So, you’ve got your Shopify store all set up and ready to sell. The design looks awesome, your product photography is kick ass, and your SEO is all taken care of but you still aren’t getting the traffic you want. Unfortunately, it is not a “If you build it, they will come” situation.

Don’t worry, there are plenty of tools to get people to your site and hopefully buy something. Today we will be discussing PPC, or Pay Per Click. PPC is a method of online advertising that uses keywords and well written taglines to draw in new customers to your site.

Keywords

The first thing to do is figure out a list of keywords that your audience is using to find products similar to yours. Now, the common sense keywords and phrases that you think are obvious might be kind of expensive and very competitive. However, there may be less common keywords and phrases that can provide you the same effectiveness and help keep your budget on track. Make sure to do your homework on keywords.

Promotion

The next step in building a solid PPC campaign is coming up with an offer that will entice your potential customers to click on your ad. These offers you come up with can point to a specific product, or a section on your site. Whether you provide some type of discount, free shipping, or a buy one get one offer, a compelling offer will help get new customers "in the door." Even if they don't purchase right away, once someone has visited your site you can track these customers and use retargeting tools to continue sending them ads.

Copy

Ok, you’ve got your keywords and your offer; now it is time to woo them with your words. This is probably the most important part of this process, because if you don’t have solid copy, people will think your ad is a waste of their time. You don’t have a lot of space, so make sure the copy is clear and to the point. Don’t forget to incorporate some of your keywords into the copy to drive home why they searched for you in the first place!

Landing Page

Alright, your new potential customer clicked on your ad… now what. You need to make sure wherever they land is what they are looking for. For example, if the ad your visitor clicked on was to promote the newest Adidas Boost Sneaker, link the ad directly to the product page. Don’t send them to your about section. Once you make sure they are at the proper page, make everything clear to them. Make sure the add to cart button is apparent and visible. Make sure the price of the product is clear and that there isn’t anything on there that is not necessary to distract from the product the customer came to see. Keep the copy clean and make the page look nice.

Budget

Before you start any of these steps, make sure you know how much you’re able to spend. PPC only charges you if someone clicks on your ad, hence being called “Pay Per Click.” You can set a different budget to each keyword or phrase that you pick out. You can also set your ads to run with a daily budget that you determine, and this can also be changed at any time. Make sure you budget properly and set enough aside to ensure that you will be able to reach all your customers.

Figuring all of this out may sound like it is very complicated. Don’t be scared, it is easier than you think. Google has a lot of helpful tools to guide you through the process. Be sure to play around with the Google Keyword Planner to see how effective your keywords are and to get an approximation of what they will cost you if they are clicked on. You can play around with your settings as frequently as you want. Adjust your budgets, keywords, and promotions until you find something that works for you.