Want to know how to improve your eCommerce sales and drive traffic with paid campaigns? Our paid advertising guide will explain what ad campaigns are, where you can place them online for shoppers to see, and how they can improve your online store sales.
When used in conjunction with analytics, ad campaigns will help you define your target audience so you can source and promote products that fly off of your virtual shelves.
I. Ad Campaigns Made Simple
Every day when you watch TV or use your phone to access social media you’re exposed to ad campaigns. Simply put, an ad campaign is a set of ads designed to achieve a particular advertising goal. Some of the ways ad campaigns are used include:
- To increase brand awareness
- To promote a new product or product feature
- To generate potential leads
You can promote your online store in many ways. With eCommerce ad campaigns, you can see exactly how each campaign promotion performs by collecting data. With that, you can optimize ad campaigns so you spend very little, but get a big return on advertising.
II. Where Can You Advertise With E-commerce Ad Campaigns?
Given the digital age we live in, the potential for online advertising is limitless! Here are a couple of tried and true methods you can use for running ads:
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Google Adwords and Google Shopping Campaigns
Google provides two options when it comes to running eCommerce advertising: Google Adwords and Google Shopping campaigns. Google Adwords can increase the search ranking for your eCommerce site so that it appears higher in Google search results. Google Shopping campaigns are more specific and will place ads under the “Shopping” section of Google searches. Experiment with running ads using both systems to see which is more cost-effective for your advertising.
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Create an E-commerce Ads Campaign on Facebook or Instagram
Social media grants online store owners an opportunity for easy online advertising. Facebook’s Creator Studio makes it simple to create and save audiences you can use to target and test your ads on both Facebook and Instagram. Facebook Ads Manager puts all of the data for your Facebook and Instagram ads in one place so you can easily view how everything is performing.
III. How Do Successful Online Stores Use Ad Campaigns?
Shopify stores and other online retailers employ many different eCommerce advertising techniques to ensure their ad campaigns are as successful as possible. Successful online stores use ad campaigns to:
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Define a Target Audience and Grow a Following
You can collect a tremendous amount of data when you run an ad campaign, including information about your audience. To run successful ad campaigns, you need to understand how people are searching for your products and which social media platforms they use.
A successful online store owner knows how to use eCommerce analytics to define their audience and target their ads so they appear where potential customers will see them. Correctly placed ads with the right messaging will increase brand awareness and help you gain an online following. That way, you can convert your audience into customers who complete purchases.
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Boost New Products, New Product Features, and Seasonal Promotions
Successful eCommerce stores increase sales with paid campaigns by promoting new products and seasonal offers. An online store ads campaign gets the word out about a new product or service you’re offering – these ads have the potential to reach both prospective customers and customers you already have who may be interested in something new you have going on.
If your inventory changes seasonally or you run promotions during certain times of the year like sales for Memorial Day or Labor Day, online store ad campaigns are great for keeping your customers informed.
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Create and Refine an E-commerce Marketing Budget
Figuring out a marketing budget can be tricky when you’re learning how to build an online store and promote it. Successful eCommerce stores use ads not only to promote their stores but also to create and adjust their marketing budgets. It’s simple to create a budget for marketing and adjust it monthly, or even weekly, based on how your ad campaigns perform online.
IV. Discover How Your Competitors Use Ad Campaigns
Maximize the impact of your eCommerce advertising budget by learning from your competitors. That way, you avoid making mistakes with your ads. You can spy on winning stores using Shopify apps! The new Ad Campaigns feature from Koala Inspector provides a quick and easy way for you to do competitor research and make the most of your eCommerce ads.
Koala Inspector supplies business intelligence for paid ad campaigns so you can see where paid ads from Shopify stores appear online. Follow these steps, and with just a couple of clicks, you can utilize this paid advertising tool for Shopify stores to discover how to increase sales with paid campaigns:
Step 1: Open the Koala Inspector Chrome browser extension while browsing any Shopify store.
Step 2: Click “Ad Campaigns” in the navigation bar on the left side of the Koala Inspector window to access the ad campaigns of the Shopify store you want to spy on.
Step 3: Click on “Google”, “Facebook”, or “Instagram” to see the ads your competitors are currently running online.
This Shopify app is free to download. Now you can discover the eCommerce advertising techniques of your competition to inspire your next project and produce successful ad campaigns. Check out the video below to learn more!
If you want to get the most out of your eCommerce ads campaign, a little competitor research goes a long way. Instead of running ads blindly, take a look at how your competition does it through successful eCommerce marketing. Then follow their example!
Ready to get started? Make competitor research as easy as possible. Download Koala Inspector to see how other online stores in your niche are advertising. Koala Inspector is offering new users 20 credits to use the new Ad Campaigns feature!
