The ecommerce market continues to grow at a rapid pace with the Indian segment expected to reach $120 by 2026. With more and more people switching to online shopping, ecommerce brands can tap into a larger customer base.

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However, it is necessary to create sustainable strategies to increase sales, and one such way is advertising.

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Advertising is a wonderful tool to increase product discoverability and boost ecommerce sales by targeting the right audience.

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Although there are multiple benefits of advertising, many ecommerce sellers don’t wield it because they are unfamiliar with the process of advertising or because they believe it to be costly.

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To your surprise, advertising is not very difficult and can be started even with a small budget. Let us unravel how advertising works and how it can help online businesses in increasing brand outreach.

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In this blog, you will learn how advertising can be used to boost ecommerce sales.

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How to increase ecommerce sales with advertising?

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A good advertising strategy can help you increase product visibility on a website, marketplace or both. There are various ways to advertise your ecommerce brand and products, such as:

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1. Google Ads campaign

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Google is the most-used search engine having 90% of the market! Google Ads give you the option to target specific audiences based on demographics like age, and gender, meaning you can target ads to a niche audience. Additionally, by using targeted keywords, you can increase the outreach of your ecommerce brand.

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Types of Google Ads

Here are the various types of Google Ads you can utilise for your ecommerce business:

1. Search campaigns- These ads contain text like brand name, information about a discount offer, and website URL. Search campaign ads appear on search result pages.
2. Display campaigns- These ads use high-quality images to engage an audience and direct them to websites and marketplaces by linking the URL.
3. Video ads- These ads run on Google-owned applications like YouTube. Creatively engaging videos are used to retain customer attention and increase customer conversion rates.
4. Shopping campaign- These ads are similar to display campaigns but appear on the Google shopping tab and thus are a must for ecommerce brands.

You can either use one or multiple ad campaigns simultaneously. However, the latter would be more effective.

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Tips for Google Ads campaign

• Create engaging headlines using SEO-driven keywords
• Try to target the right section of customers based on location, age, and gender
• Use good quality and engaging creatives (images and videos)
• Do not use negative keywords; specify which keywords do not align with your products and prevent ads from being displayed for them

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2. Social media ad campaigns

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Social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Linkedin have millions of users! By advertising on social media, you can vastly increase your product visibility.

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According to research, 50% of users report discovering new products and offers that interest them through social media.

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Types of Social media ads

The various types of social media ads are:

1. Static image ads- These are high-quality images advertised to social media users.
2. Video ads- These are engaging videos used to capture attention and engage users to buy products.
3. IGTV Ads- These are 15 second long, short-video ads shown on Instagram.
4. Stories ads- These are images or videos shown while viewing stories on Instagram and Facebook; they also have a “swipe up” option for users to land on the brand’s website or social media page.

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Tips for a great social media ad campaign-

• Give importance to high-quality images and videos as social media users give importance to aesthetics.
• Add a persuasive CTA (Call To Action), as this helps grab attention and attract customers to take action.
• Target platforms according to the type of product you sell. For instance, ecommerce brands selling apparel can focus on Instagram and Facebook.
• Stay active on social media to familiarise yourself with ongoing trends on different platforms, like songs for reels on Instagram or trending Twitter hashtags.
• Focus on the insights you receive from ad campaigns available on ad managing dashboards to improve the advertising campaign and see growth in sales.
• Regularly post on your social media accounts using the best SEO practices.

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3. Email marketing

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Email marketing has great potential to increase customer engagement by informing users about new collection, discounts and offers. It is especially helpful in driving repeated purchases from existing customers.

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As per research, email marketing has a 4.29% conversion rate for Shopify stores.

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Tips for email marketing-

1. Create an email list by curating a sign-up form on your website or even through social media.
2. You can also give incentives like discounts to increase the sign-up rate.
3. You can stay in contact with your audience by sending emails regularly about product launches, discount offers, flash sales or festive sales.
4. Try to have a consistent and eye-catching design template to retain attention.
5. Segregate email subscribers based on when they subscribed, their interests, and other categories.
6. You can create a sense of urgency with an impactful CTA to increase the conversion rate.

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4. Marketplace ads campaign

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Online marketplaces such as Amazon, Flipkart, Ajio, and Myntra have a large scope for advertisements. Ecommerce brands can take advantage of their in-built tools to advertise their products and increase ecommerce sales. Let us now look at the different advertising options available on various marketplaces.

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Amazon

Amazon is one of the largest marketplaces in India, selling a wide range of products. The different types of ads on Amazon are-

1. Sponsored products- It is an ad of an individual product listing that appears on search results and product detail pages.
2. Sponsored brand- It is the ad of a particular brand; it features a brand's logo, a headline and multiple products of that brand.
3. Sponsored display ads- Creatives are used for advertising a product to customers searching for relevant keywords.

Amazon uses a bidding strategy, here’s how it works-

• Ecommerce brands bid the amount they are willing to pay for a keyword.
• They can bid on specific keywords relevant to their products, and ads show up when customers search for the keywords.
• They are charged for the bids when customers click on their ads (known as PPC or pay-per-click).

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Flipkart

Flipkart has three advertisement options, which run on PPC. These are-

1. Display ads- These ads use high-quality images of a product.
2. PLA (Product Listing Ad)- PLAs are shown on the home page, the product page, the top and rest of the search page, and the browse listing pages.
3. PCA (Product Contextual Ad)- These ads aim to improve performance and brand visibility. PCAs are shown only on search pages.

Flipkart sellers can create a campaign by selecting the products they wish to advertise, their budget, and the duration for which the campaign will be run.

Flipkart also works on a bidding strategy; the higher your bid, the higher your ad will be placed in search results— boosting Flipkart sales.

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Myntra

Myntra has emerged as a wonderful platform for fashion and accessories in India, and any ecommerce seller dealing in such products can benefit from advertising on it. The types of advertising campaigns on Myntra are-

• Product listing ads- They intend to increase conversion from potential to actual customers. These appear in search result pages. They run on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis, i.e. you are charged for the number of times customers click on your ad.
• List ad banners- These aim to boost both customer conversion and brand visibility. These appear in search result pages. They are charged on a CPM (cost per thousand impressions), meaning you are charged for one thousand views of your ad.
• Sponsored brands- These ads can be used by brands to display their product range on the homepage.

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Meesho

In recent years, Meesho has become a reliable and affordable place to shop. Many customers buy daily-use items, fashion, accessories and more from Meesho. If you are selling on Meesho, you can run ad campaigns (CPC basis) in four simple steps:

1. Select the product catalogue
2. Select your budget (daily or total)
3. Select the duration of the campaign
4. Click on submit, and voila, you are done!

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Other online marketplaces

Like advertising campaigns on Amazon, Flipkart and Myntra, ecommerce sellers can also create advertisements for other marketplaces (Tata Cliq, Ajio, Paytm, Shopclues). You can go through their seller dashboards and run ads.

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5. Shopping carts ads campaign

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Apart from marketplaces, ecommerce brands use their own websites for creating direct-to-consumer engagement. Shopify, Magento and WooCommerce are a few website builders used by these D2C brands. You can create impactful ad campaigns on these shopping carts to boost your brand’s visibility. The different types of advertising options on shopping carts are as follows.

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Shopify

According to a report by Shopify, more than 50% of Shopify stores get repeat purchases; this highlights the essential role of Shopify ads in boosting sales on Shopify.

1. Email marketing- You can use readymade templates to create email campaigns
2. Google smart shopping- Shopify sellers can set their daily budget and allow Google’s technology to run campaigns for them.
3. Facebook ads- You have to select the type of audience you wish to target, and Shopify will run ads on that basis. You can also run ads based on your business’s unique requirements.

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Magento

Magento is another shopping cart used by numerous sellers to create their online stores. Therefore, while designing your advertising strategy, Magento should not be ignored.

Tips for creating a good marketplace/shopping cart ads campaign-

1. Use high-quality, professional images to attract customers.
2. Add product details in an easy-to-understand language.
3. Use relevant keywords after thorough research.
4. Do not use negative keywords to avoid wasteful expenditure by not displaying ads for irrelevant phrases.
5. Optimise your campaign after analysing data, such as click-through rate (how often the ad was opened) and cost per conversion (CPC) (the cost of acquiring a real customer).
6. Regularly analyse data to make appropriate changes and enhance your ad campaign.

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Other online shopping carts

You can also run advertisements for displaying your products on other shopping carts like WooCommerce, Kartmax and BigCommerce.

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6. Billboard advertising

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Most ecommerce sellers only focus on digitally advertising their products and ignore other forms of advertising, such as OOH (out-of-house) advertising. However, OOH advertising, like billboards, can create more leads and increase brand awareness.

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Research has found that people who see an OOH campaign have 17% higher chance of engaging with a brand on their mobile.

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Tips for billboard advertising-

1. Emphasise the domain name as it is essential in generating leads (it should be clear so that customers can search for it).
2. Create a compelling CTA (like leveraging a limited-period offer).
3. Choose a good location for the billboard; a place where it is clearly visible.
4. Make use of posters in your OOH advertising strategy.

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7. Print advertising

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Research shows that 80% of customers act on print advertisements as compared to only 45% of customers who act on electronic ones. Thus, print advertising can be quite effective in giving your brand’s ecommerce sales a push.

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Types of print advertisements

The different types of print advertisements to market products include:

• Periodical advertising- It includes ads in newspapers and magazines done at regular intervals.
• Brochures, leaflets and pamphlets- These are better suited when you have more information (compared to periodical advertising) and are similar to periodicals.
• Direct mail advertising- Printed mails are sent directly to customers to provide information about new products or offers. These include coupons, postcards, catalogues and more.

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Tips for print advertising

1. Use a catchy headline to draw attention.
2. Make use of simple and clearly understandable language.
3. Use images since ads containing only text do not attract readers.
4. Craft a compelling CTA.
5. Ensure that the contact information is clearly visible.

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Summing up

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Advertising can greatly help in generating leads, increasing customer conversion rate and sales, and boosting brand visibility. Many advertising tools, such as Google Ads, marketplace ads, and email marketing can be used by ecommerce sellers depending on their goals and budget. But most importantly, the aim should be to create an engaging advertising campaign which hooks the customer and compels them to buy from you.