4 PPC Strategies Your E-Commerce Business Needs to Test in Q4

Q4 is upon us. For brands and marketers alike, Q4 is both exciting and stressful. Already feeling the holiday stress?

Read on for 4 e-commerce PPC tips that are sure to make this holiday season the most wonderful time of the year.

1) Take advantage of dynamic remarketing ads

After scrolling through my Facebook Newsfeed for less than a minute, I stumbled across some familiar products that I had looked at just the other day.

Let’s face it. Facebook knows us pretty well. Most of us have probably converted—or at least been intrigued—by a dynamic product ad. 

Dynamic remarketing ads show users products that they viewed on your site but didn’t buy, as well as similar products that they might be interested in. To maximize Q4 success, it’s essential that e-commerce websites take advantage of this ad type on both Google and Facebook.

Not surprisingly, large brands like Target have seen impressive results using this Facebook feature.

Dynamic ads require some technical feed implementation, so be sure to get this up and running well before the holidays roll around. Keep in mind that cost-per-clicks will likely increase due to Q4 competition—but so will e-commerce conversion rates. Dynamic product ads are highly relevant, which makes them a highly-converting ad type.

Make your holiday season bright. Try dynamic ads and grow your website’s conversion volume.

2) Test promotion extensions

The amount of revenue that Q4 offers means increased competition. You won’t be the only brand eager to take advantage of the drastic increase in consumer activity.

As a result, it’s essential to set yourself apart with unique product offerings and limited-time promotions.

Promotion extensions are a newer feature in the revamped AdWords interface. In a nutshell, these extensions add an extra line of promotional text to your ad.

Advertisers can choose to display monetary or percent discounts, as well as promo codes, dates, and order amount qualifiers.

Promo extensions stand out even more on mobile devices, oftentimes resulting in higher click-through rates, as well as boosted conversion rates.

As a result, this new AdWords feature is sure to be a powerful tool in your Q4 marketing arsenal.

3) Expand your remarketing audiences

Consumers shop around. Encourage them to stick around by beefing up your remarketing strategy.

All too often, businesses make the mistake of creating remarketing audiences that are too broad (e.g. all visitors who didn’t convert). Instead, segment and prosper.

Remarketing to just one or two audiences doesn’t capture the different levels of intent of users who have visited your site. Go beyond All Visitors and Cart Abandoners—create lists based on key page visits (category, product, etc.) or even time on site.

If worthwhile, these lists can be split even further into days since last visit (e.g. 3 days vs. 30 days). This extra segmentation allows you to bid up on audiences that are more likely to convert and allows you to run more specific messaging and promos to push potential customers over the edge.

Remarketing is even more critical during the holidays as users shop around for the best deals on this year’s latest and greatest products.

Be present throughout the consumer journey, as these touchpoints will ultimately assist and turn leads into purchases.

4) Revisit your mobile bids

In a blog post from 2013, Google emphasized the importance of mobile during the holiday shopping season. There’s no doubt that the impact of mobile in Q4 has only grown since then.

For this reason, it’s essential to reassess (and likely increase!) your mobile bids to ensure your brand is present. This is even more important in Q4 due to increased competition.

Whether the user is searching from the comfort of their couch or walking around a store, it’s critical that brands and businesses are there to answer their questions and needs in the moment.

--

Looking for more Q4 e-commerce pointers? Check out our 4 tips for maximizing holiday profits.