Q1 is a historically challenging season in the world of ecommerce. With challenges such as abandoned cart rates surpassing 75%, loyal shoppers suddenly disappearing from your retail radar and high post-holiday product returns, it’s a time where retailers need an ironclad strategy to drive conversion and revenue.
One way to gain a quick win? Dive into social advertising.
It’s no surprise that Facebook rules the playground in terms of consumer outreach. Facebook greets an incredible 1.37 billion global users per day, and about 3 million businesses globally leverage its power to engage and re-engage their target customers. So it’s only obvious to take advantage of Facebook’s consumer influence during this troublesome sales quarter…
But here’s the catch: investing your money into Facebook advertising will only generate a positive ROAS if there’s an intelligent strategy behind approaching customers. And in a quarter riddled with potential revenue loss, you simply can’t afford to throw your ad budget down the drain.
Here are 3 quick wins to help you further personalize your Facebook ad strategy and increase conversions and ROAS during Q1.
1. Turn your conversion funnel upside down
Sure, it’s not the first starting point retailers consider when it comes to targeting customers on Facebook, but it’s actually an effective way of generating fast and long-lasting revenue.
Why? Because your existing customers can be your biggest ad campaign drivers. Adobe reports that, on average, you need 5-7 new customers to equal the revenue of 1 loyal shopper. So instead of dumping a massive budget into your campaign efforts, why not use the customers who are statistically most likely to convert, as a building block for conversions?
Here’s a visual of how you can approach customer re-targeting on Facebook when starting from the ‘bottom’:
2. Maximize Facebook advertising by thinking mobile
While desktop remains the king of the ecommerce jungle, mobile browsing is quickly catching up. According to Business Insider data, by 2020 mobile commerce will account for 45% of the total ecommerce market – and that’s in the US alone. And seeing as Facebook is heavily driven by mobile usage (browsers spend 20% of their mobile time on this site), you’ll have to optimize your ad strategy to deliver the same quality experience via a smartphone. One way to do this? Combine the power of visuals and mobile compatibility to guarantee your customers will reach your website.
Which leads us to our next tip…
3. Step up your a(d) game by leveraging Facebook Collection Ads
Let’s face it: our Facebook feeds are saturated with funny dog videos and baby albums – adorable as they may be, they’re still considered your competition. And seeing as it only takes us about 50 milliseconds to form a first impression, cutting through the adorable noise is more challenging than ever.
Facebook Collection Ads enable you to create both an inspirational shopping experience and a valuable revenue-driving strategy. The ad displays a main image in the header – like a creative photo or a video snippet – which you can follow up with a series of relevant product recommendations to support your visual. At Nosto, we call this feature our Collection Ad Unit.
Collection Ads are a hit when it comes to enhancing your social ads strategy; one of our clients achieved a 17x ROAS and a 340% in Ad CTR after implementing this feature.
Use video to enhance Collection Ads:
While compelling photos are one way to target a brand new audience in Collection Ads, we recommend using a video (no longer than about 15 seconds) as your main creative. Not only is video a wildly popular way of successfully engaging users, but Forbes reports that 64% of consumers are more keen to buy a product online after watching a video about it.
So you’ve conquered Facebook advertising – now what?
Social advertising is just one potential roadblock standing in the way of your Q1 goals. To dive into other challenges faced by retailers worldwide – and how to conquer them using tried-and-tested personalization strategies – download Nosto’s Q1 Survival Guide – 2018 Edition and kick off a strong journey through Q1 and beyond.
