Facebook Ads For E-Commerce - How a Beginner Can Create a Profitable Ad

Facebook is still one of the best advertising platforms for generating traffic and driving sales.

When we launch a new dropshipping store and don’t yet have an audience, we always use Facebook ads to increase our brand awareness. 

We’ll show you how to set up, run, and optimize your e-commerce Facebook ads to make the most profit. 

We’ve also included tons of our favorite advertising tips, as well as the pros and cons of using Facebook ads.

Let’s get into it.

Key Takeaways

• Facebook ads can help your target audience discover your brand.
• Finding your target audience is crucial to creating successful ads for your e-commerce brand.
• Looking at your competitor's ads can give you inspiration for your own ads.
• Focus on your media, as it’s what will capture your audience’s attention.

What Are Facebook Ads For E-Commerce? 

Facebook ads for e-commerce are when an e-commerce store pays for advertisements to appear on Facebook for its target audience.

The ads appear either in the audience’s news feed or right-hand column if they’re using a desktop.

If you run an e-commerce or dropshipping store, you can create Facebook ads. 

Running ads is one of the most effective ways to increase brand visibility for your e-commerce store. 

This will help generate and increase sales. 

How Do Facebook Ads for E-Commerce Work?

Facebook makes it easy to run ads on its platform using the ads manager. 

You can add text and media to your advert and provide a call to action. The ad is clickable, and when clicked, your audience will be taken to your landing page. This could be a product listing, sign-up page, your website’s homepage, or any other page.

Facebook ads are pay-per-click. This means that you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.

There are detailed analytics and reports. These allow you to monitor your ad performance and track its conversions.

How To Create And Run Facebook Ads For Your E-Commerce Store 

Create ads for your e-commerce store using these five easy-to-follow steps.

1. Set Up Your Facebook Page and Ad Manager Account

2. Ad Research and Planning

3. Set Up Meta Pixel and Conversions API

4. Design and Launch Your Campaign

5. Analyze and Optimize

Let’s go into a bit more depth.

1. Set Up Your Facebook Page and Ad Manager Account

Summary:

• You need to set up a Facebook ad manager account to create and run Facebook ads.

Facebook requires you to create a Facebook business page before you can create ads. When you create a Facebook business page, a Facebook Ads Manager account is automatically created.

Firstly, we’ll show you how to create a business page.

1. Open your Facebook profile.

Note: You need a Facebook profile to create a page.

2. Click + Create New Page.

3. Enter your business name, category, and bio.

4. Click Create Page.

You can then add any other details about your business.

Once you’ve created your business account, you can open the Ads Manager. Then, you will need to confirm your account information and set up a payment method. 

2. Ad Research and Planning

Summary: 

• Think about your product and who your perfect target audience is.
• Look at your competition's winning ads for inspiration.

Your Ads Manager account is ready, so you can start running ad campaigns. 

However, before you do so, we recommend doing some research.

Research can help you create ads that perform better. Boosting your sales and saving you from wasting money! 

There are two things you need to find out. 

The first is who is your audience. The second is what to include in your ad creative (the creative is the part of the ad that the audience sees, e.g., text, media, etc).

We use these two methods to do so:

Audience Research - Find Your Target Audience

As Facebook ads are run on social media rather than a search engine or marketplace, you target an audience rather than search words or terms.

What does this mean?

In basic terms, when you create an ad on marketplaces or search engines (e.g., Google or Amazon), you use keywords or search terms. When someone searches for the keywords and search terms you’ve added to your ad, your ad will appear in their results. 

On Facebook and Instagram, your audience isn’t really searching for something. They’re scrolling. 

Instead of adding specific search terms to your ad, Facebook requires you to enter the details of your target audience. 

Facebook will then show your ad to the audience you describe when you create your ad. You can enter information like age, location, and gender. You can also enter more specific information, such as their interests, behaviors, and demographics. 

Therefore, you really need to understand who you’re targeting your Facebook ads at. 

How do I find my target audience?

Your target audience is those who are most likely to need, want, and be interested in your product.

To find them, look at your product and work out who will be interested in it.

Think about the benefits of your product or what problems your product will solve. Then, who would benefit from your product or who has the problem. And finally, if you have any unique selling points or a specific audience.

Let’s look at Dore and Rose as an example. They sell silk sleep masks. 

A sleep mask’s benefits are that it blocks out the light to help people sleep better. 

Your target audience will be those who don’t sleep well. This could be shift workers, those who travel often, those with insomnia, those with anxiety, or anyone who finds it difficult to sleep.

Their sleep mask is made of silk, backed by dermatologists, and has an antibacterial treatment. This means it's more comfortable than a traditional sleep mask and reduces acne, breakouts, and skin irritation. 

This helps define your audience further. These benefits mean you are likely targeting people who take care of their skin, are interested in skincare, or suffer from skin problems.

You can also look at your competitors. If they’re selling a similar product, they likely have a similar audience. You can find their audience by looking at their social media. See who is following and engaging with the brand. 

You can also use website traffic tools, such as Semrush and Ahrefs, to spy on your competitors' websites. You can look at their traffic sources and which sites their audience visited before and after. This can give you more information on your target audience. 

Now you have all of this information, you can start building a profile or avatar of your perfect customer.

This will include the following:

• Age
• Location
• Gender
• Language
• Education
• Household Income
• Life Events
• Job Title and Industry
• Entertainment Interests 
• Family and Relationships
• Hobbies and Activities
• Behavior

When you’re building an audience profile, you might also find characteristics of those you don’t want to target. 

Facebook allows you to exclude certain audiences. This is most commonly used when you’re creating ads to target new customers. You can then exclude your existing customers from seeing these campaigns. 

However, you can also use exclusion targeting to add the demographics, interests, and behaviors of those you want to exclude from seeing your ads.

For example, let’s say you sell a Carnivore Diet Cookbook. You might want to exclude anyone who is interested or has engaged with the vegan diet.

Competitor Research - Creative and Audience Inspiration

We like to look at our competitor's ads for both creative and audience inspiration. 

Facebook makes it easy to find your competitor’s ads with its Facebook Ad Library. The Ad Library is a searchable database of every ad posted on Facebook or Instagram. 

You can enter a keyword or a competitor's name, and it will show the ads that match. 

What Can We See From Our Competitor's Ads?

1. Library ID - This is a unique ID that identifies the ad.

2. Status - See whether the ad is currently active or inactive. Inactive ads are no longer running. This could be because the advertiser turned it off, it expired, or it ran out of budget.

3. Running Date - Find out when the ad was launched.

4. Platforms - See which platforms the ad is currently run on. This includes Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network

5. Versions - This might show ‘This Ad Has Multiple Versions’ or ‘X Number of Ads Use This Creative and Text.’ 

When the ad has ‘This Ad Has Multiple Versions,’ it means that the advertiser is using dynamic creative. Dynamic creative is when you upload multiple versions of text and media. Facebook mixes the versions depending on who they’re showing the ad to improve its performance.

‘X Number of Ads Use This Creative and Text’ means that the advertiser is running multiple campaigns that look identical but likely have different target audiences, dates, and/or budgets.

6. Creative - The creative is the part of the ad that your audience sees. It includes the main text, image or video, headline, description, and call to action.

You can learn a lot from the information provided. 

The creative is the main thing to analyze. We recommend looking at the following:

• Keywords - What keywords do the ads all include in their ads? Are they brand-specific keywords? Or sales keywords? Can you add these keywords to your text? Although we don’t know for sure, a lot of advertisers believe Facebook might scan ads and their text to understand the ad better. This can help improve the ad’s performance. So, it’s essential that your ad includes the right keywords to help it reach your perfect audience.

• Images and Video - Are the competitors using images, videos, or a carousel to display their products? How is the media displaying the products? What is the background image? Does the video tell a story? Is there any text on the image? On Facebook, the media is the largest part of the ad. It is what your audience will first see, and it must capture the audience's attention. Look at ways your competitors are doing this and what stands out to you.

• Offer - What is the ad offering? Is there a discount or promotion in the ad? Can you also offer a discount or promotion to help increase conversions?

• Link - Which page of the website does the ad lead to? Is it the homepage? Product page? Sales page? Checkout? 

The page that your ad links to should be a continuation of the ad. This will help customers trust your business and brand. Which can make them feel more comfortable checking out.

It should also make the final action, which is likely a sale, as easy as possible to take.

The product and offer in your Facebook ad will likely determine the page you lead your audience to. 

For example, if you are offering an exclusive 10% offer on the Facebook ad, you might want to create a separate sales page only for those who click on your Facebook ad.

Alternatively, if your ad is for a specific product (rather than your brand), you might want to link to the product page.

However, there is one downside. The Facebook Ad Library doesn’t show the engagement. This makes it difficult to estimate how the ad is performing. 

If we don’t know how an ad is performing, we don’t know which ads to ignore and which to take inspiration from.

To find an ad’s engagement, you need to use an ad spy tool.

Dropship’s Ad Spot is one of the best ad spy tools. It allows you to see the reactions, comments, and shares of millions of Facebook ads. You can also see the ad as it appears on the audience’s newsfeed. 

You can check out the ad spot tool for free using Dropship’s 7-day trial. 

After you’ve signed up for your Dropship trial, select Ad Spot from the left-hand menu.

You can use the advanced filters to search for your competitor’s ads. If you already know your competition, you can type their domain or page name in. Or search by keyword with your product name. 

Ad Spot will then display your competitor's ads.

You will see the ad’s creative and engagement.

There are also three buttons at the top. These are the following:

• Facebook Button - Click on the Facebook button to see the ad as it appears on Facebook. From here, you can see which users are commenting, reacting, and sharing the ad.

• Arrow - If you click here, you will go to the link that the ad directs its audience to. 
• View More - Click here to view more information about the ad on Dropship. It shows you the advertiser, more information on the ad creative, the ad timeline, and an engagement calendar. 

Now, we can start analyzing our competitor’s ads. Some of our favorite ways to do this are the following:

Engagement - We want to find ads that have high and positive engagement. And ideally, that has generated this engagement in a short period of time. 

Ads that quickly generate a lot of positive reactions suggest that the creative is effective and they are targeting the right audience. It also suggests that it’s performing well and generating clicks and sales.

We can look at the ad's text, media, call-to-action, and links for inspiration for our own ads. 

Dropship’s Ad Spot tool allows you to search for your competitors by creative date and reactions or comments. You can also sort your results to help you easily find top-performing ads.

We find high-performing ads using Dropship’s Ad Spot like this:

1. We enter our competitor's page and a short timeframe. 

We usually start with 30 days, but if the results are too broad or narrow, we can adjust the time frame.

2. Sort the results by either reactions, comments, or views.

You will see your competitor’s best-performing ads. 

Now, you can analyze all aspects of the ads. This includes the following:

• Text
• Media
• Link
• See who is commenting and engaging with the ad

You can use this information to optimize your ads and improve your targeting.

Active and Inactive

Look at ads that were launched at a similar time, where one ad is active and the other is inactive. 

Ads can be inactive for a variety of reasons. Most commonly because it is out of budget, expired, or turned off.

We want to find the ads that we think are turned off as they’re not performing as well as the others launched at the same time. We won’t actually know the reason. But we can estimate.

Then, look at the differences between the ads to try and work out why one was performing better than the other. 

We can learn what to do from the active ad. And what not to do from the inactive ad.

Let’s look at an example.

Manta Sleep launched two ads six days apart. 

One was inactive within nine days.

The other is still active.

From this, we might guess that the active ad generated more clicks. Therefore, Manta Sleep decided to keep it active and turn the other ad off. Again, this is speculation, as are all the comparisons below.

We then compare the ads to find out what’s working and what isn’t. In this example, we would look at the following:

Main Text

Both ads use five emoji stars at the beginning of the text.

Both ads use quotes in their main text. But the quotes are different.

The active ad uses emojis as bullet points to detail the product’s features and benefits clearly. The quote in the inactive ad includes product features and benefits. However, it’s in a text block. A block of text makes it harder for the audience to find the product benefits.

The active ad uses the following sentences as its call to action: ‘Want to know what all the hype is about?’ and ‘Click the link below and try the sleep mask today!’ 

Using terms like ‘hype’ in the sentence makes the audience fear that they’re missing out, which can increase the urgency to click the link. Another word they use is ‘try.’ The word try doesn’t make the purchase seem final, and if they don’t like the product, there is a way out.

In contrast, the inactive ad provides details of the return policy. And the call to action has the product benefits. It doesn’t use a question like the active ad does, and it’s almost double the length.

We can use this information to help us create better calls to action for our ads.

Image

The active ad uses the product as the main focus of the image. It also has the phrase ‘sleep better with..’’ Then, the product name is bold.

The image uses the product's teal color as the background. This makes the image look cohesive, which enhances the brand identity. 

The inactive ad also uses the mask color as the background. However, the color is considerably brighter than the active ads. And the product isn’t the main focus of the ad.

Instead, there is a quote that describes one of the product's main benefits. It also uses a dog to demonstrate the product.

From this, we can see that an image with the product in the forefront works better for this particular product. We can use this information to create better images for our ads.

Description

The descriptions are similar. Both use product benefits. However, the layout is different. The active ads use full stops between each feature and benefit. 

This makes it easier for your audience to see the benefits. It also has the word ‘guaranteed’ last. This can increase your conversions as customers can see that your benefits are genuine. 

The inactive ad’s description is much longer and doesn’t fit in the available space. This causes it to be cut off with …

From this, we can see that using a more concise description with clear-to-read benefits is a better choice.

This method doesn’t require an ad spot tool. So, if you don’t want to join Dropship or another ad spy tool, you can use this method for free with Facebook’s Ad Library. 

Audience

Spying on an ad as it appears on the newsfeed shows you who is engaging with the ad. As we saw, you can do this using Dropship’s Ad Spot tool by clicking on the Facebook button.

Look at those who are commenting and liking the ad to find out who your competitors are targeting their ads at. 

Your competitor's target audience is also likely to be yours. 

You can then adjust who you’re targeting your ads at to make sure you’re targeting those who would be interested in your products.

3. Set Up Meta Pixel and Conversions API

Summary: 

• Meta Pixel allows you to monitor the actions your audience takes after they click on your ad.
• Conversions API creates a direct and more reliable connection between Meta and your marketing data to track your audience's actions.
• You can use this information to understand your user’s activity and improve your ads.

Before you create your campaigns, it's essential to set up Meta pixel and Conversions API. 

Meta Pixel is a piece of code that you add to your store. The code allows you to measure how your ads are performing based on the actions the audience takes once they visit your store. For example, you can see the following actions:some text

• When the audience clicks on your ad and adds your product to their basket
• When the audience clicks on your ad and purchases a product

You can see these actions in your Events Manager. You can then optimize your store and ads based on this information. 

Knowing this information also allows you to create specific campaigns for those who have previously interacted with your ads.

For example, if someone has added your product to their basket but has not checked out, you might want to try to win them back. You could do this by creating an exclusive campaign that includes a 10% discount code. 

Conversions API creates a connection between marketing data and Meta. Like Meta Pixel, it allows you to measure your ad performance based on audience actions.

But it’s more flexible and reliable.You can create custom events, like page visits. The information is also more accurate and reliable.

This is because it isn’t affected by cookies or ad-blockers like Meta Pixel is. Using Meta Pixel and Conversions API together can help improve your ad’s performance and allow you to better analyze your campaigns. 

How to Set Up Meta Pixel and Conversion API

There are two steps. These are the following:

1. Connect your store with Meta Pixel.

2. Create Pixels

We always recommend building your online store using Shopify.

Shopify makes it super easy to sell online. With just a few clicks, you can set up Meta Pixel and Conversions API. 

To connect your store and create Pixels, follow these steps:

Install the Facebook and Instagram app on your Shopify account.

1. Click Add Sales Channel and Start Setup.
2. Connect your Facebook account with Shopify.
3. Connect your existing Facebook business page (that you created in Step 1).

Now, Facebook will ask you to select your data-sharing preferences. This is how you set up Meta Pixel and Conversions API. 

There are three options. These are the following:

• Conservative - Meta Pixel only.
• Enhanced - Meta Pixel and Facebook’s Conversions API.
• Maximum - Meta Pixel, Facebook’s Conversions API, and updated with Facebook’s latest advertising technology. 

We always recommend choosing Maximum. However, it’s entirely up to you how much data you want collected and shared between your store and Facebook.

5. Click Save.
6. Under Connect a Pixel to Track Customer Behavior, click Create New and then Confirm.

5. Read and agree to the terms and conditions.
6. Click Submit for Review.

You need to head over to Facebook, find the Pixel, and check it’s working. To do so, follow these steps:

9. Visit business.facebook.com/settings/pixels.
10. The Pixel you just created should appear here. 

We need to test the Pixel to ensure it’s tracking the events correctly. To do so, follow these steps:

11. Click Open in Events Manager.
12. Click Test Events. 
13. Enter your website URL into Test Browser Events and click Open Website.
14. Complete some actions. These could include adding products to the cart, visiting different pages, entering payment info, making a purchase, etc.

Facebook Pixel is now set up. But you might need to verify your domain. 

You can also set up the connection between your store and Meta through the Meta Events Manager. 

If you already have the Facebook and Instagram app installed on your Shopify account, you might need to adjust your data-sharing settings to ensure they are set to Enhanced or Maximum.

If you’re not using Shopify or another commerce platform (including WooCommerce, Wix, or BigCommerce), you will need to use The Conversions API gateway, another partner integration, or set up a direct integration using code.

4. Design and Launch Your Campaign

Summary:

• Follow the ad manager steps to create your first campaign. 

Your ad manager is ready. You know who your perfect customers are. You’ve got inspiration from your competitors. And you’ve set up Meta Pixel and Conversions API.

It’s time to build your Facebook ads. To do so, follow these steps:

1. From your Ads Manager, click Create.

2. Choose your campaign objective and click Continue.

This will usually be ‘Sales’ if you’re creating a campaign for your e-commerce store.

3. Choose a campaign set up and click Continue. 

There are two options. These are the following:

• Advantage+ Shopping Campaign - This option reduces the setup time as Ad Manager uses preset settings to improve ad performance.
• Manual Sales Campaign - Create your campaign from scratch. 

In this example, we’re going to select Manual Sales Campaign so we can go through each step.

However, we usually select Advantage+ Shopping Campaign.

If you do select Advantage+ Shopping Campaign, there is a button at the top of the page that shows the preset settings. 

4. Complete the campaign page. This includes the following boxes:

5. some text

4. Campaign Name - Enter a name for your campaign. 
5. Special Ad Categories - Declare if your ad is one of the special ad categories. If you’re selling online, it likely won’t be, but always check.
6. Campaign Details - Adjust the buying type and campaign objective you selected during setup if necessary. 
7. A/B Test - Choose whether you want to test different versions of your ad. This can help you improve your ads performance and learn what’s converting and what isn’t. 
8. Advantage Campaign Budget - If you have campaigns with more than two ad sets, you can use advantage campaign budget. This automatically manages your campaign budget to improve your results. 

6. Complete the ad set page. This includes the following boxes:

7. some text

4. Ad Set Name - Enter a name for this ad set.
5. Conversion Location - Choose where you’ll be sending your audience. This will likely be your product or sales page.
6. Performance Goal - This will likely be to maximize the number of conversions. But it might also be to maximize value or conversions, maximize number of landing page views, maximize number of link clicks, maximize daily unique reach, or maximize number of impressions.
7. Pixel - We will already set up Pixel in Step 3.
8. Cost Per Result Goal - This is optional. If you enter an amount, Meta will attempt to spend the full budget to increase conversions.
9. Dynamic Creative - Add multiple creative elements, including images and text. Meta will then create combinations of the creative elements, depending on who is viewing the ad. This can help improve its performance.
10. Budget and Schedule - Set your budget and start date. You can also choose an end date if required.
11. Audience - This is who your ad will be shown to. Select the location, age, gender, language, demographics, interests, or behaviors of your audience. 
12. Placement - Choose where you want your ads shown. This includes the platform and where on those platforms. Such as, feeds, stories and reels, search results etc.

8. Complete the ad details. This includes the following:

9. some text

4. Ad Name - Enter a name for your ad.
5. Partnership Ad - Choose whether you’re running your ad in partnership with a creator, brand, or other business.
6. Identity - Choose your business’s Facebook Page and Instagram account. 
7. Ad Set Up -  Choose how you want to set up your ad. The following settings are available for the ad setup:some text
   1. Pick from the dropdown menu whether you want to create the ad, use an existing post, or use Creative Hub mockup.
   2. Creative Source - Decide whether you want to manually upload your media. Or if you’ve got media in your catalog, you can select it rather than upload it.
   3. Format - Choose whether you want to use a single image or video, carousel, or collection.
8. Ad Creative - Add your creative, primary text, headline, description, call to action, and info labels. This is what your 
9. Destination - Enter your website link and display URL.
10. Languages - Decide whether you want to add your own translations or use automatic translations.
11. Tracking - This is how you track the events that the audience takes after they click on your ad. 

10. Click Publish.

Your ad is now live! Hopefully, it’s gaining lots of engagement, clicks, and sales.

5. Analyze and Optimize

Summary: 

• Use the information from Meta Pixel and Conversions API to analyze your ads performance.
• Based on the information, make changes to your ad to improve it. 

After you’ve launched your ads, you need to check how they’re performing and adjust them to improve their performance. 

Look at your performance, demographics, delivery, and platform metrics.

Based on your analysis, you can optimize your ads. The changes you make will depend on how your ads are performing. Some of the changes you might need to make are the following:

• Creative - Can you make any changes to how your ad appears to your audience? This includes any text and images.
• Link - Are you getting clicks, but customers are leaving quickly? Which page does your ad link to? And can you change this to increase the number of customers who stay on your site?
• Website - Can you make any changes to your website to increase sales? This could include changing your listing, adding more payment options, changing your theme, creating a stronger brand identity, and anything else that improves your website.
• Audience - Can you adjust your target audience? This might include widening your reach or narrowing it down further, depending on your metrics.
• Budget - Are you quickly running out of budget? You can adjust your budget to ensure you don’t spend more than you can afford.

Should I Run Facebook Ads For My E-Commerce Store? 

Summary: 

• Facebook ads are still one of the best ways to generate traffic for your e-commerce store.
• Facebook ads are competitive, and it can take a bit of trial and error to create winning ads.

We’ll look at the pros and cons of running Facebook ads to help you decide if they’re right for your e-commerce store. 

Pros of Running Facebook Ads for E-Commerce Stores

• Easy to Use - Facebook ads are pretty easy to run, even if you’re a complete beginner. The ad manager is intuitive and easy to navigate. You can select your ad objective, create your ad, set a budget, and follow the steps to launch. There are also detailed reports so you can understand how your ads are performing. Then, make changes and optimize your ads based on their performance.  

• Help Customers Discover You - If you’re a new e-commerce store or dropshipper, you likely won’t have an existing audience. Without an audience, you won’t make any sales. Getting your brand in front of your customers organically can take a lot of time and effort. Facebook ads allow you to get your business in front of your perfect customers easily. You can choose your audience and create ads that appeal to them. This will help customers discover your brand and products. This will increase your traffic and can help you generate sales.

• Advanced Analytics and Reporting - Facebook has performance and engagement reports. Meta Pixel and Conversions API measure those who take action after clicking on your ad. This includes checkouts, payments, and more. You can use this information to improve your ads. As well as, optimize your website and listing to increase conversions.

• Increase Brand Awareness - It can be difficult to make your brand known and recognizable. Facebook ads can help increase your visibility, putting your brand at the forefront of customers’ minds. When a customer knows and sees your brand, it can build brand trust. Building trust with customers can help you increase your sales. You can also create campaigns targeted at customers who have already interacted with your brand. If a user has already visited your store but left before purchasing, you know they were interested in your products.

• Boost Sales - Use Facebook ads to reach a new audience to help increase sales.  You can use detailed targeting to show your ads on the Facebook pages of audiences that will love your products. Finding your perfect audience will boost your sales. Facebook allows you to choose a campaign objective. And one of those objectives is sales. 

• Reach a Huge Audience - Facebook has over 3 billion monthly active users, and Instagram has over 1 billion. You can use Facebook’s advanced targeting to show your ads to the users who would be your perfect customers.

• Cost Effective - Facebook is much cheaper than Google for running ads. As a new seller, or if you have a limited budget, Facebook ads can give you an incredible return on investment. The budgeting options also make it easy to manage your ad spend.

Cons of Running Facebook Ads for E-Commerce Stores

• Might Not Work for Your Product - Although Facebook has a huge audience, over 43% of users are aged between 25 and 44 [1]. If your product is aimed at a younger or much older audience, it might not be the platform on which to advertise. If you are targeting a younger audience, make sure to post your Facebook ads on Instagram. Instagram has a younger demographic than Facebook. And as Instagram ads are managed through Facebook ads manager, it's super easy to do. There are also certain restrictions on the products you can advertise. Some products require permission before you advertise them on Facebook. And there are rules you need to adhere to.  For example, if you sell medical and healthcare products, you need to make sure you don’t make any misleading claims and that your ads don’t generate negative self-perception [2].

• Requires a Lot of Testing - If you’re new to running Facebook ads, it can take a while to know what’s working and what isn’t. You’ll likely need to adjust your ads based on how they’re performing. But you can set overall and campaign budgets to ensure you don’t spend more than you can afford.

• Facebook Users Aren’t Necessarily Shopping - Facebook and Instagram are social media platforms. When customers are using them, they aren’t always in a shopping mood. We are seeing social media moving towards shopping. With TikTok Shop, Instagram Shops, and Facebook Shops. And we know that Facebook ads work, as it's how we generate the most sales. However, the purchase rate might be lower than ads on shopping platforms like Amazon, Walmart, and eBay. Customers on these marketplaces are looking to make a purchase, and it’s easy to instantly access the checkout. 

Tips For Creating The Best Facebook Ads For Your E-Commerce Store 

We’ve created and run Facebook ads for all our e-commerce stores.

By doing so, we’ve learned a lot. Here, we’ll share our top tips to help you build the best Facebook ads for your e-commerce store.

If you haven’t got time to read every tip, here is a quick summary:

1. Use Dynamic Creative - This tool will show personalized variations of your ad to help improve its performance.

2. Focus on Your Media - Facebook and Instagram ads are all about the image or video. Use it to grab your audience's attention as they’re scrolling. 

3. Add Keywords to Your Text and Media - Keywords are thought to help Facebook understand what your ads are about. This can help improve their performance. The right words can also help grab your audience and encourage them to click.

4. AB Test - Test your ads to see what’s working and what isn’t.

5. Choose the Right Media - Videos are more engaging, but they cost more and have a lower click-through rate.

6. Spy on Your Competition - Check out what your competitors are doing. See what’s working and what isn’t. It can help you build better campaigns and uncover a new audience to target.

7. Optimize Your Landing Page - Yay, someone clicked on your ad. However, converting them to paying customers can be a challenge. Your website needs to continue the journey from your ad and persuade the customer to buy.

8. Set and Manage Your Budget - Facebook lets you set campaign and overall budgets. Use them to stay in control and stop overspending. 

9. Use Audience Exclusions - Running a campaign to generate new customers? Exclude your existing audience. Use exclusions to help your ads reach the right audience.

1. Use Dynamic Creative 

Facebook’s dynamic creative tool is one of the best tools for improving your ad’s performance.

Dynamic creative is when you upload multiple versions of each element of your ad. This includes text, image or video, headline, and description. 

Then, Facebook will choose the best combination of creative based on the Facebook user to whom the ad is being shown. 

As the ad shown is personalized to the audience, it can increase the likelihood that it will capture the audience’s attention. This will increase the number of clicks and boost sales.

2. Focus on Your Media

On Facebook and Instagram, the image or video is the main focus of the ad.

Therefore, it has to capture their attention immediately. 

Make sure to spend time creating your media. Consider the following:

• The lighting
• How the product looks
• Who is in the product photo
• Photo or video quality and size
• Add text or an overlay to the media
• Edit the media to make it look professional
• Think about your brand colors and brand identity and whether the media fits

3. Add Keywords to Your Text and Media - But Don’t Overstuff

Facebook doesn’t use keywords or search terms like Google or other search-based advertising platforms like Amazon. 

However, you can still add keywords to your ads creative. This includes in its text or media.

The right keywords will resonate with your audience. Which will attract them and increase your conversions.

And although we don’t know for sure, there is speculation that Facebook scans its ad’s creative. This helps Facebook better understand your ads and products. It is thought that it uses this information to show your ad to those it's relevant to. This can boost your ad performance. 

4. A/B Test

Facebook has a split test or A/B test feature. This allows you to test different versions of an ad campaign simultaneously to see which performs better.

For example, you could create two campaigns that are targeting the same audience and have the same image, main text, and description but with a slightly different headline. 

Then, retest with different images, different descriptions, layouts, etc. 

You can continue to test different elements of the ad. This will help you create ads with higher conversion rates and increase your ROI. 

5. Choose the Right Media

You can use images or videos for your Facebook ads. 

Both are very effective. However, your campaign goals can help you choose the right media for your ad.

We can look at statistics and use our own experiences to help us choose the best option.

Choose videos if you have a larger budget. Studies show that video ads have a 24% higher cost-per-purchase rate than image ads [3]. Video ads cost more per number of impressions, too. And they can be more expensive and time-consuming to create.

However, studies show that videos get around six times more engagement than image ads. And image ads have a higher click-through rate. 

So, if you’re looking to increase brand trust and have a large budget, choose video ads.

But image ads have a lower cost of advertising and a higher click through rate.

6. Spy on Your Competition

Your competition’s ads can give you tons of information. 

You can use this information to help you build better-performing ads. 

We do this by looking at successful sellers in our niche for inspiration. We do this in two ways:

• Sellers with Recent Ads with High Engagement - Use an ad spy tool, like Dropship’s Ad Spot. This can help us find ads that are generating a lot of interest in a short period of time. Which suggests they are converting.
• Stores with High Sales - We can use a Shopify spy tool to find competitors with a high volume of sales. Dropship has a few tools, including its Chrome extension and Sales Tracker. These show the revenue and sales information for Shopify stores. We can then access the ads they’re running.

These methods help us find competitors that are generating sales from their ads and, therefore, from whom we want to draw inspiration. 

Look at every element of the ad, including the text and media, of multiple successful ads. This can help you improve your ad creative. 

You can also see who is interacting with the ad. Those who are interacting with your competitor's ads will likely be interested in your products. You can use this information to add more demographics, interests, and behaviors to better find your target audience.

7. Optimize Your Landing Page

If you run an e-commerce or dropshipping store, you will rely on Facebook ads to help customers discover your brand.

There is a high chance that when the audience sees your ad, it's the first time they’ll have heard of your brand.

When someone clicks on your ad, the journey from your ad to your website should feel seamless. And the page they land on should make it easy or tell them how to continue their journey.

This can help increase your conversion rate. 

To create a seamless journey, you could use cohesive brand colors, similar images, specific language, and matching fonts.

And optimize your landing page. You can do this in the following ways:

• Add product benefits
• Add detailed product descriptions
• Make the checkout or action easy to complete
• Use a sales page (rather than a page on your website)
• Use clear images and videos
• Add social proof (this could be customer reviews or if you have any mentions by top brands or publications)
• Offer multiple payment options and shipping options

8. Set and Manage Your Budget

Before you start, you need to know your ad goals and budget.

It’s easy to overspend and not achieve your results if you don’t have these.

Facebook allows you to set daily and lifetime budgets to help you achieve your goals within your budget.

If you need help calculating your cost per acquisition, return on ad spend, or break-even return on ad spend, Dropship has several free calculators. 

9. Use Audience Exclusions

Facebook ads are all about targeting the right audience.

Facebook also lets you exclude certain audiences. You can exclude audiences based on demographics, interests, or behaviors. So, if you think your product won’t be suitable for a certain audience, you can exclude them. 

This can help increase your ad performance, as it will only be shown to those that it's relevant.

You can also exclude audiences who have interacted with your business. 

For example, let's say your ad's purpose is to find new customers. You can use audience exclusions to stop those who have recently made a purchase from seeing the ad.

Facebook Ads For E-Commerce Examples And Case Studies 

We can look at Facebook ads and the techniques they use to help us build better ads.

We’ve looked at three examples of high-converting e-commerce Facebook ads and what we can learn from them.

For every ad, we have checked the estimated sales using Dropship. 

If you don’t have Dropship yet - check it out for free.

If the store has a high volume of sales and is running ads, we can assume that the ad is receiving the majority of its sales from its campaigns.

1. SlumberPod

SlumberPod sells a blackout tent and accessories designed for children to help improve sleep.

On April 1st, SlumberPod launched 15 Facebook ads.

We can then see on Dropship that sales have increased since April 1st. On March 31st, Dropship showed no sales. But on April 1st, the store made 148 sales, generating $22,761.41 in revenue. 

Based on this, we can assume that SlumberPod knows what it’s doing with its ads.

So, let's see what they’re doing and what we can learn.

As we can see, there are several adverts that have almost identical main text.

There are several features we can pick out in the text and use for inspiration. These are the following:

• Save 10% - Offering an exclusive discount to your audience will encourage them to click and act on the offer for fear of missing it.
• Over 300K Parents - New customers are more likely to trust your products if they know there are other happy customers. This can make them feel more secure buying from you, as they know that other shoppers are happy with the product.
• Expert Sleep Consultants Recommend - Having an expert or brand ambassador can help improve your product’s credibility. If the expert likes, approves, recommends, or believes in your product, then the customer should, too.
• Product Benefits - SlumberPod tells the audience what the product’s benefits are. In this example, SlumberPod tells the audience that the product is guaranteed to get your little one to sleep. This is very appealing to parents and will boost sales.
• Emjoi’s - The information is separated with emojis. This makes it easy for customers to scan the text and find the information they need. The star emoji specifically helps potential customers see that it's a 5-star product.
• Brand Benefits - The ad includes the shipping, returns, and warranty details. So before the audience clicks on the ad, they know what they’re getting. This means they are less likely to abandon the checkout.
• Seen on Shark Tank - In the ad description, SlumberPod states that the product was seen on Shark Tank. As Shark Tank is such a popular program, the audience may have seen the brand there. The company's success in the program helps boost its credibility and increases brand trust. This can help persuade audiences to buy.

2. Meri Meri

Meri Meri is a party store that sells a variety of party supplies, kid's dress-up costumes, and home and gift items.

Meri Meri recently launched an ad to promote its candles.

As we can see from Dropship, in the last 30 days, three of the five best-selling products are candles. This suggests that the ad is working. 

The ad is very simple. It uses less than 15 words in its main copy. The copy tells audiences the product it's promoting (its candles) and that there are options for everyone.

The media in the ad is a one-second video. The video is a table scene with a cake, and the candles flicker in the video. It's very simple, but the colors and theme of the image are in keeping with Meri Meri’s branding.

When a customer clicks on the ad, the journey feels continuous. This can help increase conversions.

3. Ethical Nutrition

Ethical Nutrition is a UK supplement brand.

Recently, Ethical Nutrition launched several ads promoting its Magnesium Taurate.

Dropship shows us that the ads are working. When we look at Ethical Nutrition on our Sales Tracker, it shows that in the last 30 days, Magnesium Taurate has been its best-selling product. It made 274 sales, generating $6,264.18 in revenue.

Advertising supplements on Facebook can be challenging. There are specific rules about health claims and results. 

Ethical Nutrition keeps its advert simple. It includes three statements separated by emojis. The emojis make it super easy for the audience to pick out the information quickly. 

Another technique that Ethical Nutrition uses is using text in its images. This is a great way to give your audience the most important information quickly, as it's the media that will grab their attention first.

We have a complete article on e-commerce example ads. It has tons of examples and analyzes each example in depth. Check it out for more inspiration.

Frequently Asked Questions 

Are Facebook Ads Worth It Anymore? 

Yes, Facebook ads are still one of the best ways to increase brand visibility and generate sales.

They’re especially vital if you don’t have an existing audience to sell to. You can create ads and target them to your perfect customers to help them discover your brand.

How Is Facebook Used For E-Commerce? 

Running ads for your e-commerce store on Facebook is one of the most common uses. 

You can also use Facebook Shops or Facebook Marketplace (if you’re in the US) to sell your dropshipping products. If you need more information, check out our article on How to Dropship on Facebook Marketplace.

What Is The Best Facebook Ad Type For E-Commerce? 

It depends on your ad goals and budget. 

Statistics show that video ads have a higher engagement rate than images. Which can be great for establishing a relationship with your audience and increasing brand trust.

However, image ads are generally cheaper to run, with a lower cost per impression [4].

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, this article has shown you how you can use Facebook ads for e-commerce. 

Dropship’s Ad Spot tool can help you find your competitor's ads and show you how much engagement they’re getting. So, you’ll know exactly which ads to use for inspiration. 

Dropship currently offers a 7-day free trial. Use the trial to try Ad Spot completely free! If you don’t like it, cancel the trial before it ends - no commitments.