Ads question

[t2van]

Is PPC worth it when targeting a generic term when you only sell a small, limited number of products inside the category?

I get bombarded DAILY with various companies offering to run our ads (I've never done PPC in the whole time of having the business) the ones that do the research and present what I think cold email should look like I often reach back as the effort should be rewarded with a reply. Problem is they all offer these great returns but time I factor in ad costs, their fee and what not on the lower end I look at £100 for the total outlay. On the face it's not worth it UNLESS I consider the life time value for the customer then it kind of makes sense.

BUT one of my biggest issues is that I don't offer enough products in some of the categories they want to target, compared to my competitors. In fact, in some cases, I may only have 4 products while the competitor has 12 or more. Do ads for them make it worthwhile running as there is a greater chance to convert? Should I still run ads even with the 4? I'm guessing no.

If I go down a super laser-focused targeted ad, then is it even worth running it all if i dominate the SERPs anyway?

(note I dont want DMs offering your "agency" services - I just want a forum discussion)

 

[Champagne]

If you already dominate the SERPs organically and only have a few products in the category, then generic PPC likely isn’t worth it.

 

[t2van]

If you already dominate the SERPs organically and only have a few products in the category, then generic PPC likely isn’t worth it.

Thank you.

This is what I long suggested. Always get sold the dream via PPC agencies but when I want to break it down based on products v competitors or our average customer type (ideally the perfect customer persona) they often go quiet!

 

[roydan]

Sent you a DM offering my agency's service.
Jk

I wouldn't use broad keyword if you only target a fraction of the industry.
If you can identify your users using their search keywords, that could be a reliable way of getting them. Try phrase or exact with tons of negative keywords.

That being said, PPC is a lot wider than plain search ads. If you run an E-commerce business, try running a dynamic remarketing campaign, where you show past visitors the products they watched on your site and haven't purchased yet.
Use remarketing on search, showing for broader keywords, assuming they are already pre-qualified because they have already been on your site.

Display is a whole other thing, where you can target users with or without them searching for your keywords based on a couple of signals from Google..
Shopping campaigns can also prove efficient at times, assuming you have the patience to optimize your feed, and Google has an expanded version of that called Pmax shopping.

Dominating the SERP is only getting a part of the market.

 

[t2van]

Sent you a DM offering my agency's service.
Jk

I wouldn't use broad keyword if you only target a fraction of the industry.
If you can identify your users using their search keywords, that could be a reliable way of getting them. Try phrase or exact with tons of negative keywords.

Yeah id not exactly say its a fraction, it no doubt is as I want to exclude a specific type of buyer we have worked our audicence into 6 customer personas and out of those 6 we just want 5! 1 type gives us soo much trouble in terms of resources with customer services taken and just general prombling solving it's not worth our time.

Now, once that customer proceeds into the 2nd type of customer, I'll be happy to onboard them..

All the agencies that have come to me don't want to target say "screws" they want to go "wood screws" but within that category I might have 4 screw types but a competitor will have 12-20 and in some cases 152! (I know thats precise but we recently audited 6 of our main competitors to figure out what we have to change)

That being said, PPC is a lot wider than plain search ads. If you run an E-commerce business, try running a dynamic remarketing campaign, where you show past visitors the products they watched on your site and haven't purchased yet.
Use remarketing on search, showing for broader keywords, assuming they are already pre-qualified because they have already been on your site.

Bingo. Ecom.

Yes re-target / marketing is something that is on our radar.

Display is a whole other thing, where you can target users with or without them searching for your keywords based on a couple of signals from Google..
Shopping campaigns can also prove efficient at times, assuming you have the patience to optimize your feed, and Google has an expanded version of that called Pmax shopping.

hmm interesting, we have the google shopping feed now (free one) because why not but I dont do anything with it I think we get 178k clicks min through it currently..

Dominating the SERP is only getting a part of the market.

Interesting you ended with that. Because this is one of the internal struggles we are having now or I am having. Is do we try and go out of the SERP and try ads to expand the market or just keep doing what we are doing an put the focus into product development and growth.

For instance I totally ignore one side of the market and I know I'm leaving money behind (something I'm changing) at the moment some of the thoughts are if we increase product count within specific categories to bring them more in line with competitors, we should see X growth I think...

 

[roydan]

All the agencies that have come to me don't want to target say "screws" they want to go "wood screws" but within that category I might have 4 screw types but a competitor will have 12-20 and in some cases 152! (I know thats precise but we recently audited 6 of our main competitors to figure out what we have to change)

How many of your clients need more types of screws in the same order, to a point where it prevents them from buying products you do sell?

Is it that hard to add the rest?

Would most clients search for "wooden screws" or "4/56 wooden screws"? Can you identify your clients with keywords or is it more about the size of order?

Yes re-target / marketing is something that is on our radar.

Pretty easy to set up, I really doubt you need an agency just for that.

Interesting you ended with that. Because this is one of the internal struggles we are having now or I am having. Is do we try and go out of the SERP and try ads to expand the market or just keep doing what we are doing an put the focus into product development and growth.

Are you focusing enough on your existing clients? It's a lot easier to get a second sale from an existing client than generating another client.

At the end of the day you can't not leave money on the floor, but you should prioritize based on both effort and how much money you can gain.

---
In the end, the least you should do is start by implementing the tracking codes on your site and setting up your merchant center. You can start feeding the algos with some data, and worse case - you don't use it.

 

[t2van]

@roydan Yeah! Screws was an example. We don't do screws. We manufacture about 90% of our stock so extending the stock and expanding lines is not something I can do at a click UNLESS I decide to go back on our quality control standards..


I'll get someone into thr retarget next week thanks

Yes, existing clients, we have grown our lifetime spend to just shy of £500 ,which isnt bad when you have a low price product, our basket avg value has also grown to just under £29. As aragant as it is to say most of our customers once they come to us and buy it's rare they leave us for someone else unless we scewed up badly BUT we have a good recovery process in place should that happen!