We want to break down, specifically, all the things that you need to have in place before you even start thinking about running paid ads. 

There are so many times where we’re talking to potential clients or we are talking with new clients that are trying to launch a type of sub-brand or niche brand under their umbrella company, and there are so many things that often get overlooked time and time again. 

In this article, we want to break those down specifically into the three most vital topics that will help you in terms of growing your e-commerce brand. 

So, what are the three most vital things that you must have in place before you even start thinking about running paid ads? Let’s break them down.

1. Organic Presence

The first and most important thing is making sure that you have a strong organic presence. This is paramount when you are approaching growth and trying to potentially scale your e-commerce brand. 

Now, why does having a social presence even matter? Yes, you can just run ads and hope to drive traffic and start getting sales for your e-commerce brand. Of course, you could, but the main reason why we would always suggest making sure you have some kind of social presence is because of that social proof. 

There are so many times where we go about looking at running paid ads for a brand new client, and they don’t have any kind of branded assets on their social media platforms. Starting from scratch and not having a lot of social proof can hurt your brand. No reviews, no user-generated content, and missing plenty of social credibility.

Can you do without social media for your e-commerce brand? 

You can, but we’re not merely trying to get you to run ads and make a few sales. We lay the groundwork for long-term growth and scaling. 

Why bother with an organic audience and regular content? 

In addition to social proof, it establishes credibility in your niche. If a potential customer sees your brand as a possible purchasing channel, they will look around and check out your skews. Then they might see it’s the right fit for them. 

They’re comparing you to a million other things, and there are a million reasons they won’t buy. We want to give people the best chance to buy from our e-commerce store by building social equity, social proof, and valuable content on our organic social media. 

You should also position content that discusses your brands value propositions, uses, benefits, and market comparisons. These things you regularly produce on social media can act as a social shop window of your products, though you can tag products and insert links where appropriate to subtly give people a call to action. 

Why do you need to establish trust?

You’re trying to give people a clear understanding of what your product can offer, and by doing that repeatedly over multiple touch points, you’ll build that know, like and trust factor with your target audience, which will make it easier for people to buy something from your e-commerce store. 

Point being, don’t neglect your organic social media presence because it makes a big difference. Think again about the user experience when people shop at someone’s store. They may see a product they like and naturally check out your social media. A potential customer won’t trust you if you have no social credibility or an outdated logo you uploaded three years ago. Posting regularly on organic social media is crucial for social proof. 

2. Conversion Rate

E-commerce brands’ websites are often overlooked and don’t optimise conversion rates. If you want an e-commerce store to scale, you need at least a 2–3% monthly conversion rate as your benchmark, which will lay the foundation of your monthly KPIs. 

Potential customers often assume that they can just start running ads and see immediate results, however, this isn’t the case in reality. In this scenario, imagine a bucket with a huge hole in the bottom. If you put enough water in there, it might fill up a little, but as soon as the tap is turned off, all that water will drain out. 

The example above is mentioned because it’s similar to e-commerce stores that aren’t conversion optimised, which is crucial because you can throw so much traffic at a site, but if you’ve got 10,000 people a day on your store but no conversions, you’re not profitable unless you have a crazy high order value and barely spend anything on ads. 

What are the primary factors to consider when optimizing a website for conversion rate? The big leverage points for improving a store’s conversion rate are its product description, product imagery, and making sure its add-to-cart is above the fold so people don’t have to swipe down to find it. 

3. Proof of Concept 

Make sure you have some kind of organic traction. What we mean by actual organic traction is getting organic sales and some actual proof of concept that your idea, your product, or whatever it is that you’re selling on your store actually has a potential audience of customers that ultimately are going to purchase from you. At the very least you should have people enquiring, showing interest, asking questions etc. This is critical. 

Proof-of-concept doesn’t always necessitate making direct sales immediately. Rather, it involves observing other stores in your niche that are thriving consistently, indicating profitable prospects. 

Take, for example, a beauty brand crafting homemade soaps. Ensuring similar products in your niche enjoy strong social followings, traction on organic content, and perhaps even running paid ads can provide valuable insights. 

While the mere presence of paid ads doesn’t guarantee success, analysing factors like duration and consistency can offer clues. If a competitor has been running ads for months, it suggests they’re generating revenue, as why would they persist if not for sales?

Proof of concept is key. We speak to so many excited e-commerce entrepreneurs that are trying to launch a new product, and they came up with this cool idea – They have this concept or this new look or approach to a specific product that’s done really well in the past, and then they think, okay, we’ve got this – this will make crazy ROI but it’s often not the case. 

Chances are, if you’re reading this, you’re not the type to create an entire e-commerce brand based solely on intuition. Instead, you want some level of proof of concept and organic sales to validate your direction.

Organic presence, conversion rate, and social proof although discussed at a high level, underscore critical considerations often overlooked. By recognising their significance, you can avoid common pitfalls and chart a more informed path forward in your e-commerce journey.

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