World eCommerce business emerged in the year 1982 by a company named Boston Computer Exchange where the primary motive was to sell computers online. These days, the eCommerce business is thriving as people are looking for new ways to become bosses of their businesses. The eCommerce trend is even going higher since the world has hit the pandemic. It has given ample opportunities to various business executives and entrepreneurs for selling their products and setting up their online stores.
However, setting up an online store is not enough. In this time of increasing competition, it is essential for you to indulge in great marketing strategies to attract more customers.
One of the best ways to market your store is to run ads for the store on different platforms. This way, you will be visible to a large audience and thus, more chances of attracting potential customers. So, before starting an eCommerce business, certain things must be taken into consideration to effectively generate revenue from the online purchases made by the customers.
Essentials for a Successful Ecommerce Business
Factors for Selecting Ecommerce Platform
Top Platforms to Run Ads for Your Ecommerce Store
- Google Ads
- Bing Ads (Microsoft Bing)
- Facebook Ads Manager
- Instagram Ads
- YouTube Ads
- Twitter Ads
- Pinterest Ads
- Amazon Ads
- Taboola
Ad Platforms & Conversion Rates
Essentials for a Successful Ecommerce Business
Now that you have prepared your mind to be your boss, you should be thinking about the initial steps towards a successful eCommerce platform. Here are a few important keys that you should consider:
- Design a superb website.
- Use high definitional quality for your product display.
- Make a distinctive selling presentation.
- Ensure an outstanding customer network & support.
- Create a marketing budget.
Apart from all these, fetching traffic to the online store to reach a more targeted audience is also a prerequisite. Therefore, before you offer customer support to your clients, you have to make sales of your products first, through an exceptional voice.
Thus, you have to keep in mind all of the above-mentioned key points are necessary and should work hand in hand for you to run your eCommerce business successfully.
Many entrepreneurs often open online stores and focus on any one of the key elements and run into a loss. So, to prevent your business from losses, make sure to have a proper plan in hand.
Factors for Selecting Ecommerce Platform
Now that you already have a business plan for launching your eCommerce store, there are a few key points that you should consider before investing in the online store. These are as follows:
Costing
Different eCommerce comes with several packages, you should always go for the one that looks cost-efficient to you. Often it is seen that lump sum payments have resulted in a bad investment. Therefore, prepare a budget in your mind and stick to that. You can select web hosting after comparing the prices with different providers to get the best deal.
Web Designing
The website should look user-friendly for the customers. From the capture page to the sign-out page your customers should get an excellent experience so that they keep coming back to shop from your online store.
Various eCommerce platforms make their websites theme-based. You can get these themes free of cost or even pay prices ranging for the premium themes.
Function & Programming
You can also customize the functionality of our eCommerce business with the help of coding and programming methods in the background. This can benefit you if you are trying to set up your online business effectively and competitively as compared to others.
Security
Customer data protection should be on the top priority list for an eCommerce business owner. There will be a lot of payment transactions happening on your online store page. Therefore, you should select the platform where the data of these customers are secured properly. Hence, your company will not lose any loyal customers.
Maintenance
To run a successful eCommerce online site, you cannot pay the fee once and get done with it. You will have to check if it is working smoothly and effectively to reach your targeted audience or not.
If the eCommerce site has no subscription price then you have to pay for an SSL certificate which is a yearly cost.
Per Month Hosting
You can independently host your eCommerce business which has no subscription cost as a hosting charge. For instance, Woo-commerce is such a platform that will help you to get the hosting management depending on the traffic of the web.
Business Software Integration:
It is indeed frustrating to begin from the scratch and shift to a new platform when your eCommerce has a business software aligned. Therefore, you need a platform that can smoothly combine with the existing system and provide solutions without any extra price.
Advertisement & Sales
A comparison amongst the best eCommerce platform for running ads for enhancing the digital platform is necessary. When you go through the evaluation process, you should keep in mind that every platform has its unique advantages and disadvantages regarding advertisements. On the other hand, you have a specific budget. Therefore, choose a platform that can suit your requirements.
Top Platforms to Run Ads for Your Ecommerce Store
The eCommerce market is highly competitive. Hence, every entrepreneur is searching for new ways to promote their goods and services. Often marketing the products becomes a complicated task and sometimes even after putting in the effort, it does even reach the targeted audience.
Again for a single user or entrepreneur, it becomes a tedious job to do all the tasks like handling social media, tracking products, checking emails, testing, analysis, etc at one time.
So, to ease up the things a bit and take the most advantage of your marketing strategies, the following are some of the best platforms where you can run ads for your eCommerce store:
Google Ads
No one can beat the efficiency and effectiveness of the strategies led by Google in the digital marketing industry. Google’s marketing platform is running the digital business for a long time. All the analysts and marketers have appreciated the advanced tools present in Google ads.
A user can use the Google Ad services via paid promotion on SERPs. For advertising purposes, the users can use the Google Display Network facility from where the ads will be produced on relevant websites. To get new clients or even boost up your brand, Google ads can be the best platform.
It was previously known as Double click where there was a combination of establishing tool buildings and an interface for huge data. There are few platforms like Shopify or Magento which can smoothly connect to Google ads via API.
There is no doubt in the fact that Google is known to everyone all over the world. Also, a great benefit of using this platform is its excellent display network. So, in case you want your brand name to reach a huge audience of shoppers, then it can be very helpful.
You can manage analytics, surveys, optimizations, tagging, or even display ads, etc from this platform.
Pros
- It is ideal for small businesses.
- It is an affordable platform to run ads.
- Provides a huge networking display giving accessibility to over 2.3-3.0 billion audience searches.
- It boosts brands easily.
- You can integrate it into any other software for marketing.
Cons
- Rates can rise up to $100,000-$150,000 each year for larger business units.
- Customer service is limited.
- Marketers can often get confused and face difficulty in handling the software.
Damini Bhandary
Bing Ads (Microsoft Bing)
After Google, Bing has also reached popularity over the years in networking and ad promotions. According to Microsoft, around 14.5% of approximately global market share is ruled by Bing.
As an entrepreneur, if your target audience consists of shoppers, then you should go for Bing ad services. Also, a feature in Bing is launched called Bing shopping which is the same as Google Shopping Ads. This makes it a great and efficient platform for running ads for your eCommerce store.
Pros
- The competition between Bing and Google is less. It has been observed that the cost per click on the ads here is around 70-72% less in regards to that of Google ads.
- If you want a different set of audience bases, then a Bing ad is apt for you. The best part of advertising on Bing is to get the ad promotion on AOL, Yahoo, etc. add campaigns.
Cons
- The features of the tool are not as advanced as compared to the other ad platforms.
- The target audience reach is less in comparison to Google ads.
Facebook Ads Manager
In 2022, no one can think of advertisements without social media ad campaigns. Here, the first name that comes to mind is Facebook Ad manager. This is a popular choice for all business units to promote their brands across a large audience. Starting from whirly ads to extensive stories, there are numerous features in these social media platforms for promoting any brand.
To fetch relevant customers based on their interest, behavior, demography, etc. these social media ad campaigns are the best idea for your eCommerce store.
According to the studies of 2020 data, it is seen more than 2.7 billion people are on Facebook. Therefore to reach potential clients and users making use of this platform is important. Facebook ads definitely play a vital role in advertising your brand, selling the products, and retaining loyal customers.
Pros
- It is easy to reach a large audience.
- Different and unique formatting for ads.
- Cost-effective & budget-friendly.
- Reaching the targeted clients becomes easier according to their age, gender, demographics, and interests with the help of this platform.
Cons
- Small brands may face challenges to get specific ads.
- The conversion data is not reliable due to the latest Apple IOS 14.5 update.
Instagram Ads
Next to Facebook comes Instagram, another famous social media platform that has enhanced the reach system of the brands and products in a faster way.
In this context, you should know two vital things about Instagram;
- 81% of Instagram users utilize the platform for enquiring about the products and brands.
- Around 130 million users tap or click on the shopping-related posts per month.
The promoters can either create reel videos or image-based ads for branding the products or services entitled to them. It becomes easy for reaching the targeted audience here. Moreover, you can link the ads directly to your shopping websites or product pages which again results in a significant amount of customer engagement.
Pros
- Reaching the target audience in less time.
- The effective sale is guaranteed through the unique ad formats for instance stories, IGTV videos, reels, etc.
- Any client can purchase the product without even logging out from Instagram as the ads displayed are aligned with the landing page of the products or websites.
Cons
- It can be an issue for aged clients to purchase products or services via Instagram as many are not very well-equipped with the platform yet.
- The contents posted on the Instagram platform require top-notch visual strength. This will make your brand different from others and people will be bound to choose your service. So, all this can be pretty expensive at times.
YouTube Ads
To enhance brand promotion and awareness, YouTube is doing fantastic business all over the world. The best part about these ads on YouTube is that they are helpful to drive enough traffic to your store. Therefore, if you are planning to set up your online store, YouTube ads can be a considerable option that can successfully give you revenue leads.
Pros
- Youtube is a part of Google’s promotion. Hence, there is already a strong data presence and tremendous capability to reach the audience.
- It can reach different and diverse clients all over the world in less time.
- You can expect inbuilt engagement of customers, viewers, or audience. For instance, if anyone is researching educational videos, the YouTube ads in between can take them to your store landing page through video ads.
Cons
- It is a bit expensive as compared to other platforms.
- Often users skip the videos because of the format of the ads displayed.
Twitter Ads
Twitter started in 2006 as a popular social media platform. This is probably not the first platform that comes to people’s minds when they think of running ads. It is mainly created for opinions and news from people all over the world. So, this makes it a meaningful platform with a huge user base that should be taken into consideration for running ads.
Pros
- The high engagement rate with the Twitter ads is possible as Twitter has a re-tweet option with which it becomes easy to reach more people and get more views.
Cons
- Twitter ads are expensive as compared to Facebook ads.
Pinterest Ads
Pinterest plays a significant role in marketing via visual illustrating ads similar to Instagram. It also helps in boosting the audience’s reach like any other social media platform. In core search results, there is promoted ad facility provided by Pinterest which are shown as pinned posts. This is a great way to get your store the visibility it needs.
As of January 2021, it is seen the number of female audiences is 78% as compared to the male audience on Pinterest. The platform helps over 444 million users every month and 91% of weekly pinners in their shopping decisions.
Pros
- The conversion rate is pretty high here.
- Pinterest is less annoying or disturbing for the users who are using Pinterest as the ads are less interruptive.
Cons
- The platform is not user-friendly in terms of sales in comparison to Google Ads.
Manav Makhija
Amazon Ads
Amazon mainly focuses on reaching customers who love shopping. This helps to portray the products in the key results or search results. Therefore, it becomes an easier task for the shoppers to get a view of the wide range of products available on the site which is offered by your eCommerce store.
Pros
- Amazon is a reliable source for shoppers.
- Promoters do not even require the website for branding on Amazon.
- The easy way to set up the interface and ad portrayal help to make the advertisement process smooth. Moreover, the customers can see them and select their products in a quick time.
Cons
- As an entrepreneur, you have to pay an extra referral fee apart from the advertisement rate. The amount may go up to 10-15% approximately depending on the variation of the products.
- Amazon has few strict rules for the sellers. For instance, at times, there are shipping rates, order cancellation charges, etc.
Taboola
Taboola is significantly known for its advertising base, especially for the newbie business owners looking for marketing platforms through advertisements. Exceptionally creative promotional ads have campaigned through this platform. They either use informational content or advertorials which they produce on the sites.
Taboola ads do not resemble anything like regular advertisements hence, it becomes a hassle-free task to engage customers’ interest. Again the presence of domestic tools for advertisements helps in tracking, publishing, and producing the regional promotional campaigns. It serves best for brand promotion, brilliant audience visibility, and other contexts in various marketing channels.
Pros
- Awesome customer response.
- User friendly.
- Smooth campaign report projections.
- Uncomplicated calculation of performance metric possible.
Cons
- Approval of the contents from Taboola is a very time-consuming process.
Points to Consider
- Pay per click policy is more on Google shopping ads.
- Bing Ads till now, is not as great as compared to Google Ads as it faces challenges in reaching more audiences.
- Fashion, DIY, Beauty, Jewellery, Shopping, and Food – Ads regarding all these fields on Instagram reach targeted clients in an uncomplicated way. The best way to showcase the product or service is to use HD images or Reel videos.
- Similar to Instagram, Facebook Ads work hand in hand.
- To make successful revenue from clients on Youtube, the creators should focus on explanatory videos or review videos. These videos should be high end and there should be accurate clarity. The exact visual presentation of the products or services and comparison between other services or products can help clients understand it in a better way. It enhances more chances of an effective sale.
- Twitter can be a platform for boosting service or job-related brands. The audience present on Twitter is mainly school, college-goers, or even freshers or working employees looking for a job change or part-time jobs. Again, any teaching or education-related brands or websites can also fetch customers from there.
- The female audience is mostly found on Pinterest. Thus, this platform has a beautiful opportunity for brands dealing with crafts, DIY, and gardening products.
- Brands that have a high-profit outcome and already have a stable customer base should opt for Amazon ads.
Ad Platforms & Conversion Rates
There are several contents available on the internet every day. Now when you are planning to set up your brand you have to understand that the conversion rate should be high to get a successful sale of your products and services.
What is the Conversion Rate?
The digital retail market is growing every day and is becoming highly competitive. Setting up an online store is not an easy task if you are not getting any sales.
Imagine you have already a promising website with an amazing product display. The reach of the product is also high. Hence, there is a decent amount of traffic.
You have to make shoppers buy the products from the website and not only view them. Here comes the concept of conversion in the eCommerce business. In simple terms, conversion rate refers to the number of conversions divided by the total number of visitors to a website.
It can be dependent on a few things like the cost of the product, the niche of our industry, and of course your audience. Therefore, all conversion rates in every eCommerce industry are not the same.
Advertising Channels and Their Conversion Rates
According to Heap, Google ads stand number one in turning the high conversion rates of 8.2%. Next up are Bing ads with a conversion rate of 7.6% on an average. Facebook has a conversion rate of around 4.7%, Instagram 3.1%, and Pinterest 2.9%. Other ad platforms which turn to fewer conversion rates but are effective are Twitter (0.9%), Snapchat (0.6%), and YouTube (0.5%) respectively.
Conclusion
The primary aim of social and digital ads is to manage traffic and bring about more revenue. With the evolution of digital media and content marketing, an entrepreneur needs to select a faithful platform to showcase their products and bring more sales. Therefore, before choosing any of the ad platforms, you should check the limitation and advantages of your own business and brand. It should match the appropriateness of the platform to reach more audiences and engage them successfully.
FAQs
Which platforms are the best for online advertising?
The following are the best platforms for online advertising:
- Google Ads
- Facebook Ads
- Instagram Ads
- Bing Ads
- Twitter Ads
- Amazon Ads
Can I advertise online for free?
You can advertise online for free by registering with Google My Business. It is a free tool that enables you to create a listing for your business so that it can be easily located on Google searches.
Which is the number 1 eCommerce site?
Amazon is the number 1 eCommerce site, not only in America but also in most other countries.
Which social media platform is the best for my business?
The following are the best social media platforms for your business:
- YouTube
