Tag: Increase Sales on Shopify

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Growth Academy

Why Mobile Ads are Superior to Desktop Ads

Mobile Ads and Desktop Ads
Mobile Ads represent a great opportunity that is still underused

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 scenario.  Hyperlocal 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

Google Retail Search Released to the Public

Google Retail Search
Google releases Retail Search to the general public.

Searching but Not Finding: the Phenomena of Search Abandonment

Picture the common scenario, where, frustrated by the lack of results on their search, a customer leaves your site without buying anything.

That simple snafu costs ecommerce retailers over $300 billion a year.

Amazing, right?  Such a simple hitch in the process can bleed billions of dollars in the ecommerce industry.  Even retail giants like Macy’s and Ikea suffer from search abandonment, so you are not alone!

Luckily enough, Google recently released its Google Retail Search to the general public, bringing the power of Google’s search engine to all online retailers.  Read below how this new Google tool can help increase your sales on Shopify!

Why Google’s Retail Search is a Win for E-Commerce

A recent poll discovered that 94% of US customers abandon an online shopping session due to irrelevant search results.  Imagine that a shopper types in, “comfy winter sweater” to your search bar… they probably won’t get very precise results! 

However, with Google Retail Search, backing software would be able to link the customer’s buying intent, no matter how general in their search, to specific products available in your store.  Most ecommerce sites have search bars that, if the specific product name is typed, can provide the result quickly for users.

But what about all the potential customers who don’t know your brand’s products yet?  Navigating around to find the item that fits their match can be a chore they refuse to do, especially when ecommerce giants may be able to provide better search matches.

How Google Retail Search Helps Increase Sales on Shopify

Google Retail Search will help boost your Shopify sales in a few ways:

1. Advanced Query Understanding

This function provides high-quality search results for even the broadest searches.  If you sell footwear, and someone types in, “shoes for the beach,” instead of telling them, “What can’t find that specific product, can you refine your search?”  It will bring up a list of all your products that fit the context. 

2. Semantic Search

You will be able to better gauge “customer intent” to match them with the best-fitting products on site.

3. Personalized Results

Google Retail Search will also factor in each user’s previous searches through their search engine optimizing their experience and providing them tailor-made search results, even on your Shopify site!  All of this is done automatically for your ecommerce business.

4. State-of-the-art Customer Data Security

While the search results provided by Google Retail Search are personalized, Google implements “strong access controls” to ensure your customer data is anonymized and protected

Conclusion: Google Retail Search is Worth a Trial

As a certified Google partner, Ad360 knows the power of leveraging Google’s incredible search engine, ad platform, and analytics technology.  If you want any advice or help implement Google Retail Search to your ecommerce site, contact us at Ad360 today!  We provide a free website review, along with a free trial.  That way, we can test your search query and see what comes up 😊  Less search abandonment could increase sales on Shopify, so don’t hesitate to check out Google Retail Search!

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Growth Academy

3 Ways to Increase Sales on Shopify

3 ways to increase sales with Shopify
Use these 3 techniques to increase your Shopify Sales

Introduction: Learn Vital Ecommerce Marketing Strategies

Finding the “right way” to promote your e-commerce business can feel like a crapshoot.  With so many social media platforms and “search engines” to buy adspace on, unfocused or disorganized ad campaigns can quickly lose their sense of purpose.  If your promotional efforts are not organized into a coherent marketing strategy, you can end up draining your funds with no results!

This post provides a few key promotional skills for ecommerce business owners who feel flustered while attempting to increase sales on Shopify.  It will help you slow down your racing thoughts, consider different marketing angles, and put your marketing budget to good use!  If you believe in your product, it’s time to give it the strong marketing it deserves – read below to boost your Shopify sales success!

Trust Badges: Easy Way to Increase Sales on Shopify

They are so subtle you may breeze past them while browsing, but “trust badges” on your homepage and checkout window have a profound psychological impact on customers.  Trust badges are the little logos, usually the bottom of web pages, that indicate the following about your website:

  • Verified “secure socket layer/transport layer security” (SSL/TLS) encrypted checkout

This trust badge means a third-party encryption system has verified and monitors your site’s security at checkout.  Seeing a trust badge from “trust lock,” for example, makes customers less likely to abandon their cart for fear of having their payment info compromised!  Check out a list of the best SSL/TLS third-party providers here

  • Verified Accepted Payments Badge

To increase sales on Shopify and gain the trust of their customers, online businesses should apply for certifications from “accepted payment” giants.  “Verified by Visa” and “Verified by Paypal” are two of the most-recognizable badges, and you can start the certification process by clicking the links here and here!

  • Third-Party Endorsement Badge

Trust badges verifiable from the BBB or Trusted Site are also well-recognized by customers.  To increase sales on Shopify, align your ecommerce business with one or both, linked here and here

One key thing to note: MAKE THE BADGES REAL AND VERIFIABLE BY “CLICKING THROUGH.”  Many sites will simply “copy + paste” an existing trust badge from Google or literally generate their own.  This is a big mistake, as trust badges are not legally binding.  They are only as valuable as the reputation of the third parties you link to. 

For example, if your “Trustlock” or “Verified by Visa” trust badge does not allow the user to “click through” and see the formal certification, it could actually make the users more skeptical, not less, or buying from your site.  To increase sales on Shopify, use only trust badges you applied for and got verified by trusted third parties for.  Don’t make up your own and slap them on your site.  They mean nothing at that point.

Go Mobile

The number of web searches (and web surfing) done from mobile devices has more than doubled from –  from 27% in 2013 to 63% in 2021.  That trend will only continue to go up, so it’s important that e-commerce business owners know how to create mobile-friendly websites and ad campaigns.  Mobile ad campaigns will become the primary way to increase sales on Shopify within the next several years, if it is not already.  Google has a nice breakdown of how to do so here, but, for the sake of conciseness and clarity, it boils down to a few key points:

  1. Shorten text and simplify with “Call to action” buttons centered on the page
  2. Include pictures/slideshows and videos
  3. Using sitelinks to connect your Shopify page without taking too much space up
  4. Add location extensions to connect mobile users to your brick-and-mortar location

Researching and implementing mobile-friendly ad campaigns is a promotional technique that very likely will increase sales on Shopify.  If you are running ads only viewable and optimized from a computer, you are basically missing out on two thirds of your potential customers!

Do Influencers Help Drive Traffic & Increase Shopify Sales? 

The short answer – YES.  There is a reason the idea of becoming an “influencer” is so trendy among young folk: they work.  They are an unaffiliated direct line to pools of potential customers who, for one reason or another, consider it worth part of their day to scroll and wonder, “I wonder what my favorite influencer is spending their money on?” 

The big advantage is the influencer themselves has done all the legwork of building a level of “credibility” and “trust” among their fanbase.  You simply ride their coattails to push your products, and thousands of followers deduce, “If my favorite influencer put their name behind this product, it must be worth buying.”

Now, you don’t have to hire the entire Kardashian family to have influencer-led ad campaigns increase your sales on Shopify.  There is a simple method to reach out to “nano” (1,000 – 10,000 followers) or “micro” influencers (10,000 – 50,000 followers) that can fit a smaller business’s budget while they scale up:

  1. Go to Tik Tok, Instagram, or a similar social media platform
  2. Search a hashtag relevant to your business (e.g. – #fashion for a clothing site)
  3. Scroll through the pages until you find influencers worth reaching out to
  4. Contact them!

Make sure you feel the payment process you agree to with the influencer is protected, and track the results to see if the influencer actually posted, and if that post got some nice engagement.  While these folks aren’t your friends, they are more than happy to provide access to their follower base for the right number!  Do not be afraid to contact influencers – they are looking to promote products that pay them well and don’t shred their reputation.  If you think you guys are good fit, reach out like you would any other business!

Conclusion

Verifiable trust badges, mobile-friendly ad setups, and influencer-promoted products are all highly effective techniques to increase sales on Shopify.  However, learning how to display the trust badges, establish mobile ad designs, and configure influencer outreach can sound like an arduous task to do yourself.

IF you want help implementing the promotional skills listed above, contact Ad360 today for a free demo!  We can help rebuild your website with trust badges, design entire mobile ad campaigns from scratch, and we’ll help analyze the impact of influencers on driving traffic to your store.  Reach out today!

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Growth Academy

A Glossary to Increase Sales on Shopify

Ecommerce Glossary
Glossary of common ecommerce terms.

A common pattern we find with ecommerce business owners – especially one from brick-and-mortar shops – is frustration with the frustration with the jargon, acronyms, and lingo used when discussing ways to best increase sales on Shopify.

“This will help your CPC decrease, thereby increasing your ROAS and ensuring your website’s SEO becomes more robust and dynamic, funneling customers along the AIDA hierarchy.  In fact, we may move to a CPM ad model soon over CPC.  Or would prefer a PPC payment model?”

…. WHY!  WHY SO CONFUSING?!?!  It can almost seem like online marketers are purposefully throwing difficult jargon out there to test the business owner’s knowledge of the e-commerce landscape.  From there… it becomes doubtful their sole aim is to help your business increase sales on Shopify.  Instead, beating you over the head with technical lingo gives the sense marketers want to muddle the conversation to the point it’s impossible to get a straightforward answer on how exactly their services helps your business.  It all can feel very esoteric and disconnected from your promotional goals to increase sales on Shopify.

To help combat overcomplicated explanations, Ad360 wants to provide a small glossary of terms – and how they work in an online marketing context – so you feel knowledgeable and secure when discussing your business aims with potential clients or partners.  That way, as you search for ways to boost your Shopify sales, you won’t be lost when discussing the more technical side of online marketing.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

PPC (Pay-Per-Click) is a standard online advertising method, where businesses agree to a specific amount charged every time a customer actually “clicks” on their ad.  It involves setting a “maximum amount” you are willing to “per per click,” but, based on other factors, you may not end up actually paying that amount! 

Let’s say there are 3 keywords you want to establish a Google ad campaign for, and each one is ~$3 per click.  You want to make sure you get at least 100 clicks, so 100* 3 keywords *$3.00 per click = $900 ad budget.  HOWEVER!  If you pick keywords with less “competition” (less companies bidding for the same keyword), you can bring that cost down per click.  PPC ad channels are a fundamental tool to increase sales on Shopify. See the next term for more info on that 😊

Cost-Per-Click (CPC)

CPC (cost-per-click) is basically the “other side of the coin” and relates directly to PPC (pay-per-click).  While PPC (pay-per-click) is the actual ad campaign itself, CPC (cost-per-click) refers to the amount your business ends up actually paying to run the campaign.  Instead of the max amount you set, CPC refers to the “average cost per click” you end up paying.  Based on your ad’s quality, the keywords use, and the day-to-day changes in the marketplace, your CPC will fluctuate.  However, you will never pay more than the “max amount” you set when starting your “pay-per-click” (PPC) campaign.

CPC ad campaigns are best when the goal is not to spread broad awareness of visibility of your site, but for increasing sales on Shopify through upping your conversion rate.  By paying for each click, you are ensuring you do not pay a dime to the publisher until customers actually click on the ad. 

Cost Per 1,000 Impressions (CPM)

More accurately, CPM stands for “Cost per mille,” the latin prefix for “1,000.”  In contrast to “Pay-Per-Click” (CPC) campaigns, CPM campaigns focus on web visibility rather than conversions.  Businesses pay a certain amount per 1,000 “impressions,” meaning 1,000 people at least scrolled past the ad on their web browser or app. 

CPM campaigns are best for awareness campaigns in the online ecosystem because there is no guarantee users will actually engage with your ad.  If you only run CPM campaigns, you risk being scrolled by, paying for thousands of impressions but landing no conversions.  When trying to get customers comfortable with your brand, it can help to run a few CPM campaigns.  When looking to increase sales on Shopify by boosting conversions, you should consider other ad channels besides CPM.

Click-through Rate (CTR)

CTR (Click-through Rate) indicates the percentage of visitors who, after seeing your ad – referred to as an “impression” – actually took the step of consciously clicking your ad to view your landing page!  Major online advertisers like Google and Facebook keep track of how many “impressions” your ad received, meaning these metrics are available to online business owners.  Measuring your CTR will be important when analyzing how to best increase sales on Shopify.

CTR (click-through rate) is related to your conversion rate – the percentage of visitors who actually end up purchasing something.  For example, if you have 100 visitors and 10 perform a “buy” action, that is a 10% conversion rate (10/100).  Pay attention to both when assessing ways to improve your digital marketing strategy and boost sales on Shopify!

Return on Ads spent (ROAS)

Return on Ads Spent (ROAS) is a more convention marketing metric most business owners will understand and recognize.  Basically,

The wrinkle in ecommerce ROAS is making sure you use the right customer data and analytics to calculate an accurate ROAS for each campaign.  Whether using Facebook ads, Google ads, or another platform, remember you should be running segmented “niche” ad campaigns that may vary in their purpose and structure.  With that in mind, you want to attribute your increased revenue to the correct ads.  Doing so will ensure you can distinguish which ad channels are bringing in a high ROAS vs which ones, after A/B testing, are proving to be a dud with your audience.

ROAS is closely related to ROI (Return on Investment), which takes into account the product cost when calculating your overall profit margin.  When working to increase sales on Shopify, it is important to know the merits of each metric.  Again, taking the 360 degree view, it is important you can sort out which ad campaigns are attributed to bumps in your revenue!  Otherwise, any clarity on which ad channels are truly driving your ROAS become muddled.  Retrace which ads were responsible for which conversions, and you’ll gain much greater insight into what boosts your Shopify sales 😊  

Bounce Rate (BR)

These terms are more straightforward – bounce rate is simply the percentage of online users who leave your page without taking any action.  No further clicking, no purchases, nada.  Make sure to not let any slick-talking marketer take your bounce rate out of context.  Sure, it’s an important metric and acronym to know, but it doesn’t mean jack until it’s put into context with the rest of your website. 

Regardless, you want users to feel there are plenty of cool options to continue clicking through your site, so step into the shoes of the customer, check out your home page, and ask yourself, “What design pieces or clickable links/buttons can I put in here to keep my customer’s attention?”  Answering that question will be a big step toward increasing your sales on Shopify!

Call to Action (CTA)

Call to Action buttons are those “big shiny red buttons” in the movies that you want to click… in this case, the world won’t blow up if you do.  Instead, you’ll boost your Shopify sales!

While too many can become a distraction, make sure mobile ads, landing pages, email campaigns, and basically all your social media ads have clear, beautiful, aesthetically pleasing and even “fun-looking” CTA buttons.  One of the biggest issues Ad360 sees when working with clients is a lack of CTA buttons that make it easy for the customer to purchase from your site, converting more sales for you.  More conversions mean increased sales on Shopify, so definitely reassess how you have organized your CTA buttons across all your ads, social media posts, and your ecommerce site itself.

AIDA Customer Awareness Funnel –

AIDA is a customer model that segments your audience into 4 basic categories:

1. Attention – do customers know you exist?  Do they know they have a problem, and you offer a solution with your product?  At this point, you are providing valuable information to your customer, not being “pushy” or “In your face” with your product offering.  Folks ain’t ready yet.

2. Interest – Customers here are leaning forward.  They like what they heard already, and you’ve officially piqued their curiosity.  It doesn’t mean they are ready to buy, but they are primed to hear your offer.

3. Desire – Ok, now they’re ready to buy.  Here, you re-enforce why your product is desirable to your audience.  Take it from the point of view, “How do I communicate to my audience their lives will be better off buying my product?”  Make them desire that end goal.

4. Action – You have a customer ready to purchase!  Make sure your website is secure and optimized so the buying process is smooth, and follow up with them in an email newsletter or something of the sort!  You may have a new regular 😊

AIDA has utility in providing structure to multi-channel ad campaigns.  That way, different segments of your audience receive different messaging depending on their “awareness” of your product.  You can prepare ad banners that cater to each level of the AIDA funnel, giving you a 4-pronged attack when increasing sales on Shopify!  It’s a nice framework for guiding your promotional efforts.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is thrown around a ton, and we have done a full article on it here, but basically, it encompasses all the factors that help bump your ecommerce store on the rankings.  A higher ranking on Google directly correlates to increased sales on Shopify, so it is crucial you consider the SEO factors for your online business, some of which are listed below:

  • Genuinely interesting and engaging content with quality keywords
  • Good-length text descriptions
  • Site speed and optimized loading time
  • Quality backlinks that lead users from an outside side to yours (be prepared to pay for this)

Search Engine Results Page (SERP)

Search engine results dictate a huge portion of web traffic, and SERP is simply the acronym for the “pages” that list each result.  Being on page 1 is a highly, highly desirable position.  If your business makes it onto page of one Google’s SERPs, you will almost certainly see an increase in sales on Shopify.

Secure-Socket Layer/Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS)

Both SSL and TLS are acronyms for the technology that encrypts customer payment info at checkout.  Make sure you have a good provider and include their trust badge, verifiable by the customer by clicking on the badge itself.  The badge should lead directly to the third-party certification of your site.  These encrypted “checkout” technologies make your customer feel more secure when purchasing from your site, thereby increasing your customer conversion rate on Shopify. 

Quick note – TLS is the more modern and secure version of checkout encryption technology, so go for a TLS certification if you can manage it.

Conclusion: Knowing Digital Marketing Metrics can Boost Shopify Sales

Now if you see these words casually thrown around on the Internet, you’ll feel confident in your response.  Throwing out a piece of complicated jargon or acronyms is a classic way for marketers to “size up” what kind person they are dealing with.  Based on your response, they decide whether you are someone they can “gloss over” meaningful details with, or are someone who will ask hard questions and demand better solutions.  We hope this glossary of terms serves to make more the latter and not the former 😊

If you want 24/7 support willing to walk you through each stage of digital marketing, reach out for a free demo from Ad360 today!  Acronyms aside, we commit to providing services all relating back to the core goal: increasing your Shopify sales.  Boost your bottom line with Ad360 today!