Your Complete Guide To Social Media For Your E-Commerce Business

Why is social media so important for e-commerce? 

Social media is no longer just a simple platform for social interactions between users. It now plays a huge part in consumer’s decision making process when looking to buy products online or in store. 

If you’re not utilising social media for your e-commerce business, you could be missing out on a huge amount of revenue. 

It provides a number of benefits for your business: 

• Helps with marketing your brand and building awareness 
• Helps to enhance customer engagement 
• Helps to optimise for sales and conversions 
• Helps with building customer loyalty

How can you leverage social media for e-commerce? 

To get the most from your social media strategy for e-commerce, we recommend utilising some, if not all, of the following tactics. 

• Utilise content: Creating high-quality content to fill your social media channels with will help you to engage your followers and keep them coming back for more. Use videos, images and interactive content for the best success. 
• Take advantage of influencers: Influencer partnerships can help you to reach a wider audience and build trust with your potential customers. 
• Utilise targeted advertising: The ad platforms available on social media channels allow you to target your ideal audience specifically, which ensures your marketing efforts and budget are highly focused on the people who are most likely to buy from you. 
• Encourage user-generated content: Making the most of the content your existing customers create is a highly powerful tool for e-commerce. Potential customers will trust reviews or content more than the information that comes from you, so using it on your social media channels can help to influence potential customers towards a purchase. 
• Track and analyse results: If you want to know whether your social media strategy is truly effective, you’ll need to track and analyse the results of your campaigns on a regular basis. 
• Stay up-to-date with the latest trends: Social media and digital marketing are always changing so, if you want to get the most out of your strategy, you need to know all about the content consumers are engaging with and the latest channels they’re using. 

As you can see, social media plays an essential role in e-commerce digital marketing. Want to know more? Read our full blog: The role and importance of social media in e-commerce: What do you need to know? 

The best social media platforms for e-commerce: Your guide to successful advertising

Over the last year, 63% of consumers said they have made a purchase from social media. Social media channels have become an essential way for e-commerce businesses to promote their products and drive sales. Advances in the platforms mean that consumers no longer have to even leave their chosen app to make a purchase. 

With this in mind, let’s have a look at the best social media platforms for your e-commerce business: 

‍Utilising Facebook to drive sales and growth for your e-commerce business 

Facebook now has just over 3 billion monthly active users. That’s a huge number of potential customers for you to tap into! 

Plus, the platform’s sophisticated targeting capabilities allow you to drill down into the demographics of your target audience to ensure your ads reach the right people. 

Facebook provides a number of features that are highly beneficial to your e-commerce business, including: 

• A range of targeting options
• A range of different ad formats 
• Robust measurement and analytics tools

So, not only can you target a highly specific audience with an ad that helps you to reach your business goals, you can also review the analytics of your ads to see exactly what’s working and what isn’t. This allows you to tweak and refine your ads so you can get the most from your budget. 

‍How to create an effective Facebook ad

If you want to run Facebook ads for your business, you’ll not only need a good idea of who you’re targeting and what you want to achieve, but you’ll also need to follow a few key strategies to ensure they’re as effective as possible. 

• High-quality visuals: Facebook is a visual platform, so any images you use in your ads or in organic content will need to be high-quality. This is essential to capturing the attention of your audience as they scroll through their news feeds.
• Compelling copy: Ad copy needs to be clear and concise. We also recommend including a call to action so that your potential customers know exactly what you want them to do next. 
• Optimise for mobile: Most Facebook users access the platform on mobile so it’s highly recommended that you keep this in mind when running your ads. 
• Measure and optimise: If you want to know whether your ads are delivering the right results, you need to measure the results so that you can tweak your campaigns to ensure they’re providing you with what you need. 

To learn more about utilising Facebook for e-commerce, read our blog: Using Facebook Ads for E-Commerce: How to drive sales and growth for your business 

Instagram advertising for your e-commerce business 

Did you know that 46% of Instagram users have made a purchase through the Instagram checkout? Running ads on Instagram provides you with an opportunity to showcase your products to a much wider audience. 

So, how can you make the most of Instagram ads? 

Tell stories visually 

Instagram is a picture/video-based channel so you will need to ensure that the images and videos you use tell users about your products in a visual way. You’ll need to capture their attention immediately to encourage users to take the next step. 

Utilise precise targeting 

Like Facebook, Instagram allows you to take advantage of its advanced targeting options. You can target based on a range of demographics, interests and behaviours and custom audiences. So, if you know exactly who your target audience is, you have a good chance of making sure they see your ads on the platform. 

Leverage Instagram Shopping 

Instagram Shopping allows users on the platform to buy products directly from your ads. This is great for you because it offers a seamless user experience and allows them to buy from you without even leaving the app. 

Use Stories and Reels for promotions 

Stories and Reels allow you to connect with users and are a great way to encourage potential customers to interact with your limited time offers or any interactive content you share. 

Want to know more? Read our blog: Instagram advertising for e-commerce: 5 top tips to generate sales for your business 

Grow your audience, brand and sales online with TikTok for e-commerce 

TikTok has taken over the social media world in the last few years, becoming a more popular channel for both consumers and businesses. 

Just like other channels, 55% of users have bought something from the brand after seeing their products on the platform. 

Why is Tiktok such a game changer for e-commerce? 

TikTok’s algorithm is designed to provide users with the content they want to see. It’s not just based on the people they follow; it’s based on previous interactions and content viewed in the past. This makes TikTok different to other platforms and means that your content is likely to reach the right people. 

The benefits of utilising TikTok ads for your business include: 

• High engagement 
• Advanced targeting 
• Creative freedom 
• Demographic diversity 
• Enhanced visibility and reach 
• Cost-effective marketing

Types of TikTok ads for e-commerce 

Getting to know the types of ads available on TikTok will help you to get the most from your advertising budget. 

• In-feed ads: these appear between organic user videos as users scroll through their ‘For You’ page. 
• TopView Ads: these appear when the user first opens the app, taking over the screen for 60 seconds before they can scroll past. 
• Branded hashtag challenges: you create a sponsored hashtag and challenge your community to create content around it. This type of content is great for building awareness around your brand. 
• Brand takeovers: these ads appear when the app is opened by a user and show either an image or a short video. 
• Branded effects: you can design your own filter on TikTok and this can be a great way to encourage users to interact with your brand with fun and interactive content. 

TikTok is taking the social media world by storm and, if you find it’s somewhere that your users are spending time, it should form an essential part of your social media strategy for your e-commerce business. 

Read our blog to find out more: TikTok for e-commerce: Grow your audience, brand and sales online 

How to use video advertising to drive business growth 

YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google. It offers you a number of opportunities to expand your reach and build awareness through highly targeted video advertising. 

A huge number of businesses are now using the platform to get their products in front of a wider audience so it’s certainly something you should be considering as part of your social media strategy. 

Benefits of YouTube advertising

Like the other social media channels, YouTube advertising offers a wide range of benefits for your business including: 

• Extensive reach 
• Highly targeted advertising 
• Measurable results 
• Variety of ad formats 
• Integration with Google Shopping 

If your audience uses YouTube on a regular basis, you can utilise ads to ensure that your brand appears in front of the right people and drive them towards making a purchase from you. 

As with any other channel you’ll need to know exactly who your target audience is and create compelling content that captures their attention enough to make them want to find out more. 

If you want to know more about using this channels for your business, read our blog: Youtube for e-commerce: How to use video advertising to drive business growth.

Key takeaways 

Social media provides you with numerous opportunities to make sure you reach the right people in the right places with your content. It’s essential to know exactly which channels your target audience is using and the channels that are likely to work for your business to ensure that social media is successful for your business.

To drive real results for your business, we recommend choosing the channels that work most effectively for your business. Put some test budget into each channel, monitor and analyse the performance and decide which channels are going to drive the best results for your business before you scale up.

For more information on how social media can help you drive results for e-commerce, why not book a free 30-minute consultation with one of our digital marketing experts? 

‍