Do you want to achieve a lower conversion cost? Promote your online or local offer? Increase traffic at your site? Or find valuable potential clients? There is a way to achieve all that and more. Product campaigns. I’ve been running them for years and I want to tell you a story about the brand that has already benefited from such campaigns.
Product campaigns are one of the most effective sources of traffic for online stores. They provide users with detailed information about products (name, price, model, and reviews) before they even click on the ad. They can be displayed in response to all kinds of queries:
- general (e.g. washing machines, Samsung washing machines);
- product-related (names of specific products, e.g. Samsung washing machine wf70f5e0w2w);
- brand-related (e.g. using the store brand).
How much do product campaigns cost?
All depends on the budget that the company can spend on its advertising activities. However, from experience, I know that the funds invested in product campaigns return to companies and also generate additional profit. It is worth knowing that product campaigns have a conversion cost that is approximately 60% lower than other activities (without taking into account the campaign for the brand of the advertised store). This is certainly due to the fact that the user has a chance to become familiar with the product that awakes their interest.
What is the difference between product campaigns and other advertising activities?
Product campaigns differ from standard activities carried out within the search engine in many respects – through their appearance, their mode of creation, and lack of keywords. However, it is worth remembering that they also have things in common – all kinds of advertising campaigns should have specific objectives and structures suited to their implementation, e.g. increase of overall sales, or sale of discounted products.
How did our client benefit from the product campaigns?
One of our clients from the audio-video and household equipment industry was interested in promoting selected brands in the online store, achieving a return on its investment in advertising expenses (ROAS), as well as intensive advertising of products that are currently on special offer. How did we approach the implementation of these assumptions? We have developed a strategy for the promotion of activities which assumed the implementation of the chosen goals and also allowed for quick reporting of the results. On this basis, we decided to divide advertising activities into several campaigns to achieve the best results. How did we do it?
- All Products Campaign – this type of campaign is used to study trends, get inspiration for new campaigns/groups (e.g. if products from a given category start gaining popularity). Due to its function, the campaign received low priority and rates.
- All Products RLSA Campaign (Remarketing List for Search Ads) – it performs a similar function as the All Products Campaign, but only for people who have already interacted with the site.
- Campaigns for selected categories – they are created on the basis of the results achieved by categories in the All Products Campaign. The activities were structured on the basis of product categories, not brands, because there were diversified ranges of products with different levels of popularity and sales force within single brands. Only those parts of the product range which were noted for their remarkable profitability or popularity were included in new, separate campaigns for individual categories.
- RLSA campaigns for selected categories – remarketing lists with “bid only” options were added to all campaigns for each category. New campaigns were created on the basis of the results of particular groups of product and specific lists, targeting only the users of the most effective lists (“target and bid” option).
- Bestseller campaigns, with subdivisions:
– store’s bestsellers: divided into products which sold best on a given day and products which sold best in a given month. The product range for the campaign was selected on the basis of documents sent by the client and Google Analytics data, e.g. bestsellers in product campaigns: products selected on the basis of their previous effectiveness in other product campaigns. - Campaigns for specific offers – in this case, I focused on activities aimed at highlighting a specific product range or brand. Separation for new campaigns facilitated management (separate budget, priority, and rates) and reporting.
- Campaigns for categories with general keyword exclusions – exclusions of general phrases (e.g. fridge), brand names without product names (e.g. Bosch fridge), and such terms as “opinion” or “review” were added to activities for categories. The exclusion lists made it possible for the campaigns to be displayed mostly in response to specific name searches (e.g. Bosch fridge kgn39kl35).
Due to such a structure of activities, the ROAS indicator for product campaigns was higher by 25% than the results achieved in other campaigns (not including the brand). The actions generated about 46% of the total revenue from AdWords, with the budget expenditures at the level of about 41%.
The developed structure was the result of a division based on statistical data. Due to the changing popularity and diversification in sales, the configuration is constantly modified (e.g. new, separate campaigns for categories are added or the existing ones are suspended when required).
How about you? What are your experiences with running product campaigns? Let me know in the comments.