Shopify store using FB as a traffic source (22)
Hey All,
So along with all other STMers here, I saw (mostly read) that ecommerce is back big time. The buzz being using
I thought why not give it a try. I personally had some experience as a seller part time on eBay and etsy but was never able to devote the amount of time required to make it a full time job. besides that, I liked seeing it as a hobby as I was selling Antiques, Arts and handmade vintage items which are a big passion of mine.
Anyways as I have little to none experience using
The Product:
So after some thought I decided to go with selling holy land products (Wooden Crosses, Rosaries etc.) that are manufactured in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth . Due to the fact that I have good connections to the manufacturers I'm able to get it at a low price without even going into wholesale prices yet. The items can be advertised as "blessed at the holy land". Now to be totally honest, when choosing these products I didn't go through the recommended process of looking at the demand, competition and all the works. I admit that I went purely on instincts here as I considered this as my learning curve for both Shopify and FB. Plus, it seemed I could have a good angle for advertising this product on FB, and finding an audience for it.
Shopify
After choosing the products and getting a small test inventory without spending too much I went on to building the shop. The experience in one word - EASY. Shopify makes it super easy to build and customize your shop making it (the shop) look legit on all devices. All integration to FB and GA were done easily without a hassle. Good job Shopify! (No I'm not affiliated to them at all).
check out my shop here: https://holy-land-shop.com/
Shopify Apps I'm using are:
MailChimp® Email Marketing: Abandoned Cart, Win-Back, & Post-Purchase Campaigns
Privy - Free email popups with exit intent
Product Reviews
Feel free to comment as you wish.
Note: I realize I have a big problem with my copywriting skills. My product titles and description are very eBay and Amazon oriented rather than being a selling tool. (@pekadis cheers for the big help on this matter). I need to work on those for sure and use them to attract the costumer already on my shop.
Facebook:
So as this being among my first steps through FB I would appreciate any help you can contribute on the matter.
Started by building custom audiences groups based on website visitors, product viewers, Add to cart and Checkout.
Then I went on building 2 audience with the audience insight tools. The first was based on page likes from pages such as "holy land pilgrimage", Answers from the book", while combing Amazon pages. the thought was creating an overlap between Jesus and Shopping lovers. Not sure if that's the right way to do it though.
GEO: US
Here is the page likes lists I have chosen for the first audience:
And here are the demographics for it:
The second audience was targeting Evangelist groups. Here are the interests and demo:
Started by building 2 camps using a CPM bidding system and then switching to a CPC method. problem is (not sure its really a problem) I used an "Add To Cart" conversion point and not link clicks, as I wanted to get website visitors to my shop. Here are the results:
Here are the adsets I have used for both camps:
For ads I used 1 image and a video slideshow showing a few items from the shop:
http://fb.me/1Pr4acIWlsToOKO
http://fb.me/1HiQ995kBkqwrEK
http://fb.me/1MiZpvyCCfrx37N
http://fb.me/28eN0M0VaapQM3V
So for the beginning I went pretty general and kind of shooting in the dark. I assumed majority of my customers will be females with loved ones to take care of. So I went on a general angle and just trying to get people to land on my homepage and see how they react. I also tried landing them on specific collection pages or the "shop now" page to see how they react. overall the bounce rate was lower when people landed on the homepage of the shop, not sure why though. Overall, the bounce rate for the homepage is 50% is that considered good? because to me it seems high and makes me think the targeting is not correct.
Then I discovers the "promote Offer" option FB offers that seemed like a good idea. so I went and created discount codes on Shopify to distribute. Though I'd give specific discounts for specific items rather than promoting the Entire shop. Plus Easter is coming up so I thought that would be a good angle to try.
Ads:
http://fb.me/bmGvZezmpEvuF8
http://fb.me/c1fQjPcytMe1Xy
Also ran a Leadgen camp:
Currently I have only one offer camp running that's offering 50% on a specific product without any stats yet so ill update on the results once they arrive.
So that's pretty much it!! Spent $346 so far with 0 sales, 0 ATC, 0 of pretty much anything....
Waiting for some feedback on the next move here as I feel I'm kinda of running in the dark here when it comes to FB.
Looking forward to seeing your progress. Will follow!
One thing about FB + religious items - I understand it's a thin line so you might get some ads banned, hopefully not the account too. Depends a lot how you phrase it. Can't say what is OK or not from personal experience unfortunately but just thought I'd give you a headsup if you go into typical affiliate angles that are often too aggressive for FB's liking 
Cheers,
Manu.
Thanks
I'm using only clean angles here. Not trying any BS like "this item has healing powers" and so on. Of course, I understand that FB can ban my account for no reason whatsoever...
Although perhaps I should try "The Exorcist" angle for the bibles and crosses 
Originally Posted by manu_adefy
One thing about FB + religious items - I understand it's a thin line so you might get some ads banned, hopefully not the account too. Depends a lot how you phrase it. Can't say what is OK or not from personal experience unfortunately but just thought I'd give you a headsup if you go into typical affiliate angles that are often too aggressive for FB's liking
Cheers,
Manu.
Hahaha, the crazy angles affiliates bring! 
Try instagram, email marketing and banners on targeted website - will yield better results I think
You picked quite a difficult and very niche vertical to start your first shop. Looking forward to seeing the progress!
Originally Posted by cbrughmans
Cheers,
G
@evy123 We discussed this through PMs, so since you decided to make it a follow along, I'll reply here so more people can learn fromthe thread (as you intended).
The key here is copywriting, with the basis being knowing what you are and what you've got.
Not saying this stuff is easy, but it is essential. And I think your results show that.
Take this pendant as the example: https://holy-land-shop.com/products/...d-lady-madonna
I already mentioned the 925 silver in the PM, but you can go further.
It's gold plated, so the gold will wear off. Leaving only the silver. Bad news right?
Actually it's not.
If you position the product as a gift to a loved one, a worn off pendant show appreciation by the wearer. Because the more he / she wears it, the more it show how much he/she appreciates the gift.
So a worn pendant becomes a symbol of appreciation. And as such becomes more beautiful, especially since it will wear off in different stages.
That's just an idea you can use in your product copy.
But, it has to support the angle. The story you want to tell the customer.
Blessed in the holy land? By whom? Show the priest, the picture. The church where that happens (if that's the case), or the church where he is from.
Show those things in the ads. Not just the product pictures.
People aren't buying the products. They buy the story.
Just think of what the person giving this as a present will tell.
Use your ads to tell a part of the story, a hint of the mystery. Follow up on your site. And don't target the general site. Craft a story around one product and focus on that.
You mentioned getting a copywriter on board, which is a good idea. Good ones don't come cheap though.
Some good examples can be found here too BTW: https://copyhackers.com/2016/04/stor...er-of-stories/
Thanks for the useful comments as usual!
I wont get a copywriter just yet but that's not out of the question. I believe I need to get better at this first myself.
Great website reference BTW, plenty of useful info there.
What do you think about this as an ad or maybe the Item's description:
"We would like to invite you to sit back for a minute and imagine.
Imagine you are Walking the streets and alleyways of the old city of Jerusalem. Seeing young children as they run joyfully and are busy being happy in a way which is reserved for the careless and most pure of souls.
Imagine interacting with the street peddlers and shop owners as you walk by the various shops, the tourist trap kind but also discovering the true hidden gems from time to time.
Imagine yourself standing there in the middle of a busy shaded alley, taking in the variety of smells that surround you. From a small shop down the alley you recognize the smell of Frankincense, taking in the ancient healing benefits of the "king of Oils".
Imagine standing there and realizing you are only six miles North of Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus of Nazareth.
Imagine being in Bethlehem, grabbing a handful of soil and some dried up olive wood leaves to take back home with you so you can take that feeling of holiness back home with you. all this time reciting Proverbs on your head:
''The wood from the Tree of Life, those who grasp it will experience eternal Happiness...''
Wouldn’t it be great not having to imagine it? To have that little piece of imagination or memory with you at home? Or being able to pass that feeling of bliss and holiness to your loved ones?
Now you can stop imagining.
We at Holy Land Shop are offering you a chance to have your very own piece of the holy land at home. Our olive wood handmade Cross contains exactly all the bits of imagination turned real.
Handmade from olive wood in Bethlehem it contains: Soil and dried olive wood leaves from the holy land, Frankincense and rose petals.
We invite you to come right in and own your very own small piece of the holy land:
https://goo.gl/mnoMhe
God Bless ��"
Originally Posted by pekadis
Great product idea.
I heartily agree with everything Pekadis said, particularly about telling the story of the item.
OK, first piece of advice other than that - if you don't know a lot about the various groups within Christianity in the US, go spend some time learning about them.
There are a lot of them, they're hugely differentiated, and they're comparatively easy to specifically target using dog-whistle language.
I'd strongly disagree with the idea that this is a tightly niched audience - it's a HUGE audience. So huge, in fact, that I'd recommend setting up multiple shops, one targeting each strand of Christianity.
So, one for Catholics, one for megachurch-style Evangelicals, one for Quakers, and so on.
Then niche your ads down. The language you use to target Catholics will get you complaints if you use it on megachurch goers, and vica versa.
Don't forget about non-English speakers, either. You can probably make this into a substantial business just targeting Spanish-speaking Catholics in the US.
P.S. I'd heavily emphasise the ethical/moral side of production here. Lots of pictures of the artisans who make these, reassurance they're being fairly traded with, details of what they use the money for, etc. If it turns out that some of your artisans, say, use the money from making these goods to run a mission or feed the poor, that's sales gold dust for this audience.
Interesting stuff in here! 
Originally Posted by caurmen
Good last point, i'll see what i can dig up...
Originally Posted by stickupkid
So a few quick updates:
1. Did some reading on Copy-writing and how to tell a story. results of that will show in ad results giving below.
2. Instead of promoting the entire shop I'm building a funnel leading to a single item - A wooden cross: https://goo.gl/IS4fAw
3. Using only Short links
4. So i remember reading in a post around here about how instead of writing a short ad copy on FB, that sometimes its better to tell a story. So connecting the dots, i have decided to go with that. I have built 2 ads: 1 with a long story, the other is very basic and is using the "promote offer" ad FB is using. In that offer I'm giving the user the option to get a 50% discount on the cross, and i mean a REAL DISCOUNT, not a made up one. where you just compare numbers.
Here are the results of the last 3 days:
Results look much better than the previous ads in terms of CPC. the CTR is not good on the long story ad but the CPC isnt bad and declining still.
So almost 100 people chose to get discount offer but from them, not a SINGLE ONE made a purchase, let along Added to cart. Isn't that a bit weird? I mean, i should expect from the 100 at least 1 to add the cross to the cart. Should i make assumption on the product itself based on that?
By the way, Relevance score on the ads is high, one of them actually had a 10 score.
5. I had an idea regarding the product's titles. Seeing as i hated the titles i had decided to change ALL of the titles to bible quotes. Lets see how that goes...
6. Still need to to do some heavy research regarding the audiences i'm targeting as caurmen suggested. And work on the product descriptions.
The biggest question here is should i make assumptions on the product seeing as i didn't even get a single Add to Cart event triggered??
Have a good week Y'all !
Oh and another update: I have installed a countdown timer on the product page.
I think these items specifically are going to be pretty difficult to sell. You'd have to dig in and research your audience in depth as Caurmen said (re-read his points, seriously!). Possibly target the most religious of the most religious, and you also need to tell a captivating story. The article pekadis linked is a GREAT guide on storytelling.
I know close to nothing about religion or how to sell in that niche, but what sorts of people would go ahead and order a wooden cross? Why would they want one? "The wood from the Tree of Life, those who grasp it will experience eternal Happiness" - doesn't really mean much, does it?
The description doesn't really tell a story either: "If asked what would be the item we enjoy creating the most; The answer would most surely be this cross. The process of crafting the olive wood into a cross is one of great importance to us."
It shouldn't be of great importance to you, but the customer instead! It's all about the customer and how they relate to your "Why".
Why not tell a touching, moving story of someone buying this cross, how it kept them going through some %insert extremely difficult times/story% here, and how they emerged a hero, victorious and they still have the cross by their side, or something of the sort. "Oh wow, this person has really been through a LOT! I should buy one of these crosses.", paint a picture. I imagine this would do well with a fully fledged funnel that tells a story, with upsells/downsells etc.
As it currently stands, your site doesn't come out as very trustworthy religious-wise, but more so like a random booth somewhere. "Holy Land Shop All of our items are hand made and blessed at the holy cities of Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth." - So what? What's in it for me? What does it mean?
The entire approach with the copy feels quite generic and not really targeted to anyone. This audience doesn't seem like hardcore Star wars/LOTR fans who would buy stuff on a whim because it looks cool and is related to their favorite fiction/hobby. You need to be a bit more "out there" with the copy.
http://www.jamesavery.com/content.js...thCollImageREV - Look here, a photo of this guy working on the items, a bunch of inspiring quotes etc., feels quite "faith-y".
I think you'd have better luck with your current approach by trying to sell some simple cross pendants or something of the sort. Items where you can target the not-that-religious, but religious enough.
Here's another interesting and very simple angle I found with a quick 1 minute search:
One thing that came to mind is to search on YouTube for those US based evangelical videos where they sell other religious products and see what inspiration you get to use for your store.
YES. What Manu said. Do that.
(Also look at the sales pages for more "mainstream" religious organisations. Christian Aid: https://www.presentaid.org/ . Christian bookshops (there are loads of them). Etc.)
One specific point, also:
(Also, your copy lacks credibility. This is pretty clearly not actually a piece of the Tree Of Life, which according to Biblical lore grew in the Garden of Eden, unless you have a really compelling origin story for this thing
) In short: remember, whilst the lore of the religion may not have much importance to you, remember: it has incredible importance to your audience. You have to nail the details.
Thanks all for the feedbacks. Its back to the drawing board for me....
A couple more inspiration sites for you on the Catholic side:
https://catholiconline.shopping/
https://www.catholiccompany.com/
Incidentally, a hot tip I picked up whilst discussing this with a friend who knows the Catholic market better - there's a big difference between a "cross" and a "crucifix". The former's just a cross, the latter includes a representation of Christ on the cross. Apparently Catholics will tend to prefer the latter.
Originally Posted by caurmen
Very useful. I need a few days to give this project a facelift and ill post updates once done.
OK I sort of finished my research of the Christian audience in the US and came up with the following list. The order is according to relevance to the holy land memorabilia, 1 being the highest:
1.Catholics - given the religion has idolatry as one of the hold-over "pagan" elements it incorporated in its history. Catholics are also very connected to the "Holy Land" and Jerusalem is their "Mecca" - especially anything to do with the Via dela Rosa, crucifixion of Christ, Mary (his mother), Bethlehem, and Nazareth.
2.Lutherans - they have a huge church presence in Jerusalem.
3.Presbyterians - for similar reasons as Lutherans.
4.Eastern or Greek Orthodox (more common in eastern and southeastern Europe than the U.S.).
5.Evangelicals - but they are a smaller, odd group with a bizarre notion that earth's history (or at least human history) is only about 600 years old.
6.Methodists, Baptists, Episcopalians (the "light beer" version of Catholics), Anglicans, and non-denominational Christian sects.
7.The least likely are Mormons (Church of Latter Day Saints or LDS) - since their perspective is mostly U.S.-centric rather than the Holy Land (they believe Christ journeyed across the ocean to the Americas), and Jehovah's Witnesses.
Good research!
I'd say your order of likelihood is mostly pretty accurate. The various Orthodox flavours of Christianity may well be good to target precisely because they're smaller and more obscure in the US.
Worth knowing that the Evangelicals are a broad church - no pun intended. They're not all young-earthers, although they are the group most likely to believe that. Their defining characteristic is that they're very media-savvy (most of the mega-churches are Evangelical), and that they believe in actively recruiting - evangelising, in other words.
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