An effective SEA (Search Engine Advertising) strategy for web shops. This is crucial for web shops that want to be visible in search engines quickly and generate direct traffic. In this blog I will elaborate on what SEA is, what the benefits are and how to set up a SEA strategy. A SEA strategy is an essential part of e-commerce marketing.
What is SEA?
SEA stands for Search Engine Advertising and involves advertising on search engines such as Google and Bing. SEA is an important part of webshop marketing. Unlike SEO (Search Engine Optimization), where you generate organic traffic by optimizing your website's content and structure, with SEA you pay for ads that appear above or beside search results. Keep in mind that you are giving money directly to Google or another search engine. For SEO, on the other hand, you are only incurring staff costs. SEO, in turn, does have a longer lead time than SEA.
How does SEA work for a webshop?
SEA works based on an auction model, where advertisers, in this case web shops, bid on specific keywords relevant to their products. When a customer enters a search query that matches these keywords, the ads appear above or next to the organic search results. The position of your ad is determined by several factors, including your bid and the quality score of your ad.
An ad bid works in several ways. It depends on how popular the word is, that is, the level of competition. For example, a popular word might be sunscreen in the summer and therefore be an expensive word. In winter, this is barely searched for, so the word is actually cheaper to bid on.
So the bidding strategy is related to supply and demand. How much demand is there for the keyword? And how much supply is there in the ads? That together makes a certain amount of a keyword.
The two biggest platforms for SEA are Google Ads and Bing Ads. Both platforms offer extensive capabilities for creating, managing and optimizing ad campaigns.
Benefits of SEA
A common "excuse" not to start SEA is because it is expensive or because it takes time. However, SEA can really be the solution to drive a lot of traffic in a short period of time. We give you four advantages to start SEA now.
Advantage 1. SEA gives immediate results
The most attractive aspect of SEA is the speed with which results are achieved. Once the campaign is live, your ad starts running and generating traffic to the website almost immediately. SEA is thus diametrically opposed to SEO, where it takes time for the number of website visitors to increase. This is ideal for web shops that want quick visibility and need immediate leads.
Advantage 2. Targeted reach
There is endless audience segmentation for the SEA campaign. Segment on demographics, interests and search behavior. In the end, you reach the target audience you have in mind very specifically. With SEO, the page ends up in search results and can be less targeted.
Benefit 3. Measurability and optimization
For your SEO results, you have to look in the caverns of Google Analytics or use an auxiliary tool like Semrush, which you often have to pay for. Measuring is knowing. After careful measurement, you can see how well a particular keyword is scoring and whether optimization is still needed.
With SEA, this works differently. Through the SEA dashboard in Google you can immediately see the range and which optimizations can still be implemented to score even better. This continuously improves the ROI (return on investment) of the campaign.
Finally, SEA is extremely flexible. You quickly make adjustments to the campaigns based on performance and changing market conditions. This makes SEA adaptable to the needs of the webshop. For example, in addition to the dashboard per campaign, you can see extensive statistics on how the campaign is performing.
Cost of SEA
The cost of SEA varies depending on several factors, such as competition on the chosen keywords, ad quality and daily budget. Major cost components include:
- CPC (Cost Per Click): You pay for each click on the ad. The CPC is determined by the competition on the keyword and the quality score of the ad. The quality score is directly visible with an ad.
- Daily budget: The amount you are willing to spend daily on the campaigns. This helps to control overall spending and ensure that no more is spent than is set.
- Quality Score: A higher quality score can lower the cost per click and improve ad position. This score is determined by the relevance and quality of the ad and landing page.
How do you determine a SEA strategy for an webshop?
Don't know where to start to set up a SEA strategy? In just five steps you will have it done. After these five steps you will have a successful strategy.
Step 1. Identify target audience
Determine which target audience to reach with the ads. This can be based on demographics, interests and buying habits. Be clear about the target group. Who is interesting for your shop? A marketing plan for your webshop is useful to make in advance. That way, you know exactly who you are targeting and who you are not. The latter is also interesting. For Google/Bing ads, many target groups or keywords can be excluded from the ads.
Step 2. Keyword research
Identify relevant keywords on which you will advertise. Use tools such as Google Keyword Planner for insight. An example of Google's keyword planner is below. It shows exactly how often a specific word is searched for, how much competition there is on this word and how much you need to bid on a particular word to get to the top of the search results.
For example, on which keywords is the webshop already found well? One strategy may be to expand on these successes. Another strategy could be to score on completely new keywords.
Step 3. Create the ad
Create compelling ads with clear call-to-actions and relevant information. For different types of ads, you need different types of content. Think Google shopping ads, but also display ads and discovery ads. Not heard of these terms before? We will briefly go over each type of ad you can create with Google Ads.
Display ads
Display ads are displayed on websites within the Google Display Network. They are ideal for increasing brand awareness and reaching a wider audience.
An example of display ads can be found below. This is the website of buienradar. The user has previously visited the Bonprix website. A display ad Bonprix can be seen in the header of buienradar. To the right of the image is another display ad from Diergaarde Blijdorp. Both ads contain moving content (video).
With display ads, you reach a much larger audience, since you advertise on different websites, outside of Google. The advantage for a website like buienradar is that they get a certain fee for making these spots available for campaigns. These spots are sold, so to speak. The advantage for Google in turn is that it offers their advertisers multiple opportunities to advertise, outside of Google itself.
Discovery Ads
Discovery ads are displayed in places like the YouTube home feed, Gmail and the Discover feed. They are designed to reach customers as they discover new interests.
An example of a discovery ad is below. My scale was broken, and I was looking for a new one. Now through my YouTube home page, I am promptly shown an ad about health items, such as nasal spray and earplugs (which also fits into the health items category). Smart because I order from bol on a regular basis. The ad is appropriate for me and the chances are plausible that I will click on it. As shown by the sound icon, there is even sound with this video to make it even more appealing.
Key aspects of discovery ads:
- Creative content. Create visually appealing and relevant content that responds to the target audience's interests.
- Machine learning. Leverage Google's machine learning to automatically optimize ads for better results.
- Wider reach. Take advantage of the wide distribution of discovery ads to reach a large audience.
Google Shopping ads
Google Shopping ads are specially designed for online stores and show products with images, prices and seller information directly in search results. This makes it easier for your potential customers to compare products and make decisions.
Besides creating the ad, you need to think carefully about exactly what content is needed for all ads. Will you create the content yourself or will the graphic designer do it? Align all content with each other well in advance.
A google shopping ad looks like this:
Step 4. The campaign settings
Choose the right settings for the campaigns such as budget, bidding strategies, and location targeting. These tactics should be carefully considered for each campaign that is set up.
Start at the beginning: the budget. Advice is often to start with a small budget. Test which keywords and ads perform best. Furthermore, choose from a daily budget or monthly budget. Set whether you want to spend a fixed amount daily or set a monthly budget. With both strategies you can clearly see in advance how many clicks you will get. Again, test what works well for each campaign.
After the budget has been determined, the bidding strategy is determined. A number of bidding strategies can be:
- Manual bidding. Set the maximum CPC (Cost Per Click) yourself. This gives more control, but requires more time and attention.
- Automatic bidding. The system adjusts bids to optimize goals, such as maximizing clicks or conversions within budget.
- ROAS (Return On Ad Spend). This strategy focuses on achieving a specific return per dollar spent.
In addition, consider whether it makes sense to use location targeting. This ensures that ads are shown only to customers in certain geographic areas. This can make campaigns significantly more effective. For example, consider specific regions, from countries to cities or zip codes. Or, just exclude areas where you don't want to attract customers.
Step 5. To measure is to know
The campaigns are ready to go live. Each week, analyze how the campaigns are doing. You do this based on the goals and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) you set. Do you want to drive more traffic to your website, higher conversion rates or generate more sales? Some key KPIs are:
- Click rate (CTR)
- Conversion rate
- Cost per conversion (CPA)
- Recurring revenue on ad spend (ROAS)
To measure properly, it is important that the Google Analytics account is linked to the Google Ads account. This makes it possible to track user behavior on the web shop and to see how SEA traffic relates to other traffic sources.
Analyze keywords.
Look at the number of clicks and impressions to determine which ads and keywords are performing well. High impressions with low clicks may indicate irrelevant ads or keywords. A big advantage is that Google Ads shows this to you in detail. On which keyword is the ad being found well and on which keyword is it not? It is valuable to pick out the keywords that you are not scoring (well) on, but are paying for.
Analyze the click through rate
The CTR (click through rate) indicates how effective the ads are in attracting clicks. A low CTR may indicate weak ad copy or incorrect targeting. Experiment with different headlines and descriptions to optimize.
Measure conversions
Analyze which keywords and ads are generating the most conversions. A low conversion rate indicates a mismatch between ad content and landing page.
The CPA (cost per ad) shows how much each conversion is costing you. High CPAs can indicate inefficient campaigns. Optimize bidding strategies and keywords to lower CPA.
ROAS (return on investment) helps understand how much revenue you generate for every dollar spent. A high ROAS means the campaigns are profitable.
Optimize where needed
SEA is not a one-time task. Run A/B tests with different ads, bidding strategies and landing pages. Use the data collected to continuously improve campaigns. The longer you spend doing SEA, the easier it becomes. And the higher the ROAS eventually becomes.
Outsource SEA
Outsourcing SEA to a specialized agency can offer benefits such as expertise, time savings and better performance. An agency helps with setting up the SEA strategy, managing the campaigns and reporting on them. It definitely pays to let someone sit at the SEA buttons who actually knows about it. Looking for a partner? Then check out our partner network.
Getting started quickly with SEA
Setting up a successful SEA strategy requires careful planning and ongoing optimization. Choosing the right budget, bidding strategies and precise location targeting make ads more efficient and effective. Keep monitoring and adjusting campaigns to get the most out of your investment.
For the short term, SEA is most certainly recommended for webshops. It attracts a lot of traffic to the web shop in a short period which eventually leads to more conversions. Nevertheless, SEA does not stand alone and is a part of your webshop marketing.
Want to start marketing step by step? Start today with Reloadify to convert current customers again. Schedule a no-obligation demo.
