From Searches to Sales: A Deep Dive into Google Ads and Google Shopping

Today’s episode of the podcast is an interview with Sara Jones, where we take a deep dive into Google Ads and Google Shopping!

Sara is a freelance Google Ads consultant and founder of the Online Retail Academy, where she teaches retailers how to run Google Shopping Ads and supports them in all aspects of growing an online store. Sara has previously built a 6 figure eCommerce business and loves passing on the knowledge she has gained to other business owners, to help them do the same.

 
KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

The minimum budget you need to run successful Google Ads
The difference between Google and Facebook Ads
Marketing strategies for e-commerce businesses


If you really enjoyed today's podcast episode, I would really appreciate it if you would go and share it on your social media or share it with someone who has an e-commerce business; and of course go and give Sara a bit of love online!

 
LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE
Check out Sara's Online Retail Academy

Connect with Sara Instagram

Connect with Teresa on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter

 
Transcript
Teresa: Hello, and a really warm welcome back to this week's episode of Your Dream Business Podcast. How are you doing? So as we've been doing recently, we have another interview and I've been interviewing, and I don't know if I've said this actually during every interview, but everyone I'm interviewing at the moment is actually, they're actually members of the club or executive club.

And I haven't pick them because they're members of executive club or club. I've picked them because they're really flipping good at what they do and they know their stuff really well because I wouldn't have them on if I didn't think you would get some benefit from it and you wouldn't find it useful.

So today I have the lovely Sara. Sara is now this is where I try and read. I hate reading. She's a freelance Google ad consultant and the founder of the online retail Academy. She teaches retailers, how to run Google shopping ads and support. So in all aspects of growing that online store. Sarah has previously built a six figure e commerce company and loves passing on the knowledge that she gained in her business, to other business owners to them to do the same.

And after speaking to Sarah many, many, many, many, many times, she often talks about the fact that she made all the mistakes, so no one else has to. So today we are going to be talking all about Google ads and Google shopping and all of that good stuff, which if you're sat there thinking, yeah, this might not be for me.

I would just stick around and listen because I found it fascinating and it's just really interesting that whole side of the ad side. So we will crack on Sara, Sara, see I've started off, I called you Sara, I never called you Sara. You're Sara. Like this is, I brief Sarah before the interview and I was like, you know, if we mess up, we'll just carry on.

And I'm the one to

Today’s episode of the podcast is an interview with Sara Jones, where we take a deep dive into Google Ads and Google Shopping!

Sara is a freelance Google Ads consultant and founder of the Online Retail Academy, where she teaches retailers how to run Google Shopping Ads and supports them in all aspects of growing an online store. Sara has previously built a 6 figure eCommerce business and loves passing on the knowledge she has gained to other business owners, to help them do the same.

 
KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

The minimum budget you need to run successful Google Ads
The difference between Google and Facebook Ads
Marketing strategies for e-commerce businesses


If you really enjoyed today's podcast episode, I would really appreciate it if you would go and share it on your social media or share it with someone who has an e-commerce business; and of course go and give Sara a bit of love online!

 
LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE
Check out Sara's Online Retail Academy

Connect with Sara Instagram

Connect with Teresa on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter

 
Transcript
Teresa: Hello, and a really warm welcome back to this week's episode of Your Dream Business Podcast. How are you doing? So as we've been doing recently, we have another interview and I've been interviewing, and I don't know if I've said this actually during every interview, but everyone I'm interviewing at the moment is actually, they're actually members of the club or executive club.

And I haven't pick them because they're members of executive club or club. I've picked them because they're really flipping good at what they do and they know their stuff really well because I wouldn't have them on if I didn't think you would get some benefit from it and you wouldn't find it useful.

So today I have the lovely Sara. Sara is now this is where I try and read. I hate reading. She's a freelance Google ad consultant and the founder of the online retail Academy. She teaches retailers, how to run Google shopping ads and support. So in all aspects of growing that online store. Sarah has previously built a six figure e commerce company and loves passing on the knowledge that she gained in her business, to other business owners to them to do the same.

And after speaking to Sarah many, many, many, many, many times, she often talks about the fact that she made all the mistakes, so no one else has to. So today we are going to be talking all about Google ads and Google shopping and all of that good stuff, which if you're sat there thinking, yeah, this might not be for me.

I would just stick around and listen because I found it fascinating and it's just really interesting that whole side of the ad side. So we will crack on Sara, Sara, see I've started off, I called you Sara, I never called you Sara. You're Sara. Like this is, I brief Sarah before the interview and I was like, you know, if we mess up, we'll just carry on.

And I'm the one to mess up. So there we go. She can relax. I've messed up. Sara welcome to the podcast.

Sara: Thank you, Teresa.

Teresa: You could have like just said my name wrong, just to like get me back. But I'm sorry about that. I don't know why I suddenly went into funny mode. You know, I have a sister called Sara, don't you?

So, and also we have two. We have a Sarah and a Sarah in the club and both of them spell their name the same. So, and, and for a long while I kept mixing up which one I would say what to anyway, anyway, anyway. So, Sarah, let's start off by you explaining how you got to do what you do today.

Sara: Ooh, that's a long story.

I'll give you the brief of the story. It was starting my online, my online shop back in 2004, 2005. Where I kind of suddenly thought, Oh, I've built a wonderful website. Now I need to get people to the website and it was the kind of wild west of Google ads back then. So I kind of played with Google ads and did some money work and it sent traffic to my website and I used it on and off for that business for quite a few years.

But then kind of fast forward to 2016, I ended up completely switching and closing down the e commerce business and doing the Google ad side of it full time. Cause it kind of. It was lighting me up more than the other, than my other business. So, and I've been doing that ever since.

Teresa: What did you do before your e commerce? Were you in any kind of marketing or anything like that?

Sara: No, I was a stay at home mom for well, 1991. I think I gave up work to have my first before that I was in accounting. So I'm actually qualified accountant as well for my sins. But yeah, which has stood me in very good stead. I have to say every business owner should learn at least the very basics of bookkeeping and accounting because Yeah.

Yeah. But that, you know, nothing, nothing sexy like marketing or anything like that. I had to learn all of that.

Teresa: That's really fascinating. What made you decide that you needed more than just putting a website up there? Because I interviewed Suze a couple of weeks back. Well, I didn't, I interviewed her today because they're actually batching.

But if you're listening to this, then she would have been quite a few weeks back. And she and I told the, like, we laughed at the story of her putting up her website and then being devastated that she wasn't a millionaire within a week. And, and, and the truth is most people and most business owners will do that.

They will think, Oh, I've got a Facebook page. Why aren't customers flocking to me? I think that is incredible insight, smartness. I don't know what the word is to, to actually go, this isn't enough. I need more. I'm going to learn Google ads.

Sara: That's, do you know what? I've never thought about it like that. I just took it as, I, well, I've always been really good at thinking what, like, trying to figure out what I need to do and then going off and, and researching and learning what I need to do.

So of course when I built the website and I had all my stock and it was all lovely. And, and I was just like, well, nobody's going to find it. I did SEO, which back then that's a whole different story. But so I guess I, I must've just probably been researching and thought, Oh, this Google ads thing that, that should work.

And. Just gave it a go. It's, it's, it's a really good question, actually, but.

Teresa: And, and like I said, it's not, yeah, it's not something I've ever seen someone do, and especially no disrespect back then, you know, because that was some time ago. And, and Google ads at that point were probably nothing like they are today.

So. Why, tell us what your e commerce shop was first.

Sara: Okay, so it started off, it had many sort of versions as it, as it evolved, but it ended up being DIY favors, wedding favors, so boxes, sugared almonds, ribbons, flowers, all loads of stuff, table decorations, and bespoke wedding stationery as well, which is kind of a second side of it.

And that's, that's what the, that's what grew. And that's what. That's what ended up being the big one. It was lovely. I loved it. I loved it. Until I didn't.

Teresa: I was going to say, and then you decided that you don't want to do something when you want to teach it. So you have had your online business for quite a few years then now.

Sara: Yes.

Teresa: How many years have you done this teaching element?

Sara: This teaching element since 2021.

Teresa: Okay.

Sara: About two and a half years because it was in the start of 2021. Yeah.

Teresa: Okay. And explain to us what, what's the main thing that you teach and help business owners with?

Sara: So the main thing that I teach is the Google shopping side of things, because I think a lot of people struggle to just get their head around it, and they're very intimidated by it, and I don't think, and it's, it's, yes, it's, it is, it can be complicated, but it's not something that's impossible for just normal people like you and me to do, like the fact that I can do it proves that.

And so that's the main thing that I teach that the membership itself, kind of, we teach other stuff because I have other people coming in to teach other stuff in the membership, but that's what that's my kind of main focus because that's where my knowledge is. Plus a little bit of the, obviously the, the e commerce in general side of it as well. Yeah.

Teresa: And I think The reason I wanted you on is because there's, I do have e commerce people in my world. And I'm sure that if you're listening to this and you're thinking, well, I'm not e commerce, you probably know an e commerce business. And I think it's one that a lot of people go into because especially kind of from the handmade or the homemade side kind of thing, selling something that they've made, selling a physical product.

And we kind of hope, well, I guess lots of people go into it because someone says, that's amazing. You should sell that. And then They go into it, they create this thing and then they realize the selling element of it or getting people to your website or getting people to commit and buy is the hard bit.

So if it, well, first off, if you're listening to this and you know someone who's e commerce, then definitely direct them to this episode of the podcast. So explain to people exactly what the Google shopping bit is.

Sara: So if you go and search for something for a product, on Google. So say you're looking for running shoes or something like that.

I don't know why I always use that example because I'm not a runner. I should, I should search for lounge trousers or something. That would be more my scene. So if you go and search Google for any product based search, you will notice usually across the top, but sometimes down the right hand side, you'll notice like the product ads, the product images with the price and a link.

Those are the Google, those are shopping ads and people have paid to put their products across the top or down the side in the Google search results. So that's essentially what it is. It's just basically your product information, the image, the price, the type that, you know, the name of the product on Google, on Google's search results. And those are the shopping ads.

Teresa: Those ones across the top, because I know them well, like, you know, I often search stuff, in fact the most recent thing was yesterday and it was a dehydrator, you know, to dehydrate all my tomatoes that I've grown over the summer. Are all of those across the top sponsored or have they paid to be in that position, every single one of them?

Sara: Yes. Every single one. Okay. On the homepage. Yeah. There, there are three product listings, shopping, I won't call them shopping ads because they're not ads. There are three shopping listings, which you can, if you have it all set up, you don't have to pay. You can still show, but that is, if you notice at the top of the search results, you'll have like little tabs, which say images.

And there's one that says shopping. If you click on that. The ones at the very top, again, are paid for. I think it says sponsored. So it'll say somewhere on there that they're sponsored. But then the ones down, further down the page... They're free. Nobody's paid to put those there, but it's kind of all the same process of setting all of that up. On the main homepage of Google.

When you search all of the ads there, they're paying to go there, but they only pay when you click on the ad. It's not like Facebook where you just pay to put it onto somebody. You only pay when they actually, somebody clicks on your product ad and comes through to your website.

Teresa: So actually I'm super glad you brought up Facebook because one of the things that.

And I said before in another podcast that I did the Google ads exams years ago, right? Because I had a client that I worked with when we had the agency, I had a client and they came to me and said, do you do Google ads? I'd like you to, I don't want to think about bringing them to you. They were using a Google ad specialist.

So I started researching how to do Google ads, and I started doing the exams. So I thought, Oh, maybe this is another service I can offer. And they were the Google exams in order for you to kind of like Google partner, which I wouldn't have got because you have to have so much money revenue coming in through the app, anyway.

And I did them, and I literally had no idea I passed them. And then he got me to run a test against this Google ads company. And I got better results and I have no idea how I did it right. So I then decided this isn't for me and I didn't offer it and I gave it away. And I think when people think about ads.

The way Facebook is set up and designed, it's trying to make it, and we had Michelle on the podcast as well talking about Facebook ads, but they tried to make it as kind of, you know, easy and as accessible as possible. Whereas I think when businesses look at Google ads and especially retail businesses, they think, and I'm assuming for them, but I think they think that There's no way they could get to the top of Google and they can't afford those ads.

And those ads are way too technical and way too difficult. So what would you say to someone who's listening to this thinking, yeah, it's all well and good. You're an expert. You know what you're talking about?

Sara: Yeah. So it is, it is a myth. It, it, it is an auction at the end of the day, it's an auction so that you're bidding to, to be in whatever slot you want to be in.

So the person that ends up in the top is not necessarily the one that pays the most. They'll be the one that's got the best product information that the most relevant information to the, what the person is searching for. So you can compete with big companies if you know what you're doing and you do it right.

And you, you know, you have everything set up properly. You can compete. And even the, like the most tech phobic retailers have gone through and managed to set up their own shopping campaigns and run them and have profitable campaigns set up, so it is definitely doable by everybody. It is, I feel it can be an even like a level playing field if you know what you're doing.

Yes, you are paying to show your ads at the top, and you know, obviously the best spot is that one on the far left. But just because somebody else has a 5, 000 pound a month budget, and you have a five pound a month budget, does not mean that you can't show your ads on that homepage of Google. If you're set up right, if you've optimized everything properly and you know what you're doing, then you definitely can.

And yes, it can feel really intimidating. And there is a, there is some sort of tech setup to do, but I've got people in my membership who are, you know, they hate all that stuff, but they have managed to do it. And just, it's a case of step by step following, you know, following all step by step and doing each step as you go.

And it's, you know, they're fine and they do it. And so I would a hundred percent say everybody can do it. And. Don't be scared to have a go.

Teresa: Okay, so a couple of questions then. If someone set up Google Ads shopping ads, do they need a website? Probably a stupid question. Yes, they do. But what kind of website?

Can they have kind of the off the shelf ones? Is there certain, is there a certain level that you need to have before even looking at these?

Sara: It just needs to be a functioning like online cart. So obviously for a lot of people, it'll be something like Shopify, cause that's really easy to set up and it's, you can do it yourself.

So that's really simple. So any, any of those online platforms, you know, even Wix. I mean, I, my preferred one is Shopify just because it's easy to integrate with everything else and it's easy to set up. But yeah, you basically just need a, an online checkout. A secure online checkout, so people need to be able to obviously go all the way through and you need to have all the, the things you would have in place anyway, if you are wanting to sell online, you'd have to have all of the privacy policies and the cookie notices and terms and conditions and, you know, SSL certificates, which obviously Shopify takes care of that anyway, so, and you also, people need to be able to see the price before, you know, without logging in.

So things like wholesale websites don't really work because usually with trade or wholesale websites, you have to log in to see the prices. You couldn't use Google shopping for a website like that, but most retailers, obviously that's not a problem. So, so yeah.

Teresa: That's what you need. What kind of budget would they have to look at?

And I know, I know this is going to be like, you know, give me a clue type thing. You know, so when I had Michelle on and she talked about Facebook ads, she was sort of saying, you know, £10 minimum a day, really. So what are you kind of looking at? What kind of budget over what kind of length of time if you're getting started?

Sara: If you're getting started, so there isn't really a minimum budget. I mean, you can put five pounds a day on if you want to. The, the only thing I would say is obviously the smaller your budget, the longer it takes for data and information to start coming into the ads about who's clicking and what they're doing so that you can then optimize things and improve things.

So a hundred percent, you can start with five pounds a day. I would, if I was doing it, you know, if I was sort of setting up an online shop and I were doing it, I would say that if you can spend sort of 500 to a thousand pounds a month, it just means you're going to get the results quicker and you're going to be able to see what's working, what's not faster.

And the, obviously the faster you can do that, then the the more you can optimize it as you move forward. But you know, if I appreciate that lots of people don't have 500 quid in their back pocket to just throw up some ads that let's be honest, they might not necessarily believe will work. So yeah, five, five pounds a day, 10 pounds a day is absolutely fine to get you started.

Obviously the theory would be once you start seeing sales and you start seeing a return. Yeah. Then you'd want to put more money in anyway.

Teresa: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because if you're putting a pound in a machine...