Should You Use Google Ads For Clothing Business in 2020?

Brace yourselves!

You’ll have some Google ads benefits for the clothing business — overdose! This could probably be the most crucial information if you are looking into AdWords for the fashion industry. We’ll share the best strategies for Google Ads for clothing businesses too. 

But before that, an important question here:

Do you know what a PPC is? Have you heard the term Google PPC?

What Is Google PPC?

What’s the first thing to hit your mind when you hear Pay per click (PPC)?

You might already know that there is a system of advertisement where the publisher gets a certain amount paid by the advertiser each time a user clicks on the ad.

Well, that system is called Pay Per Click or PPC.

Interestingly, people usually think that PPC and Google PPC are synonymous. 

We bet, the answer you had in mind to our question was Google Ads (formerly known as Google AdWords).

Here’s the thing:

Neither is PPC the only mode of Google Ads nor is Google Ads, the only platform for PPC ads. That misunderstanding, however, is the discussion for another time.

Let’s get down to the topic that we gathered here for:

Google Ads For Businesses

Let us ask you a simple question:

What factors do you take into account to decide if you want to purchase a product?

For us, it would be the following:

Considerations That Impact A Purchase Decision

Social Proof 

Social proof probably is the first thing people consider while making a purchase decision. What do your current customers think of you? That opinion sure is important for potential customers.

But why care? 

Because, 21st century, pal! 

No one keeps mums these days if a business has burned them. The Internet then makes sure to spread the word effectively around the world, making the news viral. 

Here’s the best part:

The rules for a better scenario are not all that different. The same happens when they appreciate your products. The world learns some good about you. And that world could turn into your customer-world!

So, as a business, your social proof plays a huge role in deciding your fate.

People have a psychological inclination to follow what the masses are doing in general.

So, if there still is Social proof of the effectiveness and the popularity of a product, rest assured you’d hit your sales goals pretty fast. 

If we were you, we wouldn’t let go of a chance to buy such a product. What about you?

Personal Experience Or Reference

It goes without saying that people would learn from their personal experiences. 

If they have liked a product in the past, so would they in the future. 

However, if they have had a bad experience with you in the past, they’d be reluctant to try you again. Your advertisements about improvements over time would appear publicity stunts to them.

So, the personal experience about the quality and other factors such as customer services, etc. holds an important place in the decision-making process.

If that doesn’t apply, someone else’s experience works equally effectively.

The Associated Cost

The financial implications of purchase make the top of the list of considerations for most of the purchasers. While many prefer the quality over the cost, it would still be an important consideration factor for a vast majority of purchasers.

And the list doesn’t end here!

Anyway, what have these and many other unmentioned reasons for purchases got to do with Google Ads?

Let’s discuss that in the following section.

How Do Google Ads Help With The Purchase Decision?

These factors are the demands and pain points of the purchasers. 

Talk of social proof, for instance. 

The products they see all around do not have any social proof. However, their minds demand evidence of quality and every other aspect of your product.

If they don’t have any personal experience, they need someone else’s experience or assurance that their experience would be just what they anticipate (better yet, even better). 

And above all, the pricing of the products they see around are mostly not what they are happy to pay. They don’t need the products that cost them an arm and a leg. 

Now, an advertiser’s job is to resolve their issues through the way they design the ads.

Lucky for you, Google Ads can do precisely that and much more for you. For instance:

• You can show social proof with your Google Ad copy’s help, right when they are looking for your products.

• You can’t give them a personal experience with your Google ad copies if they haven’t used the product already – TRUE. But your text could hint at what their own experience would be like. This could range from highlighting the experience of other users to highlighting the benefits of the product and the ease it brings in the prospect’s life.

• Google ads won’t make your products any cheaper than they already are (unless you run a special discount campaign for your visitors). But, won’t you factor in the advertising costs in the final price of your products?

Well, guess what, Google ads are among the best cost-effective options out there. So running these ads won’t really cause a drastic addition in the original sale price either.

If by any chance, you still think if Google Ads are a good option for advertisers and businesses out there, here’s a small treat that sure would convert you:

Note: Experience the power of Social Proof yourself.

Important Google Ads Stats For Advertisers and Businesses

Google PPC sure is a uniquely valuable option for Clothing businesses, but that doesn’t make it any less important for other niches. 

It is among the best established and scaling advertising networks for sure. Let’s have a look at some stats that establish Google Ads as an important option there is:

• As of 2020, Google owns 70% of the total Market share. Top that, other search engines!

• Google Economic Impact Report claims that for an average of every $1 you spend on Google Ads, you earn a revenue of $8. (Don’t forget, that’s an average. You could do much better than that or seek help from a PPC agency that has a good history with Google ads).

• 75% of people say that paid ads make finding information about the product they need quite easier. (Source)

• About 35% of Google visitors claim to have purchased within 5 days of their search. (Source)

• About 50% of people can not differentiate between a paid and an organic listing. (Source)

We’d call it good news for every business out there. Why? Because you stand a better chance of being clicked by such people as the ads are the top results (and people are more likely to click the top results than scrolling down).

• You may increase your site traffic to up to 300%, as per the proven stats. (Source)

Convinced? Are you?

Hang on!

We have listed more reasons for you to use Google Ads. 

For now, let’s specifically talk about Google AdWords for fashion. 

Why Choose Google Ads For Clothing Businesses?

Have you ever wondered how Google AdWords still happens to be among the top choices of most clothing businesses? 

People from the industry are often seen and heard endorsing Google Ads for clothing businesses. The industry is making big out of using Google PPC. So why do You Need to use google ads if you own a clothing brand?

Let’s have a closer look at Google Ads to find the answer.

Whether you have an apparel brand, an E-commerce clothing store, a child clothing business, or you deal in made-to-order clothing — any fashion or non-fashion clothing name leverages Google Ads. No doubt, Adwords is not the only option for clothing businesses, however. 

You’d ask, *Why to choose Google ads for a clothing business, then?*.

Good point!

However, the answer is not very simple and requires a little patience with details.

But put simply, *Clothing businesses find Google Ads highly useful for the advantages they offer, that are just unignorable*. 

Here is an explanation of the WHYs!

Google Ads Benefits For Clothing Businesses

Here are some of the benefits of using Google ads for clothing businesses.

1- Enjoying Instant Results

If you are looking for instant success, sales, and growth, the best option you could target is Google AdWords. 

Comparatively, optimizing your results for Search Engine Organic searches requires time and long term consistent efforts. 

Now, this does not, in any case, prove AdWords superior to SEO efforts. Both have their places, but the speed of AdWords has no parallels.

2- Reaching Customers Exactly When They Need Your Services.

For some products or services, people often do in-depth research long before they would actually make a purchase. For others, however, they are probably looking for placing an order right at the time they are searching for it. 

The clothing business would probably fall in the latter category for most customers (unless we are talking about the expensive – wedding or party – wear here.)

Now, targeting the right transactional keywords in your Google ads brings terrific results.

How so?

Let’s explain it with an example.

We made a Google search for the keyword *cheap and trendy clothing stores*. Here are the first few results that Google returned.

Now, if you pay close attention, you’d find the top (4, in this case) results to be the Ads. Try different variants of the keyphrase, and the pattern would remain the same.

While the ads might change for each keyword, these would always be at the top.

Now, imagine somebody looking to purchase clothes.

What is he most likely to do? Click on the ads selling clothes or skip down to the organic results? 

Lucky for advertisers, most people would click on the ads and would probably make a purchase. As a matter of fact, 2015 based Sitewit stats show the click percentage of the top 3 ads to be 41% of the total clicks that all the results of the page get.

Sounds thrilling for the business owners. Right?

And that, dear friends, is the top advantage of using Google ads that target the right keywords and phrases – just the way the advertisers from the given image did for the phrase *cheap and trendy clothing stores*.

Also read: Understanding Content Marketing: A Beginners Guide

3- Fruitful Geotargeting

As a local business, you do not want to target the whole nation, unless you are a fan of *555 ways to lose bucks on useless stuff*. 

So if you are here to learn the right from wrong, you’d want to use geo-targeting by using keywords that your exact potentials are likely to use if they need your services.

“But, local SEO is a good solution,” you’d say. 

You’ve got it, and the fact needs no second consideration or validation.

But, wait. Did you mean Local SEO on its own?

Here’s the thing you need to know and cram (if writing it works for you, so should you)!

local SEO on its own won’t be as quick in fetching you results as AdWords would. 

Alternatively, try both the strategies in unison to have a blast. SALES, PROFITS, GROWTH!

4- Utilizing The Impressive Analytics

AdWords gives amazing detailed analytics to track the progress of your Ads. It gets you the information like clicks, click-through rates, better performing keywords, ad spent, conversion rate, and the ROI.

Each of them is an important measure of progress, and (having the whole progress right in front of you) helps you make better informed future decisions as well. For instance, you can decide what ads are burning your bucks and which ones are bringing the real valuable results, i.e., excellent ROI. 

Turn off the dollar burners and level up the better-performing ones. Way to go!

5- Winning The Competition

Your AdWords efforts land you above the SEO results of your competition — that has already been explained.

Picture this.

You know your competitors are performing better than you in terms of sales. Wouldn’ it be great if you get the essence of their Ads campaigns? How about getting to know the exact keywords that they use in their AdWords campaign to rank in the top 3 ad places and win traffic that converts to sales?

Well, it’s your lucky day. Because AdWords does just the thing. 

And knowing all of this helps you understand your Ads gap, i.e., the areas where your competition is spending dollars while you aren’t. 

6- Reaching More People

Google keeps devising strategies to reach more, thus earn more. But don’t worry, Google always comes up with the solutions that not only make Google some money but work for you as publishers or businesses as well.

Here’re some of the ways you are offered to amplify your reach. 

Gmail

Seeing ads inside your mailbox box might be the least you’d expect from Google, which is why they turn out to be a great success in most cases. 

These ads displayed mainly in the promotion tab (sometimes in the Social tab too), work best for advertisers to maximize their reach if they have hard budget limits.

Search Network And Display Network

Google smartly attracts and converts the visitors of a certain intent (indicated by their searches) with Retargeting ads. 

Put otherwise — if you are an apparel business owner, you’ll give Google a list of your recent visitors to show a particular ad to. Now, a recent visitor (who has already shown some level of interest) has a better conversion potential if shown the same (or related products he was initially interested in). 

You do retargeting, hoping that something just came up while he was looking at the product, was adding it to cart, or was about to check out. Though in all actuality, the visitor might have been paying just a casual visit, going with that chance would only ruin your chances of selling (to those who were actually brutally abrupted by something while placing an order).

So, Google shows these retargeting ads (often with attractive offers and packages depending on how deep down the visitor was in the sales funnel) on search and display networks, among other placements.

All of these placement tactics increase the reach and thus, conversion rate.

Oh! Just in case you are completely new to the idea of retargeting, Google doesn’t offer a discount on its own. It’s you who decides the deal and Google displays it to your prospects.

BONUS BENEFITS YOUR CLOTHING BUSINESS COULD GET FROM GOOGLE ADS.

• Turning campaigns on and off whenever needed is a useful, money-saving option

• A/B testing all the ad creatives and keywords gives you the best of the best available options with high results potential. 

Enough of the benefits now. But that’s really not all!

So, the simple question was, “Why Do You Need Google Ads for clothing brands?”

The simplest answer is, for the fantastic benefits they offer.

After the WHYs, let’s talk about the HOWs of AdWords for the Clothing business in the fashion industry.

Let’s drill down to how to avail these fantastic benefits for your clothing business with Google Ads. Shall we?

Actionable Google Ads Strategies For Clothing Businesses

Use Branded Search Campaigns

Branded Search Campaign is a campaign whereby you are spending to promote your brand name, using it as your keyword.

But why care — especially when other keywords and non-branded campaigns are landing you quite higher on SERPs?

Think about it for a moment:

If you built a good name, but another clothing store appears on top when a prospect uses your name in the search query.

How would that feel? What does that result in?

Did you do all this hard work all this time so somebody else could steal your prospects?

Our best guess would be *No*.

But, if you do not use your brand name as the keyword, another smart clothing brand would. 

You heard us!

Competitors often use their (better performing) competitor’s names as keywords to steal their traffic, thus a portion of their profits. 

But hey, all is fair in love and war. It’s about your love and their war. So, there’s no stopping them!

Pay a little attention now!

Here’s what a branded ad campaign looks like.

You appear to a searcher on top of your organic results when someone searches for your name.

Working on both PPC and SEO for roughly the same set of keywords ensures consistent ranking and better visibility in both the strategies.

Additionally, Google’s relevance score goes further in your favor when you target your brand name as keywords, thus lowering your cost per click. 

Well, that’s a win, win, WIN no matter what clothing business you are in.

Also read: Does the ranking depend on the length of an article? [A review]

Use Google Shopping Campaigns

Google shopping campaigns have a proven track record for Clothing businesses; now, let’s not repeat that.

(Oops!) 

Brad Smith has done a great job fetching amazing examples of different Google Shopping ads on Adespresso by Hootsuite. 

Image Source: AdExpresso by Hootsuite

The unusual feature about the shopping campaigns is that they display multiple brands in the same long window. So, the users are in a unique position to compare the products.

These ads show on Google Search, Google Shopping, as well as Search Partners Networks.

You might find these ads slightly expensive, but if you take our words for it, they are totally worth it.

“And how exactly?”, if you ask, here’s how:

• For having the most useful information displayed right in the search results, they are clicked on more often than other ad types (have more Clickthrough rate). 

• They have a higher conversion rate too. 

• And the best part is that you can be competitive with Google Search Campaigns for your clothing business. 

Your clothing product would appear along with other big and small competitors. If your features are competitive, i.e., lesser prices or more trendy styling, you are definitely getting more sales than others. 

Here’s an exact walkthrough by Google on how to run these ads. Just a tip to remember! create a Google Merchant Account before you get started.

Use Remarketing Campaigns

Remarketing is the marketing of the same product to someone who has shown interest in it already either by visiting it or has taken some action. 

Here’s an amazingly simple depiction of How Google Remarketing works by David Martin on medium.com.

The remarketing ads are incredibly high converting as they are meant for a relatively more qualified audience. These benefits render such ads less costly. Therefore, using Google remarketing ads to any clothing business is an exclusively profitable idea.

Why?

Here’ why:

Imagine a good number of your audience visiting a particular dress on your website. However, a high number of these visitors don’t get to buy the dresses. 

You are sure of their interest because they have clicked on the product, or added the product in “add to cart” or “add to wishlist.”

But the problem — despite showing interest, they haven’t purchased. Either Call it your loss and do nothing or call it your profit potential and re-market to them. 

Who knows, they might have been caught up in something, abandoning the cart or leaving the clicked product un-ordered. 

So, take it for them from there. 

Remind them of the product or attract them with an offer. A winning number of prospects are bound to buy the product. For those who still do not, you can keep remarketing to them at intervals. 

In one of his detailed blog posts, Neil Patel has jotted down everything you need to know about setting up a Google remarketing ad. 

Use Ad Extensions To Draw More Attention To Your Google Ads For Any Clothing Business

Make use of Google extensions to increase the clickthrough rate of your Google clothing Ads. 

Now, Google has made it slightly more interesting, both for you and your prospects. 

How so?

Did you know that apart from the regular extensions that Google offers for all the businesses, there are special shopping Ad extensions too?

Let’s dive in to learn about them all. Shall we?

Google Ad Extensions

Location Extensions:

 Call the location extension as a means to drive more visits and calls to your business. Using a location extension, you can display phone numbers to receive calls on, or addresses and maps to receive visits on.

AdWords Sitelink Extension: 

If you want them to take a specific action or visit a specific page other than the home page – such as a product page – the site link extension is the go-to Google extension for your clothing business.

Callout Extension: 

Callout extension gives you the space to display additional words that are not direct calls to action but encourage the visitors to consider your business. FREE delivery is one such example.

AdWords Promotion Extension: 

If you have an offer or a promotion that should stand out to be seen and converted, this is your simple solution.

Call Extension: 

With the help of a call extension, you call people to make calls to your business using a phone number or with a direct call button.

Structured Snippet Extension: 

Structured snippet extensions appear right under your text ad in the form of a header. You can have 1 (mobile) to 2 (desktop) headers under your ad to display specific important information or highlight specific features etc.

Price Extension: 

With the help of price extension, you get more space to display cards with details such as the price of individual services or products. You could use this extension to display the hot-sellers of your clothing store with their respective prices.

App Extension: 

If you are the lucky clothing business owner who has an app too, use this extension to encourage people to download your app. Such a service is bound to be highly useful for your loyal customers in particular.

And you know these are not all. Right?

Because then there are these shopping ad extensions that the marketers swear by. Why not use them to call your prospects to shop from your clothing store?

Let’s look into each of them:

Google Shopping Ad Extensions

Google inventory Ad extensions: 

Probably the best extension for a local business, this extension helps the users learn about the real-time situation of your business. The information it allows you to display includes inventory availability or prices, etc.

Product rating extension:

PLA product rating extension is the best option for established businesses with good ratings and ranking on different platforms. Google shows the average of reviews and ratings across the web under your products with this extension. These ratings appear in the form of stars under the products.

In case you are curious, PLA stands for Product Listing Ads.

Google Merchant Promotions: 

With the help of a Merchant Promotion ad extension, Google helps you stand out from your competitors.
How so?
Google gives you a clickable *Special Offers* button that leads to an on-SERP pop-up that displays your special offer. If it gets them interested, they’ll click and avail the promotion offer right away. 

BINGO!

Use Branded And Non-Branded Negative Keywords

Negative keywords could be your savior in a number of ways. 

Here’s how they work:

If you are dealing with kids’ clothing, using the negative keywords “men’s clothing” and “women clothing” would save you bucks as your ads won’t be displayed against these queries.

So, negative keywords save you from showing up against specific words or features that do not describe you.

Interestingly, you can use both branded and non-branded negative keywords. 

Imagine this:

You are a clothing store that is quite popular with customers for your linen tops. Being your specialty, you only deal with linen. Now, a competitor offers great prices and options for cotton outfits – cotton ONLY!
They are an established name, been in business for ages before you, and have loyal customers. 

What are your chances of converting their customers?

Probably, negligible.

Had it not been for the loyalty, you could have considered bidding for their brand name. But you are sure (or have seen repeatedly in analytics) that bidding for their name doesn’t get you anywhere.

So, why waste precious dollars or efforts on someone who is specifically interested in cotton and is loyal to a specific brand?

Exactly! 

And, so you don’t!

Using that competitor’s name as a negative keyword, you save yourself some clicks (and dough) from someone who would not budge even with the great linen variety you offer.

However, for the non-branded keywords, your options see no bounds. 

However, make sure not to include the keywords as negative that won’t get you sales – such as the very specific services/products you do not offer.

Use RLSA To Target Highly Interested Prospects 

RLSA or Retargeting Lists for Search Ads is an added feature of remarketing. However, based on their importance and application, we thought it would be unfair to list them as an inconspicuous sub-category of remarketing.

Here’s the thing about RLSA:

You can retarget the specific prospects who have shown interest in your products with this feature when their search continues.

Now picture this:

A prospect landed on your website and saw a great dress. He loved it, added to the cart immediately, but wasn’t sure about the size. So, he decided to check back with you after confirming the right size.

Here’s what happens next:

He closes the window and goes out for a family dinner. When he returns back and gets on the internet, he continues with his search.

By this time, he might already have forgotten that he almost purchased a dress from your site. Or, he might just have forgotten your brand name to get back to.

And now, he’s already exploring new options.

So, what do you do?

Option #1: Quietly watch him do what he’s doing. He deserves punishment. Why did he forget you!

Option #2: One sale means a lot to you. And even if it means going back to reintroduce yourself, what’s wrong with that? You’ll keep your ego out of this.

So, if you’ll go with the second option, even exploring new options won’t stop him from finding you.

With Google RLSA ads, you’ll appear in his search results again. Familiarity would win you extra points. With your stellar Google ad copy and an amazing offer, you might just as well win that purchase back!

Yayyyy!

But wait!

There’s more to RLSA than this.

Interested?

Keep reading.

An Advanced RSLA Feature: Target Your Competitor’s Prospects

You can even target your competitor-clothing brand’s potential with this Google feature.

Imagine this for a minute:

A visitor just visited your online clothing store and viewed some products.

For some reason, he did not continue to any purchase and left your site. 

Hey! Good news ahead. He did not only leave his marks on your site but his details for your remarketing list too.

Now, say the prospect has landed on a competitor’s site. He might or might not like stuff there, but why take the chance? Now, he has become your competitor’s prospect.

So, you’d create a branded search campaign for your competitor’s brand name. Couple it with your RLSA so you are specifically targeting highly interested audiences that are visiting multiple brands for comparison.

For the sake of clarity, know that you have his details because he visited you and you’d know he has visited your competitor because you have added your competitor’s name in the interest section to narrow down your visitors that are interested in your competition too.

Let’s move ahead now. 

What would happen next?

With this advanced option, you’d minimize the option of losing sales to your competitors by reappearing on SERPs when your prospect becomes your competitor’s prospect too.

Here’s the best part:

This advanced targeting option would have a better conversion rate for you because of the prospect’s familiarity with your brand.

Other Best Practices To Convert With Google Ads 

Google AdWords for fashion is a great option — You know it’s true. 

However, to get the most out of your Google Ads, your strategy must incorporate the best practices of ad creation. Here’s what you need to follow:

• Follow SPAG, i.e., Single Product Ad group. The practice of creating a single ad set for one product only delivers significantly better results.

• Make the Ads title & description highly clear, concise, attractive, and relevant.

• Create winning ads with great offers, promotions, and packages.

• Make use of Customer Match to make your existing customers your loyal customers.

• If you are a small clothing business or have a small ad budget, investment in branded keywords would be a mistake. These keywords are expensive, and ranking against them is difficult. 

• To go international for your clothing brand, make use of Google Currency Converter. This makes the prices appear to different people across the world in their respective currencies.

Is Google Ads Really The Best Option For Your Clothing Brand?

Edith Head said, “You can have anything in life if you dress for it”.

If dressing up appropriately is that important, how important is showcasing those dresses?

And based on all these features and rewards of Google Ads for clothing businesses, can you think of a better display option?

If you are still wondering why use Google Ads for your clothing brand, well revisit the stats and the amazing benefits.
Better yet, read this case study of how our Google PPC experts were able to grow ROAS of an apparel brand to 9.78x in a brief duration of 3 months. 

Here’s another complete case study of how our Google Ad experts successfully received 15,679 orders, with a cumulative value of 173K for a baby clothing store. 

If this doesn’t ring any bells, you clothing business owners, probably nothing else would!

Wrap Up

Google AdWords for fashion still happens to be an amazingly profitable choice, especially for clothing businesses. Here are some of the benefits of using Google Ads for Clothing business.

• Results are almost instantaneous

• Targeting options are highly accurate

• Tracking and optimization of results is effortless

• Good selection of keywords displays you in front of an audience when they need you

• There are multiple ways to compete and win over your competitors

• And increased reach with Google Ads is a no-brainer

There are multiple ways to utilize Google Ads for the Clothing business. Branded search campaigns, Google shopping campaigns, and Google remarketing ads have successfully delivered astonishing results for all the different types of clothing businesses. 

Here’s a success story of Google Ads for a clothing business that Google shares with us.

Over to you

Now that you know how to run your clothing business with Google Ads successfully, it is your turn. Get started and make us proud.

What do you think are you going to try first?

Let us guess!

Google Shopping Ads? Or Google branded-search campaign? Oh, wait! Don’t forget Google Remarketing Ads!

Should you be interested in more guidance or help with Google ads for your clothing business (or any other business for that matter), feel free to seek our help.

Also Read:

• How to use social media to grow your auto business faster than 120 mph
• DOs and DON’Ts of content marketing for medical practitioners
• 3 tips to increase traffic for your beauty business website
• Benefits and Drawbacks of Google Ads – Target Bidding