Marketing technology is the synergy of tools and activities that support marketing communications and sales. Technology is often associated with a high complexity of work, long-term implementation and the use of a large number of magical shortcuts. I decided to show an approach to technology with a more practical point of view – based on examples that involve specific marketing tactics so you can leverage PPC ads to grow your eCommerce business.
The Recipe
Well-designed and implemented technology solutions must always have a foundation. With eCommerce implementations, the proper foundation is a mix of system analytics to bind each software element (ERP, CRM, logistics, customer service) and UX design and implementation.
The first element of my recipe is a framework to increase sales and conversions in eCommerce by focusing on the three pillars of eCommerce business development: the first purchase, renewed purchase, and conversions and micro-conversions.
The second element is a division of media:
- Paid Media – paid to advertise funded by a marketing budget, e.g. Google Ads, price comparison websites, affiliate networks, remarketing;
- Owned Media – media that allows us to implement an action without the marketing budget, e.g. newsletter, social media, SMS;
- Earned Media – media, that acts independently and is initiated by customers, e.g. recommendations.
The last element that I want to highlight is the buyer’s journey, specifically the imaging and mapping of the clients’ behaviour to fully understand the interaction with the service, the media use, and offline.
Campaigns for the first purchase
The cost of acquiring customers is often synonymous with generating the first transaction. For many industries, investment recovery in acquiring a new customer is a matter of a few purchases in eCommerce.
Marketing Technology helps in those situations in several ways.
By analyzing traffic sources, media and campaigns, we can determine which marketing efforts have brought new customers and focus on media that generate the highest number of new customers.
An analysis of the products bought at a first purchase can expose products and discounts (e.g. a discount for the first purchase, free delivery) that usually appears at the first purchase.
In addition, an analysis of the expected average customer lifetime value (CLV) allows us to specify how soon the investment in acquiring new customers will “return”.
Leverage PPC with “Win-back” Campaign
In eCommerce, actions should be provided at all purchase stages to guide the customer. A great example is marketing campaigns that re-engage customers close to discontinuing purchases altogether.
For instance, SurfStitch, one of the top online fashion stores in Australia, implemented a win-back campaign that resulted in the company recording a 72% decrease in customer outflow. They developed campaigns based on the time since the last transaction, a sequence of 4, 8, and 12 months from the previous purchase date.REI win-back campaign
To counteract the outflow of customers, we need two components. The first is a way to detect and calculate the probability of a customer leaving – the most common methods are to detect a significantly reduced frequency of visits or a complete lack of customer visits to the site and purchase probability analysis based on sales data.
Web traffic measurements are available in marketing automation or web analytics systems.
The second element of the campaign is communication, e.g. email marketing, SMS, or direct contact from your customer service team.
Communication in win-back campaigns frequently takes the form of a discount or survey, incentivizing the customer to return to your site.
Campaigns that reinforce loyalty
Loyalty and the commitment of customers to your brand are indicated often by three variables: the total value of transactions, the total number of completed transactions, and the time of the last trade.
This division corresponds to the RFM segmentation (recency, frequency, monetary), where each variable is given a weight. As a result, this division creates user segments that can direct different marketing communication.
In an ideal world, we strive to maximize each parameter so that the client purchases frequently, spend a lot, and minimize the time since the last purchase.
Leverage PPC with Product Feed Management
Product Feed Management is the management of all marketing media based on the direct export of eCommerce Product List (XML files – feed product).
The most popular product advertising tools are:
- Google Ads sponsored links,
- Google ads,
- Price comparison,
- Deal aggregators,
- Dynamic remarketing markets (eBay, Amazon).
Product Feed Management is a series of activities, including optimizing the construction of XML, price management and response to competition, management within deal aggregator services assigned to a category, and management of advertising rates.
“Reorder / Replenishment” Campaigns
The logic behind the reorder campaign is similar to the win-back campaign – analyzing the purchasing history, frequency of purchases, and the general characteristics of the products so that we can anticipate the moment when the customer “consumes” the product and at the same time meet their needs.
For customers who have just started to shop – we can determine the likelihood of recurrence of purchase of the product by analyzing the characteristics from the point of view of the product. As a result, the analysis produces a list of products with the probability “of being bought periodically” being the greatest.
Conclusion on Leveraging PPC
By leveraging PPC marketing, we can enter a higher level of communication with clients, increase the efficiency and speed of work, anticipate and respond to customer behavior and carry out previously impossible marketing activities.
However, let’s not forget that no tools can replace a good specialist.
With all the advancements in Marketing Technology, it is still impossible to completely automate marketing processes and get results.
Further readings:
- How to Use Google Ads for eCommerce [Ultimate Guide]
- Effective Marketing Channels For Your Online Store [12+]
Relevant case studies of Todays.Agency
- We reached CPAs under 1 Eur in Google and Facebook campaigns
- An eCommerce platform provider achieved the desired result through Google Ads
- A small change to the website increased the conversion rate by 133%
- How an online medical supply store managed to use Google’s dynamic campaigns to its advantage and get 20 extra leads per month
Mastering these tools and strategies, or working with a PPC agency like Todays.agency, is the real competitive differentiator.
