Should I use custom audiences in facebook ads?

[lhout69]

So, I am pretty familiar with using facebook ads, but not with a shopify store for conversions.

I was running Facebook pixel on my shop for about 2 weeks, and see that I have custom audiences for pageviews, custom audience look alikes, etc.

Should I target these custom audiences in my ads, or should I leave it as I had before and don't target any custom audience?

I made about 4-5 sales with 1500-2k sessions without a custom audience. I am just wondering if people actively use custom audience on here for best converting

[DuaneBrown]

You should use custom audiences once you have enough data in your ad account. Dynamic Product Ads are a great place to start with people who have add to cart or checkout started. We generally start our ecom clients out on Google Shopping as it's faster to get sales and scale it on Google as you are targeting people as they search for what a client sells.

[Aria]

Hey!

Aria here, I'm on the Social Care team at Shopify.

Yes, it's a good idea to target custom audiences. Check out this blog post which goes into it more. I'm not sure how you've been targeting your ads so far. Was it mainly by age and location? You should be looking to target your ideal customer, especially people who have visited your store previously.

If you haven't already, I would suggest installing the Kit app. Kit's speciality is retargeting previous visitors. You can sign up for the free webinar to learn how it all works.

Your conversion rate is low. If you'd like me to give you some feedback on your store, please provide the web address and I'll be happy to do that.

It sounds like you have a lot of abandoned checkouts so make sure your abandoned cart process is optimized. A lot of people choose to offer a discount to encourage customers to complete their checkout. If you do this, make sure it's on the second email and not the first. When customers get used to discount codes on abandoned cart emails, they will abandon deliberately with the expectation of being offered a discount. The Shopify admin sends one of these emails. If you'd like to send more than one, you can use an app such as Smart Email Marketing. It is free if you have less than 250 contacts. You can use it for welcome emails, marketing emails and of course, abandoned cart. You can set up a free video conference with one of their staff to learn how to make the most of it. Make sure you are creating urgency in the email by offering a discount code that expires quickly (the end of the day or following day) or limited stock. It's also a good idea to include contact details. A lot of checkouts are abandoned due to unanswered questions.

Make sure it's quick and easy for your customers to figure out how long shipping will take and how much it will cost. They shouldn't have to look hard for this information or go all the way to check out. A shipping information page is useful and you can also consider a shipping calculator app.

Finally, there is an app called Lucky Orange that can help you understand our customer's behaviour and the reason the visits are not converting into sales.

Aria
Social Care Guru
Shopify

[lhout69]

I did end up having 20 abandoned checkouts today and 0 sales. It happened when I filled in shopify lookalike customers, and I wasn't sure if that was real or not as I have not seen those numbers. Is it safe to keep running shopify lookalike customers?

[Aria]

Keep in mind, there is a lot more to it than just how you advertise. There has to be a reason those customers are abandoning their carts. It can come down to the user experience, how trustworthy your site looks, how much the shipping costs, where the item is shipping from and more. At the moment, it's just guesswork for me because I can't see your website. I also don't know what your custom audience looks like and if it's relevant to your products.

If you don't feel comfortable posting your web address on the forums, you're welcome to send a request by email instead and I can reply to that. You can reply here with the ticket number. Our email address is support@shopify.com.

Aria

[Convergent7]

I would recommend you use them because you need find your sweet spot with the right audience that converts into sales.  There are many strategies but I would recommend you create some basics (e.g. men, women, age range, etc.).  When you do this, you will begin to see who engages and converts.  You make it an iterative process where you slowly learn and drill down to the right audience. 

When you can do that, you will have a better CPA and ROI...and you'll know who your exact customers are.

Thanks,

Erik