What’s the goal of working so hard on your company’s social media? For most eCommerce businesses the answer is: increasing sales.
Remember that social media is a marketing tool. That means posting to social media is a long-game effort, that contributes to building your brand which will impact sales over time.
Still, most business owners want to see an uptick in sales right away. We can achieve that using social media by running paid ad campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Pinterest, for example.
Here are 5 tips that our agency uses to set up ads on social media that lead to sales.
Tips for social media ads that lead to sales
One: Set up your eCommerce site to integrate with social media sites
If you have an eCommerce site, you need to make sure it’s integrated with social media sites. On Facebook, you can do this with Facebook Pixel. Then you can build your product catalogue on Facebook, using Pixel to integrate that into other sites like Shopify and WooCommerce. This allows your website to share data with Facebook, in order to more accurately track where your online sales are coming from.
Two: Establish your target audience
The easiest customers to reach out to are the ones that are already interested in your brand or could quickly become interested. You can connect with these customers through a carefully constructed target audience list. Make sure you establish the type of customer you are targeting – the more specific, the better. Create cold audiences by narrowing down your customer’s age, interests, location and online activities. You’ll also want to show ads to warm audiences who have already interacted with your brand, by buying products, liking your social media posts, signing up to your email list, or visiting your website.
Three: Get product awareness
Now that you have your target audiences established, it’s time to start marketing. Doing conversion ad campaigns requires a multi-phase approach and money for ads, placements, and more. The first phase of a conversion campaign is getting people to know your brand. People usually aren’t going to buy your products when they’ve never even heard of your company. So create content to introduce yourself! Videos are great for this, as long as they are short and engaging. Once you’ve gotten your company name out there, you’re ready for the next stage…
Four: Foster product consideration
Now it’s all about your products. Don’t worry about selling them – focus on getting potential customers to look at them. Create ads that will drive people your site to scroll through the products you have available there. One of the best ways to do that is with photos of people engaging with the products. Just make sure the people are smiling and happy. This may sound like a cliche, but it is because it can make a huge difference in sales.
Five: Send out targeted campaigns
The final step is closing the deal. This is where you convert your audience into customers. You can do this through dynamic product ads. These are ads that show the exact products the viewer was looking at on your site. It’s a great way to convince a potential customer to pull the trigger and make a purchase.
Once you have customers, don’t forget to re-target them. Tell them when you have sales, new products, or when it’s time for them to reorder. That way, as you build your customer base, you also build return sales – the basis for any long-term business!
