Types of online advertising for ecommerce: PPC, retargeting, retention

In short: the types of online advertising for an online store line up along four funnel stages. Awareness is short video on Meta, TikTok and YouTube. Consideration is Demand Gen, influencers, price comparison sites and marketplaces. Conversion is PPC on Google Search and Shopping plus retargeting. Retention is email, SMS and Web Push. A small store starts with the bottom two stages and adds the top two as orders grow.

This guide is for online stores selling anywhere in Europe. It shows which funnel stage each ad channel covers, what you set up in CloudCart and what you set up in the ad platform. Campaign types and ad formats come from the Google Ads, Meta and TikTok help centres.

What online advertising is and its main types

Online advertising (also called digital or internet advertising) is any paid or owned message that shows your store to someone in a search engine, a social network, a website, an app or an inbox. The types differ in two ways: how you pay, and how close to buying the person who sees the ad already is.

PPC (pay per click) is a model where you pay only when someone clicks your ad. The classic PPC ads for a store are Google Search text ads and Google Shopping product listings. The other models are paying per 1,000 impressions (CPM), paying per sale (affiliates and marketplace commissions) and your own channels, where you do not pay for every view.

Payment model	What you pay for	Typical channel	Funnel stage
CPM (per 1,000 impressions)	Visibility	Video on Meta, TikTok, YouTube	Awareness
PPC / CPC (per click)	A visit to your store	Google Search, Google Shopping, price comparison sites	Consideration, conversion
Purchase optimisation	Impressions or clicks the platform steers towards buyers	Performance Max, Meta with the Sales objective	Conversion
CPA (per sale)	A commission on the order	Affiliate networks, marketplaces	Consideration, conversion
Owned channels	A sent message, or nothing per message	Email, SMS, Web Push	Retention

The marketing funnel: four stages and the job of each

The marketing funnel describes a customer's path from first contact to repeat purchase, and each stage has its own ad type and its own metric.

Stage	What the customer thinks	The ad's job	Main metric
Awareness	"I don't know this store exists"	Be seen and remembered	People reached, video views
Consideration	"I'm searching and comparing"	Bring them into the store to browse	Visits, cost per click, add to carts
Conversion	"I'm ready to buy"	Get the order completed	Purchases, ROAS, cost per order
Retention	"I bought. Will I buy again?"	The second and every later order	Repeat orders, revenue per campaign

The ROAS formula, break-even ROAS for your margin and why Meta's number never matches the orders in your store are in the guide to ROAS and ROI for an online store.

Awareness: ads for people who do not know you yet

An awareness campaign shows your store to a broad audience that is not looking for you, and it works best with short vertical video.

• Meta (Facebook and Instagram). Meta Ads Manager has six campaign objectives: Awareness, Traffic, Engagement, Leads, App promotion and Sales (Meta Business Help Center: choosing an ad objective). For a new store, Awareness buys views, while Sales with a broad audience often does the awareness job as well, because the algorithm goes looking for buyers. Setup is in the Meta Ads guide.
• TikTok. In-Feed ads appear in the For You feed like a normal video. The recommended format is vertical 9:16, at least 540×960 px, up to 10 minutes and up to 500 MB, and Spark Ads run an organic video you already posted as an ad (TikTok Ads Help: In-Feed ads). More in the guide to TikTok Shop and TikTok ads.
• YouTube. Video campaigns in Google Ads show video on YouTube and on other websites (Google Ads Help: campaign types). Formats and bidding are in the guide to YouTube ads for an online store.

What you do in CloudCart at this stage: install the pixels before you pay for the first impression. The Meta Pixel goes into Apps → XML Feed → FaceBook → Settings as a Pixel ID and works on every plan. The same screen holds the Access Token and the switch for the Conversions API (CAPI), which is not part of the plans on the pricing page and is activated separately. The TikTok Pixel goes into Apps → TikTok Dynamic Ads → Settings. That way video viewers who click become a retargeting audience. The full setup is in Meta Pixel, Conversions API and TikTok Pixel in CloudCart, and you can make the videos with AI using the guide to AI video for Reels and TikTok.

The second awareness tool is influencers: a person their followers trust shows your product. In CloudCart you give them a personal code in Marketing → Discounts, and orders with that code show what they brought in. Choosing, paying and contracting influencers is in the guide to influencer marketing for an online store.

Consideration: where customers compare before they buy

At the consideration stage the customer already has a need and compares products, prices and stores, so your ads have to be where the comparing happens.

• Google Demand Gen. The campaign shows images, video and carousels of 2 to 10 cards on YouTube (including Shorts), Discover, Gmail, Maps and the Google Display Network, and it can use your Merchant Center product feed. Google is moving Display campaigns to Demand Gen: eligible advertisers can migrate with a voluntary tool, and later new campaigns will only be created as Demand Gen (Google Ads Help: Demand Gen).
• Price comparison sites. They send the shopper straight to your product page. CloudCart has ready feeds in Apps → XML Feed for Glami (fashion, in Czechia, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria), Skroutz (Greece) and Compari (Hungary), each charged under your own agreement with the site. Feed setup is in the Glami product feed guide.
• Marketplaces. You sell under your own name on a marketplace for a commission per category. CloudCart connects Etsy, TikTok Shop and eMAG (Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary) from the same catalog.
• Affiliates. Bloggers and deal sites write about your products and earn a commission only on sales. For Profitshare, a network in Romania and Bulgaria, the feed is in Apps → XML Feed → ProfitShare. See the guide to an affiliate program for an online store.

This stage is also the time to collect the visitor's email before they buy. The forms in Marketing → Subscribers → Subscribe Forms come as a popup, a bar, a corner panel, a sidebar or full screen, and show immediately, on exit intent or after a set time on the page.

PPC advertising for conversion: Search, Shopping, Performance Max and retargeting

PPC advertising on Google is the closest to the purchase, because it shows your store to someone who is searching for the product right now. The Google Ads help centre lists six main campaign types: Performance Max, Search, Display, Video, App and Shopping (Google Ads Help: campaign types). For conversion in an online store, Search, Shopping and Performance Max do the work, with retargeting as an audience on top.

Campaign type or audience	Where it shows	When you launch it	What the store needs
Search	Text ads in search results	First, for product and brand keywords	Purchase tracking
Shopping	Product listings in search and the Shopping tab	Once the feed is approved in Merchant Center	A product feed with price, image and availability
Performance Max	All Google ad placements from one campaign	Once enough purchases are tracked	Feed, tracking, images and video
Retargeting	Ads to people who visited your store	As soon as other campaigns bring traffic	Remarketing tags in the store

In CloudCart, products go to Merchant Center through Apps → Google Shopping (connect the account and choose which products sync). Dynamic remarketing is switched on in Apps → Google Dynamic Remarketing, which tells Google Ads which product was viewed, added to the cart or bought, and Google Tag Manager connects in Apps → Google Tag Manager → Settings with your container ID. The campaign, budget and bids are set in Google Ads.

On Meta, the catalog from Apps → XML Feed → FaceBook plus the pixel give you dynamic ads with the products a person viewed. Criteo, a retargeting network, takes its own feed from Apps → XML Feed → Criteo. The Google steps are in the guide to Google Ads for an online store and Google Merchant Center and Google Shopping step by step.

An abandoned cart comes back by email: the built-in reminder goes out 30 to 180 minutes after the cart is left (we recommend 60), with a personal link back to the same cart (abandoned carts in CloudCart).

Retention: email, SMS and Web Push to people who already bought

Retention marketing brings a customer back for a second order through your own channels, where you pay nothing per click. In CloudCart the channels connect in Marketing → Channels → Channels setup and are used from Marketing → Campaigns.

• Email: the post-purchase email, win-back of inactive customers, the new collection. The automated emails are in the guide to email marketing for an online store, and your first newsletter step by step in email campaigns in CloudCart.
• SMS: short and urgent, for subscribers who do not open email.
• Viber: a message from a verified sender with up to 1,000 characters, an image and a button. It matters most where shoppers already use Viber, such as Bulgaria and other Balkan countries.
• Web Push: a browser notification that needs neither an email address nor a phone number.

Segments in Marketing → Segments sort subscribers on their own: an automated segment recalculates with every subscriber action and every five minutes, on over 60 conditions such as "ordered in the last 30 days" or "no order in 90 days" (campaigns in CloudCart). An automated campaign starts when a subscriber enters the segment and stops when they order. Email and Web Push are part of the plan price, while SMS and Viber are paid with credits per message. More in SMS, Viber, email and Web Push campaigns in CloudCart, and points and cashback in the guide to customer loyalty programs.

Important: across the EU, marketing email and text messages to consumers need their prior consent under Article 13 of the ePrivacy Directive (2002/58/EC), which each country applies through its own law. The narrow exception is your own customers, who may get offers for similar products if they could refuse when they bought and can opt out in every message. CloudCart subscribe forms record each consent with the time, IP address and the text the person accepted.

Channel, stage and CloudCart feature: the full table

Every ad channel has a place in the admin without which it cannot measure sales or show your products.

Channel and campaign type	Stage	In CloudCart	In the ad platform	Guide
Meta, Awareness objective or Sales with a broad audience	Awareness	Meta Pixel (and CAPI, if activated) in Apps → XML Feed → FaceBook	Campaign, audience, video	Meta Ads
TikTok In-Feed and Spark Ads	Awareness	TikTok Pixel and catalog in Apps → TikTok Dynamic Ads; Apps → TikTok Ads	Campaign and 9:16 video	TikTok
YouTube video and Demand Gen	Awareness, consideration	Apps → Google Shopping (feed), Google Tag Manager	Video, images, audiences	Google Ads
Influencers	Awareness, consideration	Personal code in Marketing → Discounts	Contract and a post labelled as an ad	Influencers
Price comparison sites (Glami, Skroutz, Compari)	Consideration	Apps → XML Feed → the site's name	Merchant account on the site	Sales channels
Marketplaces (Etsy, TikTok Shop, eMAG)	Consideration, conversion	The marketplace's app in Apps	Seller account on the marketplace	Sales channels
Affiliates (Profitshare)	Consideration, conversion	Apps → XML Feed → ProfitShare	Commission and terms in the network	Affiliates
Google Search (PPC)	Conversion	Purchase tracking	Keywords, ad text, bids	Google Ads
Google Shopping and Performance Max	Conversion	Apps → Google Shopping	Merchant Center and the campaign	Merchant Center
Google retargeting	Conversion	Apps → Google Dynamic Remarketing	Visitor audience	Google Ads
Meta dynamic retargeting	Conversion	Catalog and pixel in Apps → XML Feed → FaceBook	Catalog campaign	Meta Ads
Abandoned carts	Conversion	Orders → Abandoned and the built-in reminder	Not needed	Abandoned carts
Email	Retention	Marketing → Campaigns, Segments, Subscribers	Not needed	Email marketing
SMS, Viber, Web Push	Retention	Marketing → Channels and Campaigns	Not needed	SMS, Viber, Web Push

How to split the budget: small and mid-sized store

Split your ad budget from the bottom of the funnel up: first the channels that catch existing demand, then the ones that create new demand. Search, Shopping and retargeting reach people who already want the product, while awareness video pays for people who will buy weeks later.

The table is a starting split. The real one is set after 4 to 6 weeks by each channel's ROAS against break-even ROAS for your margin. Percentages are of the monthly ad budget.

Channel	Small store (first months, few orders)	Mid-sized store (steady orders every day)
Google Search and Shopping	45 to 55%	25 to 30%
Performance Max	0% until purchases are tracked	15 to 20%
Retargeting (Meta and Google)	15 to 20%	10 to 15%
Meta and TikTok for new people	20 to 25%	25 to 30%
YouTube and Demand Gen	0%	5 to 10%
Influencers and tests	5 to 10%	5 to 10%
Comparison sites, marketplaces, affiliates	By their price list or commission, separately	By their price list or commission, separately

Email and Web Push need no ad budget, and SMS and Viber are paid per message sent. That makes retention the cheapest line for a small store: the subscribe form, the abandoned cart email and the post-purchase email go live in the first week. How to work out the total from your margin and target CPA, with sample media plans for €300, €1,000 and €3,000 a month, is in the ecommerce ad budget and media plan guide. The year plan with the promotions calendar is in the ecommerce marketing calendar.

Selling to several EU countries

If you advertise in several countries, run each one as its own campaign with its own budget, language and currency, because cost per click, VAT and delivery cost differ by market. Once your distance sales to consumers in other EU countries pass €10,000 a year, you charge the VAT of the customer's country (Your Europe: cross-border VAT), which lowers the margin left for ads in high-VAT countries. A separate store per country, each with its own language and currency, keeps the feed, prices and tracking clean for every campaign (multilingual, multi-currency and multi-store selling).

In what order to launch channels in the first 30 days

Launch channels in an order where each one uses the data from the one before.

1. Tracking (days 1 to 2). In CloudCart: Meta Pixel (and CAPI, if activated), TikTok Pixel, Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics from Apps, plus the cookie banner. In the platforms: a test event, and a check that each purchase is counted once.
2. Feeds (days 2 to 4). In CloudCart: Google Shopping, the Facebook catalog and the comparison sites or marketplaces you sell on. In the platforms: link the feed to Merchant Center, Commerce Manager and your seller accounts.
3. Owned channels (days 3 to 5). In CloudCart: a subscribe form with a first-order code, the email channel, the built-in abandoned cart reminder and Web Push. No ad platform needed.
4. Google PPC (days 5 to 7). In Google Ads: Search for product and brand keywords, then Shopping. In CloudCart: follow the campaign's orders in the admin.
5. Meta and TikTok (week 2). In Ads Manager: a campaign with the Sales objective and 3 to 5 videos, with retargeting from the catalog separately. In CloudCart: a promo code used only in the ads, so you can count their orders.
6. Segments and automations (week 3). In CloudCart: segments "ordered in the last 30 days" and "no order in 90 days", and a campaign with two channels, for example email first and then SMS for those who did not open it.
7. Review and reallocation (week 4). Compare revenue per channel from your store's orders with spend in each platform, and move budget to the channels above break-even ROAS.

If you would rather not go through these steps by hand, an AI assistant such as Claude Code or ChatGPT Codex can do them in your store with a personal access token: it checks the feeds, builds the segments and proposes the campaigns. How the assistant connects is on the page for a store run by an AI assistant.

How to measure each type of advertising

Each stage is measured by its own metric, but all of them are checked against the orders in your store, because platforms also take credit for purchases that would have happened without the ad.

• UTM tags on every link. UTM tracking in CloudCart is part of the CC Pro and CC Master plans (plans and pricing); on smaller plans, read UTMs in Google Analytics 4. Setup is in Google Tag Manager and GA4 for an online store. Naming rules for campaigns are in the guide to UTM parameters and attribution.
• A separate promo code for each influencer, affiliate and SMS campaign. The code shows the order even when the customer bought on another device.
• Campaign statistics. In Marketing → Campaigns you see reached, opened, clicked, orders and revenue for every campaign and every channel.

Across the EU, advertising cookies need the visitor's consent before they are set, and withdrawing consent must be as easy as giving it (Your Europe: online privacy and cookies). Visitors who refuse are missing from pixel data, which is one more reason to judge channels by the orders in your store. Consent setup is in the guide to GDPR and cookies.

Mistakes when choosing types of advertising

• Awareness before tracking. The videos bring visitors, but without a pixel they never become a retargeting audience.
• Performance Max as the first campaign. With no tracked purchases, the algorithm has nothing to learn from and the budget goes to the cheapest impressions.
• Different prices in different channels. Spreadsheets kept by hand for comparison sites and Google show an old price, while the feed from the admin carries the current one.
• One campaign for every country. A single budget across markets with different VAT, delivery cost and language hides which country actually pays off.
• No retention. A store that pays for every order with ads loses money when click prices rise before Black Friday.

Frequently asked questions

CloudCart, the ecommerce platform with 0% commission on sales, brings the pixels, product feeds, abandoned carts and email, SMS and Web Push campaigns into one admin. Plan prices are on the pricing page (billed annually, excluding VAT: Baby Pack €14, Starter Pack €33, CC Pro €83 and CC Master €249 a month). Questions about setting up a channel or a feed? Write to us at support@cloudcart.com.