E-Commerce Google Ads Best Practices Within Fashion

People buying clothes online can be more choosy than people buying everyday goods. Customers often care much more about the items they wear.

So, when advertising fashion online, keeping your target audience in mind is essential. Online customers are typically searching for a specific product, so optimising your ads to create a seamless purchasing journey will increase the likelihood of them buying your product. Whilst a large portion of Google campaigns utilise machine learning, there are a variety of best practises that can be followed to maximise your ROI.

1. Google Shopping imagery and product titles

Maximising product imagery

As customers shopping online cannot physically see or feel products, they often rely heavily on imagery. Images can reveal a lot about a product, for example, colour, fabric, textures and more. These variables can be a deciding factor for a lot of customers when clicking on an ad or purchasing online, so it’s important that the images used make a strong first impression. This can boost customer engagement and increase the likelihood of a purchase. 

• Use images with a high resolution to capture detail.
• Offer a variety of both desktop and mobile formats to cater for all devices.
• Model images are recommended when advertising clothing products to indicate fit.
• When advertising accessory products, ensure these are the primary focus if using a model image, to avoid confusion with any other items within the image.
• Avoid cropped model images for visual purposes.

Optimising product titles intelligently

Product titles are commonly used in Google Shopping campaigns to clearly identify the product being sold. They consist of 150 characters in total. However, the first 70 characters are key as customers may only see these initially, depending on the screen size of the device they’re using. 

It’s particularly important to include product details that aren’t visible within these first 70 characters, such as brand name, size or personalisation options. This ensures these particular details are always visible to customers when searching.

Example product title structure:

[brand name], [product type], [gender], [size], [personalisation option]

Customers can be heavily influenced by brand names, particularly those that are popular or trendy, so try including these first. Google Trends is a great platform for exploring insights into your brand name, such as how often customers are commonly searching for your brand. 

Always ensure the details included within product titles match those on the corresponding landing page to avoid ad disapproval and confusion for customers. And remember that personalisation options are also a popular selling point!

2. Audience targeting

Most customers searching with intent typically won’t purchase the first product they see online, but instead explore a range of retailers. A recent Google study found that 85% of online customers will take a product-related action within 24 hours.

Google Display remarketing is a great way to remind customers of a product they may have clicked on previously, but haven’t yet purchased. Similarly, customer match audiences also target previous customers by allowing the use of email lists for retargeting. On average, 66% of consumers spend more with brands they’re loyal to. Targeting customers who’ve already purchased previously or those who signed up to a newsletter will help retain them.

3. Sale periods

To capitalise on sale periods through the year, preplanning strategy and anticipating performance changes is essential.

• Allocate an increased budget during seasonal sales, such as Black Friday or Christmas, to capitalise on expected performance changes. 
• Implement price and promotion extensions to provide extra detail to potential customers within their buying process.
• Seller rating extensions can be added at account level to showcase quality and increase credibility.
• Adding seasonal bid adjustments helps optimise bids during sale periods and account for significant changes in conversion rates.
• Add any promotions or discounts to pinned headlines within RSAs to grab the attention of a customer.

Over time, the online fashion industry has become heavily saturated with competitors and is deeply impacted by external factors, such as expected seasonal trends or changes in demand. Keeping your ads up to date with these fast-paced changes is crucial to staying relevant and profitable within the industry.