At Paraphrase Online, we support over 500 online stores, so it’s not the time to flirt with modesty. We just know what works in a given industry and at a given scale of activity. Google Analytics does not lie. That is why in this post we will focus on what to focus on in online store marketing.

Online store marketing – what budget?

What budget will be ideal to launch effective online store marketing? I probably won’t be surprised by giving a Solomon answer that … it depends.

We have clients who have invested several dozen or even several hundred thousand dollars in their own online stores, but have forgotten that they still need to inform customers and at the beginning they had $ 3,000 or $ 4,000 for advertising. An in-depth investment in the website itself makes sense if it takes into account, for example, the delivery of interesting content at the entrance or seo optimization. However, if the technology and graphics and programming games cost us a lot, and at the same time we have not secured funds for marketing, then we may have a problem with getting the right traffic to even the most beautiful store under the sun.

Many customers are wary of online advertising because awareness of how different advertising systems work is simply low. The most important points that reinforce the belief that this is a real investment, not just an expense, are:

– by advertising your online store, we can accurately measure the effectiveness of each campaign or advertising channel,
– you can choose any time you want to broadcast your ads in response to market changes or specific events,
– you can flexibly manage your budget and seeing that it “works”, spend more money on advertising,
– you can and even need to test new solutions that have sales potential,
– you can easily determine how much it costs you to acquire a customer and optimize the campaign in this respect. Anyway, this is the most interesting piece of the puzzle – many entrepreneurs who apply to Paraphrase Online do not know how much they can actually spend to acquire one customer. For some products it will be hundreds of dollars, and for others it will be cents.

Considering the above, one conclusion emerges immediately. Too small a budget at the beginning will make the test less reliable and you can alienate yourself with a given advertising tool. Let’s say you have an online store with a lot of competition that spends $ 10,000 on advertising only in Google Ads. However, you have $ 500 a month for this environment. This amount will result in insufficient traffic in a given category. Because what if basically acquiring a client in this category costs e.g. $ 250? Too small a sample will make you randomly burn $ 500 at random.

In order to draw the appropriate conclusions, it is necessary to determine at the beginning – preferably in consultation with a specialist in a given field – how much it must be spent for the “trial” to give us the actual size of the potential profit.

When advertising on the internet, the matter is simple – too small a budget for a given area will be a simple waste of money that we still don’t have. Is there such a thing as too big an advertising budget? Yes! At a certain level, with a given targeting of advertisements, it may turn out that we can not spend more on advertising indefinitely because the converting traffic will remain at the current level and the expenses will increase. This will make getting customers just more expensive.

That is why it is so important to balance the investment in advertising and its supervision over the timeline.

Well, what if you have $ 3,000 for advertising, but you know that there are companies in your industry that spend $ 20,000? Then the most reasonable solution is to focus on the advertising channel that best converts for the industry. Sometimes it will be Google Ads text ads, sometimes cooperation with micro influencers or affiliation, and sometimes relying on YT advertising video views. It all depends on the store, target group and your goals as well as several other factors.

So, if you have a limited budget, my advice would be to consult the topic with a specialist or even in a public forum (e.g. groups on Facebook) and find out where to invest in the first place to obtain resources to expand advertising activities.

The more you have an advertising budget, the more holistic advertising you can take and give you the comfort of looking at your business in the long term and, for example, investing in online store positioning (if it makes sense in your industry).

Below are the basic forms of advertising for online stores that work.

Online store positioning

I start from the end. Positioning an online store will bring benefits – depending on the industry in which you operate – after a long time, and therefore many entrepreneurs do not pay attention to the first thing, because they want to quickly monetize their fresh store. Positioning, however, is worth considering because you do not want to operate on the market for 3 or 6 months, but many years. That is why it is worth knowing that positioning an online store is the cheapest method of acquiring potential customers in the long run. So if you have an extra budget for this type of investment, it’s definitely worth it.

What does it mean to position an online store? In the simplest terms, it will make sure that the user searching for a given phrase in the search engine first hits your site. In practice, this means that you must be on the first page of search results and as high as possible. Of course, the trick is to position yourself on phrases that convert, i.e. in the case of an online store they just sell. There is a higher probability that the user who specifies his query – e.g. product – is closer to purchase than the one who enters a search query with a high degree of generality. It is also worth knowing that often attractive phrases are occupied by strong brands and competitors, which means that it is often worth considering long tail positioning, i.e. key words and phrases that are less frequently searched, but at the same time – on an appropriate scale – will bring caloric movement .

Organic results – that is, those that “naturally” shows Google in the search engine, are characterized by a high degree of credibility with potential customers. A positioned phrase will work for you in the long term, and keeping it in a given position will require care, but not as much as just “pulling” it to the first page of search results.

Google Ads for online store

Google Ads – once Google AdWords – is the Google advertising system and currently the most widely used tool for internet marketing. Many channels, many targeting options, lots of advertising formats and amazing measurability. First of all, it is on Ads that you should direct your attention if you want to start earning quickly.

You can do a lot with Google Ads, so I will discuss areas that will be particularly valuable “at the entrance” and worth exploring.

Google product ads

Online store marketing is in many cases based on Google product ads, i.e. Google Shopping. Enter any product query in Google – e.g. men’s watch – and you will receive on the top or right side photos of product data that are advertised by given online stores and matched to your query and whether you are in a given interest group.

This type of advertising is very effective for three reasons. First of all, we buy often through the eyes. Secondly, we immediately get the price of the product. Thirdly, however, such advertising – if it is well optimized – is well suited to my intentions, i.e. it responds to my needs.

It is difficult to imagine a better product presentation, already at the stage of browsing the search engine by a given user.

Text Ads

Google text ads usually appear above organic results. Since they do not differ from “natural” results in anything but the small inscription “advertisement”, many Google users simply treat them as the result given by the search engine. Behind the text ad – there is also an advertiser. A properly optimized advertisement will download caloric traffic to your website, which will eventually turn into real buyers. Text advertising is usually the best associated tool in the Google Ads family (previously it was even synonymous with the Google AdWords brand). There are also various other names, such as sponsored links.

Youtube

You know YouTube, and this already means something, and even if you treat it purely entertaining, this platform has many more uses. Youtube is the world’s second internet search engine, which serves us not only as a music player, but also to help in many matters – from searching for recipes for cooking, and ending with reviews of cars or paints for painting. Of course, it is also a place where companies build their own content and decide to cooperate with creators. Video advertising works on many senses, but also has the chance to engage the recipient on a completely different emotional level. All this means that ads on Youtube are more and more often used by advertisers and of various scale of operation – starting from millions of budgets and ending with limited campaigns for several thousand dollars.

For reasonable money, you can build a really good reach and number of views of your videos, thus resonating in the perception of potential customers.

Remarketing

Remarketing is a way to reach people who have already been to your online store’s website. The system collects a list of such people, which you can later use in various ways. For example, you can reach people who have abandoned the cart with already added products or dropped off at the payment stage. Proposing a small discount or a reminder of a sad, abandoned basket can make them return to unfinished shopping. You can also apply remarketing extensively – to everyone who just visited your store and at a different time horizon. You can target remarketing banners to people who were 500 days ago, as well as to those who left it yesterday or a few minutes ago.

Remarketing is widely used not only in the Google Ads system but also in social media. In today’s world something is still chasing us and we have a lot of distractions around. We also add products or watch on smartphones, and then forget about them because just … our bus stop has fallen out and must go on. Hundreds of situations distract us from finalizing purchases. Remarketing cleverly and relatively cheaply reminds you of your store and therefore nicely supports online store marketing.

Social Media and online store marketing

Facebook, Instagram, and even LinkedIn, Snapchat or TikTok – all social media platforms are pretty good, and sometimes even the first choice for online store marketing. Each of these portals requires a different approach. However, due to the “proximity” of potential content recipients and the possibility of interacting with them, social media is a valued marketing channel.

Facebook offers the widest group of users and also the best-designed for targeting. As an agency, we have defended ourselves for a long time against the introduction of this type of service, but ultimately customers forced us to do so. And very well. We see that the combined campaigns in the Google and Facebook environment intertwine wonderfully and we have also gained a broad picture of where and how to invest funds for given industries. For example, it may turn out that Facebook remarketing works better for a given store, and Gmail ads work well again for another one. We have on board a team of specialists who have recently been certified in the Facebook Blueprint program, which guarantees our clients top-class care.

Facebook offers various advertising goals as well as formats tailored to your specific needs. Thanks to the installation of Facebook Pixel, there is also an option to measure the effectiveness of our campaigns to the penny and to approach the marketing of the online store on Facebook flexibly in time and budget.

Summary

Consider the examples above and choose which method will be best for you.

Regardless of whether you run a clothing store, an automotive parts store, a gardening equipment store, a health food store, you have one specific goal – for example, getting customers and increasing sales. An online store advertisement comes in handy, thanks to which you can reach a wide audience. This is the beginning of the road, but you are not far from success.

Online store advertising – possibilities

Wondering what online advertising options you have? Internet marketing is a very broad concept, thanks to which you will choose solutions adequate to your needs and expectations. Importantly, online store advertising should not focus on just one tool at all. To increase your chances of success, it is worth acting on many levels. Many forms of online advertising complement each other perfectly, thanks to which a larger group of potential customers can get to know you.

– Google Ads
This is a paid online store advertisement that gives quick results. Therefore, it will be great when you are just starting a business and your brand is not yet known.

As part of Google Ads, you can use, among others from sponsored links. They are displayed in the search engine – above the organic results – after entering specific keywords. After clicking the user is redirected to your store. This is a very effective method of advertising because for the average user Google Ads do not differ from organic results. It is also worth adding that they are well-matched to the client’s queries and thus get what he expects.

Another option is given to banner campaigns, which are implemented with the participation of portals cooperating with Google Ads. The banner is displayed on the given website – after clicking on the graphic the user is redirected to the online store.

The third option is Google Shopping – a tool with which you can promote specific products in the search engine. The user entering the product name receives the results in a special box – a link to the product appears along with the name of the store, price and photo.

– Advertising on Facebook
Statistics show that most people use at least one social networking site. Facebook is the most popular and, among other things, you should mark your presence there.

One of the forms of advertising is your own fanpage, through which you can establish long-term relationships with customers and engage in dialogue with them. It is also a good way to build brand awareness.

The fanpage itself is not enough – especially if the store takes its first steps. Facebook campaigns come in handy to help you adapt to your needs. The form of advertising can be, for example, sponsored posts appearing on the board of potential customers or in Messenger. There are a lot of advertising formats on Facebook, from static to carousels and movies.

– Content marketing
Content marketing is not direct advertising. It is a series of activities on the Internet that primarily allow you to increase brand awareness, build an image of an expert or gain leads.

These activities can be carried out in many ways, however, the publication of thematic articles on external websites and the publication of articles on a company blog plays a major role. These are content activities that we know widely, but there are many more and they can also be much more sophisticated. Let store actions serve as an example. A simple loyalty mechanism (stickers = reward) was turned into a content self-play. Such action provides a lot of sought after content. Thus, a powerful envelope of content is created around the programs.

Online store advertising – why is it worth it?

The need to incur financial expenses for advertising on the Internet raises many questions – including those related to profitability. Although it’s hard to get a clear answer, one thing is certain: online store advertising has many advantages and is extremely measurable. So you can make budget transfers to the most promising channels in real time!

– Wide range
Internet advertising is distinguished by a very wide range. It allows you to reach hundreds of thousands of recipients – not only in your country, but also in the world. This is especially important if you are considering selling products also abroad. A wider reach means reaching more users with more potential customers among them.

– Unlimited access to the offer
Unlimited access to online stores means that an online store ad does not have to be displayed at certain times. It reaches the recipient virtually 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

– Precise targeting
Online store advertising – regardless of the tool chosen – allows you to precisely identify the target group and then reach it. This increases the chances of the recipient carrying out a specific action, e.g. placing an order, subscribing to the newsletter.

– Speed of campaign launch
An online advertising campaign can be launched very quickly. What’s more, it is possible to reach a wide audience as soon as the campaign starts. This works great for online stores starting out, which – in the case of offline advertising – would have to wait much longer for results.

– Affordable costs
Traditional forms of advertising can cost a lot – unlike online advertising. It is much cheaper, which allows you to achieve your business goals with a lot less money. Thanks to this, every online store has a chance to appear on the web – regardless of its scale.

– High flexibility
Online store advertising is characterized by great flexibility. You can modify the parameters of individual campaigns – so that they bring the expected results. And all this without having to increase advertising expenditure.

– Possibility of constant monitoring of effects
Internet advertising is fully measurable. It is possible to systematically monitor effects using various tools. Thanks to this – if a given form of promotion does not meet expectations – it can be modified or completely eliminated.

Online advertising of an online store is a profitable investment. Compared to other forms of advertising, it provides the best ratio of campaign costs to results.

For an advertising campaign to work, the ads must meet Google’s requirements. Below are some of the most common errors that can be an obstacle to the display of Google Ads text ads. At the same time, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that in some cases new ads may be accepted “from the machine” and displayed until Google notes that they are inconsistent with the company’s policy. That is why from the very beginning it is worth ensuring compliance with advertising rules.

Potential errors in the Google Ads campaign

Items that may cause your ad to be rejected or disapproved:

– no editorial requirements met – Google cares about the high quality of advertisements and the message presented to Internet users. For this reason, it may block texts that are not transparent or professional, i.e. texts that:

– they present too short and general ads containing unclear information or abbreviations that are difficult to understand,

– exceed the permissible number of characters,

– they contain too many special characters, punctuation and symbols, e.g. exclamation marks, question marks, etc.,

– contain illegal punctuation in the header, e.g. exclamation marks,

– are a combination of different characters, e.g. 4DID4S,
– use only uppercase letters, e.g. HIGH-QUALITY SILK SHIRTS, RICH COLOR OFFER. BUY NOW,
– they were written contrary to the rules of spelling or grammar
– they contain a too general or mismatched call to action, eg “Click here”,
– they contain emoticons in addition to standard text,
– they have too many or too few spaces between characters / words,
– they have a phone number in the content of the ad,

– no min. 2 headers – Google currently allows (in standard, so-called extended text ads) to use up to 3 headers and 2 lines of text. There is no obligation to use the third heading and the second line of text, but for the advertisement to be accepted it must have at least 2 headers,

– illegal content in advertising text – this is content related to products that cannot be advertised as part of Google Ads, e.g. alcohol, medicines, gambling. Please also note that Google may preventively disapprove content that “associates” with prohibited products,

– illegal content on the landing page – as above, this is content about products that are prohibited from advertising. An example would be the situation of one of our customers who had T-shirts in their offer printed with glasses of champagne. Information about the overprint, which was included in the product description on the page, resulted in the rejection of ads,

– promoting counterfeit products – since Google absolutely prohibits the advertising and sale of counterfeits, all products that only imitate the features of a particular brand will not be accepted or will be rejected,

– shocking, offensive, erotic, promoting hatred, intolerance, discrimination or violence – Google pays special attention to mutual respect and tries not to offend the feelings of Internet users. For this reason, it is not possible to advertise, e.g. firearms, products targeted at a selected ethnic group or use vulgar language in the content of advertisements,

– content impossible to verify – slogans such as: “Manufacturer of the best coffee grinders”, “Running shoes No. 1 in the world”, “Most frequently bought dietary supplements”, “The best diet catering – no competition has any chance with us”,

– problems arising from the landing page – Google very much wants internet users clicking on ads to be satisfied with what they will see after switching to the website. The landing page must therefore first of all work and be useful for Internet users. The following page issues may cause your ads to be disapproved:

– targeting ads to a dead landing page,
– no connection between the displayed URL and the actual website address, e.g. “google.com” redirects the internet user to “gmail.com”,
– it is not possible to display the page in standard browsers,
– no possibility to click the “Back” button in the browser.

The great advantage of the Google Ads system is the fact that after rejecting the ad, there is no need to combine and guess what could be the reason for this. Yes, as you can see in the above screenshots, if the advertisement cannot be accepted at the stage of its creation, the system always gives the reason for the inability to save the advertisement. However, if the system rejects an ad that has been running for some time, its status (in the Google Ads panel) is changed to “Disapproved”, and when you hover over the ad approval status, you’ll be given an explanation of the problem.

In addition, on Google support pages you can find a lot of valuable information and tips on editorial and technical requirements related to advertising, which should be taken into account at the very beginning of the campaign.

Google Shopping – what’s that?

The Google Shopping platform, and more specifically the Product Listing Ads (PLA) service, i.e. product ads that began to appear on the right of the search results. The photo, store name and price were displayed, and after clicking the selected ad the user was redirected to the product page. This service could be compared to a price comparison site, which was now available in Google search. Currently, the user has access to the entire Google Shopping tab, and there are definitely more products in the ads. You can filter or sort them by price.

A condition of implementing product advertising is conducting a shopping campaign in Google Ads. The promotion is targeted based on the attributes from the data file in the Merchant Center, and the photos are added to the advertisement from the prepared database. Product advertising is paid on a CPC (Cost Per Click) basis, i.e. when the user clicks on it.

Product advertising – for whom?

This type of advertising is designed for online stores from almost every industry. Thanks to it, it is possible to promote not only physical but also intangible products, such as software. It is worth remembering that, as in the case of other Google Ads campaigns, advertising of alcohol or medicines is prohibited here. A full list of prohibited content can be found on the Google support website.

Shopping campaign benefits

A properly configured shopping campaign is currently one of the most effective methods of generating sales for online stores. Thanks to the graphic form, it stands out from the background of text ads and, as a result, is attractive to Internet users. Viewing a photo and product prices from the search engine level significantly saves time searching the range in stores – the advertisement is always up-to-date, so it displays only available products.

The Google Shopping campaign allows reaching users who are already at the final stage of the purchasing process, because by entering a specific product name in the search engine they count on finding places where they will be able to buy it. The advertisement directs them directly to the product card, which contains the details of the offer and from which they can complete the purchase.

Integration with Google Merchant Center allows you to launch dynamic remarketing, which by displaying product data on banners reminds users of products that have recently been viewed in the advertiser’s store.

Google Shopping – Not For Everyone?

The Google Shopping campaign convinces online store owners for many reasons. It seems particularly attractive mainly because it allows you to present the product in the photo from the search engine. The statistics of our campaigns also show that the results achieved by these campaigns, as well as the confidence of online stores in this advertisement, are increasing.

However, before you decide to launch your Google Shopping campaign, there are a few important things to consider.

The first important issue is price competition. If you are not the only distributor of the product, check whether the price you offer is attractive compared to other online stores, and if it is higher, you can explain it somehow. However, the price is displayed right next to the product in the Google Shopping advertisement and gives you the opportunity to compare, without having to look at the pages of individual stores. If the customer enters the specific product name they are looking for in the search engine, naturally, the offer with the lower price will arouse the most interest.

The second important thing is the inability to match your audience to your ad using keywords. In the case of a shopping campaign, Google decides when and for which Internet queries the ad will be displayed. Before launching the campaign, it is necessary to send a file with information about products – their names, prices, individual parameters, etc. Based on this information, Google selects from among our products and products of other stores belonging to the same category the one that will be advertised. Therefore, the Advertiser has no influence on which queries of Internet users his product will be displayed (only after it is displayed in response to a query entered in the search engine is able to see it), as well as in the environment of which products it will be displayed.

And the last important issue is the problem of displaying products from different shelves side by side. If the customer enters the search query: leather men’s shoes, the results may include both designer shoes from the designer and those from a regular chain store. The visible at first glance difference will of course be the price, which in product ads has the most significant impact on customers’ purchasing decisions. Therefore, if you offer unique products, you must be aware that in the case of Google Shopping campaigns, their value may not be noticed and they will be compared with mass products.

Considering the above, you certainly understand how IMPORTANT ISSUE is the optimization and proper management of the product file from which Google derives information about products. You should not be afraid of all this – a properly built product file, combined with a budget sensible for a given campaign, will succeed.

Google Shopping – summary

A properly created and constantly optimized product advertisement will bring satisfying results to both small stores and large stores with an extensive range. Finally, the Paraphrase-Online.com team would like to mention a slightly different but related issue. If you use product advertising, your products are displayed via CSS – i.e. price comparison websites. Not so long ago, the only comparison website that had access to the Google advertising environment was the Google comparison site.