Entrepreneurs experimenting with the drop shopping business model typically start off with low-cost marketing options. The ideal platforms for kickstarting your new venture are always social media like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Social media is great for developing a web presence and getting traction for your products. However, they also come with challenges that new business owners must overcome. Native advertising is quickly emerging as the next step for scaling your startup and getting ahead. Read ahead for more information on how to use alternative marketing strategies like native ads and how they work.
Facebook Campaigns Can Get Complicated
Like several startup owners navigating Facebook will tell you, running their business on the platform can be rewarding. If you come up with an effective and winning campaign with innovative products, that’s great. You can expect to make good sales and earn profits quickly. However, you should also expect to spend a lot of time dealing with issues like account bans. It can be incredibly frustrating when you have to do the back and forth with Facebook admins to deal with the snags.
Yes, the platform allows you to purchase the FB business manager to streamline operations. But, not only is it expensive, but also annoying to have to go through the hassles. Especially when your time is better spent acquiring new products to add to your inventory and developing new campaigns. At that point, if you’re looking for a better option to grow your business, consider native advertising.
The iOS14 Issue Seems to Have Aggravated the Problem.
If FB complications weren’t bad enough, the Apple iOS 14 update seems to have added to the woes. Business owners and marketers relying on traffic and data collection from mobile phones must look to other sources. That’s because Apple’s updates allow users to disallow platforms like FB to harvest their data. Or track them as they browse websites, shop, or perform any other activity. A new option that is quickly making waves as an excellent algorithm-resistant option is native advertising. As a startup owner, you can now rely on traffic from native ad sources like Taboola, Outbrain, and Yahoo Gemini, to name a few.
Native Advertising is a Legit Way to Get Traffic
Native ads are an effective and legit way to gain traffic for your website and ensure sales. An added advantage is that this marketing solution can scale your business quickly. Stop worrying about issues like account bans and arguing with Facebook to reinstate your account. You’ll find that the setup is incredibly smooth and efficiently executed.
However, native advertising needs investment. Before adopting this solution, you should draw up your advertising budget and determine the costs you can invest. When you start advertising on platforms like Facebook, you’ll run economical campaigns and spend as low as $10 per day. Not so with native ads.
Native Ad Campaigns Are More Expensive
Say, you wish to run a native advertising campaign on both mobile phones and desktops. You’ll spend a minimum of $80 or €80 per campaign, which works out to $160 per day. Further, since your primary objective is to compile adequate data for analyzing and testing, you’ll run campaigns for an extended interval. That’s how you’ll ensure that you have the figures to help you make data-driven decisions. You’ll also need the data to determine which products are selling well and welcomed by consumers. Or, which are the ad campaigns and advertising approaches that have reached the maximum audience and engagement.
Testing Products is Best Done on Cheaper Platforms
When you’re ready to get started with your drop shipping business, you’ll rely on social media sites to experiment. Since advertising budgets are low, you can test the market with different products to see how the audience accepts them. You can also experiment with marketing approaches to zero in on the campaign and price points that work best.
Native advertising is best attempted when your startup is mature. Once you have a great handle on the winning products, prices, and marketing strategies, you can move on to native advertising. Not only will you have a bigger advertising budget, but native ads will help you scale the business quickly. You’ll also gather the necessary data to make decisions on future products and campaigns.
You’ll Create Editorials and Legit Article Pages for Native Ads
With native advertising, the focus is on landing pages. You’ll create an engaging editorial piece with an attention-grabbing headline and hi-def image that evokes curiosity. Our expert team assists you with legit copywriting services to develop exciting content. Each piece can potentially convert an entirely cold audience to ready-to-buy hot leads. This audience has read about your products and is ready to finalize the purchase with a few quick clicks.
When you’re ready to adopt native advertising solutions for your drop shipping business, the first step is knowing how to create compelling editorials. That’s how you can be sure of achieving high CTR or Click Through Rates, low CPCs or Cost Per Click, and low CPAs or Cost Per Action.
Coming to Product Selection
Now that we’ve established that native advertising is more suitable for a more mature drop shipping startup, let’s talk products. You can market any kind of product with social media like Facebook or Instagram. Readers browsing through the pages might like something and place an order on impulse. But, native ads appeal to a more cultured audience. You’re engaging readers who take the time to read and understand the article. They’re visiting the website for news, updates, and interesting events happening in the world.
If you want conversions, you’ll have to present innovative products, ideas, and services to interest the audience. Further, you’ll need high-grade copywriting and editorials to showcase the product and entice readers to want to buy them. Here, you’re appealing to logic and careful consideration.
Native Advertising Needs Extensive Research
Creating native ads is an intricate process. You’ll start by conducting extensive research into ads posted by competing businesses. Check both–native advertising platforms and social media sites like, for example, the Facebook ads library. Your research will give you an overview of the products that are selling successfully and the approaches that are gaining the maximum traction and interest.
You’ll also use keyword tools to help you identify specific keywords your competition uses to attract traffic. Other tools allow you to gauge their approaches and how long they maintain each campaign.
Be Wary of Getting Too Aggressive with Your Approach
Yet another factor to keep in mind with native advertising is that enthusiasm is good. But, you need to be wary about getting too aggressive. Although platforms like Outbrain and Taboola will continue to accept and publish your ad campaigns, watch out for backend remarks. These sites don’t tell you that they have this negative point, attack notation, or aggressive affiliate tag.
While it is not visible upfront, the sites will refrain from showing your ads to premium publishers. Or, platforms that showcase exceptionally high-end brands and marketers. If you lose out on having a web presence on these pages, scaling your drop shipping business will be all the more difficult. Any business owner wanting to see their brand name right up there with the premium brands should be super careful of the approaches they adopt.
Let’s Talk About Pricing and Scaling with Native Advertising
As mentioned in the foregoing sections, native advertising is typically a high-budget marketing option. And, not really suitable for testing products. However, once you have a product that is selling well and profitably, you can scale it up by switching to the native ads approach. What’s more, native ads allow you to hike the pricing. For instance, you’re selling product A for $39 on Facebook. When you promote the product on native ads, you can raise the pricing to $79 or $89. Essentially, you can double your profits.
If you’re wondering why that is, the answer is simple. Native advertising caters to audiences from older generations in the high-income group who have more purchasing power. Social media sites have a viewership of younger people typically aged 25 to 30 years and below. They are also likely to have lower incomes.
Ultimately, it’s all about creating the complete package of attractive products and slick, compelling copywriting editorials. And presenting it to a high-income audience. You’re sure to get higher sales, higher pricing, and higher add-to-cart values. It’s the perfect recipe to make substantial profits and quickly scale your drop shipping business.
Native Advertising is Ideal for Pre-Optimized Products
If you have a product selling well on social media and you’re ready to scale it up, native ads are the way to go. This solution works perfectly for products that have optimized campaigns, landing pages, editorials, and offer pages. Drop shipping companies can have advertising budgets ranging from $2K to $3K per day, going up to $30K to $40K. Though the changes in CPAs are not significant, you can still hope to scale your campaign and earn much higher profits.
In Conclusion
Adopting native ads to promote your drop shipping business is an excellent idea. But, before you get started, ensure that you have a winning product that is selling well. You’ll also allocate a higher budget to experiment with a native advertising campaign. Once you’ve ticked these boxes, you can expect to scale your company quickly–by offering higher-priced products to high-income buyers.
Ready to find out more about whether drop shipping and native advertising are a good fit? Contact us at Purple Black, and let’s schedule your free consultation. Let’s talk about where your business is at, and if this is the right time for you to start scaling operations and boosting profits.
