Own an E-commerce Store? Use These E-Commerce Advertising Tips to Maximize Revenue
The e-commerce industry is booming. As the percentage of worldwide sales continues to skew online, e-commerce businesses need to prepare. More traditional retailers will begin to saturate the e-commerce market, forcing online businesses that are thriving to adjust. To capitalize on this trend, e-commerce businesses need to start utilizing e-commerce paid media strategies.
Why? Because paid ads can increase brand awareness by 80%. With more brand awareness comes more familiarity, and a sense of trust that (definitely) leads to purchases.
However, to fully optimize your e-commerce paid media strategies, there are some tactics you have to keep in mind. From utilizing data from your Shopify Plus store to diversifying spending on your product line, there are tons of ways you can optimize your e-commerce advertising for maximum revenue and ROI.
Further along, we’ll dive into our seven most actionable e-commerce paid media tips that you can implement today. But first, let’s talk a little bit more about paid media.
Why E-Commerce Businesses Should Be Leveraging Paid Media
Organic marketing efforts alone cannot fully support your e-commerce business. Drawing from our SEO and PPC guide, 80% of all website traffic comes from both organic and paid searches. Without a paid media strategy for your e-commerce store, you’re giving up 15% of website traffic at least. In short, you’re leaving a lot left on the table.
That’s why it’s essential for e-commerce businesses to leverage and optimize their paid media strategies: it drives more traffic, and with the right sales funnel marketing strategies, it can also lead to more revenue.
To get started, here are our seven most actionable tips that you can integrate into your e-commerce paid media strategy today.
E-Commerce Advertising Tips
- Utilize Shopify Plus First-Party Data
For e-commerce stores that have Shopify Plus, utilizing the proprietary first-party data that their platform provides is a must for e-commerce paid media success. First-party data has many benefits including increased Return on Investment (ROI), more meaningful audience insights, and a heightened understanding of consumer behavior. All of this information together can help e-commerce brands develop sales personas for more precise targeting in e-commerce advertising campaigns.
E-commerce stores that don’t have Shopify Plus can also use first-party data to influence their paid media strategies, it just takes a little bit more work. Using platforms like Google Analytics 4, email and SMS data, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, and first-hand customer feedback can provide a deeper understanding of your ideal audience’s purchasing behavior, setting you up for success as you develop your next e-commerce paid media strategy.
- Take Advantage of Meta Advantage+ Campaigns
For paid social, it’s also recommended to test Advantage+ shopping campaigns through Meta. Advantage+ campaigns are simpler than manual input campaigns and use machine learning technology to streamline the creative management process, helping drive sales and revenue.
Advantage+ campaigns on Meta have already seen proven results. The hyper-casual game publisher SayGames implemented this feature when promoting their game Stealth Master in August of 2022. The results? An 11% lower cost per download, a 12% lower cost per custom event, and a 15% higher return on ad spend (ROAS) compared to manual setup.
- Implement Social Commerce Features
There is also a ton of potential for e-commerce stores to capitalize on social commerce to increase sales and conversion from their paid advertising for e-commerce.
Features like Facebook Shops, Instagram Shopping, Pinterest Shopping, and TikTok Shop are prime examples of this. Social commerce platforms generated $53.1 billion in revenue in 2022 for the U.S., and it's only expected to continue growing. By 2025, the worldwide social commerce market will hit almost $1.6 trillion
The reason why this is working is because the User Experience for social commerce is seamless. Consumers can flow through the entire sales funnel without leaving their social media app of choice, and the e-commerce industry has seen an uptick in preferences for that experience, as the number of U.S. social buyers is expected to increase by 35%.
- Apply Performance Max Campaign Scripts
Our final tip for running e-commerce paid media campaigns is using Performance Max scripts on Google. Here’s Nicole Santana, director of paid media at Marketwake, with her insights:
“Find a script that can pull and aggregate you’re spending by placement across shopping, search, display, video, and performance at the asset group level. This helps you see what placements are working for you. You can also find scripts that help you refine negative keywords to apply in your Performance Max campaigns.”
With the help of Marketwake, Machete has already seen success using Performance Max script tactics like the one mentioned above. In just one quarter, they saw a 3X ROAS for their Performance Max campaigns and improved efficiency across all of their media channels in the process.
- Keep Your Products In-Stock
The biggest e-commerce advertising mistake you can make? Having out-of-stock or low-inventory products. In terms of efficiency, you don’t want to spend a lot of money on a product that is not available. Make sure that the product you’re pushing has enough inventory to meet the needs of the campaign you’re implementing.
- Analyze Products With Narrow Profit Margins
Another mistake to avoid: not taking stock of your actual profit analysis for an item with narrow profit margins. If the majority of your media spend is going to that product, your revenue may look great in terms of performance stats and ROAS. However, there could be an opportunity to diversify your investments and focus on where your e-commerce business’s true profits lie when you begin spending on e-commerce advertising for different product lines.
“Don't be scared to look at the micro details and really dig into it. Sometimes, that's where the real magic happens.“
- Nicole Santana, Director of Paid Media at Marketwake
- Make Pinterest a Priority
Here’s one thing we find underrated in e-commerce advertising: Pinterest. After COVID-19, Pinterest had a huge resurgence because tons of people went back to their former browsing behaviors.
One thing that Pinterest does right is migrating organic and paid search efforts. When you boost a pin on Pinterest, it lives organically on your Pinterest board too. With this, you get two levels of exposure. It gives e-commerce brands an opportunity to expand their reach into something outside of their niche. It makes for a more holistic brand experience on the platform and can help you position your brand on the front line of your industry in a way that other media channels don’t allow.
Going back to Machete, the notable e-commerce jewelry brand saw a 4X ROAS on their Pinterest video campaigns in one quarter with Marketwake’s paid media strategies. It all goes to show, don’t sleep on Pinterest.
Investing In E-Commerce Advertising
As a full-service growth marketing agency, we know it can be tough to implement the right e-commerce marketing strategies for your business. However, with the right audiences, placements, and a strong digital marketing strategy, it can be easier than you think.
At Marketwake, we’re the experts in e-commerce paid media, and we can help you with any of your e-commerce advertising needs. We’ve worked with e-commerce brands like Machete, multiplying their ROAS three times over in some cases. And, we’re here to do the same for you.
Ready to chat? Contact us. Let’s work together to set up an unbeatable e-commerce paid media strategy for your brand.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is Paid Media in E-Commerce?
Paid media in e-commerce refers to marketing strategies that use paid placement on media platforms rather than organic. These include pay-per-click advertising, social commerce, and search engine ads. It is used to drive traffic and sales by purchasing exposure on platforms like Google, Facebook, Instagram, and other online platforms.
How Can I Improve My E-Commerce Content?
To improve your e-commerce content, focus on creating high-quality, engaging product descriptions, use clear and appealing product images, and incorporate customer reviews for authenticity and trust-building. You can use our guide to driving e-commerce organic traffic to help.
What Is the Best Way to Use Social Media for E-Commerce?
The best way to use social media for e-commerce (especially with paid media) is to create engaging content tailored to your target audience, leverage shoppable posts, and run targeted ads to drive traffic and conversions on your site.
