online store promotion. part 2

11 December 2022

promotion

In the first part we considered possible channels for attracting traffic to the online store and the choice of the most relevant of them, work with the semantic kernel and technical optimization issues

In this part, we will discuss aspects related to advertising promotion and increasing the conversion rate of the online store, and at the end, we will provide a brief checklist that will help you enhance the effectiveness of your online store's promotion

4. Contextual advertising for online stores and its features

Advertising promotion is probably the simplest and fastest way, especially at the initial stage, to increase the number of users and sales, especially for a young online store. Advertising quickly generates user interest, especially if it matches their intent and triggers

Several types of advertising are often used to promote an online store. However, for the promotion to be truly effective, it is important to know and understand your target audience (TA). For example, socio-demographic factors, geography, interests and preferences of users, their needs, rational and emotional triggers, etc., are considered

Besides understanding the TA, it is necessary to have deep knowledge about your own product, its characteristics, highlight advantages and disadvantages, understand how it differs from competitors, and how this product can meet the consumers' needs, etc

Main tools of advertising promotion:

search advertising - effective for generating «warm» traffic; users already have specific requests and are looking for corresponding products/services to analyze offers, compare them, delve into characteristics, etc
shopping campaigns (Google Shopping) - generate «hot» traffic; users are looking for a product/service to make an immediate purchase
display ads in the Display Network (GDN) – generate «cold» traffic; such advertising campaigns serve to cover a large audience, most often used with the goal of increasing brand awareness
remarketing - these campaigns aim to «bring back» users to the site, i.e., those who have already visited it, as well as those who have visited sites similar to yours

Dynamic search ads

To set up ads separately for each product in an online store, if there are a large number of them, is almost unrealistic, and spending a lot of time on such a setup is at least inexpedient. For such cases there is an excellent tool - dynamic ads. The essence of this type of advertising is that the ads are formed automatically in accordance with the user's request based on the analyzed site. In this case, the ad will look like an ordinary text ad, as if created manually

Another advantage of this type of advertising campaign is that the cost per click is generally lower than that of a regular text ad

Google Shopping campaigns

This type of advertising campaign is specifically designed for online stores. Its main advantage is the automatic formation of ads from photos, title, product cost, and the name of the online store, giving the user preliminary information about a specific product before clicking on the ad. Such ads are displayed in a separate block in the search engine

Display ads in the Display Network (GDN)

This ad format is used to increase brand or product/service awareness. It is most often aimed at a «cold» audience and itself has a low conversion rate. Ads are graphic banners accompanied by a short text and displayed on Google partner sites or in mobile apps. A media campaign is usually used in conjunction with other types of advertising campaigns and «warms up» demand

Remarketing (retargeting)

This type of campaign is designed to show ads to users who have already interacted with your site (each user is given a unique identifier upon visiting the site) or other similar sites (e.g., competitors). This is a very useful tool for bringing back interested users and reminding them about you

And dynamic remarketing allows you to show users automatically generated ads linking back to pages of your site that they have previously viewed

Important!

When creating ads, always consider the following:

the ad must include a USP (unique selling proposition)
titles should be relevant to user queries
landing pages should also match user queries
make maximum use of all available ad extensions (address, phones, quick links, additional descriptions, etc.)

Following these recommendations will help achieve a high CTR (click-through rate), which affects the frequency of ad impressions, its position in the search results, and the cost per click

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5. How to increase the conversion rate of an online store?

The conversion rate of a site is the ratio of the number of site visitors who have performed certain target actions to the total number of users on the site. For an online store, an average conversion rate is 1-2%

What affects the conversion rate?

Asking this question, you'll find that most answers involve settings, structure, convenience, design, and site content. The more answers users find directly on the site and the easier their interaction with it, the higher the likelihood that the potential customer will perform the target action, and you will get a conversion

Several tips:

describe product characteristics in detail
post only high-quality photos/videos of products from various angles
if possible, add a 360-degree product review feature
design the site minimally so that the user is not distracted from interacting with your online store

A good example to follow is car dealers:

cars can be viewed in 360 degrees
high-quality photos are available
photos of individual interior and exterior elements and components are included
videos are available
all car specifications are detailed

Positioning and USP

These factors increase trust in the brand, help it occupy a place in the consumer's mind, be understandable, and distance from competitors

It's best to develop and present positioning and USP in the form of infographics for easy consumer perception

Usability of the online store

Users should be able to quickly find the desired product, easily navigate the site structure, comfortably switch between product cards and pages. This is axiomatic. The world has accelerated tremendously, so visitors will not wait even extra seconds for your site to load, and will not spend extra effort to understand the catalog structure. They will simply leave your site and go to competitors. Often this process occurs unconsciously

Be sure to add to your online store:

filters based on the collected semantic core
site search capability
sorting of products by various parameters (price, popularity, novelty, etc.)

Order placement

The fewer steps to making a purchase, the higher the likelihood of its completion!

Several tips:

Reduce the number of steps to place an order. Stick to the scheme «Add to cart => Checkout => Pay => Done»
Significantly reduce the number of fields to fill out in forms
Remove all elements in the cart that distract the customer from placing an order

Online store reviews

Definitely allow customers to leave reviews. First, this increases the level of trust in your online store. Second, you can timely notice the shortcomings of products, service, delivery, site, etc., which allows you to work on mistakes, become better, increase sales, improve the level of service and loyalty. Third, it's another opportunity to communicate with consumers, another touchpoint. And finally, reviews allow you to be honest and transparent with your customers, which are extremely important brand characteristics in current conditions

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In Conclusion

Promoting an online store requires a certain systematic approach and complexity - you need to define an overall strategy, choose channels and promotion tools, and combine them in such a way to achieve a powerful synergistic effect and the best results. Perhaps initially, all this seems too complicated, however, moving step by step, gaining experience, knowledge, and skills, analyzing, responding to changes, and improving the process, you will definitely achieve the desired results

And finally, as promised - a short checklist: