Tag: store

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Growth Academy

From Brick-and-Mortar to Online Expert

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

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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

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Growth Academy

10x more Efficient Video Ads

Targeted Video Ad
Geo-targeted digital video ad

How can Smaller Businesses Achieve the Same Value for Their Ads?

For most business owners, talking about a $6.5 million Super Bowl advertisement may seem like a moot point. Few companies, even large ones, are willing to dole out that kind of cash for a single 30-second ad spot. However, there are ways online to achieve even better CPM, regardless of the size of your business. To get the highest-value CPM, business owners online need to streamline whom they reach: it simply is cost-ineffective to blast out ads randomly across the web. There are three key traits business owners can target to raise the value of their ad dollars spent:

  1. Targeting customers based on precise geographic location
  2. Targeting customers who have explicitly expressed interest in stores like your yours
  3. Retargeting “likely customers” who have already browsed your store once before

By showing ads to these highly targeted groups of customers online, even local business owners can achieve a similar CPM on their ad dollars as major brands do at the Super Bowl – perhaps even better!!

Digital Video Ads: The Most Cost-efficient Way for Small Businesses to be Seen on TV

Traditional business owners may be unaware that they can run these highly targeted ads on smart TV apps – welcome to the big screen!! When picturing TV promotions, most business owners probably think of local car salesmen running 30-second spots on cable.

Now, businesses can run remarkably efficient ads on Smart TV apps, like Netflix, Hulu, Roku, and so forth. That technology really exists! Your products can be seen on the family’s big screen when folks settle in to Netflix and chill. In fact, with the technology available to target such specific groups of customers, digital video ads are arguably the most cost-effective ad formats available to business owners today. 

For example, imagine you are a local shop owner, and so you only want to pay for ad space that reaches your neighborhood – literally a couple of blocks. Furthermore, within that neighborhood, you only want your digital smart ad to be seen by those who have expressed interest in products like yours, through social media or other shared information. If you were, say, a medical apparel company, you could target local families with individuals working in the medical field – and not waste a cent more on anyone else. That is the secret to making digital video ads so cost-effective. The surgical precision on where and when to spend your ad dollars is made so much more efficient with this “smart ad” marketing strategy.

We recorded a video to explain in more details how this is possible:

These “hypertargeting” promotional tools save business owners from shooting blanks with their ad spots. That is why we at Ad360 can claim that our marketing sales apps could make your advertisements 10x more efficient. Instead of spending money showing ads to people who will quickly ignore and scroll past, all your resources are concentrated on the very specific groups of customers very likely to take an interest in your Shopify store!

Having trouble figuring out how exactly you’d do that? Contact Ad360 for a free demo and 24/7 support today. Ad360 is a fully automated promotional platform that streamlines all your ad campaigns to one place. We can set up your highly targeted ad campaigns, find the best customers… and then you can brag not only about knowing the CPM of Super Bowl ads next year. You can celebrate sales of your Shopify store multiplying several times over – that’s what we call a game-changer.

Contact Ad360 for a free demo today! 

Categories
Growth Academy

Making sense of Insanely Expensive TV Ads


Impress Your Friends at the Super Bowl: A Fun Breakdown of Why Insanely Expensive Super Bowl Ads are Worth it.

Life-Changing Money for You = 30 Second Super Bowl Ad for Brands

Think of all the things you could do with $6.5 million cash today. Buy a home, maybe 2. Definitely a few cars. Hell, I’d go for a boat. That kind of money would be not just life-changing, but would bring a new meaning to the phrase “generational wealth” for your family.

… That’s what companies spend for a 30 second Super Bowl ad. Money that would change your entire life is blown in 30 seconds for some silly commercial.

The question is, is that marketing exposure worth it for brands? Is ad space on the Super Bowl really that likely to drive traffic to their stores? Check out this fun, simple breakdown that makes sense of why brands would be willing to throw so much money for a 30-second spotlight on Super Bowl Sunday!

Think in Terms of “Cost per 1,000 Viewers”

In the marketing world, promotional efforts are evaluated based on cost “per 1,000 viewers” – expressed in the acronym CPM. (Actually CPV, but we’ll get back to the difference between CPM and CPV in another article).

Now, you have to remember, the Super Bowl is the most-watched event of the year in the largest market in the world – the USA.

$6.5 million for a 30-second ad may sound ludicrous at first, but consider the fact that 117 million people watch the Super Bowl. That is a lot of eyeballs on your product.

To calculate CPM on this, follow the simple math below:

$6,500,000/117,000,000 people = $0.055 so just about ~5 cents a person

$0.055*1,000 viewers = $55 spent for 1,000 viewers of your ad

When you break it down like that, the value of super bowl ads starts to make a little more sense… but still. The sheer scale of this money is hard to wrap your head around. Furthermore, you have to consider reruns and “viral moments” on social media, bringing further exposure to the brand message. Imagine your friend makes some silly meme on a commercial, and it gets viewed millions of times… that value of that ad just shot up exponentially.

Thus, when factoring in reruns and the viral nature of social media, we can guesstimate that the CPM of a super bowl is probably 2-3 times lower: maybe around $20-22 for 1,000 viewers.

Want more details on how we got to the result, here is a YouTube video we recorded on this topic:

How can $6.5 million for a 30-seconds ad can be worth it???

…Only $20 to reach 1,000 likely buyers? Now the Super Bowl ads are starting to make a LOT of sense. And hey, bring this up at your next Super Bowl watch party, and you’ll definitely sound like the smartest kid in class 😉 

How can Smaller Businesses Achieve the Same Value for Their Ads?

For most business owners, this may seem like a moot point. Few companies, even large ones, are willing to dole out that kind of cash for a single 30-second ad spot. However, there are ways online to achieve even better CPM, regardless of the size of your business. 

If you’d like to know more, stay tuned for tomorrow’s article. We’ll explain some alternatives for small business owners to run much cheaper but potentially more effective ads. 

Do you want to know more today about running clever ads for a fraction of the cost of Super Bowl ads? Contact Ad360 for a free demo and 24/7 support today. Ad360 is a fully automated promotional platform that streamlines all your ad campaigns to one place. We can set up your highly targeted ad campaigns, find the best customers… and then you can brag not only about knowing the CPM of Super Bowl ads next year. You can celebrate sales of your Shopify store multiplying several times over – that’s what we call a game-changer.

Contact Ad360 for a free demo today!  

Categories
Growth Academy

How to use the Creative Studio?

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

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

1. Go the Creatives. tab

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


2. Creative Studio Page.

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

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

3. Personalize your Banners.

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

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

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

4. Save your template.

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

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Growth Academy

Frank’s story pt3: the power of hyperlocal

store visitors
local ads to bring visitors

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Categories
Growth Academy

Frank’s story pt2: Making Ads Work

store traffic
bringing traffic to online store

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Categories
Growth Academy

Ecommerce Ads beyond Google and Facebook

Online Ads
Website Ads to bring back visitors to your shop

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

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

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

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


Stay Local, Advertise Internationally

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

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

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

Categories
Growth Academy

Your online shop is ready; now what?

ecommerce shop
Ecommerce shop

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

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

…. No Traffic

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

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

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

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

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

Categories
Growth Academy

Why retargeting outperforms all other ads

Hit the bullseye with Retargeting

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

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

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

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

Retargeting Achieves Higher Conversion Rates

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

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

Retargeting will get you more sales and revenue. 

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

Reinforce Brand Awareness

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

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

Conclusion

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

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

Categories
Growth Academy

Stop ignoring 97% of your potential buyers!

Targeting Illustration
Parachute landing on target.

Gone are the days of traditional marketing; the world has, and is still evolving digitally with no signs of stopping in sight. This is why you – as a business owner – need to re-evaluate your business and marketing strategies on a regular basis. If you want to drive customers to your website/business, you need to advertise, and you need to do it over and over again. 

Why?

Because according to Business Insider, over 97% of the people who visit your website for the first time are likely to leave without buying anything. This is where it becomes crucial to bring them back, otherwise, they will be lost forever. 

The solution for this is “Retargeting”.

No worries if you don’t know what this is or how it works. Ad360 is here to help businesses of all sizes get more results out of their online activites! You’re about to learn everything you need to know to make a massive difference in your business and get more sales! 

So let’s turn back to retargeting and discover how it can help your business grow.

What is Retargeting?

Retargeting is the process, rather, a strategy that keeps reminding visitors who have visited your website once that you still exist. This is done via ads and is one of the most powerful ways to re-engage with customers. It allows you to reconnect with potential customers online (on websites and even on apps) and convert them into paying customers. 

Basically, you are targeting people who have visited or interacted with your website previously at least once. This includes people who abandoned shopping carts. 

Unfortunately, this is an option too frequently averted by new and small businesses; this is a big mistake!

Why is Overlooking Retargeting a Mistake?

Because retargeting focuses on people who are already familiar with your brand. If your brand reappears to them over a course of time, it is proven that they will return and shop from your site. Over 92% of people who visit your site for the first time are not yet ready to make a purchase; retargeting them over and over helps to ease them in and convert them into paying customers. 

Retargeting will keep you on the top of their mind the next time they are out to look for a product you are hosting/selling on your website. Websites that employ retargeting experience higher Return On Investment (ROI). The goal of a retargeting campaign is to make potential customers take action that they didn’t on their initial visit. 

How does Retargeting Work?

Most of the people have already experienced retargeting and have converted into paying customers without even knowing. 

  • When a customer visits your website, their visit data is store in a privacy-compliant way. 
  • Instead of showing ads to random people on the internet, retargeting will use all the information about the activities of the customers (the product they viewed, etc.) to show only relevant ads to persons that have shown an interest in your products. 
  • When the customer visits some other website that displays ads, they will be served ads based on those or similar products that are available on your website.

By constantly reminding them of those products and having your website just a click away for them, the ad campaign will prompt the customer to click on the ad and redirect them to your website where they will take the desired action: make a purchase. 

Note the importance of repetition!

There is a marketing rule of thumb where if you really want to make up a visitor’s mind to make a purchase from your website, you must ensure they see your ad at least 7 more times. This means in order to convert a visitor into a customer, you must use retargeting to show them your ad repeated so they finally make up their mind about purchasing from your website. Not to mention it greatly increases your brand visibility to people who already have displayed an interest in your products. 

Benefits of Retargeting

According to InternetSearchInc., over 56% of businesses employ retargeting to win more customers. And if more businesses knew about retargeting, this figure would be much higher. According to Google, by combining retargeting with other marketing and advertisement strategies, you can increase sales by 50%.

Retargeting allows new businesses to regain loyal customers over a period and serves as a long-term strategy. You can use it to:

  • Showcase your best selling products along with promoting other items that are popular among your targeted audience, increasing your ROI gradually
  • It helps you promote new products to an already existing audience and let them know how you are expanding your inventory to include a new variety of different types of products; this makes them revisit your website and view those products
  • You can show ads about sales and special promotions to your audience without having to put in any extra efforts
  • It keeps your brand on top of their mind and the next time they need to make a purchase; they will visit your site instead of looking for a new place to shop from

Conclusion

Retargeting is a low-budget yet highly efficient technique that has helped new and small businesses develop an online presence as well as a loyal customer base. 

Ad360 App for Shopify make it easy for individuals who are not tech-savvy to develop their brand further with its advanced easy-to-use features. Grow your online sales and business by generating more visibility, traffic, and sales.

If you want to learn more and or helped with implementing retargeting, book a demo and see by yourself how we’ll help you boost your business outlook.