Learning Marketing for Shopify: Project UpdateWeek 3
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Hey, thanks for dropping by!
Currently, I’m working on building a Shopify store from the ground up. My store is an apparel store that sells my own designs on various options such as hoodies, t-shirts, and hats. Some of the skills I’ll be cultivating are:
- Project management
- Digital marketing (Facebook Ads, Snapchat Ads, Pinterest Ads)
- Writing
- Creative design
- Branding
Additionally, follow along as I’ll be dropping tutorials and updates as well as other content all month, as part of a challenge where I’m blogging every day this month.
Check out last week’s update here.
What I Accomplished This Week
I removed the password from my store at the beginning of this week which, if you’re familiar with Shopify, means I am open for business. I was pretty happy with my preparation and what I chose to publish. It’s a simple design, but dynamic and good looking.
I created a Facebook ad and a Snapchat ad through their integrations with my store. This means I was able to create them essentially right in my store. I’ll include some analytical information in the next part.
I started working on a new design for a product and also for ads for that product.
I wrote some tutorials and step by step guides to certain parts of my process which will be helpful to others looking to solve some of the same problems I did.
I created an Excel sheet with some of my ad results, to keep them organized and comparable.
For my top tips for improving your store before you go live, click here.
For a guide to improving your customer notifications on Shopify, which is a valuable part of personalization, click here.
What Worked
The ad designs themselves out very nicely.
This is a look at what the Facebook Ad looked like. I chose to narrow down my audience with a few keywords that directly pertain to what I was creating.
In doing that, I catered the ad to a certain group most likely to be interested, instead of wasting impressions and ad costs on people who wouldn't care at all.
I ran the Facebook ad for 4 days and spent $19.90 on it. It garnered over 5000 impressions and from those views, I got 16 website sessions. That’s not a very high number, but as a completely new brand, I’ll take it for now.
For my Snapchat Ad, I spent $20. But Snap has a daily minimum which is $20 dollars, so I only ran it for one day. Besides, I thought it might be interesting to see how much I could do with a shortlived ad like that.
I definitely got my money’s worth in terms of views. My ad was seen over 43,000 times but the return from that was pretty subpar. Only 14 interactions, resulting in just 7 store sessions.
In terms of store sessions, we can see here that Facebook did the best. But people directing visiting the store was a close second, which shows sometimes link sharing and networking can be just as powerful as paid marketing.
I shared the website in a bunch of different places and continue to do that.
Here are the complete results from the ads so far.
eCPM is the effective cost per thousand impressions, while ePSU is the essential cost per interaction.
Additionally, I went through my site and made sure everything was linked properly and up to speed. My Contact Page worked perfectly because I got a message from…. my sister. Oh well, everything helps at this point.
What Didn’t Work
In terms of the ad results, that’s a less glowing story.
As someone new to this scene, I consider everything I encounter with this venture as a valuable learning opportunity. Every loss is a lesson.
But let’s be honest, my ad results were not that impressive. Out of all those impressions, I got less than 50 interactions. I got only one person to add an item to their cart, which they promptly abandoned.
Where are my weak spots? Lack of experience, target market adjustment, duration, reach, and ad design are all factors in my dismal results. I’m going to take this opportunity to do some research on how I can improve and I hope next week will show some improvement.
Going Forward
Moving into the final week of my project, I have a few goals in particular.
First and foremost, I plan on creating and publishing some new ads. I believe I’m going to try another Facebook ad, boost a Facebook post, and then try a Pinterest ad.
Pinterest is offering a $100 dollar credit towards ads when you sign up right now, so that will be super useful!
I’m going to tune these ads as best I can towards a particular audience. I don’t want to waste views on uninterested people.
I’m also planning on releasing a new collection on my store and creating some Facebook posts for that. Check it out on the store here!
As the project nears its end, I hope to have more to share in the form of tutorials as well. I haven’t missed a day of writing yet, and these store updates and walkthroughs have been part of the quality content I’ve been able to create.
Starting a Shopify store has been on my mind for a while, but I was just hesitant to do it because I didn’t want to fail. I know there are others like me out there, and I’d love to be the one who helps others see they can do it too!
See my project conclusion post here! (when I have it)
