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Alternatives to facebook ads for dropshipping ecomm (15)

10-14-2017 05:55 AM #1 affman456 (Member)
Alternatives to facebook ads for dropshipping ecomm

Hi, I'd like to know what viable alternatives there are to facebook ads for dropshipping. I was not able to get a single impression for an ad for 12+ hours on facebook and when I decided to make another campaign to resolve my issue, my payment account got disabled, rendering me unable to purchase any facebook ads. Therefore I am looking for an alternative for facebook ads for the time being.

I have heard of google adwords being a viable alternative for dropshipping. Any experiences with this?

10-14-2017 10:12 AM #2 shishev (Moderator)

Yep, adwords can be great for eCom. You can even push super-boring items and still profit there, despite the skyhigh CPCs the much higher purchase intent makes up for it. Something else to look into would be Google Shopping ads, if you can get a hold of a Merchant account.

10-14-2017 07:57 PM #3 affman456 (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by shishev View Post
Yep, adwords can be great for eCom. You can even push super-boring items and still profit there, despite the skyhigh CPCs the much higher purchase intent makes up for it. Something else to look into would be Google Shopping ads, if you can get a hold of a Merchant account.
Appreciate the reply. My problem with adwords is that you're supposed to catch buying intent. So if a potential customer types "buy skateboard online" they'll be shown skateboards which are much cheaper than the price I'm dropshipping for, and as I have to survive on slim margins for dropshipping, I can't really afford to discount the skateboard's price. Is the solution to not target buying intent keywords?

10-15-2017 04:24 PM #4 shishev (Moderator)

There are a few ways you can combat this on Adwords. You don't necessarily always have to target typical buyer intent keywords there as long as they're still relevant to your products, though this also depends on the stage at which a potential customer might be during the buying process. I.e. something slightly more broad like "skateboards online" can still work. But I'm still pretty sure you can source products that are far cheaper than your competitors yet still have a healthy markup if you dig deeper.

Another bit is that you can position your products as higher quality/higher priced and attempt to pre-qualify the users in your ads - i.e. make sure you're telling potential customers that your skateboards aren't necessarily cheap and low quality and people will still buy them and this way you can sift through customers who are not after something higher priced.

Always test BMM vs phrase vs exact match in your ad groups and pay very special attention to negative keywords and remember that high competition keywords are not a bad thing!

10-15-2017 09:01 PM #5 affman456 (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by shishev View Post
There are a few ways you can combat this on Adwords. You don't necessarily always have to target typical buyer intent keywords there as long as they're still relevant to your products, though this also depends on the stage at which a potential customer might be during the buying process. I.e. something slightly more broad like "skateboards online" can still work. But I'm still pretty sure you can source products that are far cheaper than your competitors yet still have a healthy markup if you dig deeper.

Another bit is that you can position your products as higher quality/higher priced and attempt to pre-qualify the users in your ads - i.e. make sure you're telling potential customers that your skateboards aren't necessarily cheap and low quality and people will still buy them and this way you can sift through customers who are not after something higher priced.

Always test BMM vs phrase vs exact match in your ad groups and pay very special attention to negative keywords and remember that high competition keywords are not a bad thing!
Thanks for the advice. I'll give adwords a go How much success have you found with dropship + adwords? Is it comparable to dropship + facebook?

10-16-2017 10:17 AM #6 affman456 (Member)

Also you mentioned Google Shopping ads, which I'm currently looking into. What strategies have you employed when doing shopping ads, with a specific focus on dropshipping?

10-16-2017 11:04 AM #7 caurmen (Administrator)

Organic traffic works pretty well for ecommerce stores, still, particularly if you have a good niche. It doesn't have the "instant scaling" factor of paid traffic, and obviously can be slow to get started, but it works.

The final part of the eCommerce Cookbook is going to be on alternative traffic sources, and amongst the organic list I'd definitely include:



One of the other benefits of going organic - you'll get lots of feedback on your store from actual customers. Some of it may be less than polite, and you'll need a thick skin and good manners, but it's a good way to rapidly find out if you're offering products of genuine value.

EDIT - Pekadis responded at the same time as me and along similar lines. I'd agree with him and definitely also include content marketing with posts and video as a good approach - and you can use the above list as places to market your content pieces.

10-16-2017 11:06 AM #8 pekadis (Moderator)

There's content marketing as well, for which your niche may very well be a good case.

Write a few basic posts - ideally a how-to / problem/ pain solver - and see if they get any traction in search (so organic traffic).

If it really is niche, you should see at least a few visitors fairly soon.
When it does, build it out.

Video is another option that can be done quikly and Youtube should give you traffic quickly as well, so another good way to test if you can get any interest from people in what you're selling.

You can start with a Youtube search as well and see how well videos do in this space.

Product reviews / unboxing would test whether people are interested on a product level (solution), more general videos would give you insight into whether people are interested in the topic / niche.

10-16-2017 12:23 PM #9 affman456 (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by pekadis View Post
There's content marketing as well, for which your niche may very well be a good case.

Write a few basic posts - ideally a how-to / problem/ pain solver - and see if they get any traction in search (so organic traffic).

If it really is niche, you should see at least a few visitors fairly soon.
When it does, build it out.

Video is another option that can be done quikly and Youtube should give you traffic quickly as well, so another good way to test if you can get any interest from people in what you're selling.

You can start with a Youtube search as well and see how well videos do in this space.

Product reviews / unboxing would test whether people are interested on a product level (solution), more general videos would give you insight into whether people are interested in the topic / niche.
Quote Originally Posted by caurmen View Post
Organic traffic works pretty well for ecommerce stores, still, particularly if you have a good niche. It doesn't have the "instant scaling" factor of paid traffic, and obviously can be slow to get started, but it works.

The final part of the eCommerce Cookbook is going to be on alternative traffic sources, and amongst the organic list I'd definitely include:

  • SEO - still works, but still slow. Fortunately many of the below suggestions work well at boosting it.
  • Facebook organic - posting on groups, getting known in communities, etc. Can be a huge driver of traffic over time.
  • Instagram. Getting a large following is comparatively simple, converting it to traffic can be a bit trickier. I'm not an expert on this traffic source but I've seen people do very well with it.
  • Forums. Also good for media buys. If you've got a well-targeted niche there should be a significant number of these with very high-relevance (if not high intent) traffic.
  • Reddit. Basically the same as forums. Reddit ad buys are a bit rubbish these days, but it's a good driver of organic traffic.
  • Influencer marketing: contact people with high influence in your niche and see if you can persuade them to mention your store and your products. Lots of ways to do this. PR is a subcategory of this approach.


One of the other benefits of going organic - you'll get lots of feedback on your store from actual customers. Some of it may be less than polite, and you'll need a thick skin and good manners, but it's a good way to rapidly find out if you're offering products of genuine value.

EDIT - Pekadis responded at the same time as me and along similar lines. I'd agree with him and definitely also include content marketing with posts and video as a good approach - and you can use the above list as places to market your content pieces.
Thanks for all the advice. I'll definitely consider more organic approaches. These approaches still work for dropshipping right?

10-16-2017 12:50 PM #10 cbrughmans (Member)

Adwords, Adsense, Wish.com, retargeting of people who added to cart but didn't buy, email marketing (capture email on site - send promotions), and affiliate networks could be good traffic sources for you.

10-16-2017 09:07 PM #11 affman456 (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by cbrughmans View Post
Adwords, Adsense, Wish.com, retargeting of people who added to cart but didn't buy, email marketing (capture email on site - send promotions), and affiliate networks could be good traffic sources for you.
I'll look into these things thanks.

10-17-2017 11:51 AM #12 caurmen (Administrator)

Yup, organic works well for dropshipping stores as well. In fact, it can have some advantages because it allows you to offer products the price points of which make them difficult to get running on a paid-ad basis.

The only thing to watch out for is if competitors can spot products that are working for you, then run them with paid ads and cut your market share down/burn out the product. That's not going to be a problem for you for a while, though.

Also, watch out for competitors burning products out generally. An organic-traffic store is like a container ship against paid ads being a powerboat: it's a lot slower to turn. On the other hand, once it has some speed up, it's also not going to stop any time soon, wheras if the powerboat turns off its engine (stops paying for ads) it'll be dead in the water in minutes.

10-17-2017 03:25 PM #13 cbrughmans (Member)

True that!

Lots of people are making money also by arbitraging between Aliexpress and other platforms such as Wish.com and Amazon
Buy on Ali, sell on wish/amazon for just a few dollars more. Disadvantage: low margin. Advantage: wish and amazon take care of the traffic

10-18-2017 12:44 AM #14 affman456 (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by caurmen View Post
Yup, organic works well for dropshipping stores as well. In fact, it can have some advantages because it allows you to offer products the price points of which make them difficult to get running on a paid-ad basis.

The only thing to watch out for is if competitors can spot products that are working for you, then run them with paid ads and cut your market share down/burn out the product. That's not going to be a problem for you for a while, though.

Also, watch out for competitors burning products out generally. An organic-traffic store is like a container ship against paid ads being a powerboat: it's a lot slower to turn. On the other hand, once it has some speed up, it's also not going to stop any time soon, wheras if the powerboat turns off its engine (stops paying for ads) it'll be dead in the water in minutes.
Thanks for the response, appreciate the analogy! I'll look into getting a more organic reach right away as I'm exploring paid options as well.

10-18-2017 12:48 AM #15 affman456 (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by cbrughmans View Post
True that!

Lots of people are making money also by arbitraging between Aliexpress and other platforms such as Wish.com and Amazon
Buy on Ali, sell on wish/amazon for just a few dollars more. Disadvantage: low margin. Advantage: wish and amazon take care of the traffic
Yeah I've heard of this kind of arbitrage, specifically with ebay and amazon. I did actually see some aliexpress items on amazon and the profit margins were extremely slim indeed.

If I was to get started with Ali to Amazon/Wish arbitrage, how much would Amazon/Wish take care of the traffic? Is it like google SEO wherein I have to wait a pretty hefty amount of time before I see traffic incoming? Do I have to make endeavors to drive in traffic from external sources as well?

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