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Is Your eCommerce Business Ready for Google Ads?  🥇

Are you looking to grow your eCommerce store and get new customers?

There are many ways to scale your business––through social media, content marketing, and SEO.

While these marketing channels all can be effective, they almost always take time.

It can be months (or even a year or longer) to get a true return on the effort and investment put into the strategy.

So, how can you immediately establish your online presence and get directly in front of your best potential customers?

By running paid ads. More specifically, Google Ads.

Why?

Because Google Ads is the #1 PPC (pay-per-click) advertising platform on the planet. In fact, more than 8.5 billion searches are processed daily, and Google is visited about 89.3 billion times each month.

That means your potential customers are actively searching for products like yours on Google.

And if you’re not running ads yet, guess whose stores they will find?

Your competitors.

But here’s the thing: Not all businesses are ready for Google Ads. In today’s Deep Dive, we’ll give you the checklist to test your store against to make sure you are ready.

Let’s dive in! 🚀

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Before you dive in and start running ads on Google, make sure you check these five critical things first:

Table of Contents

1. You have a high-converting eCommerce website.

2. Your sales funnels are streamlined effectively.

3. You have clearly defined ROI goals.

4. You have a reasonable monthly budget.

5. You’re okay with the possibility of not being profitable for the first 90 days.

1. You have a high-converting eCommerce website.

No matter how much traffic you get from paid ads, if your website doesn’t convert, then you’re just wasting all those potential leads and flushing money down the drain. That’s why it’s crucial to have a website that’s not just working, but also appeals to your audience.

Here are a few things you can do to make sure your website converts.

● Check if everything is working. Sometimes, especially for eCommerce websites with many pages, errors can occur––there might be missing pages, buttons that don’t work, or images that don't show. To avoid this, schedule a full website audit at least once a month.

● Have a call-to-action (CTA) above the fold. A clear CTA on your site will immediately increase your visitors’ engagement. Avoid using generic CTAs like “Click Here” or “Learn More.” These don’t really provide clarity. Use CTAs highlighting a benefit to your visitor, such as “Save 10% Now” or “Start Shopping.”

● Pro Tip: You can also say exactly what your visitor thinks or asks, like the CTA in the image below.

● Don’t forget to publish an “About Us” page. It is one of the most viewed pages on a website. Your visitors are curious about who you are, what you do (and why you do it), what you can do for your customers, and why you’re better than your competitors. Having an “About Us” page increases trust and helps you convert more customers.

● Make sure your website is fast and optimized for mobile. The longer your website loads, the higher your chance of losing a conversion. According to Portent, “A site that loads in 1 second has a conversion rate 3x higher than a site that loads in 5 seconds.”

Want to get more tips on how to speed up your site? Check out our tips on How To Optimize Your eCommerce Website Speed For Maximum Performance. 

● Do competitor research. Search for a product or service and look up your competitors’ sites. If your website doesn’t look as good or better, then it will be hard to convert leads.

Keep in mind that people who come directly to your site, from referrals or organically, will convert at a much higher rate than cold traffic (or those who have yet to hear of you). These people have high intent to purchase––they’re ready to buy now. So your website has to hold up to the competition.

Need help optimizing your product pages? Get the 90+ Proven and Tested Product Optimization Tweaks!

2. Your sales funnels are streamlined effectively.

A well-structured sales funnel guides potential customers through each stage of the buying journey, from initial awareness to making a purchase decision. The whole purpose of Google Ads is to drive relevant traffic to your website. However, to make the most of every dollar you spend, ensure your funnel is not a leaky bucket, and cover as wide of an area as you can—meaning the top, middle, and bottom of the funnel.

3. You have clearly defined goals.

One of the most common mistakes people make is running ads without first knowing their target ROI goals. Without having goals, it will be hard to measure and achieve success. Another mistake is choosing an exorbitant goal like "10X ROAS (return on ad spend)", which could be possible, but most often is not ideal, especially for those just starting out with paid ads. It’s better to have a competitive goal that’s not too high or not too low.

Aiming for around 300% or 3X is a good rule of thumb. For every dollar you spend, you get three dollars back. Then, as you hit your goal, you increase your ROAS to 20% more, allowing you to slowly but steadily scale.

So, make sure you know your numbers. These could be metrics like your average order value (AOV), total marketing spend, profit margin, customer lifetime value (LTV), and customer acquisition cost.

4. You have a reasonable monthly budget.

Google Ads can be expensive. You might want to hold off running ads if you don’t have enough profit margin to support all the expenses (ad spend).

The most common question people ask before running Google Ads is “What’s the least amount of money I can spend on it?”

If you quickly Google “How much should I spend on Google Ads?” you’ll see amounts ranging from $1,000–$10,000 per month.

The truth is, it depends on a lot of factors––your target goal, how well your campaigns are optimized, and your industry and competition. Even if you have a high budget, if you’re just starting out, there’s no guarantee you’ll be successful immediately.

That’s because Google doesn’t know anything about your target audience yet. It doesn’t know who to show your ads to. So even if you give it an insane amount of budget, chances are Google won’t spend it.

It has to go through a learning phase first to get you the right customers––those who are interested in your products and ready to buy.

This takes us to the last and final point in this list…

5. You’re okay with the possibility of not being profitable for the first 90 days.

When you’re just getting started, Google's algorithm does a bunch of learning and testing. It will show your ads to specific people to check if they’ll convert or not. If they do, then it will find more of the same people. If they don’t, then you need to make some adjustments to your campaign OR target a different audience.

This is where the bulk of your budget goes. And for good reasons. You’re teaching Google who it should look for and the algorithm is gathering data. Then, you can optimize your campaigns based on that data.

By the end of this learning phase––usually around 90 days––you should have enough data and see whether or not Google Ads could actually bring in more revenue to your business.

Final Word

Google Ads can be a powerful tool for eCommerce businesses. When used correctly, it can help you find the right people and connect with potential customers at the right time.

Make sure you check all these boxes before getting started. Armed with a high-converting website, streamlined sales funnels, clear ROI goals, a sensible monthly budget, and a realistic outlook on the Google Ads’ learning phase, you're ready to unlock the potential of Google Ads and watch your eCommerce business thrive.

Need help?

The team at Solutions 8 is ready to be your Google Ads partner. Visit their website to find out how they can help grow your bottom line

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