Traffic & Conversion

How to Create Winning Shopping Funnels on YouTube and Google (w/ Brett Curry)

by Ezra Firestone



Brett Curry is the CEO of OMG Commerce, an ecommerce marketing agency and Google Premier Partner.

He’s my go-to expert on everything YouTube and Google.

We recently brought him on to work his magic on BOOM! and he’s been doing an amazing job, especially in our retargeting campaigns.

Brett has a ton of knowledge on how to leverage Google Search, Google Shopping and YouTube for ecommerce…

And in this post, Brett shares his strategies for building winning shopping funnels and crafting better YouTube and Google campaigns.

Asking the Right Questions

The questions your customers are asking when they’re just starting to shop are totally different than the questions they’re asking right before they buy.

That’s why when Brett plans out new ad campaigns, he separates his customers’ shopping journey like this:

  1. At the beginning stage of their journey, they’re typically asking questions like “What are my options?” and “What do I actually want?”
  2. At the middle stage, they’re evaluating their options, so they’re asking “Is it better to go with Brand A or Brand B?”
  3. At the final stage of their journey, they know what they want, and the only questions left are “When and where do I buy?”



The Mindset Of Better Campaigns

Use these questions to understand what your customer is looking for at each stage of the funnel.

Try asking yourself where someone is in the funnel, and, “How do I craft an ad that answers those questions?”

What problems are they experiencing? What different solutions are out there? What other brands will they find? How can you help them compare? Why now?

This can help you meet the customer where they already are.

So next time you’re refreshing ad creative, think about the mindset of your customer at every different stage, and then craft a campaign that speaks to them directly.

Picking the Right Platform

YouTube, Google Display, Google Search, Google Shopping — Google’s advertising network is massive, and each platform has a unique type of audience.

So before you start handing Google boatloads of money, you should know which of these platforms is the right one to display your campaigns.

Here’s how Brett breaks down the different Google platforms into what works best at the top, middle and bottom of your shopping funnel:

For folks in the awareness stage of your shopping funnel (the top), Brett likes to use YouTube and Google Display as the primary ad platforms for his clients.

Then for middle and bottom of the funnel — when the questions are more specific to your brand and products — Google Shopping and Google Search ads are the most effective.

But you always want to keep one thing in mind…

Whether you’re advertising on YouTube or Google Shopping or wherever else, your success depends on knowing what kinds of questions your customers are asking — or what problems they’re thinking about — and creating ads that address them.

Brett Curry is CEO of OMG Commerce and my go-to expert on everything YouTube and Google. If you’d like to watch another post with Brett, check out this Facebook Live we did recently: A Big Easy WIN With YouTube Ads.

Highlights:
0:03 When putting together ad campaigns, think about funnels
0:38 Get to know the mind set of your customers
0:54 Think about how to craft your ad to answer your customers questions
1:27 Deliver a campaign that has the right message to capture your customer

Click Here For Video Transcript

We think a lot about shopping funnels. So when we’re putting together our ad campaigns, we think about funnels. So we think about where someone is when they’re in the awareness stage of their shopping, so they’re just beginning to research and find out what it is that they want, “What are my options that are out there.” And they look kind of in the middle of the funnel. The evaluation stage, that’s what they’re looking at. “Do I buy the Nikes or do I buy or the Adidas?” Or, “Do I buy this brand or that brand?” And then the decision, the bottom of the funnel, that’s really, “When and where do I buy it?”

And so we think a lot about funnels from that perspective. And my tip is, get to know the mindset of your customer at those different stages of the funnel. So the question someone is asking when they’re at the top of the funnel, that awareness stage, are very different than the questions that they’re asking when they’re at the bottom of the funnel. And so think about where is someone on the funnel and how do I craft my ad to answer their questions. So how do I craft my ad to meet them where they are. And so think about the mindset of your customer in the different stages and then craft the campaign that’s gonna reach them.

So we like to use YouTube, sometimes Google Display Network for people that are in that top of the funnel kind of awareness stage. We like Google Shopping, Google Search for kind of a middle and bottom of the funnel. But I think, all of that is built on knowing what someone is asking, what they’re thinking at those different stages of the shopping funnel, and then delivering a campaign with the right message to capture them and bring them into your funnel.