How To Advertise Your E-Commerce Site And Get The Most Traffic You Can
One of the great things about owning your e-commerce business is that you can do anything you want. You make all your own decisions, from what to stock on the shelves to how to design your site. But wait! Just because you can do whatever you want doesn't mean you should. Running a business takes hard work, diligence, and learning to say no.
When it comes to advertising online, there are many channels and options available for getting in front of customers. And while they each have their benefits and drawbacks, not every option will be right for your store—or even profitable. Let’s dive in, shall we?
Define your goals.
It's critical that you define your goals before you create any ads. If you don't know what you're trying to accomplish, how will you know when it happens?
Your goal should be measurable. You need a number that tells you whether or not the ad is working and how well it performs over time. In other words, if your goal is "to sell more shoes," then there needs to be some way for us (or a third party) to tell if we accomplished this goal—like by tracking sales on our website after running an ad campaign.
Understand metrics like clicks and impressions, which can help indicate whether or not people are seeing your ads. And if they aren't seeing them yet because they haven't been served any ads yet, we can show how many impressions were made based on how much budget was spent on impressions since they started looking at their feed recently (and then try again).
Pick your channels.
Choosing the right channel for your business goals, customer base, and budget can be the difference between a profitable campaign and one that's a waste of time. No single channel will work for everyone — or even most people — so it's crucial to pick the suitable options for your situation.
Of course, if you want to succeed at e-commerce, you need to make sure that you have enough customers coming through your door (or clicking on their phones). And how do we get those customers? Through advertising! So let's dive in and look at what channels are available and how much they cost.
Set your ad campaign budgets.
While it's easy to get caught up in the metrics and algorithms, your ads are only as good as your budget at the end of the day. Your ad performance matters less than how much you can afford to spend on them.
Your campaign budgets are essentially how much money you're willing to invest into each channel—and that number should be based on what kind of ROI goals you have for each channel. If you have a very competitive product and want more sales leads quickly, a higher spend may help build more awareness for your brand. But if you're trying to reach new customers with a lower price point, then smaller amounts might be okay for now because they'll still drive conversions without spending too much upfront (which is always lovely).
Choose ad formats that work for your e-commerce business.
You've got the basics down, and you know what you want your e-commerce site to look like, but now it's time to figure out which ad formats are best for your business.
The first step is choosing the right ad formats for your audience. Are you selling products that appeal to moms who have children between 9 and 12 years old? If so, maybe you should set up an interest segment targeting just moms between those ages with kids in that age range.
Targeting by interests lets you reach customers based on hobbies, education level, and lifestyle choices—all things that have been shown to influence purchase behavior.
Another consideration is budget: If you don't have much money to spend on ads initially, then consider using mobile app install ads or video views instead of video plays (since they're usually more cost-effective). Or perhaps Facebook offers another option—you can reach people worldwide using global campaigns but still target them by location when they're on Facebook itself or other apps (like Instagram). This can make a big difference in how much money you spend per click!
Think about what you want to offer your customers in each ad.
Let's say you are selling stuffed animals, and you want to attract customers looking for a specific type of animal. In that case, you might like to offer them an ad with a coupon code or discount code that shows your e-commerce site has stuffed animals of their type in stock.
As another example, let's say you are selling clothing and want to attract customers interested in buying clothing for the summer season or spring season. Your ads should have some seasonal discount attached to them in this case.
The bottom line is: Think about what each ad offers based on what product category you’re promoting.
Make sure any ads you run for your site work for your business goals, and create ads that are easy for a customer to interact with and reach your site quickly.
The ad world is a mysterious place, but there are some basic rules of thumb you can use to get started. It's vital that you make sure any ads you run for your site work for your business goals and create easy ads for a customer to use:
Make sure any ads you run for your e-commerce site work for your business goals: Ads should be relevant to what people search on Google or another search engine when looking at e-commerce sites like yours. If someone searches "red dress shoes," then an ad that shows up with a picture of red dress shoes will likely prompt them to click through (and possibly buy).
Make sure your ads are efficient: It shouldn't take more than 3 seconds before someone can find what they're looking for on your website — whether it's in an article or on the product page itself — so make sure whatever information is presented by using traditional text links or buttons with transparent labels. Hence, people know exactly how they can do something like buying something or downloading something without confusion about where those options might be located online.
What types of ads offer the best ROI for your e-commerce site?
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