Shopping ads vs category ads vs dynamic ads: which is best for your business?

When you're an eCommerce business in a competitive industry, Google Ads can give you the edge.

You can target the right customers, use retargeting to drive visitors back to your website, and ensure your content appears on the first page of the search engine results.

One of the advantages of Google Ads is the wide range of ad types on offer. However, when you're new to the world of search engine marketing, it can make it tricky to know which ad is right for your needs.

In this article, we're going to look at three frequently used ad campaigns utilised by eCommerce businesses; shopping ads, category ads, and dynamic ads. Which pay-per-click (PPC) option should you take advantage of?

What is a shopping ad?

Let's say you search Google for something you want to buy online; 'Nike trainers', 'Indesit washing machine', or 'Sony Bluetooth speaker'. Google will list a selection of products you might be interested in above the organic results. These are shopping ads.

The great thing about shopping ads is that they display information about the product that can influence a customer to buy, from a high-quality photo and a price, to reviews.

Plus, as they appear at the top of the search engine results, both on desktop and mobile, your prospective shopper is more likely to check them out. As of 2018, Google shopping ads drove over 76% of all retail search ad spend.

Product information is uploaded to and maintained in Google Merchant Center, a separate system from Google Ads. Google Merchant Center easily integrates with e-Commerce platform providers, including Shopify and WooCommerce, meaning you can save time managing your shopping ads.

However, shopping ads aren't without their disadvantages. You can only use them for physical products, not services. You can also only advertise the products you sell, and not your business, so these ads aren't ideal if you want to raise brand awareness.

What is a category ad?

Sometimes when you're selling online, you want to direct people towards a category rather than a specific product. For example, someone looking for 'Christmas party dresses' isn't likely to have a particular brand or style in mind.

If this is the case, the best bet is to use a Google search ad, more commonly known as a text ad – which you can use to direct a prospective customer to the relevant page on your website.

These ads initiate when someone uses a specific keyword or phrase and operate through an auction process. The more money you're willing to spend, the more likely your ad is to appear.

The advantage of search ads is that they are flexible and easy to create. Just go into your Google Ads account, add your keyword, ad copy, and budget, and you're ready to go. You can also set your ads to show at a specific type of day, and add negative keywords to reduce the chances of the wrong target audience clicking on your ads.

However, as these ads are popular, they are also highly competitive. Some businesses are willing to spend large amounts of money on clicks, especially if you're in the financial or legal sector! It's also important to get the keywords and ad content right; otherwise you might find people ignore your content or, even worse, click on it with no intention of buying.

What is a dynamic ad?

The previous ad types rely on you having to spend time managing product assets or creating the perfect ad copy. Dynamic search ads make it easier to find the right customers.

Dynamic ads use your existing website content to create automated advertisements that are most likely to appeal to prospective shoppers. You can use dynamic ads not only with text-based ads, but you can also use your product data in Google Merchant Center to create dynamic remarketing ads.

The main advantage of dynamic ads is that you save time creating high-quality adverts and discover new data that you can use in your marketing campaigns.

However, the quality of your dynamic ads is wholly dependent on the quality of your website. If your website copy is low-quality or due a rewrite, then your dynamic ads may not bring the results you want.

Google Ads also doesn't recommend you use dynamic ads if your website content is updated daily, as dynamic ads may be unable to keep up with changes.

Which ad type should I use?

So… which ad type should you use to promote your eCommerce store?

It depends on what you want to promote, and what part of the customer journey you want to appeal to, as well as your budget and time restraints.

Shopping ads are ideal if you want to target customers at the top of the search funnel, which are ready to buy. By putting your product directly in front of them, a click is more likely to result in a purchase.

Category ads work well if you want to target people who are considering their options but aren't ready to buy just yet. By making them aware of your brand, they're more likely to buy from you in the future. You might also be able to entice them to sign-up for your newsletter for lead-nurturing purposes.

Both of these ad types involve some degree of ad management and maintenance. While Google does offer degrees of automation (for example, adjusting your keyword budget when a conversion is more likely), you will need to spend time on your ad campaign.

This is when dynamic ad campaigns come into their own. You can save time as Google dynamically generates content on your behalf. Of course, even if you do opt for dynamic ads, we still recommend logging into your account regularly to ensure you're getting the results you want.

Of course, there's nothing to stop you from giving all three ad types a go and seeing which provides the best return on investment for your eCommerce store. Google recently launched a campaign type called Performance Max, combining shopping and search ads to drive conversions in line with your specific requirements.

Looking for a digital marketing company to drive clicks on Google Ads? We provide expert PPC services to a wide range of companies across the UK. Find out how we can raise brand awareness and increase revenue for your business.