PPC for Retail: Benefits, Costs + Strategies to Drive Revenue

PPC for retail uses paid ads on search engines like Google and Bing to drive traffic to ecommerce websites. Learn how our experts use PPC to get more clicks and conversions for retailers.

Over 80% of shoppers turn to search engines for research before making a purchase.

When that many customers start their buying journey online, it’s no wonder pay-per-click advertising, or PPC, is an essential part of most retail businesses’ digital marketing strategy.

With smart, cost-efficient paid search ads, you can reach the right people to boost brand awareness and revenue.

In this article, we’ll break down the basics of PPC for retail, with expert insights from HawkSEM Lead Strategist Jordan Fultz.

What is PPC for retail?

PPC for retail is a strategy used to drive traffic to your website using pay-per-click ads on platforms like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

It uses keywords your target audience uses to shop for your products, and you only pay if someone clicks on your ad.

The benefits of PPC campaigns for retail

PPC campaigns can benefit various retailers, including department stores, supermarkets, online retailers, and convenience stores.

Here are several ways it can help your retail business:

• Stand out from the competition. Retail is competitive. Your customers face opportunities to buy all day, every day. Effective online advertising helps you stand out from the crowd so you can grab buyers’ attention before competitors do.
• Target the right people. Running a targeted PPC campaign lets you reach your ideal audience so you won’t waste your paid media spend.
• Keep costs down. Buying old-school print ads means paying for extra printed materials headed straight for the recycling bin. PPC ads allow you to only pay for targeted clicks on your ad, so you get higher quality leads and more efficient ad spend.
• Gain valuable insights. PPC campaigns yield a wealth of data to optimize your campaigns. At HawkSEM, we use a proprietary software called ConversionIQ to pull richer, deeper analytics that can drive better quality leads and higher conversions.

(Image: HawkSEM)

• Scale quickly and effectively. The retail market is always changing, so it’s critical to be responsive. With PPC, you can scale your ads up or down, or shut them down entirely to adapt to market changes.

How much does PPC cost for retail?

Retailers spend anywhere from $1,500 to $10,000 monthly on PPC costs. But for multi-location retailers, the budget can easily exceed $30,000 each month.

The average cost per click (CPC) is about $1 to $2 on average for Google search ads. Yet, in the bustling retail marketplace, don’t be surprised if the CPC climbs higher due to the competitive nature of the keywords you’re targeting.

However, the price you pay per click may be less than your max bid. This is thanks to factors like your ad’s Quality Score and how many other ads are vying for the same keywords.

How to build a PPC strategy for retail

Effective retail PPC campaigns start with a strong strategy. Let’s take a look at nine strategic PPC management fundamentals that deliver results.

1. Set clear objectives
2. Research your target audience
3. Select the right platform
4. Conduct keyword research
5. Use an organized campaign structure
6. Create targeted ad copy and creative
7. Manage your Google Merchant Center account
8. Optimize your product feeds
9. Integrate analytics early

1. Set clear objectives

Set a specific goal for what you want your PPC ads to accomplish, like:

• Increase brand awareness
• Promote a new product
• Increase click-through rates
• Increase conversion rates

Ideally, a great ad will accomplish several of these objectives. But setting a strong direction will guide your decision-making better than an abstract goal of greatness.

Along with objectives, set resource constraints. Decide on a clear timeline and budget, so your marketing team knows what they have to work with.

2. Research your target audience

When creating a campaign, you’ll specify your target audience.

There are loads of variables you can use to define your target audience in Google Ads, such as age and location. Ensure these are all grounded in thorough customer research.

(Image: Screenshot)

Your target audience will impact your ad copy and design. Different audiences respond to different ad types, so work with your advertising team to craft creatives that your potential customers will respond to.

3. Select the right platform

Retail businesses aren’t limited to Google Shopping Ads.

Amazon, Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram), YouTube, Pinterest, and Microsoft Ads (Bing) all offer robust advertising options to reach the right audience.

Consider where your customers are most likely to spend their time and build your strategy around those platforms.

4. Conduct keyword research

Use a tool like Google Keyword Planner, Semrush, or Ahrefs to find keywords to incorporate into your PPC campaigns.

Place keywords in the body of your ads, your website, and technical SEO. Proper keyword research can earn a prominent placement in Google’s SERPs.

We recommend:

• Prioritizing commercial intent keywords (“buy men’s watches,” for example)
• Leveraging branded, non-branded, competitor, and long-tail keywords
• Using a negative keyword list to filter out irrelevant traffic (like “cheap” or “discount code”)

5. Use an organized campaign structure

When it’s time to build your PPC ads, separate campaigns by:

• Product category
• Brand
• Audience type
• Match type or funnel stage

For Google Shopping, use product segmentation and prioritize your top performers. After your campaigns have run for enough time to accumulate meaningful data, consider running Performance Max campaigns to maximize efficiency.

6. Create targeted ad copy and creative

Depending on your audience and ad type, create messaging and assets that:

• Highlight the benefits of your brand or products
• Offer a clear call to action
• Emphasize sales and limited offers

Additionally, consider testing dynamic keyword insertion for search ads and using ad assets like sitelinks and promo extensions.

7. Manage your Google Merchant Center account

If you are an ecommerce business, it’s important to set up and manage your Merchant Center account properly.

To set yours up:

1. Go to Google Merchant Center
2. Use the same Google account you use for Google Ads and Analytics to create your GMC
3. Fill out your business information
4. Choose whether customers will make a purchase from your ecommerce website, through Google, or at a brick-and-mortar location
5. Follow the steps to verify and claim your website to link it to your Merchant Center account
6. Submit your products to GMC manually or by uploading a product feed

8. Optimize your product feeds

When products are added to your feed, they remain active for 30 days before expiring. Make sure to update their information so they are eligible to appear in your campaigns.

To update your products, reprocess your feed or set up automatic processing on a regular basis.

When doing this, don’t forget to:

• Ensure accurate titles, descriptions, and categories
• Include keywords in product titles
• Use high-quality images and consistent pricing

9. Integrate analytics early

Before kicking off your PPC campaigns, set up conversion tracking, Google Analytics (GA4) with ecommerce goals, and offline conversion imports.

As you collect important data, use it to optimize your campaign, monitoring metrics like ROAS, CPA, CTR, impression share, and conversion volume on a daily or weekly basis.

By approaching your campaign from customer-driven and data-driven lenses, you can create ads that drive results for your retail business.

At HawkSEM, we helped retail store Grayson Living increase sales by 279% (roughly 6X their ad spend).

We immersed ourselves in Grayson Living’s website, refining its online strategy on multiple fronts.

Our strategic tweaks and tailor-made landing pages led to a near doubling of ROAS, a tripling of ecommerce sales, and an over 100% increase in conversion rates within a single year.

We took the bold step of increasing ad spend, which significantly boosted performance.

PPC for retail: Expert tips

After setting up your PPC campaigns, Fultz offers his expert tips to stand out against the competition.

1. Leverage customer lists for retargeting, non-targeting, and especially for testing signals for PMax campaigns

“Google Ads utilizes machine learning more each year, so you need to make your target customer and your goals unmistakably clear for Google’s algorithmic bidding,” says Fultz.

“Create and use audiences based on your upper-funnel efforts to stay in touch with your target audience, such as those generated from Meta Ads. Test more signals and fewer signals in your Performance Max campaigns. Don’t settle for the same assumed signals in all your asset groups.”

2. Revisit product feed optimizations

“Examine product data critically and consider how information is presented to shoppers,” says Fultz.

“Monitor the performance of top products and consider excluding similar products with less competitive advantage.”

3. Price competitiveness is important, but don’t neglect trust signals and value propositions

This applies to your ad copy, imagery, and your website. “If your products are more expensive than the cheaper alternatives, emphasize the added value to make it worthwhile and obvious to customers,” says Fultz.

4. Use lifestyle images in PMax alongside your product images

This will help create a more emotional connection with your audience. Plus, seeing your product in context can boost engagement and conversion rates.

5. Highlight your positive reviews

These can be on products or your store as a whole with review assets. Studies show people often consider reviews online, particularly when comparing products before a purchase.

6. Know your goals

“Seriously, know them,” says Fultz. “Plan and test your campaigns around those goals. These will usually be a combination of budget, revenue, ROAS, and brand awareness.”

After you prioritize and strategize around your goals accordingly, ramp up your campaigns to pursue the numbers you need.

7. Optimize for mobile

Reports show 35% of Americans make a retail purchase on their smartphone on a weekly basis.

Optimizing your website for mobile is essential for successful PPC campaigns. This includes a responsive web design, fast page loading times, and mobile-specific navigation.

8. A/B test

Split test your ad’s headlines, descriptions, and images as well as landing pages and CTAs and bidding strategies, and campaign types to identify which elements yield the best results.

9. Keep up with advertising trends

Retail businesses have a slew of competitors, so staying relevant is the name of the game.

Today’s trends include video ads and bold, creative display ads. But don’t always follow the crowd — take time to understand what’s working with buyers right now.

PPC retail trends for 2025

“Ecommerce trends are pointing to more reliance on machine learning,” says Fultz.

That means an inevitable increase in click costs, and high adoption of Google Ads from competing businesses in industry verticals (i.e, more competition).

“Advertisers must continually seek improvements to stay relevant in their goal plateaus, especially for businesses that need to scale their advertising efforts,” he explains.

“It’s competitive out there, so don’t plan your yearly revenue goals around assumptions or hopes alone; plan around concrete expectations for improvements and competitive moves in your advertising.”

Otherwise? You’ll find that you aren’t meeting your goals because you lack data and confidence in those goals.

“Misalignment of goals and economic realities can lead to drastic measures that result in significant financial waste,” Fultz adds. “Be steady, confident, and data-driven, because continuous success with Google Ads is like the stock market (don’t be a day trader).”

Unique challenges of PPC ads in retail

PPC ads are perfect for the retail sector — but they come with common challenges every retailer should be aware of.

• Competition: In the retail space, the competition is fierce. Virtually every PPC retailer faces competition from a wide range of players to win consumers, so you’ll want to fully optimize your ad to maximize your odds of driving conversions.
• Visual communication: Most retail goods, like fashion, housewares, and food, require a strong visual component to communicate value. Great copy and campaign strategy aren’t enough; you’ll need standout ad designs to drive conversions to attract clicks.
• Seasonality: Whether you’re a toy company with a big boost around Christmas or a swimsuit line with high summertime sales, your digital marketing strategy must adapt to seasonal needs fast. Plan for seasonal buying cycles to ensure effective PPC ad campaigns all year.

When you master these challenges, PPC marketing can have a massive impact on your bottom line.

Key PPC terms

Let’s break down some of the most common PPC terms.

• Click-through rate (CTR): The number of people who clicked your ad, as a percentage of everyone who viewed it.
• Conversion rate: The percentage of people who view your ad who end up taking your desired action. Whether it’s signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase, the conversion rate shows how many people move all the way through your conversion journey.
• Cost per click (CPC): What you pay when someone clicks your ad. It drives your ad spend. There are many ways to drive down your CPC, including improving optimization — advertising platforms reward organizations with effective ads.
• Customer acquisition cost (CAC): The average amount of ad spend it takes to get one new customer to your online store or physical shop. You can calculate CAC by dividing your total marketing costs over a period of time by the number of new customers you acquired in that timeframe.
• Quality Score: A diagnostic tool used by Google to reward ads relevant to someone searching for your keyword. The higher the score, the more effective the ad.
• Ad extensions: Now called ad assets, extensions are additional snippets of information — like links, contact information, and snippets — that make ads more compelling and drive higher CTR.

Checklist for an effective PPC ad campaign for retailers

To help make this process that much easier, we’ve created this handy checklist to guide you through the process of constructing your first retail PPC campaign.

• Set clear objectives
• Research your target audience
• Select the right platform
• Conduct keyword research
• Use an organized campaign structure
• Create targeted ad copy and creative
• Manage your Google Merchant Center account
• Optimize your product feeds
• Integrate analytics early

The takeaway

PPC is an essential component of a retail business’s search marketing campaign — but it demands expert insights and ongoing management.

Need a little help along the way? Contact the team of experts at HawkSEM to craft and manage your advertising strategy.

From PPC advertising to paid social media marketing to search engine optimization — we’re here to help your business thrive.

This article has been updated and was originally published in March 2024.