The majority of adults in the United States now own smartphones and an increasing number of people are using their mobile phones to shop online. As an e-commerce store owner, you want to be sure that you’re marketing to people who are shopping on smartphones, so that you don’t miss out on the chance to get new business. Experts predict that shopping on smartphones will only increase in popularity over the next decade, making it a good idea to begin marketing to mobile users now, especially because your competitors may not be.

 So yes, you should be using Adwords campaigns for mobile customers, but there is a catch–you’re likely not going to make as much from marketing to mobile users as you will to people who are shopping on tablets and computers. In my business, I’ve found that only a very small portion of my sales comes from mobile users and that the average dollar amount of the sales that I do have is significantly less than the average total for a tablet or computer users. People who are shopping on smartphones are simply more likely to tap on the one product they need and check out, while shoppers on other devices are more likely to browse and purchase more.

While there may be some exceptions, for most people who own e-commerce stores, Adwords marketing on smartphones isn’t going to be as profitable. This means that you don’t want to invest as much on your campaigns, and it is possible to minimize your cost of advertising by setting up a separate Adwords campaign specifically for mobile users. This way, you can set your bids at a lower cost and pay less when your ads are displayed.

Setting up a mobile only Adwords campaign is very easy. Just follow these steps to get the job (more…)

It doesn’t matter what your line of business is–as a small e-commerce business, you always want to keep costs to a minimum. Internet marketing costs are one of the biggest expenses for e-commerce stores, and if you’re anything like me, you’re always on the lookout for ways to slash costs without compromising the effectiveness of your efforts to promote your products.

One thing that I have found to be beneficial was to eliminate my Adwords Ads from mobile phone search results. This is sort of a controversial topic. If you read the marketing information from Google, you’ll see big claims that displaying Adwords Ads on smartphones will increase your profits, but based on my experience and what other e-commerce business owners have told me, this seems to be greatly overstated. I have found that mobile users rarely buy from sites, and when they do, the average sale amount is significantly lower than what customers shopping on computers pay. After eliminating mobile advertising from my Adwords Ad campaigns, I’m now getting a better return on my investment in marketing and haven’t noticed any decline in sales.

Before you read on, I suggest taking a look at Google Analytics to see how many site clicks you’ve actually received from Adwords Ads displaying in mobile results. If this number is low or non-existent, then I would strongly recommend that you do the following to keep your ads off of mobile device screens.  This way, you won’t be paying money for extra views that aren’t bringing you any benefit.

To remove the mobile optin from your Adwords Ads, follow these steps:

1. Go to your Google Analytics dashboard and select Campaign Management from the menu at the top of the page.

2. You’ll be taken to a list of all of your current Adwords Ad campaigns. Click on the Campaign that you (more…)

Pay per click advertising is one form of Internet marketing that can help e-commerce businesses get new traffic to their sites to increase sales. Over the years, I’ve tried a number of types of pay per click advertising methods with mixed results. I’ve found that some simply aren’t worth either the high cost that you pay per click or that they take too much time out of your day when you consider how much you actually make with them.

That doesn’t mean that all pay per click advertising isn’t worthwhile. I’ve had great success with Product Listing Ads, which are also sometimes called Google Shopping Ads. In my experience, they work incredibly well, and my site has gotten a lot of business through them. Still, you can’t expect to just put up any Product Listing Ad and end up with clicks and sales. You need to be smart about how you create your ads and structure your campaigns. Here are some tips for success that I’ve used to make Product Listing Ads profitable:

1. Increase the Amount of Your Bid.

If you’re looking for the simplest, most surefire way to get more clicks on Product Listing Ads, you can simply increase the amount of your bid. When your bid size is higher, you’re more likely to rank in first place for your chosen keywords. That means that your product will be displayed more often, and you’ll have more of an opportunity to get clicks. Of course, not even small e-commerce business can afford to pay more per click for their Product Listing Ads, so you may need to try one of the other methods that I’m about to explain.

2. Incorporate More Products.

A lot of e-commerce store owners try to start with just one or two Product Listing Ads because they want to see how (more…)

Tax season isn’t something that any small business owner looks forward to whether you’re planning to prepare your taxes yourself or have an accountant do them for you. As an e-commerce business owner, tax season can be particularly difficult. Even though you have to pay taxes like any other business, the unique characteristics of e-commerce businesses can lead to some challenges when it comes time to prepare a tax return.

I know that personally I found it hard to get my tax return ready the first couple of years that I owned my e-commerce business, but along the way, I learned some tips that have greatly simplified the process and that are sure to help make tax time a little easier for you, too.

1. Don’t Miss Money-Saving Expenses.

Why should you pay more taxes than you have to? As an e-commerce business, you’re less likely to have some of the types of expenses that other types of companies have, such as depreciation on large amounts of equipment; however, there are still many expenses that you can deduct. Many e-commerce business owners make the mistake of overlooking some of the expenses that they can use to lower their tax liability. Go back through all of your receipts and make sure that you haven’t missed any business-related meals or trips this tax season. Going forward, you can make things much easier by separating your finances. Use a credit card specifically for your business and keep a separate bank account for writing checks for expenses. This way, you can simply use the statements at tax time to crunch the numbers and guarantee that you never miss a single expense.

2. Familiarize Yourself With and Take Advantage of All Expenses.

My first year as an e-commerce small business owner, I ended up missing out on over $2000 of expenses (more…)