Author: William McMahon

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Growth Academy

Digital Ads: Powerful Internet Billboards

Creatives illustration
Advertising creatives automatically generated

The Role of Visual Ads in E-Commerce Advertising

Digital marketing is arguably defined by the ability to use multimedia (text, photos, videos) in combination to promote your product.  When they say “a picture is worth a thousand words,” here are some stats to back that up:

  • Visual content is processed by the brain 60,000 times faster than text
  • Visual stimuli makes up 90% of all info transmitted daily

If you want to make an impact on your customer, improving your visual ads could be the key to increasing sales on Shopify!  This post reviews the importance of visual ads in ecommerce, as well as how to deploy ad visuals while trying to increase sales on Shopify.

Importance of Digital Ad Design

In the past 10 years, users online have gotten used to bombardments of visual ads across the web, as well as mobile apps.  It’s commonplace to be reading a news article, then suddenly see a visual ad banner for footwear or something completely unrelated to the article itself. 

That’s the first key reason digital ad design is crucial to increasing sales on Shopify – you want your visual ad to be so eye-catching it literally draws the user away from what they were doing and toward your site!  If the visual looks cheesy or unprofessional, users may be wary that the product offered is a scam or low-quality.  Your digital ad design quality needs to match your product quality to boost your Shopify sales.

Digital Ad Design Aesthetics – The Key to Increasing Sales on Shopify

If you notice, major brands like Nike or Apple have perfected the art of making sleek, beautiful, simple ads that showcase their products with vibrant colors and dynamic patterns.  Some of the best ad visuals are basically a beautiful digital canvas with the flagship product in the middle, and a simple slogan like, “Get Ready,” or something that simple. 

How to Create a Facebook Ad Using Stunning Visuals
Note the beautiful hue in the background and the simplicity of the design – the product centered with the logo in the top-left corner.

High-resolution photos, edited to enrich the color scheme, may immediately draw the user’s eye.  Additionally, putting your brand logo in the middle of a beautiful colored background may enhance their perception of your product line.  To increase sales on Shopify, you need to demonstrate that your digital ads compete with the sleek professional designs found across the web.

Keys to Digital Ad Design Success

To successfully increase your Shopify sales, Ad360 has provided a few key pointers to follow when deciding on your final ad design:

1. Use high-resolution photos of stock photos, models, or your product centered on the ad visual

2. Pick colors that complement each other

3. Use big colorful fonts for a short, eye-catching message (e.g. ’50$ OFF!’)

4. Put your product or brand logo behind beautiful yet simple colored backgrounds with bright or neutral hues

5. DO NOT CROWD THE VISUAL OR OVERCOMPLICATE.  ONE PRODUCT, ONE IMAGE!  Only use multiple images if you have a specific design model in mind

6. Gifs and videos work too, but make sure the thumbnail is as aesthetically pleasing as a still visual

Ad360 Can Automatically Generate Eye-Catching Visuals for Your Business

A recent survey found that a majority of e-commerce business owners would prefer automatically-generated ad visuals and designs: it would save them precious time to focus on day-to-day operations.  Thus, it could be argued that automating your ad visuals is a keystone to increasing sales on Shopify.

If you want to try automating your ad visuals, try a free demo by Ad360 today!  On top of a centralized dashboard for all ad campaigns, as well as making ad campaign creation as simple as one click, Ad360 automatically extracts data from your Shopify store to create ad visuals.  From there, you will have multiple options of which one to release across the web, drawing in more visitors and increasing your sales on Shopify 😊

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Growth Academy

The Impact of Shopify’s Stock Split

Shopify’s Recent 10:1 Stock Split

As a storeowners trying to increase your sales on Shopify, you may have noticed that Shopify itself has been in the news lately! 

While still up over 900% since its launch in 2018 – which is amazing – there was a recent slump in Shopify’s stock price.  To address the issue and set up the company for future success, Shopify announced a 10:1 stock split. 

What does this mean?  It doesn’t affect anything other than the volume of shares.  For example, if you owned 100 stocks of Shopify worth $10 each, there are now 1,000 shares – but each one is now worth $1! 

Since you are focused on boosting your own Shopify sales and not much else, it may help to answer the question – “Should I be worried about the recent news of Shopify’s stock?”

Quick answer – no!  Shopify is poised to reap the benefits of the e-commerce industry’s growth the next several years, meaning the over 2 million users can ride the wave of their success 😊  Read below for more info on Shopify’s future prospects!

Shopify is Partnered with the Major Tech Platforms

While other e-commerce sites are out there, Shopify is one of the strongest platforms due to its partnerships with tech companies like Meta, Tik Tok, Alphabet, and JD.

When trying to figure out how to increase Shopify sales for your own store, know that Shopify itself is doing the same!  Having full integration with the most widely-used tech platforms means that a temporary slump in stock price – or the news of a 10:1 stock split – will not impact its users in any significant way.

You can rest easy that Shopify itself is trying to figure out how to generate more sales on Shopify for you!  While on a different scale, leveraging major partnerships with social media companies like Tik Tok mean that the future looks bright for Shopify and its millions of merchants.

A Temporary Slump Won’t Stop E-Commerce Growth

Some folks worry that, coming out of the pandemic, e-commerce stores may take a hit as customers flock back to brick-and-mortar stores.  On the whole, as you look for how to increase Shopify sales on your own store, remember this fact for motivation:

There is no stopping the e-commerce juggernaut.  E-commerce is poised to surge from $5.5 trillion in 2022 to $7.4 trillion by 2025.

Of all the major e-commerce platforms, Shopify is arguably in the best position to reap the rewards of online retail growth.  So, while you figure out how to generate more sales on Shopify, keep an eye out for more tools added to the Shopify brand!  There major be some digital marketing innovations on the horizon that better democratize the e-commerce space, meaning even the most tech-averse storeowners may find success online 😊

Try the Ad360 App to Help Increase Sales on Shopify

 We hope you are convinced and feel secure with your decision to open a store on Shopify’s e-commerce platform.  There is no reason for merchants to be worried about the recent news in the stock price and stock split.

However, figuring out how to increase Shopify sales is a big challenge!  If you want help simplifying the process down to a few clicks, reach out to try a free demo from Ad360 today.  With our flagship feature, Quick Ads, you need only set your daily budget and target location for ads – we’ll handle the rest, taking your online ad campaign creation to the next level 😊  Contact us today!

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Growth Academy

Google Search Vs. Display Ads

Google Search versus Display
Google Search Ads vs Google Display ads

Navigating Google’s Ad Options

As a Certified Google Partner, we want to provide info that better frames all the digital marketing options available to business owners.  While Meta, Instagram, Tik Tok, Reddit, and more are all viable options, this post will focus on the key differences and utility of two Google ad channels:

  1. Google Display Ads
  2. Google Search Ads

If you have ever wondered why exactly a Google Display campaign better fits your needs (or vice-versa) read below!  Knowing how to leverage each Google ad channel can be a key factor to help increase sales on Shopify.

Google Search Ads: Pulling in the Local Crowd

Google Search ads only appear to online users who have searched your business’s keywords, or have executed a search looking for a local solution to their “need.”  For businesses that run local services like food, home improvement, retail, auto, or more, Google search ads could be a key promotional tool.

For example, if I type in, “Auto repair near me,” and your auto body shop recently deployed a Google search ads campaign, guess who I’m going to when the results come up! 😊

If users already have a clear intent for their need, and already know they have an issue that needs a solution, Google search ads can boost your click-through-rate (CTR) and lead to increased sales on your Shopify store. 

To maximize your conversions on Google search ads, do your research on the best keywords that match your business!  Bidding higher on these keywords will automatically push you up the Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

Concluding, “pulling” in your local audience, or researching and bidding on the best keywords to match your customers’ desires, are the two best rationales for starting a Google Search Ads campaign.

Google Display Ads: Reach the Wider Web

If you aren’t sure about what keywords to bid on, and your business is not primarily driven by local traffic, Google Display Ads offer a strong alternative to Google Search ads.

Google display ads are those sidebar images and banners that pop up across the web when you are browsing, whether it be directly for a product or not!  Google display ads gain access to more than 2 million websites, videos, and apps that over 90% of web users surf across every day.

For brand awareness and visibility, Google Display ads are far superior to Google Search ads.  However, remember these folks are not expressing a direct intent to buy something!  As such, the average conversion rates on Display ads are lower, even if the audience reached is wider.  Still, leveraged properly, Google Display can be a key component to increasing sales on Shopify.

Display ads are best when you utilize an eye-catching image with bold headlines or text.  Additionally, they help, in a sense, introduce the wider web to your products!  Remember that the average customer needs between 3-7 “views” of your product because they begin feeling compelled to buy.

To optimize Google display ads, it’s best to focus on specific sites you know your niche audience frequently visits.  Even better, you set them to appear only to your target demographic, so you don’t end up wasting money on an overly broad ad campaign.  Imagine you sell men’s grooming products, and your Google Display ads are being shown to women in the 60s… no good.  They’ll be weirded out, and your money will be wasted!

Conclusion: Ad360 Can Help You Reach Beyond Google’s Display Network!

As a certified Google partner Ad360 can help any business run either a Google Search or Display ad campaign – even both!  Even better, we can layer in ad retargeting to every ad campaign you run, and our Menadex network gives you access to the entire worldwide web even beyond the Google Display Network.  Leveraging ad retargeting on top of wider access are crucial advantages in the digital marketing landscape.

If you would like to receive a free consultation on how to optimize your e-commerce site or want advice on which Google ad channel to run, try out our free demo by Ad360 today!  We’re proud to bring you our flagship feature: One Click ad campaign setup with Quick Ads.  Advertising online has never been this simple.  Sign up today to get help increasing your sales on Shopify!

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Growth Academy

Why Mobile Ads are Superior to Desktop Ads

Mobile Ads and Desktop Ads
Mobile Ads represent a great opportunity that is still underused

By the Numbers: Proof Mobile Ads Have Eclipsed Desktop Ads

In the past 5 years, mobile ads have taken over desktop as the most effective ways to promote your business online. 

Not convinced? 

Consider that in 2010, mobile ads spending didn’t even scratch $1 billion.  Now, mobile ads is a ~$400 billion market, and that number is projected to eclipse $700 billion by 2028.  

While still effective at ~$40 billion revenue in 2021, desktop ads lack the explosive growth factors that power mobile ads.  If e-commerce businesses want to increase sales on Shopify, they have to run mobile ad campaigns. 

Unlimited Access and “Intimate Expectations”

Think about it – phones/tablets/wearables are useable in way more places, and 4G internet provides uninterrupted access to the internet.  That ubiquitous ease of accessibility may help explain why users, on average, spend 143 minutes browsing their phones vs only 35 minutes on their desktop.

Basically, your entire audience is online now.  All of it.  Everyone is either browsing the news, surfing the web, or checking out their social media.  Not only that, using a personal mobile device comes with a certain level of “intimacy.”  It’s not a “work laptop” or desktop, it’s a device we place all our calls from, and talk to all their friends and family on.

 A fun study even pointed out that most of us even use our phones while going to the bathroom (gross), but it highlights how in vulnerable moments, people will use their phones to browse for something that catches their eye.  The smaller screen and ease of “sharing” interesting posts simply make it a better place to engage with your customers. To effectively promote, you have to meet your audience where they are, and virtually all of them are hanging out on their phones!

Improved Mobile Ad Technology & Location-Based Retargeting

It’s undeniable that the user experience for mobile devices has become remarkably smoother – and overall more delightful – the past decade.  Swipeable ads and popups can be seamless for the user, yet they still advertise your product! 

Furthermore, location-based ad retargeting is supported much more on mobile devices than desktop.  On a technical level, every user’s phone has a unique ID that is traceable, meaning once their visit your store or conduct a search with your keywords, you can send those users tailor-made ads without jeopardizing their privacy.  Ad retargeting is an essential tactic in successful digital marketing, and it is much easier to do through mobile phones. 

For example, Ad360 offers hyperlocal ad retargeting services, meaning you could target all mobile users down to a city block with your products.  Running such a concentrated ad campaign from the desktop would simply be impossible in this scenario.  Hyperlocal ads are both cost-efficient – due to paying only for the hyperlocal adspace – and focused on only your most likely and local customers.  Your business will pop up locally whenever users nearby conduct a search or browse on their phone!

Key Tips to Improve your Mobile Ad Efforts

While both connected to internet mobile ads and desktops ads require totally different designs and content formats to make for a smooth user experience.  Here are a few tips to follow when designing your next mobile ad campaign:

  1. Make it a more visual experience – Colorful, vibrant pictures with only a few words of text play well on mobile ads and capture user interest
  2. “Swipable” Functions that allow for a progression of content in a “slideshow” format. You could show a picture of the product with a colorful background on one page, a text description when the user swipes right, and a “Call to Action” button with a link to buy on the next!  Mobile ad tactics like this are likely to increase your sales on Shopify and boost conversion rates
  3. Clickable Buttons that “Expand” or “Minimize” Written Content – Written content is still important, just tailor it properly so it is easily readable and can be minimized for ease of scrolling across the page.

Conclusion: Ad360 Can Run your Next Mobile Campaign with One Click

If you want assistance setting up and running your next mobile ad campaign, Ad360 is proud to present our Quick Ads feature – built to simplify the ad campaign creation process to one click.  Simply enter in your “daily budget” and “location” – our Quick Ads software will extract all the data from your Shopify store and handle the rest 😊

We offer a free demo for our services, and we’re confident you’ll feel that creating mobile ads has never been so accessible and effective.  Become the next ecommerce success story by reaching out today!

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Growth Academy

Google Retail Search Released to the Public

Google Retail Search
Google releases Retail Search to the general public.

Searching but Not Finding: the Phenomena of Search Abandonment

Picture the common scenario, where, frustrated by the lack of results on their search, a customer leaves your site without buying anything.

That simple snafu costs ecommerce retailers over $300 billion a year.

Amazing, right?  Such a simple hitch in the process can bleed billions of dollars in the ecommerce industry.  Even retail giants like Macy’s and Ikea suffer from search abandonment, so you are not alone!

Luckily enough, Google recently released its Google Retail Search to the general public, bringing the power of Google’s search engine to all online retailers.  Read below how this new Google tool can help increase your sales on Shopify!

Why Google’s Retail Search is a Win for E-Commerce

A recent poll discovered that 94% of US customers abandon an online shopping session due to irrelevant search results.  Imagine that a shopper types in, “comfy winter sweater” to your search bar… they probably won’t get very precise results! 

However, with Google Retail Search, backing software would be able to link the customer’s buying intent, no matter how general in their search, to specific products available in your store.  Most ecommerce sites have search bars that, if the specific product name is typed, can provide the result quickly for users.

But what about all the potential customers who don’t know your brand’s products yet?  Navigating around to find the item that fits their match can be a chore they refuse to do, especially when ecommerce giants may be able to provide better search matches.

How Google Retail Search Helps Increase Sales on Shopify

Google Retail Search will help boost your Shopify sales in a few ways:

1. Advanced Query Understanding

This function provides high-quality search results for even the broadest searches.  If you sell footwear, and someone types in, “shoes for the beach,” instead of telling them, “What can’t find that specific product, can you refine your search?”  It will bring up a list of all your products that fit the context. 

2. Semantic Search

You will be able to better gauge “customer intent” to match them with the best-fitting products on site.

3. Personalized Results

Google Retail Search will also factor in each user’s previous searches through their search engine optimizing their experience and providing them tailor-made search results, even on your Shopify site!  All of this is done automatically for your ecommerce business.

4. State-of-the-art Customer Data Security

While the search results provided by Google Retail Search are personalized, Google implements “strong access controls” to ensure your customer data is anonymized and protected

Conclusion: Google Retail Search is Worth a Trial

As a certified Google partner, Ad360 knows the power of leveraging Google’s incredible search engine, ad platform, and analytics technology.  If you want any advice or help implement Google Retail Search to your ecommerce site, contact us at Ad360 today!  We provide a free website review, along with a free trial.  That way, we can test your search query and see what comes up 😊  Less search abandonment could increase sales on Shopify, so don’t hesitate to check out Google Retail Search!

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Growth Academy

3 Ways to Increase Sales on Shopify

3 ways to increase sales with Shopify
Use these 3 techniques to increase your Shopify Sales

Introduction: Learn Vital Ecommerce Marketing Strategies

Finding the “right way” to promote your e-commerce business can feel like a crapshoot.  With so many social media platforms and “search engines” to buy adspace on, unfocused or disorganized ad campaigns can quickly lose their sense of purpose.  If your promotional efforts are not organized into a coherent marketing strategy, you can end up draining your funds with no results!

This post provides a few key promotional skills for ecommerce business owners who feel flustered while attempting to increase sales on Shopify.  It will help you slow down your racing thoughts, consider different marketing angles, and put your marketing budget to good use!  If you believe in your product, it’s time to give it the strong marketing it deserves – read below to boost your Shopify sales success!

Trust Badges: Easy Way to Increase Sales on Shopify

They are so subtle you may breeze past them while browsing, but “trust badges” on your homepage and checkout window have a profound psychological impact on customers.  Trust badges are the little logos, usually the bottom of web pages, that indicate the following about your website:

  • Verified “secure socket layer/transport layer security” (SSL/TLS) encrypted checkout

This trust badge means a third-party encryption system has verified and monitors your site’s security at checkout.  Seeing a trust badge from “trust lock,” for example, makes customers less likely to abandon their cart for fear of having their payment info compromised!  Check out a list of the best SSL/TLS third-party providers here

  • Verified Accepted Payments Badge

To increase sales on Shopify and gain the trust of their customers, online businesses should apply for certifications from “accepted payment” giants.  “Verified by Visa” and “Verified by Paypal” are two of the most-recognizable badges, and you can start the certification process by clicking the links here and here!

  • Third-Party Endorsement Badge

Trust badges verifiable from the BBB or Trusted Site are also well-recognized by customers.  To increase sales on Shopify, align your ecommerce business with one or both, linked here and here

One key thing to note: MAKE THE BADGES REAL AND VERIFIABLE BY “CLICKING THROUGH.”  Many sites will simply “copy + paste” an existing trust badge from Google or literally generate their own.  This is a big mistake, as trust badges are not legally binding.  They are only as valuable as the reputation of the third parties you link to. 

For example, if your “Trustlock” or “Verified by Visa” trust badge does not allow the user to “click through” and see the formal certification, it could actually make the users more skeptical, not less, or buying from your site.  To increase sales on Shopify, use only trust badges you applied for and got verified by trusted third parties for.  Don’t make up your own and slap them on your site.  They mean nothing at that point.

Go Mobile

The number of web searches (and web surfing) done from mobile devices has more than doubled from –  from 27% in 2013 to 63% in 2021.  That trend will only continue to go up, so it’s important that e-commerce business owners know how to create mobile-friendly websites and ad campaigns.  Mobile ad campaigns will become the primary way to increase sales on Shopify within the next several years, if it is not already.  Google has a nice breakdown of how to do so here, but, for the sake of conciseness and clarity, it boils down to a few key points:

  1. Shorten text and simplify with “Call to action” buttons centered on the page
  2. Include pictures/slideshows and videos
  3. Using sitelinks to connect your Shopify page without taking too much space up
  4. Add location extensions to connect mobile users to your brick-and-mortar location

Researching and implementing mobile-friendly ad campaigns is a promotional technique that very likely will increase sales on Shopify.  If you are running ads only viewable and optimized from a computer, you are basically missing out on two thirds of your potential customers!

Do Influencers Help Drive Traffic & Increase Shopify Sales? 

The short answer – YES.  There is a reason the idea of becoming an “influencer” is so trendy among young folk: they work.  They are an unaffiliated direct line to pools of potential customers who, for one reason or another, consider it worth part of their day to scroll and wonder, “I wonder what my favorite influencer is spending their money on?” 

The big advantage is the influencer themselves has done all the legwork of building a level of “credibility” and “trust” among their fanbase.  You simply ride their coattails to push your products, and thousands of followers deduce, “If my favorite influencer put their name behind this product, it must be worth buying.”

Now, you don’t have to hire the entire Kardashian family to have influencer-led ad campaigns increase your sales on Shopify.  There is a simple method to reach out to “nano” (1,000 – 10,000 followers) or “micro” influencers (10,000 – 50,000 followers) that can fit a smaller business’s budget while they scale up:

  1. Go to Tik Tok, Instagram, or a similar social media platform
  2. Search a hashtag relevant to your business (e.g. – #fashion for a clothing site)
  3. Scroll through the pages until you find influencers worth reaching out to
  4. Contact them!

Make sure you feel the payment process you agree to with the influencer is protected, and track the results to see if the influencer actually posted, and if that post got some nice engagement.  While these folks aren’t your friends, they are more than happy to provide access to their follower base for the right number!  Do not be afraid to contact influencers – they are looking to promote products that pay them well and don’t shred their reputation.  If you think you guys are good fit, reach out like you would any other business!

Conclusion

Verifiable trust badges, mobile-friendly ad setups, and influencer-promoted products are all highly effective techniques to increase sales on Shopify.  However, learning how to display the trust badges, establish mobile ad designs, and configure influencer outreach can sound like an arduous task to do yourself.

IF you want help implementing the promotional skills listed above, contact Ad360 today for a free demo!  We can help rebuild your website with trust badges, design entire mobile ad campaigns from scratch, and we’ll help analyze the impact of influencers on driving traffic to your store.  Reach out today!

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Growth Academy

A Glossary to Increase Sales on Shopify

Ecommerce Glossary
Glossary of common ecommerce terms.

A common pattern we find with ecommerce business owners – especially one from brick-and-mortar shops – is frustration with the frustration with the jargon, acronyms, and lingo used when discussing ways to best increase sales on Shopify.

“This will help your CPC decrease, thereby increasing your ROAS and ensuring your website’s SEO becomes more robust and dynamic, funneling customers along the AIDA hierarchy.  In fact, we may move to a CPM ad model soon over CPC.  Or would prefer a PPC payment model?”

…. WHY!  WHY SO CONFUSING?!?!  It can almost seem like online marketers are purposefully throwing difficult jargon out there to test the business owner’s knowledge of the e-commerce landscape.  From there… it becomes doubtful their sole aim is to help your business increase sales on Shopify.  Instead, beating you over the head with technical lingo gives the sense marketers want to muddle the conversation to the point it’s impossible to get a straightforward answer on how exactly their services helps your business.  It all can feel very esoteric and disconnected from your promotional goals to increase sales on Shopify.

To help combat overcomplicated explanations, Ad360 wants to provide a small glossary of terms – and how they work in an online marketing context – so you feel knowledgeable and secure when discussing your business aims with potential clients or partners.  That way, as you search for ways to boost your Shopify sales, you won’t be lost when discussing the more technical side of online marketing.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

PPC (Pay-Per-Click) is a standard online advertising method, where businesses agree to a specific amount charged every time a customer actually “clicks” on their ad.  It involves setting a “maximum amount” you are willing to “per per click,” but, based on other factors, you may not end up actually paying that amount! 

Let’s say there are 3 keywords you want to establish a Google ad campaign for, and each one is ~$3 per click.  You want to make sure you get at least 100 clicks, so 100* 3 keywords *$3.00 per click = $900 ad budget.  HOWEVER!  If you pick keywords with less “competition” (less companies bidding for the same keyword), you can bring that cost down per click.  PPC ad channels are a fundamental tool to increase sales on Shopify. See the next term for more info on that 😊

Cost-Per-Click (CPC)

CPC (cost-per-click) is basically the “other side of the coin” and relates directly to PPC (pay-per-click).  While PPC (pay-per-click) is the actual ad campaign itself, CPC (cost-per-click) refers to the amount your business ends up actually paying to run the campaign.  Instead of the max amount you set, CPC refers to the “average cost per click” you end up paying.  Based on your ad’s quality, the keywords use, and the day-to-day changes in the marketplace, your CPC will fluctuate.  However, you will never pay more than the “max amount” you set when starting your “pay-per-click” (PPC) campaign.

CPC ad campaigns are best when the goal is not to spread broad awareness of visibility of your site, but for increasing sales on Shopify through upping your conversion rate.  By paying for each click, you are ensuring you do not pay a dime to the publisher until customers actually click on the ad. 

Cost Per 1,000 Impressions (CPM)

More accurately, CPM stands for “Cost per mille,” the latin prefix for “1,000.”  In contrast to “Pay-Per-Click” (CPC) campaigns, CPM campaigns focus on web visibility rather than conversions.  Businesses pay a certain amount per 1,000 “impressions,” meaning 1,000 people at least scrolled past the ad on their web browser or app. 

CPM campaigns are best for awareness campaigns in the online ecosystem because there is no guarantee users will actually engage with your ad.  If you only run CPM campaigns, you risk being scrolled by, paying for thousands of impressions but landing no conversions.  When trying to get customers comfortable with your brand, it can help to run a few CPM campaigns.  When looking to increase sales on Shopify by boosting conversions, you should consider other ad channels besides CPM.

Click-through Rate (CTR)

CTR (Click-through Rate) indicates the percentage of visitors who, after seeing your ad – referred to as an “impression” – actually took the step of consciously clicking your ad to view your landing page!  Major online advertisers like Google and Facebook keep track of how many “impressions” your ad received, meaning these metrics are available to online business owners.  Measuring your CTR will be important when analyzing how to best increase sales on Shopify.

CTR (click-through rate) is related to your conversion rate – the percentage of visitors who actually end up purchasing something.  For example, if you have 100 visitors and 10 perform a “buy” action, that is a 10% conversion rate (10/100).  Pay attention to both when assessing ways to improve your digital marketing strategy and boost sales on Shopify!

Return on Ads spent (ROAS)

Return on Ads Spent (ROAS) is a more convention marketing metric most business owners will understand and recognize.  Basically,

The wrinkle in ecommerce ROAS is making sure you use the right customer data and analytics to calculate an accurate ROAS for each campaign.  Whether using Facebook ads, Google ads, or another platform, remember you should be running segmented “niche” ad campaigns that may vary in their purpose and structure.  With that in mind, you want to attribute your increased revenue to the correct ads.  Doing so will ensure you can distinguish which ad channels are bringing in a high ROAS vs which ones, after A/B testing, are proving to be a dud with your audience.

ROAS is closely related to ROI (Return on Investment), which takes into account the product cost when calculating your overall profit margin.  When working to increase sales on Shopify, it is important to know the merits of each metric.  Again, taking the 360 degree view, it is important you can sort out which ad campaigns are attributed to bumps in your revenue!  Otherwise, any clarity on which ad channels are truly driving your ROAS become muddled.  Retrace which ads were responsible for which conversions, and you’ll gain much greater insight into what boosts your Shopify sales 😊  

Bounce Rate (BR)

These terms are more straightforward – bounce rate is simply the percentage of online users who leave your page without taking any action.  No further clicking, no purchases, nada.  Make sure to not let any slick-talking marketer take your bounce rate out of context.  Sure, it’s an important metric and acronym to know, but it doesn’t mean jack until it’s put into context with the rest of your website. 

Regardless, you want users to feel there are plenty of cool options to continue clicking through your site, so step into the shoes of the customer, check out your home page, and ask yourself, “What design pieces or clickable links/buttons can I put in here to keep my customer’s attention?”  Answering that question will be a big step toward increasing your sales on Shopify!

Call to Action (CTA)

Call to Action buttons are those “big shiny red buttons” in the movies that you want to click… in this case, the world won’t blow up if you do.  Instead, you’ll boost your Shopify sales!

While too many can become a distraction, make sure mobile ads, landing pages, email campaigns, and basically all your social media ads have clear, beautiful, aesthetically pleasing and even “fun-looking” CTA buttons.  One of the biggest issues Ad360 sees when working with clients is a lack of CTA buttons that make it easy for the customer to purchase from your site, converting more sales for you.  More conversions mean increased sales on Shopify, so definitely reassess how you have organized your CTA buttons across all your ads, social media posts, and your ecommerce site itself.

AIDA Customer Awareness Funnel –

AIDA is a customer model that segments your audience into 4 basic categories:

1. Attention – do customers know you exist?  Do they know they have a problem, and you offer a solution with your product?  At this point, you are providing valuable information to your customer, not being “pushy” or “In your face” with your product offering.  Folks ain’t ready yet.

2. Interest – Customers here are leaning forward.  They like what they heard already, and you’ve officially piqued their curiosity.  It doesn’t mean they are ready to buy, but they are primed to hear your offer.

3. Desire – Ok, now they’re ready to buy.  Here, you re-enforce why your product is desirable to your audience.  Take it from the point of view, “How do I communicate to my audience their lives will be better off buying my product?”  Make them desire that end goal.

4. Action – You have a customer ready to purchase!  Make sure your website is secure and optimized so the buying process is smooth, and follow up with them in an email newsletter or something of the sort!  You may have a new regular 😊

AIDA has utility in providing structure to multi-channel ad campaigns.  That way, different segments of your audience receive different messaging depending on their “awareness” of your product.  You can prepare ad banners that cater to each level of the AIDA funnel, giving you a 4-pronged attack when increasing sales on Shopify!  It’s a nice framework for guiding your promotional efforts.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is thrown around a ton, and we have done a full article on it here, but basically, it encompasses all the factors that help bump your ecommerce store on the rankings.  A higher ranking on Google directly correlates to increased sales on Shopify, so it is crucial you consider the SEO factors for your online business, some of which are listed below:

  • Genuinely interesting and engaging content with quality keywords
  • Good-length text descriptions
  • Site speed and optimized loading time
  • Quality backlinks that lead users from an outside side to yours (be prepared to pay for this)

Search Engine Results Page (SERP)

Search engine results dictate a huge portion of web traffic, and SERP is simply the acronym for the “pages” that list each result.  Being on page 1 is a highly, highly desirable position.  If your business makes it onto page of one Google’s SERPs, you will almost certainly see an increase in sales on Shopify.

Secure-Socket Layer/Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS)

Both SSL and TLS are acronyms for the technology that encrypts customer payment info at checkout.  Make sure you have a good provider and include their trust badge, verifiable by the customer by clicking on the badge itself.  The badge should lead directly to the third-party certification of your site.  These encrypted “checkout” technologies make your customer feel more secure when purchasing from your site, thereby increasing your customer conversion rate on Shopify. 

Quick note – TLS is the more modern and secure version of checkout encryption technology, so go for a TLS certification if you can manage it.

Conclusion: Knowing Digital Marketing Metrics can Boost Shopify Sales

Now if you see these words casually thrown around on the Internet, you’ll feel confident in your response.  Throwing out a piece of complicated jargon or acronyms is a classic way for marketers to “size up” what kind person they are dealing with.  Based on your response, they decide whether you are someone they can “gloss over” meaningful details with, or are someone who will ask hard questions and demand better solutions.  We hope this glossary of terms serves to make more the latter and not the former 😊

If you want 24/7 support willing to walk you through each stage of digital marketing, reach out for a free demo from Ad360 today!  Acronyms aside, we commit to providing services all relating back to the core goal: increasing your Shopify sales.  Boost your bottom line with Ad360 today!

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Growth Academy

The Best App to Increase Sales on Shopify

Best App for Shopify
Ad360 App for Shopify to help increase sales.

5 Reasons Why

1) Quick Ads: One Click to Increase Sales on Shopify

Leading off with the crown jewel of Ad360, Quick Ads distills your online ad campaign settings to only “2 inputs” – budget and location.  That’s it.  Set those, and your next ad campaign is off and running!

The Quick Ads software, several years in the making, automatically organizes your promotions across not only social media, search engines, and mobile apps – but the entire web itself.  Establishing ad campaigns on popular social media platforms and search engines can be exhaustive, as well as a major time drain to managers running day-to-day operations.  We simplify the task of starting a new, effective online ad campaign down to one click. 

Compare that to the multi-faceted “Ad dashboards” you see on popular social media sites or search engines – they make your eyes water with complexity.  Quick Ads uses powerful software, developed over several years, to analyze and automatically set the options that best serve your ad campaign’s needs.

Ad360 considers Quick Ads its crowning achievement and the culmination of years of development. So, please reach out if you have any questions on how Quick Ads integrates to help increase sales on Shopify!  We’ll be eager to show you through our free demo.  It’s the core reason why Ap360 is now the best Shopify app to increase sales in 2022.

2. Live 24/7 Support to Help Strategize How to Increase Sales on Shopify

Unlike companies that automate their feedback to you, Ad360 has live 24/7 support.  We are 100% dedicated to getting to know our clients and their business on a more personal level.  Ad360 offers private consultations, where we evaluate the current state of your e-commerce site, creating reports with actionable tips on how to increase your sales on Shopify.  All advice is geared toward improving the e-commerce shopping experience for your customers, so they grow to love your brand and products 😊

You get a chance to work with data science and online marketing experts to better grasp the difference between online ad platforms.  As an example, Google Display ads do not work the same way as Facebook ads, and Tik Toks ads are different still!  Leveraging these different platforms, and figuring out how to increase sales on Shopify, can be a lonely task for independent business owners.

You now have a place to ask questions about the nuances of e-commerce advertising and get informed answers from some of the most dedicated professionals in the e-commerce industry.  We’ll help analyze where your customers are in the Shopify sales funnel, ensuring your customer outreach efforts are not redundant or ineffective

Our dedication to 24/7 live support is part of what makes Ad360 the best Shopify app to increase sales.

3. A Centralized Shopify Sales Dashboard for ALL Ad Campaigns

While other marketing apps for Shopify apps may help with specific functions – such as email campaigns, SEO, or ad banner generation – none are as comprehensive and streamlined as Ad360’s “total web” central ad dashboard. 

Having one place to run and manage ads across all social media platforms, search engines, mobile apps, and the worldwide web itself is an innovation unique to Ad360.  The simple, cozy, intuitive interface will empower you to view and manage all online ads, giving you a “bird’s eye view” of your promotional efforts.  The ease and efficiency of Ad360’s central dashboard will free up time, energy, and resources to explore further how to increase sales on Shopify

The feature even gives access to automatically generated data visualizations and graphs that illustrate sales trends most impacting your business.  As a certified Google partner, it is a great complement to the newly-release Google 4 analytics

4. Instantly Generated Ad Banners

Some e-commerce business owners are excellent managers and have incredible products – but their budget doesn’t allow for a freelance or full-time graphic designer.  So, their “limiting reactant” in the “how to increase sales on Shopify,” equation, so to speak, is the ad visuals themselves!  The writing copy may not use the right persuasive techniques, or the picture may not look as sleek and professional as the hundreds of ads users see scrolling and browsing online.

Ad360 solves the ad banner issue by extracting your Shopify store data and instantly generating over a dozen options for a single ad banner.  We pull the product picture, price, and any more relevant info directly from the site for you to review and give any final touches before the ad’s release.  Our automatic ad banner generation relieves your burden of constantly creating new ads to catch your audience’s attention.  Designs, shapes, colors, and the message itself are all customizable – we just provide a bevy of options personally tailored to your Shopify store 😊 That way, you can add a personal touch that speaks directly to your niche audience, a key element to help increase sales on Shopify

5. We Implement the Holy Grail of Sales Conversion Rates: Hyperlocal Ad Retargeting

The number one technique to increase sales on Shopify is ad retargeting – yet we are amazed at the number of e-commerce sites that do not take advantage of it!  Remember that 97-98% of online visitors, on average, leave without buying.  That means out of 100 potential customers, you would only have information on 2-3 of them!  No bueno.

Ad360 will deploy hyperlocal ad retargeting to every layer of your online advertising efforts – why?  It enables you to “tag” the customer information of the 97-98% who leave your site and follow up with them for future promotional deals!  Most customers prefer to see multiple ads before they “know” your brand and buy anyway.  Ad360 does so while following the most stringent customer privacy  regulations, while still providing a turnkey solution for how to increase sales on Shopify.  Bringing ad retargeting to every level of your online business is a focus of Ad360, and we know it gives your e-commerce store the best chance for sales success.

Conclusion: Let Us Prove Ad360 is the Best Shopify App to Increase Sales

Skeptical?  We understand 😊 That is why Ad360 offers a free demo to test the services listed above.  When it comes to the question, “How do I increase my sales on Shopify,” we believe we have the best solution on the market today.  Contact us now to learn more!

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Growth Academy

Quick Ads: A Story of Success

Quick Ads Success
Quick Ads Success Stories

Introduction: The Difficulties of Ad Campaigns Before Quick Ads

The following is an amalgamation of real stories told online by business owners who, despite their best efforts, did not have the time, tech savvy, or financial resources to successfully leverage their online ads.  While platforms like Google, Facebook, and Tik Tok provide real opportunity to “Get the word out,” starting these campaigns from scratch – and having them increase sales on Shopify – is far easier said than done.

These are their stories.

Ensnared by “Default” Settings

La Fontaine’s Cookies had grown on “word of mouth” advertising locally for years, but the owner quickly realized they needed to shift their marketing strategy in 2022.  So, they got to work using a popular search engine as the first base of operations… and saw there were 18 unique settings that needed calibrating.  The sheer number of options and unfamiliar terms (SEO, Funnels, PPC, etc…) was a bit overwhelming at first for the local business.

Setting the budget was easy enough, but errors started popping up when the rest of the boxes got filled.  Already the manager of day-to-day operations, the owner’s eyes widened as they realized figuring out online marketing would become a massive drain on their time and energy. 

Picking between “search ads” and “display ads” and analyzing which “keywords” worked best was where La Fontaine’s Cookies officially lost the plot.  They were already spending hundreds of dollars on the ad campaign and hours designing specific ads for each of their “audience segments,” which were hard to clearly define in the first place… the conversion rate was so paltry that La Fontaine’s Cookies was in serious jeopardy of going under!

Ad campaigns on social media sites fared no better.  Creating a unique, well-designed ad banner for each part of her audience was time consuming and figuring out how to analyze “engagement data” felt like it would take all day… but the owner had a cookie shop to run!  They didn’t have the time to sit at a computer and crunch numbers, and hiring a marketing expert on salary was out of the budget.

Quick Ads – The “One Click” Solution that Save La Fontaine’s Cookies

Before laying down their arms and walking away, the owner of La Fontaine’s searched, “How to increase sales on Shopify,” as a last ditch effort.  They wanted to find an affordable service that might relieve the burden of going through all these settings and conducting all this research for a successful online marketing promotion. 

Luckily, they found Quick Ads by Ad360 – and the rest, as they say, is history 😊

Right away, Ad360 showed La Fontaine’s Cookies the promotional power of Quick Ads.  All their previous work was not for nothing, as Ad360 automatically extracted all the data from her Shopify store.  Now, instead of over a dozen manual options to toggle, La Fontaine’s Cookies only had to enter two basic inputs:

  1. Daily budget
  2. Location

After clicking “submit,” Quick Ads went to work, a powerful marketing app over 2 years in the making.  With all that technical expertise behind it, Quick Ads automatically generated multiple ad banners using data from La Fontaine’s online store – the owner no longer had to make each one by hand!  Even more, Quick Ads rolled out a “geotargeted” awareness campaign to the entire neighborhood.  Suddenly, old friends and neighbors were calling again for a quick dessert 😉

Perhaps the most incredible, though, La Fontaine’s Cookies conversion rate began spiking after a month.  Overjoyed, the owner asked the Ad360 support team what Quick Ads was doing behind the scenes to increase sales on Shopify. 

“Well, we have begun automatically retargeting any and all customers who browse your site!  Concentrating your budget on these likely customers lets them get to know your brand through multiple engagements.  Sounds like they like what they see, and think La Fontaine’s is the solution to their sweet tooth needs!”

Smiling, the owner of La Fontaine’s Cookies sat back – instead of having to close the store, they were able to hire a part-time manager to help share the burden of day-to-day operations.  Now, they could focus on expanding their e-commerce business, and maybe open up a La Fontaine’s Cookies in the next city!  While management started their market research, Quick Ads continued solving her online marketing issues – all with one click 😊

Conclusion: Increase Sales on Shopify with Quick Ads

If you want to experience online marketing success like La Fontaine’s reach out to try a free demo of Quick Ads by Ad360 today!  We’ll make setting up ad campaigns as simple as “2 inputs, 1 click,” and will be there to support you every step the way as you increase sales on Shopify.  Congrats to La Fontaine’s – we hope to make you the next e-commerce success story!

Increase your Sales on Shopify today!

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Features Highlights

Start Ads in One Click with Quick Ads

Start promoting your store in just 1 click
Quick Ads by Ad360 App for Shopify

Introduction: Announcing “One Click” Quick Ads by Ad360

If you’ve really dug into online advertising as an e-commerce store owner, you know that the number of options and level of detail… it can really make your head spin!  Normally, setting up ad campaigns for your Shopify store involve choosing a platform, picking a device, customizing your audience, designing ads for each segment, and finally optimizing as best you see fit.  On top of maintaining your store, running basic, effective ad campaigns online becomes a full-time job within itself.

What if you could do all that promotional work with one click?

That’s what today’s announcement is about.  We at Ad360 are thrilled to bring you Quick Ads, the most efficient way to organize your next e commerce advertising campaign! 

Set a Budget, Pick a Location, & You’re Done

Like we said above, running an ad campaign on other advertising platforms isn’t as simple as it sounds – there are multiple settings to which audience you concentrate on, what visuals you show them, and what writing copy you put up!  You then pick a budget and run “split testing” to determine if one set of ads are more effective than another.  All of that… for one ad campaign.  Oof.

For instance, just on one platform, there are sometimes 18 unique settings and decisions business owners have to evaluate before successfully optimizing their campaigns.  EIGHTEEN!

And that’s before even getting into the design of the ad creative itself.  If you’re not a maestro at Adobe illustrator or photoshop, it can take hours to create a single batch of ad banners that aren’t immediately written off as “unprofessional looking” by online users.  Remember, customers on sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok are absolutely inundated with ads constantly.  If your ad design is even a little off, it will stick out like a sore thumb.

With Quick Ads, there are two inputs:

  1. Daily budget
  2. Location

That’s it.  From there, Ad360’s App will automatically generate your ad campaigns to promote your store. It’s that simple!

Instantly Generated Ad Banners

Most e commerce business owners out there don’t have the budget for a full-time marketing staff – QuickAds serves as an online marketing and ad design service all in one click.  Instead of manually deciding who to target, on what platform, and when, Quick Ads by Ad360 automatically extracts your e commerce store data to generate dynamic ad banners.  These include pictures of your products, along with their names and prices. If you want to, you can customize the ad banners colors and templates.

Geotargeted Awareness Campaigns

After picking a location, Quick Ads will instantly begin an awareness campaign targeting the set region you specified!  We’ll never go over your allotted daily budget, and you will not have to worry about all the manually settings traditionally required for online ad campaigns.  Quick Ads will optimize the back end for you, so you sit back and watch how we build traffic to your store 😊

Concentrating on your specified region, your products will be visible to locals across the entire web – blogs, news sites, maybe even your favorite mobile app! Imagine playing candy crush and seeing your Shopify store pop up. You’ll probably get a text or two from your friends nearby celebrating the milestone 😊

Automatic Ad Retargeting of Customers who Browsed your site

Quick Ads will also automatically “tag” any customers who visit your site, retargeting them with ads in the future.  By analyzing “customer engagement” events, retargeting concentrates your ad dollars on customers who have already expressed interest in your site’s products. On average, 98% of visitors to an e commerce site end up leaving without purchasing any goods.  We can improve your conversion rate by retargeting that pool of customers.  The average online user likes to see between 3-7 ads before they feel they “know” your brand, so ad retargeting is an essential service –  automated by Quick Ads.

Conclusion – How to Try Quick Ads Today

If you have ever experienced frustration tinkering with your online ad campaigns, reach out to try a free demo by Ad360 today!  We’re confident you’ll feel a massive burden lifted off your shoulders with our new Quick Ads service.  One click, and you’re ready to go… e commerce has never been this easy 😊

Easiest way to get started on Shopify!