Facebook remains the most commonly used social media platform, with a whopping 2.8 billion active users. As an eCommerce business owner, this means when you use Facebook to advertise your eCommerce store, you can get wider reach, engagement, visibility, and ultimately more sales. 

According to Statista’s 2021 global survey, 98% of marketers use Facebook to promote their business. With over 24 million eCommerce websites up and running worldwide, advertising your eCommerce store on Facebook is a move you want to add to your list of marketing activities if you want to stay competitive.

 

Below are five simple ways to take advantage of Facebook for your eCommerce store.

5 Ways to Advertise Your eCommerce Store on Facebook

Define Your Target Audience

Facebook is the king of social media, with over 59% active social media users. However, trying to reach everyone will spread you too thin — so it’s best to start by identifying your target audience on Facebook. 

To correctly identify who your target audience is, define:

• Who your buyers are
• What they are interested in
• Gender
• Age
• What their hobbies include
• What they do for a living
• Where they live

The clearer you get, the better your messaging will resonate with its intended audience, and the more likely you’ll generate sales from your Facebook advertising.

Create a Facebook Business Page

The first account you can create as a user on Facebook is your personal profile. While using this for business purposes may sound appealing, your eCommerce store will benefit more from a business page than an individual page.

Business pages do not have the limitations that personal profiles have, and they also give you access to business tools like Facebook ads and analytics. 

When you set up a business page, you can include all the essential details about your store and speak directly to your target audience in the “description” and “about” sections. You not only have the chance to provide detailed information about your business, but this also helps you qualify the people who visit your business page.

Set up Facebook Shop on your business page

One of the business tools included in your Facebook page is the Facebook Shop. Facebook Shops act as native storefronts within Facebook for your eCommerce store.

With the Facebook Shop, you can list all your products in a catalog and create multiple catalogs for different product categories (although Facebook highly recommends just one catalog for easy management). You can also bundle products that you know your target audience loves purchasing together using collections.

The benefit of listing your products in a Facebook Shop is that interested buyers don’t need to leave Facebook to purchase your products, where they may fall off. They can make purchases directly from Facebook, which helps to reduce the number of channels your leads and prospects have to touch before completing a sale. 

Post and Schedule Content to Drive Engagement

You have your Facebook page up and your Facebook Shop updated with the latest products in your catalog. Now, it’s time to drive engagement, increase shop visits, attract your target audience, and bring in sales for your eCommerce business. 

How do you do this? Content!

Content is everything on social media platforms, and Facebook is no different. A page with no activity is a big turnoff for potential customers. However, you also want to be strategic with churning out content.

You want to ensure that the content you are creating for your Facebook page is relevant, helpful, and valuable to your target audience. Also, take it easy with the promotional posts. If you come across as too salesy, even your target audience is likely to tune out your business page. 

The goal is to sell without selling – provide informative, valuable, educational posts alongside promotional posts to create a balance. Lastly, top it all up with consistency. Have a schedule for the content you post. This not only drives engagement but also improves trust and credibility between your brand and your audience.

Set Up Facebook Ads and Facebook Pixel

Beyond setting up your business page, setting up Shop, adding a catalog, and creating valuable content, you also need to get your eCommerce store right in front of your target audience. 

That’s what Facebook Ads and your Facebook pixel will help you achieve.

Facebook Ads is one of the business tools you have access to after setting up your business page. You can run paid ads that put your eCommerce store in front of the people interested in your products and are more likely to purchase them.

On the other hand, the Facebook pixel is a tracking code you put on your eCommerce website. The presence of the pixel code allows you to track the number of people who visit your eCommerce store from Facebook and lets you run conversion ads targeted at getting sales from interested leads. 

Although setting up your pixel may not be an immediate necessity, it’s great to get it done so you can build up a list of prospects to target when you are ready to get started.

Launching your eCommerce store is the first step. Getting sales is the next, and a process that you’ll need to continuously refine if you want to grow. Facebook can be an explosive channel for your eCommerce store, giving you an additional channel to reach people interested in your business — ultimately increasing sales.