Running Facebook ads for e-commerce brands is getting trickier. All thanks to the things happening all around the social media world:
- Organic reach and engagement are decreasing daily on all social media platforms.
- A question is igniting hot discussions among e-commerce marketers and merchants on whether Facebook ads are worth it.
- If that was not enough, Apple’s ongoing privacy and tracking policies concern marketers.
Despite all these, eMarketer anticipated Facebook to witness 69.4% of U.S. social commerce buyers by 2025.
So now that we know Facebook is not going anywhere and our buyers prefer the platform, let’s identify how we can utilize this platform effectively.
Here, we share some strategic Facebook ad hacks to help you skyrocket ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) for sales.
16 FB Ads Hacks to Increase Your E-commerce Sales
If you have been running Facebook ads for quite some time now and are struggling to get satisfactory results lately, we’ve got your back! Here are some lesser-known but highly effective Facebook Ad tips to skyrocket your e-commerce sales.
Don’t just go through them; implement them to see better results.
1. Nail Custom and Lookalike Audience Game
The first thing you need to run an effective Facebook ad is to master the art of creating a custom and lookalike audience.
You can create a custom audience by targeting people who have already engaged with your business. You can use your or Meta’s sources to create your custom audience.
With a custom audience, you can target specific audiences, ensuring your ads reach the right people and helping you create the impact you want. Make sure you exclude existing customers or irrelevant segments for precise targeting.
What differentiates Facebook ads from its competitors is its feature of a Lookalike audience.
With a Lookalike audience, you can provide a data source, and Facebook will target people who share similar interests, behaviors, and patterns.
You can select the similarity of your lookalike audience on a scale of 0 to 10, depending on the sales and marketing goals you have set for your e-commerce business.
You can also develop lookalike audiences based on your best-performing custom audiences. Continue adjusting your audience size to balance reach and similarity.
Isn’t it an amazing way to reach the right customer persona?
PRO Tip: Analyze the performance of your custom and lookalike audiences separately to see which one delivers better results.
2. Leverage Storytelling with Video Ads
In case you’re unaware, good storytelling videos can turn the tables for your Facebook ad campaigns.
Don’t believe us?
Check out this video ad by Around the World Recipes: https://www.facebook.com/bensoriginalca/videos/2547928638818811/
Here is another video ad by Kleenex® ultra SoftTM: https://www.facebook.com/Kleenex/videos/450483455595179/
Here are a few things you can do to leverage video ads for the next e-commerce Facebook campaign:
- Craft narratives that resonate with your target audience.
- Create concise videos to maintain audience interest
- Invest in professional production for polished and effective videos.
- Ensure videos are mobile-friendly for a seamless shopping experience.
- Experiment with different video styles, lengths, and messaging.
- Continuously optimize video ad elements based on performance data.
- Use the video for retargeting campaigns to re-engage potential customers.
- Showcase customer reviews and videos for social proof.
- Analyze video metrics to refine your Facebook ad campaigns.
A great storytelling video includes a quick hook that grabs the attention of your target audience and makes them stick to the end. If regular creatives like static posts are not getting you great results on ads, trying something different and heart-touching that moves people is definitely a good idea!
Shopify’s video is a great example of how you can convey your message effectively and inspire people to take action.
3.Target Abandoned Cart
One of the pressing issues e-commerce business owners face is the abandoned cart. A minimum of a third-fourth of the potential buyers abandon their cart, and in such cases, the best solution is to run retargeting ads. Who can be better buyers for you than the ones who have already visited your site and have added a product to their cart, right?
Provide discounts and run offers to encourage them to take further action. You can also use Dynamic ads to show the exact product your potential customer has seen on your website or added to their carts. It increases the buying ratio even further.
While retargeting for abandoned carts, ensure you target people early because a person who visited your website a day or two ago is likelier to buy than someone who visited a month ago.
You also need to ensure that all the events on your site are tracked correctly to maximize the ROI of your ad spend.
With Conversios, you can get all the insights of your e-commerce store and paid ads on the same dashboard so that you don’t have to juggle multiple platforms.
4.Leverage the Power of Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns
In August 2022, Meta rolled out automation for targeting audience (advantage+ shopping campaigns) for e-commerce business owners. This feature of Meta is an advantage for online stores as it is a great way to feed Meta’s algorithms with available data and let it find the best possible audience and optimize your ads for efficiency.
Moreover, advantage+ shopping campaigns allow e-commerce business owners to experiment with many creatives, mix and match them, and let the campaign test and pick the best options they have provided. If you want better Returns on Investments (ROI), leveraging Meta’s automation tools is recommended.
Here’s how it looks when you set up your Facebook ads with a “Sales” objective.
5.Use Dynamic & Multi-Product Ads
E-commerce is all about providing and showing a range of products to your customers. And dynamic and multi-product ads are the best way to execute it. With dynamic ads, you can show tailored ads to your customers based on their activities on your website.
Big e-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart are great examples of using dynamic ads to improve the conversion rate. You can show single or multiple products to customers based on their activities on your website.
With multiple product ads, you can show the variation of the same product or products that fall into the same category to increase the chances of conversions.
6.Install the Conversion Tracking Pixel
Though Facebook ads can be highly profitable for your e-commerce business, if you haven’t configured your Pixel configuration correctly – it may crash your business, and you may end up spending more without getting any results.
Facebook Pixel is an important aspect of Facebook ad results as it helps you track the results and conversions of your ad campaigns. It also helps you attribute clicks to sales and retarget the same website visitors in the future.
Nonetheless, setting up Facebook Pixel can be tricky sometimes for e-commerce business owners. If that wasn’t enough, the privacy issues post-iOS 14 have worsened, and you can’t track data from third parties. So, even if your Pixel is set up properly, you cannot count all the conversions properly and retarget your audience effectively.
The good news is there are solutions like Conversios that can help you overcome such challenges. With our server-side tagging enabled extension, you can eliminate issues related to third-party data and improve conversion tracking while improving ROI
7. Upsell to Your Current Customers
Why sell just one product when you can sell multiple, right? Once a customer buys a product from you, you can pitch them another complimentary product to increase your store’s average order value (AOV).
You can execute upselling or cross-selling by nurturing your customers in the email list or showing them complimentary products through retargeted campaigns.
Upselling and cross-selling are some of the most effective ways to increase your revenue because the chances of your existing customers buying from you again are high compared to a complete stranger.
Pee Safe is a great example of how they upsell their products.
In the above ad, you can see they are selling a menstrual cup, and as soon as you buy that, you will start seeing another ad of their selling steam sterilizer.
This strategy of Pee Safe is quite effective in increasing AOV.
8. Build and Run Referral Programs with Facebook Ads
Another way to increase sales to your e-commerce business is to run a referral program. Your past customers are your assets; they can spread the word about your brand if you incentivize them properly.
For example, you can make an offer where your existing customers and the new buyer get a fixed amount or percentage off while buying from the referral programs.
Here are some more examples of referral programs that you can run through Facebook ads to drive more sales:
- “Double Your Rewards”
Encourage customers to refer friends by doubling the rewards for both parties for a limited time. For instance, an online gadget store could double the cashback or loyalty points for successful referrals.
- “Referral Points for Cash”
Implement a points system where referrers earn points for each successful referral, and these points can be redeemed for cash discounts. An online bookshop, for example, could offer this type of program.
- “Give One, Get One”
Promote a program where customers can gift a product to a friend from your store. For each gift sent, both the sender and receiver get a reward, such as a discount or store credit.
This way, you increase your revenue and your customer base.
9. Retarget With a Discount Code
Who doesn’t like to get pampered with some extra discounts and offers?! If a customer has visited your site and hasn’t purchased yet, you can encourage them to take action by offering additional discounts. But remember to keep your discount for a limited period only to create FOMO and get faster action.
Running a Facebook ad campaign with a discount code increases your sales, provides further value to existing customers, and improves their brand loyalty. It also makes your customers feel special and included in the community.
10. Use the Conversion Lift Tool to Measure Offline Sales
If your ecommerce business includes offline sales, too, using the Conversion Lift tool to measure offline sales is a good idea. To use this tool effectively, you must set up a Facebook Business Manager account, create and run ads, and establish offline events to track in-store purchases or appointments.
You can get insights into their ads’ performance by uploading customer data and running the Conversion Lift Study.
You can use the data to improve your strategies and make data-driven decisions.
11. Leverage Attribution Modeler
Using the attribution modeler of Facebook ads is a great way to understand how your customers move through the different funnels.
Let’s say you are running an ad for an online fashion store. To measure the effectiveness of your ad campaign, you need to define events like “add to cart” and “purchase” to get a comprehensive view of how Facebook ads influence the various touch points of a customer journey.
Moreover, analyzing cross-device and cross-platform data can reveal significant insight into user behavior, including mobile and desktop conversions. With the data you acquire with attribute modeler, you can optimize the budget for your ads across all the funnel channels effectively.
12. Use Canvas Ads
Also known as Instant experience ads, Canvas Ads are an amazing way to make your products look more immersive and increase the conversion rate. Canvas ads appear full-screen, helping you get more ad space on the platform.
With Canvas ads, you can create beautiful stories around your products and display product info better- capturing your target audience’s attention.
If static posts and videos are not working as effectively, you should try Instant Experience ads on Facebook.
13. Leverage Facebook’s Audience Network for Better Reach
If your Facebook ads are not getting enough attention, you should consider leveraging Facebook’s Audience Network. When you opt for Audience Network, your ads increase reach beyond Facebook and Instagram. Your ad appears on partner apps and websites.
To use Audience Network, you need to select Audience Network as a placement option in your ad campaign settings, then design versatile ad creatives that adapt to various environments.
Let’s say you are a fashion brand and have chosen Audience Network to reach a wider audience. Your ads may appear on fashion-related blog sites that have decided to monetize their ads by partnering with Meta. When your ads reach more platforms than just Facebook and Instagram, your chances of conversions also increase.
14. Leverage Facebook’s Audience Network for Better Reach
Have you ever felt your ads perform great on certain days and times? Did you know you can now schedule your Facebook ads for particular days and times?
To check top-performing ads, go to Facebook Ads Manager reports and break down the campaigns by “Day.”
Here, you can get the relevant insights. Once you have the data you need, you can set your campaigns on a custom schedule to get the maximum results at the lowest price possible. Another benefit of running your ads at specific times is that the same people will not watch your ads repeatedly – saving you more money.
15. Utilize Ad Extensions
Using multiple types of ad extensions helps you make your ads more effective and profitable. You can get a lot of assistance – making things easier for you.
One such in-built extension is the “call” extension when you choose calls as your objective.
Here’s how extensions look on your ads:
Here is a video that can give you more insights about how you can leverage Meta extensions:
https://youtu.be/DR55u5cNdDc?feature=shared (need to embed this)
16.Set Storytelling Retargeting Ad Sequence
Last but not least, remember your audience is primarily on Facebook to socialize, not to shop. As Facebook is a social platform first, it’s a good idea to tell your brand story with an appealing video and attach an emotional reason to buy your products.
By setting storytelling retargeting ad sequences, you can convey your brand value in the right way and increase brand likelihood and loyalty.
Want one more reason to do storytelling campaigns? According to Facebook, telling a brand story instead of direct selling improves conversion rates, and the difference can be as huge as 87%!
So, if you are not using brand storytelling for your business, you need to think again!
6 Common FB Ads Mistakes to Avoid:
- Not having a clear objective:
While running Facebook ads, it’s important to define your objectives very clearly. Discuss with team members and stakeholders about what you want to achieve with the ads and how that will help you grow your business.
- Not targeting the right audience:
Audience targeting is the key to the success of your Facebook Ad campaigns. When you don’t target your audience correctly, you miss out on many opportunities, and your ads don’t drive the desired results. Ensure that you study your audience and target them effectively through the Meta platform.
- Using low-quality images or videos:
Humans are visual creatures, and having aesthetic and attention-grabbing creatives can drive you more results. Make sure you are using professional-looking and high-quality images/videos for your Facebook Ads.
- Having emotion-less ad copies:
Your ad copies are equally important when it comes to Facebook ads. Ensure your copies are full of emotions, clear and persuasive. Highlight the benefits of your products/services to entice customers to click on your links.
- Not tracking the results:
Setting up a campaign and forgetting to check the analytics is the worst thing you can do when running Facebook ads. Check the results your ads are bringing frequently and make the required changes accordingly.
- Giving up too soon:
Lastly, it’s important to remember that marketing takes time to show results sometimes. If your ads are not performing well, it’s advisable to change your strategy and experiment with new things rather than giving up on it totally.
Are You All Set to Generate More ROI with Facebook Ads?
As the equation and algorithms of social media are changing every single day, the above-mentioned tips will help you sustain and grow your ad effectiveness for the longest time possible.
So, whenever you set up an ad campaign from now on, check all the points in your campaign to get maximum reach, conversions, and customer loyalty.
However, if you are struggling to track, measure, and scale your ad performance to the next level, check out Conversios, which will help you minutely monitor how your e-commerce Facebook ads are performing for sales and achieve your goals in a shorter period of time.
FAQs:
1.How do I increase e-commerce sales on Facebook ads?
To increase your e-commerce sales on Facebook ads, improve audience targeting, use storytelling videos, retarget abandoned carts, leverage automation, utilize dynamic and multi-product ads, set up correct Facebook Pixel, upsell to current customers, run referral programs, retarget with discount codes, and expand reach through Facebook’s Audience Network.
2. Which Facebook ads are most effective for e-commerce?
Dynamic ads, carousel ads, video ads, and collection ads are effective for e-commerce sales. Dynamic ads show tailored products, carousel displays multiple items, video ads engage with product stories, and collection ads offer a seamless shopping experience.
3.How do I increase sales on my e-commerce marketplace?
To increase sales on your e-commerce marketplace, optimize your product listing, enhance website design, offer competitive pricing, use digital marketing, implement reviews, provide excellent customer service, expand the product range, and focus on SEO for better visibility.
4.How do I increase the number of orders in e-commerce?
To increase the number of orders in e-commerce, you need to expand your product range, use online marketing, offer promotions, improve checkout experience, provide detailed product information, streamline shipping options, build trust with reviews, and engage customers with responsive support.