Facebook Ads are a must for eCommerce businesses that want to stand out among the competition and grow their online business. The problem is, that many eCommerce businesses have no idea where to start. They’re not sure which strategies to implement, where to focus their ad spend, or how to create an ad in the first place! But in today’s post, we’re going to share seven effective Facebook Ads strategies for eCommerce to help you get your campaign off the ground.
We’re going to start off with a bang and dive right into the seven can’t-miss strategies eCommerce marketers need to implement for their Facebook Ads today.
1. Use dynamic product ads
Dynamic product ads are a feature on Facebook Ads you can’t afford to not take advantage of! If you sell a large number of items in your eCommerce store, this feature will be invaluable to you. It uses machine learning to show unique products to each user based on their specific interests, activities, and demographics. So, rather than setting up thousands of separate ads, dynamic ads help you accomplish the same goal with a single ad set.
Are you already using the catalog sales objective? Then you’re also using dynamic ads—even if you didn’t realize it!
But take a look at what Facebook says about dynamic ads and the targeting options available to users:
- Dynamic ads for broad audiences reach consumers who have not yet purchased from your business or visited your website but may have shown interest in the types of products or services you are offering.
- Dynamic ads for retargeting reach consumers who have expressed interest in specific products on your website or app and encourage them to complete the action.
Benefits of dynamic ads
Now, if you’re still not convinced dynamic ads are a must-have, take a look at these four benefits:
- They are personalized: The beauty of dynamic ads is that they are just that: dynamic! This means they automatically deliver relevant content to consumers based on their unique behaviors and interests.
- Always on: You’ll love that dynamic ads are constantly updating all on their own. There’s no need for you to create and launch multiple campaigns because machine learning has this taken care of for you.
- Retargeting: When users visit your website or app but don’t make a purchase, dynamic ads can be incredibly helpful for retargeting them and moving them farther down the sales funnel.
- Find new shoppers: Some users may show interest in your products or services (or those similar to the ones you offer) even though they have never visited your website or used your app. Dynamic ads help you target these users thanks to broad audience targeting!
2. Facebook Multi-Product Ads
Next, your Facebook Ads for eCommerce will also benefit from utilizing Facebook multi-product ads. The wonderful thing about these ads is that they let you show multiple products within the same ad. So, if a consumer spots one pair of rain boots in your multi-product ad, they can scroll through and see similar products they might be even more interested in.
Alternatively, you can use multi-product ads to show different features of a single product, rather than showing multiple products. You can incorporate these as Dynamic Ads or create unique ad sets for yourself.
3. Install the Conversion Tracking Pixel
Another strategy worth implementing is installing the conversion tracking pixel. What is this, you ask? As confusing as it sounds, the idea is pretty simple: this pixel is a small piece of code you add to your website to track users’ behavior. It can tell you things like how that user got there, the pages and products they visit, and much more.
Take a look at some more helpful info Facebook offers up about this eCommerce strategy:
“Tracked conversions appear in the Facebook Ads Manager and the Facebook Analytics dashboard, where they can be used to analyze the effectiveness of your conversion funnel and to calculate your return on ad investment. You can also use tracked conversions to define custom audiences for ad optimization and dynamic ad campaigns. Once you have defined custom audiences, we can use them to identify other Facebook users who are likely to convert and target them with your ads.
There are three ways to track conversions with the pixel:
- standard events, which are visitor actions that we have defined and that you report by calling a pixel function
- custom events, which are visitor actions that you have defined and that you report by calling a pixel function
- custom conversions, which are visitor actions that are tracked automatically by parsing your website’s referrer URLs”
4. Run retargeting campaigns
How many times have you been browsing products online and add items to your cart, only to abandon the cart altogether and move on to something else? After doing this, you might start noticing you see Facebook Ads for the specific items you had in your cart. This is likely due to the business utilizing Facebook Ads for an eCommerce strategy known as retargeting.
These retargeting ads are a helpful reminder to people who have already shown interest in your product. Perhaps they got busy or distracted but had every intention to make a purchase. Your retargeting campaign could be just the push they need to finally make that purchase.
5. Create a Lookalike Audience
Facebook is incredibly clever. They know what consumers like and what they want based on similar people’s actions and online behavior. Luckily, you can utilize this cleverness to your own advantage. When you create a Lookalike Audience for your Facebook Ads, you’re putting all of the data Facebook collects about users to work for you.
Based on past customers’ behavior, their algorithms know which other users might also be interested in your products or services. Then, you can create an ad campaign to specifically target those individuals.
6. Tell Your Brand Story with Video Facebook Ads for eCommerce
Not every ad needs to be pushing a specific product or service to users. Did you know you can also use Facebook Ads to connect with consumers and tell your brand story?
We don’t recommend overwhelming users with lengthy backstories. But a short video that tells your brand’s story can work wonders in establishing your brand presence and recognition.
7. Custom audiences are a great way to strengthen customer relationships
Just because someone has purchased your products once, doesn’t mean your work is done. You can keep working on connecting and engaging with them through the use of custom audiences for your Facebook Ads campaigns.
“A Custom Audience made from a customer list is a type of audience you can create to connect with people who have already shown an interest in your business or product. It’s made of information – called “identifiers” – you’ve collected about your customers (such as email, phone number, and address) and provided to Facebook. Prior to use, Facebook hashes this information.
Then, we use a process called matching to match the hashed information with Facebook profiles so that you can advertise to your customers on Facebook, Instagram, and Audience Network. The more information you can provide, the better the match rate (which means our ability to make the matches). Facebook doesn’t learn any new identifying information about your customers.”
There you have it! Seven strategies for Facebook Ads for eCommerce you should implement today.
How to run killer eCommerce Facebook Ads campaigns
But now, let’s get into even more strategies for Facebook Ads for an effective eCommerce to help you make the most of your campaigns.
Prepare for eCommerce Facebook Ads
First things first: it’s always helpful to prepare for eCommerce Facebook Ads and learn as much as possible about them. Reading this article is a great place to start.
But there are a number of other resources worth taking advantage of to help you get a leg up on the competition.
There are a number of Facebook groups out there with a specific focus on communicating and strategizing about Facebook Ads for eCommerce businesses. Seek out these groups and start taking part! You’ll find a wealth of information is shared in those groups by eCommerce business owners like you. They’ll have helpful tips, tricks, and strategies for you to implement in your own campaigns.
Next, consider signing up for free marketing newsletters where you’ll get even more helpful advice. Here are a few to start you off:
Finally, go right to the source to make sure you’re up to date on all of the best practices and updates for Facebook Business. Facebook for Business News posts tons of informative articles and updates on a regular basis. It’s worth adding this to your daily or weekly reading routine!
Use these formats for your eCommerce Facebook ads
Next, let’s consider the best ad formats for eCommerce Facebook Ads. Depending on your objective with an ad campaign, there are a number of different formats to choose from. These could be photos, videos, stories, slideshows, carousels, messenger ads, and many more.
Carousel and collection ad formats are two of the best options for eCommerce purposes. However, every business is different so it’s worth experimenting to find the perfect fit for your unique business.
Run eCommerce Facebook Ads that Convert
Conversions are everything when it comes to Facebook Ads for eCommerce. After all, what good are your ads if they’re not converting consumers into paying customers?
To ensure your ads convert, here are some best practices to follow:
- Choose a compelling CTA that intrigues users and gets them to take that next step (here are some tips for doing this)
- Opt for bright colors that contract Facebook’s blue and white color scheme. Orange is a great example.
- Use bright, high-quality images
- Make sure you understand your audience ahead of time so you can market specifically to them
- Promote dollar discounts over percentage discounts ($10 off instead of 10% off)
How to optimize your Facebook Ads for eCommerce
Finally, let’s talk about a few more tips for optimizing Facebook Ads for eCommerce to help you make the most of your ad spend!
- Take note of the Ad Schedule
When you use a lifetime budget for your ads, you can go ahead and schedule them to show on certain days and times. This is helpful if the majority of your customer base is in the same time zone. Rather than potentially wasting ad spend when most of your customers are sleeping, you can instead show the ads to them at the time they’re more likely to be on Facebook.
- Likes and Shares always count
Even if your ad doesn’t turn someone into a paying customer, they could still spot your ad and share it with a friend who is on the hunt for exactly what you have to offer! So, don’t be discouraged if your conversions are low but likes and shares are high. There are still things worth tweaking to boost conversions, of course. But don’t discount the power a like or share can have.
- Create several design variations of the same Facebook ad
One of the most fun things about Facebook Ads for eCommerce is experimenting with what performs the best with consumers. To do this, you can create several different ad designs all marketing the same products. But, for example, one ad could use an orange and white color scheme and the other could use a red and white color scheme. With A/B testing, you’re able to tell which ad performs better. Then, you can use these insights to guide your future ad creation to keep optimizing your campaigns.
Let’s Talk More About eCommerce Social Media Marketing
Getting your Facebook Ads for eCommerce up and running is a wonderful place to start. But there are so many important elements of a successful social media marketing plan for eCommerce businesses worth exploring. And we’re here to help with all of them! In addition to Facebook Ads management, we offer Instagram ad services, TikTok ads, Pinterest ads management, and much more. Trying to determine what’s best for your eCommerce business, here’s our recap of Google Ads Vs. Facebook Ads For eCommerce In 2023.
Click here to read about eCommerce businesses that have increased their store sales with the help of Blue Water Marketing‘s social media ads management services.
Or, if you’re ready to start getting these same results for your business, use this link to book a call with us.
