Social Media for Ecommerce: A Quick Guide

If you want the best results from social media, your digital strategy needs to be customized and personalized. This blog post provides an overview of how social media can work with your ecommerce business, along with important tips on how you should go about implementing it.

What Is Social Media Advertising for Ecommerce?

Social media advertising refers to the practice of using one or more social media platforms to promote your products or services.

It is a form of digital marketing that allows your business to target specific groups of people based on their interests, demographics, or behaviors.

There are many different types of social media advertising, such as paying for sponsored posts, running display / video ads, or even hiring an influencer to promote you.

Some benefits of social media advertising for ecommerce stores include:

The ability to target specific demographics, interests, and behaviors
A relatively low cost compared to other forms of advertising
The ability to track and measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns
The potential to drive traffic & sales to your online store
The opportunity to build brand awareness and engage with potential customers.

Social Media for Ecommerce: A Quick Guide *

One of the best ways to attract new customers is to network with industry experts and stay connected is through social media. If you’re looking for a quick guide on how ecommerce businesses can use this powerful tool, then take the following tips into account:

1.) Establish your campaign goals

The first step is to establish your campaign goals. What do you hope to achieve through social media advertising? Do you want to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, or make sales? Knowing what you want to achieve will help you determine which platforms and strategies are most effective for your business.

2.) Make a social media plan

It’s important that your strategy be customized in order to achieve maximum success when using social media tools, such as Facebook or Twitter. Consider what type of content will work well for your brand – photos, videos, or articles?

It also helps if you take into consideration who your target audience is before deciding which channel(s) are right for you. For example, Instagram might not make sense for promoting products for seniors, but it’ll likely do wonders for a travel company.

One way to tackle the challenge of social media is with an editorial calendar – also known as ‘social media publishing’. This will help you stay organized so that you don’t miss any opportunities or updates from customers!

Your marketing team should be in charge of deciding which posts deserve priority (i.e. what’s going on with their product, customer testimonials, etc.). You’ll want to post at least once per day but there could very well be days where you won’t have anything new to share, such as when it’s not currently seasonally appropriate for your industry. The key here is consistency, but remember that people get tired if they’re seeing too many ads all the time.

3.) Create accounts on all platforms

The next step is to create an account on all the major social media sites. You’ll want to go for a strong username and make sure your profile looks professional. This way you can start building up traction before people even visit your website!

The goal is to have people who follow your social media accounts know that they’re getting a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into running the company, which in turn builds trust and loyalty!

4.) Develop your ad text and be creative!

Now that you’ve chosen which platform to use, it’s time to come up with the content for your ads. Your ad text should be attention-grabbing and include keywords related to what you’re selling. Keep in mind that social media users are scrolling through their feeds quickly, so make sure your copy is short but impactful!

It can be a good idea to use an image or video in your ad as well, as this will help to capture attention and encourage users to learn more about what you’re selling.

5.) Consider running social media ads

Once set up, you may want to get the ball rolling with some ads.

For example, you can set up a Facebook Ads campaign that links straight back to the product on your site You can even target specific demographics based on where they live or what their interests are (like men between 20-30 years old who like watching sports).

It’s advisable to measure how successful those campaigns were, which allows you to find what works best in your niche. Google Analytics is one of the most popular platforms for this because it’s free and gives tons of information about any given website visitor – Including if they saw one of these ads.

The cost should be worth the investment. Luckily, social media has higher engagement rates compared with other methods. These ads can help boost traffic & conversions in all areas of an ecommerce business.

6.) Configure ad targeting

One of the best parts of social media advertising is how targeted it can be. Because you’re choosing which platforms to advertise on, as well as who your ads are shown to, there’s a lot of room for customization!

You’ll want to create custom target audiences based on what you know about your potential customers. For example, if you sell high-end skincare products, you may want to target users who have liked posts about skincare.

When it comes to Facebook advertising specifically, you can take things a step further by creating custom audiences based on customer email lists or website visitors. You can also use Custom Conversions in Google Shopping ads so that your ad only appears to users who have already visited your website.

7.) Offer direct buying on social media platforms

Many platforms have native shopping functionality, which allows people to buy on the social media platform itself. This means the customer has to take far fewer steps to make a purchase. Essentially, the less effort it is to buy your product, the better.

8.) Create custom landing pages

When someone clicks on your ad, you want them to end up on a page that’s relevant to what they were interested in. This is why it’s important to create custom landing pages for your social media advertising campaigns. Your landing page should be designed to encourage users to take the next step, whether that’s making a purchase or signing up for your email list.

9.) Monitor the results of any paid ads

Now it’s time to cross your fingers and hope for the best! It can take a few days or weeks for your ads to start converting, so don’t be discouraged if you don’t see immediate results.

Monitoring the performance of your social media advertising is important because you’ll want to know which strategies are working. Try testing out different ad copy to see which performs best, and consider using Facebook’s or Instagram’s “Pause Ad” feature if you don’t want your ads in the News Feed anymore.

10.) Provide customer service

When a customer has an issue, you want to be able to reach out and help them as quickly as possible. Social media is perfect for this because it can be done in real-time! In fact, you can be there for your customers if you’re commuting, grabbing lunch, or even brushing your teeth! This isn’t appealing to everyone, but this can be extremely useful in the early stages of your growing ecommerce brand.

11.) Show your personality, in a professional way

Customers want to know that they are buying from a person, not just an ecommerce business. You should tell your story, be personable, and interact with customers on social media.

12.) Collaborate with influencers

One of the best ways to grow an ecommerce brand is to find people with a large following and let them share your product or service for you. They will promote it to their followers, which can have an exponential effect when done correctly!

But don’t just contact any influencer! It’s important to work with influencers in the same niche as you. For example, if you sell products for new parents, you will find great success working with mommy bloggers.

13.) Share user-generated content

Social media allows you to engage with your customers and encourage them to share their experiences. Consumers are more likely to buy a product when they know it has been used and loved. Let your customers create the ads for you!

14.) Produce video content

Engaging video content is proven to increase engagement by up to 55%. You can post product demonstrations on your Instagram account or share your favorite content on a YouTube channel.

15.) Social ad integrations for ecommerce

Integrating your ecommerce store with social media platforms allows you to take advantage of the benefits that each platform has to offer. For example, if you sell clothes on Instagram then you could use location tagging and hashtags to let users know where they can buy their own outfits.

16.) Partner with an ecommerce advertising agency

If all of this sounds like too much work, or you just don’t have the time to do it yourself, consider partnering with an ecommerce advertising agency. These agencies have years of experience creating successful social media advertising campaigns for businesses of all sizes.

You can be confident that the team at an ecommerce advertising agency will have all of the knowledge and skills necessary to create effective ads for your business.

Do you need help with developing social media advertising content? Contact us today! We are happy to answer any questions that you may have about working together.

4 Best Social Media Platforms for Ecommerce *

Facebook – Facebook is the most popular social media platform in America with over 168 million daily active users (DAU). There’s a reason why it’s such an effective marketing tool! You can create custom audiences based on your brand’s customer database or you could promote posts through ads.

Instagram – 80% of marketers use Instagram and it’s the second most popular social media app in America. You can create a presence by posting photos on your account, which people are much more likely to engage with when compared to text content.

Pinterest – With over 70 million monthly active users (MAU) Pinterest is one of the best platforms for ecommerce businesses. The site has an overwhelmingly female audience so you’ll need to be aware when creating marketing campaigns that resonate with this segmentation.

YouTube – YouTube has more than one billion monthly viewers and 300 hours of video uploaded every minute! It might not be surprising then that this would be my favorite place to showcase product videos or tutorials related to ecommerce.

What Do Ecommerce Social Media Advertising Services Include? *

When you work with an ecommerce social media advertising agency, the team will develop a custom advertising plan and deliver a number of services to help you build your brand and increase sales. Services may include:

1.) Social media ad management

This is probably the most common service that ecommerce advertising agencies offer. They will create, manage, and monitor your social media advertising campaigns so that you can focus on other aspects of your business.

2.) Social ad account audit

An ecommerce social media ad account audit is a report that shows how your advertising campaigns are performing, what you could be doing better, and where to focus your efforts.

3.) Social media strategy and consultation

An ecommerce social media advertising strategy is a customized plan that outlines how your business will achieve its goals and objectives through the use of social ads. A consultant from an ecommerce advertising agency can help you make decisions about which platforms to advertise on, what types of content to create for users, where to spend your budget, etc.

4.) Social advertising creative development

This one may seem obvious, but it’s important to note that ecommerce advertisers are often responsible for creating their own ads! If you don’t have the time or resources to create your own social media ad campaign creatives, then an agency can help with this as well.

5.) Social media ad targeting

With ecommerce social media advertising, you can choose from a variety of targeting options to increase the likelihood that your ads will reach the right people. Marketers who work with an agency usually have access to more advanced targeting tools than those who advertise on their own.

6.) Ongoing management and optimization

Once your social media advertising campaign is up and running, the team at an agency will continue to monitor it and make changes as necessary in order to achieve the best results. They’ll also help you track your progress so that you can see how well your campaigns are performing.

7.) Reporting

An ecommerce social media advertising agency should provide detailed reports on a regular basis so that you can track the progress of your campaigns and see how they’re affecting your business. This means more than just impressions and click-through rates. You’ll also want to know which campaigns are generating the most revenue for your business.

Final Thoughts on Using Social Media for Ecommerce Stores *

A social media strategy can help any ecommerce business grow by engaging potential buyers in an interactive way. But the best part… It doesn’t have to cost a dime!

If you’re not thinking about social media marketing, it’s time to start. Social media is an integral part of any online strategy for ecommerce brands, but most people don’t know where to begin or how. In fact, if you’re on the fence about jumping in with social media for your ecommerce business, check out our blog article on The Advantages & Disadvantages Of Using Social Media to help you ease into the idea a little bit more.

The tips in this post have been used successfully time and again. But as ecommerce is still relatively new, don’t be afraid to experiment and find what works for you!