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Growth Academy

Frank’s story pt4: how to easily get visuals

Automatically Generated Creatives for Shopify
Ad360 Creative Studio generates advertising banners using all the products data in your Shopify store

If you’ve been following the “Odyssey of Frank’s Shopify Store” with Ad360, you know Frank went from a dated brick-and-mortar salesman to selling online during the pandemic. 

He could even implement savant geolocation targeting and other advanced advertising features thanks to Ad360. His ads no longer went unnoticed in Google and Facebook. 

Moreover, he now had access to millions of websites and mobile apps to advertise on.

However, there is a final promotional piece to the puzzle missing here…

Frank and many Shopify store owners getting started with digital advertising face this roadblock.

Sleek, professional, truly eye-catching ad banners.

Who generates them?

Frank read online that most Shopify store owners in his position relied on some third-party app, no matter what they approach. Some downloaded Canva online to paste together a basic ad (which they had to remake over and over), while others hired an Adobe pro illustrator… for hundreds of dollars per banner. Oof.

Frank majored in business management – not graphic design… 

Yet, here, he felt the success of his Shopify store depended on having a variety of ad banners to deploy across the web. Being a one-man-show, Frank already handled all the daily responsibilities of keeping his Shopify store running and his social media at a “base engagement” level. Adding on the burden of pumping out creative ad banners gave the guy a headache. He made one while rushing, and within 30 minutes, his buddy reached out: “Dude, you know that Shopify store ad you just posted on Instagram? It’s off-center dude. It looks like you were drunk when you made it. Just a head’s up.”

Before slamming his head on the desk in frustration, Frank reached out to Ad360’s 24/7 support. They reminded him their software has one of the most powerful creative generator tools in the industry…

Ad360’s creative ad banner feature generates 15 distinct ads of different shapes, colors, and sizes. Even better, the pictures and pricing were automatically extracted from his Shopify store data.  

The guy didn’t have to lift a finger – all these creative, professional-standard ads generated instantly from Ad360’s suite of features.

Frank no longer felt “washed out” or limited testing different Shopify store ads on the web. Some were designed for “above-the-fold” viewing, some for “below-the-fold” placements, and others for almost any ad inventory shape you can think of. 

Even better, Frank found it super simple to keep track of which of these ads performed the best – Ad360 kept that data organized on his Shopify store dashboard. Plus, Ad36 automatically focused on the ads bringing the most visitors and buyers to Frank’s website.

Are you spending hours creating your own ads, only to throw them up and get a less-than-stellar return on ad spending (ROAS)? Please reach out, and try our free demo of Ad360 today for access to our “instantaneous ad generation tool.”  

Never again will you waste your precious hours centering a single ad on Canva or Adobe: you’ll get 15 original designs with the snap of a finger.

All powered by Ad360’s suite of services – try our free demo today to see if it can boost your sales and change your life!

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Features Highlights

How to create a Line Item?

How to create a Line Item?
Ad360 App for Shopify - Guide - How to create a Line Item

A step-by-step guide to starting a line item from scratch in Ad360 App for Shopify

A Line Item contains settings allowing Ad360 to know which audiences to target (e.g. focusing on specific geolocations) and which creative asset to show them.

1. Select your Campaign

Firstly, you need to select the Campaign under which you want the line item to be created. To do this, go to the campaign section and you will see a list of your campaigns.


2. Add Line Item

You can add a line item from the campaign page, or directly from the “Add a Line Item” button.


3. Select a Line Item type

If you click the “Add a Line Item” button you are given the following options: Menadex, Google Ads or Facebook.


Google Ads and Facebook allow you to import into Ad360 advertising campaigns even if they run on the Google Ads or Facebook platforms, so that you can manage all your ads in one place.

Menadex is our own media offering, enabling your ads to run on millions of independent websites and mobile apps. More details below:

➔ Menadex line item option.

When you have clicked onto the “Menadex” option, you will be redirected to the Menadex line item creation page. Here you can add the name for your line item and enter a specific budget.

● You can choose a “Smart Collection” from your store to use for the line item.

4. Choose an Option For Targeting

This determines where, and how many ads are going to be seen by users on theweb.

The different tabs can be accessed by clicking on the cards.

5. Option: Geotargeting

Geotargeting allows you to select specific places where your ads will be seen:

● You can select an entire country for example: the United Kingdom.

● You can also select specific cities for example: Berlin, Germany and Paris, France.

● Additionally, you can choose specific types of places, such as an airport, for example: JFK Airport. You can add as many places and types of places as you require for your ad to be displayed to web users.

6. Option: Hyperlocal Tab

Secondly, you can add an area in the Hyperlocal tab, this will allow you to draw a specific zone on the map for your ad to be seen.

For example: San Francisco, over the Pacific Heights neighbourhood. – Your ads will only be seen in this area, and in the locations, you have selected in the Geotargeting tab.

7. Option: Devices

In Devices you can even select which devices your ad will be displayed on, by default, all devices are selected, however you can select only one or two if you prefer.

The options are: Desktop, Mobile, Tablet.

8. Option: Creatives

Finally, you can decide which ad banners or videos to show users: if you have creatives, you can upload them by using the “Upload Creative” button.

You can add standard banner display creatives, as per the IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) specifications.

Choose a size in the list which matches your creative, or a video in one of the given aspect ratios.

If you already have creatives uploaded, you can associate them from your library, and you can link using the “Associate Creatives” button.

If you do not have any creative assets, don’t worry because you can create these in the Creatives Studio.

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Growth Academy

How to use the Creative Studio?

How to use the Creative Studio
Ad360 Guide - How to use the Creative Studio?

A step-by-step guide to using the Creative Studio to immediately get creatives from scratch in Ad360 App for Shopify.

1. Go the Creatives. tab

Firstly, click on the “Creatives” link on the navigation panel to go to the Creatives page. There, click on the “Creative Studio” button to access the Creatives Studio.


2. Creative Studio Page.

On this page, you will see banners that are automatically generated by Ad360, based on your product information in your Shopify store. You can choose a Shopify collection of products so that multiple products are automatically included in the dynamic banner.

  • They will include: a product image, the product title, price and comparaison price (if you have a sale on the item in your store).
  • You will have banners created in multiple formats and sizes. If you select the template you prefer, all the formats in the template will automatically be saved when you click the “create” button at the bottom of the screen.
  • The banners are dynamic, meaning that if you change a product’s name, image or price, the advertising banners will automatically be updated. Plus the banner feature multiple products and will show the right one to each user based on their interest to maximize the sales opportunities.

3. Personalize your Banners.

After choosing a product collection, you choose the template (e.g. with or without logo), and multiple sizes are automatically generated with your products info.

You can customize background and text colors using the buttons in the middle of the screen.

  • You can change the display URL in the text box, which is shown at the bottom of your creative.
  •  This will not affect where the users go when they click on your product, they will still be automatically redirected to the product page within your shop, but it will simply display your website address on the creative.
  • Finally, you can change the logo address which will be used for the templates containing a logo.

4. Save your template.

Click the “Create” button to save the templates and all formats at once. All sizes will be added to your Creatives library and can be easily added to any of your Line Items.

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Growth Academy

How to create a Campaign?

How to create a campaign
Ad360 App for Shopify - Guide

A step-by-step guide to starting a campaign from scratch in Ad360 App for Shopify


Once you’re into the App, go to either the Dashboard tab or the Campaigns tab. You can create a campaign from either page.

1. Click on the “Create Campaign” button.

Click the Create Campaign button. This is your first step to learning how to create a campaign in the Ad360App for Shopify. On this page you will find existing campaigns that you may have created before, if any.

Next, On the right-hand side, there is a “Create Campaign” button. Click the button to open a simple form that you need to fill in with some of your campaigns information.


2. Enter your campaign name and budget

You need to enter a Campaign name, the Budget you want to spend with the campaign – which is the maximum amount of money you want the campaign to spend, between the start date and the end date.

  •  Between the start date and the end date, you can click on the little Calendar icon to choose the dates from the date selector. 
  • You can then enter a Max Bid, but that is optional.

Information tip:  The max bid is an amount that limits the price you pay for ads in certain channels.

3. Select your campaign goal

Select your  Campaign Goal. This is the primary goal of your campaign: 

  • Sales (maximizes the amount of sales from your campaign).
  • Awareness (maximizes the visibility of your ads and the amount of people who see your ads).
  • Traffic (maximizes the amount of people you bring to your website).
  • Retargeting (is a specific type of campaign which only displays ads to people who have been on your website before).

4. Set your Exploration Goal

Lastly, set the Exploration Level. This determines how much of your budget is redeployed by the algorithms and gathers data.

  • If you select a high value, more of your budget will be redeployed by algorithms.
  • One hundred being the full budget being redeployed always by the algorithms.
  • Zero meaning none of your budget will be changed, and your campaign will be in exploration mode only.

5. Save Campaign

When you are happy with the exploration level, click “Save Campaign” to create your campaign.

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Growth Academy

Frank’s story pt3: the power of hyperlocal

store visitors
local ads to bring visitors

This article continues Frank’s story, after the Part 2 in which Frank discovered ads across the web and mobile to reach more interested customers.

While Frank had moved his Shopify store online during the pandemic, he had spent years building a grassroots local business. All the worldwide web stuff was cool… but he felt he had last connection to the streets he used to market on.

Local Geotargeting changed that. Now, Frank could focus ads on folks specifically in his region.

This feature of Ad360 is what brought Frank’s marketing efforts full circle. Instead of burning money on ads that were shown to people halfway around the world – who could care less – Frank was able to place ads precisely on individuals closest to his locale. Suddenly, old customers he hadn’t heard from since before the pandemic began trickling back in!  

In fact, the local groundswell was so big that Frank was able to organize a local event by his old brick-and-mortar location, celebrating his reconnecting with the neighborhood. Ad360 had helped take Frank’s Shopify store across the web, but its geotagging feature had brought his marketing efforts right back home: full circle 😊  

Using the “hyperlocal” function on Ad360, Frank was able to go beyond targeting his city – he highlighted his exact neighborhood to maximize his chances of new customers and new sales. The level of specificity made Frank as visible to his neighborhood as any major Fortune 500 company: he didn’t have to burn money placing ads all over. 

Every ad focused on the couple of local streets that held his most likely customers. As the bevy of data shared from Shopify increased, Frank became a bit of a local celebrity because his customers saw his ads as much as Walmart or Amazon. When it came to his locale, Ad360’s hyperlocal targeting had made Frank’s Shopify store more visible than the largest companies on the web. Instead of wasting money with unfocused ads across the region, Ad360’s hyperlocal tech helped Frank thrive in his neighborhood niche!

Frank had gone from considering bankruptcy, at the start of the pandemic, to advertising across all social media, mobile apps, and webpages seamlessly. The whole experience became surreal as visitor traffic and customer engagement reached a groundswell of support. Frank was officially back in business, thriving off the visibility and geotargeted grassroots support.

If you want to expand your Shopify store’s online reach while strengthening your connection to your local customer base, try Ad360’s free demo today!

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Growth Academy

Frank’s story pt2: Making Ads Work

store traffic
bringing traffic to online store

This article continues Frank’s story, after the Part 1 in which Frank struggled to bring traffic to his new Shopify store.

Frank had accomplished a vital company goal during the pandemic – he moved his entire inventory online to Shopify, competing with all major retailers on the web. He also knew only losers and chumps rested on their laurels. Sure, the basics were out of the way, but Frank felt like a fish trapped in the social media “fishbowl” – an echo chamber he couldn’t market his way out of.

Unsure of where to start, Frank bought ad space on Google and Facebook. While he wasn’t experienced with these platforms, Frank invested thousands into marketing on social media because “that’s how many people do it now.” Frank is an expert on his store’s products, not marketing. He quickly found out the devil is in the details of online ad targeting – you need data analytics to uncover sales patterns and trends invisible to the naked eye. Frank needed to figure out how this all worked for his Shopify store… and quickly!

The social media advertising… it kind of worked. But Frank found himself as one of the 62% of business owners whose ads completely miss the mark. His social network was only seeing about 16% of the ads he put out… and it was draining his company funds.

If Frank didn’t find new horizons and more effective ways to promote his Shopify storefront online, he’d be insolvent in 2 months. Every time he looked at his online visibility and marketing versus the revenue brought from these efforts… the guy needed a scotch.  

On a final hurrah, Frank installed the Ad360 App for Shopify, which quickly introduced ad retargeting to Frank: something that went beyond social media. He knew he was onto something big when a few recent customers said they had found out about his Shopify store while surfing across the web.

One customer even said they heard about Frank’s Shopify store while reading a story on CNN international. “HOW?!” Frank exclaimed while his eyes lit up with excitement…

The ad technology had saved the customer’s interest in his store, and Frank’s product automatically popped up as an ad while the buyer scrolled through the news! The magnitude of that shift in visibility made Frank’s unique daily visitor go up and his sales significantly increased, without spending more ad budget. Really. We know it’s challenging and can be discouraging. Still, Frank’s story is not unique – and it changed his life and the life of his family for the better, forever.

Do you really feel you have researched and explored every vector of your Shopify store online promotions? Many Shopify owners need just a little push – and a little more visibility across the web – to truly flourish.

Find out how Ad360 takes local Shopify stores to success through next-gen ad retargeting. When customers start seeing your ads across more than just social media, you’ll want to keep driving ahead and never look back 😊

Be our next success story! Try Ad360s free demo today to learn more about leveraging new innovations in online advertising.  

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Growth Academy

Ecommerce Ads beyond Google and Facebook

Online Ads
Website Ads to bring back visitors to your shop

Have you felt forced to choose between Google and Facebook ads? False – you can do both and more without breaking the bank; just keep reading here!

Web and mobile ads can help Shopify store owners stand out. You don’t have to only promote on global tech behemoths like Facebook, Google, Twitter, and other major social media platforms. Most business-minded individuals agree that the sheer scale and online reach made possible by “big tech” is terrific. But it feels easy to get lost in the shuffle within the millions of companies they serve. 

You have to remember that tech giants like those listed above provide ad services for millions of businesses. Google serves over 4 million active advertisers, for goodness’ sake! Within that frame of reference, it makes sense for small store owners to take it into their own hands and use different online advertising formats. Otherwise, the sheer number of other local businesses competing for online sales could push you out.

For example, let’s say your Shopify store sells clothing and denim. Think of how many different options your potential customers have to get a pair of jeans: gazillions! At that point, visibility beyond just Facebook and Google could seriously be the difference maker between the customer going: “Oh yeah, that place, I guess I’ll check it out now,” and them not even remembering your store!


Stay Local, Advertise Internationally

Ad360 gives Shopify store owners the advantage of advertising beyond social media platforms. Thanks to our integration of Menadex Media, you can run ads through programmatic advertising onto most websites and mobile apps. Virtually any page your store visitors go on could have your Shopify store ads now! Imagine your denim jeans Shopify store now displays not only on social media sites but can follow potential customers across the web – they’ll see your Shopify store products even when browsing CNN international! Or MSNBC! Or whatever news site they’re on!

The expansion beyond traditional social media sites is one of the most potent developments now available for online small businesses. The technology, which used to be only available for the most prominent brands, is now available for everybody, thanks to Ad360. You can now advertise on many more sites and media than before while at the same time focusing on the specific geographic area that matters the most to you. The amount of web visibility you get when considering the locality of your store is brilliant.

If you’re interested to see the kind of impact ads beyond social media can have, try a free trial at Ad360 today!

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Growth Academy

Your online shop is ready; now what?

ecommerce shop
Ecommerce shop

After all the quiet hard work to set his Shopify store up during the pandemic, Frank sat back and took in a moment of true satisfaction. 

All the goods were beautifully posted with pictures. The account details looked correct, and Frank’s enterprise was officially off the ground! He took a victory lap for figuring all this crap out, feeling pretty good about it all!

…. No Traffic

A week went by. And Frank’s Shopify store got lost in the millions of other e-commerce sites – no one clicked on it. This is the number 1 reason new stores fail. Business owners get confused and lose steam when trying to drive consistent, substantial traffic to their Shopify store and end up with barely any clicks. With no assistance or someone to bounce ideas off, such an event can be really discouraging. Frank knows his product is the best, but it’s virtually invisible.  

The new challenge? How the hell does Frank get more clicks? He didn’t major in online marketing… where do you even start? He tried his hand at Facebook and Google ads, but a few challenges immediately popped up after sitting down to make the ads:

  1. How should I make the ad, and what should it look like?  
  2. Where the hell do I put it, so potential customers actually see it?
  3. Is there a way to make it stand out?
  4. Can I follow up with people somehow after I click my ad, or am I stranded with visitors leaving the site without purchasing anything?

We’re pleased to let Frank know he can focus on the gazillion other things related to his business. Ad360 does the heavy lifting and answers all these questions for you! After starting with Ad360 App for Shopify, Frank felt like he had found his “needle in a haystack” – his ideal customers! Ads began popping up more often on the right websites. With Ad360 ad retargeting, Frank could engage further and further with customers genuinely interested in his Shopify store, while not wasting time on the ones who wouldn’t bat an eye.

If you want to see how your business grows with cutting-edge ad retargeting, contact Ad360 for a demo and free trial today!

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Growth Academy

Find the Buyer in the Haystack 100 times faster

Needle in the Haystack
Finding the Needle in the Haystack

If you are a hardworking store owner just a tad frustrated with your digital promotion, keep reading!! Because while most Shopify business owners know how to release ads on tech platforms like Google or Facebook, many ads end up not reaching their intended target. 

To help explain the difficulty of running successful online ads, think of the old analogy: 

“It’s as hard as finding a needle in a haystack.”  

That’s what generating truly great customers feels like – where do you start as a local business owner? The needle is your ideal customer base or promising lead… the hay is all the people you have to sift through before finding your golden geese.

I mean hell, there are billions of people surfing Google and Facebook…. How do you narrow that field down to those people most interested in your Shopify store?  

The answer is Ad Retargeting!

Automated ad retargeting software saves willingly given customer info of any customer who even glances at your Shopify store. If they visited once, the odds are MUCH higher they will consider visiting again! After that, business owners can send out ads – not only across all major social media platforms but also all over the web and in mobile apps – advertising specifically to individuals who have already visited and expressed interest in your store! It’s like having software that helps you find all the needles in a haystack for lead generation… in like 5 minutes. Set up correctly, this is the remarkable efficiency ad retargeting offers business owners. 

To extend our analogy, ad retargeting does not only extract out all the needles with ease – the targeted nature of it means you don’t even have to buy the bale of hay! You can just walk up and extract all the best potential customers who visited your Shopify store. And you save all the money, resources, and energy you would have put toward users online who, in reality, simply aren’t a part of your ideal customer base.

In other words, without ad retargeting, Shopify store owners end up paying for ads displayed on pages where 99% of the viewers are uninterested in your store – “cold calling.”  Ad retargeting allows you to channel all those resources to that 1% who are very likely to become regular customers/love your store offerings! By concentrating on winning over that 1% already interested, ad retargeting can improve customer lead generation efficiency by 1,046%.

Want to learn more about ad retargeting or give it a trial to jumpstart your business? Click on the link to get a demo of how the Ad360 App for Shopify will enable retargeting for your business!

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Growth Academy

Why retargeting outperforms all other ads

Hit the bullseye with Retargeting

Here is a painful truth: According to LinkedIn, more than 90% of first-time website visitors are not ready to make a purchase. They are interested. They just are not ready yet.

Second-time visitors know about your offers. You know that they are interested because they have clicked on your link or visited your website. 

Retargeting works so well because you are not wasting money reaching people who are not interested. You focus your advertising on people who have already engaged with your store. You do not have to start afresh every time a visitor comes to your website. 

The truth is: if you are not retargeting, you are leaving money on the table.

Retargeting Achieves Higher Conversion Rates

Pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns have a lower conversion rate. They bring in first-time visitors who convert at the lowest rate. Retargeting generates warmer leads.

Because retargeting ads bring in more value for money, investing in retargeting bumps up conversions and gives you a better Return on Investment (ROI). If you are advertising and not retargeting, you are wasting money. 

Retargeting will get you more sales and revenue. 

Consumers often purchase after several encounters with a brand. When you retarget, you are nudging along prospects who have already had at least one encounter with you. They are closer to committing themselves. By using retargeting, you nurture the relationship with them, and they get more and more familiar with your brand.

Reinforce Brand Awareness

When you appear in front of your prospects more often, you remain in their short-term memory. They will be back when they are ready to buy. 

Brand awareness drives business growth. Retargeting is one of the best tools to strengthen awareness among your warmest prospects. 

Conclusion

Retargeting is not going anywhere. Advertisers witness better click-through rates, higher conversion rates, and better returns on investment. 

Want to know more about retargeting and how it can help your business? Book a demo with Ad360 and get a free consultation.