[MEGA THREAD] How To Build A Successful E-commerce Brand During A Global Pandemic. Step By Step Guide...

[Kenobi1234]

Hey Sanj,

Again, thanks for the great thread! Quick question about Facebook/IG ads: Do you set your campaign level objective for conversions when you first begin? And if so, is your adset conversion event purchases?

I am currently running FB/IG ads optimized for purchase conversions, but am getting nowhere near 50 conversions/week which Facebook apparently needs to for targeting optimization (and Facebook keeps warning me about this). Some people say just ignore it and wait it out, basically just buy data until I finally get enough purchases, while others think its better to start make landing page views the initial conversion event, followed by ATC, initiate checkout and finally purchases. Just wanted to see what you would recommend as there are a lot of conflicting opinions out there.

I know you may be addressing my questions in your next video, so no pressure to reply!

Ben

 

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[Flint]

Great thread @Sanj Modha, following.

WhatsApp has been banned for years AFAIK (I haven't been to China myself but that's what my suppliers told me).

That's right, they need VPN to use WhatsApp. Same with Google (incl. gmail) and other Western services the government doesn't want there. The Great Firewall of China.

BTW that's not the only country that has such restrictions. For example in South Korea you may be able to access WhatsApp but forget about Google Maps (although it looks like it works). You'll need to use their Naver Map instead.

It's good to understand the ecosystem and culture your suppliers are part of. Just like with your customers. Putting yourself in someone else's shoes helps you build stronger relationships.

 

[Sanj Modha]

Hey Sanj,

Again, thanks for the great thread! Quick question about Facebook/IG ads: Do you set your campaign level objective for conversions when you first begin? And if so, is your adset conversion event purchases?

I am currently running FB/IG ads optimized for purchase conversions, but am getting nowhere near 50 conversions/week which Facebook apparently needs to for targeting optimization (and Facebook keeps warning me about this). Some people say just ignore it and wait it out, basically just buy data until I finally get enough purchases, while others think its better to start make landing page views the initial conversion event, followed by ATC, initiate checkout and finally purchases. Just wanted to see what you would recommend as there are a lot of conflicting opinions out there.

I know you may be addressing my questions in your next video, so no pressure to reply!

Ben

I don't because I start with the biggest audiences first which is all website visitors which means optimizing for top of funnel (TOF). FB needs at least 50 events a day before it can optimize properly.

Start with TOF optimization then move to middle of funnel (MOF) i.e. add to carts, initiate checkouts etc. Bottom of funnel (BOF) is purchase optimization and that's your long-term goal.

This is how I do it but I'm sure others do it differently.

 

[Sanj Modha]

Great thread @Sanj Modha, following.



That's right, they need VPN to use WhatsApp. Same with Google (incl. gmail) and other Western services the government doesn't want there. The Great Firewall of China.

BTW that's not the only country that has such restrictions. For example in South Korea you may be able to access WhatsApp but forget about Google Maps (although it looks like it works). You'll need to use their Naver Map instead.

It's good to understand the ecosystem and culture your suppliers are part of. Just like with your customers. Putting yourself in someone else's shoes helps you build stronger relationships.

I have a friend in UAE who says Whatsapp video is banned in the country but not texting. That works (without VPN).

 

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[Kenobi1234]

I don't because I start with the biggest audiences first which is all website visitors which means optimizing for top of funnel (TOF). FB needs at least 50 events a day before it can optimize properly.

Start with TOF optimization then move to middle of funnel (MOF) i.e. add to carts, initiate checkouts etc. Bottom of funnel (BOF) is purchase optimization and that's your long-term goal.

This is how I do it but I'm sure others do it differently.

Thanks a TON Sanj.

Rookie follow-up question: Do you create a new campaign or ad set every time you make changes to these conversion optimization events? Or do you just change the existing campaign/ad set?

I'm asking because I've run ads before where I've changed things (like the budget for example) in campaigns/ad sets that were doing decently and it totally threw it for a loop and I stopped making sales.

Cheers!

 

[Fred LAZARD]

Step #3 - How To Use Audience Insights To Target ANY Niche On Facebook & Instagram — Watch Video

Hi Sanj, Already thank you very much for your quality's thread. Thank you again for given free informations, detailed step by step. So i want to know if you use alway Qwaya (Or Adexpresso). you talk about Qwaya in past thread in moment ago. What do you think that? about plateform to manage ADS. Thank you for your advices and recommandations. @Fred. France.

 

[Sanj Modha]

Thanks a TON Sanj.

Rookie follow-up question: Do you create a new campaign or ad set every time you make changes to these conversion optimization events? Or do you just change the existing campaign/ad set?

I'm asking because I've run ads before where I've changed things (like the budget for example) in campaigns/ad sets that were doing decently and it totally threw it for a loop and I stopped making sales.

Cheers!

The only time I make ANY changes to a campaign is BEFORE it generates conversions. If I want to test something - I'll duplicate the original adset and launch a fresh campaign.

Just remember: any time you tweak the audience, demographic, ad, copy, landing page etc - FB will go back into 'Learning' mode and I don't want to muddy the waters. I want to know what changes/tests work.

 

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[Sanj Modha]

Hi Sanj, Already thank you very much for your quality's thread. Thank you again for given free informations, detailed step by step. So i want to know if you use alway Qwaya (Or Adexpresso). you talk about Qwaya in past thread in moment ago. What do you think that? about plateform to manage ADS. Thank you for your advices and recommandations. @Fred. France.

I have used Qwaya in the past but honestly - I find it faster to launch inside FB's ads manager.

 

[Wiezel]

So for my understanding, you let the product be manufactered in China --> Ship it to garage/warehouse/3LP in your own country (or nearby) --> they customize packaging (branding your own store) and they sent out the product to the customer when it's sold on your website.

How do you make a connection between a product being sold and how does a warehouse get notified about it? Isn't it risky to import let's say 1000x a product and not being sure if it will sell? You can try it first by shipping it directly from supplier to the customer but this will cause a long shipping time and you have zero control over all of it.

Besides that I found some products which are doing well on AliExpress, Ebay and Amazon. Though I think it's not a good thing since that market is so overwhelmed by providers and other webstores/dropshippers. Does this matter?

 

[ALS]

Thank you for putting this together. Any profit updates?

 

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[Fred LAZARD]

I have used Qwaya in the past but honestly - I find it faster to launch inside FB's ads manager.

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond. @Fred.

 

[Kenobi1234]

The only time I make ANY changes to a campaign is BEFORE it generates conversions. If I want to test something - I'll duplicate the original adset and launch a fresh campaign.

Just remember: any time you tweak the audience, demographic, ad, copy, landing page etc - FB will go back into 'Learning' mode and I don't want to muddy the waters. I want to know what changes/tests work.

Really appreciate the response! This is a game changer for me. Totally explains why my campaigns keep DYING every time they become profitable and I try to optimize them. Huge thanks Sanj!

 

[Sanj Modha]

Thank you for putting this together. Any profit updates?

Will update this week. I've been slammed with work.

 

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[chevenix]

In the next video, I'll show you how to setup a winning campaign with FB/IG ads. Not to be missed!

Thanks, Sanj. Definitely waiting for this!

 

[Sanj Modha]

Thanks, Sanj. Definitely waiting for this!

Yep, its coming!

 

[door123]

Will update this week. I've been slammed with work.

Great work on the thread. I would also love to see the current progress/numbers.

 

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[norml]

Will update this week. I've been slammed with work.

its now September, do you have sales updates?

 

[eTox]

@Sanj Modha any updates for us noobs here?

 

[Walter Hay]

Thank you very much for taking your time to help, I usually relly on the information I see at Alibaba, what do you think that are the most important things that we should not believe and find out for ourselves?

I mean, what's usually not true at this site?

I somehow missed this post, but here is my answer.

My lesson #1 about sourcing products on Alibaba is: Don't believe everything you read on that site. This includes what Alibaba say as well as what suppliers say.

The safety that Alibaba want you to believe is provided by their Trade Assurance scheme is nothing but smoke and mirrors. See my post #1849 in my AMA
GOLD sharing my lifetime experience in export/import. Product sourcing specialist where I had to tell a member that he had lost the money he had paid out because he was relying on the "safety" of Trade Assurance without knowing how it works.

I should say how in many cases it doesn't work.

The case I was answering was a classic case of how suppliers lie to their gullible customers.

If you want to learn a lot about how to safely source products you should read my thread.

If you want to learn everything about how to safely source products you should read my book.

Walter

 

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[Santi M]

I somehow missed this post, but here is my answer.

My lesson #1 about sourcing products on Alibaba is: Don't believe everything you read on that site. This includes what Alibaba say as well as what suppliers say.

The safety that Alibaba want you to believe is provided by their Trade Assurance scheme is nothing but smoke and mirrors. See my post #1849 in my AMA
GOLD sharing my lifetime experience in export/import. Product sourcing specialist where I had to tell a member that he had lost the money he had paid out because he was relying on the "safety" of Trade Assurance without knowing how it works.

I should say how in many cases it doesn't work.

The case I was answering was a classic case of how suppliers lie to their gullible customers.

If you want to learn a lot about how to safely source products you should read my thread.

If you want to learn everything about how to safely source products you should read my book.

Walter

Thank you very much, Walter

I'll be reading your content.

 

[AppMan]

Step #1 - How To Find Product Ideas — Watch Video

Maybe it was useful to others but for me it look have no value and here are the reasons.
1- You are looking for the most popular products and while it is logically right thing to do , however as former eCommerce owner I can bet any popular product there is already on e-bay and amazon and on very low price.
2- On your search you almost doesnt have any criteria such as price range ,category , you are just randomly looking into million of products.
3- The main thing in searching product is the possibility of making profit , I dont see you doing any calculation to see if you can profit from the product or not .
4 - no search for competitors which are the main reason other e-commerce owners go out of business.

 

[eTox]

Maybe it was useful to others but for me it look have no value and here are the reasons.
1- You are looking for the most popular products and while it is logically right thing to do , however as former eCommerce owner I can bet any popular product there is already on e-bay and amazon and on very low price.
2- On your search you almost doesnt have any criteria such as price range ,category , you are just randomly looking into million of products.
3- The main thing in searching product is the possibility of making profit , I dont see you doing any calculation to see if you can profit from the product or not .
4 - no search for competitors which are the main reason other e-commerce owners go out of business.

How dare you question master Sanj!

 

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[JustWalkinAround]

How do you decide what TOF audiences to keep? Sure, one might have higher CTR and lower CPLV than others, but how do you know which TOF audience the person who finally converts at BOF is from?

E.g. if I have audience A and audience B, audience A has $0.10 CPLV whereas audience B is $0.30 CPLV. Based off that I should switch off audience B and scale A, but what if it's the users from audience B that are actually converting down the line?

And what's your opinion on running LPV/VC/Brand Awareness objectives?

Thanks in advance.

 

[lifthat]

If you're just starting out - you can go down the general store route and test 3-5 different products:

1 - Launch campaigns at $10/day and kill after 3 days if there's no sale. The key is to test multiple creatives.

2 - Rinse and repeat until you find a winner.

I don't recommend this because this thread is all about building a solid brand off 1 product. If you do the research outlined in my videos - its not hard.

That being said, the above recommendations do work.

i don't recommend paying only $10/day to see if let's say a $40 product will sell, you should (at least) pay the product price per day to see if the product will sell. Calculate the COG's and the minimum ROAS to breakeven for your product, you can't generalize how much you should pay for ads per day for every product on fb.

-Beginners mistake: XYZ sells a product for 80/100 € and starts a test with 10 € per adset ● After 2 days no sale, he says that his ad / product does not work ..
In fact: Your average basket is 80€ and you only spent 20€ per adset in 2 days, without making a sale. Imagine if after the 3rd day you have 2 sales? That gives you a ROAS of 5. The facebook testing budget is therefore established by contribution to two factors: the average basket and the target ROAS / CPA.

Create your testing strategy -
My KPIs:
- Purchase cost: $ 10
- Sales price: $ 29.90
- ROAS break-even point: 1.6
- CPA break-even price: $ 17.8
- Minimum AOV; $ 29.90
I need to make a minimum of 50 conversions per week on my campaign for it to optimize, so 50 x CPA = $ 890 / Week = $ 127 / days PS: you can start between $ 80 and $ 100 per campaign

 

[lifthat]

Yep, its coming!

desappeared, any news?

 

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[ygtrhos]

Step #1 - How To Find Product Ideas — Watch Video

Hey Sanj, thanks for the thread man!

These are deleted unfortunately. Any way to see these Loom videos?

 

[Dragonasu]

Thanks for the thread, any news?