Give them what they want & grow your business
Search and Shopping campaigns, most commonly deployed on Google ads, are the cornerstone and popular work-horses of the PPC world. They are the go-to campaign types for the vast majority of advertisers who wish to put their product or service in front of someone searching for it.
Search campaigns are most commonly used for lead generation, whereas Shopping is exclusively for e-commerce retailers of physical goods. At a minimum, Search or Shopping campaigns are usually paired with Remarketing campaigns to catch both immediate and longer-term value.
The main advantage that Search and Shopping have over other PPC campaign types is that they most often have immediate purchasing intent with the traffic they bring since someone has gone out of their way to search for your product or service.
Did you know you can target your search or shopping ads based not just on the keyword they searched but also on the following additional layers?
Search is no longer about keywords. It’s about matching your keywords to your target persona at the right moment. Just imagine if you were a B2B solar panel company, exclusively servicing the construction industry. No-one searches, ‘solar panels for a construction company,’ so instead, you can bid on ‘solar company’ as a much broader and popular keyword, but ensure with B2B detailed demographic targeting that only those who search for this phrase AND work in the construction industry see your ad.
Fun fact: Google Ads used to be known as AdWords until 2018. Think about that – the old branding was literally about ads and words. In contrast, now, the ‘words,’ referring to keywords, are almost secondary to the additional detailed targeting layers available to you.
Are Google Shopping and Google PLA’s the same thing?
Yes. Google used to call what is now known as Shopping Ads, Product Listing Ads (PLAs).
Where to Search Ads show up?
In the top 1-4 listings of search engine results above organic listings, three listings the bottom of search engine results underneath the organic listings.
Where do Shopping Ads show up?
At the very top of Google search results, with product images, titles, reviews and pricing.
Can I do both Search and Shopping Ads?
Yes, if you’re an e-commerce retailer. You’ll probably look to Shopping Ads for your highest ROI and volume of sales but may choose to run complementary Search ads to fill gaps that Shopping doesn’t catch, or, to double-down and dominate results for your products.
