Succeeding in eCommerce PPC doesn’t merely involve selling quality products.
True, that’s critical (you won’t have many loyal customers if your products don’t offer actual value, after all), but it’s not the only way you can boost sales.
In a competitive marketplace, you need to stand out in the crowd by running pay-per-click ad campaigns through Google Or PPC ads and Amazon.
You also need to apply tested strategies that align with user behavior.
Consider the following examples.
If you’re trying to grow an eCommerce business with a PPC advertising campaign, these tips will help you achieve your goals.
Let’s get the obvious tactics out of the way first! Different types of Google Shopping ads offer different features and serve different purposes. Google Shopping Ads allow you to showcase your products and directly encourage users to purchase them. They also have a relatively strong chance of showing up as sponsored links when users perform relevant Google searches. Naturally, they’re ideal for eCommerce PPC.
Depending on the nature of your business, some of your products may be more popular among customers during specific times of the year. For example, if you’re a digital marketing /PPC marketing apparel brand, you shouldn’t expect your winter coats to typically sell best in summer.
That’s a basic example. The main point to keep in mind, though, is that you want to be prepared to leverage seasonal trends instead of scrambling to make seasonally-appropriate Google Shopping ads at the last minute. That means even when it’s not winter, you should be developing Google Shopping ads for the products that sell best in winter. You can always make minor changes later before publishing them.
Most marketers understand the value of using the right keywords when designing PPC ads/PPC advertising for Google. However, while including the “right” keywords in your descriptions and ad copy is important, it’s also smart to specify any negative keyword’s you wish to associate with your ad.
Negative keyword’s help you boost sales by telling Google’s algorithm what you’re not offering. This minimizes the chances of users with little interest in your products seeing your ads, thus allowing you to optimize your paid search budget.
For example, maybe you’re selling physical desk calendars. As such, your target audience doesn’t consist of people looking for online or downloadable calendars. Make sure you’re not wasting money advertising to them by including “online calendars” and similar terms in your list of negative keyword’s.
That said, you should keep in mind that just as making a list of keywords involves some trial and error, so does deciding which negative keywords to specify when creating ads. Monitor your eCommerce PPC campaigns’ performance regularly and update your list of negative keywords whenever you come up with new ideas.
With each year, it becomes increasingly common for online shoppers to browse eCommerce sites and make purchases via mobile devices. Remember this when designing your ads. At least some of your PPC ads/PPC advertising should be designed specifically for customers shopping on smartphones and small tablets.
There are various ways you can incorporate mobile-friendly elements into your ad designs. The specific choices you make will at least to some degree depend on what you’re selling. In general, ads that are designed to look impressive and clean on mobile devices strike a balance between catching a user’s attention with vibrant imagery without overwhelming them. For example, an ad featuring a large chunk of text may be somewhat difficult to read on a small mobile screen. Mobile-friendly ads should instead be designed to convey essential information efficiently and clearly. As always, you should also A/B test different ads to get a better sense of which yield higher levels of engagement with mobile device users.
You may already appreciate the importance of creating PPC ads/PPC advertising to highlight sales when you plan on running them. A general rule of thumb that tends to hold true states that when potential customers are told they can save money if they act fast, they’re more inclined to make purchases.
However, along with buying items when they’re on sale, your customers may be able to save money in various other ways when buying your products. Perhaps if they spend a certain amount of money they’re rewarded with a discount. Maybe you offer discounts to users when they sign up for your email list. Or, you might have a customer loyalty program that allows repeat customers to save money.
When planning eCommerce PPC campaigns, review the products you’re selling and make a list of any promotions, discounts, and other such money-saving options that may be associated with said products. Whenever it makes sense to do so, touch on these money-saving opportunities in your ads. You’ll likely find that sales increase accordingly.
Additionally, even when an item isn’t necessarily available at a discounted price, it’s still often smart to mention its price in the title of an ad anyway. While this isn’t a universal rule, as there are instances when mentioning the price in the main ad copy may feel forced, in many instances it’s wise to let a potential customer know how much you’re charging for a product right away.
The fact that a lead considered buying one of your products but ended up not actually making a purchase doesn’t always mean they’ve decided for good that they’re not interested in buying a product. There are many, many reasons online shoppers don’t make purchases right away when browsing items. Often, they’re simply distracted. When they click away from a product page, they might tell themselves they’ll complete a purchase later, only to forget to actually do so.
Luckily, these potential sales are by no means lost forever. You can use Google’s Dynamic Remarketing features to show relevant PPC ads/PPC advertising to users who engaged with your brand or products in the past when they visit sites within the Google Display Network. This is an easy but effective way to improve your ROI.
Segmenting your audience and creating different types of Google ads to appeal to different types of customers is one of the most well-known ways to improve a PPC ad campaign. That said, some eCommerce PPC marketers make the mistake of only segmenting their audiences once, then never returning to make adjustments based on what they’ve learned from their eCommerce PPC campaigns.
This deprives them of an opportunity to squeeze more profit out of their ads! When you monitor your PPC campaigns performance, consider if you can glean any new insights regarding audience tastes, behaviors, and other such factors in order to segment your audience even more effectively.
For example, after reviewing a PPC campaigns performance, you might find that leads who live in one particular city respond (whether positively or negatively) differently to certain PPC ads/PPC advertising when compared to those from a different city. If this was a behavior you hadn’t predicted when first segmenting your audience, now that you’re aware of it, you can segment your audience even further to boost sales.
Another mistake that’s too common in digital marketing/PPC marketing? Only creating new Google ads when you “need” them.
For instance, you’re well aware of the fact that you should create new Google ads when promoting new products, when running sales, and when your existing Google ads are stale and simply need to be refreshed. However, it’s worth remembering that there is no such thing as a truly “perfect” ad. Even if you’re not completely sure how right now, it’s almost certain that each and every one of your ads could be improved upon in various ways.
Constantly creating new Google ads should be one of your top priorities. True, you can’t devote all your time to generating ads, as doing so will prevent you from focusing on other important business tasks, but you should probably focus on creating new ad content when you have the time to do so more than you currently are.
Creating new Google ads naturally gives you more chances to test them. The more ad variants you test, the more you’ll learn about which strategies are most effective. That said, even when you aren’t actively running all the news ads you’ve recently generated, consistently engaging in the ad generation process will ensure those creative muscles remain strong.
Additionally, it’s helpful for very practical reasons to have a large number of Google ads available on the backburner. When you reach a point where it is necessary to incorporate new Google ads into your PPC campaigns, you’ll already have plenty of unused content to experiment with.
The Internet is brimming with potential distractions. Again, the list of distractions that could prevent an otherwise interested lead from making a purchase is extremely long. When a potential customer clicks on one of your ads, you typically have a very limited amount of time to make a sale.
Keep this in mind when reviewing your current PPC ads/PPC advertising and generating new ones. Your ads should send leads directly to a product page (or other page from which they can easily make a purchase) right away. If there are too many steps between the point when someone clicks on an ad and the point where a purchase is complete, you’re losing out on sales.
Researching your competitors’ keywords and using them in your own PPC ads (when it makes sense to do so) is generally a smart online advertising strategy. That said, there are certain keywords the competition may be using that you should not incorporate: branded keywords.
It may be tempting to use a competitor’s branded keywords in your PPC ads not because you want to deceive a potential customer by making them think you’re selling another brand’s products, but simply because you want to target customers who are interested in brands similar to your own. For instance, maybe you’re selling a more affordable alternative to a popular product, and you want to let potential customers know about how much money they could be saving if they bought an item from your brand instead of the competition.
The problem is, branded keywords tend to only be valuable when used with the relevant brand’s ads. The attention your PPC ads receive when you rely on the competition’s branded keywords will primarily come from low value leads who are probably already planning on buying an item from their chosen brand. You’ll have little success convincing them to buy your products instead.
Properly incorporating branded keywords into your PPC ads in a way that’s ethical is also, well, hard. Even if your intentions aren’t malicious, if a competitor finds you’re using their branded keywords excessively in your own ads, they can complain to Google or any other advertising platform you’re using. The consequences may include account suspension, cease and desist orders, and more.
Some classic eCommerce PPC tips will always be relevant. Some grow even more relevant over time.
For example, today’s online shoppers tend to be very savvy when it comes to their understanding of advertising tactics. Your potential customers know that just because you’re describing your products in a way that makes them sound desirable and valuable, that doesn’t necessarily mean your own description can be trusted.
Surveys often reveal that online shoppers are increasingly prioritizing customer reviews when determining whether to buy products. They may not trust a company to honestly describe a product’s benefits, but they trust other customers.
You can appeal to that trust by including language from real customers reviews in your ads. You don’t need to do so with every single ad you create, but you should highlight customer reviews at least to some degree from time to time.
However, while these tips absolutely will improve the effectiveness of your eCommerce PPC advertising campaigns now, remember that best practices are always evolving and changing.
You need to ensure the success of your eCommerce business by continuing to read blogs like this one. Staying on top of the latest best practices is one of the simplest yet smartest ways to remain competitive.
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Launching an online course is easy once you’ve created your content. Filling your virtual classroom with motivated, paying learners is a little more challenging. Advertising strategies aren’t intuitive no matter how user-friendly a platform might be, and trying to guess at how to market your courses online can feel like you’re shouting into the void. But with a little knowledge and some expert PPC ad strategies, you can get your courses in front of people who are hungry to learn what you teach.
With precise targeting, a professional strategy, budget control, and regular tracking, a PPC ad campaign can transform your course into a thriving program. The key is knowing how to structure your ad campaigns for both clicks and hot leads that convert.
Unlike search engine optimization (SEO), which can take months to gain even a little traction, PPC provides you with immediate visibility right where your target users are hanging out. SEO is important but it’s a long-term game that should be executed alongside PPC ads for the best results. While you’re waiting, PPC generates immediate clicks and drives traffic to your website on the spot.
The best part is that when done right, PPC ads offer a high ROI compared to many other advertising methods. According to the data, businesses earn an average of $2 for every $1 they spend on Google Ads, making PPC a powerful resource for course providers. Here’s everything you need to know about mastering PPC to generate hot leads for your online courses.
1. Understand the learner’s journey
If you want your PPC ads to generate leads ready to buy and not just curious clicks, you need to align your ad strategy with how learners make decisions. Signing up for an online course is not an impulse purchase. It’s a journey that usually starts with curiosity and then moves to research and comparison. When successful, that journey ends with enrollment.
A one-size-fits-all ad won’t work because a student who is just browsing isn’t ready for the same pitch as someone about to hand over their credit card. Understanding the different parts of the funnel, and tailoring your ad campaigns to match each stage, is what will make your course successful. A typical buyer’s journey for learners involves the following stages:
At this stage, your potential students are still exploring broad ideas related to the courses you’re offering. They may not know exactly which course or platform is right for them, but they’re actively looking for options. You’ll need to use a certain type of keyword phrase to capture their attention.
Searches like “learn coding online,” “how to get TEFL certified,” and “language courses for beginners” will work well at this stage. PPC ads in this phase shouldn’t hard-sell enrollment, but rather, focus on positioning your course as credible and informative.
Think free guides, introductory webinars, and blog posts that answer frequently asked questions about your topic. By nurturing your leads’ interests and providing value right off the bat, you’ll have an easier time becoming a trusted brand that people keep in mind as they move deeper into the journey.
During the consideration state prospects know what they want but they’re comparing their options. They’ve narrowed down their choices and are considering factors like price, flexibility, depth, instructor quality, platform, and accreditation. Ideal search terms in this phase are related to specific things that your prospects value or want to achieve like “affordable Python bootcamp,” “online MBA with scholarships,” or “best UX design course with certification.”
Your PPC ads should also highlight unique selling points for your course like “self-paced learning,” “industry-recognized certificate,” or “job placement success.” It’s at this stage where comparison charts, testimonials, and detailed course previews are highly effective. The goal is to show your prospects why your program beats the competition.
At this point, hesitation is minimal. Prospects are ready to sign up but might need one last push. This is where urgency, social proof, and simplicity make all the difference. Ads should feature strong calls to action like “Enroll Today,” limited-time incentives like “Save 20% - Ends Sunday.” This is the perfect time to showcase real student success stories. Landing pages for ads in the decision stage should remove all friction. Avoid long forms and distracting links. Just provide a clear and simple path to enrollment.
Keep in mind that most of your ideal market will encounter your brand multiple times along their journey across different devices and platforms, like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Mapping your PPC ad campaigns to these three stages ensures you’re showing up with the right message at the right time. When done correctly, focusing on all three stages with separate messages will turn casual searchers into qualified leads ready to buy your course.
The backbone of every PPC campaign is your keyword selection. You can write the most convincing ad copy in the world, but if you’re bidding on the wrong phrases you’ll either waste your budget or attract people who have no intention of enrolling.
Your goal isn’t just to drive traffic to your site. You need to drive qualified traffic – people who are serious about learning what you teach and are ready to invest in themselves. This requires targeting a mix of high-intent keywords, longtail phrases, and negative keywords.
Broad keywords like “data science” and “coding” cast a net that’s too wide. You’ll get clicks but most will be from people who are just curious or looking for free resources. To reach people who are committed, you need to target high-intent keywords that show purchase intent. Phrases like “enroll in our data science course” and “online JavaScript certification with ongoing support” will attract users who are actively seeking instruction.
You’ll pay more for high-intent keywords but they deliver more value and higher conversion rates, and that will increase your ROI when you choose the right ones.
Longtail keywords are used to target a smaller pool of people and that’s a good thing. Since these keywords are more focused, the traffic they generate is more valuable. Instead of competing for saturated, general terms like “learn graphic design online,” you target specific phrases like “best graphic design program for working professionals with evening classes.” The people searching with this level of specificity already know what they want, which means they’re more likely to convert.
If you skip targeting longtail keywords you’re leaving money on the table. Data shows that 70% of all online searches involve longtail phrases – it’s just how people naturally search when they know what they want.
Your negative keyword list is how you’ll preserve your budget and prevent wasting money on irrelevant clicks. Without a list of words you don’t want your ads to show up for, you’ll end up paying for clicks that never convert.
Build a negative keyword list of words that indicate someone is looking for something free or irrelevant to your course. For example, words like “free,” “PDF,” “torrent,” and “Reddit” are usually used in searches when someone is looking for shortcuts and freebies. Adding these and similar words to your negative keyword list will filter out tire-kickers and boost ROI by preserving your ad budget for relevant prospects.
Once you have the right keywords that generate impressions, your ad copy has to do the work to get clicks. Your ads need to grab people right away to prevent them from scrolling and possibly clicking on another course provider’s ad. For e-learning, your ads need to inspire people. Instead of talking about your course you want to highlight what your course will do for the learner. This is accomplished with benefit-driven messaging, emotional triggers, and strong calls-to-action (CTAs).
· Benefit-driven messaging. Most course providers list features like “40 hours of video content” and “downloadable PDFs,” but these details aren’t going to capture attention at first glance. In fact, telling learners they’re going to need to sit through 40 hours of content right off the bat might be a deterrent.
Instead, your ads should highlight tangible outcomes like “land high-paying clients with our program,” or “start a new career as a web developer in just 12 weeks.” Benefits speak directly to a person’s goals and aspirations, which is far more compelling than a list of specs.
· Emotional triggers. Emotional triggers are the heart of every marketing strategy, including PPC ads. People make emotional buying decisions and buy courses because they’re chasing a dream, avoiding a fear, or seeking transformation.
Great ad copy taps into these emotions and creates a sense of urgency. For instance, “Don’t miss the enrollment deadline” plays into the fear of missing out, while “Join 10,000 successful graduates” leverages social proof. The right emotional triggers will give people a good reason to act now rather than bookmarking your page and forgetting about it.
· Clear CTAs. Irresistible ad copy includes a direct, compelling call-to-action that tells the prospect what to do next. Generic instructions don’t cut it. “Learn more,” “Click here,” and similar phrases don’t communicate urgency or value. Choose CTAs that direct prospects to sign up for your course. For example, “Start your free trial” and “Reserve your seat today” work well.
In a crowded marketplace where hundreds of course creators are competing for the same attention, clarity and emotion will generate better results. Lead with benefits and tap into people’s emotions and your ad copy will generate serious leads.
Generating clicks from your ads is only the first half of the equation. Once a prospect clicks your landing page needs to convert them to a paying customer or your ad spend goes to waste. Your landing page is like the final pitch where prospective students choose whether to enroll in your course or move on. If your landing pages create any confusion, friction, or distrust, your prospects will lean toward other course creators. On the other hand, an optimized landing page can become a conversion generating machine.
Your landing pages should be simple and clean without too much information. The page content should be specifically designed to direct people to sign up for your course. You want to eliminate navigation menus and sidebars to prevent people from clicking away from the page and getting distracted. Each landing page should have one end goal, either to get sign-ups/purchases or apply for acceptance if required. Too many options will create cognitive overload and reduce the chance of any action.
It’s crucial to include trust elements on your landing pages. When people are thinking about investing their time and money in an online course, they’re naturally going to be skeptical. This is where trust signals can help. Testimonials, instructor bios, refund guarantees, and case studies will help build your course credibility. The goal here is to reassure people that your program is legitimate and worth their investment.
Clicks are important but they’re somewhat of a vanity metric when measured on their own. The only time clicks matter is when you’re looking at your conversion rate. If you generate 100 clicks and get 40 people to enroll that’s much better than generating 1,000 clicks and only getting one person to enroll in your course.
The metrics that matter most are your conversion rate, your cost per lead (CPL), and lifetime customer value (LTV). For instance, you’ll want to track completed signups, demo requests, and enrollments rather than overall clicks.
Cost per lead is a simple measurement that can tell you how efficient your campaign is. For instance, if you’re paying $50 per lead but your average enrollment fee is $500, your margins are good. If your CPL is too close to your revenue then your course might be priced too low or you need to adjust your targeted keywords.
For e-learning, many students invest in more than one course or renew their subscription, which increases their lifetime value to your business. Tracking LTV will help you determine how much you can afford to spend acquiring each new student. For example, if your LTV average is $1,500, it makes sense to spend $200 to acquire each lead. This long-term view helps you maintain profitability and allows you to outbid your competitors who aren’t willing to spend much.
PPC ads require fine-tuning and you can’t just “set it and forget it.” What works today might underperform tomorrow or not perform at all on other platforms. Even small changes can make a huge difference in conversions and that’s why it’s important to test variations. For example, Dell is just one example of a company that saw a 300% increase in conversions from A/B testing.
By running experiments to test different elements you can identify what resonates most with your target audience and optimize your ads based on those results. The most important elements to test are your headlines, CTAs, and images.
· Testing headlines. Your ad headline is usually the first thing a prospect sees. Testing different headlines can help identify which promises resonate most. For example, “Land your dream job” might appeal to people looking for a new career, while “Get certified in 12 weeks” might hook people in a hurry. If you get more conversions from the former, your main audience is likely people looking for a new career, and you can tailor your ads to that group.
· Testing CTAs. A strong CTA can generate more clicks, but what works will depend on your audience. For example, “Get started today” might work for some courses while “Reserve your spot” works better for others. Avoid vague CTAs like “Learn more” that don’t instruct people to take action.
· Testing visuals. Images can put people off or draw them closer. Visuals are processed faster than text and are perceived in a split-second. A single image can make or break an ad. For instance, sometimes a photo of an instructor works well, but other times it’s better to use abstract graphics.
Split testing isn’t optional when you’re running PPC ads. It’s the only way to know which elements make your ads more effective.
At the end of the day, PPC is a great way to build a pipeline of motivated students who want to enroll in your courses. By aligning your campaign with the learner’s journey and optimizing your ads and landing pages for conversions, you can turn your PPC campaign into a reliable growth engine. As the e-learning market becomes more competitive, ads that hit hard are a must.
If you’re ready to stop wasting ad spend and start filling your online classrooms with qualified leads, it’s time to bring in PPC experts. At PPC.co, we specialize in turning clicks into enrollments through high-converting campaigns that deliver qualified leads for online course creators . Contact our team today and let’s build campaigns that fill your classroom.
Pay-per-click (PPC) remains one of the fastest paths to pipeline, but the economics vary widely by industry and are shifting as AI reshapes the SERP. CPCs are up versus prior years, conversion rates have improved in many categories, and lead quality is increasingly a function of how well advertisers feed first-party data into bidding models.
The table below summarizes 2025 search-PPC benchmarks by sector—CPC, conversion rate (CVR), and cost per lead (CPL)—so you can compare what “good” looks like in your niche and calibrate ROI assumptions.
Use these numbers as directional guardrails, then layer in your own close rates and LTV to get to the only metric that matters: profitable growth.
In short, AI is changing the way PPC campaign management is occurring, and it's happening FAST.
ROI ≈ (Close-Rate × Avg Customer LTV ÷ CPL) − 1
Example (legal): if close-rate 12% and LTV $6,000 on CPL $132 → ROI ≈ (0.12×6000 / 132) −1 ≈ 4.45x (345% net). Improve any one input (faster intake bumps close-rate; better routing lowers CPL) and ROI jumps. Benchmarks for CPL/CVR above provide solid starting points. LocaliQ
PPC will keep paying when two things are true:
(1) you can convert and qualify leads quickly, and
(2) your bidding models are trained on the outcomes that actually make you money.
As AI compresses differences in targeting, the edge shifts to first-party data, creative velocity, and value-based bidding.
Treat the benchmarks above as starting points, then rebuild your ROI math from the ground up: ROI ≈ (Close Rate × LTV ÷ CPL).
Contact us today for your customized PPC audit to see how we can improve your search engine marketing ad spend.
