Ecommerce Marketing Playbook

Oct 3

Scaling ecommerce requires more than just turning on ads. It’s about knowing your numbers, structuring campaigns correctly, and setting up measurement that gives you confidence in every dollar spent. Here’s a simple, actionable playbook based on MK2 Media’s experience working with brands from startups to Fortune 500s.

1. Know Your Numbers First

Before launching a single campaign, calculate your break-even ROAS (Return on Ad Spend).

Formula: 1 ÷ Profit Margin
Example: If you have a 50% margin → 1 ÷ 0.5 = 2.0 ROAS (or $2 revenue for every $1 spent just to break even).

This number sets the benchmark for whether your campaigns are profitable.

2. Brand vs. Non-Brand Strategy

Brand Campaigns: Protect your turf. Run search campaigns on your brand keywords so competitors don’t poach your customers. These usually deliver high ROAS and support conversion lift in other channels.
Non-Brand Campaigns: The growth driver. Build campaigns around product categories, competitor terms, and problem-solving keywords. Expect lower ROAS here, but it’s how you scale awareness and acquire new customers.

3. Product Feed & Merchant Center Setup

Create a clean product feed in Google Merchant Center.
Organize Shopping campaigns by product categories (not just one catch-all).
Use Performance Max for incremental reach, but keep standard Shopping campaigns running so you control budget by product category.
Mirror campaigns on Bing Ads (Microsoft Ads) — search + shopping. It’s often cheaper CPC inventory with less competition.

4. Conversion Tracking: The Non-Negotiable

Implement conversion tags correctly — place them on the thank you / order confirmation page.
Use Google Tag Manager (GTM) if possible for easier governance.
Always validate that conversions are firing before scaling spend.

5. Understand Cookie Duration & Purchase Cycles

Default attribution cookies are 30 days, which is usually sufficient for ecommerce.
If your product has a longer purchase cycle (e.g., furniture or high-ticket items), extend the conversion window in Google Ads.
Match attribution settings to your sales cycle so you don’t cut off performance visibility too early.

6. Retargeting: Evergreen Always-On

Retargeting is your most consistent profit driver. It should never be turned off.

Website Visitors: Remind people who browsed your site but didn’t purchase.
Cart Abandoners: The highest-intent audience. Dynamic ads with the exact product they left behind are proven to drive conversions.
Duration Strategy: Use 7-day windows for hot audiences (cart abandoners, recent visitors) and 30-day windows for broader site traffic.
Cross-Channel: Run retargeting across Google, YouTube, Bing, and Meta for full coverage.

Think of retargeting as your always-on safety net that captures revenue you’ve already paid to acquire.

7. Explaining View-Through Conversions

Critical for video and display campaigns.
A view-through conversion (VTC) happens when someone sees your ad but doesn’t click, later comes back and converts.
For ecommerce, VTCs show the assist value of YouTube and Video Shopping campaigns. They don’t get full credit like last-click, but they prove the role of awareness channels in your funnel.
Educate stakeholders: “Clicks show intent. Views show influence.”

8. Always Test & Iterate

Run A/B tests on ad copy, creative, and product images.
Test campaign structures: Performance Max vs. Standard Shopping.
Monitor your search queries — negative out wasteful terms.
Use Looker Studio dashboards to track KPIs across Google Ads, Bing Ads, and GA4.

This playbook is not theory — it’s a battle-tested system MK2 Media has used to grow ecommerce clients by combining precision in numbers, smart structure, and disciplined measurement