Which industry is E-commerce?
E-commerce is buying and selling of goods and services online. There are three main subcategories of the e-commerce industry that are B2B (business to business), B2C(business to customer and C2C (customer to customer) commerce. E-commerce has transformed the way people in India do business. The Indian e-commerce market is expected to reach $111.40 billion by 2025 compared to 46.2 billion US dollars in 2020. By 2030, the market is expected to reach $350 billion.
Much of the industry’s growth has been triggered by the increase in internet and smartphone penetration. The number of internet connections in India had increased significantly to 784.59 million, driven by the ‘Digital India’ program.
The Importance of Using Facebook Ads for e-commerce
In recent years, Facebook has become one of the most important advertising vectors for online retailers. If you offer goods and services to consumers or small and medium businesses, Facebook ads can help you increase your sales. Today, Facebook has over 217 million active users. This provides a treasure trove of potential customers that can be easily reached through a well-designed advertising program. Regardless of budget, geographic reach, or desired demographic, Facebook has created an effective digital and mobile marketing platform.
Other online advertising channels, such as Google’s AdWords, focus on showcasing your products and services to consumers searching for keywords. Facebook takes a different approach, allowing you to advertise to your ideal customer even if they’re not actively looking to buy yet. This is a big plus for advertising on Facebook, especially if your buyers tend to make impulse purchases. Seeing your ad on Facebook may necessitate an immediate sale or remind another potential customer to visit your store later in the day for an extended shopping experience.
One of the benefits of Facebook advertising is your ability to target one or more customer profiles. For example, financial services companies can reach out to Facebook users aged 50 and over who are worried about their retirement. Clothing retailers like Gilt Groupe can appeal to younger audiences and AllSaints fashion brand Burberry to Versace and Zappos can customise campaigns for men, women, or teens.
If you have local customers, you can advertise your product to Facebook users in nearby communities. Or if your products appeal to certain types of consumers like scrapbookers, amateur musicians, or coin collectors, you can introduce them to your store even if they live thousands of miles away. Facebook’s advertising versatility also lets you highlight new products, best-selling lines, or seasonal favourites based on your business and financial goals. Offering special discounts to Facebook users is a great way to get old inventory off the shelf.
Whatever strategy you want, if you’re advertising on Facebook, you won’t be alone. By the end of 2015, the most popular social media site in the world had more than 2.5 million advertisers, according to Facebook’s third-quarter financial report. During this quarter, Facebook posted $4.3 billion in advertising revenue and a 45% increase compared to the third quarter of 2014. It’s also important to note that over 75% of this quarterly revenue comes from mobile advertising sources. This is a key factor for online retailers looking to keep up with the market shift towards mobile shopping. Of course, many mobile-centric companies such as device manufacturers, service providers, and app developers have found Facebook ads to be a very cost-effective approach to gaining new customers.
A Facebook ads campaign can also be customised to support your overall online marketing program, which can do news announcements, consumer advice, market updates, or other postings about your business, products, or services.
The importance of using Google ads for e-commerce
As the most popular and widely used search engine in the world, Google is considered the de facto leader in online advertising. In the field of more than 3.5 billion search queries every day, Google gives advertisers access to an unprecedented level and an unequalled potential audience of users actively seeking goods and services. Google’s advertising offerings are split across two main networks, namely the Search Network and the Display Network.
The search network encompasses all of Google as a search engine, and advertisers can bid on millions of keywords and phrases to target potential customers. The google display network which offers advertisers more visual ads such as banners, spans approximately 98% of the world wide web, making it a great choice for advertisers looking to achieve marketing goals that aren’t necessarily conversions driven as those of pay per click (PPC) ads, such as raising brand awareness on a large scale using banner ads.
Google or Facebook?
Both Google Ads and Facebook Ads are incredibly powerful advertising platforms that cater to virtually every type of business. When evaluating the strengths and potential of each solution application, it is too apparent that the two platforms should be seen as complementary rather than contradictory. Some people insist on comparing Facebook ads to Google’s display network, and while the two platforms share some similarities, how that the two platforms have evolved independently of each other shows that Google and Facebook should be used together, Harnessing the power of paid search and paid social media is extremely effective advertising, However, this requires a dual advertising strategy that aligns with the strengths of each respective platform. Although marketing messaging can and arguably should remain consistent across the Google and Facebook ads, it is necessary to understand how to make better use of each platform for maximum ROI and greater business growth.