The best way to market dropshipping stores is by using Google Ads and Facebook Ads along with SEO.
Whether you’re starting a new dropshipping business or already have one up and running, if you are looking for the best marketing strategies for your online store, you have come to the right place.
This comprehensive guide will explore short-term and long-term strategies for building, sustaining, and scaling your dropshipping business.
Let’s get into it!
Table of contents:
- Use paid ads for short-term dropshipping marketing
- Utilise SEO for long-term dropshipping marketing
- How to use Google Ads for dropshipping?
- Facebook Ads for Dropshipping business model
- Email marketing for Dropshipping
- Utilise retargeting ads for dropshipping
- Focus on customer retention
- Building trust through online reputation and customer reviews
- Avoid offering low-quality products
- FAQs
Use paid ads for short-term dropshipping marketing
Whether you have a new dropshipping store or an existing one, if you need short-term gain then paid ads like Google Ads or Facebook Ads can be highly effective.
Paid ads can drive immediate traffic to your store. This is important for dropshipping businesses that aim to generate sales quickly and validate their product offerings. Once you find an ad campaign that works, you can scale it up by increasing your budget. This can lead to a significant boost in sales in a short timeframe.
If your product has demand in the market then you should invest in Google Ads first, you will be able to place your ads in front of highly interested prospects to get more sales.
On the other hand, if you sell something that may require education and awareness then go with Facebook Ads.
Regardless of the situation, the combination of Google Ads and Facebook ads works well as they complement each other to boost sales in the short term.
Utilise SEO for long-term dropshipping marketing
Often dropshipping business models do not have a great brand trust and hence they intend to go with paid ads with calculated numbers to get the best return possible.
But if you have a long-term vision for your dropshipping store then SEO can be highly effective and may provide a much better ROI than Ads.
Optimising your website and content for search engines can improve the visibility of your products to attract more organic traffic, which can result in increased sales and growth over time.
The main benefit of SEO with paid ads is that you don’t need to pay for clicks or impressions, you just need to work with a trusted SEO agency to build and execute strategies that can result in a positive ranking state for your business.
How to use Google Ads for dropshipping?
Google Ads can be a great tool for dropshipping to achieve higher conversion rates, as customers who reach for it are already in a buying mindset. It is based on the Pay-Per-Click (PPC) model, meaning you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.
Here are the key campaign types offered by Google relevant to the dropshipping business:
- Search Ads: These text ads appear on Google SERP pages when users search for specific keywords. They are highly effective for capturing user intent and driving traffic to your website.
- Display Ads: These are image or banner ads on websites within the Google Display Network. They are great for building brand awareness and reaching a broad audience.
- Shopping Ads: These ads showcase your products directly in Google search results and Google Shopping. They include product images, prices, and merchant names, making them ideal for e-commerce businesses.
- Video Ads: These ads appear on YouTube and other Google partner sites. They are perfect for engaging users with visual and audio content.
- App Ads: These ads promote your mobile app across Google Search, Google Play, YouTube, and the Google Display Network. They help drive app installs and engagement.
- Performance Max Campaigns: These goal-based campaigns allow advertisers to access all of Google’s ad inventory from a single campaign.
Google Ads directly connects your dropshipping business to motivated buyers actively searching for similar products, so it’s just a matter of showing up well in your campaign. Use a combination of visuals, performing keywords and a compelling campaign structure to attract the right audience.
Utilise PMax As to reach diverse audiences
Performance Max (PMax) campaigns are particularly beneficial for dropshipping businesses due to their ability to reach a diverse audience and optimise ad performance across multiple channels. Here are some key benefits from PMax campaigns:
- PMax campaigns allow your ads to appear across all Google channels, including Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, and Discover. This increases the chances of engaging a diverse audience.
- PMax uses Google’s machine learning to automatically optimise your ad placements and bids in real-time. This means your ads are shown to the right people at the right time.
- PMax dynamically creates and tests different ad combinations using the assets you provide (images, videos, headlines, etc.). This identifies the best-performing ads for different audience segments.
- PMax leverages real-time data signals such as user behaviour, context, and intent to identify the right audience. This allows your ad to be relevant and engaging to diverse groups.
- PMax provides detailed performance reports about assets and strategies driving the best results. This data helps you refine your campaigns to reach and engage different audience segments.
Google shopping ads recommended
Most of the online shoppers are scrollers and scanners. You need catchy visual cues to grab their attention to your products hosted on a dropshipping website.
Shopping ads display a product photo along with its title, price, store name, and additional details. The visual format helps attract attention and provides users with a clear idea of the product before they click. It also allows customers to compare with other products quickly and make informed decisions.
Shopping ads are optimised to look better on mobile. As most users use smartphones to browse and make online purchases, visual ads are a great way of generating leads and sales for your drops.
Given the advantage Shopping Ads offer to boost sales campaigns, it’s not surprising that they are now becoming more popular than standard search engines.
Reach your audience on YouTube
Using YouTube to market your dropshipping business can be highly effective. Producing videos that showcase your products, provide tutorials, or share customer testimonials can attract viewers and convert them into customers.
Use relevant keywords in your video titles, descriptions, and tags to improve your visibility on YouTube and Google search results. This helps potential customers find your videos more easily.
You can also collaborate with YouTube influencers whose audience aligns with your target market. They can help promote your products to a wider audience and build trust with potential customers.
Engage with your audience by responding to comments, asking for feedback, and creating a community around your brand. This can build loyalty and encourage repeat business in dropshipping over time.
Facebook Ads for Dropshipping business model
Facebook is the largest social media platform with over 3 billion daily active users, increasing by 5% every year. This provides you with a massive opportunity to tap into a large customer base and the potential to find new audiences over time.
In the context of dropshipping, Facebook ads provide the advantage of doing targeted campaigns that can boost your ROI. You can leverage Facebook Ad Manager to design campaign according to your dropshipping business model.
For example, if your dropshipping store sells books online, you can strategically target customers by age, interests, and demographics. Take it further by tailoring your approach to specific genres—romance, thriller, self-help—aligned with individual tastes. This personalised targeting significantly boosts your chances of connecting with the right audience and driving sales.
Read this informative guide on creating facebook ads for dropshipping business.
Facebook catalogue is a must
The Facebook Catalogue or product catalogue, is a free tool that stores your products along with key details like photos, descriptions, website links, prices, and more. It allows your dropshipping business to promote and sell products directly on Facebook or Instagram.
You can combine a catalogue with various ad formats to showcase your products – such as dynamic ads, collaborative ads, carousels, and collection formats.
Invest in the latest trends like the Advantage+ campaign
Facebook launched a new tool for dropshipping advertisers called Advantage+ Shopping Campaign. This feature automates the entire campaign process, making it perfect for beginners. It simplifies the setup and management of campaigns, allowing users to get started easily without making extensive manual adjustments.
Facebook’s Advantage+ campaigns offer several benefits for advertisers:
- Easy Setup: The campaign creation process is simplified, reducing the input steps needed to run your ads. Also, the user can create bulk ads up to 50.
- Proven Performance: These campaigns have been shown to help businesses create high-performing conversion campaigns by adopting Facebook’s recommended and optimised settings.
- Creative Automation: Advantage+ campaigns automate many aspects of ad creation, including up to 150 creative combinations at once, which helps advertisers quickly identify what works best.
- Budget Optimisation: By reducing the number of campaigns needed, advertisers can conserve their budget and allocate resources more effectively. If needed, you can opt for the lowest-cost bid strategy and set a bid cap.
- Placement Optimisation: Ads are shown in as many places as possible across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and Meta Audience Network, ensuring broader reach and better performance.
- Audience Selection: Advantage+ campaigns allow you to choose a combination of location, language, and app stone for better outreach to audiences more likely to purchase your products.
These features make Advantage+ campaigns particularly useful for dropshipping advertisers looking to simplify their ad management and maximise their return on investment.
However, choose a manual sales campaign if you want complete control over campaign settings.
Email marketing for Dropshipping
If you are low on budget and still reach a wide audience and grow your business, email marketing should be your go-to strategy.
Email marketing is an effective way of connecting with existing and potential customers in a dropshipping business. It builds trust and relationships with existing customers to encourage future purchases. You can use the past order history to suggest related products or accessories.
For example, if someone purchased a treadmill, you can suggest buying a resistance band or water bottle to assist with their fitness training. You can follow up with special promotions or offers to increase the chances of sales.
Leverage email automation
The importance of email automation in dropshipping lies in its ability to save time, increase efficiency, and enhance customer relationships. By automating routine tasks, you can focus on other aspects of your business, such as sourcing products and optimising your website.
Here are some ways to leverage email automation for dropshipping business:
- Welcome Emails: When a new customer signs up or makes their first purchase, an automated welcome email can introduce them to your brand, provide important information, and set the tone for future communications.
- Order Confirmation and Shipping Updates: Automated emails can keep customers informed about their order status, from confirmation to shipping and delivery. This enhances the customer experience and reduces the number of inquiries about the order status.
- Abandoned Cart Reminders: If a customer adds items to their cart but doesn’t complete the purchase, automated emails can remind them to return and complete their purchase. These reminders can include incentives like discounts or free shipping to encourage conversion.
- Product Recommendations: Automated emails can recommend related products based on a customer’s browsing or purchase history. This can increase the average order value and encourage repeat purchases.
- Customer Feedback and Reviews: Automated emails can be sent after a purchase to request feedback or customer reviews. Positive reviews can be showcased on your website, while negative feedback can provide valuable insights for improvement.
- Re-engagement Campaigns: Automated emails can target customers who haven’t made a purchase recently by offering special promotions or discounts to encourage them to return to your website.
- Seasonal and Promotional Campaigns: Automated emails can be scheduled to coincide with holidays, sales events, or new product launches. This ensures timely and relevant communication with your customers.
Personalised and timely emails can improve customer satisfaction, engagement, and loyalty, leading to higher sales and long-term success of your dropshipping business.
Utilise retargeting ads for dropshipping
Customer retargeting is a way to reach out to a user who visited your dropshipping store but left without buying the product. Retargeting allows you to show ads for that specific product to the user on other websites they visit.
Retargeting is highly effective in dropshipping as it targets users who have already expressed interest in your products, increasing their likelihood of conversion compared to new visitors. Additionally, it enhances brand recall and boosts engagement rates.
Retargeting can also be used to cross-sell related products. For instance, someone who buys a phone from your dropshipping website can also be recommended complementary accessories like a screen protector or a fast-charging adapter.
Focus on customer retention
Focusing on customer retention is especially important in dropshipping, where high competition and maintaining customer loyalty can be challenging.
After putting in the hard work to win a new customer, you can turn them into loyal ones with consistent and strategic efforts. This can pay you in the long run as apart from sustaining your business, existing customers can help you scale by pulling in more customer base through feedback and references.
Retaining existing customers is also more cost-effective than allocating a budget to acquire new ones. You can adopt several strategies such as loyalty programs, establishing personalised communication through emails, newsletters or sms and delivering exceptional services.
Here are some best ways to boost customer retention with your dropshipping model:
- Understand your customers: Analyse customer data to identify their preferences, buying habits, and budget. This knowledge allows you to tailor your offerings and provide personalised experiences. Send targeted emails with relevant product recommendations based on their previous purchases or browsing history.
- Provide exceptional customer service: Delivering exceptional customer service is vital for customer retention. Respond promptly to customer inquiries or issues and strive to exceed their expectations.
- Implement a loyalty program: Create a loyalty program to reward and incentivize repeat purchases. Offer exclusive discounts, personalised offers, or special perks to customers who continue to choose your dropshipping business.
- Regularly engage with customers: Keep your brand top-of-mind by regularly engaging with your customers through email newsletters, social media, or even personalised birthday messages.
- Offer post-purchase support: In dropshipping industry, you can gain edge over competition by extending your support beyond the purchase stage. Provide post-purchase assistance, such as order tracking updates, installation guides, or troubleshooting tips.
- Seek customer feedback: Actively seek customer feedback to understand how you can improve their experience, and act promptly to address their pain points.
Avoid offering low-quality products
In dropshipping business, companies sometimes prioritise price over quality to beat the competition and attract price-sensitive customers. This strategy may work initially but will backfire in the long run.
Low-quality products are more likely to result in a bad customer experience leading to dissatisfaction. This dissatisfaction can manifest in negative reviews, complaints, and a bad reputation on social media; which can adversely impact the company’s overall dropshipping business.
Negative experiences in the dropshipping industry can lead to a rapid loss of existing customers as they search for better alternatives. Additionally, poor reviews and ratings can deter potential customers, resulting in lower conversion rates.
Create a website that exhibits a quality store experience
Recall your experience of visiting a high-end boutique store. As you walk in, you are greeted by a friendly staff member and a beautifully arranged display that immediately catches your attention. The store layout is intuitive, with sections distinctly marked and products easy to find.
The products are of high quality and come with detailed tags and comprehensive information. Additionally, the staff is readily available to answer your questions or offer personalised recommendations based on your preferences.
The checkout process is smooth and efficient, with multiple payment options and a friendly cashier. After your purchase, you receive an invitation to join a loyalty program or a coupon discount for your next purchase.
Isn’t that a kind of experience you will cherish for long?
Creating a website for your dropshipping market with a quality store experience is equally rewarding. Ensure your website is easy to navigate. Use clear categories and a search bar to help customers find products quickly.
Keep the checkout process as simple as possible. Avoid unnecessary steps and allow guest checkout. Offer various payment methods such as credit/debit cards, PayPal, and other popular options. Ensure your website is secure with SSL certificates and other security measures to protect customer data.
To differentiate yourself in the dropshipping industry, introduce a live chat feature to provide real-time customer support. Provide a comprehensive FAQ section to address common queries. Make it easy for customers to contact you through email, phone, or a contact form.
Collect email addresses and send newsletters, promotions, and updates to keep customers engaged.
Create an exceptional product detail page with the description
While browsing online dropshipping stores, you look for the perfect product to meet your specific needs. A product with a captivating image, easy-to-understand features, and insightful reviews naturally draws attention.
This is what you should do:
- Provide clear and detailed product descriptions, including specifications, benefits, and usage instructions.
- Use high-quality images, detailed descriptions, and customer reviews to give shoppers a clear understanding of the product.
- Display customer reviews and ratings to build trust and provide social proof.
Building trust through online reputation and customer reviews
Dropshipping relies heavily on trust, as customers often purchase products from little-known suppliers without doing a first-hand trial.
Establishing a good online reputation is important in today’s competitive digital world, where plenty of options are available. Also, customers are sceptical about purchasing from less-known brands due to the increase in the number of scams and low-quality products.
In the dropshipping industry, a significant majority of consumers rely on online reviews to make purchasing decisions. Brands with positive reviews are more likely to be trusted by consumers. Reviews act as testimonials that validate the quality and reliability of a product or service.
FAQs
Is SEO worth it for a Dropshipping business?
SEO can deliver long-lasting results as once your business starts ranking for key search terms, you remain visible for an extended period. However, SEO doesn’t yield immediate success; it requires time and patience.
How to grow a dropshipping business?
Find a supplier who can take on a lot of shipping orders without making many mistakes – someone who doesn’t mix orders and offers fast delivery. If your store takes off and your suppliers can’t scale with you, your business model will fail. Also, focus on marketing your dropshipping business to your ideal customers. Pick a niche instead of trying to sell to everyone.
What is the best eCommerce platform for dropshipping?
You can use Shopify, Woocommerce, Custom eCommerce or any other platform. There is no exact best as such.
