by John Larkin
John runs the blog here at eCommerceLift and is a verified Shopify Expert. Interested in an initial growth consultation? Click here
8 years ago
5 Reasons Why Your eCommerce Stores Facebook Advertising Isn't Working
We’ve seen it happen countless of times. An eCommerce store sets up Facebook advertising campaign; it falls flat so they immediately give up. However, the reason why these adverts fail isn't due to Facebook advertising not working but rather due a number of mistakes that marketers and merchants make when building their advertisements. Luckily most of these mistakes are small and easily remedied. Here at PropelAd, we have compiled a list of the biggest Facebook advertising no-no’s to help your eCommerce store have greater advertising success.
1. Target Audience is too broad
What’s going wrong?
With over a billion monthly users on Facebook many eCommerce stores decide to advertise to the masses. They see an opportunity to reach as many people as possible and choose to target whoever they possibly can. Using broad interests and terms such as ‘Fashion’, ‘Golf’, ‘Technology’, etc. could give you an audience of millions that is far too wide and are not interested in what you are selling. This just wastes your time and money and isn’t going to get you traffic or sales to your website.
How to fix it?
Facebook advertising has shown to work best when smaller, more relevant, well defined audiences are chosen versus over-sized, vague crowds. Using Custom Audiences, which allows an eCommerce store to target people who they already have an established relationship with or Lookalike Audiences, where eCommerce target people who have the same characteristics and look like their custom audience all add to the success of a campaign.
In addition use more targeted words. Say if you are a golf store selling premium golf products, instead of targeting everyone who has liked anything golf related, try targeting an audience who have liked a more obscure golf term or page such as a premium golf club or a golf competition. This ensures that you know they have a specific interest in your merchandise.
Although this marketing effort may reduce your audience size to thousands or hundreds versus millions, it will be more fruitful. No longer is your eCommerce store advertising to people who have shown little to no interest in your products instead your audience is a group of people who are known to be interested thus most likely to buy and increase your sales.
What’s going wrong?
With over a billion monthly users on Facebook many eCommerce stores decide to advertise to the masses. They see an opportunity to reach as many people as possible and choose to target whoever they possibly can. Using broad interests and terms such as ‘Fashion’, ‘Golf’, ‘Technology’, etc. could give you an audience of millions that is far too wide and are not interested in what you are selling. This just wastes your time and money and isn’t going to get you traffic or sales to your website.
How to fix it?
Facebook advertising has shown to work best when smaller, more relevant, well defined audiences are chosen versus over-sized, vague crowds. Using Custom Audiences, which allows an eCommerce store to target people who they already have an established relationship with or Lookalike Audiences, where eCommerce target people who have the same characteristics and look like their custom audience all add to the success of a campaign.
In addition use more targeted words. Say if you are a golf store selling premium golf products, instead of targeting everyone who has liked anything golf related, try targeting an audience who have liked a more obscure golf term or page such as a premium golf club or a golf competition. This ensures that you know they have a specific interest in your merchandise.
Although this marketing effort may reduce your audience size to thousands or hundreds versus millions, it will be more fruitful. No longer is your eCommerce store advertising to people who have shown little to no interest in your products instead your audience is a group of people who are known to be interested thus most likely to buy and increase your sales.
2. Bad Images
What’s going wrong?
The right images are crucial for a successful marketing campaign. They are what draw the audience’s attention to your ads but so many eCommerce stores do not consider this. Many just insert any old image without consideration for how customers will view it and what impact it could have on the overall success of the campaign. Issues such as images being too blurry, not making best use of the ad space, being too elaborate, not being interesting or having no real relevance to the store all lead to customers not noticing your ads and eventually a failed campaign.
How to fix it?
Getting images right for your Facebook campaign needs some thought. Marketers and merchants should pick pictures that look good and best demonstrate the products on offer. Images should be eye catching yet simple and relevant so audiences will be drawn in and more likely to click through.
To make sure your eCommerce stores images are clear and direct it is best to test out pictures. By running a campaign with one image and then replacing it with another to compare how well each image does is a simple yet effectual method of knowing what makes a clear and direct ad that your customers are drawn to.
What’s going wrong?
The right images are crucial for a successful marketing campaign. They are what draw the audience’s attention to your ads but so many eCommerce stores do not consider this. Many just insert any old image without consideration for how customers will view it and what impact it could have on the overall success of the campaign. Issues such as images being too blurry, not making best use of the ad space, being too elaborate, not being interesting or having no real relevance to the store all lead to customers not noticing your ads and eventually a failed campaign.
How to fix it?
Getting images right for your Facebook campaign needs some thought. Marketers and merchants should pick pictures that look good and best demonstrate the products on offer. Images should be eye catching yet simple and relevant so audiences will be drawn in and more likely to click through.
To make sure your eCommerce stores images are clear and direct it is best to test out pictures. By running a campaign with one image and then replacing it with another to compare how well each image does is a simple yet effectual method of knowing what makes a clear and direct ad that your customers are drawn to.
3. Bad Copy
What’s going wrong?
Similar to images, many eCommerce marketers pay little attention to how their copy looks to audiences in the advertisement. Having large, unattractive blocks of text, not enough text, misspellings or irrelevant information all are a big turn off for customers who don’t want to be bothered reading uninteresting, vague information about an eCommerce store.
How to fix it?
Keeping text to a limit is what is best for Facebook ads. Instead of having a large block of text, keep it clear, concise and relevant to what your eCommerce store is advertising. You want customers to look at your ad and immediately be drawn in. This will not happen if they see line after line of text they have to read.
In addition make sure that your ad is easy to read and without any grammatical errors. Having relatable language without jargon that is spelt correctly makes your audience more likely to read your advertisement but also click through to learn more.
What’s going wrong?
Similar to images, many eCommerce marketers pay little attention to how their copy looks to audiences in the advertisement. Having large, unattractive blocks of text, not enough text, misspellings or irrelevant information all are a big turn off for customers who don’t want to be bothered reading uninteresting, vague information about an eCommerce store.
How to fix it?
Keeping text to a limit is what is best for Facebook ads. Instead of having a large block of text, keep it clear, concise and relevant to what your eCommerce store is advertising. You want customers to look at your ad and immediately be drawn in. This will not happen if they see line after line of text they have to read.
In addition make sure that your ad is easy to read and without any grammatical errors. Having relatable language without jargon that is spelt correctly makes your audience more likely to read your advertisement but also click through to learn more.
4. No Call to Action
What’s going wrong?
Many ads, although they look great, don’t have a purpose. They have no reason or incentive for customers to click through and see what is on the other side. Without incentive customers will see your ad but it won’t engage them instead they will simply ignore it.
How to fix it?
Having a Call to Action is the perfect way to entice customers to click through to your store. If you view your ad as a tease for what’s to come then customers will become intrigued and more likely to engage with the advertisement and investigate what your eCommerce store has to offer.
Asking questions, special offers, deals, encouraging an immediate click all increase the chances that a customer is going to be lured in by your ad. Simple call to actions such as ‘Order Now & Get 10% Off’, ‘Find out more today’, ‘Shop Now!’ all increase customers curiosity and give them a reason to actually click through and shop at your eCommerce store.
What’s going wrong?
Many ads, although they look great, don’t have a purpose. They have no reason or incentive for customers to click through and see what is on the other side. Without incentive customers will see your ad but it won’t engage them instead they will simply ignore it.
How to fix it?
Having a Call to Action is the perfect way to entice customers to click through to your store. If you view your ad as a tease for what’s to come then customers will become intrigued and more likely to engage with the advertisement and investigate what your eCommerce store has to offer.
Asking questions, special offers, deals, encouraging an immediate click all increase the chances that a customer is going to be lured in by your ad. Simple call to actions such as ‘Order Now & Get 10% Off’, ‘Find out more today’, ‘Shop Now!’ all increase customers curiosity and give them a reason to actually click through and shop at your eCommerce store.
5. Not Tracking, Monitoring or Altering
What’s going wrong?
Perhaps one of the most substantial and critical mistakes that eCommerce marketers and managers make is to ignore and not track or monitor their advertisements. Simply putting an ad up unattended and hoping it will work without checking its progress and accessing what is actually working or failing is the downfall of most eCommerce stores on Facebook.
How to fix it?
Information is so easily accessible now for Facebook advertising. Stats such as who looked at your campaign, how many clicks each ad got, what clicks actually made sales, etc. all carry vital information that should be accessed continuously to gauge your Facebook campaigns success.
Looking at this data isn't enough though. Companies should use this information to alter future advertisements so they become more prosperous. By weeding out the lackluster, unprofitable advertisements and focusing on the stats of what is successful and delivered the biggest R.O.I., your eCommerce stores level of success on Facebook will inevitably flourish.
It's only natural that most eCommerce marketers and managers make a couple of mistakes that cost them sales. Fortunately, with Facebook advertising many of these mistakes are painless to resolve.
What’s going wrong?
Perhaps one of the most substantial and critical mistakes that eCommerce marketers and managers make is to ignore and not track or monitor their advertisements. Simply putting an ad up unattended and hoping it will work without checking its progress and accessing what is actually working or failing is the downfall of most eCommerce stores on Facebook.
How to fix it?
Information is so easily accessible now for Facebook advertising. Stats such as who looked at your campaign, how many clicks each ad got, what clicks actually made sales, etc. all carry vital information that should be accessed continuously to gauge your Facebook campaigns success.
Looking at this data isn't enough though. Companies should use this information to alter future advertisements so they become more prosperous. By weeding out the lackluster, unprofitable advertisements and focusing on the stats of what is successful and delivered the biggest R.O.I., your eCommerce stores level of success on Facebook will inevitably flourish.
It's only natural that most eCommerce marketers and managers make a couple of mistakes that cost them sales. Fortunately, with Facebook advertising many of these mistakes are painless to resolve.
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