign, it is important to consider your company’s strategic priorities:

  • What is the target audience or persona?
  • What are the informative pages on your site?
  • Which pages will convert
  • What are the strategic products (loss leaders, high-margin products)?
  • What are your prospects looking for?
  • What will be the traction campaigns (generic)
  • Conversion campaigns (long tail)
  • Your sector and the challenges of your campaigns
  • Understand your prospects’ research methodologies
  • And how to adapt the campaign structure to your website and offers

Sales funnel – Conversion funnel (Source: marcobernard.ca)

The structure of a Google Ads account can be very different, depending on your company’s objectives and challenges.
For example, in some cases, generic campaigns are rarely deployed, as the aim is to maximize the return on campaigns and position ourselves at the bottom of the funnel: in this case, shopping campaigns are the most appropriate, as this format has the highest conversion rate (if we consider the “last click”).

On the other hand, if you want to track the entireconversion funnel, you’ll need to create several campaigns, each with its own objectives and performance. In fact, in a full funnel structure, the challenge will be to track the user journey and the contribution of each campaign to the final conversion(attribution)
As you can see, it’s vital to set objectives for each type of campaign?

If your goal is to create brand awareness, you’ll need to:

  • Gain visibility for your site
  • Generate cold leads
  • Increase your list of new customers
  • Generate qualified traffic to the site

If your goal is growth, you’ll need to :

  • Increase the number of sales on your site
  • Develop sales
  • Control and improve ROI (Return on Investment) indicators

Inbound conversion funnel

Search campaign: text ads and keyword research

Google Ads text campaigns enable you to reach consumers at different stages of their research and needs. You can position yourself on keywords and terms related to your products and services on search engines (Google and Bing).

The key to these campaigns lies in the structure of your account and your campaigns, and consequently in distinguishing between informative searches and searches for hot prospects. In fact, you won’t have the same strategy for these 2 types of search, nor the same return on investment.

Google Ads

The positioning of advertisers is never identical, and doesn’t depend solely on the price you’re willing to pay!

The basic principles :

  • Paid positioning enables us to address web users who are in an active search phase: this traffic is therefore highly qualified (much more so, for example, than banner traffic).

  • Advertisers can choose the keywords on which they wish to be present.

  • The billing model is “per click” (CPC), so the advertiser only pays for the traffic that actually arrives on the site.

  • The bidding system allows the advertiser to control the maximum CPC it is prepared to spend on each keyword (the more targeted a word, the more profitable it can be to offer a high bid (since the conversion will be good).

  • Market tracking tools enable sales to be attributed to each word: we can therefore calculate the cost of acquisition for each keyword and adapt bids according to the results observed.

  • The campaign can be monitored and modified almost in real time

  • Versus Search Engine Optimization ➔ traffic generation is immediate.

Dynamic Search Ads (DSA)

Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) are ads targeted to the content of your website.
The use of Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) allows you to appear on search terms related to the content of your website or a particular page
The advantage of DSA is that it allows you to capture traffic that is not currently being captured by existing campaigns within the account.

The advantages of DSA :

  • No keywords to “buy”; ads benefit from a dynamic title that automatically adapts to the user’s query – and a dynamic url that redirects to the most appropriate page on your website.
  • Ads feature a dynamic title that automatically adapts to the user’s query, and a dynamic URL that redirects to the most appropriate page on your website.

Remarketing campaign (text, banners, videos)

Remarketing enables you to show ads to people who have already visited your website or used your mobile application.
It gives you the opportunity to show ads to people who have already visited your site.
Depending on the actions carried out on your site (e.g. cart abandonment), you’ll be more or less aggressive (with your bids) in bringing these same people back to your site. This feature is extremely powerful, as it enables you to target the hottest prospects and bring them back to complete their conversion or purchase action.

Remarketing – Retargeting

Remarketing methods offered by Google :

  1. Standard Remarketing: serve ads to your former visitors when they visit Display Network websites and applications.
  2. Dynamic Remarketing: serve dynamic ads featuring the products and services your previous visitors have viewed on your site when they access web pages and applications on the Display Network.
  3. Remarketing for mobile applications: serve ads to mobile users who have previously used your mobile application or website when they browse other content.
  4. Video remarketing: serve ads to users who have interacted with your videos or YouTube channel when they access YouTube and browse Display Network videos, websites and applications.
  5. Remarketing lists for Search Network Ads (RLSA): serve ads to your former visitors as they search on Google for the products and services they need, after they’ve left your site.
Display ad campaign targeting themes and interests

Display ad campaigns targeted by themes and interests give your company the opportunity to appear on sites in the Google Display Network. Generally speaking, these are “upper funnel” campaigns, which allow you to work on visual advertisements, since they are images and banners, which will enable you to take advantage of other sites’ traffic to make yourself known.

The Display Network is a collection of Google websites (for example, Google Finance, Gmail, Blogger and YouTube), partner sites, mobile sites and applications that display Google Ads based on page content.

Example of Google Display Partner Sites

You can use attractive ad formats to reach a large number of customers with varied interests. With the Display Network, you can increase brand awareness, build customer loyalty, generate more customer interaction and choose more specifically where your ads are displayed, as well as the type of audience you want to target.

Features :

  • Several distribution methods: by keyword, by site, by category…

  • The business model: auctions and CPC payments

  • It’s possible to find out which sites you’re listed on and “blacklist” sites deemed irrelevant or unprofitable.

  • This traffic is less qualified than search traffic, as Internet users are not actively searching for information.

Google Shopping campaigns

Within Google advertising, you can choose Shopping campaigns. This is the most popular format for e-commerce. In fact, it’s currently the Google advertising format that generates the most conversions and sales.
Shopping campaigns for merchant sites using the Google Merchant Center enable them to display ads presenting their products (photos, product name, price) during searches on Google.com.

We recommend that you read or re-read our articles on the subject:
Google Shopping campaigns: A necessity for e-tailers?

Highlights :

  • Allows you to promote your products in a high-impact format (photo) when web users are actively looking for a product.
  • Increased visibility with dual display: classic text ad + product ad.
  • Easy to target and set up.

Weaknesses :

  • Requires a Google Merchant Center account, which is not available in all countries or for all merchant sites (e.g.: prices must be inclusive of VAT, whereas some B2B sites are exclusive of VAT).

Conclusion

The success of Google campaigns has been proven. Depending on your company’s objectives, choose the right ads for your online store and your products;

Before creating a campaign, it is important to:

  • Understand prospect and customer research methodologies
  • Adapt the structure of your campaigns to your website
  • Think about your real needs: awareness or sales

This will determine the structure of your Google Ads campaigns, which represents 60% of the optimization of your account.
In addition, the structure of your campaigns must be constantly evolving, because not only are your users’ behaviors changing, but so are you and your offer.

If you need more information and advice on your acquisition or tips on how to structure your SEA accounts and campaigns, our team ofSEA Experts is available to talk to you.

15 ways to audit your Google Ads account post-COVID

Posted on by Adenlab Adenlab
After many months of a period that seems to be struggling to come to an end, it’s time to start looking ahead to the “post-COVID” period. For many companies, activities have been put on pause or have slowed down considerably. This hasn’t been the case for Ecommerces, but if your company has slowed down its visibility or campaigns on Google, this article is for you.

While the peak of the pandemic seems to be behind us, it seems only natural to want to move forward, even if cautiously.
The consequence? A reactivation of marketing strategies that have been put on hold for weeks or even months, especially Google Ads campaigns. And to support you, whether you’re starting from scratch or launching new campaigns, here are the different ways you can easily audit and reactivate your account.

The task of restarting your campaigns in a totally different, post-COVID context can seem both daunting and a little nerve-wracking. Most likely, your priorities have changed. That’s why the steps outlined below will help you see things more clearly, and roll up your sleeves with a bit of cheering up.

Where did you leave your Google Ads account?

Chances are you’ll fall into one of the three scenarios below:

  1. You stopped everything during the COVID-19 epidemic. And now you’re back to get things moving again. In the end, you’re one of the lucky ones – you’ve done most of the work, and now you just need to work on the strategy.
  2. You’ve continued, but you’ve cut your budget. That’s good news too, because you’ve got a whole lot of recent data that will come in very handy when it comes to implementing your new strategy.
  3. Are you getting into Google Ads for the first time? Wonderful, you’ll be able to create your campaigns with a whole new perspective.

As you can see, whatever your situation, there are positives. Everyone has their own opportunities, so all you have to do is exploit them.

Request a free audit by Google Ads experts

How do you audit your Google Ads account in a post-COVID world?

Are you ready to wake up your Google Ads account and attract new prospects? A little patience… It’s important to start by taking a quick look at the aspects of your account that you should review before getting started.

Adjust your daily budgets

First thing to do: adjust your daily budgets. You may not want to spend what you did before COVID. Take some time to consider what your spending was before the pandemic, during it, and what your goals are today.

Perhaps you’ll need to adjust your day-to-day budgets if they’re still set on your 2019 or 2020 targets. How do you determine your new post-COVID budgets? There’s a formula, for example, that allows you to make estimates for 2021. All you then need to do is allocate this amount day by day, according to the breakdown best suited to your expectations. Use the following calculation:

Monthly budget or projected expenditure divided by 30.4 (average number of days in a month) = Overall daily budget

It’s up to you to decide how to allocate this sum to the campaigns that are most important to you.

Evaluate your metrics and set realistic goals

As you probably know, performance can vary considerably from one year to the next. That’s why it’s always a good idea to look back and assess where you were a few weeks or months ago.

This will help you set realistic goals for 2021. Of course, focus on the data that matters most to you. For example, it’s probably a good idea to start with CPA. Or if it’s brand awareness you’re working on, it’s impressions or click-through rates that should get your full attention. And don’t hesitate to consult benchmarks in your sector to get a clear idea of where you currently stand, and what your ambitions should be.

Make sure your bidding strategies are consistent with your objectives

It may seem obvious, but it’s one of the most important steps. You need to make sure that your campaigns are linked to a bidding strategy in line with your current objectives.

Case in point? You’re not going to use a conversion-based strategy like target CPA if you don’t have enough recent data for Google to optimize. The same goes for target CPCs that no longer correspond to current data.

So remember that bidding strategies such as Target CPA require a minimum of history. If you’re embarking on a post-COVID campaign with little data, you may be better off opting for a manual strategy, or preferring an automatic bidding strategy such as Maximize Clicks.

Allow time for the algorithm to adapt

You probably have a morning routine that resembles a gradual adaptation to a new day: brushing your teeth, coffee, toast, orange juice, news of the day, etc. Well, your Google Ads campaigns undergo a similar process when they emerge from an extended period of standby. This phase consists of learning the algorithm.

In a nutshell, Google’s algorithm always performs a personalized learning process to offer the best possible optimization for each account. It uses historical data, combines it with new modifications and then tests different methods of delivering your ads to deliver the best possible results.

If your account has been put on hold due to COVID 19, expect a learning period of around one to two weeks, especially if you are making changes to important elements such as bidding strategy. So you’ll have to be patient.

Check your geographic targeting

Here’s a tip: the way you set up your campaign’s geographic targeting will have an impact not only on your audience, but also on your spending. If, in the past, you targeted the whole of France, perhaps today you can start with certain cities that interest you more specifically. This means you’ll have to adapt an undoubtedly smaller budget to more precise targeting.

Put certain keywords on standby or add new ones

Don’t be afraid to put certain keywords on pause. In a post-COVID world, where every penny counts, it’s counter-productive to hold on to a keyword that doesn’t suit you at the moment.

Put underperforming keywords on the back burner and keep the most relevant ones, according to your current objectives. This will help you organize your campaigns and use only keywords you’re convinced will have an impact.

And, of course, you can think of new keywords. You can use Google’s Keyword Planner to help you along the way. Unlike Google Trends, the Google Keyword Planner provides a much more granular overview of keyword metrics by location. Think about it when you reactivate your account. It’s a great way to align your expectations, bids and budget.

This tool also gives you a snapshot of search volume based on specified locations and timeframes. Combine it with Google Trends to get the current state of search volume and average CPC for keywords in your sector.

Rethink your advertising content and landing pages

If your campaign has been inactive for a long time, your ad hasn’t changed either. So, if your PPC objectives are no longer the same as they were before COVID, it’s probably time to rethink your ad copy. Is it in line with your new objectives? Does it correspond to your new keywords or a new landing page?

Simply put, you don’t want to promote a discount that was only available in 2020, or a service you no longer offer. Similarly, you don’t want this ad to link to an old landing page.

Now’s the time to ask yourself the right questions about what you’re currently promoting, and which keywords you’re now interested in. What’s more, a new ad will offer Internet users a bit of renewal.

Put underperforming ads, ad groups or campaigns on standby

If you want to save money, you can also temporarily stop underperforming ads, ad groups and campaigns. In a post-COVID world, you probably want to make sure that your money is well invested. That means focusing on the essentials and putting the rest on hold.

Analyze keywords to exclude

Don’t forget to check the keywords to be excluded when you reactivate your account. Consult the Google Search Terms Report to find out which keywords to exclude and keep an up-to-date list. This will ensure that you continue to appear on relevant searches and don’t spend your money in vain.

Configure your ad delivery schedule

Perhaps today, your ads work better at a different time and day than before COVID. In fact, with telecommuting and changing lifestyles, certain parameters have been modified.

Don’t forget to set your ad delivery schedule to the most active hours to optimize your budget.

Update your ad extensions

Ad extensions are a great way to create your own ads, but also to ensure that you always display high-quality ads on search pages. Be careful, however, not to rely too heavily on the automatic aspect and leave them as they are. When auditing your account, be sure to ask yourself whether your ads are still relevant.

Check your conversion tracking

If you’ve been neglecting your Google Ads account, don’t hesitate to double-check your conversion tracking. Knowing that COVID has changed the game, you may have new actions to track, or a new site that still requires the implementation of Google Tag Manager tracking tags.

How about an example? You’ve added a chat feature to your site and would like to know how many people are using it. You can also access your site directly to ensure that all tags are working properly, on the right pages, using the Google Tag Assistant plug-in.

You can also take advantage of this to display a list of tracked conversions and resolve any issues relating to old or missing conversions, in order to detect incorrect conversion data.

Use Google Trends

Let’s say you’ve restored your account to its former glory, and it’s ready to go again. However, your performance isn’t up to par with last year. Perhaps it’s not your fault. Because in a post-COVID world, the interests of searchers are no longer the same. Patterns of popularity in Google searches are constantly changing. Consumers’ priorities and needs have changed considerably as a result of the pandemic.

Google Trends helps you find out how much interest there is in a given keyword or subject in a specific geographical area. Use it to see if your drop in performance is simply due to a drop in search volume.

Evaluate the competition with Bid Analysis

Whether your account has been suspended for some time or you’re currently using it, you can also make use of Google Ads’ Bid Analysis. This enables you to assess trends in your sector.

You’ll find the companies that appear most often on the same page of search results. This will tell you whether the competition has changed since COVID 19, or whether your old rival is still in the running.

Bid Analysis shows you not only who is on the SERP, but also where they are on the page; whether above or below you.

Review your modification history

This is the perfect time to take a look at your workflow before and during COVID. Check out Google’s Change History section to see what changes you last made to your account, and when. This will eventually encourage you to follow the same pattern.

It’s easy to forget the routine checks you used to make. This will not only help you get back into good habits, but also give you an insight into past trends in your account.

Audit and reactivate your Google Ads account with confidence

Whether you’ve put your account completely on hold, scaled back your activity or started from scratch, you stand to benefit from reactivating your Google Ads account after the peak of the pandemic. And to sum up, here are the steps we’ve identified over the course of this article:

  1. Adjust your daily budgets
  2. Evaluate your metrics and set realistic goals
  3. Make sure your bidding strategies are consistent with your objectives
  4. Allow time for the algorithm to adapt
  5. Check your geographic targeting
  6. Put certain keywords on standby or add new ones
  7. Rethink your advertising content and landing pages
  8. Put underperforming ads, ad groups or campaigns on standby
  9. Analyze the keywords to exclude
  10. Configure your ad delivery schedule
  11. Update your ad extensions
  12. Check your conversion tracking
  13. Use Google Trends
  14. Evaluate the competition with Bid Analysis
  15. Review your modification history

Ask us for a free, no-obligation audit of your accounts

SEA strategy: the importance of properly measuring your Google Ads performance

Posted on by Adenlab Adenlab

Recently, we covered the subject of Google Ads taking control after COVID, as well as Google Ads Smart Bidding.

To take things a step further, we felt it essential to address the issue of performance measurement.

How do you measure your performance on Google Ads?
Of course, a good SEA strategy can’t be conceived without an in-depth analysis of the numbers and behavior of your ads.

How to measure your return on investment? How can you easily and effectively measure your performance on Google Ads? We’ll answer all your questions.

How do you measure your return on investment (ROI)?

Whatever your reason for using Google Ads (increasing sales, getting more leads, etc.), it’s important to always keep your ROI in mind.

Without monitoring this aspect of your SEA strategy, you won’t be able to see the real effect of your investments.

And first of all, on Google Ads, in order to calculate your ROI, you absolutely need to know your costs (advertising, but also manufacturing if applicable).

  • You can also apply the following calculation:
    ROI = (Margin – Advertising cost) / Advertising cost
  • If you want to calculate your ROAS (return on advertising investment) you can do so as follows:
    ROAS = Revenue (e.g. from Google Ads) / Advertising cost

Track your Google Ads conversions and revenues

Google Ads provides you with a campaign management and analysis tool, so you can track your conversions precisely.

This enables you to determine how many clicks have actually generated conversions. This way, you can find out whether a product, keyword or ad is profitable for your business.

Of course, the value of each conversion must be greater than what you spent.

Sample Google Ads report

Why measure your Google Ads performance?

Get more visits

Measuring your performance as part of your SEA strategy gives you the means to achieve your objectives.

Do you want more traffic to your website? Then you need to focus on increasing clicks and click-through rates.

Keeping track of these figures will tell you whether your current strategy is working: campaigns and ad groups by theme or brand, lists of keywords around the same theme, careful ad copywriting, and so on.

Increase sales and conversions

To set new sales targets, you need to track conversions and revenue on Google Ads.

A product on Google Shopping or a keyword in your text ads that works very well leads to a large number of conversions, while on the other hand, you may find that certain products or keywords are ineffective.

It’s time to invest in the products and search terms that bring you the highest returns.

You also need to make sure that your campaigns link to the right pages and products.

Indirect conversions report – Google Analytics

Increase your brand awareness

Do you want to raise your profile? Launch a brand?

It’s theincrease in impression volume that you’ll need to study closely, as well as customer engagement, audience size and frequency of use.

Your SEA strategy should be based on Google Ads campaigns designed to reach as many of your target audience as possible.

What’s more, you also want to encourage web users to interact with your content as much as possible: keep a close eye on the click-through rates (CTR) of your campaigns.

Google Ads campaign objectives

SEA strategy: improve your ROI

In conclusion, if you want to succeed with your SEA strategy, you need to monitor your Google Ads on a regular basis.

Most important of all? Without doubt, being able to identify campaigns that generate few conversions, so that you can rework them or remove them permanently.

SEA campaign: measure for better international development

Posted on by Adenlab Adenlab

Do you currently sell only in France, and would like to export your products to North America, South America or perhaps Asia? Do you dream of developing your application internationally to reach a wider audience?

There’s nothing like measuring your results, so you don’t invest without a concrete basis for success. Thanks to Market Finder and Google Analytics, you can really understand your foreign visitors, identify them, and then respond to their specific needs.

Google Market Finder

Google Analytics and Market Finder: two essential tools for your SEA campaigns

Market Finder: your ally for international market entry

Google’s Market Finder is designed to help you expand abroad and support your international marketing strategy. It’s the right tool if you want to find out more about advertising solutions for your SEA campaign, and the importance of measuring your results.

After entering your URL on Market Finder, Google identifies the markets most suited to your business. This gives you the most coherent countries relevant to your business, with extremely precise insights: monthly search volume, recommended bid, ease of doing business index, real net disposable household income. In short, everything you ever wanted to know!

Google Analytics: essential information about your site

Google Analytics, on the other hand, is designed to help you expand abroad and support your international marketing strategy. It’s the right tool for keeping a close eye on your SEA campaign budget. Thanks to Google Analytics, you’ll get precise answers about where your visitors come from, what they do during a browsing session, average spend, session time… Key elements for a controlled and effective opening onto the world.

With Google Analytics, you’ll get precise answers about where your visitors come from, what they do during a browsing session, average spend, session time…

SEA campaign: precise reports to help you expand internationally

Google Analytics offers you reports sent by email, according to elements as different as :

  • Audience type” reports, for information on users: gender, age, origin, language, interests…
  • Acquisition reports detailing how users arrived on your site: marketing campaigns, social networking campaigns,Facebook advertising, website, search engines…
  • Reports on behavior on your site: most visited pages, most frequent entry and exit pages…

Essential data for conquering markets in other countries

Tracking this data is particularly important when launching a new product, or when you’ve recently set up in a new foreign country. It will enable you to adapt your message to your new target audience, as well as your Google Ads campaigns, for example, as part of an effective and consistent international SEA campaign.

You’ll be able to offer content based on the sites from which your visitors come, or on certain search themes, but also relevant content: images, texts, videos adapted to your target language and not just translated.

How to set up an effective SEA strategy for an e-commerce site?

Posted on by Adenlab Adenlab

In addition to a well-calibrated search engine optimization strategy, SEA (or paid search) campaigns can help you rapidly achieve the objectives you’ve set for your e-commerce site.

But just like a marketing plan, a SEA campaign needs to be properly organized beforehand, to get the best return on investment. Before you get started, here are a few things you need to know to put in place a well-informed, and above all personalized, SEA strategy for your e-commerce site.

Step one: identify your goals!

All paid search campaigns can serve different purposes:

  • Acquire new customers, by developing your website’s notoriety and thus its audience
  • Make your communication campaigns profitable
  • Introduce new products, promote a launch or an event
  • Follow-up prospects and customers
  • Increase your sales
  • Etc…

Before taking the first steps towards creating your campaign, you need to ask yourself which objectives are relevant to your company’s digital strategy.

Keep in mind that your campaign must take into account aspects that are specific to your organization. For example:

  • Which brands are your priorities?
  • What are the highest-margin products in your catalog?
  • What is your stock situation, and what are your supply forecasts?
  • What are your planned sales events and promotions?

Step two: consider the buying journey

An important phase, the conversion tunnel (also known as the purchase or sales funnel) represents the various stages a prospect goes through before becoming a customer. This may involve consulting mailings, visiting the website, social networks, physical stores, etc., right through to purchase.

Google recently renamed this phase the “messy middle”.
The “Messy Middle” is the more or less short period between the expression of need and a customer’s purchase.
This period contains a random path of exposure to your marketing messages and those of competitors, made up of various stages of inspiration, research and comparison before the final decision is made: the purchase.

Your mission is to guide and shorten this phase. That’s how you’ll improve your ecommerce site’s conversion rate.

That’s why it’s important to know your customers, the competition and the information available on the market: your SEA strategy will be all the more effective for it. Each stage of this process must be accompanied by specific actions to achieve your objectives.

Don’t forget: optimize your e-commerce site to improve the performance of your SEA campaign.

As part of your SEA strategy, it’s essential to optimize your e-commerce site. In fact, while many companies link their ads to existing pages on their websites, the proper organization of your account will also depend on the tree structure and categories of your site.

The prerequisite for successful campaigns is clear categorization (ordered by product category, brand, etc.) and the creation of optimized landing pages to serve your campaign objectives.

In particular, they must include a unique, well-defined call-to-action (CTA) to encourage your targeted visitors to take that action (request for quote, purchase, reservation…).

Step 3: Define your performance indicators

Once you’ve defined your sales objectives and categorized your site, it’s essential to quantify them to get a concrete view of your results, and optimize the profitability of your campaign.

At the end of this stage, you’ll need to set up a series of performance indicators (KPIs) that will enable you to measure your return on investment (ROI) and the real effect of your expenditure.

Here are the main KPIs to track and analyze to determine the specific performance of the SEA strategy implemented for your e-commerce site:

  • Cost-per-click (CPC): the average amount charged for a click on your ad. It is calculated by dividing the total cost of clicks by the total number of clicks.
  • Quality Score: this is a score between 0 and 10, assigned to your ad by Google as part of a Google Ads campaign. It is defined according to criteria of relevance, expected click-through rate and landing page quality.
  • Click-through rate (CTR): this indicator corresponds to the number of clicks obtained in relation to the number of impressions of your ad.
  • Average position: this is the position at which your ad is displayed on a page in relation to other ads.
  • Number of impressions: this is the frequency with which your ad is displayed. An impression is counted each time your ad is displayed on a search results page.
  • Conversion rate: this percentage corresponds to the average number of conversions carried out each time an ad is interacted with.

Finally, analyze the evolution of your sales and your site’s overall audience over the long term. Because a well-executed SEA campaign generally has a global impact on your business that cannot be immediately measured on a single channel.

Step 4: Choose the right strategy for each of your objectives

Once your objectives are clear and defined, taking into account the customer journey and integrated into a relevant overall acquisition strategy, you can launch targeted actions, step by step.

Develop brand and product awareness

The first step is to introduce your brand, products or services to potential prospects. At this stage, your mission is to generate visibility for your company.

One effective strategy is to set up a Display advertising campaign, which will initially enable you to reach a large audience. In particular, you can explore the solutions offered by Youtube Ads.

With over a billion videos viewed every day, YouTube represents a real opportunity to develop your brand image with specific targets (age range, geolocation, interests…) and promote your products.

From a wide choice of formats (True View, Discovery TrueView, Bumper, Masthead, Google Preferred…), choose the one that best suits your needs. True View, for example, displays an ad while the user is watching a video, and has the advantage of being billed only if the viewer watches at least 30 seconds of the ad.

Generate interest in your products

This involves convincing Internet users who already have a potential interest in the products you offer. To specifically target them and get them to visit your site, you can opt for a Search campaign via Google Ads.

This type of campaign allows you to display your ad alongside perfectly targeted Google search results, in affinity with the needs met by your products. In this way, you reach users at the precise moment they are looking for the type of products or services you offer.

Motivate purchases and drive traffic to your e-commerce site

When an Internet user is determined to buy a product you have in your catalog, your natural aim is to encourage them to buy it on your site.

You can then opt for a Google Shopping campaign, which will enable you to display a product listing in search results as well as in Google’s Shopping tab.

The advantage of this format is that it directly targets web surfers who are in the buying process. These people are actively researching and comparing similar products before making their choice.

Google’s results pages display products at the top of the page, when users’ queries are clearly related to a purchase: products sold on your e-commerce site are thus promoted.

Follow up with a potential customer or prospect

Despite the quality of the campaigns you’ve set up, it sometimes happens that web users don’t make a purchase when they first visit your site, or when they see your ad.

You can then use Google Ads’ remarketing tool to carry out a personalized commercial relaunch. This allows you to boost the performance of your campaigns by re-presenting your ads to targeted web users who have interacted with one of them.

These solutions enable you not only to re-engage your audience, complete purchases or abandoned shopping baskets, but also to conclude your prospects’ conversion processes!

Do you have questions about your campaigns? Are you struggling to optimize your SEA strategy to maximize sales on your e-commerce site?

Get in touch with us! Our experts will help you build a customized strategy, fully parameterized to meet your specific objectives and evolve over time in line with your performance.

The ultimate guide to Local Services Ads from Google Ads

Posted on by Adenlab Adenlab

simulate the results of your Google Ads campaigns:

Our performance simulator gives you the results you can expect from your Google Ads campaigns …

Google’s reach may extend to the whole world, but for some searches, and especially searches for local services near you, you need a solution in our own neighborhood (and fast)!

People who have an overflowing sink can’t wait for a plumber to come from the other side of France…

Yet companies offering local services often find it hard to convert these potential customers with simple text ads on Google.

That’s why these same companies should be delighted with the solutions offered by Google Ads: Local Services ads:

Google Ads’ Local Services ads are an excellent complement to local SEO strategies if you offer local services(locksmiths, plumbers, garage door professionals, electricians and HVAC services).

With Local Services from Google Ads, when a surfer enters a local search query (such as the one below), several professionals are displayed, just above the traditional paid search ads.

These ads display the company number, opening hours, ratings and reviews left by customers.

These local Google Ads campaigns are displayed on computers, tablets and mobiles.

These ads will also be offered in the Google Assistant response to voice searches!

Who can benefit from Google Ads Local Services?

Today, Google offers Local Services Ads for the following sectors:

  •   Aide ménagère

  •   Aménagement paysager

  •   Bardage

  •   Clôtures

  •   Collecte de déchets

  •   Constructeurs de piscines

  •   Couverture

  •   CVC

  •   Déménagement

  •   Diagnostics immobiliers

  •   Entreprise générale

  •   Entretien de pelouses

  •   Entretien de piscine

  •   Extermination des nuisibles

  •   Fondations

  •   Homme à tout faire

  •   Menuiserie

  •   Nettoyage de tapis/moquettes

  •   Nettoyage de vitres

  •   Plomberie

  •   Réparation d'appareils électroménagers

  •   Revêtement de sol

  •   Services d'arboriculture

  •   Services de déneigement

  •   Services de restauration après un dégât des eaux

  •   Services électriques

  •   Services liés aux fenêtres

  •   Services liés aux plans de travail

  •   Services liés aux portes de garage

Not all services are supported in all markets
To find out if you are eligible, visit theGoogle Local Services help pagesand sign up for the program here.

What are the advantages of Google Ads Local Services ads?

Advertisers who use traditional Google Ads campaigns know that it’s expensive to pay for a click that isn’t appropriate or doesn’t convert (indeed, local service advertisers often pay Cost per Click sometimes more than 5 times the average cost per click in Google Ads).

Google Ads local campaigns connect potential customers with the right advertiser, and avoid the mismatches that often occur when a user searches for general terms for a very specific service, or for a location outside a company’s service area.

With Les Annonce Local Services, local service advertisers are billed only for valid leads.

If you receive a fraudulent lead, spam or bad correspondence, you can even dispute the billing to obtain a credit.

How can you earn the trust of Internet users with the "Google Protection" badge?

💡 Local Services ads appear with a green tick next to “Google Protection”.

As well as attracting the attention of users, this allows companies to benefit from Google’s guarantee.

Users trust Google, and its recommendation is not limited to its reputation.

And yes … The “Google Protection” guarantee protects dissatisfied customers up to €1,500 in France on work carried out via local service listings. Find out more about this guarantee offered and insured by Google here

💡 Your positive reviews and comments are highlighted

Every Local Services ad includes ratings and reviews from past customers to help you earn the trust of Internet users.

Currently, Local Services ads are one of the few ways to get your reviews featured in search engines.

💡 Extend the reach of your paid search ads

You’ll notice that Google Ads’ Local Services ads are positioned above traditional paid ads and organic results.

This is because Google’s Local Services ads are not intended to replace your traditional search ads, or even your local search engine optimization.

💡 Be included in voice search responses

With over 20% of all searches coming from voice search, local service ads represent one of the few ways to ensure you’re going to be found on the multiple devices powered by Google Assistant.

💡 No ads or keywords to manage

Paid search advertisers know that keyword research and ad testing can be time-consuming tasks. Google Ads’ Local Servies campaigns require neither!

These campaigns are automatically triggered when a customer searches for one of thousands of relevant search terms, from as broad as “plumber” to as specific as “leaky faucet under the sink”.

The ad format will be automatically created using the information contained in your company profile.

How to launch your Google Ads Local Services campaigns and ads?

💡 Confirm your eligibility :

Local Services campaigns are only available in certain sectors and markets.

To find out if you can deploy Local Services Ads, first confirm your business type and location.

If you qualify, you’ll be guided through the process of creating an account to manage your local service listings.

These ads are managed separately from the ads you create in Google Ads or Google Ads Express, so you’ll need to create a new account.

💡 Create your company profile

Your Google profile for Local Services Ads is different from your Google My Business account, which is linked to your local listing on Google (if you haven’t already done so, note that you need to create and optimize this account too).

Your company profile for these ads will determine which service offers will be associated with your local service ads.

Be clear about the type of services you are able to offer and the areas in which you want to obtain leads.

From your company profile, you can edit

  •   Votre budget hebdomadaire

  •   Vos heures d'ouverture

  •   Vos domaines de service

  •   Vos types de services

You also have the option of adding highlights to your company profile, which will eventually be displayed alongside your ads and on your company details page.

How do you manage your inbound leads and business opportunities?

Once your company profile is complete, you can launch your ads and start collecting new leads.

From your dashboard, you can access the “lead” tab via the drop-down menu in the top right-hand corner.

Don’t forget that leads (potential customers) are not necessarily confirmed customers! So make sure you follow up your incoming leads.

Once you’ve selected a prospect, you can view their details, including job type and location, and listen to a recording of the call.

After reviewing these leads, you have three options for follow-up:

  • Reply to the customer by sending your message in the form of an e-mail or SMS to the customer.
  • Call the customer on the telephone number they have provided.
  • Decline the request. If you decline the request, it will be deleted and the potential customer will be informed. You can send a reply with further information on why the request was declined. Once declined, requests can be retrieved in the event of a change.

Managing your budget

From your company profile, you can adjust your ad budget. You can manage the amount you wish to spend on your ads by increasing or decreasing your average weekly budget.

Since you’re charged on a cost-per-lead basis – not per-click – with Google Ads Local Services campaigns, increasing or decreasing your budget will have a direct impact on the number of inbound leads you generate.

Remember that your ad budget is separate from your Google Ads budget.

Classifying ads

Even with these new Local Services ads, space is still limited on the search engine!

However, unlike your search ads where you have to worry about your ad’s quality score – formulated by a combination of your ad’s CTR, relevance and landing page, you don’t have to worry about these ranking factors.

Instead, Google calculates the ranking of your local service ads by taking the following factors into account:

  • Votre proximité par rapport aux emplacements des clients potentiels
  • Votre score d'évaluation et le nombre d'évaluations que vous recevez
  • Votre réactivité aux demandes de renseignements et aux requêtes des clients
  • Vos heures d'ouverture.
  • L'existence ou non de plaintes sérieuses ou répétées concernant votre entreprise.

Get reviews

Reviews play an important role in the ranking of your ads, so it’s especially important to collect reviews from satisfied customers.

Fortunately, Google makes it easy for you to contact customers who book appointments through your ads and ask them for feedback.

In the “Reviews” tab of your local service listings manager, you can review the work you’ve done for your customers and ask them directly to leave a Google review about you.

Be sure to personalize the message for your customers to increase the likelihood that they’ll leave a review about you!

All you have to do is get started now and acquire new customers, close to your establishments!
To find out more about our digital marketing agency, please contact us to set up a local strategy for your business.

Conversion tracking with Google Ads

Posted on by Adenlab Adenlab
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Why integrate conversion tracking with shopping cart data when running an ecommerce business?

Google Ads conversion tracking is essential for measuring the performance of your campaigns.

There are several categories of conversion on Google Ads, but the one we’re most interested in for Ecommerce is the value and therefore the purchases made following an interaction with your Shopping or Search campaigns.

Today, Google Ads offers tracking elements in addition to the conversion value, and these include Shopping Cart information!

And yes, Google has set up an improved tracking system that allows you to track not only the conversion value, but also information on the products that have been sold: this is conversion tracking with shopping cart data.

Here we’ll give you a quick reminder of Google Ads conversion tracking, and then give you the information on this Google Ads tracking with the basket data as well!

What is Google Ads conversion tracking?

Google Ads conversion tracking refers to all the procedures and devices used to record conversions or transactions carried out on your website, and to bring back information that is important for your profitability measurements.

With Google Ads conversions, you can track the transactions generated by your Search or Google Shopping campaigns, as well as Display and Youtube.

It’s thanks to this code snippet that you’ll be able to track transaction values in Google Ads and measure the return on investment (ROAS) of your campaigns.

Google Ads conversion tracking is therefore essential and must be functional before embarking on any major expenditure on Google Ads.

There are several types of conversion you can measure, such as :

  1. Sending a form
  2. One call
  3. Request a quote
  4. …

The above actions measure lead acquisition strategies

For Ecommerce, it is common to measure business objectives such as :

  1. Purchasing
  2. Add to basket
  3. Initiated payments

In fact, the device most frequently used by Ecommerces is the one tracking transaction information generated by Google Ads campaigns.

This is the “Purchase” tag, which allows you to track the value of the transaction attributed to your campaign.

This is of course very interesting and extremely useful, but it lacks information on the products that were actually sold in this transaction.

Usually, it’s in Google Analytics and in the E-Commerce part of the reports that you’ll find data on the products that have been purchased by your customers.

Google Ads tracking with Shopping Cart data lets you know directly in Google Ads which products have been purchased, without having to go into Google Analytics.

When it comes to analyzing the performance of campaigns and your catalog, this functionality is more refined, enabling you to better distribute your products and prioritize the distribution of your catalog in relation to sales.

What’s more, the integration of tracking with shopping cart data will enable you to go even further in your analyses, and automatically calculate the margins generated by your campaigns.

To create a conversion action, you will find all the information on the Google Ads page: Create a conversion action
and in your Google Ads tab: Tools and settings > Measurement > Conversion

Why install conversion tracking with shopping cart data?

As mentioned above, Google Ads conversion tracking, and more specifically the “Purchase” tag, will enable you to track conversions and conversion values: the value of the transaction attributed to your campaign.

This information is essential for estimating the profitability of your campaigns and the return on investment.

However, if you set your Google Ads tracking parameters to bring up Shopping Cart data, your analyses, and ultimately your optimizations, will be more relevant and effective.

Not only will you be able to analyze the value of conversions, you’ll also know which products were sold during these same transactions.

Conversion tracking with Shopping Cart data will also enable you to measure the revenues and profits generated by your Shopping and Search Network ads.

And yes, you'll be able to measure the profits (margins) made on your campaigns.

To track margins, you’ll need to add costing information. This will enable Google Ads to **automatically calculate product margins. **

Advantages of this tracking mode :

  • precise measurement of revenues and profits generated by Google Ads (Shopping and Search ads)
  • Detailed reports on basket size and average value
  • Detailed reports on items sold

How do I set up conversion tracking with shopping cart data?

To get Shopping Cart data into Google Ads conversion reports, you’ll need to set up conversion tracking using Google’s global site tag or Google Tag Manager (GTM).

However, we recommend that you go through your Tag Manager and add the data parameters using your Data layers;

Here is the example provided by Google Ads Help:

To transfer basket data to the conversion tools, proceed as follows:

  1. Select the conversion tag to which you wish to send the shopping cart data.
  2. Check the “Provide sales data at product level” box.
  3. Select data layer or JavaScript variables as data source.
  4. You must add the parameters below to the payment page to reference them.

Find out more in the article: “Configuring and testing conversion reporting with shopping cart data“.

Do you have more questions about Google Ads conversion tracking? Do you need to set up an appropriate tagging plan for your Google Analytics and GA4 analyses?

Contact our Analytics and Tag Management team. We will certainly be able to help you.

Consult our Data & RGPD experts