Author: William McMahon

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Growth Academy

Google Ad Secrets for your Shopify Store

Google Ads for Shopify
Improve your results on Shopify with Google Ads

Introduction – Being “Seen” on Google Search

With 8.5 billion searches executed a day, Google Ads are a primary promotional tool for Shopify owners.  However, it’s not as easy as “1, 2 3,” to suddenly begin boosting traffic to your store and converting sales with Google ads.  In fact, a large majority of Shopify store owners express a certain level of discontent when trying to optimize their Google ads efforts. 

One even said, “It’s at the point where I would pay someone to do my Google Ad campaigns if they know what they are doing.”

… Well guess what!  This blog provides the 360° view on how to organize Google ad campaigns to maximized sales.  There is a way to compete with retail giants with Google ads, so long as you are razor sharp in establishing your target audience, network, and keyword phrases.  Read below to learn how to approach your Google ad campaigns for increased sales and Shopify success!

Basics of Setting up Google Ad Campaigns

To start, let’s establish that Google Shopping ads reach over a billion users, and 75% of shoppers regularly use Google products when browsing online.  While starting a Google Ad campaign does cost money upfront, it is a worthy investment if you can establish a strong marketing strategy beforehand. 

First, you need to establish a location and network – what region are you trying to reach with your ads?  The Entire USA?  A region like the West Coast?  A single state, city, or neighborhood?  Precision here will save you money, so make sure you know exactly who you want to reach

From there, Google has multiple networks to run ads on, but we’ll focus on search engine ads and Google Display ads to provide the basics.  Simply put, search engine ads are the “promoted results” that appear at the top of the page when users conduct a search.  With the right keywords, your products will be displayed right alongside giants like Wal Mart and Amazon.  That way, shoppers are exposed to your store, appearing as just a viable option as any!  The exposure from promoted search ads drive sales for Shopify stores, so they are worth considering.

The second major network are Google display ads, which appear as those little banners or sidebars that pop up while users search the web.  In other words, a potential customer may be looking up news or their favorite content from a Google search, and the display network is smart enough to follow them and, should you place a bid, display your ad across the internet for searches that originated with Google.  The Google Display Network reaches 90% of all internet users around the world so… yeah.  Worth checking out to increase your Shopify store sales 😊

Keywords, Keywords, KEYwords

It takes a bit of vision and research, but picking the right keywords for each ad campaign is a crucial step to optimizing their success.  Every business and niche product has a different set of keywords, but it’s best to ask, “What are most likely the words and phrases people type in when looking for a product like mine?”  Conduct market research from there to make sure you align your keywords with what likely customers type into the Google search bar.

Generating Quality Ad Banners

After conducting the necessary market research, it is time to tap into your inner graphic designer, and create a quality ad.  While they understand their product intimately, a lot of Shopify store owners struggle to make their brand stand out or “pop” off the page through ads.  Be aware that Ad360 provides instant ad banner generation with its software.  We extract the products and pricing directly from your Shopify store, providing over a dozen options to pick from.  That way, you can run effective A/B testing to see which banners best increase sales to your store!

Conclusion: Delegate Google Ad Campaigns to Free Up Time

Now, making sense of your store’s Google analytics readout can be quite a chore and very time-consuming.  Ad360 makes it our businesses to evaluate customer data & google analytics for you!

That way, you can focus on quality products and service, while we handle maximizing the Return on Ads Spent (ROAS) for your store.  If you are interested in delegating these Google Ad Campaigns, reach out for a free demo by Ad360 today!

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Growth Academy

Make Sense of Bounce Rate To Boost Sales!

Bounce Rate
What is the Bounce Rate on your website?

Introduction – Bouncing Across the Web

When you browse the web, consider how quickly you can navigate to a page, decide in a fraction of a second, “Mmmm… no.”  Then, you repeat the same bouncy activity on a new site, hopping webpage to webpage until you finally find a landing page that catches your attention.

… What about all those pages you bounced through without a second thought??  What if your business ends up like that?!!?

That is why analyzing your online business’s bounce rate is so important!

This blog covers the basics of bounce rates, the percent of visitors who navigate from your site after seeing only one page.  We’ll cover how to frame your bounce rate among other key analytics, as well as marketing strategies to reduce the bounce rate.  Reduced bounce rate = increased sales, so it’s worth a quick look!

Bounce Rate: A “Bird’s Eye View” of Your Site Activity

It’s best to think of bounce rate as a general “top-down” web metric.  While bounce rates do not tell the whole story of your site, they do give an interesting perspective on how many folks click through your page without thinking twice. 

For optimizing your online store and increasing sales, it’s worth paying attention to a fundamental metric like bounce rate.  Just remember it is only one piece of the Google analytics puzzle, so there is hope for your business even if it currently has a high bounce rate!

Key Steps to Improve your Bounce Rate & Increase Sales

With that said, below are key steps you can take today to improve your bounce rate and boost customer sales.  Review to improve your online marketing savvy:

  • Page load time

Starting off with a straightforward one here – your webpages should take no longer than 2-3 seconds to load!  Why? Over half of visitors will bounce after a 3 second delay.

Run a quick test yourself on a device outside your network to see how quickly your site loads.  You may to compress site data, reduce site redirections, streamline Javascript/HTML  code, improve server infrastructure, or use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to help boost up your page load time.  User Google’s pagespeed tool linked here to check your load time!  Sometime as simple as reducing the size of images on a page can improve its speed, so make sure to check your page load time out!

  • “Let your webpages breathe”

Remember the example in the intro – browsing the web is usually a passive activity.  Your site must cater to the visitor, not the other way around.  If the webpage they land on is cluttered, they’ll say, “Oh geez, I don’t what I’m supposed to look at,” and move on. 

Thus, it’s best to break up your webpage info. Do not be afraid of having some blank space in between content!  In fact, it “lets the user up” to breath and gives them a second to process your site’s presentation.

  • Use heat map analytics to see exactly where visitors’ eyeballs are first drawn

Heat map analytics can be a useful tool for showing exactly where visitors are drawn to most on your webpage.  The heat map will “light up” orange/red, informing you where their eyes are first drawn to.  Knowing that key info helps you reconstruct the user experience from their point of view.  Doing so is a surefire way to increase your online sales!

  • Cut down on excessive widgets and sidebars

Having key widgets or sidebars helps bring a helpful dynamic element to your site.  However, some businesses use them to the point it overtakes and distracts from the actual content!  Moreover, added sidebars could also contain Javascript or HTML errors that cause issues for users. Tactfully employ widgets, as they will potentially sap your customer’s attention away from placing an order.

  • Give each webpage a central focus that funnels visitors to a sales deal

Help visitors keep their eye on the prize!  Each webpage should contain a healthy balance of content and “call to action” buttons that funnel them along to the checkout page.  In other words, make sure each webpage brings it back to your “bread and butter” for increasing sales.

  • Clear, easy search bar that covers all your pages

The best-performing websites have an easy-to-use, fluid search bar that searches all content within the site.  Think of it like constructing a “Mini-Google” that helps visitors sift through all the products and pages you have available!  The quick the search bar loads as the user types, the more likely they are to purchase products and boost your sales.

  • Optimize mobile versions of your online store for increased sales

Some Shopify owners think they are all set after setting up a “desktop” version of their site… but remember we live in the Instagram Era.  You neeeeeeeeed to craft a mobile-friendly version of your store that effectively condenses your webpages down to a phone screen.  This is why successful businesses research creating a separate “app version” of their product.  They want to streamline the mobile user experience to boost their sales!


Conclusion – Ad360 is Here to Help Reduce your Bounce Rate!

If you feel implementing any of the above-mentioned ideas sounds too time-consuming, reach out to try a free demo at Ad360 today!  We offer a free evaluation of your website’s metrics, providing concrete, actionable marketing solutions for your site.  That way, you can be happy, productive, and successful while you increase your sales online 😊 Cheers, we hope that you enjoyed this breakdown of bounce rates!

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Growth Academy

4 Keys to Unlocking SEO on Shopify

SEO for Shopify
SEO tips for Shopify e-commerce stores

And why it’s VITAL for Sales Growth!

In part III of our “Search Engine Optimization” series (part I and II linked here), we distill the top 4 “keys” to boosting sales with SEO.  Here, you’ll find the breakdown of actions you could take today to increase your store’s visibility on search engines like Google – and they aren’t complicated!  SEO may not be rocket science, but it does take strategic, effective marketing strategies on your part.

Read below for the 360 degree, step-by-step guide to learn the practical application of SEO strategy!

1.      Favicon design

Favicons are those little picture designs that appear in the corner of your website tab. Some popular ones are the multicolored “G” when on Google or the red “play button” icon on Youtube. 

These little guys may seem unimportant, but they carry a lot of weight for SEO ranking!  Simply put, they provide brand awareness, credibility, and customers an easier way to recognize your site.  Even if you have incredible goods in your store and provide top-notch service, customers subconsciously judge you right away if you don’t have a favicon like other sites. 

Picture a dilapidated, old storefront – looks like a tornado just hit it.  Even if the goods inside are amazing, and the store owner is a peach of a guy, chances are you won’t go in!  It looks too worn-down on the outside. You make a snap judgement to move on. 

That’s exactly what will happen to your store without a favicon!  Get one designed asap to increase sales to your Shopify store.

2.      Descriptive heading tags for well-organized site categories

We’ve mentioned in an earlier article the importance of descriptive heading tags to better organize your site’s web pages. Here’s why that is so essential.  Not only do users feel better browsing, Google’s “crawl” software won’t get confused indexing your site.  The clearer the web page headings and the better classification of your info, the more SEO-friendly Google will consider your site… and you will be rewarded with a better ranking 😊

Sometimes, these headings are referred to as “H tags.” Make sure to keep your ducks in a row when building the content on each page.  It should always start with a clear, descriptive, but not-too-wordy title!  That’s a major key to growing your Shopify sales.

3.       Detail meta and product descriptions

On top of good headings, remember that breaking up your info with easy-to-read product descriptions is essential for SEO best practices.  If you have any product listed on your site unaccompanied by at least a few lines of descriptive text, you are doing your online business a disservice!

Make sure you remember that new potential customers browsing your site (as well as Google’s web crawlers), are not experts on your industry like you.  If you can find a way to give them good information, segmented into different tabs on the product description, you give yourself the best chance to land on the first page in Google rankings. 

4.      Research backlinks through Google Search Console

This final key may be the most difficult to implement, as it involves some pretty serious market research: backlinks.  Backlinks are essentially hyperlinks that connect your site to another.  Consider when you look for, say, a new toaster online.  You find a site that lists the “top 10 toasters,” and there are hyperlinks leading to each option – those businesses successfully have been “backlinked,” linking them to more web pages across the web and increasing their visibility.

Now, when starting off green, finding the right sites to reach out to for a backlinks “shoutout” can seem pretty daunting.  So, we recommend starting by checking out Google Search Consoles information on backlinks here.   Make sure to check out what backlinks competitors have, and from there, you can begin your own marketing campaigns to increase the number of affiliate sites that offer a “backlink” to your Shopify store.  More quality backlinks, more sales for your Shopify store 😊

If you feel you would benefit from some SEO expertise to set up your store for success, reach out to try a free demo from Ad360 today!  We can provide a free consultation to evaluate how effective your SEO practices are, and what we can do to bring you up the Google ranks 😊  Cheers, we hope you enjoyed the 4 keys to SEO success!

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Growth Academy

The Importance Texts for Customer Growth

Text Descriptions for SEO
Texts are a major component of SEO

Focus on Textual Descriptions for Search Engine Optimization

Business owners agree there is an element of excitement in designing a brand-new Shopify site!  They can pour their passions into the web page’s presentation, and digital advances have made it as simple as “cut & paste” to add all kinds of dynamic elements to the site: pictures, slideshows, videos, and interesting graphics that “pop” off the screen. 

Be aware that, without a couple lines of descriptive text, audio-visual elements go completely unnoticed by search engines like Google.  They won’t “pick up” what your store is putting down!!

We’ve mentioned in a previous blog on SEO (link here) that Google’s “web crawling” software, vital for a website’s ranking, does not do a very good job analyzing the “purpose and place” of pictures and videos.  Every time you leave you, say, a picture of your product, without a meaningful textual description, it will be missed by Google’s ranking software, and your website’s visibility will suffer.

Breaking Down Where & When to Add Text on Your Site

To keep it simple, Ad360 wants to provide a 360° view on the most important places to add text for boosting sales.  That way, business owners can quickly spot where they need to add full text descriptors to make their site more Google-friendly.  We know that can sound silly, but strategically placing text descriptions gives you the best chance to be on the coveted “first page” of Google search results.

i.                    Meta text

You know those little “preview” descriptions that pop up when you search something up on Google?  That is meta-text, a tagged part of your webpage that Google recognizes as providing a good “glimpse” of what your web page offers users.  

ii.                  Webpage Titles

It may seem redundant while you type them out, but every web page users click through should have clear titles and subtitles.  Even if it looks a bit silly to you, users who have never browsed the site – and Google’s “web crawling” software – will greatly appreciate the clarity!

iii.                Product Descriptions

We at Ad360 are always a little shocked how many visually-stunning sites we come across… that totally blow off product tags and product descriptions.  We would highly recommend having at least one sentence – like a caption – for every product preview, and then full descriptive text when the user clicks through to view the product in closer detail.  

For example, if selling a gold bracelet, the caption with the product picture could read, “24 carat gold bracelet, sourced from ethical vendors and made with adjustable links for all wrist sizes.”  When the user clicks through to view the product, give them a novel!  It is best to break the text up into tabs, but those full text descriptions to accompany your pictures and products will boost GEO rankings and grow sales far more efficiently.

iv.                     Branding Descriptors

Marketing research makes clear that, with the seemingly endless commerce options available to online customers, it pays to include descriptive text that “fills in the human picture” of who you are as a business, what you stand for, and the values you hold dear.  As an example, having a strong “About Me” text page correlates to increased sales, as does stating how your store supports its core values.  Are you an animal lover?  Have a page where customers can make a donation to your chosen charity.  Text elements that give a fuller picture of your brand’s core values go a long way in customers positively identifying with you!

V.                     Reviews

Make a page that lists your favorite reviews!  It adds more dynamic text to your site and provides a sense of “social validation” that new customers, who, after reading a few positive reviews, feel they are making a good decision 

It’s Ok Ramble – Lean Toward More Textual Description, Not Less

Here is the main takeaway: any picture, video, link,  or product should come with full descriptive text, so both customers and google crawling software can make sense of your website!  Always lean toward “more full description,” not less.  If it starts to feel a bit redundant or like you’re rambling, that’s ok!  Google’s “web crawling” software will reward you with a higher ranking and more traffic to your online store.  You can edit down the parts that confuse customers, but remember – you are structuring your site for optimized web success! If you feel unsure about your current text descriptions or feel like professional guidance may give your online store a lift, reach out and try a free demo from Ad360 today!  We provide a free 30 minute consultation that can evaluate your current text descriptions, pointing out where improvements can be made for optimal sales success 😊

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Growth Academy

What is Search Engine Optimization?

What is SEO
Search Engine Optimization

What Exactly is SEO? What Value Does it Add to my Business?

Google defines Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as “making your site better for search engines.” Put another way, SEO are all the changes to your text that make your site “ping” on Google’s algorithm when users execute a search!

Crawling for New Content – How Google Discovers your Site


How does it do that, you ask? Well, Google didn’t become a tech powerhouse for no reason. Google employs automated “web crawlers” that look for new/updated web pages based on how the site connects to the rest of the internet… hence the term “internet.” Basically, Google finds your page based on how it interlinks and interconnects to the rest of the web!

 

Indexed for Info – Google Programs Analyze Webpage Text to Evaluate Content

After Google discovers that your site exists among the 50 billion online web pages (congrats!) Google “indexes” the site’s content, using software to try and figure out the “purpose and place” of your online business. To check if your site is properly indexed on Google, type in “site:_________” and past your url into the blank.

There you Are – Having Google List Businesses on Search Results

After figuring out the “purpose and place” of your online site, Google will begin listing your business. The user’s location, language, device, and previous search history all play a role in what pops up for them, but those factors are out of your control. 

It’s time to put in stark terms how vital SEO is for growing your business! 



Introduction – Tell me WHY SEO is Important


If you ever question, “Why is it important for my business to rank on Google anyway,” consider this fact:

71% of all online users click through from the “first page” search results 

With that in mind, it’s essential for any online business to identify the most commonly searched keywords/phrases when customers are browsing for your line of products. If you are serious about leveraging online search engines to optimize your sales growth, learning to “move up the rankings” through SEO is a must! Organic SEO growth is more effective at growing sales and driving traffic to your website than virtually any other online tool. Remember that there are over 5 billion searches conducted on Google per day. Being at the top of the list for the searches pertaining to your business… you can see how that might spur sales growth!

Picture This – Example of SEO’s Utility for Growing Sales


For a quick hypothetical – picture you’re a custom soap maker. You’ve taken a 360 degree view of your online marketing, and every time a user searches the phrases, “custom soap,” “boutique soap,” or “soap for sensitive skin,” your site pops up as one of the top three results. Just by that remarkable visibility alone, you’re going to receive a steady, consistent stream of sales no matter where else you advertise. Think about it! Google’s search engine is literally advertising for you! 

However, to get to a place where SEO is, in a sense, doing your promotional work for you, it takes in-depth research and serious legwork to perfect your site’s key phrasing and text. Every line of business needs a wholly unique approach to their SEO, while still hitting the most relevant key phrases universally searched online… this part is easier said than done. 

How Online Business Make Quality SEO Webpages


Making unique, engaging online content involves some artful human ingenuity, but there are specific metrics and guidelines to follow for how you structure that content to best optimize search results. 

  1. Aim to be descriptive as possible with all titles and headings

No need to be wordy, but picture a software crawler… it’s not as smart a human! You need to be really clear with titles so the crawler software goes, “Oh! I get that!” You’re not just writing for your customers – you’re writing for the online ecosystem as a whole. 

2. Make Each Webpage Stand Alone as a “Complete” Entity

We love a phrase Google uses when giving the 411 basics on SEO, “Google is smart, but we can’t guess what you don’t tell us.” It’s easy, as a business owner, to assume the folks reading are making the same leaps in logic you are… but they aren’t! Neither are Google’s programs. Give a logical rundown of your entire business offerings; don’t assume Google gets what you imply. Even if it seems painfully obvious to you, give Google a break – it’s sifting through 50 billion webpages! 

3. Be Topical, Be Up-to-Date 

Show your business can grow and change with the seasons – think holiday bundles and special deals of that nature! Those updates keep your business moving up the search queue, as Google will record, “These guys are with the times, maaaan.” We’re pretty sure that’s how Google software talks when no one is listening 🙂

4. USE TEXT!

Let’s start by acknowledging how cool it is to be able to share and upload pictures/videos with one click – memes have straight up changed the world. HOWEVER! When it comes to growing your sales through SEO, Google software still understands text formats more effectively than others. While having an aesthetically pleasing and dynamic webpage, complete with aural-visual elements, is highly recommended, it should not come at the cost of accompanying text. Having clear textual complements to any picture and video on your site will benefit your business greatly in terms of growing sales. Don’t have any picture/video without at least a little caption of explanatory text attached!


Most Important Web Elements for your Site’s SEO Rank


To give you a 360 degree view of SEO, we thought we’d leave readers with a list of all the design, web, and marketing research factors that improve your site’s “searchability” for boosting sales:

  • Site content 
  • Site structure/Web Page layout 
  • Intersection with online ad campaigns
  • Keyword research (e.g. – Term frequency-inverse document frequency analysis)
  • SEO development
  • Precision marketing to specific market “niches” or geographic locations

Modifying a single keyword/phrase can be the difference between Google finding 10 million or 100 million results. Market research on these keywords, therefore, are essential to aligning your online business with the most precise, potent keywords related to your industry!

Conclusion: Using the Right Tools for SEO Sales Success


We know that it feels a bit overwhelming that all these different factors play into SEO. Some business owners have all the savvy on their products they ever need, but figuring out the most SEO-friendly text to convey the value and purpose of their services becomes a whole challenge in itself. 

If you feel your business would benefit from 24/7, 360 degree support, reach out to try a free demo from Ad360 today! As a proud Google partner recognized for our ability to maximize company sales, Ad360 has all the tools, analytics, and organizational expertise to push your business to the top of the Google chart 😉 Drop us a line today for a free SEO consultation – we look forward to your future sales success.

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Growth Academy

HyperTargeting: Tomorrow’s Marketing


While “geo” and hyperlocal ad targeting grow local brand awareness, hypertargeting organizes your audience based on their shared interests and identities – rather than geographic location. Read more about this incredible marketing technique below!

Introduction

In the fast-moving world of online advertising, it is clear that customer data is king.  Thou who holds the data holds the key to their business’s future! It can take a minute to wrap your head around. Still, market surveys show that ~65% of all online users are willing to share personal data… so long as it leads to a high-quality ad experience catered to their interests. If not, folks consider it an obnoxious intrusion into their personal lives, making it quite the tightrope to walk for Shopify business owners looking to expand their customer outreach and increase sales.

So, how do Shopify store owners gather this high-value customer data from scratch? And how do they make sure they target the right niche and “buyer personas” most likely to have an affinity for their products? Capturing, organizing, and acting effectively on customer data is a major undertaking. But, no worries – Ad360 is here to give you a 360-degree view of one of the most effective online marketing strategies today: Hypertargeted advertising.  

Hypertargeting

Consider hypertargeting a “distant cousin” of geotargeting. While the aim of optimizing customer outreach remains the same, the focus is not based on location, but rather on specific traits of customers. The marketing strategy works by creating categories of “buyer personas” that inform the most effective forms of marketing outreach to them. 

You know those popups that ask if you’re ok with something like “enabling personal cookies?”  By granting permission to store personalized customer data, Shopify business owners get a better sense of who their audience really is, what they value, and what they like to see in the brands they support with their dollars.Done tastefully and strategically, hypertargeting has the potential to grow Shopify sales while establishing a clearly defined “niche” audience your store can tailor its message directly to!

Over time, hypertargeting becomes more effective as you identify the groups of customers most likely to click “buy” on your Shopify site 😉. A list of standard “hypertargeting” customer classifications are listed below:

  1. Demographics – Gender, age brackets, and other personally identifying traits help concentrate your ads to your ideal niche market.
  2. Geographic Location – Specific places like country/state/city, or a shape drawn on a map of who sees the ads, even down to a single city block!
  3. Expressed User Interests – what keywords they recently searched or info they’ve willingly shared on social media or through past search engine queries.
  4. Previous Site Visitors or Social Media Connections – Similar to ad retargeting, hypertargeting features can be concentrated only on those who have already engaged with your business in some form or fashion online.
  5. Device-specific – Concentrate ads to a particular device, including mobile, tablet, computer, or Smart TVs.
  6. Past Buying Habits – Ads are directed only to customers whose shared browsing habits reveal they have purchased products similar to yours in the past.

While it takes some rounds of A/B to get right, hypertargeting for ads is one of the best strategies to grow your sales and optimize your online marketing budget. As you gradually establish the trends of which customer segments demonstrate the most interest in your store, you can tailor your promotional efforts further and further until they truly feel like “your peoples” 😊. That way, not only did you find a way to maximize customer outreach; you learned something about the community’s most willing to support your enterprise. Pretty special, if you ask us here at Ad360.

What’s more is that Ad360’s mission to help e-commerce business owners of all sizes to easily implement advanced advertising techniques such as these ones. If you want to learn how you can benefit from hypertargeting in just a few clicks, book a demo today of Ad360 App for Shopify.

Categories
Growth Academy

Geotargeting vs Hyperlocal advertising


Introduction

Have you ever heard your friends remark something like this?

“It’s crazy, I looked up running shoes the other day, and now all these different ads are popping up for running shoes! It’s like the Internet is stalking me!”

Ha… well… um… kind of 😊 . We hope you understand that business owners don’t have unlimited marketing resources to grow a humble Shopify store. There’s no room to consistently buy random ad space and just hope that blasting out promotional material leads to healthy sales growth. Some of the most disappointing stories we see from failed Shopify store owners follow a familiar pattern. After successfully setting up their online store and spending hundreds to thousands of dollars on Facebook and Google ads… the store sees no bump in converted sales or even new visitors. None. Huge bummer.

Luckily, you can read below to get the 360-degree breakdown of how high-level promotional strategies like geotargeting and hypertargeting work! While not exactly the same, both online marketing techniques are designed to efficiently concentrate marketing dollars on only the most likely customers, optimizing your entire online operation.

Geotargeting

Broadly put, geotargeting organizes its marketing around a specified location – some of the most commonly used parameters to set this location are listed below:

  1. Radius Targeting – Target individuals within a precise radius based on your location (e.g., within 100 miles of your business headquarters)
  2. Zip Code
  3. City/State/Region/Country
  4. Special Venues or Landmarks – Examples include airports, concert halls, universities, shopping centers, or other relevant places of business.

These different customer categories and classifications based on geography can start to sound like a bunch of jargon, so let’s ground the concept in a real-life example: boutique hotels. Smaller hotel chains do exist, and they need a way to market themselves in a manner competitive with the obvious choices: Marriott, Hilton, and so on. However, their marketing budget is far more limited, so geotargeting becomes an essential tool to concentrate their customer outreach on a local or regional level. 

Imagine, for example, that a boutique hotel in Palm Springs wants to reach new customers throughout California and Nevada. To do so, they organize a new mobile ad campaign that only targets customers who live within 150 miles and have executed searches online with the keywords “reservation,” “tonight,” and “today.” Seeing as 72% of mobile hotel bookings include some combination of those keywords, and occur within the last 48 hours before the trip (talk about last minute), a boutique hotel service could multiply its sales conversion rate by reaching target customers based on their specific location. That remarkably efficient, highly detailed marketing strategy is what makes geotargeting such an effective promotional tool for growing your Shopify sales online. Even better, venues within that locale can be excluded, so as to further optimize your geotargeting efforts and customer growth. Absolutely surgical precision 😊

Hyperlocal

Hyperlocal ad targeting gets its name from its ability to draw a “virtual fence” around your desired GPS coordinates – any individuals passing through the area seeing your ads instantly! Think of the countless times you’ve done a Google search for a “______ near me.” You probably did it just last week trying to find a new Thai food restaurant! 

In fact, 46% of all Google searches contain the phrase “near me” (that’s ~1.5 trillion searches), and Google’s VP of marketing reported a 500% increase in “near me” searches with phrases like “to buy” from 2016-2018. Sounds like a massive local marketing goldmine to us!

Now, why is the marketing strategy called HYPERlocal, you ask? 

You can pinpoint your targeted ads down to a single city block. It gives businesses the power to tailor their ad banners to very specific communities, tapping into the concept of “local tribes for local brands.” Seeing as 71% of customers prefer personalized local ads, Shopify store owners have an opportunity to grow sales and outcompete even the largest companies marketing in the area. 

Large conglomerates make the mistake of categorizing customers into too broad of categories, and their marketing strategy suffers from bland messaging that locals ignore almost on instinct. With hyperlocal advertising, local businesses become as visible to their community as any large company online for a fraction of the cost. Your custom ad spots are tailored right to your neighborhood, boosting customer engagement without bloating your marketing budget.


Which is Best for You?


Now, as high-tech as geotargeting and hyperlocal advertising sound, they are easy to implement and automatically managed within the Ad360 App for Shopify. We offer both geotargeting and hyperlocal targeting, to help you optimize your sales growth through concentrated (and customized) marketing promotions. 

Enter the digital marketing “big leagues” with a free demo from Ad360 today! Our 24/7 support will help you figure out when and where to deploy geotargeting & hyperlocal marketing strategies for maximized sales growth.

Categories
Growth Academy

From “Just Browsing” to “Just Bought”

Why “Call to Action” Buttons Make Such a Difference



Introduction: No Call to Action, No Deal

I recently came across a beautiful website – one of the best designs I had seen in a while. They were marketing CBD products, and the entire aesthetic was simple yet elegant. Even more, the content wasn’t all “puff piece” superficial garbage; it went in-depth on all current research surrounding CBD, and each webpage seemed to load quicker than the last! 

Needless to say, I was impressed… however, I didn’t end up making a purchase. Is it because I didn’t like the website? On the contrary! I had rarely felt this much trust after learning so much thanks to the store content. The problem is, I just kept scrolling and reading, and the website never reminded me that it was actually selling some products. If it had, I definitely would have bought it. 

The problem is that after priming me up all this excellent info on CBD, it didn’t entice me to buy the products the website described so well. 

I got a call from a friend, got up to speak outside… and totally forgot about the site. It was like my brain had filed the store under “purely informative content” rather than “potential new product.”

What was this lovely site missing? Simple. It lacked an effective “Call to Action” button to close the deal. As a potential customer, I never shifted gears from “just browsing” to “just bought.” It’s not that I didn’t love what the store offered, and how they presented it! The site just never prompted me to convert the sale.

This blog explores just how powerful a well-placed Call-to-Action (CTA) button is for growing your Shopify business! 70% of small businesses neglect this crucial promotional tool, which is shocking considering that a well-placed CTA button can multiply your conversion rate several times over. 

Seeing as the average conversion rate for visitors to Shopify stores hovers between a paltry 1 and 3 percent, let’s explore exactly how and why CTA buttons are a turnkey solution for boosting your sales, and making your Shopify store a resounding success 😊

3 Second Attention-Span: People Skim the Web, They Don’t Surf it 

The primary purpose and function of a CTA are not hard to grasp. It’s a clickable button on your website that gets noticed and encourages visitors to head right to checkout with your product. In traditional marketing, it’s that tagline at the end of commercials yelling, “BUY NOW, OR YOUR MONEY BACK! AVAILABLE FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY!”

We know, that is super obnoxious. However, there are tasteful, elegant ways to present a CTA button on your website that, if anything, add to the aesthetic and dynamic function of your online store! On top of that, nearly half of all Shopify stores have a CTA link visible within 3 seconds of users scrolling their website. To stay competitive and boost sales, Shopify owners have to consider their marketing presentation for CTA buttons. Otherwise, they risk losing potential customers. Not because their product was deemed inadequate, but because it felt like too much of a “pain in the ass” to quickly checkout. Harsh, but true ☹

Core Design Features to Consider for a Successful CTA

The next natural question is, “How do I design and place my CTA, then?” Well, to start, you need to consider the core elements that make up the design of the CTA button itself:

  1. Color – How does the CTA button’s color differ from the rest of your site? The pattern, shading, and texture of the button should stick out from the rest of the webpage, without looking clunky. Easier said than done.
  2. Font – Using a bigger size font can also help optimize your CTA button for increased Shopify sales, so keep that in mind.
  3. Written text – Beyond a snappy message that captures your customer’s attention, even slight adjustments (like using 1st person vs. 2nd person) dramatically impact Shopify sales conversion rates.
  4. Background – Marketing researchers have found that CTA buttons surrounded by zero clutter and blank space increased conversion rates by 232%. Imagine that just “decluttering” your CTA button could increase your conversion rate from 5% to 11%.



Where to Place the Perfect “Call to Action” Button


First off, don’t limit your CTA buttons to only one place; the Shopify stores with the highest sales put tastefully made CTAs in multiple places on their webpage! 

On top of that, it’s crucial to run A/B testing when trying different marketing strategies with your CTA messaging. That way, you can get valuable feedback on what is – and isn’t – working to increase your Shopify sales. The tracking data from what customers “click on” while browsing your site will tell you which CTA design best optimizes your Shopify sales growth. 

Wherever your visitors’ focus concentrates the most, that is your “X marks the spot” for a clickable CTA button. This “sweet spot” for your CTA will change depending on whether the ad runs on the computer, tablet, or mobile, so make sure to keep that in mind! For example, placing the CTA button within the “natural thumb swiping range” can make a big difference on mobile, while placing the CTA “above the fold” in your email copy streamlines the checkout process on a laptop or tablet.


If you feel you would benefit from some support in perfecting your CTA design and message, please reach out to Ad360 today for a free demo! 

Consider this our call to action 😊

Categories
Growth Academy

5 Practical Tips to Increase Sales on Shopify


Shopify has offered a wonderfully accessible platform to business owners to take their operations online. During the Pandemic, it’s proved vital to many local stores. We at Ad360 admire how user-friendly setting up a Shopify store is.

Do you know what’s not so easy?…. Promoting your Shopify store, so people even know it exists.

The number one reason Shopify stores fail is simple. After spending hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars on ad platforms like Facebook or Google, business owners lose faith in the random algorithms that seemingly control their online fate.

Ad360 is here to prove online advertising does not have to feel like such a “shot in the dark!”  Check out the 5 tips below to get a 360 ° view of how to best boost your Shopify sales. This is not abstract nonsense like, “Be your best you – positive thoughts!!” These are real-deal promotional techniques and strategies 😊.

1. Optimize your Store’s structure, speed, and user satisfaction

This may be easier said than done, but your website should be well-structured, beautiful, easy to understand, and with a clear brand identity and mission.

Getting there means working on your Shopify store’s entire layout and user experience. Customers should easily find all the information they want to know. And quickly!

Do you have bulky images and videos in poor formats that slow down your Shopify store? Streamline them. Do potential customers get frustrated trying to navigate from product collection to product collection and just give up? Make navigation easier! Are their attention spans so quick to move that, unless you put a big red button reading “CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW!” they leave their cart and move on?  

Nearly half of all online shoppers expect the Shopify store they’re on to load within two seconds. Furthermore, they like seeing an aesthetically beautiful webpage with an intuitive interface… easier said than done. Regardless, your website design, speed, and user-friendliness all factor into its overall visibility on the web. More online visibility, more sales to your Shopify store😊.

If you have any questions about what concrete steps to take to optimize your Shopify web pages, reach out to the Ad360 team for a 360 ° analysis of your Shopify storefront!

2. Consistent Branding and Memorable Logo

This tip feeds into the one above, but people are an insecure, finicky bunch, aren’t we? We love to feel a part of a group and something bigger than ourselves. It provides a stronger sense of identity, and strong branding and marketing provide a concrete visual that stimulates our sense of self if we align with that company. It may sound a bit psychologically heavy, but here is the truth: our sense of identity gets fuzzier as we age. Scientific fact.  

For Shopify store owners, this means pouring your heart and soul into a tasteful website aesthetic and company design is not for nothing. Customers will fondly remember your store, making it more likely they’ll come back for another checkout 😊. From your ad banners, to your message, to your chosen “look,” a fundamental way of growing your Shopify store is to bring a strong sense of clarity and purpose to your branding.

3. Detailed Content for your users and search engines

After implementing a beautiful store theme and coherent branding aesthetics, the next step is to put time and effort into writing more detailed content. You should deliver as much information as possible on your website about your products, brand, mission, and why customers should buy from you. Firstly, it helps generate trust and increase conversion rates. Secondly, more content means more occasions for Search Engines, like Google, to find and rank your website on search results pages.

Get started by researching what key SEO (Search Engine Optimization) keywords rank the highest for your store products. Then post original content on your site that, without sounding awful, hits those keywords over and over and over again!

At its best, that means your store is a delight to read and scroll across, and at the same time, the content “hits the bullseye” with words and phrases most associated with your line of products. Strategically hitting relevant keywords and phrases without sounding like a robot is part-art, part-science, but it will undoubtedly boost traffic to your Shopify store, increasing sales along the way 😉.

4. A/B testing methods with data visualizations

To go on a quick tangent, Ad360 offers data visualizations not just because they’re pretty. They help inform which marketing strategies are working and which ones should be ditched ASAP.

A/B testing is vital to boost your Shopify sales. Why? It allows you to put out multiple versions of your online store at once, analyzing which format, design, and overall presentation is most popular with customers. If you feel like you don’t need to partake, consider that 77% of organizations use A/B testing on their website, and 93% do the same on email marketing campaigns… which makes sense! Branding and promotion can be more art than science, so testing what words and phrases are really reaching your customers is a natural step to refine your company message.

5. Ad Retargeting

Once you’ve improved your website structure, looks, content, and tested that the results convert, you want to start advertising to boost your sales and grow results. But where to start? There are so many advertising platforms out there between Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and many others that you’re feeling dizzy.

Here is something which, at least, cannot be wrong: start with Retargeting!

Ad retargeting is the simplest, most efficient tip to offer for growing your Shopify store. Indeed, ad retargeting instantly concentrates your ad dollars to your golden goose: likely customers.

How are these likely customers identified? Good question! Retargeting picks out customers who have already browsed your store before or have explicitly expressed interest in Shopify stores like yours (through data they willingly share online). These groups of potential customers are exponentially more likely to place an order on your Shopify store, making advertising to them a far better use of promotional resources.

This is the power of ad retargeting. Your marketing strategy will quickly evolve a clear purpose, boosting your Shopify sales while not ballooning the budget.

Conclusion

So, there you have it! While these 5 practical tips can boost your Shopify sales, we know that figuring out exactly how to make use of technology like “ad retargeting” and A/B testing can be a serious challenge. If you want help optimizing your Shopify store for sales success, reach out to try a free demo at Ad360 today! We’ll provide all the necessary software and step-by-step guidance to give your Shopify store the best chance at increasing sales 😊

Categories
Growth Academy

From Brick-and-Mortar to Online Expert

During the pandemic, Frank had accomplished what all Shopify owners strive for: his store had not only survived these trying times, sales had quadrupled without spending a cent more on advertising. Frank was a traditional MBA major, but it was discouraging to see how “cutting-edge” online marketing strategies moved a “mile a minute.” By partnering with Ad360, Frank was convinced he could wrap his head around the brave new world of online promotion.

Frank started by streamlining all his ad campaigns to Ad360’s central dashboard. From there, automated software analyzed his store’s data, optimizing exactly where and when to best his online ads for maximum sales returns. In doing so, Frank was no longer spending precious dollars on wasted ad space.


Even more, Frank broadened his Shopify store’s visibility across all web, mobile apps, search engines, and social media platforms. Frank’s favorite strategy was investing in digital video ads that brought his products to the TV, concentrating on his neighborhood’s most popular video apps. When his neighbors sat down to Netflix and chill, guess whose ads popped up? Ol’ Frank! He had no idea there was such a cost-effective way to expand his promotional efforts onto the big screen.


With “hyperlocal” ad targeting features at his disposal, Frank never wasted money blasting ads out into the Internet ether. He highlighted the exact neighborhoods he wanted his ads to reach, increasing their efficiency by concentrating on “likely” customers with surgical precision.


Neighbors began commenting on seeing his ads flash across their computers, phones, and flatscreens, flattering him with compliments like, “Hey, did you design that banner yourself? It looked legit as Amazon’s, but you’re all local!” Frank would grin and explain he had found a “smart marketing” service that automatically generated his banners – no graphic designer or technical expertise needed.


After checking out the various data visualizations generated from his store, Frank saw his store operations from multiple perspectives, catering directly to his niche audience. To celebrate his life-changing boost in sales, Frank threw a COVID-safe Bbq block party… everyone left with a full tummy and coupon code for checkout at his Shopify store 😉


By then, the neighborhood considered Frank a wily marketing guru, asking him questions like, “Are Super Bowl ads worth the money?” Frank would tilt his head to the sky, and begin speaking fondly about the “CPM efficiency” and “digital ad viral potential” of the ad spots. Over the course of the pandemic, Frank went from a brick-and-mortar mentality to the savviest online marketer on the block.


And it was only up from there – congratulations, Mr. Frank!


If you want to realize your Shopify store’s full potential, reach out to Ad360 for a free demo today – we cannot wait to make you the next Shopify success story. Maybe you’ll become the talk of the town, too, just like Frank 😊