What’s Hiding in Your Ecommerce Account?

Sometimes little oversights can cost you big time. That was the case with one of our clients when they first came to us.

This particular client sells anatomical models and charts to doctors, teachers, universities and laboratories. Remember that creepy skeleton in the corner of your high school biology class?

Yep, there’s a whole industry dedicated to selling those sorts of anatomically-correct models.

This particular client had been running Google Shopping campaigns for a while, but they were only producing a 0.97 return on ad spend (ROAS). That’s not exactly sustainable—especially when you take cost of goods and shipping into account.

Things didn’t quite add up, though. They had great products. The demand was out there. Their margins were good.

So why weren’t things working?

When we first started working with them, the answer wasn’t immediately obvious. But, we felt like there had to be something that we were missing, so we took an in-depth look at their campaigns.

It took some research, but we eventually discovered something shocking. Most of their products weren’t actually pulling through to Google Shopping!

Once we tracked down and fixed the problem, revenue increased by 404% and return on ad spend jumped up to 6.75x!

All of a sudden, their Google Ads campaigns weren’t a liability—they were a huge asset. The potential was there all along, the client just a few problems on their backend that were keeping them from success.

While this might seem like a bit of a no-brainer, you’d be surprised at how often we discover these sorts of obvious—but not-so-obvious—problems in our clients’ accounts. Sometimes, the answer is staring you in the face…you’ve just been looking in all the wrong places.

Taking a Look at Your Back End

Similarly, if you don’t have things set up properly, you may not be able to properly see all of the value that certain marketing efforts are producing.

For example, paid ads drive more value than just direct sales. Paid ads get your business out there and help build awareness for your products. That awareness, however, doesn’t always translate into immediate direct sales.

With some clients, we can’t always hit their ROAS goals, but they’re still thrilled with the results they’re getting. Why? Because they were making more revenue at a better profit margin than ever.

The ads were working—they just weren’t delivering direct results. Instead of clicking on the ads and buying, their customers would see the ad, think about the product and later visit their site through a different channel and make a purchase.

If you don’t keep a close eye on the back end of your marketing, you can miss all kinds of key insights. Whether it’s the fact that your ads aren’t running the way you think they’re running, they’re delivering unseen results or something else, it’s critical to make sure that you’ve got all the information you need to make smart marketing decisions.

Conclusion

A simple oversight or two on your back end can have big consequences for your campaigns.

If you can’t figure out why your campaigns aren’t working, it’s never a bad idea to check on things on the back end. Integrations, data syncing, analytics, tracking…it can all have a big effect on campaign performance. Check yourself before you wreck yourself!

Of course, this isn’t the only way to improve your ecommerce campaigns.

For eight other proven tactics we love to use with our clients, check out this eBook. Or, simply let us know you’d like some help here or in the comments and we’d be glad to show you all the hidden potential in your campaigns.