Author: William McMahon

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Growth Academy

Google Ads Remarketing on Shopify

Retargeting Google Ads
Combining Retargeting and Google Ads

Introduction: How To Increase Sales on Shopify Using Google Ad Remarketing

If you didn’t already know, google ad remarketing (aka retargeting) is arguably the most effective tool for how to increase sales on Shopify.  In fact, Google ads and Shopify work symbiotically when set up with “remarketing.”

However, when you see the nuances and options for establishing your Google ads remarketing tag and campaigns settings, plenty of questions arise on how to best optimize your Shopify store for sales success.

This post reviews how Google ad remarketing tags help increase your sales on Shopify.  E-commerce marketing has lots of moving parts and analytics, but even a minor adjustment in your targeted audience can lead to getting more sales.  Dive in to Ad360s view on how to best set up Google ads in Shopify!

Why Retargeting with Google Ads is a Powerful Tool to Increase Shopify Sales

The Google Display Network reaches roughly 90% of all users on the internet – learning all the best online promotional tools to leverage for increased Shopify sales is common sense! 

Ecommerce utilizes retargeting with Google ads more than any other industry, and it’s no small reason why: remarketing with Google ads can lead to a 700% growth of branded search results and web traffic. 

On top of that, customers are 70% more likely to purchase a product when engaging with a retargeted Google Display ad, and it is 8 times cheaper per click.  Some may stop here and think that remarketing with Google ads is simply too complicated  

How to Set up Google Ads Remarketing “Tags”

Shopify with Google ad retargeting is not as hard to set up as you might think!  Go into your Google Ads/Analytics account and click on “audience manager” under “shared library.”  After clicking audience sources,” you will see an option to “set up tag,” and you are on your way to establishing your ad remarketing campaign!  Even if it seems foreign to traditional business owners, stick with the process – it is the difference between Shopify sales success and failure for most ecommerce stores.  Ad360 wants your store to be the former, not the latter!  So, put on your reading glasses, because the options on exactly how to use Google ads remarketing on Shopify can get very nuanced in the details.

After setting up the “tag”, it is time to segment your audience based on their platform, level of engagement, keyword searches, and timeline.  It sounds like a lot to take in, but Ad360 will break it down here as best we can!

1. Pick a Platform (We recommend you include mobile)

Considering Google Analytics 4 will soon replace the sunsetting Universal Analytics interface, retargeted Google ads on mobile will experience explosive growth in the coming years.  To get out ahead of the trend, Ad360 would recommend experimenting with mobile app retargeting – it is a shockingly underutilized marketing tactic by otherwise savvy business owners.

There are options to remarket on Google ads for traditional website users, customer emails, and Youtube, but again – none of these segments will experience the dynamic growth that mobile-based Google ad retargeting will in the next several years.

2. Define your Audience with Absolute Precision

The better you classify each part of your audience, the better your remarketed google ads will increase sales in Shopify.  After picking the platform, Google will prompt you to create an audience filter based on metrics like the following:

  • Visitors of a page
  • Visitors over a specific period of time
  • Visitors who visited a page with specific URLs (helps identify where customers are in your sales funnel)
  • Visitors who came from a blog post
  • Visitors who downloaded/used your app, or visited your store through the Shopify app
  • Visitors who viewed a Youtube video, liked the video, or subscribed to your channel
  • Visitors who “abandoned” their shopping cart
  • Demographic info
  • Geographic info
  • Specific keywords the visitors type into Google’s search engine
3. Define your Keyword Searches

That final bullet point leads to the next major consideration for remarketing with Google ads in Shopify: which keywords to target for getting more sales (e.g. – “vintage clothes” for a Shopify clothing store). 

Every time a user – who has previously visited your site – types that keyword phrase into their Google search, you can ensure that your store pops up in the first page of Google’s rankings.  By targeting these customers and establishing the niche audience you want to reach with those keywords, Google ad remarketing on Shopify becomes substantially cheaper than traditional “Cost-per-click” ad campaigns. 

4. Set a Clear Timeline for Google Ads in Shopify

Based on your Shopify market’s ad data from across each platform, you can conclude which timeline is most effective for getting more sales.  30, 60, or 90 days are the general parameters most stores use, so you can determine whether to retarget customers who have not engaged with your store in several months, or concentrate all your efforts and budget on potential customers who just recently engaged with your ecommerce site.

Conclusion: What Shopify Apps Do I Need for Google Ad Remarketing?

In a nutshell, Ad360 is the best Shopify app to increase sales in 2022!  Our expertise revolves around innovative marketing tactics – like Google ad remarketing on Shopify – to help increase your Shopify sales. 

We are a certified Google partner, meaning we have been vetted by the largest search engine in the world to provide best-in-class digital marketing services.  With Ad360 help you strategize your ad campaign, e commerce marketing  has never been so accessible 😊

We are one of the best Shopify review apps with a 5 star rating, but Ad360’s drive to expand and improve customer outreach is unmatched in the e commerce industry.  We offer 24/7 live support and are backed by experts in digital marketing and data analytics. Try our free demo today to see for yourself why Ad360 is the best Shopify add to increase sales in 2022!  Cheers and happy selling 😉

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Growth Academy

Part III: The Most Effective Email Lead Strategies

Email Lead Generation
Email Strategies for Lead Generation

Introduction: Closing the Deal with an Email Marketing Campaign

By the time you are sending out email ad campaigns, you hopefully have already accomplished a few promotional goals to increase sales on Shopify:

  1. Creating retargeting ads on Facebook campaigns for effective Facebook marketing
  2. Utilizing Google adwords retargeting to concentrate on likely customers
  3. Keep track of your Shopify sales funnel – what level of awareness do site visitors have of your product?

Simply put, email marketing proposals are one of the final steps in the “sales funnel.”  Generally speaking, it should not be the first time the customer has heard from you!  Email leads can come from retargeting ads on Facebook or Google adwords retargeting, but the key point is they have already been identified and targeted to up your chances closing the deal and increasing your Shopify sales!

While part I and II of our email marketing series focused on the basic framework of email ad campaigns, as well as how to construct an effective email marketing subject line and template.  Part III closes out the series by providing a more in-depth analysis of why some email marketing proposals help increase sales on Shopify, while others get you labelled as “spam” by potential customers.  There are 6 key strategies we discuss below, along with other helpful tips – enjoy!

Have Decisive Intent with Email Marketing Subject Lines

We mentioned a few generic examples of email marketing subject lines in Part II (link here), and just remember that, at this point, folks know you are trying to sell something.  There’s no need to dress it up as “informational” or “telling a story” – it will get old quick.  Cut the point, and present a high-value proposition in the email marketing subject line with clear intent.

We’ve organized some of the best email marketing and lead generation strategies below:

1. Abandoned cart emails

Customers are so used to browsing and leaving open a gazillion tabs that they may have accidentally left your page before purchasing!  Send a friendly reminder with an email marketing subject line like, “Hey!  You Forgot Something 😊.”  It’s a proven method to help increase sales on Shopify

2. Product follow up email

Send an email following up if a product is viewed or purchased.  It shows a level of engagement that makes the customer feel you are doing your best to cater to their interests.  An email marketing subject line could read, “We saw you viewed one of our products, but we think you’ll like this one even more!”

3. Promotional Offer

For any seasonal specialty, have a promotional offer ready – it’s one of the best ways to remain topical and relevant to your audience.  It’s St. Patrick’s Day?  Promo Code “Lucky10.”  It’s Labor Day?  “DayOff10.”  MLK’s birthday?  You know the drill.  Some companies go so far as to send birthday promo codes, which is truly a unique, one-of-a-kind way to connect with your customer base!

4. “Come Back Emails”

What a great way to bring old customers back in: offer a nice coupon discount after the customer has stopped engaging with your website or products for 3-4 months.

5. “Leave a Review for a Coupon” Email

These offers ask the customer to leave a nice review in exchange for a promo code on your next purchase.  A little “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours,” type of deal 😉

6. Loyal Customer Appreciation Emails

If your Shopify store data reveals that certain customers have had multiple “purchase” events on your site, and have remained committed to regularly visiting your Shopify site for over a year, consider having a special “Thank you for your loyalty,” promotion for them.  Think about it – with all the options online, they have continued to stick with you!  Reward that the right way, and you will build an audience that feels appreciated and acknowledged for their patronage.  Over time, your Shopify sales will increase dramatically with customer retention marketing strategies like this one.

Segment Your Audience to Who Receives What Email Ads

Don’t blast emails  – segment your audience to the most granular detail.  Some business owners report it took the conversion rate on the email from 11% -> 40% by segmenting the audience.

Ask questions like, “Has this customer purchased before?  How long has it been since they visited the site?  Where did they first hear about us?  When was the lasts time we reached out?”

Make sure customers receive only the most relevant emails to their interests.  How do you surmise where to segment each potential customer?  By reviewing and analyzing previous customer engagement and reported “events” recorded by services like Google Analytics.  You can break down who receives what email based on demographic info, as well.  That way, you can have an email marketing subject line catering specifically to different age brackets or regional locations.’

One more thing – make the email look fun to click on!  Add email gifs and little touches like that, it could help brighten your customers day, and they will thank you for that 😊  Put effort into humanizing the message for each segment of your audience to make the best email ad campaign possible.

Conclusion – Help Managing your Email Ad Campaigns

Analyzing the data to segment your audience – as well as generating creative email marketing subject lines – may seem like a fairly arduous task, but it’s well worth the increased sales on Shopify.  If you feel you could benefit from some online advertising expertise, reach out to try a free demo by Ad360 today!

We are a certified Google partner and can run every facet of your advertising efforts online.  We can balance personalizing your email retargeting ad campaigns while automating the most time-consuming aspects of the process.  Cheers and sell well!

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Growth Academy

Part II: Perfect Email Marketing Proposals

Email Marketing
Succeed thanks to Email Marketing

Introduction: How Email Marketing is Done

After covering the fundamental importance of email marketing and lead generation in part I, this post focuses on the elements of the best email campaigns. 

  1. What should the writing copy look like?
  2. What tools for lead generation are best?
  3. Persuasion Techniques for the best lead generation ideas

Remember that your customers get inundated with email gifs and newsletters constantly.  So much so that the standard practice is to skip right by them!  You need a way to “hook” yourself in as a store worth spending time and money on.  It’s the only way to increase your sales.

Consider this post the “how to build a lead generation strategy” email marketing kit 😊

Start with Email Marketing Subject Lines

“It’s that time of the season….”

“Lowest price of the year”

“Flash sale next 48 hours!”

“A Special Deal for You”

These are a few examples of basic lead generation email marketing subject lines – you want the customer right away to feel they’re getting a deal that otherwise won’t be available if they miss out.  In a sense, you are creating a sense of immediacy with the time frame that alerts them to potential savings within your email marketing proposal!  The email marketing subject line is your “banner” automatically seen in the email, so make sure it speaks to the desires of your niche audience.

Consider the Lead Generation Funnel – How Many Times Has your Customer Been Contacted?

While email leads are vital for lucrative lead generation strategies, it doesn’t help if the customer has already dismissed emails from your store.  They may even be leaning towards labeling it spam.  It begs the question: “how often email marketing needs to happen for maximum effectiveness?”  Follow your email marketing metrics for each campaign to measure the answer to these crucial sales questions.

Depending on the data you have from that customer, you should be willing to nimbly adjust your email marketing strategy.  Monitor your store’s email marketing metrics to hone strategies for lead generation.  Less than once a month, and customers will forget about store offerings, and you will lose the momentum of your lead generation emails.  More than a few times a week, and you’ll just piss people off – it becomes spam at that point.  The best email ad campaigns aim to reach out once every 1-2 weeks.  It gives your customers time to digest your offers and reassess their value on a regular basis.  The consistent visibility of new deals to niche customer segments is one of the key ways how email marketing is effective. 

Complement your Lead Generation on Social Media

Consider all the ad banners and promotions your customers have seen.  The best email ad campaigns complement lead generation social media.  Like mentioned in Part I, email writing copies usually are follow-ups based on captured data from an earlier ad campaign.  Picture that your stream of advertisements are basically a “conversation” you are having with your most interested customers.  After reviewing what ads captured emails for lead generation, ask yourself, “What would be the next natural part of the conversation if they said ‘Maybe…’  How would I keep the conversation going to hopefully close the deal?”  Build your promotional persuasion techniques from there

Conclusion: Ad360 can Help Build Custom Email Marketing Templates

So, is lead generation worth it?  Yes!  Email campaigns are highly effective when they build on previous customer outreach efforts.  Knowing which customers to add to which email lists, as well as how to design and produce a unique writing copy for each one, can become head-scratching work for an independent business.  Reach out to try a free demo by Ad360 today for help on building your own custom email marketing templates!

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Growth Academy

Email Marketing: Powerful Lead Generation

Email Marketing
E-mail marketing

Introduction: A 3 Part Series on Email Marketing Campaigns

Email marketing is a key strategy for lead generation in e-commerce.  Without it, you’re basically a dinosaur after the meteor hit: toast.  This post is the first in a three-part series that covers how to formulate lead generation ideas, find helpful tools for lead generation, and apply persuasion techniques to make your email marketing proposals become a core component of your digital marketing strategy!

Why Email Marketing Proposals are Important

Email marketing lead generation complements the web’s most powerful advertising tool: retargeting.  Remember that potential customers need multiple “touches” with your sponsored content.  After running a Facebook marketing campaign or creating ads on Facebook, you need to know how to email for follow up. 

Ad retargeting on Facebook marketing can capture the user’s email, and now, you have a valuable point of access: their virtual inbox!  Email marketing proposals are up to 40 times more effective than social media outreach.  Yep.  For every one lead generation email, you match the value of 40 Facebook marketing ads.  If you operate on an ecommerce platform like Shopify, it is essential you begin building in email marketing database for sales success.

Target Acquired?  Hit ‘Em with Email Marketing Proposals

After capturing customer email data with, say, your Facebook marketing campaign, make sure to include a giant “big red button” that functions as your “CALL TO ACTION!”  If the user already clicked into your email marketing proposal, you need to make it as easy as “one click” to spur their interest.  The design and compelling writing copy text around it are up for debate for A/B testing, but sometimes it helps to literally make it a BIG RED BUTTON that say “CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW!”  It can be that simple of a strategy for lead generation, leading to a conversion rate over 40 times regular social media posts.

What About Email Marketing Subject Lines?  Design?  Persuasion Techniques?

The topics of proper email marketing proposal design and writing copy persuasion techniques are a bit dense, but there are ways to break down the process into digestible bits!

Parts 2 and 3 will cover “how to build an effective lead generation email,” along with “what lead generation strategies best convert sales for your Shopify store.”  After reading all these parts in this series, you will feel much more confident and capable of creating a compelling email marketing template.

Conclusion: No Need to Hire Email Marketing Agencies

Most automated lead generation email marketing services are remarkably impersonal and provide all the software with none of the professional expertise.  Ad360 can help generate automated marketing emails to jumpstart your sales persuasion techniques and writing copy – but we are also here for 24/7 human support!  You can get feedback from digital marketing experts about how your email marketing proposal is shaping up 😊  Try our free demo to test the waters at Ad360 today! 

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Growth Academy

What is Marketing’s “Rule of 7”?

Rule of 7
Marketing's Rule of 7

Introduction: The More Frequent the Ads, the More Frequent the Sales

We’ve mentioned in previous posts that customers online need to see your ads multiple times before there are convinced your products are the solution to their problems.  We’ve referenced the number “7” in previous articles for the number of times a customer notices your ads before seriously considering buying and boosting your sales.

Where does the “rule of 7” come from in marketing??  Is it true?  How does it apply to ecommerce?

This post explores the significance of the “Rules of 7” and how it can be applied to drive traffic to your store, increase your sales, and offer a clearer framework for your marketing strategy!

“Rule of 7” – Half-Myth, Half-Truth

For history buffs, it’s interesting to note that the “rule of 7” came from 1930s Hollywood movie execs.  Their marketing research showed moviegoers, on average, needed to see a movie poster 7 times before buying tickets. 

So, while the “rule of 7” holds weight in that regard, online shopping and ecommerce are a far different animal from 1930s America!  Customer tastes have changed, the medium of advertising has changed, and so effective promotional methods have evolved, as well.

At the same time, the concept that customers usually need multiple exposures to your ads before purchasing is undeniably true.  The more times potential customers see your ads, the more likely they are to buy from your store, on average.  This could mean seeing a mobile ad, Facebook ad, and your inclusion on the Google search engine – or some other combination of media exposure.  Regardless, it’s best to picture that your ads become part of the “mental steps” a customer takes when picking what to purchase.

Overall, the “rule of 3s” may apply better to the Internet age.  After three or more exposures to your advertisements, customers become acutely aware of your brand, and the majority begin considering your products a viable solution to their problems.  Increased sales will follow!

Standing Out in a Flood of Information

The difficulty of the ecommerce ecosystem is how customers are flooded with ads and information constantly.  this flood of information means your name and brand needs to pop up multiple times, ideally in varying formats, before the customer begins to consider your products as a viable solution to their problem. 

To maximize the results of your marketing campaign, you cannot just put the same ads in the same place over and over.  Depending on customer, you need to communicate in different mediums with different approaches.  For example, maybe you start with a Facebook informational ad campaign, collecting some user emails through retargeting software.  You use the data collected from the first ad campaign to specifically retarget the customer with a different ad that more directly responds to their interests.  Finally, you send the customer an email with a special “first time user” deal.  After that, you hopefully have pushed the customer along the sales funnel to the point they regularly visit your site for good deals.  Over time, you become a regular step in their “mental process” for buying new products.

The “Rule of 7” Re-Enforces the Importance of Ad Retargeting

We have spoken a lot about ad retargeting here at Ad360 – and for good reason. It is mind-boggling the number of good companies, selling great products, that shoot themselves in the foot by not taking advantage of retargeting.  After one view, chances are the customer totally forgets the name of your business… but the captured data doesn’t forget!  From there, you can continue to fine-tune your message, catering to the user at each step of their mental process until they feel comfortable making a purchase from your site.

Conclusion: Tailoring your Ads to Respect the “Rule of 7”

Switching up your ad banners and promotional outreach at every step of the customer’s mental process can be difficult by yourself.  One false move, and they may jump off the wagon, ignoring your future customer outreach efforts.

If you feel you could use some support staying on track with your customers until they finally purchase from your store, try a free demo by Ad360 today!  We provide best-in-class ad retargeting services, empowering your business to boost sales through media exposure across all devices,  social media, and  search engine.  Your customers will be impressed with the variety of outreach, and you can control every campaign under one roof – Ad360. 😊

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Growth Academy

5 Stages of Customer Awareness

5 levels of Eugene Schwartz
The 5 levels of Awareness is a concept invented by Eugene Schwartz, a genius marketer and copywriter.

Introduction: Leading your Customer from “Total Ignorance” to “Problem Solved”

Picture that, at its best, advertising seamlessly enters the conversation of their customers.  It’s not disjointed, it’s not ill-timed, and it provides a solution to a problem they’ve maybe considered… or might be totally unaware of.

Here enters the difficulty of effective marketing: each customer you reach out to may be at a different level of “customer awareness.”  Does the customer already know you exist, and they are in the process of comparing you to competitors?  Or are they so behind the 8-ball that they don’t even know they have a problem? 

Inspired by marketing guru Eugene Schwartz, this blog post explores how properly framing the “five levels of customer awareness” brings precision and personalization to your customer outreach.  It is essential to make sure you don’t come across as “spammy” or “pushy” while marketing your services online.

Different Segments of the Audience Require Different Messaging

We’ve made clear in previous posts that custom audiences are essential for honing your online ad campaigns.  However, we haven’t yet discussed that the level of “product awareness” everyone has may vary wildly.  You don’t want to send the same ad to a customer regular as you do to someone who has never even considered your solution to the problem.  It will either come across as pushy, repetitive,  or go directly over their heads.  Below are the five stages of customer awareness listed out:

1. Unaware:

  • The customer is completely unaware or unable to frame their problem.  You can help by providing educational, entertaining, and engaging content to make them aware of the issue!

2. Problem Aware

  • The customer now knows there’s a problem, but are stuck or too busy to consider solutions.  Emphasize the priority of the issue and how they could minimize their stress by considering a solution!

3. Solution Aware

  • Here is the transition point.  You tell the customer that your store has the proper solution to the problem you framed earlier.

4. Product Aware

  • Now, the customer is fully engaged with solving their issue… but they haven’t decided between you and other competitors.  You need to expand on your product’s benefits, and why buying from your store will exceed their expectations.

5. Most Aware

  • These are customer regulars who appreciate genuine outreach and “special offers,” like VIP coupons and the sort.  Because they have a proven track record of buying from your store, feel free to sweeten the deal for them!

Real-Life Example of Ad Messaging Through the “5 Stages of Customer Awareness”

Let’s stay you’re a hair styling company selling unique, all natural hair products.  The customer, using the same cheap hair products for years now, is totally unaware of the damage being done to their hair.  So, you start your targeted ad campaign with the following intent:

A. Make customers aware of the problem with the chemicals in certain hair products – such as sulfates, parabens, or formaldehyde.  The Ad banner could read, “Chemicals in common shampoos could be doing damaging your hair and health!”
B. Offer a solution.  It could read, “How to pick the perfect hair products for your type of hair”
C. Now it’s time to push your e-commerce site!  The ad banner reads, “Check out our website for the most healthy, nourishing products for each hair type!”
D. At this point, the customer’s cursor is hovering over “click to buy” – You may want to offer these folks a deal-sweetener to close the deal.  This could include free shipping on their first purchase or maybe 10% off.

Conclusion: Organizing your Custom Audience Based on the 5 Levels of Awareness

For some business owners, organizing custom audiences based on their awareness is a bridge too far.  It seems overly complicated, bogged down in details, and out of reach.  Designing specific ad banners catering to each level of awareness is quite the undertaking – but it is the key to boosting sales to your e-commerce store.  To have to marketing message resonate with buyers, you need to show a dynamic evolution in your customer outreach.

So, try a free demo from Ad360!  We can help analyze your target audience based on their awareness, generating custom ads tailored to each stage of the process.  We’ll provide support on how to organize and run the promotions step-by-step, funneling your audience from totally unaware to loyal customers 😊

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Growth Academy

The End of Google Universal Analytics

End of Google Universal Analytics
Google announces on March 16, 2022, that they would be sunsetting Universal Analytics.

Introduction: Google Announces they are sunsetting Universal Analytics

E-Commerce business owners beware! The previous generation of Google Analytics – Universal Analytics or UA in short – will soon be sunset, Google announced today.  What is still the most widespread version of Google Analytics used in e-commerce websites will become unusable starting July 1, 2023. This means that it’s only a matter of time before everyone is using Google Analytics 4 (aka GA4). GA4, which was first introduced in July 2019, comes with many changes.  The data analysis is more granular, user-friendly, and up-to-date on privacy controls.  We’ll get into some of that below while to explain the significance of this announcement!

Before we do, it is important to note that, for existing business owners, historical data cannot be transferred over from Google Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4.  However, there is no need to get worked up – universal analytics will be sunset only next year, meaning business owners can learn to leverage the perks of Google Analytics 4 alongside their Universal analytics account in the meantime.  That means as you “learn the ropes” to leverage GA4, you can continue using your existing Google Universal Analytics account.

That being said, business owners will want to migrate sooner rather than later to Google Analytics 4 – learn about some of the key feature updates below!

Integration with All Device Across Web & Mobile

First, it’s important to note that Google Analytics 4 will streamline and consolidate user data from both web and mobile platforms.  Google’s new system will empower business owners to track user data across each device they use, painting a more complete picture of user behavior.  

Business owners used to need a Firebase and Universal analytics account to share data, but GA4 brings all the customer data from mobile and web under one roof.  Multiple data streams – all from different devices and web apps – can be viewed together seamlessly. 

No More Cookies

We know they sound cute, but user cookies are a key weakness in user privacy.  At this point, they are basically archaic, and tightening user privacy laws will make cookie tracking technology obsolete within the next few years.

Google Analytics 4 gets out in front of this issue by preparing for this “cookieless world.”  All data, while connected to a web ID for the user, is completely anonymized.  Powerful software fills in the gaps when you are modeling user behavior, meaning businesses can still predict customer behavior effectively while not jeopardizing their personal data.

 If you rely on third-party data to collect user info, it is time to get acquainted with Google Analytics 4.  It will allow you to continue gathering valuable user data without endangering their privacy or coming across as an “invasive” online company.

Everything is an Event

While Google Universal Analytics struggled to patch together a coherent picture of user behavior, Google Analytics 4 treats every user action as an “event,” creating a constellation of user data that clearly tells a story through their online behavior. 

Before, business owners had to essentially infer parts of user data because the data simply was not streamlined or categorized together.  You had to pick through different data streams, identify the same user, and manually put together a picture of the user’s online behavior.  With Google Analytics 4, every single event is tracked and stored in the same system. 

For example, imagine a potential customer first checked out your site on a Facebook mobile ad.  Then, after getting home from work, they visited your online website from their computer, where they “signed up” for an account and e-mail alerts.  After that, later in the evening while browsing on their phone, they receive an email with a “special deal” and decide to download your business’s app to formally place their first order.  Google analytics 4 would trace that entire series of decisions, recording each as a unique “event” that illustrates how users are discovering and utilizing your online business!

Furthermore, these user events are organized to provide advanced analysis reports and helpful data visualizations that far exceed the power of Google Universal Analytics.  Purchase probabilities, funnel reports, custom audience segment overlap, visualizations of user activity down to the “per minute” detail are just some of the features business owners can now leverage with the release of Google Analytics 4.

Conclusion: Ad360 Can Help Businesses Migrate to GA4 & Fully Leverage New Features

Clients of Ad360 will receive support transferring data and migrating to the new Google Analytics 4 interface.  While the new Google Analytics interface does look different, remember it serves the same purpose: helping online businesses increase sales and thrive in the e-commerce ecosystem.

This is a significant step forward in data privacy and user data analysis, and we are so excited to be at the forefront of the upcoming Google analytics revolution!  If you want support when learning how to best leverage the new features of Google Analytics 4, reach out for a free call with Ad360 today!

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Growth Academy

Budgeting for Facebook Ad Success

Facebook-ads-budget
Budgeting for Facebook Ads Success

Introduction: A Dollar Spent, 10 Dollars Earned

Return on Ads Spent (ROAS) is a key metric for companies advertising online.  Businesses may have budgets of different sizes, but many of the core elements of running the campaign remain the same.

Successfully setting a daily Facebook ad budget, testing different ad sets, and engaging the target audience multiple times are all key to growing your Shopify sales.  A little marketing planning can go a long way here, so make sure to have a blueprint in place before you begin!

Setting a Daily Budget

First off, Facebook ads provides an option of setting a “daily” or “lifetime” budget – we’d opt for the daily budget while starting out.  It provides a chance for more flexibility as the promotional campaign developers.

An amazing feature of Facebook ads is that Shopify businesses do not have to “break the bank” to reach their audience – even $10/day is enough to have your ads be sent out across the 2.7 billion Facebook users!  If you consider yourself a “Small-to-Medium” sized store at the moment, aim for a daily budget between $10-30.  Your ads will be seen, and the data collected from their performance metrics will be invaluable in how you further develop the campaign.

Test Ad Sets before scaling up

When framing your Facebook ad campaign, remember it’s not just one ad banner you are sending out your entire audience!  Remember from our post on Facebook custom audiences that effective Facebook ad campaigns segment their audiences based on key factors (e.g. – demographics, location, interest).  For each custom Facebook audience, you likely will roll out a different “ad set.” 

Each ad set is specifically targeted to one of your custom audiences, and from there, you can try different versions of the ad as a form of A/B testing.  For example, you may have three ad sets prepped for three distinct custom audiences.  Within each ad set, you roll out two versions to see which one better drives engagement and boost traffic to your store!

Better to Reach an Audience of 100 10 times than 100,000 people Once

Finally, please note it’s better to concentrate your ad sets to smaller audiences you can reach multiple times, rather than blasting out a single ad to larger audiences.  Marketing research has shown that customers need to see your ads 7-8 times before they consider purchasing something from your store. 

Thus, it’s more efficient to have a small audience you show multiple ads to rather than a broad audience who briefly see your ads only once.  Facebook ads breaks up these factors into awareness, consideration, and conversion.  You may have also heard of concepts such as AIDA (Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action) that conceptualize how customers are funneled to drive sales to your store. As you scale up your ads, remember the average customer needs exposure to your store’s promotion multiple times.  Otherwise, your ROAS will suffer.

Conclusion: Who can Help Analyze my Facebook Ad Data?

After running a Facebook ad campaign, setting a daily budget, and releasing your various ad sets, it can feel confusing how to make sense of the data collected – that’s where Ad360 steps in!  We specialize in analyzing your customer data and subsequently optimizing future campaigns.  Better ads mean more sales, so please reach out to try a free demo by Ad360 today!

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Growth Academy

Deal with Custom Audiences in Facebook

Custom Adueinces in Facebook Ads
Use Custom Audiences with Facebook Ads

Custom Audiences = Complexity Explosion

In our previous article reviewing the basics of Facebook Ads, we touched on the importance of building custom audiences with Facebook’s features. 

Age, gender, location, and Interests can all be modified for custom audiences… and… well… the sheer number of combinations that can be made from these factors alone is remarkably complex.  Even the term for its growing sophistication takes your head for a spin… combinatorial explosions.  Sheesh. 

But no worries – this blog post takes a deeper dive into the complexity that comes with building multi-factor custom audiences on Facebook.  While each essential for succeeding with a modest marketing budget on Facebook, so all Shopify business owners, take out a piece of paper and #2 pencil!  This analysis goes “all in” on the complexity of creating custom audiences for Facebook

Why Are Custom Audiences So Important for Facebook Ads?

The first point to note:  you need to build multiple custom audience combinations for marketing success on Facebook.  It’s a response to the sea of 2 billion users out there, being exposed to ad banner after ad banner as they scroll down their news feed. 

Think of it like this – if you had the time and resources to create a unique, tailor-made ad for each individual customer, sales would increase infinitely. So long as the data-gathering methods are clearly stated, consumers vastly prefer customized ads to overly generalized ones. Because you can create up to 500 custom audiences on Meta, we suggest taking full advantage of that by creating more custom audiences, not less.

Now, here’s where the concept of “combinatorial explosions” comes in – curating an individual ad for anything over a few customers is impossible.  That would mean creating a “custom audience” of one, potentially thousands of times over.  What if you are trying to reach a customer base of 50,000?

The Basics of Building Custom Facebook Audiences

After clicking “custom audience” on Facebook ad’s interface, there are four broad categories you can break the “audience factors” into:

Data source

Helps you target potential customers based on how they have engaged with your online store so far.  Have they visited the site already?  Specific web pages?  Have they spent a substantial amount of time browsing?  And are you pulling from web traffic, Facebook page engagement, Instagram, or some other data source?  Remember, these customers may be in varying stages of the “AIDA” framework (awareness, Interest, Desire, Action).  Therefore, breaking down your custom audience by analyzing their story through data points will inform how to further engage them to increase sales.

Demographics

Pretty straightforward – are you aiming for male, female, or nonbinary audiences?  What age brackets?  For example, if you are selling cheap vintage tees with a female cut, you are likely targeting women ages 16-35.  Overall, demographics are a key component of creating effective custom audiences that drive sales.

Location

Aiming to reach the entire USA is far more costly than trying to reach a single state or region.  So, make sure to tinker with different location settings based on your customer data.  If you cast too broad a net, you’ll dilute the ability to keep engaging with that customer base; it will become too cost-prohibitive.

Interests

This is where things get interesting.  Stacking and layering interests is key to creating target audiences.  As you narrow down and tailor each custom audience, you can add interests that create a fuller picture of the users you are trying to reach.  Most importantly, focus on the fact you can target individuals with “Interest A or Interest B,” as well as, “Interest A and also Interest B.”  Both serve very different functions, as explained below!

“Stacking” or “Layering Interests” – Be Specific as Possible to Increase Ad Effectiveness

Specificity is crucial to have your ads compete with larger-budget businesses.  For example, you could adjust the settings to advertise only to males 18-34 on the East Coast who have an expressed interest in sports or sports apparel

Even more, you can “stack” or “layer” interests to bring laser-precision to your custom audiences.  Using the example above, interest stacking could set an audience that shows ads only to males 18-34 on the East Coast, who have an expressed interest in sports/sports apparel or have liked the official NBA, NFL, MLB, or NHL Facebook pages!

In contrast to “stacking,” interest layering more effectively narrows down your target audience. You could set an audience that shows ads only to males 18-34 on the East Coast, who have an expressed interest in sports/sports apparel and also have liked the official NBA, NFL, MLB, or NHL Facebook pages!  Effectively “layering” interests for your custom audiences mean each ad creative will be tailor-made for different segments of your audience.  The more layers, the more precise the audience.  You can also exclude certain segments of these audiences to make the ad campaign’s target outreach even more efficient

Depending on the size of your business, the “sweet spot” may be anywhere from 50,000 to 1 million+  Just remember… the budget goes up the larger audience you have!  On modest marketing budgets, it’s better to reach an audience of 1,000 with multiple ads to drive engagement, rather than reach an audience of 100,000 just once.  The latter will be breezed over by users, driving no traffic nor sales to your store.

Conclusion: Deal Better with the Complexity of Custom Audiences thanks to Automated Software

Figuring out which custom audiences to create, based on which data sources, demographics, locations, and interests, becomes an exercise in compounding complexity.  There are hypothetically hundreds to thousands of effective custom audience combinations for your store, and knowing which ones optimize your store for sales success is a full time job, if even possible.

Therefore, we recommend deploying automated software provided by Ad360 to bring laser-precision to your custom audience curation for Faceboook Ads.  Not only do we specialize in analyzing user data for promotional campaigns, the time saved going through it yourself will be a massive burden lifted from your shoulders. 

Concluding, Ad360 offers a free demo to help optimize your Faceboook ads and custom audience curation. We’ll handle the complexity of combinatorial explosions for you 😊  Cheers, and happy selling!

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Growth Academy

Boost your Shopify Store with Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads for Shopify
Boost your Shopify store sales thanks to Facebook Ads

Simple, Bold Strategies to Boost Sales with Facebook Ads

Introduction – Reach a Sea of Two Billion

While Gen Z may complain that Facebook is “lame” now, or “Meta” as we should be calling now, that is far from the truth when it comes to using Facebook Ad campaigns.  2 billion users is nothing to scoff at, and Facebook has built a remarkable ad platform to help Shopify business owners reach a wider target audience.

This blog post examines how Facebook ads are unique from Google Ads, as well as how targeting potential customers based on interests – rather than preferred keywords – could be the keystone to increasing your sales!

The Basics: Account Setup & Goals

First things first, you need a Facebook business account set up with an ad account in place.  Once you have Pixel (Facebook’s answer to Google Analytics) activated, connect your Shopify store!  You can do so by downloading the “Connect Meta” app on Shopify.

Next up, pick the “goal” of your ad.  If you were in the military, this would act as the primary objective – we’d recommend starting with “boosting traffic” or “conversions” to start, but Meta lists 11 different objectives here.  Depending on where you feel your target customers are in the “sales funnel,” you may want to simply bring awareness, get views, generate leads, or drive engagement.

Target Audiences: Time to Pick your Lane

Perhaps the most important decision for any ad campaign is designating your target audience.  Facebook allows you to segment customers into the following classifications:

1. Age

Self-explanatory.  Are you targeting the Gen Z or old folks?  Picking a specific age demographic usually helps your ad campaigns effectiveness and efficiency in driving sales.

2. Location

Again, straight-forward.  You can narrow down what region of the world you are placing your ads.  With Ad360’s software supporting your Facebook ad campaign, you can narrow down the search to a single city block!

3. Interests

This is where Facebook Ads can differ significantly in their function from Google ads.  Because Facebook collects profile data on all 2 billion+ users, setting customer interests can focus on their hobbies, interest categories, page likes, searchable keywords, Facebook usage, or online buying history. 

Pick hobbies listed on the Facebook Ad dashboard that align with your product (e.g. – a basketball player is targeted with Nike shoes ad).  Interests listed in their “Information about me” (e.g. – a fashion lover is targeted by a vintage clothing site) can also be important to consider when optimizing your ad placements for maximum sales growth!

“Stacking” or “Layering Interests” – Get as Specific as Possible to Increase Ad Effectiveness

Specificity is crucial to have your ads compete with larger-budget businesses.  For example, you could adjust the settings to advertise only to males 18-34 on the East Coast who have an expressed interest in sports or sports apparel

Even more, you can “stack” or “layer” interests to bring laser-precision to your custom audiences.  Using the example above, interest stacking could set an audience that shows ads only to males 18-34 on the East Coast, who have an expressed interest in sports/sports apparel or have liked the official NBA, NFL, MLB, or NHL Facebook pages!

Interest Layering more effectively narrows down your target audience; it could set an audience that shows ads only to males 18-34 on the East Coast, who have an expressed interest in sports/sports apparel and also have liked the official NBA, NFL, MLB, or NHL Facebook pages! 

In short, effectively “layering” interests for your custom audiences mean each ad creative will be tailor-made for different segments of your audience.  The more layers, the more precise the audience.  You can also exclude certain segments of these audiences to make the ad campaign’s target outreach even more efficient.

Conclusion: What to Do if Facebook Ads Feels Too Technical or Overwhelming

In conclusion, there are a lot of moving variables that factor into your Facebook ad campaigns.  Straddling this granular level of detail over several social media platforms can definitely make your head spin.  If you feel you could use some support analyzing and bringing all your different ad channels under one roof, reach out for a free demo by Ad360 today!  We’ll make it our mission to optimize your next Facebook ad campaign for success 😊