What Is the Best Alternative to Facebook Ads for Dropshipping Businesses?

68% of American adults use Facebook. Additionally, Facebook generates over $16 billion in ad revenue a year. But, what does that have to do with your business?

There’s more competition than ever. And, it’s continually getting harder to compete. Combine that with fleeting attention spans and you’ll start to get a clear picture.

Despite the vast number of users, Facebook can’t be the only place where to advertise your dropshipping business. So, what alternative do you have?

Keep reading to learn about the best alternative to Facebook ads going into 2020. Future you (and your business budget) will be glad you did.

Not All Traffic Is Created Equal

Most Facebook users are on the platform looking for entertainment. They’re not there to buy anything. So, many ads fall on deaf ears despite being well-written and optimized.

The same is true for other forms of social media advertising. People join and engage with those platforms for the social aspect of it. They prefer catching up with friends and family or looking at pretty pictures. Facebook users have little to no commercial intent.

But, think about how you behave on search engines. You know what you want and you’re looking for the best possible solution. Your credit card is probably sitting on your desk ready for you to decide.

Search engines are in the market of giving their users what they want. So, queries with high commercial intent display products that help solve their problems.

When you search for "Nike running shoes", you infer that you’re ready to buy a new pair. Search engines know this and do their best to give you what you’re after.

The Best Alternative to Facebook Ads

Pretend you want to buy a new cocktail dress. You head to Google and search for "red cocktail dress". One of the first things you see is a horizontal list of popular products. One of them catches your eye so you click on it.

You end up buying it and going about your day. Now, flip that example upside down. You dropship different cocktail dresses through your eCommerce store. It makes sense that you want your products to show up there.

Why? Because the people seeing it have commercial intent. They’re ready to buy a dress… right now. They told Google what they want and Google delivered.

Enter Google Product Listing Ads (PLA’s)

Google PLA’s are unique because they show detailed information about your products. They also tend to be cost-effective because they use a cost per click (CPC) structure. This means you don’t pay anything unless someone clicks on your product listing.

PLA’s are like Adwords except they:

Don’t focus on keywords

Contain product images that stand out in search engine results

Are managed using the Google Merchant Center

Google PLA Best Practices

Getting started with Google PLA’s can be tricky, especially if advertising is new to you. But, follow these best practices and you’ll be on your way to success.

Familiarize Yourself with the Google Merchant Center

You will manage product information within the Google Merchant Center. Google has a special attribute format they need for the process to run well. Keep in mind that ads are auto-generated using what’s in your product feed.

Pay attention to the required attributes and keep your data feed up-to-date.

Manage Your Product Feed

How you manage your feed depends on the number of products you have and your budget. A successful campaign relies on up-to-date prices, quantities, and product information.

Common management techniques include:

Using Excel or Google Sheets and manual updating

Third-party services that auto-sync with your website

Outsourcing to a contractor

Other inventory management software

Use High-Quality Images – No Exceptions

Images are what make product listings stand out. Additionally, they’re the only way consumers get to see your products. Poor images can’t compete with professional ones. And, they also reflect poorly on your business.

Use Accurate Keyword-Rich Titles and Descriptions

Google PLA’s don’t use specific keywords for ad placement. So, it’s vital to use keywords in your product titles and descriptions. They should flow naturally and be descriptive.

Your product categories may also help determine relevancy. The goal isn’t to game the system. It’s to give an accurate description of your products so Google knows what to show when.

Understand Ad Groups if You Offer a Lot of Products

Ad groups allow you to organize your products. If you have a handful of products, they’re not going to do much for you. But, if you sell hundreds of items, ad groups let you keep things tidy.

A logical place to start is with the categories you use on your website. It may also be beneficial to group things by profit margin so you can place bids with ease.

Note: Google doesn’t care about ad groups nor do they don’t affect ad placement.

Optimize Your Bids Based on Profit Margins and Competition

Categories and industries with high competition are going to have a high price tag. But, if ads are done correctly, the money you make outweighs what you pay.

The idea is to place intelligent bids that:

Don’t destroy your profit margins

Rank you above your competition

Drive sales to your business

Return your investment and then some

This is why using ad groups effectively is beneficial. It makes it easy to optimize your bids based on how much you can afford to pay and still make money.

Automate Your Dropshipping Business, Today

Using Google PLA’s as an alternative to Facebook ads is just the beginning. After you get your orders you need to ship them out and to do that you need a reliable supplier and a regular fulfillment process.

So why don’t you try the Yakkyofy’s services? Yakkyofy helps you to source your products in China directly from factories at B2B price. Provide you, personalized boxes and labels, and fast shipping within 3-12 days in most EU and North America countries.

Thanks to his integration with Shopify and Woocommerce, Yakkyofy helps you to manage and automate completely your fulfillment process, to drop ship products with private labels and to send out tracking numbers as soon as your order is fulfilled.

Dropshipping automation equals freedom and time to do more of the things that matter. Yakkyofy knows the importance of easy automation in today’s complex tech world. So, what’re you waiting for?

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