Facebook is betting big on Shops for increased ecommerce sales
One of the ways that our clients are seeing some improvements with their ecommerce sales is by setting up their Facebook and Instagram Shops.
This is allowing people to stay on the platform of Facebook or Instagram, view all products for sale, and checkout right there, while never leaving to go to a website. That means all of the tracking remains. That means that the tracking issues of people who opt out of iOS tracking does not have an impact on tracking in ads.
People can check out and process their payment right there on Facebook on Instagram.
This is something that we recommend setting up: checkout and Facebook and Instagram Shops.
Go to Shopify, and into the Facebook app there. Then you set it up that way and you’ll need to have a few pieces of information ready for you because it is a separate system than your Shopify store, even though it’s set up through Shopify.
The things to be prepared to have ready are going to be:
- Business EIN,
- Banking information
- Business name
- Address
- Email address
- Phone number
Use only the owner admin login to Shopify, and here’s why
You’re going to need to do it from your admin Shopify account because you’re going to need to authenticate through your personal Facebook profile. An agency can walk you through setting it up. You have to do it on Zoom via a screenshare. It has to be the owner admin login rather than anybody else. That’s because of the way the Facebook app by Shopify is set up.
There are a couple of things to note when you’re going through that set up on Shopify, and one of them is when it says “Allow checkout through Facebook and Instagram.” It almost sounds like they’re only going to be checking out there, and they’re never going to check out through your website. That’s not the case. It’s just the wording and the phrasing that’s on there. Go ahead and do that, get set that up.
Enable extra tracking for better performance
Also when you get to the tracking part of it, you want to make sure it’s on “advanced”, which is the highest level. It’s the furthest right option. The default is the middle option. You want to pick the one on the right, and that will enhance your tracking. That’s related to the Conversion API. If you started setting that up, you may already have this part set up. Make sure that’s selected.
Setting up Facebook and Instagram Shops in Commerce Manager
Once you’ve set up Facebook and Instagram checkout in Shopify, then you’ll need to go into Facebook and Commerce Manager to build out your Shops.
Facebook’s Commerce Manager has not been around very long, it’s something that Facebook introduced about a year ago in late 2020. Go there. They have a way to set up your Facebook and Instagram Shops as a drag and drop builder, and you can drag dynamic sections in there. It’s not too difficult to set up.
If there are any problems, take a look at your product feed and make sure that your catalog is working because Shops do draw from that.
If you’re already running Facebook ads, you already have a store set up and you’re running ads, you probably have most of this set up.
The next conversion rate optimization (CRO) space
Shops will most likely become one of the next places that we can really optimize for conversions later on. Currently there’s not much to it. Just make sure you set it up. Publish, and check back a day or so later to see that it is approved and you have the green light.
Having Shops set up means that you’ll be able to sell directly on platform
Right now, if you’re running ads, you have the option if you have it set up, to say I’d like my traffic to go both to my website, my Shopify store, and a little bit to the Shop. What this means is that when Facebook algorithm thinks that this is going to be the best thing, they will send the traffic there and you will see sales come through there.
The great thing is, if you’re on Shopify, it processes sales inside Shopify. It gets logged in Commerce Manager, but you process everything through Shopify. So there’s no disconnect for you. The only difference is the payout system. That is a little bit different, because it is not through Shopify. It’s done separately through Facebook and their merchant services. That’s part of the set up and connection you set up in Shopify first.
Money from Facebook for Shop testing
One final thing to say about Facebook and Instagram Shops is that it is definitely something that Facebook is putting a lot of effort into. They really want to keep people on the platform, partly because it’s going to solve so many of those tracking issues of what’s working and what’s not. They never really want people to leave the platform anyway. They’re putting a lot into Shops. It’s going to be improved greatly. It’s great to get set up now.
We actually have quite a few clients who have received significant amounts of free ad spend to test running ads to their Shop. It’s because it was already set up and set up over a year ago, right when it first came out, and it’s been set up properly and doesn’t have any errors. They’ve received literally thousands of dollars in free advertising spend because Facebook needs to test it and learn from it. Facebook and Instagram Shops are getting better and better.
You’re not guaranteed to get any ad spend money, but there’s definitely a higher chance that you’re going to even be in the running for it if you have your Shop set up. It’s just such a good idea to have that, because if people want to checkout on Facebook or Instagram and Marketplace – that’s something you can also enable – then they can.
That’s one of the things that we have set up and are seeing success with for our clients.
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