Power-Up your traffic with Google’s Performance Max Ads

Have you dipped a toe into Google’s new Performance Max Ads yet? Heard of “PMax” but had no idea what it was? In this episode, we’re diving deep into the world of Google advertising and Performance Max Ads with our expert, Leona Griffin. Leona is Google-certified, leads a team who understands the intricacies of Google advertising, and is our Google Ads e-commerce coach in The Inner Circle.

If you’re an e-commerce store owner looking to grow your online sales without breaking the bank on ads, then this one is for you.

PMax vs. Smart Shopping

Performance Max Ads, or Pmax ads, are Google’s response to Apple’s iOS 14 update (which restricted advertiser’s ability to target their ideal customers,) and replaces Smart Shopping campaigns. Like Facebook’s Advantage+ system, Pmax ads use artificial intelligence to identify and target customers based on their behavior, rather than data, to overcome the privacy challenges posed by iOS 14.

This is GREAT news for store owners

PMax ads make advertising on Google Search, Gmail, YouTube, Display and Discovery a snap–allowing you to focus on producing great creative while Google’s AI manages placement far better than you could on your own. If you were frustrated or overwhelmed by Google Ads’ complicated system before, PMAx makes it really easy–eliminating the need for multiple campaigns, budgets, and endless spreadsheets to track them all.

Brass Tacks: Google Merchant Center

You may have dabbled in an SEO strategy before, with blog posts or optimized headlines. That’s great for driving organic, top of funnel traffic. But it’s nitty-gritty search-optimized product listings that will drive red-hot customers–those who are actively searching out your products with credit card in hand–that will allow Google to drive both organic and paid traffic your way. 

Google Merchant Center verifies and organizes your product data, ensuring that your store’s information (including product names, prices, sizes, and colors) is accurate and optimized for search. Think of it as the gateway to all things Google–it’s the way you tell their platforms exactly what you’re selling, so they can show your products to the customers most likely to buy.

3 Reasons to try Performance Max Ads

1. Superior Targeting and Placement
If you find the concept of a funnel overwhelming, Pmax makes it really easy. By consolidating various advertising formats, Google ensures that your budget is being spent where (and when) it’s needed most, whether retargeting site visitors or attracting new customers.

2. Maximize your spend across ALL platforms
Performance Max ads really shine at retargeting, helping you reconnect with potential customers who have previously visited your site. So if you’re already spending money on Facebook or Instagram ads, PMax ads pick up where Meta leaves off driving those visitors BACK to your site when they see Google’s retargeting ads as they browse the web. And PMax retargeting ads are super smart–their system is constantly monitoring your site visitors and showing them the appropriate messages at the right place and time, when they’re most likely to buy.

3. Increased Engagement
Pmax ads provide access to exclusive ad formats not available on other platforms, like video shopping ads, which integrate product listings beneath video content, enhancing user engagement. Google knows which type of ad creative each potential buyer is most likely to engage with, so it chooses from your ad creative to customize each viewer’s experience.

You’ve Got (G)Mail

One of the most exciting features of Pmax ads is within Gmail, a powerful channel for engaging potential customers. If you’re worried that too many of your site visitors are bouncing without leaving an email address…PMax can pick up the slack. Because Google owns Gmail, PMax ads can appear in users’ inboxes, showcasing products they’ve previously viewed, and providing another valuable touchpoint in the customer journey.

Who Should Use Performance Max Ads?

While PMax ads are clearly a great choice for product-based online stores, they’re also a great tool for other types of business. Because Performance Max contains so many types of ad creative, they can work equally well if you’re building a mailing list, hosting a giveaway, or advertising a service.

How Much Do PMax Ads Cost?

Leona advises starting with a budget of just $5 per day. It’s essential to approach Pmax ads as a long-term investment, as machine learning requires time to accumulate data and optimize performance. The key is to be patient and gradually increase your budget as you see positive results.

How Long Do Performance Ads Take to Start Working?

Because PMAx is an AI learning platform, it needs a significant amount of data to really figure out how to maximize performance. So we don’t recommend trying it for two weeks, then throwing in the towel. Leona recommends giving it 3 months minimum to start seeing results. At $5 a day, it’s still a fairly small investment and the reward for your patience can be huge.

$7 Million Results

Thanks to Leona’s excellent training in the Inner Circle classroom, our members have already seen great results from their Performance Max campaigns. Even those who had tried Google Ads before, or who were running campaigns that took a nose-dive after iOS14, have seen a big return on ad spend with the latest PMax ads. $7 million in revenue, to be exact, all from Google Ads!

Performance Max Ads offer e-commerce store owners a great opportunity to supercharge their advertising efforts on Google. With better visibility, better retargeting, and optimized engagement, Pmax ads can be a game-changer for your business. Just remember, patience and persistence are key!

Related podcasts:
Simple SEO You Can Do Today
https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/simple-seo-you-can-do-today-episode-108/

Learn how to build an SEO Sales Funnel
https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/how-to-build-an-seo-funnel-episode-161/ 

A Powerful 10-Minute Keyword Research Strategy
https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/store-owners-get-results-from-this-powerful-10-minute-keyword-research-episode-177/

It’s been a huge relief to not spend my time worrying about what I should post, or overthink everything as I compose a post.

I finally feel like I can just show up and be myself, without an agenda.

Recently I was thinking about how much more time I have to get my work done. I realized that I only think about my Social Media once a month, when I’m meeting with Katy, my Social Media Manager.

I’ve attempted to outsource my Social Media a few times in the past. It was not always successful. I realize now that I’m the reason it didn’t work well. The truth is, I was so happy to have someone doing my Social Media,  that I did a “dump and run”.

I handed it off, without a plan, without support, and without a clear strategy.

When I hired Katy, she helped me set her up for success. It’s worked beautifully. In fact, our Social Media gets better results every month. Katy creates content that has more impact on our growth than I ever did.

I want this for you too. I often encourage store owners to spend their time on the $100/hr jobs.
Social Media is important, but it’s just not a $100/hr job.

Once you have a strategy to measure your results, it’s super easy to create a plan that you can repeat every month.

But before you hire someone to manage your social media, you owe it to yourself to do a little work that will remove barriers, and set you up for success.

I’m sharing what I’ve learned. It will prepare you to outsource your Social Media.

Fact: Getting access to your existing images and videos is a common problem for Social Media Managers. They waste too much time “chasing” store owners for content, and that makes it hard to create effective content.

Take some time to gather all your images and video in one place, and give your Social Media Manager access. As you get new products, or create more video content, add them, so that your Social media manager has everything she needs at her fingertips. Canva is a great tool to store all your creative assets.

Get clear on the specific outcome you want. Set your Social Media Manager up for success by giving her clarity. Clarity on the work that’s to be performed, Clarity on how you prefer to communicate, Clarity on your goals. Clarity on how you’ll measure success.

Before you hire help, make decisions about what you want based on what the business needs. Ask yourself these questions:

• How many posts a week?
• What kind of posts?
• How will you help your Social Media Manager learn about your customer and your voice?
• What is your goal?
• What does success look like?
• How will you measure success?

Fact: Your Social Media Manager needs to know what “success looks like”. Everyone needs a way to see their progress. This is your opportunity to decide what success looks like for your business. When you both know what the expectation is, you increase your chances of reaching your goals.

I use Social Media for visibility. Because of this, we measure success by audience size. We measure the size of our audience every month using our total reach on all platforms. This metric demonstrates the ROI on our Social Media efforts, and leaves me confident that I am always filling my Sales Funnel with new lead.
If you haven’t built your sales Funnel yet, do it! Schedule a time to watch my free workshop, and I’ll show you how.

Fact: If you don’t have a Content Plan, you risk wasting time and money. Your Social Media Manager needs to know what’s going on in your business before it happens. The outcome you want is twofold. Get hours back every week. Offload Social Media without creating more work for yourself. You can do this successfully by creating a repeatable content plan that you can use every month.

We use the Social Media content framework that we teach in our course, Social Media Made Easy. (link to purchase) Once a month, I meet with Katy, and share the “topic” we’re featuring each week for the following month. Katy creates the content plan for the month using the framework. Katy creates the copy and selects the images and videos she’ll use to create our posts each week. I create a “reel” for each week’s topic. This is the only fresh content I’m committed to producing.

It’s a great system. I don’t get stuck in the weeds creating copy, and Katy isn’t chasing me for content. We meet once a month and I leave feeling confident that my Social Media will drive traffic, and be engaging.

Want to learn more?
Purchase Social Media Made Easy
Book a time to watch the Sales Funnel (Big Picture) Workshop
The powerful work that will get you to your goals
Move the needle in 60 minutes

Want more sales? You might be missing these 3 things.

So you’ve built your products, labored over your branding and finally launched your website… but where are the SALES?!

There’s nothing more depressing. I know.

As e-commerce store owners, post-launch is often where we lose our excitement, our momentum and even worse; our confidence.

And that’s bad news…

Because the willingness to iterate and try new things is essential to growing a product based business.

So here’s a practical, no-nonsense way to get your confidence back.

We’re going to talk numbers.

If that makes you throw your hands in the air and yell “but I hate numbers!” Don’t worry.

Click here to listen, or read on….

Tracking these 3 Key Metrics will absolutely save your business, as well as your sanity.

They’re easy to find and all you have to do is track them weekly.

I promise you’ll feel a whole lot better about crafting a sales plan once you understand what you have to do before you can get reliable sales.
So stop tinkering with your brand colors, website buttons, or product designs.

None of that matters if you’re not getting enough Traffic to your site.

Yep, that’s the first metric.

But there’s 1 crucial question I need you to ask yourself before we go ahead: Do you have Proof Of Concept?

Have you sold your product in its current form to a real customer? As in… not your parents or BFFs, but actual strangers who just really love your stuff? Whether these sales took place online or in person, it doesn’t matter – they’re Real Sales. 👍

When someone who is NOT your mom buys your product… that’s proof of concept!

Don’t have proof of concept yet? Make this your number 1 goal before doing anything else.

Taking a preventative step now will save you a tonne of heartache later. So get your product on Amazon, Etsy, eBay, or Facebook marketplace. Or even set up a table at a local event. The objective is to get your products in front of eyeballs!

Alternatively, you can partner with a more established business. Just like I did with Mark Ruskin of American Doxie. He sells dachshund-inspired clothing to dog lovers. When I launched my project store, Sock Doggo, I didn’t have proof of concept. My shop was new and unknown.

I asked Mark to collaborate with me and offer a bundle of my new products to his customers. 😃 Our collaborative bundle sold well. Mark earned a healthy commission on the sales we made, I sold lots of socks, and walked away with the proof of concept I needed.

If you want to learn how to float your product in front of someone else’s audience, I break it all down for you here.

Already have proof of concept? Congratulations! Now it’s time to dive into your 3 Key Metrics…

• Traffic

• Average Order Value (AOV)

• Conversion Rate

Your metrics are here to guide you. There’s a lot of things you can do to tweak these 3 Key Metrics and get sales rolling in.

Track your Metrics  in a spreadsheet every week. You’re going to not only feel better about your business, you’ll also have a clear action plan.

Traffic
What is it?
Traffic (also known as web visitors) is simply the amount of people coming to your website. If 500 people landed on your website last month, your Traffic was 500 for that month.

Why is it important?
Not enough Traffic means not enough eyeballs on your site to get sales.

So what do I need to do?
Your goal is to track your Traffic every week. And think of ways to get at least 3000 people coming to your store every month. This is the minimum amount of Traffic you need to start getting regular sales.

How do I grow my Traffic?
Run a giveaway on Facebook, email your subscribers, write a blog post, invite your followers to a Treasure Hunt… there are many ways to drive Traffic to your store – including paying for ads.
Need to learn how to use ads on Facebook and Instagram? Learn here with this step by step, easy to implement course, Traffic Bootcamp.

Here’s a reality check.
New ecommerce stores often have under 1000 web visitors (or Traffic) a month. Not enough to get regular sales. But don’t worry, now that you’re tracking, and aware of the magic number (3000 web visitors), you can actively drive traffic to your site.

Celebrate your Traffic wins!
Success is growing your traffic each week. This is the work every ecommerce brand does quietly behind the scenes before welcoming in a regular flurry of sales.

Conversion Rate
What is it?
Your Conversion Rate is the percentage of website visitors (Traffic) that actually buys from you. Say 100 people landed on your site last month and you got 1 order. That means your conversion rate was 1% last month.

Why is it important?
The average conversion rate for an ecommerce store is 1% – 2%. If you have 3000 good quality web visitors (Traffic) every month, you should get 1-2 sales a day. If your traffic is below 3000 a month, most store owners will be able to reach their sales goals.

What do I need to do?
Your goal is to track your conversion rate each week. And think of ways to increase it to 1%. This is all you need to get the (sales) ball rolling.

Reality check.
New stores often have a conversion rate of 0.5% or less. If this is you, don’t worry – that low number is normal. 

So how do I increase my Conversion Rate?
This is the hardest metric to tweak. Just track it weekly for now. You need to get 

your Traffic to 3000 visitors a month first, then you can focus on improving your Conversion Rate.

Once your Traffic is over 3000 a month find my Top 3 Tips For Improving Your Conversion Rate.

Celebrate your Conversion wins!
Success is growing your Conversion Rate to only 1% or 2%. You can do this!

Average Order Value
What is it?
Your Average Order Value (also known as AOV) helps you figure out how much money the average customer spends. Say three people bought from your store last month. One person spends $10, another spends $20, and the third person spends $30. The average of these 3 numbers is $20. So your Average Order Value was $20 last month.

Why is it important?
Say your Average Order Value is $40. And you get 500 orders each month. If you can increase your average order value to $42, you can increase your sales by $1000 each month without having to find any new customers!

What do I need to do?
Track your Average Order Value every week and think of ways to increase it.

How do I increase my Average Order Value?
Raise your prices by $1 and this alone will plump up your AOV. You could also offer bundles or introduce premium products with higher pricing.

Want more AOV ideas? Go here.

Celebrate your Average Order Value wins!
This metric is completely under your control and it’s the easiest one to change. Success looks like tweaking your pricing (and possibly product offering) – to slowly raise your AOV week by week.   

Now that we’ve plunged into cold, hard data… let’s get your mindset right.

Please don’t skip over this. Managing your emotions can determine whether you solve your business woes, or give up on your dreams completely.

So here’s how to prime your mind for tracking numbers like a pro…

Adopt a problem solver’s mindset.
You’ve already solved lots of problems during your lifetime. Getting sales is just another problem to solve. Focus on the process and work your way through the steps. Understand that everyone starts small. 

You’re quietly building a foundation for reliable sales. Be proud of this! 😃 

It’s not you, it’s your numbers.
Stop doubting your abilities or your business chops. Just track the metrics that matter – and you’ll eventually find out what’s really going on. Let the numbers be your guide.

Flip your thinking on what success looks like.
As ecommerce owners we think success means sales. We’ve been conditioned to believe we should start our store and instantly get lots of sales. When that doesn’t happen, we get depressed. Don’t fall into this trap.

Success IS tracking your metrics.

Success IS increasing your Traffic and AOV.

Because this is what always comes before you can start making reliable sales.
Building your foundation to sales is a success in itself. This realistic approach will keep your emotions in good standing as you track your numbers. 

So start your weekly spreadsheet now. Track your 3 Key Metrics every week and I promise you’ll start to see results.

FOCUS ON THIS ONE THING AND GET PROFITABLE, LONG TERM GROWTH

As Ecommerce store owners, we have a lot in common. We share a lot of the same tools, and the tasks that fill our days are similar. Put a few Ecommerce store owners together and a room and they have a lot to share with each other.

Even though we share our experiences with each other whenever we can, there’s one thing we don’t do enough. We don’t share our audiences. Every one of us has invested time and money building up audiences of people who are interested in our products.

And yet, we don’t maximize the ROI on this valuable asset.

Most store owners do their marketing in a silo. Do that, and you’re leaving a lot of money on the table.

I truly believe that collaboration is one of the most profitable ways you can set yourself up for long term growth. The time you’ll spend on this is an investment in the future health and profitability of your business.

Wondering how you can make it work for you? I asked our Ecommerce Coach, Tina to share her results after she focused on collaboration for a full year.

Listen here, or read on to learn how she organized a whole year of collaborations, and what happened in her tiny business as a result.

TINA’S  (ORGANIC) SECRET WEAPON
e-commerce coach Tina Bar-On shares the strategy that gained her 1610 new leads

If you’ve listened to the podcast with any frequency, you’ve probably heard me talk about the book “The One Thing.” It has been so helpful in my years of business, and I know that it has helped many of our members stay focused so that they can grow their e-commerce stores.

After reading “The One Thing,” our e-commerce coach Tina Bar-On decided that her one thing for the year would be to grow her e-mail list. Like many of you, Tina has a full time job in addition to her online store, so she had neither the time nor the money to rely solely on a paid ads strategy to build her list. So she chose a non-traditional strategy–she committed to collaborating once a month with a different store owner.

IF YOU TRY ONE NEW THING THIS YEAR, MAKE IT THIS ONE

Tina knows that using paid ads to gain leads can be a slog. It’s expensive, and the leads are often poor quality. Since Tina belongs to our huge Inner Circle community, she was aware of a few other shop owners whose customer base was similar to her own. And so she reached out to them to collaborate.

Tina sells fair trade home decor and gifts, and she knew that if she wanted a big, engaged list by the holiday season, she would need to start early. And so she slated ten collaborations throughout the year, all organized around events or special holidays, in one of three categories:

1. Blogger Partnership
Tina reached out to a blogger in her niche who had featured her store in the past. She asked if there was a way that they might work together further, and sure enough the blogger was planning to host a group giveaway for her readers that Tina was welcome to join. Tina’s only obligations were to contribute a gift card to be given away, a small participation fee, and to post about the event to her social media following. In exchange the blogger would hand over all email entries at the end of the giveaway.
Pros:
This was a low lift for Tina. The blogger organized the entire thing, and Tina was exposed to a big audience she wouldn’t have otherwise.
Cons:
It took some time to receive the e-mail addresses, and many of the leads had gone cold.

2. Partnered Giveaway*
Since Tina is an e-commerce coach in the Inner Circle, she was already familiar with several business owners in the group who had complementary products and  similar audiences to her own. In this type of giveaway, each store contributes an item or gift card to be given away, and each store promotes the event to their own email lists and social followings, in addition to sharing the cost of running a few ads to each store’s best cold audiences. At the end of the giveaway, the list is shared between both stores.
Pros:
Very high quality leads. Since each participating store is promoting to their existing customers, the leads are pre-vetted and warm.
Cons:
This method is time-consuming, and requires that both stores be willing to do the work to make it successful.

*Inner Circle members have access to a Partnered Giveaway training in the classroom

3. Gift Guide
As the holidays approached, Tina looped in 3 other stores with items she knew her customers would love, to participate in a Gift Guide. Each participating store uploaded a photo and description of their shop to a shared drive, and each store crafted an email to their own lists and social followings that introduced the other businesses, along with a discount code that could be used at any of the shops.
Pros:
Like the partnered giveaway, this event exposed Tina’s shop to her collaborators’ best, warmest audiences (including their best customers).
The discount code brought in immediate sales
Cons:
Leads weren’t directly shared between shops

When Tina first informed me this would be her focus for the year, I had no doubt she would be successful. And yet when I followed up, she was feeling discouraged. She wasn’t sure if the e-mail addresses she had gained were all that interested, or if it had been worth the effort. And so I asked her to go to her dashboard and pull the data into a doc for me.

THESE NUMBERS BLEW MY MIND

There is often a disconnect between the stories we tell ourselves and the story the data tells, and sure enough–when Tina looked at the big picture, her results were nothing short of stunning. In just one year she had gained:

• 1610 new leads
• 34 new customers with a $3 Cost per Acquisition (!!!) and 42 new orders
• $1600 in revenue (and counting)

And the best part is that Tina knows that these leads will continue to purchase over time, as she nurtures them further along her sales funnel. In addition, she knows she’ll be able to repeat these successful events with the same partners next year.

Tina says her biggest takeaway was that although this strategy involved a little extra work and a little bit of ad spend, she was gaining something incredibly valuable–her collaborators’ best customers. The high-value, repeat-purchase buyers that each of them had spent countless time and ad spend to find, were now her customers too. Tina made sales from every single one of her collaborations, and a whopping 23% of those new customers came back and made a repeat purchase.

DON’T MAKE THIS MISTAKE

As you can see, this strategy was extremely effective in achieving Tina’s Big Goal. And yet, I hear so many store owners in our community assert that partnerships aren’t right for them. Here are some of the most common objections, and why they’re unfounded:

• Your niche is too narrow
  I hear this one all the time–that your niche is so small that you couldn’t possibly find a store to partner with. But here’s what most people don’t understand: your customers have more than one interest! Find a partner who sells a product that you know your customer would love, and chances are your audience will be very similar to theirs.
• Your list is too small
  One of the things I love about this strategy is that it works well for e-commerce stores at all stages of business. Even if your mailing list or social media following is tiny, as long as you have proof of concept and a few sales under your belt, collaboration will work for you.
• Your price point is too high/low
  Again, your customers are multi-faceted! Don’t count yourself out because your prices are much higher or lower than your partner’s–as long as the giveaway prize is attractive to both audiences, price point is irrelevant.

If your One Thing this year is growing your mailing list, Tina’s collaboration strategy should be high on your list of priorities. And remember–this is a long term strategy. Don’t try it once, glance at the data and assume it isn’t working for you. Even Tina felt discouraged until she reviewed the entire year’s numbers.

If you’re already an Inner Circle member, know that we are working hard on a Collaboration Hub that will allow you to easily find other stores with audiences that complement yours. In the meantime, post to the group that you’re looking for a partner. I guarantee your perfect match is out there.

You can buy “The One Thing” by Gary Keller here: https://the1thing.com/book/

More organic growth strategies:
The Best Strategy for Organic Growth
https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/the-best-strategy-for-organic-growth-episode-119/

Think Out of the Box for Organic Growth
https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/think-out-of-the-box-for-organic-growth-with-suzi-dafnis-episode-101/

Massive Growth Organically? Yes You Can
https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/massive-growth-organically-yes-you-can-episode-62/

​How to get more organic traffic. A lesson on Keyword research

Ready for a lesson on easy SEO for Ecommerce?
Recently I asked our Inner Circle Ecommerce Coach,  Sarah, to show us how you can start getting more organic traffic when you implement her simple keyword strategy.

You can listen to the lesson in this episode of the podcast.


What is Keyword research?
It’s simply the process of finding the best keyword phrases to use on our site. It helps us determine the content to write and the best phrases to use to help our potential customers find us and learn more about our products and our brand.

Who should use keyword research?
All ecommerce store owners should use keyword research because it will help them make the best choices for product and collection titles. aIt will also help store owners find the most searched topics for their blog or article content.

Why is keyword research important to me?
Ranking for a keyword phrase in the search engine isn’t good enough, because the keyword phrase you are ranking for might not be getting any traffic. In order to maximize organic traffic, you should be using the phrases that people are actually searching for.
You’ll use your research to discover the exact words people use when they are searching, and you’ll be able to see the search volume for these terms.
In super competitive niches, it’s often necessary to find longer tail keyword phrases to try to rank for. For example, it isn’t likely that a small ecommerce store will rank for the term necklace. But, that same store may be able to rank for “beaded handmade necklace”. 

Ready to give it a try? Here’s where you start.
While brainstorming is a good starting point, keyword research is best done using a tool that can, at a minimum, provide average search volume. The three tools I use and recommend are Google Ads Keyword Planner, Keywords Everywhere Chrome Extension & Ubersuggest. You’ll find the links to these tools at the bottom of the article.
When you’re using one of these tools, start by brainstorming some starter phrases. These are  sometimes called “seed keywords”.  You’ll enter your starter phrases into the tool to come up with lists of possible phrases to use. 
Ideally, you’re looking for keyword phrases that have a decent amount of traffic, and with a low enough level of competition that you have a chance of ranking for that specific phrase.

The best way to start is to go as broad as possible and then see what comes up from that broad search.

You can also brainstorm multiple phrases you think buyers are looking for and your keyword tool will recommend additional phrases. 

Finally, if you’re using a tool like Ubersuggest or SEMRush, you can “spy” on a competitor’s keywords by entering their domain or one of their product pages to get ideas.

Want to see keyword research in action? Here are some examples:

For the store owner that sells high end dog collars
Questions to ask/brainstorm: what are they made of? Small dogs, big dogs, all sizes? Colors?

• Designer dog collars – 9900 searches/month – Medium competition
• Luxury dog collars – 3600 searches/month – Medium competition
• Luxury dog collars for large dogs – 110/Mo – Medium comp
• Fancy dog collars with bling – 90 Searches/Mo – Medium Competition
• Handcrafted dog collars – 40 Searches/Mo – Low comp – Good secondary keyword
• Designer bling dog collars – 30 Searches/Mo

For the store owner that sell bath bombs with surprise toys inside
Questions to ask/brainstorm: ingredients, what is the toy, colors

• Kids bath bombs – 0 Searches
• Bath bombs – 49,500/mo – Med – High Competition
• Bath bombs with toys inside – 1600/mo – Medium competition
• Bath bombs with surprise – 880/mo – Medium competition
• Bath bombs with surprise inside – 480 – Medium competition

For the store owner that sells collectible, symbolic jewelry
Questions to ask/brainstorm: What material? What type of jewelry – rings, earrings, necklaces…? Handcrafted? Colors? Gender? What makes it collectible or symbolic?

• Talisman – 49.500/mo
• Talisman necklaces – 720/mo – medium comp
• Amulet Necklace – 1600/mo – medium comp
• Talisman Jewelry – 590/mo – Medium comp
• Amulet Jewelry – 320/mo – medium comp
• talisman pendant necklace – 40/month – medium comp

I’ve found some keyword phrases, what’s next?

Once you’ve decided on the primary keyword phrase for your product, you’ll want to incorporate this into the product name & description, the SEO page title and meta description. (in Shopify, this is found at the bottom of the product creation page under “Search Engine Listing”). 

You should also use your primary keyword phrase in the alt text of your first image. Use the primary keyword phrase naturally in your description. Once or twice in a shorter description is fine.

Remember this:
Without some type of keyword research, you don’t know whether the terms and phrases you’re using are helping or hurting you in the search engines. 

Working on your SEO a little at a time, you may see results in as little as 30 days but expect it to take several months to see large shifts. Highly competitive keywords can take months, or even years to rank for. Start with long tail keywords for the quickest traffic wins. 

You should only use 1 keyword phrase per page of your site. You don’t want to try to rank multiple pages for the same keyword phrase. This confuses Google, which will ultimately decide which page to rank or none at all. 

Review a few keyword research tools and decide which is best for budget and time. For a demonstration of any of the tools or help with using them, Inner Circle members can book a call with Sarah, our Inner Circle Ecommerce Coach, specializing in SEO. You’ll find her booking information in your classroom.

Links to the tools mentioned:
Ubersuggest: https://neilpatel.com/ubersuggest/

Keywords Everywhere: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/keywords-everywhere-keywo/hbapdpeemoojbophdfndmlgdhppljgmp

Google Keyword Planner: https://ads.google.com/intl/en_ca/home/tools/keyword-planner/

Have you built your Sales Funnel yet?

If not, read on to see why every Ecommerce store owner should do this work. What follows is an in depth look at the Sales Funnel of a 6 figure store. It’s a great opportunity to see what’s possible for you when you build your Sales Funnel. 

If you prefer to listen, jump to the podcast episode

Recently, I sat down with Renee Harris, a long time Inner Circle Member with a successful shop that supports her family. Renee’s sales have been down over the past 2 years, and she had been spending hours every week, scrambling to get more sales.

In January, we released the Sales Funnel training to our Inner Circle Members and she decided to jump in and build her own Sales Funnel. 

Within minutes, Renee saw exactly what she had been missing, and why her sales had slowed.

Five months later, sales are up 28% and today she’s sharing the work she’s been doing that has changed everything for her.

Watch the video and don’t miss the last few minutes where Renee shares an app that has created radically loyal customers. It’s gold!

Here’s what Renee was missing:

• When Renee used her store’s data to build her Sales Funnel, she was shocked to discover that she was failing to keep the top of her sales funnel full.
• The good news was that she had been doing a great job of converting the people she had in her Sales Funnel.
• The bad news was that she only had a tiny Audience of 26,000 at the top of her Sales Funnel.
• We recommend that all stores set a goal to have 100,000 – 200,000 people in your top of funnel audience, and at only 26,000, Renee’s audience was just not big enough to find the customers she needs to grow her sales.
• Once Renee knew the cause of her slowing sales, she focused on building her audience every month.
• Building a big, warm audience at the top of your Sales Funnel is relatively easy, and using video and engagement ads makes it quick and affordable.
• Renee wanted to build her audience quickly, so she booked a call with Cathy, one of the Ecommerce Coaches in the Inner Circle.

Learn how to build a big top of Funnel Audience here: https://thesocialsalesgirls.com/build-a-massive-audience-with-a-brand-video-episode-162/

By February, Renee’s audience size had doubled, and her sales were starting to get back on track. She worked on building her audience every month, and by June, Renee’s top of Funnel audience had tripled, and her year to date sales were up by 28%.

Renee is back, and in control of her income.

Lessons Learned:

Neglect your Top of Funnel Audience, and your sales will stall.
Filling the top of your Sales Funnel is important for the long term health of your business. It’s work that every store owner should do consistently. It’s low effort work that has a big impact on your sales. You can watch your Audience grow when you build your Sales Funnel each month.
Building an Audience for your store is easy and affordable. When you do it consistently, you’ll see increased traffic and sales over time.

Tracking and Measuring gives you proof of your success.
Most store owners measure their success by sales. In reality, it takes time to warm up your audience and turn them into customers. When you build a Sales Funnel and update your data every month, you’ll be able to see your progress, and measure your success at every stage of the customer journey. Doing this will keep you on the right track, and help you stay motivated and excited to keep doing the work that leads to sales.

Adding more products is a short term fix. And it’s expensive.
When sales are slow, most store owners start thinking about how they can increase sales by offering more products. The truth is that this is an expensive way to grow your sales. You’ll be more profitable, and create lasting growth by finding more customers to buy the products you already have.

Ready to build your Sales Funnel?

See the Sales Funnel graphic our members us, and get the instructions in this episode of the Podcast

See Renee’s shop here:
https://hardlotion.com/