It is no secret that Facebook, with over 2.9 billion monthly active users, is the biggest social networking platform in the world. Since its launch in early 2004, the platform has been a turning point in social media.

The fact that it still manages to remain relevant makes Facebook highly essential for e-commerce businesses. More than 90% of e-marketers use this platform for their social media marketing strategy.

Shopify first teamed up with Facebook in 2015, and since then, both platforms have been exponentially growing their partnership. Shopify stores can now sell their products via both platforms. This partnership allows merchants to promote and sell their products on Facebook, offering a rather effortless shopping experience to their customers.

In this post, we will cover the essentials for developing an effective Facebook marketing strategy for your Shopify store, the latest updates, and how this partnership has affected online shopping trends.

The Strategy

To use Facebook as a strong marketing tool, it is essential to understand how its users think and react. Familiarizing yourself with their online habits is key when it comes to building your marketing strategy.

Facebook's user demographic has changed tremendously over the past few years. As early Millennials and Gen Z have shifted to other social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, users above the age of 65 have been increasingly showing interest in Facebook. However, this does not mean you have to construct your entire strategy for the elderly people. The platform still offers a variety of potential customers to e-commerce businesses. So, make sure you clearly define your target customer base, such as their age, interests, location, etc., and try to expand your reach to those who have similar features.

Facebook Business Manager is a must-use tool when it comes to building a custom audience. With spot-on audience targeting, you would be able to drive tangible results for your business. The tool also allows you to monitor your performance, create and manage ads, as well as track other relevant metrics related to your Facebook page. (Facebook Business Manager is also a requirement for linking your Shopify store to your Facebook account, which we will cover in the upcoming sections.)

After establishing your target customer base, it is now time to implement some of the most effective social media marketing tools. Here are a few strategies you can benefit from:

User-Generated Content (UGC)

User-generated content is one of the strongest social media marketing tools out there. Reviews, testimonials, pictures, videos that are created by other users are a great way to boost brand recognition and organic traffic to your Facebook page. The reason for this is that UGC content is usually perceived as more authentic compared to paid ads. Additionally, this type of content provides social proof, and users who are exposed to it are more inclined to buy the recommended products.

Consistency

Like any other social media platform, Facebook users are more likely to stick around if the content is aesthetically pleasing. It is important to choose a specific theme, and you need to make sure your brand image is in line with it.

It is also essential to publish new content regularly. Make sure you establish a certain frequency and monitor how your target customers are reacting to it. Test if users are engaging with your content and adjust the pattern accordingly. If posting twice a day works for your brand, then go for it.

Communication

To benefit from social media marketing, you need to interact with your customers on a regular basis. Positive and negative feedback must be addressed as soon as possible. Keep in mind that you need to be gentle with your responses.

Thank your customers when they provide positive feedback. You can also link your brand mission statement with your responses (for instance, stories such as yours encourage us to keep moving forward”, “our objective is to better your life” etc.), which would take customer experience one step further.

You can also ask for permission to use customer feedback as user-generated content for your next promotional campaign. Invite the customers to elaborate on their feedback and consider holding a focus group with them for your new line of products.

When it comes to addressing negative feedback, it is important to validate the customer’s experience. People need to be heard and understood. Try your best to provide a fair resolution to their issues. Remember, even if they decline the offer, others will observe and appreciate your best efforts.

Promotions & Giveaways

Promotions and giveaways are proven to be quite effective when it comes to expanding your customer reach. People love to participate, and it creates brand awareness. It is a win-win situation. Traditional approaches such as providing free products or promotion codes to those who like, tag, and share your posts or even follow your page are always a plus when it comes to creating powerful customer engagement.

Partnering With Influencers

Influencers help your brand reach a sizable audience. You may benefit from an influencer’s existing followers to promote your business and products rather than spending years building your audience.

When you decide to partner with an influencer, it is important to examine their audience’s demographics and the products they previously advertised. This would help you determine whether this partnership is beneficial for your brand or not.

Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads offer a wide selection of templates through which you can create advertisements for your Shopify brand. You can use a video, a single image, carousel, slideshows, and more. With Facebook ads, you can determine your objective, select your target audience, and measure your ad’s performance. It certainly is an effective tool to create brand awareness.

“Instant experience”, another tool that Facebook ads offer, is also quite effective when it comes to capturing the attention of potential customers. With this feature, you can tag products from your Facebook Shops or catalogs and engage with your customers through live videos. The tagged products are displayed at the bottom of the video, allowing customers to click and make a purchase.

Loyalty Programs

Within the competitive world of e-commerce, having a loyal customer base is crucial. Many third-party e-commerce marketing agencies can build customer loyalty programs tailored for Facebook Messenger. The basic goal of this program is to increase social commerce activity, gather customer insights, and consequently boost the revenue stream.

Among many different strategies, encouraging the members to participate in multiple activities and keep them coming back is conceivably the most effective one. Through this strategy, you can encourage users who sign up for your loyalty program to accrue points by sharing a post or tagging a certain product and then converting them into shopping coupons to make a purchase.

The members may also communicate with each other since Messenger powers the loyalty program. They can participate in live-stream activities, discuss their favorite products, and interact with each other while building a community. You can also share sponsored messages with updates on the latest products, sales, and deals.

Link Your Facebook with Shopify

With the key points of Facebook marketing in mind, you can now connect your Facebook business page with your Shopify store to boost your sales. It is necessary to mention a few basic Facebook tools you need to have before linking your Shopify store:

-Facebook Business Page

-Business Manager

-Facebook Ad Account

-Facebook Pixel (we will cover Facebook Pixel thoroughly in the upcoming sections)

Once all these tools are acquired, you can now download the “Facebook and Instagram
by Meta” app through your Shopify app store and link your accounts.

Here are the basic steps to connect your Facebook Page with your Shopify store:

-From your Shopify admin, click the + next to Sales Channels

-Click + next to Facebook

-Select “Update Sales Channel” then “Start Setup”

-Click “Connect Account”

-Sign into your Facebook page

-Connect to required Facebook assets

-Accept terms and conditions

-Click “Finish Setup”

Once these steps are complete, your Shopify products will be synced to your Facebook business page. You can also activate Facebook Shop through this app and start selling on both platforms. Note that it could take up to 48 hours for Facebook to review and approve your store.

Facebook Shops

One of the biggest breakthroughs of the Facebook and Shopify partnership was the launch of Facebook Shops in 2020. Facebook Shops is basically a stripped-down version of your Shopify store inside Facebook (and Instagram). With Facebook Shops, your products can be easily found, browsed, and purchased by billions of users who use both platforms every day.

With a seamless shopping experience, you can introduce your products to Facebook’s digital marketplace. By customizing the colors, theme, and style of your Facebook
Shops, you can highlight your unique brand and products. You can also arrange product collections into featured tiles to fit the aesthetic of your Shopify store.

Your target customers can quickly find the best product on your Facebook Shops and complete checkout on your Shopify store. Additionally, you can manage your store in one place while selling your products on multiple sales channels with the Shopify integration.

Another useful aspect of Facebook Shops is the direct checkout through Facebook.

Facebook Pixel

Facebook Pixel is not only a must-have tool to link your Shopify store to your Facebook business page, but it also enables you to monitor customer data and behavior through the Facebook channel, which enhances your store’s marketing and advertising effectiveness.

Regarding customer data, there are three options:

“Standard” sharing tracks customer behavior and habits while browsing through your store.

If you choose “Enhanced” sharing, you can track your customers’ personal data such as name, location, phone number, and email address.

With “Maximum” sharing, both Facebook Pixel and Facebook Conversions API will be used by your store. Direct data is transferred from Shopify servers as well as your customer’s web browser and sent to Facebook’s servers. The data transfer cannot be blocked by browser-based ad-blockers. Through the “Maximum” setting, your customers’ personal information is shared to match users on Facebook’s entire network.

The best part is that the tool allows you to decide the amount of information you would like to track, so you get to choose which option you can most benefit from.

Ever-Evolving Shopping Trends

According to Shopify, global online sales will hit $6.5 trillion by 2023, with online stores accounting for 22.3% of all retail sales. Clearly, online shopping plays a huge role in retail, and this trend is here to stay.

For the thousands of Shopify stores that rely on online sales to expand their reach, Facebook is especially important. In fact, this partnership was particularly well-timed given that the Covid-19 outbreak virtually eliminated retail traffic. The launch of Facebook Shops gave struggling small ecommerce businesses a vital lifeline, enabling them to provide customers with a multi-channel buying experience.

The integration allowed every Shopify store, regardless of size, to expand their target demographic while encouraging them to bring their online A-game. Merchants now have complete control over their orders, inventory, and products on their Facebook business page, and their customers can browse and find products quite easily on Facebook Shops. With all of this, stores can now give their customers the online shopping experiences they seek and enjoy.

Facebook Shops provide store owners the freedom to decide which of their products they prefer to highlight, merchandise with product collections, and convey the brand image through fully customizable fonts and colors. The stores can also engage with their customers through WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram Direct to respond to inquiries, provide assistance, and more.

The partnership between Facebook and Shopify has been a complete game-changer for ecommerce businesses and their customers. Both platforms keep improving their interfaces and services to enhance the online retail experience. The shopping trends will undoubtedly change in the upcoming future, but for the time being, this collaboration continues to impact the ecommerce world on a different level.