[mabbo]

This is honestly very few considering how many different places Uber Eats probably advertises on.

I work on helping new Shopify merchants get more early sales, and ads are super important for that to happen. Open up any small and growing e-commerce store and you'll see at least this many.

Without ads, you don't find these small businesses, and all consumers just go to Amazon, or other large established marketplaces.

[medion]

Not on the main topic, but is there a way I can get in touch to discuss how you might be able to help us and our Shopify shop?

[mabbo]

It's a hard topic. My team mostly does experiments, A/B tests on new merchants to see what nudges leads to better results overall. The reality is we have a lot of ideas and we're trying to get data to figure out those answers. But we don't truly know yet.

The hard part (as far as I can tell) is product market fit and finding your customer base. Once that's established, you have some momentum, leading to repeat customers and lower acquisition costs. IE: once an ad network has some existing customers to build a model on, it's cheaper to target ads on similar customers.

But that initial part is very hard. New privacy rules, like Apple's changes, are a good thing generally, but they make it more expensive for small businesses to acquire initial customers because ads are less effective, so you have to pay for more of them to find your customers. That gives Amazon (and other established competition) a massive advantage. They know everyone deeply and can target everywhere very precisely.

I've heard that the Shopify subreddits are well liked by merchants. Good info there.

There's also the Gurus that can provide some support for free, as well as you can hire an 'Expert' through Shopify to get even more help.

All this is to say the most groan-inducing phrase in business: you've got to spend more to make more. And there's no guarantee that you'll earn it back because business is hard.

[medion]

Thanks - do you have any brief tips on the best apps for ad delivery or retargeting in Shopify? Any thoughts on the most cost effective ad networks for small shops (FB, Google, Pinterest, other?).

[mabbo]

Honestly I only joined a few months ago so all of this is new to me too! The one consistent thing I've heard is that reddit is full of good advice.

[pc86]

From their profile it looks as if they work at Shopify, so probably just through the generic contact page would get you to at least the right department.

[jon9544hn]

Same!

[itslennysfault]

That's just 9 in this screenshot. I'm sure there are loads more if they scroll.