Valentine’s Day is a celebration of romance and love and has consequently become a highly meaningful day for many couples across the world. A largely important aspect of this day is exchanging gifts - something that has been traditionally employed as a kind gesture to express love and appreciation to one another 💌

Here are some ideas on how you can utilise the gift-giving nature of this occasion to encourage customers to purchase gifts from your store for their significant other and consequently boost your sales!

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A Curated Collection of Valentine’s Day Gifts

Finding the perfect gift for a loved one can often be extremely tricky - many people will have no idea what to get for their partner. With the abundance of product offerings available online, gift options can become confusing and overwhelming for potential buyers.

Offering a curated collection of gifts and/or gift sets particularly for this occasion can make Valentine’s Day a lot easier for customers and hence make your store an attractive option for individuals on the hunt for the perfect gift 🛍

You can utilise phrases like “Our Exclusive Valentine’s Day Collection” and “The Perfect Valentine’s Day Gift” to effectively promote your store’s offering!

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Special Deals and Promotions

Encourage potential customers to buy from your store by offering deals and promotions exclusively for Valentine’s Day. Sometimes, people will need a small incentive to encourage a purchase and more than often, special deals can be enough to prompt individuals to purchase. 

You can do this by providing discounts from your store, offering free shipping or including special gifts with purchases. Taglines like “Share the Love with 20% Off!” can be used to effectively advertise your promotions 🛒

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Personalised Gift Packaging Options

Adding an element of personal touch always adds to the gift giving experience, where the recipient will feel more special when unboxing their present 🎁

Gift wrapping, cards and even handwritten notes are all amazing components of a thoughtful and personalised gift. By offering these services during the Valentine’s Day period, it can incentivise people to shop from your store and can be advertised by saying this such as “The Perfect Gift With a Personal Touch”

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Offering Express Shipping

Individuals may forget to purchase a gift for Valentine’s Day and if they’re not quick enough, standard shipping may mean that their gift won’t come in time.

Something that you can do to attract these potential customers is offering express shipping to ensure that their gift will still come before the day. This can be promoted with a tagline like “It’s Not Too Late for the Perfect Gift!” 

Best Practices for Reducing eCommerce Cart Abandonment Rate

Abandoned carts are a problem that cost e-commerce brands a whopping $18 billion a year in potential sales revenue. Still, the abandoned cart recovery process has important lessons to teach online merchants about the user experience they deliver. In this article, we’ll look at the reasons behind cart abandonment and share proven solutions to recover abandoned carts.

What Are Cart Abandonment and Abandoned Cart Recovery?

Abandoned cart recovery is the process of trying to lower the frequency of cart abandonment by optimizing the shopping experience and following up with customers who are on the verge of making a purchase.

E-commerce companies that establish an abandoned cart recovery strategy increase their conversion rates and gain better insights into their customers’ habits.

Reasons for Cart Abandonment

To reduce cart abandonment, you’ll need to understand what causes customers to decide not to make a purchase after all.

A less-than-stellar user experience is one of the most frequent causes of cart abandonment. A poorly designed interface, for instance, makes the purchasing process too complicated and erodes a consumer’s confidence in the company, which can drive them to make their purchases elsewhere. Other customers could leave if shipping costs are too high to justify the order.

Shipping and Returns

Surprise or unexpected fees and other customer-unfriendly policies are the main reason visitors drop off without checking out. Lots of e-commerce retailers put strict restrictions on returns, either by not giving customers enough time to make the returns or charging them to make returns.

Other policies—like international shipping fees—could deter would-be customers if they don’t know about them before they try to check out. For consumers, these seemingly small details are crucial, and they’ll just as soon shop somewhere else if they don’t like the terms they’re presented with.

A Lengthy Checkout Procedure

Lengthy and complex checkout procedures do more than put a bad taste in consumers’ mouths; they’re also why 18 percent of would-be consumers said they abandoned their carts. Having to fill out too much information to complete the checkout process can create anxiety in customers who just want to make a purchase.

Limited Payment Options

Customers might not make a purchase if the retailer doesn’t offer their favorite payment method. Make sure to include popular payment methods like Apple Pay or Google Pay to keep more customers happy.

Since the checkout process means having to share personally identifiable information—like bank information and addresses—privacy concerns are also at the top of the list for consumers to abandon their carts.

Window Shopping

People who shop online also use the web to research products, brands, and discounts before buying something. Customers often add products to their carts as a type of placeholder while they research similar products or read reviews. Some customers might even come back repeatedly before finally committing to the purchase.

How to Calculate Cart Abandonment in Shopify, WooCommerce, and Google Analytics

The shopping cart abandonment rate is the percentage of virtual shoppers who add products to their digital shopping carts and remove them before they make a purchase.

To find out what your cart abandonment rate is, you can divide the number of actual purchases by the number of people who just add and delete items from their carts. Take that number and subtract it from one and then multiply that number by 100. Now you’ve got the percentage of customers who abandon their carts.

Shopify users can calculate their abandoned cart rate from their online store conversion rate, which is found in the “Dashboard” section of “Analytics.”

WooCommerce users can pull cart abandonment data using a dedicated WordPress plugin. Cart reports are generated by going to “Reports” and then choosing “Carts” from the main WooCommerce dashboard.

Google Analytics users can figure out their cart abandonment percentage by creating a “Goal” with a funnel that tracks all steps of the checkout procedure, then going to “Funnel Visualization” to view the data.

Identifying Causes of Cart Abandonment

Keeping an eye on cart abandonment data helps companies to take actionable steps to stop a downward trend of purchases.

Heatmapping

Heatmapping uses colors to represent visitors’ engagement with pages, which makes patterns in their behavior easier to see. This makes it much more simple to figure out where they drop off on the customer journey.

Customer Surveys

Even if visitors don’t come back to finish their purchases, understanding why they left can help businesses lower their cart abandonment rates for the future.

Exit Pop-Ups

Exit pop-ups entice visitors with a too-good-to-resist offer if they try to leave the site. The offer is a call to action designed to keep them engaged longer and, ideally, convert them from prospective customers to buyers. According to OptiMonk, exit popups have an average conversion rate of 17.12%

How to Decrease Cart Abandonment

The bad news is that a lot of visitors won’t convert into purchasers. The good news, though, is that e-commerce brands like yours have options for minimizing the number of abandoned carts at your store.

Transparent and Comprehensive Shipping and Returns

Shoppers decide if a shipping cost is fair by evaluating the delivery in terms of cost, flexibility, and efficiency. Free or low-cost delivery can motivate a customer to complete a purchase, even if it means waiting a couple of days. Other customers place a higher value on faster and more customizable delivery options, like next-day delivery or delivery at a specific time.

Consumers are more likely to be satisfied with their overall shopping experience if the returns process is easy to understand and clearly laid out. Since product returns make for unwelcome operational costs, e-commerce brands need to do everything they can to lower return rates.

Full disclosure of return deadlines, guidelines on the conditions of returned items, and how to contact customer service for assistance all play a role in building consumer confidence in a brand’s returns process.

Customer-Focused Checkout

A seamless checkout procedure optimized for both desktop and mobile is fundamental for motivating consumers to complete their purchases. The most effective checkout flows lead the customer to the purchase confirmation window with the fewest clicks possible because a complicated flow can make them quit and go somewhere else.

Offering customers the option to check out as guests means they won’t have to create a customer account to make a purchase. For some customers, this is a make-or-break option. Even small touches like automatically switching to the customer’s desired keypad make it easier for touchscreen users to complete checkout forms.

One-click checkout is another option that has proven to improve conversion rates by over 35 percent.

You’ve also got to make forms as simple as possible to reduce cart abandonment. A lot of customers will simply go somewhere else if they’re faced with a ton of forms to fill out.

Leading e-commerce retailers with optimized checkout procedures have very few form fields for customers to fill out. Using address search tools on checkout pages, guiding users through challenging form fields, and monitoring analytics data for pain points can help drive form optimization.

Convenience-Driven Payment Methods

Seven percent of customers said they didn’t complete a purchase because the store didn’t offer their favorite payment methods, and a lot more customers are using payment methods other than debit or credit cards.

Along with the most popular payment methods like credit card and PayPal, here are a few other options to explore adding to your store to decrease cart abandonment:

- Shopping apps

- Digital wallets such as Apple Pay or Google Pay

- Monthly/weekly financing (for larger purchases)

- Cryptocurrency

Abandoned Cart Callbacks

E-commerce platforms can also email would-be customers a reminder of what’s in their abandoned carts so that they can return to the website when they’re ready. Or your customers can get prompts if they get close to abandonment, like when they’re about to exit the page.

Sending abandoned cart emails to almost-converted customers can convert a prospect into a brand devotee. Sending an abandoned cart email or text message within an hour or two after the prospect abandons their cart might convince them to go back and complete their purchase.

Best Cart Abandonment Examples

To make an effective call to action for cart abandonment, you’ve got to be memorable, easy to understand, and in tune with your company’s branding. Here are some of our favorite cart abandonment reminder examples.

Casper. Casper’s front-and-center “Come Back to Bed” call to action is witty, clean, and relevant to its brand. Giving visitors the chance to review testimonials about the items left behind in their carts is a powerful form of messaging that encourages them to look at their potential purchase as a worthwhile investment.

Rudy’s Barbershop. Rudy’s messaging is playful and pokes fun at tedious computer maintenance, saying, “Don’t put this off like a software update.” They also mention limited-time free shipping, which invokes the fear of missing out and the option to unsubscribe gives visitors full control over their user journey, even if they don’t convert into a sale.

Final Thoughts

Recovering abandoned carts is more than mere sales follow-up. It’s about cultivating a customer-focused shopping environment that encourages your customers to browse longer and go through with purchases.

E-commerce brands like yours have to use a two-pronged approach that starts with learning your visitors’ main pain points in the buying experience, then using them to transition into effective callback methods to entice your customers to come back and complete their purchase.

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If you have an eCommerce store full of great products but you’re having trouble increasing your sales, you may be wondering what more you can do. We’ve got some tips you may not have tried that can significantly improve your store’s conversion rate and bring in more sales. Here are our top seven tips to improve the conversion rate of your store: 

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1. Implement a Chatbot

Consumers shop online because it’s fast and convenient, and they expect to have their questions answered right away. If it takes too long to get answers, they might go somewhere else where they can get faster service. Responsive customer service is right up there with low prices and great products in terms of importance to customers.

Sometimes it’s just not possible to be available to your customers day and night, but you don’t want that fact to cost you potential customers. Fortunately, there’s a way to provide 24/7 customer service without sitting at your computer all night just in case a customer has a question. Using a chatbot can help your customers get their questions answered quickly.

With advanced natural language technology, customers receive personalized attention from chatbots, which increases the chances of them completing their purchases. The quick and customized service improves customer satisfaction so your customers are more likely to return to your store and recommend it to their family and friends.

2.A/B Testing UX and Design Elements

User experience (UX) is the experience users have when they use your website and it has a lot to do with what your customer thinks about your store. UX design is purposely mapping out how your site looks and how it functions. The design elements of your store should be visually appealing, easy to use, and accessible to everyone.

So how do you figure out how well your site design is performing or if there’s a better option? A/B testing will help you find the answer and choose the most effective UX design to increase your store’s conversion rate.

With A/B testing—also known as split testing—you choose which element you want to test and how you’ll decide if it’s effective. For example, you could test two different versions of your product page to see which one gets the most conversions.

An A/B testing tool will help you run the test and analyze the results so that you can use the site design that’s most satisfying to your customers.

3.Website Personalization

Personalized sites sell more products. In the past year alone, eCommerce businesses lost $756 billion because of shabby website personalization. With so much competition in the online shopping world, you’ve got to find ways to set your site apart. Personalizing your site is an effective way to stand out from your competitors.

To personalize your site effectively, you have to understand your customers by using analytic tools, cookies, and geolocation features. You can then personalize your website to the kinds of people who are most likely to visit your store. You can even create unique home pages for different customer groups.

Use cookies to learn if a visitor is new or returning, then direct them to the pages that will be most helpful for them. It’s best to personalize landing pages to where customers are coming from to provide a smooth transition and personalized touch. Don’t forget to keep your site updated with each season of the year, the latest trends, and upcoming holidays.

4. Video Content

Videos capture a customer’s attention in a way that text and pictures just can’t. Especially with eCommerce businesses, where customers can miss out on the human interaction part of in-person shopping, video content shows customers that you care and fosters an instant sense of trust.

When creating video content for your site, be sure to keep it short and get to the point quickly. As with everything else related to online shopping, customers want speed and efficiency and they can lose interest very fast.

Add a video to your landing page to associate a human face with your business. Or add video content to your email marketing to bring more visitors to your site and increase your shop’s conversion rate.

5. Pop-Ups

Pop-ups can increase your conversion rate if you use them the right way. Delayed pop-ups that don’t appear until a visitor is on a page for a certain amount of time are more effective than instant pop-ups. Make sure the user can easily close the pop-up window so they don’t get annoyed and leave your site.

Pop-ups can be used in a variety of ways to increase conversions. You could offer a discount using an exit pop-up when a customer tries to leave your site. Or you could try to instill a sense of urgency in your potential customer by using a pop-up to let them know a sale is almost over or that there are only a few of a particular product left in stock.

6. Review Plugins

People who shop online rely a lot on customer reviews when they’re deciding whether or not to buy something. In fact, a 2020 poll found that 94% of those surveyed were more likely to use a business that had positive reviews.

Review plugins can help you gather positive feedback so that potential customers feel more confident about shopping from your store.

7. Giveaway Plugins

Free gift giveaways are hard to resist. Whether you want to win a new customer, bring past customers back to your store, or get visitors to register on your site, tempting them with a free gift will probably do the trick.

Giveaway plugins let you customize the conditions that will add a free gift to your customer’s cart. Not only will a giveaway encourage them to take the action you want them to take, like making their first purchase, but it’ll also give your brand a positive image and turn them into loyal customers.

Final Thoughts

In the savage world of online competition, you need to make the most of every opportunity to set your store apart. Using our tips could help you make a name for your brand, increase your site’s conversion rate, and improve your store’s sales.

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Facebook ads are an invaluable part of any eCommerce business strategy. Advertising is critical to getting your products in front of potential customers and Facebook is home to an incredible number of potential customers, with almost 3 billion users.

A high Facebook ad conversion rate is a good indicator of a business' success, so it’s crucial that eCommerce sellers understand conversion rates and know what rate they should be aiming to reach.

What Does “Conversion Rate” Mean for Facebook Ads?

There are a few metrics to be familiar with when talking about Facebook ads for eCommerce businesses. Here are the most commonly used metrics:

- Click-through Rate (CTR): the number of people who click on an ad, divided by the number of people who see the ad

- Cost per Click (CPC): the amount spent by the advertiser to get one ad click

- Conversion Rate: the number of people who make a purchase or perform another predefined action after clicking on an ad, divided by the total number of clicks on the ad

There are different actions that may be considered a conversion when talking about Facebook ads, such as

- Purchasing a product or service

- Creating an account

- Adding a product to a cart

- Signing up for a newsletter

- Booking a meeting or call

- Any other specific predefined action

Ultimately, the goal is to have the consumer make a purchase, but other actions, such as creating an account, are important in measuring how Facebook ads are performing.

Facebook Ad Conversion Rates for eCommerce Businesses

The average Facebook conversion rate for all industries is 9.21%, according to Sansom Consulting. Conversion rates vary greatly by industry. Below is a table breaking down the average conversion rate by industry in 2022.

As you can see from this table, fitness ads have the highest conversion rate at an average of 14.29%, while technology ads have the lowest at 2.31%.

What is a Good Conversion Rate for Facebook Ads?

The average conversion rate for all Facebook ads is 9.21% but this does not necessarily mean that this is a good conversion rate for your business.

Generally speaking, anything over 15% is considered a good conversion rate for Facebook ads.

But if you are trying to determine whether your conversion rate is good, you will need to compare it to the average for your specific industry. What is considered a good conversion rate for retail stores will be different from what is considered a good rate for fitness services.

A good conversion rate is one that exceeds the average for your business’ industry. Anything lower than this means that you are being outperformed by your competitors. A good conversion rate is a strong indicator of business success and generally corresponds to a higher return on investment (ROI).

What is a Typical Conversion Rate for Facebook Ads?

The typical conversion rate for Facebook ads is between 9% and 10%, but it is important to take into account the average for each industry. Facebook ads in general greatly outperform Google Ads, which have an average conversion rate of 3.75%, according to WebFX.

How to Improve the Conversion Rate of Your Facebook Ads

Now that you know the conversion rate you are aiming to reach or exceed, the real question is: How do you get there? Here are 12 tips that can help improve your Facebook ads strategy for your eCommerce business and ultimately garner higher sales and business revenue.

1. Know Your Customer

Knowing your customer is critical to creating a successful ad campaign. Use every tool available, such as cookies and analytic tools, to understand who is visiting your site and making purchases.

Learn their demographics and location, their online behavior, and their interests. The more you know about your target audience, the better you can customize your ads to appeal to them.

2. Keep Text to a Minimum

The most successful ads utilize images and videos and keep any text short and concise. You want your ad to catch a viewer’s attention right away and video is an effective way to do this.

If text is necessary it can be helpful to give it its own space rather than overlaying it on your images. Just make sure that the text is personal and keep it to the point so that it does not overwhelm the viewer.

3. Use High-Quality Images and Video

You know that it is important to use images and videos, but you don’t want to use just any images and videos in your ad. Your customer is using the available pictures of your product in place of seeing it in person, so the quality of the pictures is critical in helping them decide whether or not to make a purchase.

Be sure that all images and videos are sized correctly so that they are crystal clear to the viewer. Image and video resolution are factors that can easily make or break the sale, so this is one step you don’t want to take lightly!

4. Broaden Your Audience When You Find Success

You probably started off advertising to one target audience, but don’t let your ad campaign stop there. While it’s most cost-effective to put your ads in front of the audiences that are most likely to make a purchase, there are always untapped target audiences you can continue expanding to in order to increase your campaign’s reach.

Some effective ways of broadening your audience on Facebook are to opt-in to targeting expansion and consider creating lookalike audiences. A lookalike audience is a target audience that is based on the characteristics of the customers you already have and it can help you find new audiences that have a high probability of making purchases from your store.

Just remember that an ad that worked well with one subset of your audience won’t necessarily work well with other groups of your audience. For example, an ad that performs well targeting 19-24 year old men won’t necessarily get the same response if you change the targeting options to 40-50 year old women.

This is why constant optimization of your ads is critical, and where Blend AI can be a huge time-saver in your business.

5. Integrate Customer Testimonials into Your Ads

Testimonials and reviews are incredibly powerful sales tools. Consumers tend to be distrustful of the content provided by sellers and rely on positive reviews to verify the trustworthiness of the site as well as the quality of the product or service being sold. Most purchasers research reviews and testimonials before completing a purchase.

Including a testimonial in your ad can be an easy way to build trust with your potential customers. It also saves the user from having to go elsewhere to conduct research. You want to keep your ad in front of them, so minimizing the need to go elsewhere increases the chances of them continuing on to your site and making a purchase.

Video testimonials are the most impactful, but even including a quick quote from a customer review can increase the chances of a user clicking on your ad. And including more comprehensive testimonials on your site can improve conversion rates even more.

6. Utilize Blend AI Software

Creating and managing successful Facebook ad campaigns can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. If you want someone else to handle the advertising details for you so that you can focus on operating your business, Blend AI is the perfect service for you.

Blend AI can boost conversion rates by creating ideal target audiences, building successful ads that can easily be used across multiple platforms, and accurately measuring results. It also optimizes retargeting for eCommerce stores and determines your return on investment so that you can easily measure the success of your campaign.

7. Optimize Your Site for Mobile Devices

Many Facebook users are scrolling on their phone or tablet so you will need to make sure they can easily navigate your site on these devices. Failing to optimize your site for mobile devices will automatically cause you to lose entire groups of potential customers. This is a non-negotiable if you want to boost your Facebook ad conversion rate.

8.Streamline the Checkout Process

Consumers want to complete their purchases quickly. Steps like site registration and account creation can turn customers off. With so much eCommerce competition, you want to avoid anything that could annoy a potential customer and result in them shopping elsewhere.

The more time a user has to spend typing information on your site, the more time they have to change their mind about the purchase, so you want to help them complete the transaction as quickly as possible. Offering an option like guest checkout can greatly improve your overall conversion rate, so you should only require an account if its pertinent to your business model (e.g. a subscription-based model)

9. Offer an Easy Return Policy and Free Shipping

Online shopping makes life easier for customers in many ways. The one downside is that they cannot see or try on a product before making a purchase. To increase the likelihood of your site visitors completing a purchase, offer (and advertise!) an easy return policy on all products.

When you are trying to increase eCommerce sales, it may feel counterintuitive to encourage easy returns, but it actually will generate more sales in the long run.

Customers can shop more confidently when they know that they won’t have to deal with a lot of hassle if they choose not to keep the product. Return policies also increase customers’ trust in your brand. Customers who have a good experience with making a return are also more likely to purchase from your store again.

Free shipping is another way to increase sales. Consumers have become accustomed to receiving free shipping, so when a potential customer sees a shipping fee after going to the checkout, it can turn them off. Even if the price of the product is increased to include shipping costs, customers are more likely to complete a sale when they don’t encounter surprise fees during checkout.

10. Optimize Your Landing Page

When a customer clicks on an ad, the page they wind up on will make all the difference in whether they complete the sale. You need to make sure that the transition from the ad to the landing page has a sense of continuity. If the user clicks on an ad for a product they should be able to view that product easily from the landing page.

The page should also resemble the ad in its design. Remember, the customer clicked on the ad because they liked what they saw, so you don’t want the landing page to have a completely different feel to it.

11. Retarget Your Customers

Retargeting for eCommerce stores is a tried and true strategy that increases conversions. Customers who visit your store without completing a purchase make a very valuable target audience. You already know that they are interested in the product or service you sell, so don’t give up the chance to make the sale to them.

Retargeting can include showing them more personalized ads for your product, sending an email that puts your store back on the front of their mind, or offering sales or promotions specifically to the customers who got away. Be mindful not to overload their email inbox, however, as this can turn them off and have the opposite effect than intended.

12. Constantly Reevaluate

Once you launch your ad campaign, your work is not over. You need to constantly reevaluate what is working and how you can improve your campaign’s success for the best results. There are many tools that can help you measure analytics. Some are even built into the Facebook ad platform.

Google Analytics can provide even more information and a full-service marketing partner like Blend AI can provide powerful insights that ensure your advertising budget is being optimized. A/B testing is another great way to learn what is resonating most with your audience so you can create the ads that they are most likely to engage with.

It can be easy to overlook the importance of continual reassessment, but this is one of the most important things you can do to boost your conversion rates. Once you know what is working and what is not, you are in a much better place to optimize your ads for increased success.

Final Thoughts

Understanding Facebook ad conversion rates is an important piece in creating a successful eCommerce business. Aim for rates that are above average in your business’ industry.

If you find that your conversion rates are not where they should be, reevaluate your strategy and implement the tips discussed in this article.

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Ad Content and Copy Ideas to Generate More Clicks

Utilising digital media such as online ads has become increasingly crucial to a brand's success. As such, the content and copy used within ads is critical for lasting impressions that can lead to conversions from potential consumers. Try implementing some of the techniques below to amplify your store's online presence and legitimize your content marketing campaigns.

Understand Configuration of Ads on Desktop and Mobile Interfaces

In order to effectively manage your advertising campaign, you need to understand how the various elements of your campaign perform on different devices. You also need to consider the growing number of people using software such as ad blockers on their mobile devices, which means that your ads may not appear as intended to the end user and target audiences.

If you are running ads on a CPC basis, you'll only see a slight difference in the number of views between desktop and mobile users. On average, 56% of mobile and 57% of tablet users search for products on a weekly basis, compared to only 37% of consumers using desktop, proving that mobile configurations, more than ever, should be an important consideration when creating online advertisements.

Conversions are similar on desktop and mobile, except that on a mobile device, you can't usually see the conversion happening. This is due to the limited viewport of a mobile devices, which only shows the ad once users have clicked on it. As a result, if you're looking for immediate and direct engagement, you might want to consider an ad format that doesn't require users to click to see the full value proposition. For example, full-screen video ads get a lot of engagement because users can see the value proposition without having to click on something else.

Thinking about your ads from the perspective of your consumers will allow you to create the most profitable and engaging user interface. Remember to configure images and text so that it can be easily accessible and legible for users on any device!

Blend makes this process incredibly easy taking your content and creating multiple versions compatible across channels and formats automatically!

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Implement Eye-Catching Product Images, Keywords and Emoji's

People are most likely on their smartphones, so displaying ads in a place where people are used to seeing content is likely to get you a click, a share, or a purchase. When you think about keywords, you may immediately think about search engine optimisation (SEO), but, SEO is only one part of the equation. When performing SEO, you typically want to choose keywords that are relevant to your service or product and that are commonly searched for by people looking for that product or service. For example, if you run a children's clothing store and choose the right keywords, you may notice that customers often search for "kids' clothing" or "children's wear" rather than simply "clothing". Think about your specific niche and what you'll use as keywords for your site and social media accounts. Keyword search and inclusion will boost your brand awareness online!

While it's best to have at least some visuals associated with your store ad, having pretty pictures of your products isn't necessary. In fact, having nothing more than a logo and a couple of well-designed products can be just as effective. But, if you're using a service like iStockPhoto etc, you can choose from a library of stock images that are perfect for displaying on your website if your product is not tangible.

Alternatively, organic images of your product that you have been taken by you are fantastic for approachability etc. For example, a company that sells ceramic tiles may choose to use the hashtag #ceramictiles to help people find their posts related to this product. They may also choose to use the hashtag #sale to mark a special promotion or to let people know about an ongoing sale.

Also, try to write a concise but informative description for each product ranging from a few sentences to a few paragraphs (dependent on whether the ad is focused on one product or a product list). For example, the phrase "Beautiful and functional ceramic tiles for kitchens and bathrooms" would make a good description for a product offering ceramic tiles. But if you're using the tiles as a showcase for your kitchen's design, you may want to write something like "Glamorous and functional ceramic tiles for kitchens and bathrooms – inspired by the artistry of X Design Group."

Additionally, emojis allow for further engagement, with posts that use emoticons having a 57% higher like rate, a 33% higher comment rate, and a 33% higher share rate by humanising your brand and emphasising communication of your posts through headlines with symbols. Emojis also allow for context for your copy, it keeps the information fun and approachable and, especially in email marketing, allows your store to stand out from the crowd.

Look at the two examples below for a candy brand and see how creating great content can change the efficacy of your advertising.

Ad A). Facebook Mock-Up has a generic copy with no specificity, little amounts of visual excitement (through use of black and white, and a cartoon image) and no call-to-action for customers to purchase item

Ad B). Facebook Mock-Up invites users in with an offering of 'some of the finest confectionery', includes visual aids, and provides a clear purchase call-to-action so users can move on to the next stage of the interaction process within the store, it also hosts a physical image of the goods.

Which ad do you think is better suited to effective online promotions?

Ensure Language is Consistent When Talking About Your Store

Having a strong, concise call to action that compels the reader to take action is essential to any successful ad. Although the target audiences may differ for your store platform to platform, finding a consistent and sustained voice is exceedingly important to maintain professionalism and tone.

For example, if you're an eCommerce store, you could create content that is directly related to product recommendations or reviews. If your goal is to increase web traffic, you could create content that is highly searchable and relevant to your industry. This content will become the backbone of your strategy and will help you determine which platforms you should use to reach your audience. But most importantly the use of language, and the consistency in messaging you're pushing out through advertising, is critical.

It's always a good idea to keep an eye on your competitors' ads and see how they're engaging with their audiences. To create a compelling offer, set yourself a goal and then find the best, most cost-effective ways of achieving it. This will not only make your content stand out, but it will also make you a more valuable expert in your field.

‍For example, if your goal is to secure repeat business from existing customers, you'll want to consider offering special discounts or deals. Or, if you're looking to gain new customers, you could offer a free trial version of your product or service. Ensure that these incentives are not only feasible for your company, but that they match the value that your audience provides to your brand, otherwise, you'll lose credibility.

The most effective content creators understand the difference between a compelling offer and an inflated one, and they ensure that each piece they create matches the former instead of the latter. When done right, content marketing allows you to speak to your audience where they are, and allows you to create a brand voice that will resonate with them. You don't want to speak to your audience in a way that makes them feel like they're being sold something, you want to provide them with value that will make them eager to hear from you again, turning your product from a want in to a need.

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Dos and Don'ts of Content and Copies

DO Create a Call-To-Action For Consumers

An important consideration when designing a store ad is the call-to-action (CTA). The CTA is what will prompt a customer to click on your ad or continue reading your content. For example, a "Visit our site" button may appear below an Instagram story ad or a "Shop now" link may appear below an online store's content. This could be something as simple as a single button or link, or it may be something more elaborate such as a shopping cart. By guiding the online user to your retailer website, they can purchase the featured product in your ad. If you have a shopping cart available, get the customer to add their items to the cart which will then prompt a push to the checkout.

DON'T Have Inconsistent and Elementary Messaging

Avoid using negative words and expressions when writing your ad copy. Readers will naturally assume negative connotations when they encounter negativity in your writing, even if it's unintentional. Keep language clean and positive, and if you can, add a little humour if it seems appropriate to your client base. Negative or uninteresting words and phrases generally make a content piece less appealing, creating a less satisfying experience for your user. Even more so, making sure the copy displayed in your ad is representative of your business as a whole, and other ads or offerings that may exist regarding your brand, match the same tone.

Instead of saying, "this product is well designed", say, "designing for maximum user experience has always been a key consideration for us, and we're confident this product will fit into that category", for example. Using high modality and descriptive language allows for increased legitimacy and trust in your store.

DO Write For Scanners

When people read online copy, they tend to read vertically, not horizontally - in short, they glaze over what could be important material. By using different fonts, bold, italics, and bullets along with emojis, you can highlight the main points of your message. And, if your headline words, descriptions and sub headlines are well thought out, your ad, social copy or emails will be able to relay this message quickly and effectively without the need for big slabs of text.

DON'T Don’t Lie and Exaggerate

Be honest with your client base. Your ads should reveal information that is already readily available on your website and socials, and moreover, should be valuable and truthful. Although it is pivotal to ad success to capture the attention (and sustain it) of audiences, try not to include sensationalised headlines and copies that are not representational of your brand image and refer to promises that cannot be kept.

DO Find Your Niche and Stick To It (If It's Working)

Unless you're looking to increase the scope of your audience base, if it isn't broke, don't fix it. Changing elements of your ads, especially once it is published can do more bad than good. When you create FB and Google Ads, there is a formative stage where it is learning the best way to maximise your budget and serve your ads to audiences, by changing this before it has time to learn, you're at risk of not only not being able to discern what works best for you, but also waisting time and money.

Tip: if you're unsure of who your target audience is yet, launch a variety of campaigns (even test out blog post creation!) with a few different audiences types to see which configuration works best for you, conversion and impression wise and then alter these at a later date.

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How Blend Streamlines the Ad Creation Process

Showcase your products on Google, Facebook, Instagram, Bing and TikTok and say goodbye to platform fatigue and start testing new channels for your digital marketing. Create one version of your ad and publish it across multiple advertising channels with a few simple clicks.

Blend integrates your store's inventory with major advertising platforms by creating a high-converting product feed. To drive even more revenue to the store we analyse your products and implement sales strategies best suited for your current inventory and aid you in the content creation process.

• Multi Currency / Multi Country support
• Real Time Updates
• Accurate Measurement Tools to Calculate ROAS.
• Unlimited SKUs

Create your content once and deliver across multiple channels to reach your target audience. We will handle the rest.

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*Image by Freepik