Mastering dropshipping ads: the definitive guide to increasing sales

If you have already decided on a dropshipping business, it’s time to increase your sales. How? By creating ads that bring the best traffic, with the best potential customers to your dropshipping store. 

In this article, we tell you how you can achieve effective strategies for dropshipping ads.

What are dropshipping ads?

Dropshipping ads are advertising campaigns that are designed specifically to promote products from dropshipping stores, i.e. online stores that operate under the dropshipping model. If you’re here, it’s because you are interested in finding out how to advertise to improve your sales. 

These advertisements can take various formats, including the following:

• Static image ads: In this type of advertisement, attractive product images are used to capture users’ attention.
• Video ads: one of the best-performing types of ads today. They demonstrate the use of the product or highlight its features, all using short, eye-catching videos.
• Carousel ads: these ads allow you to show multiple products or different angles of the same product in a sliding sequence, the more images the more engagement. 
• Collection ads: this type of ad is only present on some platforms, and combines images and videos to create an immersive shopping experience within the platform on which they are displayed.

In terms of platforms, dropshipping ads are usually created on several of the most popular platforms:

• Facebook and Instagram: ideal for reaching a wide and segmented audience.
• Google Ads: allow you to appear in search results and in the display network, reaching users with purchase intent.
• TikTok: popular for reaching a younger audience through dynamic and creative content. 
• Pinterest: useful for visual products, as users look for inspiration and products to buy.

As you can see, there are many options and ways of creating dropshipping ads, but which way is the best? 

The best way to create dropshipping ads: choosing the right platform

As we have already mentioned, there are different advertising platforms available to you when you have a dropshipping store, like those mentioned above, which are some of the most popular. Therefore, making the right choice can be quite a challenge.

In order to choose the right platform you need to consider a number of key factors: 

• Target audience : Before choosing, you must identify where your ideal audience is, as each platform has a different profile.  It is important to know your target audience: demographics, interests and behaviours, needs and desires… You can also conduct an analysis of the competition to see where and who they are directing their efforts towards.
  
• Product type: Yes, the products we sell can also help us choose which platform to use for our advertising. Products that are more visual and attractive may work well on platforms like Instagram or Pinterest, while other more viral products may work better on the TikTok platform. 
  
• Budget: It is vital that you consider your budget before selecting a platform to advertise your products on. Platforms like Facebook have a lower cost per click while others like Google Ads may be higher, depending on the product.
• Marketing goals: If your aim is to generate quick sales with ads, platforms like Google Ads can be very effective, as your ads will appear in the search results of users who are already thinking about buying your products.  If you want to build brand recognition, social networks like Instagram or TikTok may be more suitable, as you can reach a large number of users.
  
• Experience and resources: This is a crucial point because the platform you advertise on will depend on the experience you or your team (if you have one) have. Consider whether your team has prior knowledge of the platforms or whether the platform you are going to use has a gentle learning curve.
  
• Integration with your ecommerce platform: When choosing a platform to advertise on you can also consider whether it can easily integrate with your ecommerce, as this will help you create much faster and more effective campaigns. Shopify, for example, has native integrations. 

How to successfully create dropshipping ads

Now that you know the keys to choosing the best platform to promote your store’s products, let’s explore how to create successful dropshipping ads. 

Steps to set up your dropshipping ads

When setting up dropshipping ads, it is important to follow a series of steps that can be applied to any advertising platform. These steps will help you maximise the impact of your campaigns, ensuring you reach the right audience and optimise your investment. 

1. Set your goal: 
   • Increase traffic to your store.
   • Generate direct sales.
   • Improve brand recognition.
      
2. Identify the target audience
   • Create detailed profiles of who your ideal customers would be.
   • Use demographic data, interests and purchasing behaviour.
      
3. Product selection
   • Choose products that have a good margin, but also sales potential. 
   • Products must be relevant to the target audience you have defined.
      
4. Image design and copywriting
   • Images must contain the product and be attractive.
   • Write attention-grabbing titles and descriptions in the advertisement.
   • Highlight the benefits and key features of the product.
   • Include clear and compelling calls to action.
      
5. Segmentation settings
   • Use the segmentation options offered by the platform based on your target audience.
   • Adjust parameters such as age, location, interests or even behaviours. 
      
6. Set the budget
   • Define the daily or total budget you want to spend on your campaign.
   • Consider cost per click (CPC) or cost per thousand impressions (CPM).
      
7. Design of the campaign structure
    
   • On all platforms, campaigns can contain ad groups and, in turn, ad groups can contain different ads. Create them logically.
   • It is important that you create variants of your ads so that you can test different approaches and see what works best. 
      
8. Implementation of monitoring
   • Install the tracking pixel on your website so you can see how your campaigns are performing.
   • Make sure you can measure conversions and return on investment (ROAS) before activating the campaign. 
      
9. Continuous optimisation
   • Monitor ad performance on a regular basis. 
   • Adjust targeting, budget or content according to results. 

How to create dropshipping advertisements

Designing quality ads for a dropshipping business is vital to attract customers and stand out in the highly competitive online market. Here’s how to do it and what tools and services can help you create professional ads.

• Follow the aesthetics of your brand: when designing an advert we must take into account what our brand looks like. 
• Use quality images: the products must stand out and be perfectly visible in the advertisement. 
• Use appealing texts: talk about the product and the advantages of buying it in your store.

Once we have the content, it’s time to implement it. As you know, you can create dropshipping video ads, single image ads or a carousel of images. To do this, if you don’t have a designer in your team, you can use some of these tools: 

• Canva: ideal for designing attractive ads without the need for advanced graphic design skills. It offers customisable templates that adapt to any platform.
• Adobe Spark: another affordable tool that allows you to create professional-quality graphics and video. It is perfect for those who want more control over design without the complexity of more advanced programmes.
• Envato Elements: provides access to a wide range of creative resources, such as design templates, images and videos, which you can use to enhance the quality of your ads.
• Pexels and Unsplash: for free, high quality images that can be used in your ads.

If you prefer, you can contact a professional using platforms like Fiverr where you can find freelance designers who will create custom ads according to your specifications and needs. 

Which ads are best for dropshipping?

Each ad format offers different advantages, but also some challenges. We will explain the pros and cons of the most common formats: images, video and carousel, to help you decide which one is the most suitable for your dropshipping store: 

• Image advertisements
  • Pros: 
    • Simplicity: easy to create and optimise, and ideal for attractive products.
    • Attention grabbing: well-designed images can grab the user’s attention faster.
    • Cost-effective creating a single image will be much cheaper than creating a video or a carousel of images.
  • Cons: 
    • Limited information: as it is just one image, the message to be shown cannot be very long.
    • Less interactivity: images do not offer much opportunity to show the product at different angles. 
      
• Video advertisements
  • Pros: 
    • Much more engagement: videos tend to capture users’ attention much more and for longer.
    • Product demonstration: they are ideal for showing how the product is used and all its features.
  • Cons: 
    • Cost and time: Videos are generally more expensive to create than images. In addition, the time invested is greater. 
    • Challenge of retention: users can quickly lose interest if the video is not engaging enough from the start. 
      
• Carousel advertisements
  • Pros:
    • Multiple products or messages: They allow multiple products or different product angles to be shown in a single ad.
    • Interactivity: unlike a static image, they are more interactive as the user can swipe to learn more. 
    • Creative flexibility: you have more freedom when it comes to delivering a message or combining different resources.
  • Cons: 
    • Information overload: if not designed properly, it can confuse users.
    • Requires more creative effort: a carousel of images requires more planning to maintain consistency.

All that remains is to decide which one is best suited to the message you want to get across to users and, of course, to the product you want to promote. 

Dropshipping Ads: How much should I spend?

We’ve already seen that one of the most important steps when creating an ad is the budget. At this point you may be wondering how much to spend on dropshipping ads to make them work and, above all, to ensure a good return on investment. 

Well, the investment will depend on different factors, such as your goals, the margin you have on the product you are going to advertise and the platform you use, as some are more expensive than others. 

Ideally, you should set a desired ROI, i.e. decide how much you want to earn for every €1 you invest. Also consider the CPA (cost per acquisition or sale) and calculate the profit margin very carefully. Once you have done this, you can make an initial investment and make gradual increases. 

For example, if I am investing €10 per day and I see a good return on investment, then I can gradually increase my budget. 

Many dropshippers allocate between 10% and 30% of the selling price of the product to advertising budget, but ideally you should test it and see for yourself how much you can afford to invest. There is no magic formula and the right budget will depend on the product, the niche and, of course, the profits. 

Tips and best practices

Creating effective dropshipping ads requires a combination of strategies and best practices. Here are some key tips to maximise the success of your ads:

• A/B Testing: Create two different versions of an ad and compare them to see which one performs better. You can test images, headers or calls to action. 
• Calls to action (CTAs): It is vital that you include a text, usually a button, that calls to action for people to enter your dropshipping store to buy the product. It must be a clear text that creates urgency. 
• Monitoring and performance: Monitoring the performance of the ads is crucial. To do this, you can use the analytical tools provided by the platforms themselves. Take into account the following indicators (KPI): 
• CTR (Click Through Rate): which measures the number of clicks in relation to impressions. 
• CPA (Cost per Acquisition): indicates how much each conversion or sale costs.
• ROAS (Return on advertising investment): calculates the return on advertising investment. 

To achieve success with dropshipping ads, adopting a strategic approach that combines experimentation, constant monitoring and optimisation is essential. By using A/B testing, clear CTAs, persuasive copy and meticulous performance tracking, you can maximise the effectiveness of your ad campaigns.

As you have seen, in order to succeed with a dropshipping store, we must know how to create effective ads, but of course, this isn’t all. Having a good dropshipping supplier like BigBuy is also important. We have an extensive catalogue with hundreds of thousands of items where you will find the perfect products for your advertising. Start now!