If you're an e-commerce store owner or e-commerce manager, then it's likely that you have some overarching goals for the year. Whether those are to simply increase monthly revenue or decrease CAC (customer acquisition cost), there are three basic levers that can be pulled to accomplish your 2021 goals.
Simply put the three levers are:
Decrease CAC using high-performing ad creative
Increase conversion rates by focusing on product pages
Increase cLTV (specifically 90-day value) using email & SMS automation and segmentation
Before we dive in. I would like to set the scene.
It's 2021, a crazy time for the world and for e-commerce.
The good news is e-commerce is on the rise and more and more consumers are enjoying the direct-to-consumer experience (DTC). The bad news is customer acquisition cost (CAC) has risen and continues to rise. This is due to a handful of factors that we won't get into in this post. If CAC is going up, that means the only way to maintain/increase profitability is to increase customer lifetime value (cLTV) which we will get into towards the end (see lever #3)
1. Decrease CAC using high-performing ad creative
Now, what the heck is high-performing creative? At Inspiir we call this "Performance Creative" since implementing it for a handful of our clients in recent months we have seen massive decreases in CAC and increased profitability!
A primary acquisition channel for our clients is Facebook/Instagram Ads.
With all of the updates regarding Apple's iOS14.5 and Facebooks Algorthims, ad creative is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. Arguably, more important than ever. Make sure your ads are awesome, measurable, and successful. Here are the 4 major metrics we are using to track successful creative:
Attention (aka scroll stopping) - people actually stopping to view the ad. We measure this by using a metric we call "video attention" (3-second video views/ impressions)
Video Average Playtime - this shows us how interested a prospect might be
CTR% (click-through-rate) - CTR tells us if someone has a desire to shop or learn more about the product or brand
ROAS (return on ad spend) - This is our lag indicator, letting us know if the prospect took our desired action
We have created an ad scorecard using these metrics that helps us grade our ads and determine which ads will be most successful early on. Most importantly it helps us break down ads and create more successful iterations!
If you want to decrease your CAC and through better ad creative we highly recommend you steal our Perfect Video Ads Templates. This doc has helped our clients massively and our internal team uses it to crank out extremely successful ads.
2. Increase conversion rates by focusing on product pages
I will keep this one short and sweet for you and also give you an exact checklist you can follow to create incredible high-converting landing pages.
Simply put your product pages should have plenty of digestible information for consumers to make decisions.
Here you will find our Perfect Product Page Checklist that will increase your conversion rates GUARANTEED. If it doesn't, call me (208-869-5060) and I will make sure someone gets fired.
3. Increase cLTV (specifically 90-day value) using email & SMS automation and segmentation
If you run an e-commerce store you should know all about cLTV but we have actually use a much better metric that helps us measure our returns on a reasonable timeline. We call it 90-Day Customer Value (aka "90DV" because we need acronyms for everything in digital marketing). We like 90DV because we like to make sure we understand our ROI in a condensed but accurate timeline that we can use to make better decisions. To increase 90DV we must have a kick-ass email/SMS system in place. We are partial to Klaviyo and have a very specific system we use called Advanced Email/SMS Systems which we utilize to maximize re-order rates for newly acquired customers. If you are not making AT LEAST 20% of your revenue from Klaviyo (or your email platform) this should be a HUGE focus for you ASAP. Most of our clients range between 30%-45% of their monthly revenue from email. Unfortunately, we don't have a "Perfect Email/SMS Checklist" yet, but we are always happy to help consult. If you have any questions please don't be shy!
In Summary, the 3 Lever focus is:
Decrease CAC using high-performing ad creative
Increase conversion rates by focusing on product pages
Increase cLTV (specifically 90-day value) using email & SMS automation and segmentation
Now, The Call-To-Action (because we are marketers & would be wrong if we didn't, right?)
If you want to maximize the effectiveness of your e-commerce channel by identifying the exact metrics, tools, and strategies that will help you grow faster and more efficiently.
We are happy to offer you our complimentary 29 Point E-Commerce Analysis.
Our 29 Point E-Commerce Analysis will help you roadmap your next best steps to growing and scaling your direct e-commerce Channel!