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Growth Academy

Top 3 Secrets for New Shopify Stores

New e-commerce store owners – learn the vital early steps to increase sales on Shopify!  These tips include effective Shopify advertising tools, as well as a sound (and specific) Shopify advertising strategy.  We’ll also reveal how to advertise beyond Google & Facebook!

Get a website audit

Website audits can check your page loading speed to see if any apps, toolbars, popups, or videos are slowing your site down.  It also provides crucial insight for how to improve your store design (and Shopify advertising strategy) for the best user experience!

Don’t just use Google Ads or Facebook  Ads

Only using the ad networks of large conglomerates – like Google or Facebook ads – can be a problem for new owners, especially if you set a high “daily budget.”  If you don’t know how to collect and analyze your customer data yet, google ads will take your marketing budget before you know how to spend it!

Clear, Written-Down Shopify Marketing Strategy

Here’s the hard truth: most Shopify sites have great products and horrible online marketing.  That is why most end up failing.  

Don’t allow yourself to just say, “Oh yeah, I kind of have the marketing figured out in my head.”  If your advertising strategy for Shopify is that clear, you should be able to write the entire plan down.  Below is a “template” example of what a comprehensive digital marketing “checklist” may look like:

  • Set a $10 daily budget for online ads ($300/month)
    1. Pick (insert favorite site here) to run two “test” ad campaigns on
    2. Create ad banners or auto-generate ads with Ad360
    3. Research competitors and define my “target audience” based on demographics (e.g. – age, location) interests, and previous web behavior
    4. Make sure I have apps ready to analyze my customer data
    5. As my ads are “seen” and “clicked through,” make sure I can interpret data to refine my strategy, pick the more effective ad, and write down key insights while running another “test” campaign with Ad version “A” and Ad version “B”
    6. Don’t change too many elements for each “Ad version” You won’t know what change made the biggest difference!

Alternatively you can download the Ad360 App for Shopify, which will automatically take care of this for you. You won’t need to spend time and effort on this, and can instead focus on your true passion and core business!

Ad360 automatically generates creatives, finds relevant websites and apps to advertise into, focuses budget on outperforming audiences, and gets you the most viewers and buyers possible for your budget. Ad360 gives you the ability to advertise outside Google and Facebook, and tap into new opportunities to grow your business!

Try for yourself the Ad360 App for Shopify with a 14-day Free Trial!

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Growth Academy

Programmatic Ads: Automate Success

Relying on Google & Facebook Ad Campaigns is Holding You Back

Have you felt your Shopify paid advertising has been restricted by Google and Facebook ads?  I mean, there are literally millions of independent websites and thousands of mobile apps not controlled by either the Google or Facebook network!

So, why do so many businesses end up feeling trapped with these online conglomerates being their only options for running ads and increasing sales on Shopify?

Simple – they have not explored and expanded their advertising strategies for Shopify.  Relying on your manual inputs to Google and Facebook can generate traffic, but this is the 21st century! It’s time to automate!

Programmatic Ads – Software that Automates Advertisements for You

The solution to you feeling “stuck” with Google and Facebook ads is simple – programmatic software. Programmatic ad services, once set up to your store, basically scour the entire web and mobile ecosystem for the best deals to place your ads.  They follow your daily allotted budget, and within those parameters, match your Shopify product advertising to your target audience on the web – wherever they are.

Programmatic ads have their own software powering this automated decision-making process, meaning you no longer have to rely on Google or Facebook ads!  Imagine never having to manually create a Google Ads campaign again, while seeing your ROI and data for each audience segment explode.  The clarity brought with programmatic ads will revolutionize any advertising strategy for Shopify.  Not having to rely on Google or Facebook’s networks is a liberating experience – one that brings your Shopify business more opportunities and hypertargeted results.

Ad360 Provides Programmatic Ads in One Click

The software that powers programmatic advertising is at the heart Ad360’s services.  Within just one click, you can set a daily budget and begin running targeted ad campaigns across all websites and mobile apps.  Try downloading our app today to experience a game-changing Shopify advertising tool – the democratization of programmatic ads!  Automation of ads saves you precious time while enhancing the chance to increase sales on Shopify – give it a try to refresh your promotional strategies 😊

Try for yourself the Ad360 App for Shopify with a 14-day Free Trial!

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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
source

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

The Power of a Central Ad Dashboard

Runnings Ads Across Every Online Platform is Too Complex

There are pros and cons to leveraging multiple online platforms for your ad campaigns.

Web services like Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp), Google, Tik Tok, Twitter, and Reddit, reach wide audiences – but each platform’s presentation varies in significant ways.  On paper, running ad campaigns across all search engines and social media platforms may seem the best way to boost your brand visibility and increase sales on Shopify!

… It also sounds super complicated.  Imagine having to log into each separate ad interface, and learn the idiosyncrasies of all the different sites.  Even more, you need to find a way to effectively compare each ad channel while analyzing your digital marketing strategy.  Just the thought of lining up sales metrics from these separate ad channels gives us a headache!

That is why Ad360 is here to provide a turnkey solution to managing all your separate channels: a single, streamlined dashboard the brings all your ad campaigns – across every online platform – under one roof.  Ad360’s streamlined ad dashboard makes it simple to run multiple ads at once, helping refine your marketing strategy and increase sales on Shopify 😊 

The Problem with Disparate Ad Campaigns

Without a central ad dashboard, business owners waste energy simply keeping track of each promotion’s progress.  In fact, e-commerce business owners online report that they keep track of their various online ad campaigns through spreadsheets or notes – all manually. 

The time drain and effort wasted organizing and comparing each ad campaign is not only inefficient, but it could make that comparison inaccurate! 

Entering wrong data or forgetting the rationale for running each ad campaign can make your marketing analysis more difficult or even impossible. Manually entering data in notes or spreadsheet offline basically “disembodies” your data, removing it from the context of your various ad channels.  You’re forced to imagine how each ad campaign looks online instead of having them on an interface right in front of you.

It’s a scientific fact that humans only have so much brainpower for decision-making each day.  If you are draining all that energy simply trying to keep each ad campaign in order, you won’t have enough left over to effectively compare them! 

This “scatterbrain” effect disparate ad campaigns cause could lead to poor mental conceptualizations of your ad campaign’s progress.  Instead of being able to simply sit back and think, “How should I allocate my advertising funds from here?” you are bending over backward trying to keep each ad campaign in order.  Think of all the questions that would rush into your mind when comparing the success of different ad campaigns:

  • Was that ad campaign for brand awareness or boosting conversions?
  • Why did I run that ad campaign on Facebook instead of Google again?
  • What was different about these two ad campaigns?  Was it the visual I used, or was it different text descriptions? 
  • Why did I pay-per-click for this ad but paid per 1,000 views on this one? 

A Streamlined Ad Dashboard – The Key to Digital Marketing Success?

Ad360’s streamlined ad dashboard centralizes all your ad channels to one cozy, intuitive interface.  Think of it like consolidating your debt for a lower interest rate – a single central ad dashboard empowers business owners to take their digital marketing to the next level!

Advertising on multiple platform of your choice, and across the entire web – will feel easy.  By broadening your reach and focusing your promotional efforts, a single central ad dashboard gives you the best chance to increase your sales on Shopify.

Instead of having to open multiple tabs to check in on each ad campaign’s progress, manually record them in a spreadsheet, and compare the numbers by hand, Ad360’s central ad dashboard automatically records key marketing metrics for you.  In doing so, business owners can take a “bird’s eye view” of their overall digital marketing efforts, honing in on key areas to improve their brand message.

Experience Ad360’s Central Ad Dashboard for Yourself

Ad360 offers a free demo to e-commerce business owners trying to improve their digital marketing strategy.  Reach out today for a chance to streamline all your ad channels under one roof, along with the ability to create new ad campaigns with a single click.  If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed keeping track of your online promotions, give us a call 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. 😊

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Growth Academy

Budgeting for Facebook Ad Success

Introduction: A Dollar Spent, 10 Dollars Earned

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

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

Setting a Daily Budget

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

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

Test Ad Sets before scaling up

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

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

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

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

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

Conclusion: Who can Help Analyze my Facebook Ad Data?

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

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Growth Academy

Deal with Custom Audiences in Facebook

Custom Audiences = Complexity Explosion

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

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

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

Why Are Custom Audiences So Important for Facebook Ads?

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

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

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

The Basics of Building Custom Facebook Audiences

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

Data source

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

Demographics

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

Location

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

Interests

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Growth Academy

Boost your Shopify Store with Facebook Ads

Simple, Bold Strategies to Boost Sales with Facebook Ads

Introduction – Reach a Sea of Two Billion

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

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

The Basics: Account Setup & Goals

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

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

Target Audiences: Time to Pick your Lane

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

1. Age

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

2. Location

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

3. Interests

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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