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Charlie Semmence

Nowadays, there are a whole host of different ways to promote your online business. From Google Ads and social media, to email and affiliate marketing, the possibilities are (almost) endless when it comes to ecommerce advertising.
This is why sometimes it helps to sit down and review which channels are really blowing up right now, and which strategies the world’s most successful brands are using to sell their products. We spoke to two <a href="https://www.underwaterpistol.com/pages/paid-social-media-ppc-advertising-shopify" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">advertising experts</a> to get their take on the ecommerce advertising strategies they think brands should be embracing right now.
This is what they said.
 
<h2>The ecommerce advertising strategies you need to know about </h2>
 
<h3>1. Affiliate marketing </h3>
 
<div style="text-align: left;"><img src="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1472/1782/files/306938616_829201368095797_1788189222494385321_n-modified_100x100.png?v=1663931265" style="margin-right: 20px; float: left;"></div>
 
 Lauryn Day, Agency Partner Manager at <a href="https://www.refersion.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Refersion</a>
 
Right out of the gate here, my go-to ecommerce advertising strategy is affiliate marketing, a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards affiliates for each visitor or customer brought in by the affiliate's own marketing efforts.
‘Affiliate’ is often used as an overall blanket term, but to get more granular, there are 3 main pillars:
<ul>
<li>
Affiliates: Media, blog sites, review sites, newsletters, etc.</li>
<li>
Influencers: Professional creators with an audience, like those you see on Instagram</li>
<li>
Ambassadors: More of your girl or guy next door; friends, customers, and fans of the brand</li>
</ul>
Affiliates, influencers, and ambassadors are all individuals with an audience that collaborate with brands for marketing purposes.
 
<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xXLrDKOa1n4" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>
 
Affiliate programs are becoming a popular revenue driver for ecommerce brands - and for good reason. It’s low-risk with high return on investment (ROI), and it’s a great ecommerce advertising strategy to have in your tool belt going into some uncertain times.
<a href="https://www.refersion.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Refersion</a> is the go-to affiliate marketing platform from Amazon to Shopify. We help brands streamline their complete affiliate search, discovery and recruiting workflow.
 
<h3>2. Google Ad extensions </h3>
 
<div style="text-align: left;"><img src="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1472/1782/files/308320812_497375231849571_7111070158131830094_n-modified_100x100.png?v=1663931618" style="margin-right: 20px; float: left;"></div>
 
 Cara Bousfield, <a href="https://www.underwaterpistol.com/pages/paid-social-media-ppc-advertising-shopify" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Paid Ads Specialist</a> at <a href="https://www.underwaterpistol.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">UWP</a>
 
Google Ads are nothing new in the world of advertising, but utilising Google Ad extensions are an ecommerce advertising strategy that brands might be missing out on.
Google’s <a href="https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7331111?hl=en-GB" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ad extensions</a> are those extra bits of information you see underneath the ad itself, providing brands with more space to shout about their offerings and USPs, without spending any more money.
 
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HFp8k2tZslM" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
 
These extensions include:
<ul>
<li>
Callout extensions, which allow you to add clickable phone numbers to your ads so users can call your business directly.</li>
<li>
Sitelink extensions, which give you space to share links to other pages of your site, such as a specific product or collection page.</li>
<li>
Price extensions, which give you space to share details about your products, particularly the different options you offer and their prices.</li>
<li>
Promotion extensions, which add value to your text ads by highlighting any ongoing sales or promotions that might tempt your potential customers to click.</li>
<li>
Structured snippets, which highlight specific aspects of your products or services. For example, if you sell shoes, your structured snippets might highlight the types of shoes you sell, including “Men’s Shoes, Women’s Shoes, Smart Shoes” etc.</li>
</ul>
Using these extensions drastically increases the size of your ad, helping it stand out from the rest and often having a hugely positive impact on your click-through rates (CTRs). When it comes to ecommerce advertising, this is an opportunity businesses should not be missing out on.
 
<h3>3. Getting your brand on Amazon </h3>
 
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<div style="text-align: left;"><img src="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1472/1782/files/306938616_829201368095797_1788189222494385321_n-modified_100x100.png?v=1663931265" style="margin-right: 20px; float: left;"></div>
 
 Lauryn Day, Agency Partner Manager at <a href="https://www.refersion.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Refersion</a>
 
A great ecommerce advertising strategy that allows you to generate higher traffic and sales for your brand is to get it on <a href="https://sell.amazon.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Amazon</a>.
As a brand in ecommerce, you need to be where your customers are - and your customers may well be one of the 1 in 3 Brits (or 2 in 3 Americans) who have Amazon Prime. Amazon is fantastic at converting visitors into customers because it’s reputable, it’s a highly-trusted selling site, and it offers incredibly fast shipping. On Amazon, for instance, conversion rates are 10-15%. On an average ecommerce site, it’s only around 2%.
 
<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AfSckaQybDQ" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>
 
To get your brand on Amazon, you need to have a registered Amazon Storefront, which you can find out how to do <a href="https://www.junglescout.com/blog/how-to-create-an-amazon-storefront/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>.
Another cool feature of Amazon is its Brand Referral Bonus, which rewards a percentage of sales (usually about 10%) for generating conversions from outside channels. So, if you advertise on your Instagram that you’re selling on Amazon, you'll get a kickback of about 10% of that converted sale from Amazon.
The downside of using Amazon Associates is that you don’t have much control over who is representing your brand, or the quality of an affiliate’s marketing efforts. <a href="https://www.refersion.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Refersion</a> is the first and only affiliate marketing platform that offers an Amazon Integration, empowering Amazon Registered Brands to partner with affiliates of their choice, track conversions, and manage promotions of storefront products all within the Refersion platform.
To summarise, if your brand isn’t on Amazon, you’re probably missing out on money.
 
<h3>4. Meta collection ads </h3>
 
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<div style="text-align: left;"><img src="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1472/1782/files/308320812_497375231849571_7111070158131830094_n-modified_100x100.png?v=1663931618" style="margin-right: 20px; float: left;"></div>
 
 Cara Bousfield, <a href="https://www.underwaterpistol.com/pages/paid-social-media-ppc-advertising-shopify" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Paid Ads Specialist</a> at <a href="https://www.underwaterpistol.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">UWP</a>
 
The last ecommerce advertising strategy I want to mention here is Collection ads, which are a new(ish) but definitely under-utilised Meta ad format.
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/business/ads/collection-ad-format" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Collections ads</a> are a mobile-only format that allow users to flow seamlessly from discovery to purchase, making it easy for them to click through to checkout. They’re sort of like a carousel image ad but enhanced specifically for ecommerce advertising.
How do they work? Users are shown a primary video or image, with three smaller images beneath in a grid format. When they click on an image to find out more, the potential customer is taken to a larger, fast-loading product feed (without leaving Facebook or Instagram), where they can browse all the products in the collection. If they click on one of those products, they’re taken straight to the relevant product page or landing page on the brand’s site.
Collection ads make it easy for ecommerce brands to advertise their top products, showcase <a href="https://www.underwaterpistol.com/pages/paid-social-media-ppc-advertising-shopify" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">top-notch product imagery</a> and drive traffic to their mobile site in a fast-paced and seamless way. This is what makes them such a useful ecommerce advertising strategy for growing brands.
 
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This blog post features insights from "<a href="https://youtu.be/u8KGzaFr4e0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">4 ecommerce advertising strategies you need to know</a>", an episode from our Setup for Lifetime Value podcast series featuring Agency Partner Manager at Refersion Lauryn Day and Paid Ads Specialist at Underwaterpistol Cara Bousfield. You can <a href="https://youtu.be/u8KGzaFr4e0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">watch the full episode here</a>. 
 
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<h2>A helping hand from the paid ad experts</h2>
 
Here at <a href="https://www.underwaterpistol.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Underwaterpistol</a>, we have over 21 years of experience supporting some of the world’s best-known brands with <a href="https://www.underwaterpistol.com/pages/paid-social-media-ppc-advertising-shopify" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">stand-out ecommerce advertising strategies</a>.
With thumb-stopping visuals, inspiring copy and powerful calls to action, we drive high quality traffic to stores, engaging with your potential customers in the right place and at the right time. <a href="https://www.underwaterpistol.com/pages/contact" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Talk to us</a> about how we can support your paid ads strategy.
 
<h2>Are you keeping up with your competitors?</h2>
 
Your customers see up to 10,000 (!) ads per day – yours needs to command attention. That's why we’ve packed this free guide with creative advice from our Art Director, Francesca Boyd, our Design Lead, Sara Azmy, and our Copywriter, Zara Kenyon. We'll reveal the cost-efficient tricks and tactics that elevate your brand across every platform, so you can scale up your ROI and ROAS to achieve your best year yet. 
<a href="https://www.underwaterpistol.com/pages/creative-content-ebook" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Download your free copy here!</a>
 
<div><a href="https://www.underwaterpistol.com/pages/creative-content-ebook" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1472/1782/files/ebook-spreads-design_f2939621-aaec-41d3-a9cb-72669663599f_600x600.png?v=1637683954" alt=""></a></div>

4 ecommerce advertising strategies you need to know