When building an e-commerce brand, social media should play a vital role in helping you get the word out so you can reach new audiences and promote your products.
Of course, as I’ve learned in my own e-commerce endeavors at Grit Daily and consulting elsewhere, not all Facebook Ad campaigns are created equal. You can have a great product that should appeal to a wide audience, but if your Ad content isn’t quite right or your targeting metrics are off, you’ll have a hard time generating new sales from Facebook.
The good news is that implementing change doesn’t have to be as daunting a task as you might think. As these tips reveal, a few key adjustments can make a big difference for your e-commerce brand’s results:
1) Unleash the power of the marketplace
There’s no denying that Facebook Ads can feel intrusive at times, especially when you just want to see the latest posts from friends or family. But many Facebook users go onto the platform actively seeking out products through Facebook Marketplace. While many individuals use this to sell unwanted items in a type of virtual garage sale, businesses can also use Marketplace listings to great effect.
A minimalist wallet brand found great success doing exactly this. As reported in a case study conducted by Facebook, the brand elected to promote its wallet collections using dynamic ads in Facebook Marketplace.
Mobile-friendly placements that featured pricing, product descriptions, and “Shop Now” links yielded hundreds of new sales, while reducing the brand’s cost per conversion by 17 percent and increasing their overall return on ad spend by 41 percent.
Placing Ads in an area where Facebook users are already interested in buying something can dramatically improve your campaign’s cost-effectiveness.
2) Install the Facebook pixel on your site
Not everyone who visits your website after clicking on a Facebook ad will make a purchase. This should be expected. According to research by Invesp, globally, the average conversion rate for an e-commerce site is a mere 2.86 percent. Even the highest-converting sites rarely exceed a 20 percent conversion rate.
Conversion rates are so low in part because buyers need several exposures to your products before they make a purchase. This is where the Facebook pixel comes in handy. The Facebook pixel is essentially a piece of code that can be embedded in your website.
This code is triggered when someone takes a certain action (such as visiting a piece of content or adding an item to their shopping cart) after viewing your Facebook ad.
This allows you to measure the effectiveness of Facebook ads by gaining insights into customer behavior. It also enables you to use these actions to create custom audiences (such as those who abandoned their shopping cart) so you can create more relevant and tightly targeted ad content in the future.
3) Tell a story with carousel and collection ads
E-commerce brands generally have several products that they’re trying to sell. But even if your current campaign only focuses on a single product, one image often isn’t enough to tell the full story that will convince potential buyers to make a purchase.
Rather than running a series of ads, you can use Facebook carousel ads to tell a complete story in a single post. Carousel ads allow you to feature up to 10 photos or videos in a single ad, making this a great option for showcasing a product lineup.
Another similar option is a collection ad, which allows marketers to display smaller snapshots of four or more products underneath the primary image.
These ad formats led to big results for fashion brand alice + olivia by Stacey Bendet. According to a Facebook case study, the use of these ad formats across Facebook and Instagram helped the brand increase year-over-year revenue by 72 percent, while also doubling its number of new website visitors.
4) Create urgency with your copy
It’s no secret that writing compelling copy will have a big impact on the success of your Facebook Ads. But if you really want to compel potential buyers to make a purchase, you have to use powerful words that create a sense of urgency.
This is easiest to accomplish when you’re running a limited time promotion — phrases like “offer expires,” “today only” or “last chance” indicate that the deal won’t be around for long. However, you don’t have to limit the use of such language to times when you’re running a special sale. Even phrases like “don’t miss out” or “buy now” can create a sense of urgency.
Of course, such phrases should never come at the expense of delivering your unique value proposition in your ad’s headline. However, tapping into the scarcity principle will make your content more compelling and persuasive — quite often being enough to convince a potential customer to take a closer look at your e-commerce shop.
A smarter way to use Facebook Ads
Facebook has changed significantly over the years, going from a way for college students to keep in touch with their friends to becoming the world’s biggest social media platform and a key part of countless marketing strategies.
As an e-commerce entrepreneur, Facebook Ads are one of your most important resources for finding new potential customers and increasing sales. By using these tips to better reach your target audience and make your ads more compelling, you will see the profits and growth you need to succeed.
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