Retail Media: How to leverage Shoppable Ads
One of the best ways to increase your profit is to learn how to integrate and leverage Shoppable Ads within your preexisting content.
One of the main problems online retailers have to solve is how to get people to finalize their purchases as quickly as possible. This can mean figuring out how to lead people from social media posts to your online store as seamlessly as possible. Or it can mean guiding them from the browse section to the purchase section in as few steps as possible. Fortunately, there are many solutions and technologies that are disposable to online retailers. One such solution is shoppable ads. In this article, we will delve deeper into how you can leverage shoppable ads and yield more revenue.
Understanding shoppable ads
Shoppable ads are a type of online advertisement that enables users to browse and purchase products directly from the ad itself. As you can imagine, this streamlines the shopping experience by reducing the steps between discovery and purchase. It allows users to go from seeing a product to buying it without leaving the platform where the ad appears.
Where you’ll find shoppable ads
This elimination of steps between seeing an ad for a product and making a purchase makes shoppable ads ideal for pretty much any brand. Therefore, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that we can see shoppable ads at every turn. Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and TikTok (apart from allowing people to search for items) support shoppable ads with features like product tagging in posts, reels, or stories. Furthermore, you have services like YouTube and Hulu that enable users to click on products shown in video ads. To further enable this, retail giants like Amazon, Walmart, and Target allow brands to run shoppable ads within their ecosystems.
Lastly, it is important to mention that Google Shopping Ads show products directly in search results or display networks, complete with pricing and purchase options. This integration between SEO and purchases makes ads an even more integral part of eCommerce.
Benefits of shoppable ads
The key benefits that shoppable ads bring to eCommerce are as follows:
- Reduced friction - The fewer steps between discovering a product and purchasing it the easier it is for customers to convert.
- Enhanced engagement - Relying on ads to bring in revenue is a tried and true good idea. Visually appealing and interactive elements tend to attract attention and encourage clicks.
- Precise targeting - To actually gain the benefits of ads, it is best to target them to specific groups. By gathering data and relying on algorithms one can ensure that ads are shown to users most likely to be interested in the products.
- Actionable insights - Ads don't only rely on data, but can also help gather it. Trackable metrics provide valuable data on customer behavior, helping optimize future campaigns. This symbiotic relationship between ads and data is another thing that keeps them relevant in modern marketing.
Leverage Shoppable Ads with ease
So, in our hands, we have a single tool that is likely to draw in the audience's attention (especially if personalized) and enable them to learn what your product is about and make a quick purchase. How can we leverage it? Well, there are numerous ways in which one could leverage Shoppable Ads. This only shows how potent they are in both marketing and e-commerce and why more and more brands will integrate them into their online content. Here is how to do it right.
Understand your audience
The old-school way of running ads is outdated, to say the least. While before you could create a decent ad, run it on various platforms, and hope for the best, this is no longer the case.
Modern audiences have short attention spans. And if you don't hook them with something interesting in the first couple of seconds, you can pretty much forget about future engagement. So, if you wish to sell something online, you need to analyze customer data (e.g., purchase history, and browsing habits). That way you can understand what resonates with your audience and create adequate shoppable ads. For instance, a user frequently shopping for skincare products might see ads featuring your best-selling moisturizers.
Ideally, you would run ads that specifically cater to each audience member. But, unless AI development proves us wrong, this is not financially viable. What you will do is create audience segments based on demographics, interests, and behaviors. For example, target younger audiences with trendy, fast-moving products while promoting high-value items to premium shoppers.
Use multiple platforms
Regardless of who you are targeting, you can safely assume that they spend a decent amount of time on social media. While younger generations tend to use TikTok, millennials and older still tend to use Instagram and Facebook. Fortunately, all of these platforms are quite friendly to shoppable ads. Some, like Instagram, have features like in-app checkouts where shoppable ads come to shine. For example, you can showcase a carousel of products in Instagram ads where users can directly shop without leaving the app.
Platforms like YouTube offer shoppable ads that allow viewers to click on products while watching videos. This is particularly effective for visual-heavy products such as electronics or home decor. Also keep in mind that your website can be a shopping platform, even if it isn't centered around shopping. With StorifyMe it is fairly easy to create story content that has shoppable elements.
Optimize for mobile
Another safe assumption to make is that your users will likely use their mobile devices to view your ads. After all, computers and laptops tend to be left for work. While our leisurely time is spent on our phones. So, when designing your ads, you ought to ensure that they look and function flawlessly on all screen sizes. Use bold images and concise text for mobile users. And make it easy to interact with the ad with clicks and swipes. You should also look to integrate features like autofill for payment and delivery details to make the buying process quick and effortless.
Use high-quality visuals
The reason why ads are effective is that they are rich in visuals. So, if you want to make the most out of them, lean into that. For instance, you can use videos or carousel ads to highlight key features of a product. For example, a 15-second video can show how a kitchen gadget simplifies cooking. Once the user gets the gist of what the product is about, you can easily incorporate the shoppable element.
Simplify the path to purchase
The main idea behind shoppable ads is to bring customer to finalize their purchase as quickly as possible. Therefore, you can imagine our surprise when we see shoppable ads where the purchase is three, or even four steps away. If you want to make the most of them, you need to make the path between viewing the ad and making the purchase as simple as possible. One option is to link directly to the product page rather than the homepage to minimize navigation steps. Another option is to include buttons like "Add to Cart" or "Buy Now" directly in the ad to reduce friction. After all, some customers may want to purchase more than one item.
Leverage data for personalization
As we mentioned before, ads ought to have a symbiotic relationship with data. On the one hand, you need to use both first-party and third-party data to create ads that will resonate with your audience. You then need to use those ads, along with other elements, to gather customer data for further use. Platforms like Meta and Google offer dynamic product ads that adapt to each user. They can display items they’ve previously viewed or abandoned in their cart. An additional option is to use machine learning to recommend products that align with shoppers’ preferences or seasonal trends.
Retargeting
Just because a person didn't shop for an item after viewing the ad doesn't mean that they won't do it in the future. A savvy salesperson knows that even cart abandonment isn't much of a problem. And that the timing is just as important as the content, which is another reason why personalizing your sales efforts is so important. A good way to leverage shoppable ads is to rely on user viewership. If a user clicks on a shoppable ad but doesn’t complete the purchase, retarget them with reminders or exclusive offers. Ideally, you will learn how to time your recommendations and set them up so that every ad is both well-timed and well-made.
Cross-selling is another tactic that can have a profound effect on your profits. What you do is that you promote complementary products to customers who’ve already purchased or shown interest in similar items. Here, again, we lean into the idea of knowing your audience and predicting which items they are likely to need.
Measure success
An important thing to remember about leverages is that you cannot know how effective they are until you start using them. So, before you start creating shoppable ads make sure to set up analytics. Use analytics to understand how many purchases originated directly from your shoppable ads. If you wish to stick to a single platform, you can get away with using their platform-native analytics system. Both social media platforms like Instagram and e-commerce platforms like Shopify offer analytic tools. If you wish to expand (which we agree) we suggest that you opt for a third-party tool. These include:
- Hootsuite - You can use it to track social media performance, including shoppable ads on Instagram and Facebook. This makes it ideal for managing and analyzing multi-platform campaigns in one dashboard.
- Sprout Social - Mostly used for advanced social media analytics, audience insights, and engagement metrics.
- AdRoll - Provides retargeting and performance tracking for shoppable ads across the web and social. If you want to drive conversions with dynamic product ads and remarketing, this is the tool to use.
The main job is to track how users interact with your ads—are they clicking, adding to the cart, or purchasing? By knowing this you can look to optimize your ads in specific segments and improve their overall performance.
Final thoughts
While there are many things to consider in trying to leverage Shoppable Ads we would advise that you don't overanalyse. Get an analytics tool that fits your budget, opt for an ad strategy, and start making ads. Once you get the feel of it you will have a far easier time determining what and where to change to make your ads more effective. And if you need any help in the design department, know that StorifyMe is here to help.
