Unable to drive sales with Facebook ads

[Mohamed_Al_lawa]

Hello,

I have had my store for some time and I have worked on different strategies to drive sales with facebook ads but none have materialized. So far my sales have purely been through organic sources or PR, leading to a lot of seasonality. Here is the link to my site: www.joggobag.com

I launched a new FB campaign which seemed promising but even that didn't lead to sales, here is what the strategy was:

1) Interest targeting: Content view conversion, result: 5.05% CTR, 25% bounce rate. 

2) Retargeting campaign (website visitors): Purchase conversion, result: 0 conversions, 2.46% CTR. Image attached

What am I doing wrong, and how can use FB ads as main source of revenue?

[Asad_Shah]

A lot has to go into an Ad Campaign here are 4 things you can improve on:

1. Don't create an ad to sell, create an ad to get followers
2. Work on Instagram and Facebook profiles so you have valuable content (so people coming from the ad would enjoy following you)
3. Let the campaign run for a while and instead of retargeting straight away, create a custom audience to see who was interested in the first ad and then create a lookalike audience off the back of the custom audience. This should 3x your growth
4. Sell in a subtle way though posts on Instagram/Facebook to your followers. Not random people

Step 1-3 os focussing on getting people's attention. Step 4 is selling to them. In 2014 - 2016 cold selling via ads was awesome. But people know an ad when they see one now and that just doesn't work anymore

[Starshards]

In addition to the current suggestion from the post above, I'd revise your ads to be more lively and include people using them, packing etc... Still images barely work on FB/Insta and the focus should be people using it and having fun, smiling, living life. And this bag helps them in their everyday life.

That is just one approach but you see what I mean?

[Mohamed_Al_lawa]

Asad, thanks for the info. 

Your point #1, can you elaborate on that. Are you suggesting that I should not set the objective to purchase conversion, if so how do I setup to increase followers? There doesn't seem to be an option in the campaign objective to increase followers.

Your Point #2: What are you suggesting the objective for the campaign targeting lookalike audience be, that would drive 3x growth? Is this optimized for conversion, or something else. Would appreciate it if you could elaborate on this.

Thanks again for taking out time to comment

[Mohamed_Al_lawa]

Thanks Starshads. I am not too sure if ad creative is the main issue, since I have seen good CTR (5% on content view campaign and 2% retargeting campaign) , let me know if you think the CTR is below norms? However, I do agree with you that more lifestyle imagery may move the performance in the right direction.

[Convergent7]

Hi Mohammad,

Here is some feedback and suggestions:

• I wouldn't recommend making FB your main source of revenue.  You want to build a brand that drives revenue across multiple channels.  What if FB changes their ad algorithm or cost structure?  You're at the mercy of losing your main source.  Build the brand and you will not be controlled by another one source.  Especially true if you're on Amazon too.
• Is the messaging on your FB ads derived from your organic sales?  It should be if you've done the proper homework...which is to dive into your analytics and all your ad data and figure out not only how they buy, more importantly, WHY they buy.  Use data-driven marketing to find the why.  Then, you can build your messaging platform from there and increase your conversion rate.
• If you're getting a high CTR but a low CR (conversion rate), then your ad isn't matching their expectations when they land on the page.  You connecting with the wrong people.  Non-buyers.  Based on the two samples, I can see some issues
  • The ad where the guy switched from his man purse to a backpack because it has more room?  Well, I hope a backpack has more room.  How will it help me carry more?  Spacious and comfortable, right?...so I would try some messaging like "So comfortable, you will be able to pack more but it feels like less."
  • The other ad doesn't even talk about the product and I bet most of them are clicking to learn about how you're sustainable and fairly sourced.  You don't talk of what's in it for them  "Pack more.  Feel lighter.  Help Mother Earth"  Focus on your messaging and get into your customer's mindset.
• You have no product reviews.  Turn them on,  Read what and why people love your product.  Then, use their words to create your product messaging.
• You should have a survey on your thank you page...find out why they bought your product.  I would pop up a one question survey on your product page: Are you to replace your current backpack?  How does your messaging change depending your answer?  You ask that same question on the TY page and see if the customers are different than the prospects.
• There are a ton of tools to help you understand your prospects.  Install them.  Use them.  Use data-driven marketing to help understand what and why.

Hope this helps!

Thanks,

Erik

Convergent7

[Mohamed_Al_lawa]

@Convergent7 Thank you so much for your thorough response. I will go through the feedback and start looking into it, I may come back to you if I have more questions or need guidance. Hope thats ok

[GeorgeNelson]

---

@Asad_Shah wrote:

A lot has to go into an Ad Campaign here are 4 things you can improve on:

1. Don't create an ad to sell, create an ad to get followers
2. Work on Instagram and Facebook profiles so you have valuable content (so people coming from the ad would enjoy following you)
3. Let the campaign run for a while and instead of retargeting straight away, create a custom audience to see who was interested in the first ad and then create a lookalike audience off the back of the custom audience. This should 3x your growth
4. Sell in a subtle way though posts on Instagram/Facebook to your followers. Not random people

Step 1-3 os focussing on getting people's attention. Step 4 is selling to them. In 2014 - 2016 cold selling via ads was awesome. But people know an ad when they see one now and that just doesn't work anymore

---

Heya! 

1) Wrong. You clearly are not well versed with facebook ads. The intent doesn't matter. If people want it they will buy it and need a call to action to buy. 

2) Wrong. People will still buy items without the need for social clout. Only the product and offer matters. 

3) Wrong. He can retarget as early as possible the time frame is not relevant. In fact if he left it too late to retarget it will diminish recovery rate. 

4) Wrong. Converting cold traffic is still paramount as this guy doesn't have any followers. 

ElizaThompson

[Mohamed_Al_lawa]

Hi @GeorgeNelson

Thanks for your response. You are right, I don't know what I am doing, which is why I am here. I thought that was obvious :). Your feedback is welcome but not very helpful as you just pointed at the flaws in what I am doing and what others suggested but haven't really provided your input in terms of the direction to take.

It would be helpful if you could share you perspective in terms of what you think the right direction to take is.

Thanks so much

[Convergent7]

Absolutely!  Here to help so ping me if you have questions!  Good luck.

[Asad_Shah]

What you're saying makes sense too but it's old. "Influencers" like yourself are the only reason I started my whole business. Showed people that just because people started on Instagram early and got 0000's of followers, they don't automatically get authority.

Facebook Ads is what I do for living and companies like @thegoodquote (15M followers) approach me for help. 

But it's ok. You're probably on a beginner curve where you think everyone is wrong except you and then later you'll realise that there are a 1000 ways to get to the target.

[GeorgeNelson]

---

@Asad_Shah wrote:

What you're saying makes sense too but it's old. "Influencers" like yourself are the only reason I started my whole business. Showed people that just because people started on Instagram early and got 0000's of followers, they don't automatically get authority.

Facebook Ads is what I do for living and companies like @thegoodquote (15M followers) approach me for help. 

But it's ok. You're probably on a beginner curve where you think everyone is wrong except you and then later you'll realise that there are a 1000 ways to get to the target.

---

Heya 

What company is that? Mining for oil in your terrible awful country? I still have more followers than you and I know what people want and how people want to buy. Your proposal to the OP got exposed for its flaws and you're not happy and thats fine but ultimately your proposal won't help the OP because he will not be profitable. Period. Hope this helps! 🙂

ElizaThompson

[Karan_Jassar]

Hi Mohamed,

Congratulations on getting started. Running a store is hard but you've got a great product on hand and you are doing a lot of things right. It takes time for everyone to get better at this.

Here is some feedback:

1. I see very few prods and that's an issue. With such limited inventory, you've got to really nail it with the product market fit. Usually a larger inventory is less risky. We are all spoilt for choice. You are paying money to acquire each visitor and just 5 items with 1 sold out makes it harder. I would still focus a lot more on organic sales if I could. It's a lot more hustle but may be better for you. 

2. Now about ads: FB uses AI and but it does what it's told. If you ask for link clicks, then that's what you'll get. If you ask for purchases, then the algo will try and find people who are most likely to purchase your products based on their past behavior on other sites. I highly recommend always optimize for website purchase as the conversion event when you want to sell. 

The issue here is that the more sales you have on your site, the more data FB has collected about your buyers and the better it's matching algo's does. However, this is an issue for new sellers 😞

3. Eventually, you need to get more sales even for FB to help you. I'd say make a clear buyer persona (in your case, it's definitely people who care about your mission) and get to those people to purchase somehow. See if you can also adjust your ads targeting to people who've cared about or donated to causes like the one you support.

4. High CTR 'may' be mean the creative is good. It may also means your ad got shown to people who are likely to click - but not necessarily purchase. Creatives are personal. My opinion is that the creative isn't 'salesy' enough. Don't shy away from experimenting with some salesy copy and the graphic. Put the value prop on there. It's better to get less CTR from purchasers than just clicks that don't convert. 

5. Setup retargeting but think of this as a funnel. People who left without buying, try and build brand with them by both showing them your product quality as well as reminding them of the mission you support. 

6. I'd also suggest experimenting with a carousal ad unit. It works very well for eCommerce. Make a few creatives per bag with different messaging and test them in a carousal ad to see which one converts better. My app socioh can help you do the design part and run DPA ads for free (except FB costs). Give it a try.

All the best.

[Mohamed_Al_lawa]

Thanks @Karan_Jassar, this is really helpful.

I know what you mean about the limited product line, however, before I add too many products I wanted to secure a sustainable acquisition strategy, its a chicken or the egg issue 🙂

I appreciate the detailed input, I will continue experimenting and will check out your app, thanks for sharing. 

Regards

Mohamed

[Karan_Jassar]

When I suggested increased product line, I didn't necessarily mean your own (even though I realize you are trying to build a brand). Having products from other vendors that you can drop ship would also be a good option. Sourcing other high margin but complimentary prods would be a good idea as well.

Remember, the idea is to cover your cost of advertising (or at least getting closer to break even) while you are testing and figuring out your own product line's viability. 

[Amit_Roznak1]

Hi Mohammed,

I really liked your store and product, and I think the best thing you have is the story behind it. 

There are 2 main things I would recommend you to do:

1. Put your story in the front line of the ads. A good story sells more than benefit or unique feature of the product.

2. Don't concentrate only on Facebook, Google offers many options to generate new traffic and Re-targeting campaigns.

If you need help with your advertising campaigns, you might want to try AdScale.

It's a Shopify app that uses AI Technology in order to generate for your store smart advertising campaigns on Google & Facebook, that targets the right people, with the right products, at the right time.

This video can give you a short introduction to how it works:

You can learn more about it in this link: ecom.adscale.com

Hope it helps!

[Mohamed_Al_lawa]

Thanks @Amit_Roznak1

Would Adscale work for brands who have not generated sales through digital ads yet? Also who would you not recommend this app to? I am sceptical as I have tried multiple tools which didn't deliver sales, so just want to check if this is a good fit for me.

[Amit_Roznak1]

@Mohamed_Al_lawa

Your welcome!

To your questions:

1. Yes, you can start using the app even if your brand is not well established What's unique about AdScale is that it uses insights from millions of advertising campaigns to find the best advertising mix. That means that performance insights that our system concluded on stores with a similar type of products, will be implemented in your advertising campaigns. 

Of course, there's also a downside for stores with no brand recognition when using the app. Since there is less or no historical data, our app need to collect data to figure what will work best for your store and that can take more time and advertising costs. Although, we did have stores that started with no brand and no history at all and became successful right from the start! You can read the last review left on our Shopify app page: https://apps.shopify.com/adscale#reviews. This guy installed AdScale when he had 0 sales, and in one month made $10K!

2.  We would not recommend stores that are not finished, not built well and doesn't include relevant content to install our app. Our app working mainly according to the store content. Bad SEO structure, poorly written product title and descriptions, low-quality images, all can impact the performance of the advertising campaigns. 

Let me know if you have any further questions.

[Mohamed_Al_lawa]

Thanks @Amit_Roznak1

Appreciate your feedback. So I am assuming you feel that my site is ready for Adscale. I will check it.

[lloydy14]

Hi there

I have just went on your site and visited the home page, I scrolled down to the featured products and none of the links are working.

Are you sure your site is functioning ok technically to be able to make sales.

Cheers