Top 50 eCommerce Experts Reveal Their Secret Strategies for 2023

Boris B.

Boris is one of the leading Google Ads experts and a leader in the field of Programmatic Advertising. With over thirteen years of experience working with his own projects and Fortune 500 companies, Boris specializes in Programmatic Advertising, Ad Servers, Publisher and Advertiser relationships, and Online Marketing. Being a founder of rapidly growing Ad Network called Hooligan Media, Boris is responsible for running over half a billion ad impressions to the publisher sites. Boris is also a founder of TrafficMNGR a Publisher & Advertising company and a Quizé Plugin which is a tool for creating and monetizing quizzes on publishers websites.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

Analytics. Without analytics you only get numbers, however, with proper tracking and analysis you know what channels actually work and get you further, as well as, what is dragging you down.

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A recommended (not-so-obvious!) marketing technique that you've used to get amazing ROI

Reviews and support. What you say about your company or services are just words, reviews are the actual quality evaluation of what you do. Support is what is bringing the reviews.

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What makes a killer ad-copy?

Data, Simplicity, and Testing. Base your design on preliminary data (if such available) to visually attract the targeted audience. Instead of creating a dozen copies, create three, and focus on their optimization. Avoid burying yourself in unnecessary data.

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A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

We increased CPM rates (revenue) from $0.60 to $1+ rate within the 3 months of managing ad operations for VaynerMedia backed company that is owning 30+ entertainment publisher websites.

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Mikenzi R.

Having grown up as a kid in a traveling band, I learned how to connect with, engage, and entertain people from all walks of life.

As a copywriter, I employ those lessons to craft authentic copy that makes your audience feel excited to invest in your offer. Selling doesn’t have to be slimy… and I’ll prove it.

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A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

Blogs, blogs, blogs. I’ll sing from every mountain top that blog posts are great for nurturing long-lasting and valuable relationships with new and old customers. When you create consistent, relevant, and high-value blog content, your ideal audience will find YOU.

When you share engaging and informative content, you establish your expertise and build trust with your audience. This, in the long run, will make people much more likely to invest in your products or services because they know that you know what you’re talking about, and your word is good.

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A recommended (not-so-obvious!) content marketing technique that you've used

Empathy. As a copywriter, empathy fuels every word that I write. No matter what marketing tactics you choose to implement, it must come from a genuine, authentic, and ethical place of understanding your customer.

The modern consumer can smell BS from a mile away, and no one likes to feel pandered to. Before you initiate any content strategy, really get to know the people you’re talking to, and show them respect.

Treat others the way you want to be treated. When you respect and understand your customers, they will respect and value you.

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What makes a killer ad-copy?

Empathy, authenticity, and integrity. It is so important that your customers trust you, and the best way to do that is by being clear about who you are.

Great copy builds relationships and helps your ideal customers find solutions to their problems, but loyal customers can only come after a foundation of trust is built.

When you stay true to yourself and believe in the products or services you’re selling, you’ll always connect with the people who are excited to buy from you.

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An eCommerce brand you promoted you are particularly proud of the results achieved

In 2020 I worked with an incredible holistic wellness brand to rebuild and renovate their website. They once served as a beloved community gathering space in their city, but COVID-19 meant they could no longer provide a physical place where people could come to connect with nature and each other.

By rejuvenating their website, I helped them embrace their brand voice, their mission, and create an online environment where people could connect and purchase their hand-crafted holistic products.

I also upped their website traffic by 30%, so that’s pretty awesome, too!

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Filip M.

Filip Matekovic is Head of marketing at Hunch, creative automation, and media buying platform that helps companies combine performance and brand on paid social.

He has 10 years of experience in all three sides: corporate client (fortune top 100), award-winning performance advertising agency, and a SaaS ad-tech startup.

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A must-have tool for scaling content marketing

What we learned in Hunch, what is a must-have tool to scale content?

Build a system! You cant find a perfect tool for scaling blog content. It a mixture of various tools that helps the content team to get bigger output. We started from scratch, in-house. After the validation period, we created processes and hired an agency that strictly follows our process. We scaled out blog content 4X regarding output and leads.

Content marketing is keyword research, managing writers, planning the editorial calendar, combining the dots between writer, editor, SEO, design), distribution (80:20 rule), link building, and finally, auditing content strategy and optimization.

Secret tip: Do not plan your content out too far ahead! Everything mentioned above is a part of our system, written in processes.

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A recommended (not-so-obvious!) content marketing technique that you've used

Align marketing funnel with the product, sales funnel, and CS.

Align your content to the stage of the funnel.

Create demand, build authority, and trust.

Do not sell, let your prospects reach you.

Become a champion in a specific niche (our case - dynamic creative)

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Which content platform have you seen the most success with?

There isn't one platform to rule them all (ok, maybe Hubspot).

It depends; SEMrush is SEO content-based, but I like CognitveSEO, also. Ahrefs is perfect for link research. We manage Editorial Calendar and workflow in Notion. Hemmingway Editor is a must. Also Grammarly Premium.

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A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

When we talk about content, but another type: video, made for paid social and e-commerce, we are very proud of Air Serbia case.

Hunch dynamic video studio produced more than 1200 high impact video ads. Each ad created unique user experiences for users exploring possible travel destinations whilst browsing Facebook and Instagram, and ads were different based on language, location, and stage of the funnel.

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Aigerim B.

Aigerim is an email marketing expert and certified Klaviyo Partner. With over six years of experience working with eCommerce brands and start-ups, Aigerim designed & executed of +40 email programs totaling $10 million in revenue.

Aigerim helps businesses grow their revenue through email automation and broadcasts. She developed email content for thousands of campaigns and flows, created and optimized dozens of email popups, designed and coded beautiful pixel-perfect email templates that look flawless in 40+ email clients and multiple browsers.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

One of my favorite email marketing tools is definitely Klaviyo - it goes deep to capture all of your data, particularly with Shopify integration. Klaviyo lets you be very targeted in your segmentation. Whether it's a campaign or a flow, you can tailor your audience based on when they purchased, what they bought, and how much they spent in a specific time frame.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) marketing technique that you've used to get amazing ROI

When it comes to eCommerce, building a robust email automation strategy is one of the most powerful ways to grow your business and get an amazing ROI. By implementing email automation techniques, you:

Increase Sales by converting more first-time customers & repeat customers.
Boost engagement by building a relationship with your customer & leads through emails.
Generate leads and other brand assets to use on your website and throughout your sales funnels.

After all, with email flows, you engage with customers and leads at every stage of the sales funnel.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

A killer ad copy comes from multiple rounds of testing.

It seems obvious that different versions of ad copy can produce completely different results for the same audience, but not everyone can benefit from it. In practice, this turns out to be a key factor in creating an effective copy. Sometimes, even one changed word can increase the conversion significantly. So, only through diligent a/b testing, you can find out your killed ad copy.

A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

I’ve had the pleasure of working with Ergo Impact. The email campaigns and flows that I created in their Klaviyo account became a significant revenue channel and started accounting for 45% of overall sales in less than a month.

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Nick Chai

Nick is a copywriter and a digital marketing expert. He runs his own publication, Content Jedi with the purpose of sharing his knowledge and opinion on content creation as well as marketing in general. He lives and breathes content. He thinks that content is a bridge to connect creators with their audience. With that being said, a creator who manages to provide value over profit is the one who wins in the long run.

A must-have tool for scaling content marketing

Hootsuite and Moz are definitely the tools you need to scale your content marketing strategies. Hootsuite gives you the ability to manage all your content assets under one roof. Moz gives you the data you need to create useful and engaging content for your audience. These tools make content creation and distribution a whole lot easier when combined. For efficiency in content marketing, you should always aim for easy-to-use platforms that give you more than what you need. Find out what platform works best for your business and stick with it.

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A recommended (not-so-obvious!) content marketing technique that you've used

Be active on social. In my opinion, content is more than just posting on your feed and expecting people to take notice of what you’ve posted. You have to socialize more on social media to get on your audience's radar because a comment is also a form of content. It pays to take the time to socialize with your audience. You deepen the bond and trust by doing so and the effect compounds over time. A genuine relationship with the audience is the best marketing any brand can invest in for long term ROI.

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Which content platform have you seen the most success with?

LinkedIn. One thing I like about the platform is the organic reach it gives to my posts. It’s has a reach which exceeded my expectations. Basically, it has a wider reach without having to pay for a single cents.

I’ve been using LinkedIn for over a year now and I can say I’m happy with my results. Now that they released LinkedIn Stories, I’m looking forward to how people on LinkedIn use the feature as part of their day to day content creation process.

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A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

They’re not a brand actually. They’re a non-profit organization that I worked with for a period of time. They wanted to raise awareness on the programs that they're running to a wider demographics which they were doing pretty good before we even met. However, they were missing the bigger picture of their strategy which I think could bring them results if done right. The meetings we had were to realign their strategy with their objectives. The work they do is changing the lives of many and that’s what I’m proud of working with them.

David Szetela

David is President of the Paid Search Association, and one of the world's best-known Google Ads experts. A former Apple Computer executive and serial entrepreneur, David's career has been dedicated to helping companies of all sizes maximize revenue and profit.

His two books on PPC advertising have helped train a generation of marketers. His articles on PPC advertising have been published in The SEM Post, MediaPost, Search Engine Watch, and Search Engine Land. He hosts a biweekly podcast called PPC Rockstars, produced by Webmaster Radio and distributed by iTunes and other major outlets.

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A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

Google Ads Editor. It allows any PPC manager to accomplish work in 10% of the time compared to using the Google Ads web interface.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

I love Google Ads’ ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) automated bidding. It frees up my time since I don’t need to micro-manage bid prices to consistently achieve my target profitability. Paired with Smart Shopping campaigns it’s a game-changer!

What makes a killer ad-copy?

A few things: writing in the second person (e.g. “You’ll love the convenience”); a sense of urgency; and a clear call to action.

A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

A major furniture manufacturer – through a combination of top-of-funnel display advertising and bottom-of-funnel Shopping Ads and DSA campaigns, increased brand lift by 25%, sales volume by 40% and profitability by 15%.

Yahav Hartman

Yahav Hartman is the CEO and Co-Founder of Madgicx, an AI omnichannel ad-optimization platform with creative intelligence and autonomous ad buying capabilities managing $200M/mo in ad spend across Facebook ads & Google ads. Yahav has also been developing innovative solutions in Facebook advertising for over 8 years.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

Shopify for the eCommerce shop, Facebook & Google Ads for marketing, Madgicx for ad optimization, and Canva for creative production.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) marketing technique that you've used to get amazing ROI

AI audiences based on an eRFM model - engagement Recency, Frequency, and Monetary value. We use this model for micro audience segmentation, which is then used for lookalike creation. These audiences have proven to provide incredible results compared to other prospecting audiences.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

Adding a link to the ad copy increases the clickable "real estate" of the ad. Based on the experience gained from managing more than $200M in monthly ad spend, we saw that this alone can increase ad performance.

Another tip would be getting people curious. It increases ad engagement and CTR and drives more traffic to your website. This improves the overall ad performance.

A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

TLF Apparel is a great example of a brand that saw an amazing success with Madgicx. It achieved the following remarkable results:

3.9x ROAS
1.5x Revenues
2.26x Purchases

Konstantin B.

The "Swiss Army knife" of digital marketing with over a decade of experience having managed $100+ million in ad spend. Passionate about the practicality of new technologies and the applicable theories of traditional means Konstantin strives to make the digital world easier to embrace for everyone who is eager to grow in it.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

True scaling brings about many new variables to deal with and customer dissatisfaction will always be one the most critical areas requiring special attention as the sales grow. Any tools that help you identify, improve, and/or automate communication with your existing clients will have to be prioritized. For example, going from 100 to 10,000 sales means that any negative feedback and concerns will also grow from 1 to 100 and you have to account for that. The best tools are often most simple, as you’re more likely to use them efficiently in their full capacity, and Google Alerts is one such free-to-use tool that allows you to receive a notification every time your brand or product is mentioned on the web. This provides an opportunity to "hug your haters" and ensure a stellar customer service experience in real-time. There are many paid options for similar Social Media Monitoring tools that will give you the same kind of opportunity to tend to your customers on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

Invest into brand awareness wisely and avoid taking the one-off “billboard” approach where you simply run a series of brand messaging / current promotion. Turn brand awareness into a proper full-funnel customer journey that builds trust and leads to conversions in multiple steps. Start with an entertaining long-format video that clearly showcases your product, but does not directly promote it, while targeting as reasonably broad of an audience as you’re able to, in order to keep the cost low. Then, retarget those people that watched your original video close to completion and serve them another general video that may be more direct in showcasing your brand, but does not promote it in an obvious manner. Everybody who engaged with or completed watching your second video will make for an excellent audience to now retarget with specific brand messaging and current offers.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

Killer ad-copy is all about consistent strategy and methodology that’s focused on improvement, rather than sneaky tricks and guaranteed-to-sell-more-or-your-money-back ebook tips. Play a game of “beat the winner” where you always have 2 ads running and continue making changes to the “loser” until you finally outperform your best ad. Rinse and repeat. Whether you use your losing ad-copy to test for humour, pricing policy, discount offers, or long vs short-form messaging, consistency in your methods will inevitably help you generate better results over time.

An eCommerce brand you promoted you are particularly proud of the results achieved

I’ve had the pleasure of working with a team at Flightnetwork to exponentially grow revenue from tens of millions to over $200MM in one of the most competitive verticals online.

Aristide B.

Aristide Basque is the co-founder of K6 Digital Facebook ads agency with expertise in paid advertising, website development and inbound marketing. He helps companies grow their revenue by leveraging the experience of his team and the knowledge of his clients.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

I think Facebook ads are one of the best tools for eCommerce businesses. There are a lot of different suppliers and companies that are here to help eCommerce businesses on a logistical basis, but the most important is ofcourse the bottom line. It's why companies who are able to truly leverage Facebook & Instagram ads to grow their sales will survive the longest.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

Trust Facebook's optimization. I see a lot of people wanting to control everything when it comes to their Facebook ads, but Facebook can really be your ally. We've been using Campaign Budget Optimization, Automatic Placements and Dynamic Creative and it really helped us generate way better results for all our clients.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

Ad copy is about clarity and impact. You want to have a message that is not too fancy but also not too direct. It's really hard to say what your brand does and how you sell it in under 5-10 words but it's necessary. We usually like to use words that compare your brand to another to make sure people understand.

An eCommerce brand you promoted you are particularly proud of the results achieved

We helped Mozart Supplies generate 3.22X ROI. We were able to leverage our experience with Facebook ads to direct their ad creative and Facebook's optimization to drive really good results. As we got more and more purchases, we created a lookalike audience of their buyers which allowed us to have an amazing CPA on the acquisition side!

Eagan H.

Eagan is the founder of Get Found Madison where he helps eCommerce, local and B2B businesses grow by reaching prospects and customers online through search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) ads, and then measuring the results using website analytics. He also teaches marketing at the DreamBank in Madison, Wisconsin.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

HotJar for heat maps, screen recordings and user polls. It's the best tool that I've found to get user data and improve your conversion rates.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

Custom Intent Audiences for Google Display Ads. The CPCs are often well under a dollar and you can target based on people's recent search and browsing history.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

Deeply understanding your customer persona and speaking viscerally to their pains and aspirations.

A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

We set our client Burman Coffee up on Facebook ads over a year ago and they are still seeing 20x Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).

David Gosselin

David Gosselin, founder and CEO of A-List Me, is an expert in influencer marketing. Originally a mechanical engineer David felt he hit the ceiling in his career. He quickly noticed there isn’t a ceiling when it comes to influencer marketing. He took a leap of faith and after 8 years has curated a dedicated marketing team that is now A-List Me. His focus is on providing e-commerce brands value by working with influencers. He has helped thousands of brands accomplish their goals and exceed expectations!

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

We have several tools in place to accelerate influencer campaign planning. One of my favorites is ClickUp. With ClickUp we can easily share influencer data with our clients. This allows our brand partners to launch campaigns on a tight deadline. In house marketing can be quite expensive, our systems increase efficiency while reducing costs - saving our clients time and money!

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

Influencer marketing is growing rapidly. The value of this industry doubled between 2019 and 2021. It’s no surprise paid- media drives the highest ROI of any strategy. There’s many reasons Influencer marketing has been so successful and suggested to all e-commerce brands when it comes to marketing & advertisements. To break it down: user generated content (UGC) performs best because audiences relate to influencers. Influencers build strong relationships with their followers creating a loyal community. This is why influencer marketing works better than other paid advertisements.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

Influencers know their brand and content better than anyone else. It's often beneficial for brands to give influencers creative space to create their own ad-copy. They know how to communicate with their followers. The copy should feel organic which will lead to increased brand awareness, website traffic and sales conversions.

An eCommerce brand you promoted you are particularly proud of the results achieved

We work with a range of companies from start ups to established brands: Amazon, Pepsi, Netflix, Fashion Nova, Under Armour, Anheuser, Busch, Bondi Boost etc. There’s no campaign too small or too big for A-List Me. It’s very motivating to witness our impact on a brand’s success. BURST Oral Care is a recent example. We have completed several successful campaigns for them in which we used influencers to

1) drive traffic to their website and convert sales, 2) create content to be used in other paid advertisements, 3) build brand awareness, and 4) utilize influencer content to build credibility on their QVC feature.

Alex Walz

Alex Andrade-Walz is a startup marketing veteran and founder of Revenue Hacker, a Seattle-based consultancy that helps early-stage tech companies grow and scale their businesses. He’s equal parts storyteller and data geek, and always open to talking shop with other marketers and entrepreneurs. You can reach him on LinkedIn or Twitter.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

Any of the email marketing solutions (Mailchimp, GetResponse, Active Campaigns, etc.). It’s less about the choice of software, and more about the fact that you’re engaging your leads and customers with regular, personalized content. Many companies focus too much on the acquisition side; but if those engaged customers are one-time buyers, it’s going to be very hard to scale or even make a profit.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

Use location as a tool.

One of the best things about eCommerce is that it breaks down barriers. Your total addressable market is no longer those living within a 30-minute drive. However, just because you can serve the entire world, doesn’t mean you should target them.

Most marketers have a pretty good understanding of the age and gender of their ideal customers, but location can be just as powerful of a demographic. Consumers in big cities are likely to respond to different offers than people in small towns; folks in Miami are much less likely to click on an ad for a winter jacket than someone in Chicago; and areas with high student populations and high retirement populations are likely to be as opposite as they come. It can be challenging to hone in on these characteristics immediately, but start with a few assumptions and test from there, looking at which regions net the best results.

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What makes a killer ad-copy?

Your ad’s gotta stand out. Period. We’re bombarded by so many ads each day that we’ve become blind to all but the best—those that elicit an emotional response or are truly relevant to the viewer.

Don’t be afraid to be a little different in your ad copy. Experiment with using humor, appealing to known customer pain points, and speaking to customer outcomes rather than products and features. Your first attempts may work, they may not, but at least the viewer will remember your ad.

A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

I managed advertising for a large personal injury firm that was spending six figures a month on Google search ads. When I picked up the client, they had a technically perfect setup from a previous digital marketing agency. Everything was tracked, the keyword strategy was smart, and the organization of the 100+ campaigns was done to a T. Yet, in my first week, I slashed their cost-per-lead by 50%, and I continued to get week-over-week improvements for the next several months.

It’s the story of continuous testing. The account was a textbook example of how a legal marketing campaign should be set up, but it needed someone looking over it daily—trying new keyword and bidding strategies, curating an ever-growing list of negative keywords based on actual search terms, and continually launching new campaigns to compare against the status quo.

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Jitka Z.

Jitka graduated from the Business University in Prague, Czech Republic. She then became in charge of marketing (both online and offline) for a packaging company called Amcor for the North American territory (Canada, USA, Mexico). She was then headhunted by Google, moved back to Europe where she advised customers on online marketing while exporting their businesses. She also helped them with localization of their campaigns for Czech, German, French, English and Spanish-speaking countries. After that, she worked as the International Marketing Manager for LogMeIn and finally moved to Munich to work for Criteo, where she was launching Criteo retargeting solution for ecommerce in 9 countries of central and eastern Europe. Jitka is currently on maternity leave, enjoying her 3 daughters and freelancing. She is fluent in 5 languages - Czech, English, German, French, and Spanish.

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A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

In this current fast-paced world your customers are surrounded by so much information every single day. There is a huge choice of products and websites to look at and shoppers often browse the internet, remain undecided and forget about your product. In the ecommerce world, a good retargeting tool such as Criteo for example will go a long way to help you to scale your business. And what can be easier than to bring back somebody who already purchased from you and offer him a complimentary product or repurchase of his favorite products after some interval. A lot of people put the products to the cart and then abandon just because somebody called, they did not have a credit card on hand or something else came up. Showing your customers their most favorite products again at the right time will bring them back to your website and increase your conversions.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

A lot of ecommerce owners nowadays scale their business by exporting to different countries. They have their websites and campaigns translated and they start delivering products across the EU for example. Quite often, a client comes to me with a question - my English Adwords campaign is performing so well, so why are my German and French ones doing so poorly? The secret lies in a good localisation of the campaign. Never have the campaigns just translated for your export market by a translator. Have them localised by an Adwords expert speaking that language. With simple translation you lose important keywords and synonyms for your products. Also sometimes the translator may translate something incorrectly because in the original language the particular keyword may have dual meaning, and that's where you are losing on performance and ROI.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

A killer adcopy is the most targeted one. Show your customer the products that he/she liked the most on your website, i.e. spend the most time looking at them in your website or offer your client complimentary products to the product he/she just purchased. But that’s not all. Go even further and show Dynamic Ads that consider shopper's overall habits. Use Criteo’s product recommendations tool, which will serve your client the best and most targeted dynamic Ad based on the shopper overall habits and thus reaches him/her with most targeted personalized product recommendations.

An eCommerce brand you promoted you are particularly proud of the results achieved

I was managing retargeting campaigns for the Mall Group, the biggest e-commerce Group in Central and Eastern Europe. I started with the czech brand http://mall.cz/ and as the performance of retargeting campaigns exceeded clients expectations I took over their other brands such as czech Vivantis, slovinian Mimovrste or slovakian Mall.Another client I am proud of is http://webnode.cz/. They are offering website and eshop templates for small businesses. It was a small Czech startup and me and my team helped them with their export campaigns. Their website is currently available in 16 languages and they have happy customers from over 40 countries.

Sergio F.

I am a paid media strategist with a focus in Facebook and Google Ads. I am always learning and keeping up to date in the paid advertising world. I have over 3 years of digital marketing experience and have worked with a company in-house, a marketing agency, and various small to medium sized businesses. I have managed well over a million dollars in advertising spend, from various niches ranging from education and lawyers to inc 5000 eCommerce brands. Now I work with eCommerce brands looking to scale. You can find me at sergiofelix.biz.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

There are several tools needed to scale an eCommerce business, but if I were to pick one I would say an email marketing software like Klaviyo with an email abandonment cart sequence and newsletter for leads/customers. The newsletter can be about promotions, new products, industry news, and anything to keep your list engaged with your brand.

Owning an email list has become imperative for any business not just eCommerce. Your email list is something that can not be taken away from you. If the majority of your traffic and sales are from paid media, then you are at risk of any algorithmic changes or policy changes that can hurt your business.

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A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

There are several tools needed to scale an eCommerce business, but if I were to pick one I would say an email marketing software like Klaviyo with an email abandonment cart sequence and newsletter for leads/customers. The newsletter can be about new promotions, new products, industry news, and anything to keep your list engaged with your brand.

Owning an email list has become imperative for any business not just eCommerce. Your email list is something that can not be taken away from you. If the majority of your traffic and sales are from paid media, then you are in risk of any algorithmic changes or policy changes that can hurt your business.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

You have to first make sure you understand the business, their products, and customers by creating a customer persona, possibly multiple.

Then try to think of the customers' needs and desires, how their business serves those needs or desires and why they should buy from you over competitors. When it comes to writing ad copy on social media you also want to catch people's attention with the first sentence to stop them as they are quickly scrolling down the feed.

An eCommerce brand you promoted you are particularly proud of the results achieved

I work with a brand called Two Step Performance, they sell car parts. They were doing well organically, but with paid media it really took off. I was able to get them over a 10X ROAS consistently with Facebook and Google Ads. I leveraged the hundreds of customers and data they had to create dynamic and smart shopping campaigns.

Cross P.

Cross is an experienced data-driven marketing professional with over 6 years of experience in digital and traditional marketing, owning and operating a successful Marketing Agency, working for a Global Fortune 500 company to consult on holistic marketing strategies for Top Marketing Agencies across North America, and becoming the Director of Strategic Optimization at Secret Sauce Media at just 22 years old. During this time, he has developed successful marketing strategies for Agencies and over 400 Clients to drive traffic, leads, conversions, boost brand awareness and increase ROAs.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

I believe Facebook & Instagram are the most powerful Social Media Marketing tools that exist and are absolutely essential for any successful eCommerce business. Facebook and their Ads Manager platform is the most well-designed advertising program available. Much more sophisticated than any of their competitors in terms of Ease of Use, Audience Targeting Opportunities, and Tracking Purposes. It is extremely important to use Facebook & Instagram ads to really drive you ROAs as an eCommerce brand; in my opinion those who take the time to develop high level Facebook campaigns will always succeed.

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A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

One thing I have noticed when it comes to Digital Marketing and especially in terms of Facebook ads, is that most businesses have a hard time scaling properly. What I have been teaching agencies and brands is to start off with your pre-determined daily campaign level budget and to then utilize the power of Facebook's Automated Rules. You can then set it up so that once the campaign has spent a specific amount of money it will start increasing the budget by (any number under 20% to ensure you don’t reset the learning phase) as long as the campaign is meeting a specific ROAs. You can also use rules to scale the budget down and or turn off campaigns/ad sets based on poor performance. This allows you to scale your campaigns easily without jeopardizing your results.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

Killer ad-copy is all about tailoring your message to your advertising mediums. Advertising targeting capabilities make it easy to show specific messages to specific groups of people which is why many people have that nailed down pat, unfortunately though, sometimes advertisers forget that each advertising medium has its own way that the audience interacts. For example, you wouldn’t put a large paragraph of information on an Instagram Ad as that wouldn’t be very successful since the platform is more visual. In that case you would want a short and sweet copy that gets right to the point.

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A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

I am currently working with a large luxury watch company. On just Facebook/Instagram alone we have been able to achieve a24X return on our Prospecting campaigns that are running to a mixture of Lookalike Audiences using different types of copy/creative. We have also been able to achieve a 62X return on our retargeting audiences by using dynamic ads with an offer for an extra bonus perk with each purchase. We also have a successful Google ads strategy, Snapchat ads, and Email marketing going on within the overall strategy that has brought in over $150,000 in Revenue for the month so far!

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Justin C.

Justin has been working as a Google Ads and web analytics expert since 2016. He's passionate about helping companies grow by generating leads and sales with online advertising. He has managed over $3M in annual ad spend and has helped companies scale to $1M+ in monthly revenue. Justin has traveled all over the world and worked remotely in over 25 countries. Visit digitaltechskills.com to learn more about Justin.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

My must have tool for scaling an ecommerce business is product data feed management software like DataFeedWatch or Feedonomics. This is especially true for any ecommerce business with many products. You can use these tools to create product data feeds for a wide variety of advertising platforms. Generally speaking, the better your product data feed, the better ad results you'll see. Put in the investments of time and money to have a feed that is better than your competition.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

If you have an account that is regularly generating a lot of conversions with significant conversion value, don't be afraid to do long term experiments with bidding strategies and algorithms that optimize for conversions or conversion value. I typically don't bid based on conversions or conversion value until an account has at least 30 conversions within a single month. But once that threshold has been met, I almost always see better long term performance by letting the conversion algorithms take full advantage of the data-rich environment.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

In my view, killer ad copy boils down to 3 main points: relevance, user benefit, and call to action. The copy has to be directly related to whatever the user is searching for because this will lead to better interaction rates with your ads, boost the quality score of your ads, lower your advertising costs, and ultimately make your adverting more profitable. The copy needs to succinctly demonstrate how the user benefits (save money, solve a problem, boost productivity, etc.). And of course a CTA to help encourage the user to actually make the click.

A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

While I can't mention the specific name of this eCommerce company due to client confidentiality and a NDA, they brought me on to handle their Google Ads and Bing Ads earlier this year. There was no budget limitation with this client. I could spend money however I deemed fit as long as the ROAS was good enough. Within a matter of months, I was able to scale the store up to $1M+ in non-branded monthly revenue while maintaining a ROAS greater than 300%.

Larry K.

Larry Kotch is a Digital Marketing expert based in London Shoreditch. His company The Brains - a Digital Marketing Agency SMEs and corporates sell mainly luxury and highly priced consumer goods on the internet.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

If you ask for an email address before the shipping information during checkout you will be able to effectively retarget abandoned carts and decrease cart abandonment. You can use a tool like klaviyo to set up an email automation series that welcomes new customers and email them special offers regularly over the next few years to get repeat business. The best strategy is to have an abandoned cart email series that drives people back to their original cart if they fail to proceed with a purchase. You can re-capture about 25% of abandoned baskets this way if done correctly.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

When looking to generate a good ROI and boost online eCommerce sales through paid media, you can do no better than to start with a Google Shopping campaign that is supported by Google search, display and social media remarketing. A formidable mix is best if used correctly. Google Shopping is the visitor's first touch point with your product and if they do not convert immediately or continue researching the product, then they will find you again on the search network or be reminded about your product through your remarketing campaigns.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

Strong ad copy should always accurately reflect what the person searched for originally. People are generally lazy and if they see an ad that talks about exactly what they searched for, then they will be more likely to click on it. This will give you a good CTR.Good ad copy also needs to include the core keywords that are relevant to the person's search. If someone is looking for a red bicycle helmet, then the ad should include this exact phrase, indicating to the user and to Google that this is the best ad for them.

An eCommerce brand you promoted you are particularly proud of the results achieved

I helped the DHL Africa e-Shop app to generate a 60% lower CPA in less than 6 months and a 7x return on advertising spend. The Campaign was so successful we were able to scale from 3 to 14 countries across Africa. Coming into such a large organisation as DHL and helping them scale the biggest e-Shop in Africa was a privilege and gave us an insight into how the African market differs from Europe in some fundamental and technical ways. We noticed an especially high CTR but a much lower conversion rate, therefore retargeting plays a huge role in the region.

Robbie R.

Robbie Richards is the Co-Founder of Virayo, an SEO agency that helps B2B SaaS companies scale their MRR. He is also the creator of The SEO Playbook training program, and author of a reputable independent SEO blog where he shares in-depth case studies and tutorials.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

SEMrush is a key tool in my arsenal, and one of the best tools for SEOs and content marketers. It allows me to quickly find out which channels - organic, paid, referral, social, direct - drive the most organic traffic across different devices. With that knowledge, I'm able to then quickly focus my analysis on the highest-growth areas. For example, SEMrush allows me to quickly drill in to see which keywords, URLs and/or subfolders drive the most search engine traffic. I can use these insights to build out a strategic content roadmap.

Similarly, if I find out that paid channels are driving a lot of traffic, I can see how much a competitor is spending, how that budget has trended over time, and then drill in to see which specific terms and ad copy have been rotation the longest. A good directional cue for high-converting terms. Then, I can see the landing pages they use to convert the paid traffic. It eliminates all the foundational guesswork.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) marketing technique that you've used to get amazing ROI

Retargeting people who enter varying stages of the sales funnel with different retargeting messaging. For example, if someone lands on a product page but doesn't convert, they might get targeting with a special offer or discount. If someone abandons their shopping cart, they might get see ad creative with a reminder that they forgot to checkout and relevant offer for free shipping, or a discount. The key is personalization, and aligning the messaging with the buyer stage.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

I'll always use a tool like SEMrush' Ad History report to find out which ads have been rotation the longest for my competitors across high-value terms. This gives me a good idea what ad frameworks are working well for them. On top of this, I try to stick closely to the AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire and Action) formula when writing ad copy.

A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

Ran a year long ad campaign across Google and Facebook for a brand that sells underwater LED lights to wake boats. The marketing campaigns generated a 5:1 ROI, and increased their online revenue by 700% in 12 months. I'm particularly proud of this campaign because it required a lot of audience research and segmentation, and required a lot of creativity when it cam to ad copy, imagery and landing page testing.

Ofer Z.

Hi, I am Ofer Zusman, Co-founder of Polpo Digital ("Head octopus" Polpo = Octopus). I've been a CRO, PPC, SEO, and an eCommerce marketing specialist for the last 20 years and wow how time flies…During this time there were many changes, improvements, new algorithms, and social networks. I witnessed the changes and the progress and I was always proud to be at the forefront of technology. During those years, I ran hundreds of campaigns and tens of thousands of products that were optimized, being at the forefront of marketing technology tackled difficulties and challenges before anyone else had the chance to solve them, I had to learn to solve them by myself. It gave me the ability to see far ahead to prepare for any new marketing technology. During my "free time", I'm an entrepreneur developing technical solutions for people with disabilities. I am also a children's book writer, and a cook.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

If I have to choose one must-have tool for scaling an eCommerce business it will definitely be Fixel. Fixel is a game-changer for marketers who used to create plenty of manual events to analyze and target their most relevant engaged visitors. It also simplifies targeting across a broad range of ad platforms, including Facebook and Google Ads. Fixel's AI-powered segmentation automatically highlights the most engaged visitors. Campaign managers can easily focus their remarketing on these visitors, as well as scale-out to new audiences with high-value seeds for lookalikes.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

A DSA+RLSA campaign combing with Dynamic Remarketing on Cart abandoned 3/7/14 with Google, Facebook and Bing (Surprise surprise, but Bing has 25% of mobile click share in the US). By using DSA campaigns, we can achieve a low bid and harvest a new keyword opportunity that will be generated automatically from your website. Combined with RLSA, Dynamic Remarketing in all the above Ad Networks will drive the highest ROI possible. Here are a few ground rules to achieve it:
1. Use a clear statement that best describes your benefits and offers in the description line.
2. monitor and Add Negative Keywords.And remember...Test, test, test, and scale!

What makes a killer ad-copy?

Killer ad-copy depends on your business, and in turn, your ad's objective and these naturally differ between businesses.For eCommerce businesses we've found that in most cases, carousel ads were the top-performing ad format.However, as most businesses have different objectives, you can't select a single copy, so I've found this set of ground rules to be very useful when crafting my copy:
1. Branding - Keep your ad's creative aligned with your brand guidelines: logo, colors, and design. Sending potential customers to a landing page or product that looks completely different from the ad they just clicked, will make them scratch their head asking "Is this what I've just seen?!"
2. Social proof - Show your audience people like them that have already purchased your product or service and are happy to use it and how it impacted them.
3. Real-life images - People appreciate authenticity. Use a real image of your product with real people that your audience can relate to. It requires using high-quality and in-focus images of the product, so avoid adding the product to stock photos. These feel suspicious or even scammy.
4. A clear and unique selling/value proposition and offer - You have only a few seconds to convince your ad viewer to click on your ad. Use a clear statement that best describes your product's benefits and offer. Who is this for? What will they get? Why should they pick you from all the others? Using these ground rules will always make a killer ad-copy! And remember...Test, test, test, and Scale!

An eCommerce brand you promoted you are particularly proud of the results achieved

We are proud of all our clients and achievements. One of our old clients was American Home Appliances, an eCommerce business located in the US with good people, and an open mind who gave us the freedom to test and scale new techniques. AHA had 150K products on their website, we used to run DSA campaigns to harvest new keywords and drive customers with low bid keywords, we used those keywords to build new search campaigns, shopping and remarketing campaigns. Over the 11 years we worked together we turned millions of millions of visitors to satisfied customers and created a positive ROI.

David Klein

David helps multi-family organizations maximize their marketing budget by establishing, measuring, and achieving their desired goals. In 2004, he started his own business publishing a local magazine and doing online marketing. From that time until now, he has been hooked on the power of efficient advertising. David specializes in: SEO, Advertising, PPC, and Adwords.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

Spyfu.com. This tool gives you great insights on SEO, SEM and competitors in one place. The monthly fee is reasonable and the data is very usable for deciding what products and keywords to go after both from a paid and organic standpoint.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) marketing technique that you've used to get amazing ROI

Paying social influencers. Look up local influencers on Instagram. Direct message them and ask what it would cost to promote your product. Having someone with credibility reach the right audience with the correct call to action (this should NOT be, buy my stuff) can really build your audience and generate results down the line.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

Build curiosity, interest, solve a problem and finally trust - in this order. That's why your ad copy should always be part of a progression A/B testing along the way. I don't there is any one killer ad copy for one ad. But, a well tested progression of ads is killer.

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A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

I am working with a large property management company here in Portland, OR that has used several vendors for digital advertising with no success. We implemented several of the ideas I have expressed on properties throughout the city and they are now fully occupied and adding more of their properties to our service.

Lior Z.

Lior Zelering is a digital strategist, designer, and media specialist with 15+ years of experience working with B2B and B2C brands from around the world.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

I think that a must-have tool for scaling and e-commerce business nowadays is an excellent chat interface. People want to feel as if they are in a physical store, ask questions, and get answers quickly. Mr. Porter's chat is a nice example of perfecting the onsite chat.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

A lot of agencies are avoiding prospecting campaigns on Facebook, but I think there is a way of getting them to work better by narrowing audiences by interests and behaviors, for example, you start with a group of interests and then you narrow down by user behavior.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

The right call to action and a special offer will always do the trick. I have seen concise texts work better than long and vice versa, so I am not sure what is better. I think the key is the design and the creative, on Facebook it can make a huge difference.

An eCommerce brand you promoted you are particularly proud of the results achieved

I am proud of my work with Bcure laser. It is not an e-commerce store per say since it is quite an expensive device, so it is more lead gen based. What we did was drill down using data to the right locations, demographics, and offered and created a comprehensive strategy from both sides, the media, and sales. The Bcure laser team headed by Itay Gal is hungry, fast, smart, and not afraid to take chances, and this was the key to their growth.

Nemanja Z.

Nemanja is the CEO of Funky Marketing, a company that creates demand generation programs primarily for the B2B software-based brands in the rapid growth phase and helps them to constantly generate revenue with inbound and content strategies and scale. The focus is on the results, with a slice of funk (a big fan of Motown, GTA, and funky music in general). He has nearly a decade of work in marketing and business development, and advanced experience in creating successful actionable strategies, achieving goals, and building high-performance teams for international and domestic clients from many industries and niches.

A must-have tool for scaling content marketing

When it comes to scaling content marketing a must-have is not a tool - it’s a distribution. Content needs to be created with distribution in mind. So many teams still write content for search engines just to forget it on the website. Create a distribution strategy, and based on that start creating the content. Like, how many posts can I get out of this article? Or, how many up-to-10 minute videos can I get out of this webinar? This way, you’re curating content for your audience, and you’re targeting your customers in all stages of their customers’ journey.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) content marketing technique that you've used

In case you have less than 5000 connections on Linkedin, send DM to all of them. Present yourself and get to know them. Don’t try to sell. This is how you’ll get feedback on your posts, new offers, and partnerships, and more - even new friends. Oh, one more thing. Set up a virtual coffee with some of them, and record those calls. This is how you’ll get fresh new content.

Which content platform have you seen the most success with?

It all depends on what success is. At the moment, Linkedin is the place to be when it comes to B2B marketing. We’re all in on the platform and it helped us to grow a brand in a six months.
It’s a shame that people aren’t realizing the potential of the platform. Each post of mine is being seen by at least 5000 people and a lot of them are being seen by 10 000 people. Imagine being invited to a conference where 10000 people are coming to listen to you? Well, you have it on Linkedin and it’s free.

A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

Hmm, when you’ve worked with more than 70 successful companies that’s a hard question. I’m always the proudest when we’re developing relationships with our clients and becoming partners - which means that we take over more projects from them, starting new projects together or pitching together a new client. This is the situation right now with 80% of our clients and I’m really proud of that fact. It means that they have trust in us.

Some of the clients we’re working with at the moment are Impact Hub Belgrade, Kamatica.rs.

Alex Brown

Alex Brown is CEO of Amasa, a leading performance marketing and growth hacking agency. A veteran marketer with over $500 million in profitably managed ad spend, Alex has spoken on some of the largest stages around the world on all things media buying, product marketing, and ecommerce strategy. Headquartered in San Diego, CA, Amasa represents a large client roster of ecommerce and lead generation businesses. His specialties include conversion rate optimization, paid media buying on Facebook, Google, and Native traffic sources, creative and web development.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

I would have to say VWO (Visual Website Optimizer) for running split tests and multi-variate tests. Most online advertisers spend tremendous amounts of time and energy trying to optimize ad campaigns, but neglect CRO (conversion rate optimization) on their website or sales funnel. Running price point tests, testing a wide range of different headlines, hero images, CTAs, etc. can have a major impact on your conversion rate, which can be the difference maker in running a profitable ad campaign on Facebook or Google Ads.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

Utilizing different funnel entry points: pre-sell pages, advertorials, quiz funnels, etc. Pre-sell pages give you an opportunity to present the the problem, the lack of viable alternatives, and how your product or service is the ideal solution to said problems. If your product is customizable or can be tailored to individual requirements or desires, a quiz can provide the user an outlet to answer questions or give you (the brand) input on what specifics they’re looking for. Great for health and wellness, supplements, food delivery, and subscription services!

What makes a killer ad-copy?

Attention, Interest, Decision, Action (AIDA). We also love using customer testimonials in ad copy as people trust reviews more than a brand slogan or tagline.

A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

Colgate, and their Teeth Whitening Device. When our agency took over, the brand was struggling with high CPAs, low ad CTRs, and a lower than desired subscription take rate. By optimizing their store (highlighting the product benefits, adding AFFIRM for installment payments, improving the mobile experience, and repositioning the subscription option so that it was more prominently displayed), we were able to almost double their subscription take rate and drive down their CPA by more than $100.

Viet N.

Data-minded individual with strong knowledge & experience in Performance marketing, Ad Operations & Analytics. A lifelong learner with “testing” mindset, can-do attitude, strong passion to succeed in high-tempo, fast-moving, forever-evolving environments.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

There are many great tools out there for eCommerce businesses, but Google Analytics is a must-have as it can help e-commerce owners discover many things. For instance, it helps you find out how much time people spend on your landing page, how many page visits you receive, which products are most viewed, where the traffic comes from, which pages visitors drop off. Based on tracking events, we can decide which products should be promoted, where and how to promote these products, and how to optimize your ecommerce sites for better conversions.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

Retargeting or remarketing is the best way to enhance ROI. Retargeting is so effective because it focuses your ad spend on audiences or people who are already familiar with your brand and your products. That's why we always see a much higher ROI coming from retargeting campaigns than branding or prospecting campaigns. Make sure that Facebook pixel, Google Ads pixel, or DPS´s pixel is properly placed in your ecommerce sites, so that we can populate audiences, and then retarget your website visitors. Especially retarget people who view a specific product or leave abandoned carts. Retargeting campaigns usually show relevant content which make people feel strongly interested in your products and they can’t help it but buy something.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

A Killer ad-copy is content which is relevant to products you want to sell, and extremely tempting. Viewers cannot stand clicking on your ad or CTA to learn more about your products. To create a killer ad-copy, we need to compose appealing descriptions with persuasive words. Added to this, Call-to-action (CTA) and a quality image or video plus an appealing description will make your ad successful.

An eCommerce brand you promoted you are particularly proud of the results achieved

I've worked with - TSC, Etsy, Micavet and RedBubble.‍ We've increased customer lifetime value (CLV) > 3 x customer acquisition cost (CAC). Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) or ROI is 300% - 500%.

Matija G.

Matija is a Marketing expert with 5+ years of experience. He has worked with several marketing agencies & global firms.
His fields of expertise are content marketing, branding, web design, growth hacking, product management, and UI/UX.
He is performance driven, innovative, determined, passionate, a human-centered marketer & designer specializing in creating clear & intuitive experiences, communicate a desirable message and bring business results.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

Surprisingly - a project management tool of your choice. When scaling a business, you’re scaling operations, and making sure everybody does what, when, and how he’s supposed to do - is mandatory. Outside of PM tools, I find LeadEnforce super-valuable for paid-advertising and Lemlist for cold outreach.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

A/B testing with 10+ creatives variations + personalization for each target group worked like charm for us, whether we’re talking about direct offers or newsjacking-educational lead magnets. Structure your creatives and copy for each stage of the funnel and learn from data.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

Why - How - What = Problem - Solution - Impact.

Sounds simple?

Now make X variations for different target groups.
Now make Y variations for each target group.

Analyze data and let the algorithm tell you which one is the ‘killer’.

A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

Glorify App is recognized as the go-to Ecommerce design tool by Industry leaders, got nominated for the Best design tool of 2019 by Product Hunt & managed to acquire 19K+ users in just one year, with a retention rate of over 90%.

Leon O.

Leon O'Neill is a marketing professional with over 7 years of experience. Having previously lead a paid social team in GroupM, he now works in one of Germanys top start ups, Crashtest Security, and has a keen interest in B2B, Enterprise and SaaS marketing and will soon be launching a blog on these very topics.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

Having a solid correlation between your revenue and your paid media spend is nirvana for scaling ecommerce or any performance activity. There are a number of methods and tools that can help you achieve this but even mastering the basics within Facebook & Googles Ad Platform should be enough for most marketers.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

Lookalike audiences built from high value customers usually work a treat. For Ecommerce this takes shape of your High LTV customers, try keep the audience limited and test in increments to try scale it. Always be aware of low sample sizes as well (I would think 500-1,000 minimum.)

What makes a killer ad-copy?

Two most important things -
1. Simplicity - People don't spend a long time reading, you also have to be aware of language proficiency when advertising internationally.
2. Uniqueness - It's important that your copy (while simple) stands out, everyone has a competitor and most of them say similar things that you do.

An eCommerce brand you promoted you are particularly proud of the results achieved

I ran campaigns for a large B2B government initiative driving relevant buyer leads from niche industries all across the globe which resulted in hundreds of qualified leads driven via LinkedIN content. The smaller the target audience, the harder and more interesting the challenge.

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Spencer Kelty

Spencer Kelty is the Programs Director and Senior Strategist at Rocketship, a Seattle-based marketing consulting agency bringing high ROI results for B2B and big-ticket B2C businesses. Spencer has worked in marketing and content creation for over seven years, creating winning marketing strategies for many mid-sized companies and startups.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

Bringing in new customers is a huge expense, yet all too often e-commerce brands put all their focus behind making the first sale and completely ignore repeat business (or current customers). To maintain long-term growth and profitability, a well-managed marketing automation tool/CRM can make all the difference. By choosing the right CRM for your e-commerce site and correctly configuring it, you can send incredibly dynamic automated marketing campaigns in response to consumer actions. Abandoned shopping cart notifications, dynamic chatbots, and custom offers can lead to huge increases in repeat purchases for comparatively little cost.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

Every product and customer audience requires a different strategy to reach effectively. But an almost universally great tool is Facebook video retargeting funnels. Once you have identified and built your target audience, run an awareness campaign with a video featuring your product. Then, use Facebook retargeting to serve product ads to everyone who watched the video. This process eliminates wasted ad spend and achieves an extremely high ROI.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

Keep it empathetic, concise, and natural. Understanding and emphasizing with your audience lets you know what their questions, needs, and desires are. Great ad copy isn’t about gimmicks. It isn’t about creativity. It’s about empathy and knowledge of your audience.

A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

Over the past few months, a lot of my energy has been spent working with a large regional staffing agency. While it isn’t exactly an e-commerce based company, my team and I have been able to take their online customer acquisition to the next level. By redesigning their website’s conversion process, building new (SEO-friendly) content, and deploying modest paid media spends we were able to more that double their conversions in just a few months.

Alon A.

Owner of Alon Ash Digital. Entrepreneur, digital marketing consultant, teacher and human-OS hacker.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

I would have to say Oribi. As a Facebook guy I get frustrated by the Google Analytics UX and its limited dimension of data. Going from Google to Oribi is like getting out of a wild chaotic forest into a French chateau garden. Beautifully designed dashboards focus on events, users and conversions. With individual user behavior data that allows you to analyze the most important data points: Who are my clients? And what drives them to convert. So yes we still need the Analytics dinosaur for the bigger picture (it's free), but it is so much nicer to have (for a price). Its an easy to use tool with holistic attribution capabilities.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

My biggest challenge in paid media campaigns is to make the client understand that “As a brand sows, so shall it reap.” In this age of saturated markets and a “what's in it for me” attitude, there are no shortcuts. A brand must establish a positive emotional connection with users by allocating budgets to paid media campaigns with the sole goal of delivering value by entertaining and enriching their audience. Increasing ROI starts by investing in your audience.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

Coming up with a “killer ad copy” is all about understanding the distinct user’s state-of-mind on each channel, it is crucial to customise your message per persona and platform! Have fun on TikTok, be famous on Instagram, be thematic and beautiful on Pinterest, be knowledgeable on YouTube and then convert on Facebook and Google Ads. Laziness or failing to understand the context can lead to awkward results. Get it right and you can win big time.

An eCommerce brand you promoted you are particularly proud of the results achieved

FloraQueen - Online International Flower delivery, San Valentine Campaign 2020.A 4 phases campaign in 7 languages. Achieving 12 x ROI and generating millions of euros.
Phase 1: Build up - Emotional: Flowers make people happy.
Phase 2: Pre-campaign: What would make your partner happy?
Phase 3: Main Campaign: Global orders - local fresh delivery. Order from anywhere, send everywhere.
Phase 4: Post campaign - Blessings and wishes of love and happiness.

Andrew W.

My name’s Andrew and I’m originally from Texas. From B2C to B2B, my experience in the digital marketing space over the past 10 years has orbited around branding and content marketing for brands and corporations alike. I’m a sucker for podcasts, interviews and documentaries. I don’t have a spirit animal but if I did, it would pick one with a longer attention span.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce

Everyone talks about data and everyone measures it, but notice how nobody’s talking about AI automation or how it’s being used by the giants, competition, especially in hi-tech. To assist our clients, we designed our system to be “semi-automatic” like the Uzi (an Israeli invention), with a human touch using personalization as an authentic element in the digital customer journey. Your eCommerce strategy, whether B2C or B2B, will always perform better with customers who complete the journey. Using data and remarketing tactics, our unique hybrid approach combines ABM aspects with organic data, segmentation and an array of promotional artillery.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) marketing technique that you've used to get amazing ROI

Without a shadow of a doubt, I would definitely say Influencer Marketing. Aside from remarketing, Taboola/Outbrain, and GDN/social media campaigns, one of our clients wanted social media influencers from Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest before running a giveaway challenge on Facebook. Engagement rates and ROI went through the roof! Not only did we create long-term growth by building an online community, but we also opened the floodgates for collecting additional, evergreen, UGC (User Generated Content)that can be used in future promotional campaigns. By investing in a few powerful influencers, we were able to build long lasting momentum for our clients.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

Sadly, negative headlines attract a lot more attention, yet we still expect a happy ending. It ultimately boils down to storytelling. Killer ad copy delivers valuable information using the appropriate niche lingo and is highly relevant(and often personalized) to the target audience. By considering all of the above in your customer journey’s ad copy, you will succeed at effectively piquing your audience’s interest and creating an authentic connection to the brand. PS... Keep it short ;)

A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

From the slogan to the product names and fromzero presence to building a community, Booya Digital is responsible for thecreation and launch of Curver/Keter Plastics’ new digital transformation fromB2B to B2C with their DNVB, “Freedom Of Motion”, or “FOM”.

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Manu V.

Manu is an eCommerce Marketing Expert, specializing in Facebook Ads, Google Ads and Email Marketing. Founder of Australia-based agency Nuver Digital, Manu has worked directly with several 6, 7 and 8 figure eCommerce brands to consistently drive month on month growth.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

Make sure your foundations are set in a specific channel and then move on to the next one. There are many customer acquisition channels - Facebook Ads, Google Ads, SEO and Influencers. Each channel works for different industries. See what your competitors are doing, join them and then beat them by doing it better.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

For Facebook advertising - If you have lots of creative, but don't know what will work well, setup a Dynamic Campaign. This will cycle through up to 10 images and videos, allow you to test 5 captions and 5 headlines, producing hundreds of possible Ads and identifying what works best. The winning Ads can then be scaled and you can keep testing more and more Ads. This is the best use of Facebook's powerful machine learning algorithm.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

I like to follow the KISS principle - Keep It Simple, Stupid. What problem are you solving and how are you solving it? Build trust and credibility and let the creative speak for itself. Pair simple ad copy with great videos (if it's relevant to your product) which explains the problem, solution and product and you've got some winning Ads.

An eCommerce brand you promoted you are particularly proud of the results achieved

I worked with an Australian brand called Classic Homeware & Gifts to launch their online store from scratch. With 7 successful retail stores in Australia, they had validated products but it was time to take them online. We launched a Shopify website, setup Facebook Ads, Google Ads and Email marketing and took them from 0 to $150k per month in just 4 months.

Davit A.

CEO & founder of Conquerrr, a digital marketing agency with a focus on PPC & UI/UX design.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

Google Analytics must be it. Whatever platform you use for running ads, you have to have Google Analytics to back up your metrics and performance. From there, you can effectively scale any type of campaign you have. I’ll admit that a lot of people find it overwhelming to use for the sheer amount of reports that it offers but just the ability to create custom audiences based on engagement, build segments, and marketing funnels should be a quick sale.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

Playing with the machine learning of the ad platform that you’re using. For example, on Google Ads, I will normally start with Manual CPC for search campaigns and Maximize Clicks for display campaigns. Clicks are cheaper for display, so I don’t mind paying the dollar even if some of the clicks happen to be irrelevant. Then, once I reach 10-15 conversions, I switch to Maximize Conversions or Target CPA, depending on if you’re going for volume or a specific target for cost. The idea here is that you’re letting the platform learn what’s best for you before letting it take over.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

Ah, there are so many things involved in it. But if I was to focus on the top two, I’d say - 1. Tell a story by connecting all of the available copy space. If your headline talks about one thing, don’t repeat in the description, but rather continue the idea. 2. Always make sure to tell the user what you do or sell upfront. You don’t want people clicking on your ad, going to the landing page just to find out it isn’t what they were looking for.

A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

Working with Plannuh, a marketing budgeting software company, we achieved massive success on LinkedIn Ads, generating top of the funnel leads. The key was drilling down to a particular audience, offering resources for free, and continuously testing new ad copy, videos, banners, and targeting parameters.

Andrew D.

Even though he is at the beginning of his marketing career, he has already made great strides in his profession. He wants to help companies solve problems by connecting them to culture through digital advertising. Today, he is working for Ziff Davis on their Offers.com and PCMag properties.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

Optimizely - Marketing is scientific in process at its core, this means that you must test, test, test! If you are not A/B testing your sales copy and landing pages, you should start! Multivariate testing allows you to make the necessary changes to your user experience while carefully examining the results of your data. This enables you to construct a hypothesis, and to learn why certain elements on your page are working while other ones aren’t. Optimizely helps you boost conversions, and improve user experience, by giving you an intuitive platform that lets you test and iterate on your ideas faster.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

Remarketing strategy - many of us think remarketing is throwing up an ad and showing it to a user who has previously been on our site. While this is not completely wrong, no one talks about remarketing strategy! Here are a couple of strategies for you: Run an ad with customer testimonials for 5-10 days, then run an ad with a sale/discount for 5-10 days and if they still haven't converted, keep hitting them with branded ads for up to 30 days. You can also try running ads with different users sharing their testimonials on multiple platforms (Twitter, FB, Outbrain, GDN). This gives the impression that there are many different people saying good things about your product!

What makes a killer ad-copy?

Give users a reason to buy, your USP is only one of those reasons! Here are THE 10 reasons people buy, they want to either - make money, save money, save time, avoid effort, escape mental or physical pain, get more comfort, achieve greater health, gain praise, feel loved, or increase their popularity. If you can tie multiples of these reasons back to your product, people will buy it. Think about it this way, you can't cook a delicious meal with one ingredient. Your meal will taste better with sides and seasonings!

An eCommerce brand you promoted you are particularly proud of the results achieved

While I was working at http://offers.com/, I did a keyword/market cap analysis that found over 800 keywords we were not running on. This ended up Contributing to an additional $531k in revenue and $206k in profits over the course of six months. During this time I was able to maintain a 40% margin profile on a 30% goal. I also Increased email subscribers by 52% (105k/mo to 160k/mo) via paid search. It was exciting to be able to make a significant impact for a company that I worked for.

Nick B.

Nick is the Marketing Manager at HypeAuditor, an influencer marketing platform. He has 12+ years of experience in influencer marketing and public relations, has a passion for data, is a father, husband, and a lifelong learner.

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A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

If you want to scale eCommerce, then try Influencer marketing. Influencer marketing is on a rise. In a time of disaster, people rely on social services. We are seeing surges in traffic, especially in areas most affected. The use of social networks is growing, and therefore the amount of advertising money that is being redirected from offline to online is also growing. Brands and advertisers are searching for the most effective ways to share their message to their audiences. HypeAuditor is a must have tool for Influencer marketing. It helps to discover the right influencer for your business and to check influencer's accounts for fraud, engagement rate, and audience quality.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) marketing technique that you've used to get amazing ROI

Repurpose influencers content.
1. Pay influencers to make an Instagram post and a few Stories.
2. Agree in advance about the possibilities of further use of this content in advertising.
3. Make an ad from influencer's post. Target the ad on influencers audience.
4. Profit.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

I think that there are two main factors that affect ad copy quality:
The first factor is studying the needs and pains of the target audience. Without a deep understanding of your audience, it is difficult now to break through the information noise. The second one is to test multiple ad copies. Only the audience can show which ad is the best. It is important to correctly define the criterion of success.

A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

We helped a large restaurant chain carry out a social campaign to support doctors. During these difficult times, the restaurant chain delivered meals to doctors at hospitals free of charge. the campaign gained wide coverage in the media and helped the chain survive in this COVID era, with minimal losses through food delivery

Dan K.

Digital Marketing & Automation Expert. Founder of Dan Digital. We help companies grow with smart marketing.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

When trying to convert potential customers into clients, the first tool that I would recommend is Yotpo for collecting customer reviews, improving visual marketing, increasing trust among potential buyers and loyalty among existing ones. It collects high quality content from the users and dynamically displays it onsite. This is a simple and yet a powerful tool to increase conversion rates and stay connected with your customers after the purchase period. You can find this tool in a lot of e-commerce sites such as Steve Madden, MVMT and James Allen.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

To drive the highest ROI for any type of business I would recommend investing in an advanced remarketing campaign. Some of the marketing platforms allow you to store website visitors data up to 540 days. Let’s take an example to demonstrate the power of this method. An international toy company uses this remarketing technique in their paid media. In their segmentation they divide website purchases by age group of the product. For example: if a user buys a product for a 6-years old kid then they store his information in order to promote new products to him for when he turns 7 years old a year later.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

There are a lot of things to consider when thinking of a perfect ad copy.I believe that a good copy should always have the customer in the center and place the product second. The ad should show him a solution to his needs or show him the desired state that he wants to achieve in a simple form. Sometimes we need time to create that perfect ad and thank God that in digital marketing we can A/B test to do so. It’s always a good idea to include numbers or statistics in the ad’s headline each time when you create an A\B test for your campaign.“If you tell grown-ups, ‘I saw a beautiful red brick house, with geraniums at the windows and doves at the roof…,’ they won’t be able to imagine such a house. You have to tell them, ‘I saw a house worth a thousand francs.’ Then they exclaim, ‘What a pretty house!” - The Little Prince

An eCommerce brand you promoted you are particularly proud of the results achieved

By performing a multi-channel optimization and leveraging an existing marketing activity in paid media channels, we have helped a fashion Israeli brand called Dana Ashkenazi to significantly improve marketing results as well as website performance in a highly competitive industry. After the first months of work we saw an increase of 40% in website sales, 28% increase in conversion rate and a 10% increase in cart value.

Pearl Lemon

SEO Expert- Founder and CEO of Pearl Lemon, a multi-award-winning SEO agency in London. Bootstrapped the business from my mum's house to a £275k company in less than 24 months. Invested in algorithmic trading, launched 5-figure online courses and continue to grow.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce

Build a compelling email newsletter. Most businesses just use it for sending bland emails. Instead it should be used for creating highly engaging content and build customer loyalty!

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) marketing technique that you've used to get amazing ROI

Email marketing, but not just emails...personalised and highly energetic emails. By kicking the tone up a notch there is much better engagement with the campaigns. Included in these are also additional resources for sign-ups and coming on board. Things like access to courses and ultimate guides free to subscribers. These additional freebies allow for the message itself to be that more enticing as it adds an emotional factor that is satisfied for the reader, such as “what’s in it for me?”

Which eCommerce platform or marketing channel have you seen the most success with?

Upwork has been excellent for us in hiring as well as winning work. It also demonstrates track record in a way that's more objective than case studies on your own website.

A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

Astteria Diamonds. Astteria has been an ongoing client with us for a while now. We have been running an ongoing SEO campaign with Astteria since February 2019. We ran and are running a Magento based e-commerce campaign. In just three months alone we were able to get their site to have an increase in site visits by 30% and an increase in click-to-chat by 42%.

Derric H.

Derric Haynie is the host of “The Future of Ecommerce” podcast and Chief Ecommerce Technologist at Ecommercetech.io – Where Ecommerce stores go to research, discover, and buy the right tools to grow their store. Half of his day is spent reviewing tech tools, and the other half is talking with merchants to help them discover which solutions are right for them. When he’s not doing that, you can find him speaking, networking, or grabbing a drink at any of your favorite Ecommerce events.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce

There's one thing everyone forgets as they scale... Their customers. No I'm not kidding. At one point or another, your customer service will lag behind and ultimately cost you a lot in not only repeat business, but also shipping, returns, and even first-purchase conversions. A tool that can solve this is Gorgias, a helpdesk built specifically for scaling Ecommerce brands. It's their deep Shopify integration and really robust rules and macros that make it more powerful than an average helpdesk.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) marketing technique that you've used to get amazing ROI

My favorite tactic is called the double referral. It's simple enough that anyone can do it, but you have to figure out the right products and margins to work this with, let me explain. Post-purchase, put a little blurb at the bottom of your transactional emails that says, "If you use 'this code' (and give them a custom code to them) you and your friend will both get an extra product in your next order." This works extremely well for subscription brands, but can work for any business. The product you are giving them is something cheaper than 1/2 (because you give away 2) of your typical cost of customer acquisiton. In beauty, it could be extra lashes or brushes. In apparel, it could be socks. The key is that both the person telling the friend and the friend get the product, because that is what triggers their little "Help me out and you'll get this for free," line that they will make it work like a charm. And obviously you can turn the small blurb at the end of one email into a dedicated campaign itself.

Which eCommerce platform or marketing channel have you seen the most success with?

Every business will have a drastically different acquisition strategy. The one channel no one seems to take the biggest advantage of is the cheapest one - word of mouth. Better customer service = better word of mouth. Add a double referral strategy = better word of mouth. Increasing word of mouth exponentiates your growth rate and is often the best way to grow any Ecommerce business.

A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

I took Boxycharm from $0 in ad spend to over $300k/month in under 6 months with some great creative and strong optimization strategies. It was a good run.

Jason C.

Jason is a former attorney and CPA, who discovered his passion for digital marketing and has become an SEO and eCommerce expert. He has written 2 books on Amazon marketing & SEO and is the CEO and founder of a marketing agency in Los Angeles called Get Visible Inc.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

My favorits is an eCom platform (www.Adrecom.net) that sits between Shopify and Magento in terms of cost. It's a tightly integrated CMS and Shopping cart system.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

Boost and Roost. It's 3-part combination of writing an organic post, boosting it and then adding personal outreach in order to get virality out of the post. And then do the typical remarketing to recycle the traffic.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

Saying the unexpected. Simply breaking the rhythm in order to overcome the natural tendency to ignore and not see the white noise of ordinary text. So if I start telling you about purple cows, you want to know why I didn't say brown cows.

A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of). www.CrazyCups.com is the world's largest flavored coffee cup company. They have more flavors for Kcup devices than anyone. We have created fun videos and static images that are captivating and brand building. Client is thrilled because he's getting people into his email list on top of getting direct sales from outreach.

Ben K.

Ben Kazinik is a marketing expert with 7+ years of experience in ecommerce, email marketing, customer experience and content strategy. He’s worked for several really cool companies - Brightech, eClincher (the social media tool), and 1World. He loves to meet marketers, see where he could help, and read marketing books in his spare time.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

Wow there are so many amazing tools that I’ve found over the years that I don’t know where to start. For increasing site conversions I would recommend creating a wheel pop in Privy. It helped us to convert over 11% of our site users into leads and convert over $300K in sales. For UGC and social proof I would use Pixlee, Loox, or FourSixty. They are all great but each one is built for a little different purpose, so it depends on which eCommerce platform you are using and which other tools you need your UGC system to be integrated with. For conversion optimization, I would strongly recommend ConvertCart which is a comprehensive CRO solution and they have a whole team of designers and developers that create each A/B test for you and focus on your improving your ROI. For decreasing abandoned carts I would recommend LiveRecover, they send text messages to your clients and create conversions live to bring them back to your site.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

I would say that an ecommerce brand should utilize multiple marketing channels and retarget the same audience using those channels. So if you are only sending emails and doing retargeting on Facebook, I would recommend to power up some Pinterest Ads, use Outbrain or Taboola to become visible on the Google Display Network, and send push notifications, chat messages on Messenger, and SMS. The more touchpoints you optimize in your customer’s journey the higher the chances that you close them.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

Killer ad copy accentuates and hits on the nail of the problem that the customer is having, and then offers a solution for them. Shopping is emotional and most purchases are emotional buys so it’s important that you think of that when you are creating your ad copy.

An eCommerce brand you promoted you are particularly proud of the results achieved

I’ve worked with Brightech, a lighting company in the US where I’ve set up 15-17 different marketing channels. Our focus was a more holistic approach to create an omnichannel strategy and we were pretty successful. We grew sales to over $1M annually, increased conversion on the site and expanded our operations to many more niches and online marketplaces.

Sara L.

Sara Larsen is a public company CMO with 20+ years international marketing experience growing software revenue streams through a customer-centric marketing approach. Sara has developed a methodology to support hyper growth, marketing ROI, and uniquely tell a brand’s story with impact. She’s most recently the CMO of Brightcove, the market leading video streaming platform. Previously she’s served as Vice President, Americas Marketing and Communications at Dassault Systemes, the industry leading engineering software company. In that role she was responsible for go-to- market activities in the Americas across three sales channels and twelve industry verticals. Earlier in her career, Sara held various marketing leadership roles at SAP Americas, including running SAP’s digital marketing initiatives, and at IBM, where she led marketing for IBM’s channels business. A native of Fargo, ND, Sara is a graduate of Truman State University and Syracuse University.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

Video. It's the most tactile way to share an on-line experience- either through a visual product demonstration or a user/buyer review. Video views in the retail industry have grown exponentially in the past year- including 114% in Q2 alone. A video strategy is a must have for retailers who now need to building a robust on-line audience with shoppers, as well as support traditional in-store retail formats.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

Paid editorials. I know it sounds old school- but good content that is useful is relevant- even if in a paid editorial format. Some call it native advertising, or paid social. Net, its ensuring good content that's helpful gets in front of the right people.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

Simple. "Would I read this and care". If you can't say yes, send it back for a re-write. Every buyer is a person- and most people get too much content thrown at them daily. If you use too much industry jargon and are too wordy, people will tune you out. Be clear, be impactful, and say what really matters.

A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

6sense. They get the new way people, on behalf of companies, research and ultimately buy. They understand the mystical 'buyer journey'. They have driven marketing ROI for me higher than I've ever seen in my career.

Brent Z.

After spending a few years at a B2B marketing agency managing Google Ads, Brent founded AMZ Pathfinder in the summer of 2015 after helping a friend advertise his products on Amazon and seeing firsthand the incredible potential Amazon had to become one of the big players in the online advertising world.

Now he heads up a team of 17 people from all around the globe who drive results for Amazon businesses in the North American and EU marketplaces, with a recent focus on Amazon’s DSP Display Advertising platform.

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A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

There are two types of software that are absolutely critical for the Amazon marketplace in particular: one to help manage your on-platform advertising efforts, and one to keep track of ALL the financial aspects of the business since Amazon's fees and methods of accounting can be very confusing to navigate. Since advertising is one of the biggest levers that businesses have to boost exposure and accelerate sales velocity, ensuring ads are a contributing to your business instead of coting your money is key and good software will help. We recommend Prestozon which we also use at the agency level.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

Amazon recently added a type of advertisement called Sponsored Brands Video that for the first time takes video advertising mainstream on the platform, allowing businesses to feature 15-40 second long clips that can appear on both desktop and mobile devices. This has proved to be a great avenue for not only visibility and but also driving conversions. Our clients who had existing video creative ready to go from day 1 or were able to quickly put something together (it does not need to be Hollywood quality!) were able to take advantage of lower Cost-Per-Clicks before competitors even knew what hit them.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

Alignment with shopper desires and ensuring that what they get is what they expect when they click through. Aligning your message with the keywords and shopper persona is what will make your copy resonate with the right audience. In a ecommerce context this should lead to sales or at least metrics that indicate that person is moving through the consideration phase. It's also worth noting: ad copy does not have to be grammatically correct. For a good example of this see any recent Apple ad campaigns : )

A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

We've for nearly 5 years now worked with a brand called KeySmart that is one of our cornerstone clients. They started as a Kickstarter product born from some genius insights and have blossomed into a large company with an ever-expanding lineup of products. They even weathered the COVID-19 market turbulence and came out on the other side even stronger. We've helped them grow on nearly every Amazon marketplace and have managed millions of dollars in ad spend through multiple Q4s, Prime Days, and big product launches.

Chris B.

Chris is the founder of BowlerWorks LLC, a digital marketing consultancy. Chris is a seasoned marketer with a passion and focus around helping companies orchestrate all aspects of their marketing mix, whether it's a website, ecommerce strategy, social marketing, paid media and email. His extensive brand work covers nearly every category from B2C to B2B marketing. Chris most recently launched the U.S. operation at Flipside Group, a marketing agency based in the UK. As part of the Weber Shandwick network, he partnered with multiple clients delivering projects across web & mobile app development, ecommerce strategies, paid media and AI-powered experiences. Previously at Razorfish, Chris established and grew the social media and content marketing practice into one of the largest teams within the Publicis network. Previously, Chris was with http://agency.com/ where he led display media, SEO, and paid search, as well as Campbell Mithun Advertising, with a start in media planning and buying.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

Access to training and knowledge bases are a critical tool for any eCommerce practitioner. To truly scale your business, you need to go broad and deep. Going broad is all about turning on multiple platforms. Going deep means switching on new targets and ad formats within any given platform. So, in order to go broad and deep you need to tap into platform knowledge bases to get up to speed on the latest tactics. One indispensable tool is something like Udemy, which offers course work for every platform in easy and quick modules.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

Negative Targeting! Yes, it sounds counter-intuitive but the concept of exclusion is key to ROI success. In Google Ads, for example, you should strive to have more negative keywords than actual keywords and phrases. This simple tactic will prevent wasteful spending on non-converting keywords. Similarly, excluding recent purchasers is another way to minimize ad impressions being served to customers who have already converted. So, adopt the mindset of exclusion – not just targeting!

What makes a killer ad-copy?

Surprisingly, it’s not about the ad copy, it’s about ad copy that compliments the image or video it is served alongside! Viewers focus first on imagery, especially as they scroll through their newsfeed or browser. So, pick the imagery first and then write the ad copy that amplifies the meaning in the visual. That way, you will be prioritizing the elements that are most important for a successful ad – the visuals.

An eCommerce brand you promoted you are particularly proud of the results achieved

I recently helped promote a cancer book with important and life-saving advice for cancer and chronic disease patients. While the cause was personally rewarding, there were interesting challenges in creating compelling ads as well as identifying ways to target the relevant audiences. By week 7, the campaign had already achieved nearly a 4-to1 ROI.

Eldar E.

My name is Eldar Etel, I’m 31 years old and I live in Tel Aviv, Israel. I have over 6 years of experience with digital marketing campaigns on Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Taboola, Outbrain, Youtube, and Linkedin. In the last 4 years I opened my own business where I manage marketing campaigns for clients in Israel and around the world. I’m a huge PPC dork. To keep up with new trends, I spend most of my time researching and reading a lot of marketing articles. I follow digital experts on blogs and social media, and I’m also highly involved in large marketing forums.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

Two must-have tools for scaling e-commerce business are dynamic remarketing with Facebook catalog, and creating smart events with Google Tag Manager to distill my targeted audience. With dynamic remarketing on Facebook/Instagram, we deliver ads with a specific item that the customer is interested in – users that have either added to cart or just viewed a product page. With Google Tag Manager, I set up events for every step along the customer journey. By taking those actions, I can increase the ROI and scale the business.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

One technique that can help increase ROI, is to set up a smart remarketing list using Google Tag Manager. Take a quick look at the average session duration on your Google Analytics dashboard. Based on that avg. session duration, set up a new tag on your GTM that fires a remarketing tag slightly before that time mark.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

To create a killer ad-copy, you need to think “WIIFM - What's in it for me”, in respect to your ad audience and prospects. Make sure to provide the audience with all of the reasons they need to buy from you. Emphasize your product’s advantages and the reason it stands out.

An eCommerce brand you promoted you are particularly proud of the results achieved

A very big women’s fashion brand in Israel. I Used a smart remarketing list and dynamic catalog, and I was able to increase the ROI by 150%. When you make sure your remarketing list is built with a high-quality audience - you see immediate results.

Kas A.

Kas is an award winning marketer, hitting record sales targets for large entities such as Revolut, Cakebox, and Gladfish. Kas’s unique approach towards email marketing has allowed him to achieve an additional 300% revenue return for his happy clients.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce

I recommend HotJar. It helps us by monitoring the activity of our users on the site, where they click, and where they scroll it also records the actual session of every user that visits the site and provides database on the users' activity.

The insightful data that HotJar gives are some of the more exciting things that other tools don't provide.

You can track actual behaviour and sessions of your visitors, and see where they are clicking in real-time. You'll also see which pages have no interaction and find a strategy to improve engagement.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) marketing technique that you've used to get amazing ROI

I use public relations as a marketing strategy. PR makes a significant effect on branding and brings in organic sales to the company. I’ve had clients that have been featured on Forbes, Fox News, and other mainstream media.

The reach of mainstream media is extensive, and when a company can use it as a platform, it is advertised to the masses in various reliable outlets. People trust outlets like Forbes, and your brand would benefit from associating with it at any point.

Which eCommerce platform or marketing channel have you seen the most success with?

I have seen significantly better conversions for businesses as a result of increased performance in search by implementing search engine optimization and other marketing methods. Using SEO with the backup of CRO can ensure that traffic isn’t lost. One project we had with our agency involved a commodity seller that was struggling to drive conversions with their traffic inflow.
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Their lead generation improved via SEO & PPC as we affixed better targeting while revamping their UI/UX and adding psychological ‘pushes’ to urge conversions. The implemented micro & macro conversion analysis, and boosted referrals, visits, and purchases on their website, increased their sales up to 70%.

A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

I became the national marketing lead for Cake Box, a leading food franchise in the UK. I successfully implemented national projects spanning more than 130 stores and locations.

It was my first big break in marketing and eCommerce and my work and collaboration with the company has earned Cake Box recognition by Virgin & the Sunday Times in 2017 and 2018 as one of the fastest-growing companies in the country. I was 19 years old at that time, and I'm thankful to have had the opportunity.

Roshan J.

Roshan has 8+ years experience managing digital marketing for brands from Australia, Asia, Europe and US. Involved in house + as an agency / freelance consultant. Obsessed with growth and data-driven marketing.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

A robust e-commerce platform. If you're scaling a large e-commerce site with thousands of products, then Magento is a reliable and secure option. The recent versions are easy to use and have built-in SEO too. Integration with external tools are readily available. Magento + Facebook is one such integration where you can upload all product feed right into Facebook shop to prevent cart abandonment. Combined with Facebook Catalog and Facebook Pixel, you can run dynamic ads for the products. This can even be extended to tag products on Instagram.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

Audience targeting on Google Display Network. Using the right placements can result in amazing conversion rates. By default Google tries to reach more users similar to the chosen audience. While more reach may be a good option in some cases, if you know your audience, you can narrow or turn off targeting expansion. You can toggle between various levels of audience reach if you are still looking for the right audience. Once you know which placements you want to target, disabling the targeting expansion in ad groups will give more control and higher ROI.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

Clear offer and clear call to action. Combined with copy or visuals that appeal to the user intent and user emotion. For example - “Lowest Cost In UK Guaranteed. Free Shipping For First 100 Buyers”. Of course all these add up with a landing page that matches the offer seamlessly. For Google search ads, extensions help the ad stand out and produce amazing CTR. With Google responsive ads in particular, we also have the option to feed multiple headings and descriptions and let Google choose the best variations. Nothing like letting the data decide.

An eCommerce brand you promoted you are particularly proud of the results achieved

We’ve worked with a large eCommerce brand in the Middle East and achieved impressive results using retargeting. Our Google display retargeting campaign, for example, had conversion rates above 40% for common display ad sizes. The campaign was then duplicated across additional languages for a similar effect. In fact we used multiple channels for the brand - including Facebook remarketing, referrals and even email automation. By using dynamic retargeting, we were able to quickly move across multiple product categories and drive insights on which ones worked the best. All that helped us smash and go beyond our monthly sales targets.

Nate L.

Nate Lorenzen is a cofounder of Dysrupt and innovation agency specializing in tackling impossible marketing problems with game-changing results. Previous to Dysrupt, Nate did user acquisition in mobile gaming for Disney and was a founding member of the US eCommerce team at Facebook. He also manages a top-notch marketing newsletter for insider insights right in your inbox → https://www.dysrupt.com/sign-up

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

The most important scaling factor in eCommerce is measurement, attribution, and a balanced understanding of ROAS and LTV. Having a validated source of truth and a deep understanding of KPIs will enable a brand to effectively expand into new audiences and channels.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

Reach and Frequency can be an overlooked tactic during Q4 for direct response advertisers. This was a technique I helped pioneer while at Facebook for top DR customers as it has no penalty to cancel. There is a lot of nuance and subtlety to the tactic; however, getting it to work can pay dividends on top performing audiences.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

I am going to reference one of my favorite books on advertising by the best copywriter. Produced in 1962, Victor O. Schwab gave the following guidance that is applicable to newsfeeds as it was to newspapers back then:
-Get Attention
-Show people an advantage
-Prove it
-Persuade people to grasp this advantage
-Ask for Action

An eCommerce brand you promoted you are particularly proud of the results achieved

We aren't able to share specifics from our top tier advertisers. That being said, we are highly impressed by what Mejuri is doing in market. They are a great brand to watch with incredible creative.

Zach B.

Zach is a talented marketing strategist at Influence Machines, a small digital marketing firm in California.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

For scaling an e-commerce business, the must-have tools come in all shapes and sizes. There isn't a one size fits all here as every company and campaign has its own needs and requirements. What you need to be successful is talented, driven people that have a passion for their work. The small details will fill themselves in after that.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

Retargeting sequences! These are a life changer, I will say. You take a retargeting audience and run through a sequence of ads to further build credibility, then seal the deal. One of my favorite ways of doing this is running ads for 4-7 days to a blog, then from day 8 to day 14 send them a piece of publicity or your client with a celebrity or interviewing one, then from day 15 to day 30 send them product ads to close the deal. ROAS on these can be killer!

What makes a killer ad-copy?

Understanding your audience at its core is key in copy. You need to thoroughly understand what drives them, what grinds their gears, who they love, who they hate, and, most importantly, the problems they need to solve. Once you figure this out, you can speak directly to them as one of their own. Russell Brunson's concept of your Dream 100 is very valuable here.

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An eCommerce brand you promoted you are particularly proud of the results achieved

I helped Holden QiGong expand their monthly subscription and email list exponentially since working with them to leverage Facebook advertising. Through the use of challenges, we've increased their recurring revenue coming from their subscription over 3X since working with them.

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Stacy C.

Stacy is a results-driven business development professional with 20+ years in digital marketing. The bulk of his experience has been in early-stage start-ups, either as a founder or as an early hire. He excels at conceptualizing unique monetization strategies, pitching them to potential partners, and then managing long-term execution around collaborative monitoring of relevant KPI’s.

Specialties include: Monetization Strategy, Affiliate Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Traffic Arbitrage, Media Buying, Ad Sales, Conversion Funnel Optimization, User Acquisition Strategies, search engine optimization (SEO), social commerce, pay per click (PPC) management, eCommerce marketing strategy, project management, graphic design, and copywriting services.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

Any online store must have a Google Search Brand campaign for its brand name terms and domain name, including misspellings. Your brand search is your most sacred and even if you organically rank for #1, your competitors could be bidding on your brand terms, and also this is a game of real estate. Taking the #1 and #2 spots makes you a winner. Be sure to bid toward impression share at 100% and bid a high CPC something your competitors can't and won't afford. They will eventually go away from this practice which you protect your brand real estate.

Depending on the type of products a Google Search Generic term campaign should also be in place. Google Display is a great opportunity to increase brand presence to highly targeted audiences. Consumer Intent marketing is the most powerful audience and next up is remarketing.

If you have a brick and motor, Google My Business is the single most important thing you can do, and be sure to link it to Google Ads and while you are at it link Google Ads to Google Analytics and Google Merchant Center. Connect merchant center to your online store software to create a feed so that you can enable Google Shopping Ads.

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A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

Leverage Consumer Intent Marketing audience building and really take the time to think about your ideal customer, what their needs are, what websites they will visit during research for related products or items that together with what you sell.

Ask yourself this question... what is their intent just before they purchase my item?

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What makes a killer ad-copy?

Calls to action! Short and sweet. Users need to be told exactly what to do. There is too much clutter to have them guessing what you want to do. Call Now. View Products Now. Hire a creative writer to proof all your ads. Do this on a regular basis.

An eCommerce brand you promoted you are particularly proud of the results achieved

Encompass this client was running Google Ads for years. They sell parts for repairs, appliances, and they have millions of items. They had a very high daily volume and almost every customer has the potential for multiple repeat purchasing. I was able to use their Google Analytics to create an all user audience from the last 540 days. Serving ads through Google Display reminded old customers to come back to Encompass. The immediately generated sales on day one and to this day is one of their top campaigns in conjunction with Remarketing.

Ryan B.

I love working with a diverse team, collaborating with people smarter than me, and using data to drive our future growth. I'm a team player who doesn't look for credit, I look for the W. My leadership style is classified by this: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. - Albert Einstein. If we want to get to new places, we have to try new things.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

In order to scale an e-commerce business, you have to always be testing creative. Sometimes, you don't have a graphic designer on staff and one of the best tools you can invest in to scale your creative assets easily is Canva. It has multiple templates for Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, and Stories. Creative is an essential part to scaling an e-commerce business especially if you are doing paid social advertising.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

One thing that has really worked for us is going BROAD with our audiences. The key to this is having a lot of pixel data. If you have had your pixel on your website for 1-2 years or had more than 100 purchases with the pixel on page, try going broad with your audience (meaning don't try doing any focused interest targeting) and allow Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO) to do the work to send the right creative to the people most likely to buy from you.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

I love to use customer quotes for ad copy. They are the best way to help customers see some authenticity and allow for them to realize you are human. Find some specific niche reviews that showcase your product features and allow your customers to tell your story. It tends to convert better than actors, stock images or lifestyle photography.

A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

I've recently worked with a company called VidMob to do some video editing for us to make our video more compelling along with some stronger calls-to-action. I'm proud of the changes they made to our current videos and we are seeing such a strong engagement within the timeframe we want on paid acquisition channels.

Aaron D.

Mathematician turned growth hacker, Aaron Patrick Doherty is on a mission to make marketing more enjoyable for the humans on the other end. Right offer, right person, right time, right channel. When he’s not developing strategy at MarketOne, find him on a bike (the pedal kind) or hanging with his three boys and amazing partner of 12 years.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

Salsify is the number one tool for vendors / manufacturers: store all your product information in the cloud, automate syndication across channels, powerful analytics help you get discovered on online marketplaces.
Retailers with their own sites should focus on user experience, there’s not really one tool that helps with this. Find inspiration, listen to your customers, measure everything.
Retailers selling through marketplaces should get familiar with tools like Jungle Scout and Helium to identify product opportunities. Although, if you get to 100+ products, Salsify can help with expansion.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

Retargeting video view audiences FTW! Link your YouTube and Google Ads, create an audience for people who viewed your video, buy cheap views / get organic views, target and bid on that audience in search. Works like a dream to reduce CPA.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

Nothing. Ad copy that works is a mixture of detailed segmentation and large scale A/B testing. Don Draper ain’t gonna save you. Nate Silver will.

A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

A while back, I worked with a well-known SEM software company who had long neglected their house accounts for search, display, and social. In short, my team and I rebuilt audiences, keyword hierarchies, ad copy, impression caps - the whole thing - from the ground up and literally doubled their ROI in 6 months. That’s a big deal for a (then) $50 million dollar company. Moreover, we built a recommendation engine that gave a daily readout on which channels to bid up and which to bid down to drive down CPA. The massive gains in efficiency that we delivered paved the way for their international expansion, just in time for a $120 million dollar acquisition by the largest publisher in the US.

Burc T.

Burc is the co-founder & CEO of Prisync, the competitor price tracking & dynamic pricing software. He has been in the e-commerce ecosystem for 8+ years and has a deep interest in data-driven automation in e-commerce.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce

Here's a totally biased one for sure but I believe pricing matters for e-commerce companies of all sizes at any stage of growth in any market. Therefore, pricing optimization tools play a vital role in e-commerce to scale the business within a competitive landscape. Prisync is a fully automated self-service tool that helps e-commerce companies to automatically monitor their competitor prices and apply rule-based dynamic pricing on their website to boost their sales & profit margins.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) marketing technique that you've used to get amazing ROI

Competition in e-commerce has many dimensions and price comparison or SEO comparison is a no-brainer.

However, one not-so-obvious benchmarking that we encourage e-commerce companies to apply is stock availability comparison. Because in some cases, you may notice that a competitor went out of stock at a low margin & high demand product and this might give you leverage for a small price increase to increase profit margins.

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Which eCommerce platform or marketing channel have you seen the most success with?

We heavily work with Shopify & Magento and the reasons why are varying for each of those cases.

We love Shopify as it's a masterpiece for SMBs - Prisync's main customer segment - and potential integrations with Shopify are simpler than any other platform from an e-commerce tool developer perspective as all live Shopify versions out there are the same. So, when you have a solution for Shopify, you'd expect that to work for 100,000's of Shopify merchants out there.

Whereas Magento has a somewhat drawback from that point of view. However, this drawback - many different live Magento versions & their customizations - also offers some opportunities in some cases because our customers on Magento may take the value-add of our services to another level by tweaking it as their wish & the majority of the Magento merchant base are tech-savvy folks which makes our job pretty easy when it comes to selling/marketing an integration.

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A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

Our value-add is two-fold: tons of hours saved via automation + increased sales & profit margin.

In once case, with our client Orami (from Indonesia), we automated the competitor price tracking process which was originally done manually by 15 people in a team and helped the company to utilize all those folks across other operations instead of what Prisync covers.

In another one, we helped our Australian customer JustTools to get 38x ROI in terms of increased profit margin vs. the monthly subscription fee that they pay for Prisync.

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Destaney W.

Passionate about Amazon Advertising and e-commerce!
My goal is to provide in-depth strategic recommendations on all things Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, and DSP.

A must-have tool for scaling eCommerce business

How do I pick one?!

Some of our favorite internal tools - Lucid Chart for building processes, and organizational charts. Loom – For improving communication, increasing efficiency and building stronger relationships internally and externally, and last but not least, our favorite tool for all things related to is Helium10, which we primarily use for keyword research and, competitor / category analysis.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) paid-media technique to drive the highest ROI possible

Don’t be afraid to test small! Most e-commerce platforms give us the tools and metrics to test with small datasets, optimize as we go, and scale once ready! This allows us to be incredibly flexible and diversified when new rollouts happen on a platform, or when external changes affect our paid-media goals.

What makes a killer ad-copy?

Precise and to the point. Consumers are constantly getting hit with ads, and flashy marketing, don’t overwhelm them. The best ad copy is a fantastic product / service that sells itself.

A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

Honestly, I am particularly proud of every single brand we managed through the beginning of Covid. This has been a difficult time for a lot of e-commerce companies. We had to maneuver changes in buyer habits, supply chain fluctuations, and many other never-before-faced challenges. But every brand that made it through the last few months has came out stronger than before, and I can say the same about my team. Flexibility, quick thinking, and strong relationships helped us drive incredible results that I believe are going to push us into the strongest Q4 eCommerce has seen.

Yaagneshwaran G.

Yaagneshwaran Ganesh (popularly known as “Yaag”) is among the top 100 global MarTech influencers, a TEDx speaker, a best-selling author and the host of The ABM Conversations Podcast.

Yaag has over 10+ years of experience in B2B marketing for MarTech organizations and startups. He has helped several startups achieve product market fit, and scaled them to sustainability.

He is an active member of the startup ecosystem and is part of the Google for Entrepreneurs initiative “Startup Weekend”, thus being a sounding board for startups in APAC and Europe.

He is also a member of the Forbes Council and has authored 7 books, with the latest one titled “The Revenue Marketing Book”. He speaks at international forums such as Performance Marketing Moscow, Startup Communities in Germany, Chamber of Commerce Netherlands, CII, and also academic institutions such as the IITs, and the Saxion University of Applied Sciences.

A must-have tool for scaling content marketing

As a B2B marketer and a firm believer of account based marketing, I’ve always believed that content marketing is very hard to scale because it’s not just about bringing in the blog traffic that consumes your content, but about bringing in the right audience. From that perspective, Zest is my favorite online marketing tool. It’s a perfect fit because I’m into martech and Zest puts my content in front of the marketers.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) content marketing technique that you've used

Love the question, especially the not-so-obvious part. I don’t believe in written content for a specific part of the funnel. It sounds very counter-intuitive. No one is going to consume top of the funnel (ToFu) content, and then consume mid funnel (MoFu) content and then bottom of the funnel (BoFu) content and then make a buying decision. It’s not that linear. From consumption to buying, the pattern is random.

So I try to combine elements of all three parts of the funnel in my writing. One of the best examples in the marketing world right now for the kind of writing I’m talking about, is the kind of content that you see on the Ahrefs blog.

Which content platform have you seen the most success with?

This is a tricky one. It always works in combination. For me, I use Ahrefs for understanding buying intent and for driving the right traffic for content consumption, I use LinkedIn and Zest. To improve on page content experience, understand content consumption patterns and intent in real-time, I use Mulch.ai.

In the past, I’ve used content syndication tools like Taboola and Outbrain, but eventually realized that content syndication was a waste of time, effort and money because they never drove relevant traffic for me.

A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

Zest.is - I’ve no second thought about it. And the credit doesn’t just go to their platform but also to the kind of team they have built.

Here’s the story. I’m someone who believes that it’s important for you to have side gigs that shape you as a marketer. Your job is one dimension of what you can do, but with a side gig you can run a lot of experiments without any hierarchical issues.

In 2019 December, as the covid scene was slowly surfacing, my personal website also came into existence. I often used my personal website as a place to test out content marketing experiments as well as wrote on topics based on how I saw them. So, I wanted to see how I can grow my website without spending a lot of money.

And till date, my only content marketing expense is Zest Boost. My website has grown from 200 visits (mid January 2020) to 12000 visits per month on average (as on July 4, 2020) and that too without putting up pop-ups asking people to subscribe to my content.

And thanks to that experience, the partnership with Zest only grew from there. They became the sponsor for The ABM Conversations Podcast, a B2B marketing podcast that my friend Manish and I run together.

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Christina R.

Christina is Managing Director of Green Umbrella Marketing, a recognised brand known within the recruitment industry for providing social media management services, coaching, design and marketing strategies. Christina is driven by the fact that in today’s world, it doesn’t matter how big or small your marketing budget is, you can be a major player. For small businesses, the tools are just as accessible – you just need to know how to use them!

A must-have tool for scaling content marketing

Sometimes, we have to go back to basics when it comes to content marketing! When I’m mapping out funnels, I often use Post-It notes to plan the content that’s going to drive people through the funnel and along the journey to them becoming a buying customer. For that reason, Trello is my must-have tool. I build boards that correlate to each step of my funnel, and use the cards as me Post-It notes! It works fantastically for my team and our clients.

A recommended (not-so-obvious!) content marketing technique that you've used

There’s one thing that comes up again and again when I’m speaking that always sees people in the audience scribbling notes. Human SEO. When we’re producing content we can get caught up producing what we believe will work for the algorithms, forgetting it’s actual humans who we need to engage with us! Thinking about the headline you use on an image that represents a blog, rather than just using the SEO rich title can have great benefits when you’re trying to stand out in the newsfeeds of your target client.

Which content platform have you seen the most success with?

Given the variety of clients and niches I’ve worked with, this is a tough question! What works for one doesn’t necessarily work for another. when it comes to choosing the right platform for your brand it’s essential to deep-dive in terms of creating your customer avatar/persona. You need to understand not only where they’ll consume your content but also how and when. Once you know those you can start to remove some options that are likely to bring you least success. Starting with just a few tools and platforms in your arsenal will allow you to perfect your presence, once you’ve done that you can grow by adding additional platforms with expedited success. Working this way means whatever platform you choose initially - you’re destined for success!

A brand that you've worked with and the specific results that you've achieved (that you are particularly proud of)

I have so many stories to share! One I can’t go into detail on saw a start up receive an offer which ultimately ended in them being acquired by one of their competitors. One of the key factors being the strength of brand amongst the target market. The content strategy crossed a variety of media and a big factor in the success was that the business owner was focused more on presence than ROI. The owner knew the return would come - and it did!

I also worked with an independent financial advisor who won a prestigious industry award because of the marketing strategy we implemented. As an independent business based in a sleepy town who operated in a business area where compliance often puts the brakes on anything creative (content-wise), this business used creative organic and paid Facebook strategies to reach their target clients. It was a fantastic example of how a small business can stand shoulder to shoulder with big business when it comes to online strategies. It was so refreshing to see a business in this situation take a brave step forward and grow because of it - which they’re continuing to do!

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