Hi - There is no obvious weblink that has been presented to enable me to watch this event. I just spent 15 minutes going in circles trying to find how to watch!
This isn’t what I expect from Shopify.
2 Likes
Hey Wingspan,
How much you should be spending on marketing is a tough question. It depends on a few factors:
- Your industry
- How much competition there is
- Your margins
- Your marketing/growth strategy. (if you want to grow faster, you’ll need more budget)
Here’s where you can start.
Typically we start at the desired end result and work backwards. So you need to have a revenue/sales goal in mind.
Let’s say your sales goal is $100,000 for the year.
We usually recommend a marketing budget between 10% - 15% of total revenue. This includes costs associated with your website, email marketing, paid ads (including ad spend) and anything else that falls within the realm of marketing.
So, if your marketing budget is $10,000 - $15,000 you should be able to prioritize the most important opportunities. This means you need to spread your budget out across multiple initiatives. You wouldn’t spend the whole amount on one marketing activity.
As the year progresses you should be able to get a better sense of your revenue and adjust your budgeting accordingly.
3 Likes
Hi PhilTulz,
Great question and good assumptions. We always recommend budgeting both time and money. If your money budget is small or nonexistent right now, your time budget has to be a lot bigger to make up for it.
As a new merchant, you’re likely being pulled in a lot of different directions so deciding what to DIY and how to prioritize your time can be a challenge. To start out, keep it simple: Get the platform working consistently for you. Don’t focus on any complicated customizations or extra features unless absolutely necessary to your business.
Right now, your time is a limiting factor on your business growth and you don’t have money to offset that so you need to prioritize revenue generating activities - sales and partnerships are the best place to start.
Put a plan in place and make sure you tick off measurable deliverables every day in terms of capturing images for marketing, posting on social media, and connecting directly with potential customers and partners through direct outreach and whatever industry events you can afford to attend.
To avoid being overwhelmed, I recommend completing an Eisenhower Matrix to really prioritize your goals and cut down on all the noise.
I hope that helps!
3 Likes
Hi. I have never planned a marketing budget. I just got for a target ROAS of 3+. How do I create a budget that doesn’t feel like it can constrain growth? Thanks for any advice.
1 Like
same, driving me nuts. blocked two hours of my day for this. wix had a presentation with google employees and ad agency. I thought I was signing up for something similar. we use both platforms
1 Like
I’m not seeing any responses though, only questions being asked? Am I missing something?
1 Like
Hey @TIMECAPSULES ,
The event is right here in this thread, there is no video to accompany it. You’re already in the right place!
Feel free to post any marketing questions you have, and Aron and Matt will be happy to answer them.
3 Likes
Hey @CandTel88 ,
This event is here in this thread, there is no video to accompany it. However, I will be sure to pass along your feedback to our team.
Feel free to post any marketing questions you have, and Aron and Matt will be happy to answer them. Thanks for making the time to join us today!
3 Likes
How can I make a post? I only see the option to reply or like other posts?
1 Like
Next event that involves this format, make it very clear in the “marketing” component. So, people do not waste half an hour looking for the link.
- This is what you posted -
Don’t miss the chance to attend live and engage with the founders of 2H Media, as well as your fellow Shopify community members.
Especially for the disabled community (visually impaired) hard to navigate this type of format
1 Like
Hey @TRB28 ,
Thanks for joining us today!
Matt and Aron have started answering questions. If you scroll up you can see some of the answers to already submitted questions above.
Please feel welcome to post any marketing question you have for Matt and Aron to answer.
2 Likes
Hi FleuRias,
Dropshipping is really tough. Since you don’t control the product, you need to find other ways to set your company apart from the competition. The main things you can do to stand out in this space are to build a long-term brand that looks and feels like a legitimate company, provide outstanding customer service, and put serious budget into ads. Social channels are some of your best bets for gaining ad traction (facebook, instagram, tiktok). If it’s feasible for you, figure out how to produce consistently great video content about your products. You’ll want to land some product that you can use to create your own promo content and push it out into all your channels. In addition to organic posting, paid ads are key. I’d recommend spending at least $1000/mo on ads if you want to make any real headway.
For more on dropshipping success, there is a great Shopify blog post you should read.
4 Likes
Going to work off of this since I can not figure out how to make a “new” post. Matthew, I currently have being utilizing a 3rd party analytic company called North Beam to help me determine where my ad dollars are best being spent. It has helped me to see more truth into our data rather than solely relying on the reports Meta / Pinterest have to offer.
I own a subscription based business and I am constantly battling to determine if my CPA should be based on initial purchase or LTV? For example our ad manager will generally have us between a CPA of $25-$42 give or take, if I see us creeping over $30 I feel like I am spending too much because a single order cost only $38 + shipping. Our ad manager tells me that I shouldn’t be focused on that though because generally our customers stay with us for at least 4 months which gives us an LTV of at least $152 + shipping. What do you think about this?
I have been questioning if I should start moving some of my ad spend off of Meta and onto TikTok even though we don’t have a large following on Tik Tok yet. I just feel like Meta is never giving me growth and only giving me consistency but at a higher cost then I would like. What are your thoughts?
Lastly in regards to budgeting I know they say to aim for 10-15% of your Revenue, Do you review your percentage each month and then tweek your marketing from there? I have been trying to focus on that this year but every-time I want to make changes to our ads / budgets our ad manager says it will hurt its performance
1 Like
Thanks for the question!
You can participate by replying to the original topic from @SarahF_Shopify . The reply button is just under her message at the top of the page. Exactly what you would have done to post this question. Matt and Aron will be replying in this thread.
2 Likes
Hi Jac,
This is a really tough question as I don’t know a ton about your business.
As a rule of thumb you want to spend the most on the channel and activities that generate the most.
I would start by analyzing where you are making the most sales. I would run the following reports:
- Sessions by referrer
- Sessions attributed to marketing
From these reports you can determine how your efforts are bringing in traffic to your website. If you are running paid ads you will need to look at those reporting tools as well.
We always want to pour gas onto the fire so if you are getting a ton of sales through Instagram you will want to focus more of your time and money on this sales channel.
When it comes to marketing it’s very rarely “set it and forget it” so you will need to refer back to these reports often and adjust your spending. There’s a ton of factors that can shift whether a channel is performing or not so please remain vigilant.
Trends
Most small business owners can suffer from “Shiny object syndrome” which is basically chasing a trend without a strategy or game plan in place. My advice is to avoid seeking out trends and focus on the core business activities that earn you the most.
If you do have budget to explore new ideas, start small to avoid any unneeded risk.
Advertising
Each platform has its pros and cons. You need to be on the platform that makes the most sense for your desired audience. We start with this question:
“Where are your customers?”
That’s the platform you need to focus on.
Don’t spread yourself too thin. Each platform takes time, energy and money to become profitable. We would rather you have 1 successful channel working for you than 4 that aren’t.
3 Likes
How much do I need to spend on Meta ads on average to get a decent traffic to my website? Are there any other “free” alternatives to promote my website? How can I accelerate my sales?
2 Likes
Matt,
Are you seeing TikTok trends declining?
It seems that all social platforms are “running ads” between influencer partnerships and direct brand ads, how does one push through to be seen and heard?
Is it best to stick with Google ads?
2 Likes
Hi! I really like this format and your advice/suggestions are incredibly valuable. I am a small business owner and I find myself in the ‘throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks’, phase of things. I would love to make more data driven decisions with my marketing budget and I am curious to hear how you would recommend getting started. For example in a previous response you mentioned, Measurable Deliverables, do you mind giving some examples of what you mean and how you would measure. For example 1) Instagram Post (Static), measure time/engagement/conversions? 2) Email, measure CTR/conversions/unsubscribed?
1 Like
Hi Devon15, Great question. We’re very familiar with the furniture market. In terms of marketing channels, we always recommend doing more of what works.
Since socials are already pushing most of your traffic into your physical locations, you know which platforms you have an audience on. I’d look at running specific ad campaigns across those socials with messaging and CTAs that encourage people to order online. If you feel you really need to jumpstart this, consider offering an online exclusive. This could be a sale or a free gift with purchase. Once your social channels are doing more consistent work for your online store, you can consider branching into other channels. At that stage, I would look at Google Ads.
Also, since you sell large items (furniture) and you have physical locations, local SEO is massively important to your business. In terms of effort, one of the first things we’d recommend you look at is your Google My Business listing to make sure all of your information is up to date and you have a ton of images uploaded. If you have bar codes and gtins, you can also easily add your products into Google Merchant Centre, and have your products display on Google Shopping, which is wildly popular for furniture.
2 Likes
I’d love to ask about marketing strategy for a business focused on local deliveries.
We are a grocery store with 4000+ products and only deliver to about a 4 mile radius.
Very different to a DTC brand selling nationwide/worldwide.
What should we focus on? Which platform(s) will best? How should we allocate our budgets? We are about to launch our store for home delivery service this week so this is super relevant to us!! 
1 Like