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Growth Academy

Automate Your WooCommerce Store

Manual Ad Placements – Time Consuming and Frustrating

Manually setting up ad campaigns, through platforms like Facebook, Google, and more, are seemingly not an exact science.  Plenty of WooCommerce business owners throw ads up across social media, but don’t understand why they are paying so much for such paltry results.

Unless you are a digital marketing expert, knowing where and when to place ads can seem almost esoteric – but automated ad placements are much more powerful than you think!

Programmatic ads are what major companies like Google, the Economist, TNT, and other major corporations use to get the best ad placements for the cheapest price.  Now, there is software that exists that brings the same online promotional power to small and medium-sized businesses.  If there is one aspect of your online business to automate, let it be your ad placements.  It will save you hours of time a day and the constant headaches of playing “trial and error” with your online ads

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Automating Customer Data Collection & Retargeting

Furthermore, to increase sales on WooCommerce, storeowners need to have software that gathers the profile info of whoever sees and interacts with the ads!  That way, you can continue showing them promotional specials in the future, targeting them with your products without having to lift a finger.  This kind of precision in your digital marketing (especially at scale) is simply impossible with at least some level of automation.

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Growth Academy

1 Click Ads for WooCommerce

Set a Daily Budget

First, to take control of your online marketing, establish a “daily average” budget you can spend on advertising. New stores can gain traction across the web with as little as $5/day ($150/month). From there, a general rule of thumb is 5-10% of your revenue goes back into marketing overhead.

Calibrate Your Custom Audience

Second, you need to begin targeting your custom audiences! You can target customers based on demographic info (e.g. – age, gender, location), or interests they express online. Make sure to dive into research on your custom audiences – they will be your most likely customers!

Retarget Likely Customers

Ok, so you’ve set a daily budget, established large swaths of your custom audience, and now you’ve put out some nice ads. The metrics show that roughly 10,000 users viewed the ad from either their desktop or mobile. But barely any clicked through or bought!

Do not be discouraged, this is normal. Just remember, if even 1% of those 10,000 end up becoming customers, that’d be 100 new orders to your WooCommerce store. So, how do you up that conversion rate to become a truly successful online business?

Automate Ad Placements for Peak Conversions

There is software, easily accessible on the market, that can automate ad placements for the cheapest price and maximum exposure. Retargeting software could further increase your conversion rate to 2-3%, putting in the elite tier of e-commerce stores. In fact, the top 10% of all online stores have a conversion rate of 3.8% or higher.

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Virtually all the most successful e-commerce stores deploy automated ad placements to get affordable ads with great visibility. They also all use savvy digital marketing techniques – like retargeting – to increase their WooCommerce sales. How? By reaching back out to customers who have seen their ads across the web and social media! After a few “touches,” customers are ready to go from “browsing” to “buying.”

Feel free to check out Ad360’s Quick Ads, to trial automated ad placements. It only takes one click to organize your next ad campaign!

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Growth Academy

WooCommerce: Why You Need Retargeting

Online Ads Drive Traffic – But Not Conversions

If you set a healthy daily budget for your ads, and organize sensible “custom audiences” to funnel ads to, your store will likely see a spike in traffic.  However, we’ve noticed a common concern of WooCommerce storeowners online.

Many have expressed that, after shelling out for ad placements, they saw no corresponding bump in click-through or conversion rates. This means that even though users are seeing the ads online, they are not clicking buy. A boost in traffic, but no increase in sales, is a frustrating experience for WooCommerce stores with great products.

What can WooCommerce storeowners in this position do to boost sales?

Ad Retargeting!  Arguably the most valuable online tactic for increase e-commerce store sales.

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Why Ad Retargeting Outclasses Other Ads

If you’ve been keeping up with Ad360’s “growth academy” series, you know it takes multiple engagements – or “touches” – before most customers are ready to make a purchase.  Ad retargeting becomes an essential digital marketing tactic here.  You can capture the data of customers who visit, and target all future ads towards these individuals.

Why?

They’ve already demonstrated concrete interest browsing your store!

Eventually, after seeing 3 or 4 of your WooCommerce store’s ads, customers go from simply being “aware” you exist, to purchasing every seasonal special!

However, WooCommerce ad retargeting “plugins” can be costly, confusing, or slow down your site speed – defeating its purpose.  If you want help establishing ad retargeting as an effective part of your digital marketing strategy, reach out to Ad360 today!  We’ll give you the 360 degree breakdown: retargeting is our specialty 😊

So, if you are interested boosting your “click-through” and conversion rates, give us a call or email today. Happy selling!

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Growth Academy

Ultimate Guide to Facebook Retargeting

While Facebook ad retargeting is effective, there are limitations to promoting products solely through social media!  This post explores how to broaden your online store’s visibility, and use “layered retargeting” to reach customers across the entire Internet – not just Facebook 😊

Increase Sales on Shopify by Retargeting Outside of Facebook

Business Owners using Facebook ads may have noticed that, while effective, there are clear limitations to advertising on the Facebook network.  Sure, it gives access to popular platforms like Instagram, but remember there are roughly 5 billion people who use the internet regularly!  While Facebook has ~2 billion regular users, you miss out on 3 billion potential customers by showing ads only on Facebook.

Who knows?  Your niche audience may not be big fans of Mark Zuckerberg 😉 To increase sales on Shopify, business owners need to find ways to look beyond advertising only on social media.  While it’s undoubtedly effective, there are marketing tactics that layer ad retargeting, thereby reaching users in and outside of Facebook.

The Undeniable Effectiveness of Ad Retargeting Campaigns

If you aren’t already making use of Facebook’s ad remarketing features, it is time to hop on board.  A recent survey of 320 companies found that 86.4% used retargeting campaigns, and over half of those businesses increased their revenue through ad retargeting campaigns.  In other words, the metrics speak for themselves.  After creating the right custom audiences and setting a reasonable budget, retargeted Facebook ads can help increase sales on Shopify.

 … But let’s analyze those numbers a little deeper.  While retargeting on Facebook has its merits, 20% of e-commerce businesses in the same survey reported no benefits from their retargeting campaigns. 

So, we decided to dig a little further and ask, “Is there a way to broaden retargeted Facebook ads beyond social media?”  Doing so, and placing ads in different contexts, may be the key to giving these ad campaigns a boost – and increase sales on Shopify in the process.

Facebook retargeting in 2021
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Limitations of Advertising on Facebook

First, we need to identify the limits of Facebook ads. 

50% of customers online say they like shopping through platforms like Facebook stories… but what about the other 50%?  If you are limited to retargeting only through the Facebook (Meta) network, you are potentially losing out on reaching half of your customer base.  Other users want to see ads in different online contexts – beyond their social media account! 

To increase sales on Shopify, it is best your e-commerce business gets exposure beyond social media.

Why?  Credibility and Brand awareness.

Showing ads to retargeted users – when they are not on Facebook itself – is impossible with Facebook’s softwareThat could mean the impact of your retargeted ads are limited, as customers will be inclined to write your brand off as, “That store that only pops up on Facebook.”

To many, that limitation could hurt your brand and make it look less legitimate in the eyes of potential customers.  Layering on a broader retargeting service will allow you to show ads to those same users not just on Facebook – but across the entire web.  This enhanced brand visibility will make your store appear more viable in the eyes of potential customers, driving more traffic and increasing your sales on Shopify.

Layering “Web” Retargeting on Top of Facebook Retargeting

They key to maximizing the effectiveness of your ad retargeting campaign is to reach beyond social media, and use tools that enable retargeting across the web. 

In that scenario, an online user could see your ad on Facebook first, then have a moment of déjà vu when the same ad pops up while they browse a news app on their phone!  When the ad appears a third time on their favorite independent blog site, the credibility of the brand has been confirmed in the eye of the customer. 

Seeing the store’s promotions in multiple online contexts makes them feel like checking the store out is worth their time, as it engaged them with multiple touches without appearing repetitive.  This is the power of layering web retargeting on top of Facebook retargeting – you reach customers when they are in different states of mind, upping the chance they take note of your online promotion.  The broadened visibility can help increase your sales on Shopify and boost your brand’s reputation.

Conclusion: Use Menadex to Layer Web Retargeting on top of Facebook

Hopefully by now, you see the promotional power of ad retargeting online businesses.  However, very few businesses know how to layer web retargeting on top of their advertising efforts on social media.  Broadened web visibility could be the keystone to increasing sales on Shopify!

If you want to get the best return on your ads spent (ROAS), try a free demo by Ad360 today!  Our Menadex media offering will automatically layer web retargeting on top of your existing ad campaigns, ensuring you get the broadest appeal and best bang for your buck. 

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Growth Academy

Why Mobile Ads are Superior to Desktop Ads

By the Numbers: Proof Mobile Ads Have Eclipsed Desktop Ads

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

Not convinced? 

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

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

Unlimited Access and “Intimate Expectations”

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

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

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

Improved Mobile Ad Technology & Location-Based Retargeting

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

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

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

Key Tips to Improve your Mobile Ad Efforts

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

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

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

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

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

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Growth Academy

Part III: The Most Effective Email Lead Strategies

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

What is 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. 😊