News and insights • Posted on 05 June 2018

Google shopping vs text ads

Google Shopping vs Text ads – where should digital marketers spend their AdWords budget?


Opportunities to promote businesses via Google are so plentiful nowadays that digital marketers are hard-pushed to know where exactly they should focus their efforts. I recently took to Marketing Tech News to explain why paid search shouldn’t be overlooked, and considered how digital marketers should apportion their spend.

Limited budget needn’t mean limited activity


When strict budgets are in place, particular attention must be given to allocation of spend. But whether that comes down to ploughing everything into Shopping campaigns or sticking more closely to mainstream text-based PPC activity depends entirely on available spend and the end goal.

Shopping campaigns have steadily increased in popularity with digital marketers over the last couple of years and it’s now said that more than half of all AdWords spend has shifted from traditional text adverts to Shopping ads. This shift could be in part down to the relatively low cost per click (CPC) and the fact that marketers can more efficiently drive traffic to the right product pages. Plus, it’s fairly easy to control elements of Shopping campaigns in AdWords – but bear in mind there’s no leeway with keywords and marketers have to rely on the search popularity of the products they’re selling. For that reason, Shopping campaigns may not be the best tool for unbranded products with no search volume.

Meanwhile, text ads are customisable depending on objectives and their flexibility means a wider range of audiences can be targeted. Text ads could provide further options for promotion throughout the user journey and therefore appeal to lead generation campaigns.

So where is a digital marketer’s money best spent? Read my full article and find out how you can maximise the return on your budget.

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Written by Andy McCaul

Co-founder and digital marketing guru Andy ensures all projects are shipshape, and that we generate the best return on investment for clients.

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