Shopify PPC Best Practices for 2023

Advertisements come in several forms, from television and radio ads to fliers and flashy billboards. However, they all exist for one sole purpose: to draw customers in to do business with you. And if you’re not reaching those most likely to show interest in your products or services, you’re wasting time and funds.

With online marketing, it’s important to follow PPC best practices to reach the right audience. Whether you’re new to PPC advertising or are looking for ways to improve PPC with the ideal practices for 2023, you’ve come to the right place. Just as advertisements have one job, we at Bear North Digital also have a primary focus: building dominant growth for your Shopify store. Our full-service, award-winning agency will help your business skyrocket with our friendly, flexible, five-star team. 

What Is PPC?

PPC, or pay-per-click, is an online marketing strategy that helps you create and manage advertisements for social media pages, search engine results pages (SERPs), apps, and websites. 

When setting up the campaign, you, the advertiser of your eCommerce business, reach out to the ad network so they can introduce you to online platforms with ad spaces available for sale. Once you purchase the space, this website becomes one of the hosting websites for your ad. However, PPC is anything but a passive sign suggesting viewers check out your company.

Benefits of Using PPC as Part of Your Online Marketing Strategies

This strategy actively and intelligently assists in finding your target audience while keeping you updated on the campaign’s effectiveness. Doing so allows you to alter your practices to get the most out of your marketing budget. More specifically, at Bear North Digital, our eCommerce PPC agency uses PPC for the following reasons:

• Only pay for clicks: Pay-per-click means you only pay for the ad space when it successfully directs interested potential customers to your site. That means although the ad may reach dozens of individuals daily, you won’t have to pay for it unless they click on it, unlike magazine and newspaper ad spaces that you have to pay for beforehand. 
• Set your own PPC rate: You decide how much you pay so you don’t surpass your maximum monthly budget. On average, PPC costs range from $2.59 and $3.12, but how much you pay depends on your bid submitted to the ad network, which we’ll get into later. 
• Advanced and accurate targeting for higher traffic: PPC matches your ad’s keywords with audience segments searching for the same word or phrase, noting their search behavior and demographic. For instance, if your keywords include terracotta pots, those searching for plant holders will see your ad, leading them to you. 
• A high return on investment (ROI) with increased revenue: When targeting specific audiences, you’re improving your chances of receiving a sale, not just increasing traffic. That means you’ll receive a high return on investment if the ad’s efficiency turns a profit. 
• A wide variety of options for displaying your ad: You choose where you want your ad to show up, whether on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, SERPs that use your ad’s keywords, or other websites relevant content-wise. Also, one ad travels to millions of websites, depending on the platform you use (like Google), reaching more people with fewer ads.
• Measurable results: Rather than hoping your ads reach the right people and convert viewers into buyers, PPC allows you to track its progress. That way, you won’t blindly leave poor keywords and other faults in play, which you could otherwise enhance for increased traffic and revenue. Check performance and conversion rates to adjust your ads accordingly.

Starting Your PPC Campaign

One of the top PPC best practices for 2023 is starting your campaign on the right foot. From conception to implementation on the appropriate platforms, get your ad how you want it before it reaches your first potential customer. Doing so from the beginning makes managing the ads in the following months easier and sets you on the path to turning a profit sooner. 

Before creating your ad, consider positive and negative keywords.

Positive keywords correlate with your ad, so when viewers search for those phrases, your ad relevantly pops up. 

Negative keywords, however, are phrases you don’t want to be associated with your ad since they’re misleading. While they may increase traffic, they also heighten bounce rates because once individuals notice you don’t provide what your ad claims they’ll exit your page. This process increases your monthly PPC costs but promotes a lower ROI. 

For already existing PPC campaigns, effective PPC reporting involves conducting keyword research with a Search Terms Report. Look through your query data and understand what popular searches frequently trigger your ad. Note which ones have a high or low click-through rate and rid your ad of the ones that contribute to the latter. After sorting your positive and negative keywords for your ad copy, you’re ready to put your ad together.

Deciding on Your Ad’s Appearance and Location 

What type of ad are you planning on running? Determining this allows you to decipher the amount of copy and the type of graphics. From non-branded Google search and shopping ads with minimal copy to in-stream ads and in-feed video campaigns, choose which suits your budget and highlights your products best. 

Placing Bids 

Once you get your ad together, it’s time to connect with ad networks to match you with available spaces depending on your bid. Your bid reflects how much you’ll pay each time viewers click on your ad. While you may not want to exceed your maximum spending limit, offering a low bid jeopardizes your chances of receiving ad space, especially if you lowball high-volume keywords.

Your competitors may use the same high-volume keywords as you, which include accurate terms that draw in a lot of traffic. The network will display the ad from the highest bidder since they turn over a higher profit for the network. Low-volume keywords are not as expensive, meaning while they don’t promise as high a Click Through Rate (CTR), they’re one of the best PPC practices if you want your ad to be cost-effective. 

Maintaining Your Campaign

If the network accepts your bid, they’ll place your ad in the appropriate space, ready for potential interested customers to click on it. Once they do, the link will redirect them to the respective landing page so they can better view the product details and consider taking further action. 

Regularly monitor click-through rates to determine what’s working in your ad and what isn’t, and note the popularity of given keywords. Each month, you’ll receive a bill for all clicks, but the way you receive this bill may differ depending on the type of ad network you use. However, most, including Google Ads, automatically withdraw the monthly fee from your account on the first of the following month. 

Best Practices for Getting the Most Out of PPC

Aside from picking your positive and negative keywords and ad type, try finding strategies to lower bounce rates and further guide your potential customers through browsing and checkout. 

Leading Viewers to an Aesthetically Pleasing Landing Page

As we’ve said before, with negative keywords causing your ad to pop up during irrelevant searches, you’ll have a higher CTR but fewer transactions, leading to a higher monthly bill with little profit. However, that’s not the only aspect contributing to high bounce rates. 

Most companies create their webpages on a desktop computer, formatting it to fit this device. However, in recent years, individuals have spent more time Googling on their phones or tablets on the go, requiring a different format to fit the smaller screens. 

Without implementing an app that adjusts the layout according to the electronics used, customers will obtain miniature text with out-of-place pictures, making reading and shopping difficult. Without alleviating this issue with our PPC best practices, you’ll receive an extensive bounce rate, leading your viewers to your competitors. 

However, even with appropriate formatting, an aesthetically displeasing site causes viewers to wander, especially with lengthy block paragraphs and little white space, preventing breathability. By breaking up paragraphs, you’ll capture their attention. Other ways to improve your landing page appearance are by:

• Adding vibrant photos relevant to your keywords: Refrain from using generic cold and impersonal stock photos. Let your customers get a feel for your unique business by taking professional images of your genuine products.
• Incorporating informative videos: Some people prefer informative videos that break down concepts or put a product in motion over words on a page. Implement small reels to appease more individuals within your target audience.
• Laying out all necessary information in clear sight: Most people don’t want to spend a lot of time searching for phone numbers or company hours. If they can’t find valuable information effortlessly, they’ll likely move on to the next site. Therefore, make sure your CTA, unique selling points, and contact information are available on every page.

Producing an Effortless Shopping Experience 

Now that you’ve drawn your potential customers in with the right PPC best practices and have created a quality landing page for them to arrive on, seal the deal with an effortless shopping experience that’ll make checkout a breeze. Difficult or confusing interfaces or purchasing processes force potential customers to leave products in their shopping carts for an extended period. 

Lessen your chances of a cold lead by making checkout simple with multiple payment options and one-click checkout. You can also promote a sale by offering free shipping or a gift with purchase, up-selling, and creating a guest checkout option for those who don’t want to take the additional time to create an account. 

Fulfill Your Potential with Bear North Digital!

Content marketing for Shopify is tricky if you don’t know what strategies to implement and how to manage your business with the newest eCommerce tools. Because eCommerce PPC management is its own job, the last thing you need is to focus on how to track your business’ growth, putting running it on the sidelines. 

With years of experience increasing traffic and user-friendliness for our highly-rated clients’ eCommerce businesses, trust Bear North Digital to dedicate extensive time and effort to focusing on your customers’ shopping behaviors while you focus on their needs. Our team can create a unique PPC strategy, provide marketing advice, and otherwise help you improve your business. Enjoy customized assistance and outstanding service

To learn more about PPC best practices for 2023, call (218) 216-8692. Our professionals can provide you with a free growth plan today!