6 Key Bottom-of-the-Funnel Advertising Methods for eCommerce

In the following article, we show you 6 key BOF advertising methods for eCommerce businesses that are proven to bring results. Few e-commerce businesses appropriate their budgets based on their sales funnel when it comes to digital marketing campaigns.

Channels like social media, content marketing, traditional display advertising, and affiliate marketing focus on the top of the funnel. So they don’t translate into sales as much as they focus on branding and building awareness.

On the other hand, the six channels below represent the online retail heavy hitters: the channels designed to turn shoppers into customers in the short term.

These tools should be used to push your bottom line and will be the biggest test of your site’s ability to convert bottom-of-the-funnel traffic.

In my opinion, your online marketing budget should be skewed in favor of these six channels for 2023 and beyond.

1. Google Text Ads

1.1 Why it’s Bottom-of-the-Funnel

People who click ads to find a solution have a sense of urgency. They’re typically past the research phase and are more willing to convert now. Google Ads is a reliable way for retailers to see their store for keywords (typically longtail) that indicate a high intent to purchase.

These text ads have powerful audience segmentation capabilities designed to maximize conversions and ROAS (Return on Ad Spend).

1.2 Is it Right For You?

One harsh truth is that Google Ads isn’t cheap. Only retailers with a significant budget for PPC alone should even try out Google Ads, typically ranging from at least $2,000 – $5000/month in available click-spend.

Of course, retailers without the means and expertise to manage Google Ads should also avoid the program because of its steep learning curve.

An intermediate-level PPC manager will not take advantage of the full breadth of capabilities Google Ads offers, and a high cost will ultimately reflect that.

1.3 How to Best Leverage It

You’ll need three things to get the most out of the program: a high budget, a PPC expert, and a Google Analytics account (leveraging GA data is critical).

There is a strong foundation of well-known industry best practices, including geo-targeting, remarketing lists for search ads (RLSAs), competitive intelligence, and a sound campaign structure (will vary). Still, most of the work will go into extensive keyword research beforehand.

2. Amazon Marketplace

2.1 Why it’s Bottom-of-the-Funnel

The reality is that nowadays, many shoppers go to Amazon as the first place to start their buying process. The marketplace is a reliable and comprehensive hub for the lowest prices for products, peer reviews, and reliable shipping.

Advertising on Amazon immediately exposes a retailer to the significant pool of built-in traffic that the site receives monthly (about 200 million people, according to these stats).

2.2 Is it Right For You?

Because the Amazon Marketplace is crowded (~5 million third-party sellers according to FeedbackExpress), being price competitive is critical. Free shipping and seller/product reviews on Amazon are commonplace, so the best way to distinguish yourself here is by having the lowest price (and many reviews).

On top of that, your margins have to be pretty good since Amazon will be taking a solid portion of your sales because of their CPA model (cost per acquisition). Viewed more optimistically, you only have to pay when your products convert.

Amazon is also pretty good at filtering out unreliable sellers, poor fulfilment history, and negative seller/product reviews. If this sounds like you, you’ll unlikely be accepted into the marketplace.

2.3 How to Best Leverage It

For any feed-based advertising program, it’s essential to have a consistent and frequent product feed submission process in place. On that note, your product feed should also be optimized for long-tail search queries (which typically indicate a higher intent to purchase).

It’s essential to always be in the good graces of Amazon and maintain a positive seller rating.

3. Google Shopping

3.1 Why it’s Bottom-of-the-Funnel

Google Shopping is a powerful tool composed of Google Ads and Google Merchant. Google ads function as the platform for your actual shopping campaigns. It is where you will manage your budget, bids, cost per click, and quality score. Google Merchant is the tool that allows you to upload your actual listings.

Google Shopping ads are bottom of the funnel because a) they click through better than Google Ads text ads, b) they occupy much of the Google SERP (search engine results page), and c) if a shopper isn’t starting their buying process on Amazon, most probably they’re starting it on Google.

3.2 Is it Right For You?

One of the benefits of Google Shopping ads is that it’s still a newish program, and the CPCs reflect that. A retailer can be significantly more competitive on Google Shopping than it could be on Amazon.

Before subscribing to Google Shopping, you have several questions, but the two primary criteria are product count and site optimization.

Typically, a retailer with over 1000 SKUs is eligible for Google Shopping. Any less and overall product exposure is difficult to achieve. A retailer’s eCommerce store must also be optimized for conversions on the product page because, unlike Amazon Marketplace, Product Listing Ads take the shopper to convert on your site. Failing to convert a shopper who clicked on your ad is thus primarily the retailer’s fault.

Unlike Google Ads, the Google Shopping budget is much more flexible because of the program’s open-market bidding model. A retailer can bid as low as 1 cent per click on a product to receive exposure.

3.3 How to Best Leverage It

Best practices for Google Shopping come down to consistent feed and bidding management. Like Amazon, a retailer must have a feed submission process (to account for out-of-stock products, new SKU additions, etc.) and optimized feed content (product descriptions, titles, column attributes, etc.).

Keep in mind that campaign structure is critical for Google Shopping ads management.

4. Google Dynamic Remarketing

4.1 Why it’s Bottom-of-the-Funnel

At its core, remarketing, in general, is an essential practice for any eCommerce store. As you may know, most people who visit websites leave without making a purchase, a whopping 95% of overall traffic.

Remarketing, It’s a great way to target shoppers who have already been exposed to your site before, preaching, “Hey, remember my site?”

Yet Google Dynamic Remarketing takes retargeting a step further and offers product-specific retargeting ads. Instead of promoting just your site, you can say, “Hey, remember products X, Y, and Z you checked out?”

Couple this with the reach and segmentation capabilities of the Google Display Network as well as targeted offers (ex. 20% off if you check out today), and Dynamic Remarketing quickly becomes an effective tool to reach shoppers who have been to your site before, have added to cart (then abandoned), or even checked out at your store in the past (i.e., targeting bottom-of-the-funnel traffic).

4.2 Is it Right For You?

Like Google Shopping ads, Dynamic Remarketing is feed-based. It uses the same feed you’d send to the Google Merchant Center for Shopping Ads, a great supplement to existing Google Shopping campaigns.

Retailers should have that feed submission process in place, and that’s about it. Ad designers aren’t necessary since you can design the ads yourself, and campaign setup and optimization are nowhere near as complicated as Google Ads or Google Shopping.

4.3 How to Best Leverage It

Create a Google Merchant account and submit your feed. Best practices include honing your segmentation, adding in targeted offers, ad design, and A/B testing.

5. Facebook Dynamic Ads

5.1 Why it’s Bottom-of-the-Funnel

Facebook is an excellent channel for retargeting. It’s easy to set up, and there’s a great chance your website’s visitors just left are among the 2 billion people actively using Facebook, allowing you to target them again.

Imagine if you run personalized ads for each prospect, set them up quickly with easy ongoing maintenance, be practical and generate high ROI. Amazing, right? Facebook Dynamic ads do these for you and more.

Using Facebook retargeting for dynamic ads, you can remind people about the products they’ve checked on your website, mobile app, or marketplace but didn’t purchased yet.

5.2 Is it Right For You?

Facebook retargeting for dynamic ads come with several options you can choose from, including people that viewed or added products to the cart but not purchased, upselling products from your catalog, cross-sell products, or creating custom combinations.

All you have to do is create a catalog of products, install the Facebook pixel and connect this pixel to your catalog.

5.3 How to Best Leverage It

With the ability to promote all your products, Facebook Dynamic Ads are scalable and highly relevant when optimized correctly, enabling advertisers to cross- and up-sell with excellent results. Here is a detailed guide on optimizing your Facebook Dynamic ads to maximize profits.

Like any PPC campaign, no matter how automatic they are, monitoring and optimization are crucial to ensuring you get the best possible results for your ad budget. Test as much as possible to ensure you find your store’s winning structure and optimization.

6. Google Dynamic Search Ads

6.1 Why it’s Bottom-of-the-Funnel

Google Dynamic Search Ads, or simply DSA, is a unique marketing campaign that lets you advertise without worrying about keywords. It is a radical shift from the traditional test ads. So, instead of researching the exact keywords to include in your marketing campaign, you let Google worry about that. All you have to provide is your website content once it is set up.

It is bottom-of-the-funnel because it saves you time from building campaigns. You don’t have to spend time investing in low-spend accounts, launching a new small category, or expanding to all website categories.

With DSA, your ads appear in more relevant searches and low-volume queries.

6.2 Is it Right For You?

Without DSA, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to reach some keywords Google considers to have “low search volume,” thereby creating a gap in keyword coverage. The opportunity to reach low-volume keywords without having to do that manually is a welcomed development among marketers. Google Dynamic Search Ads can crawl your website or a page feed listing all products.

Another reason you should consider DSA is how easy it is to set up. Once you have a good structure, running a wide array of categories within a day and minimal work is possible.

6.3 How to Best Leverage It

Like most Google ads campaigns, there are several ways to leverage Dynamic Search ads. However, you must have a structure before any work is done with DSA. As you plan to evaluate your current campaigns and their impacts on your business, you should ask questions about missing out and what areas you should improve to give the maximum result.

To understand better how a DSA campaign should be structured, address it as you would a typical text campaign. Analyze your product categories and determine how many categories you will deal with. Afterwards, you can create a solid campaign structure.

DSA is essential for two reasons: to improve your ad experience and expand your query coverage. So, take note of negative keywords, highlight promos and offers then utilize smart biddings.

Conclusion on Advertising methods for eCommerce

So there you have it: The best six marketing channels are specially designed to turn shoppers into customers in the short term. Considering the times we live these advertising methods will give you results in no time.

Today’s agency can help you generate and optimize all the advertising channels presented above so you can reach the highest number of possible conversions and constantly improve the ROI of your advertising budget.

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