There are lots of ways to make money through Shopify. Beyond selling products – you can sell services, create user apps, design themes, and more.
You can even join other stores’ affiliate programs as a side-hustle. You’ll earn commissions by referring others to the store. There are also many ways that you can market your Shopify store. You can advertise through social media, email marketing, and work on SEO.
Yet – some merchants still have the question, “Can I run ads on my Shopify store?”
You can run ads on your website, but you definitely should not. Why’s that? There are a few reasons. First, it will destroy your credibility in the eyes of customers. Whatever meager revenue you earn from the ads won’t equal what you lose from loyal customers. By running ads, you’re encouraging visitors to spend their money elsewhere.
As you can see, running ads on your Shopify store isn’t the best idea. If you want to learn more about how to market your store and make money in other ways, stay tuned.
Why Paid Ads on an E-Commerce Store is a Bad Idea
As stated before, it’s not a good idea to run Google AdSense ads on your Shopify store. Most customers won’t trust a store that runs ads – as it just doesn’t look credible. After all, if your products are great – why are you advertising someone else’s?
Beyond that – the potential revenue here is minimal at best. Income from sources like Google AdSense won’t amount to much – especially if you get low traffic.
The exception to the rule here will be if you partner with another business.
As such – you could run ads for them on your site, as long as you let customers know you’re partners. In that case, that could help your store and build more loyalty. You just need to make sure that your partner is also running ads for your store on their website.
If you do choose to go this route – it’s best to partner with businesses that don’t sell similar products. The last thing you want is to wind up competing with a partner for customer dollars.
Partner with someone that sells something different – yet complementary. For example, if you sell CBD for dogs – partner with a store that sells leashes and dog toys. Your products complement one another, but they don’t directly compete.
Smarter Ways to Earn Revenue Through Shopify
If you need some extra income – there are far better ways than running paid ads. A few include developing apps, designing themes, and doing affiliate marketing. Here’s a look at some of the most popular ways to make extra money through the platform.
Developing Apps
If you have some developer skills, you could venture into creating apps for the Shopify App Store. Many developers earn a living only by creating and maintaining Shopify apps. It’s something that will take a lot of time and effort to do right – but it will pay off in the end.
Affiliate Marketing Programs
If you’re more of a marketer than a developer – you can join an affiliate program. Lots of Shopify stores have affiliate marketing programs that anyone can join. Your goal is to land sales for the store by promoting their products.
You get paid a commission every time a customer buys a product through your affiliate link. If you’re good – you can earn your way into the top echelons of the programs. These offer higher commissions and more attractive prizes.
If you need a way to earn revenue through your store – you can also start your own affiliate program. That means you’ll hire affiliates to promote your products instead of the other way around. Why is this beneficial? Because it’s an affordable way to market your store.
Since you pay a commission to affiliates – they only get paid if you get paid. That’s why it’s a win-win model for both parties involved. An attractive affiliate marketing program can help you generate a lot more sales. That can give you the income you wanted from running ads – but in a much better way.
Better Ways to Advertise Your Store
If you need to promote your store – there are far better ways than running paid ads. As we already said – an e-commerce store that runs ads lacks credibility. It doesn’t show a lot of confidence in the products that you sell.
Why are you grasping at straws for ad revenue if you were selling premium products? Customers may also perceive your brand as greedy if they see banner ads on your store. To avoid this harsh criticism – choose to advertise in other ways.
Facebook Banner and Carousel Ads
You can advertise your Shopify products through Facebook. There are banner ads and carousel ads that you can use. We recommend using the carousel ad as users can interact with it. They can also browse through multiple product variants to increase the chances of piquing their interest.
Multi-Channel Ads
You can also advertise through other social media platforms. Shopify lets you push products through to 20 other sales channels. You can send your products to Facebook, POS machines, and so much more. That way, you get the word out about your products across multiple channels. That increases the chances of attracting new customers.
SEO
Last but not least, you need to optimize your Shopify store for search engines. That means finally doing that keyword research that you’ve been putting off for a few months now. It also means building a backlink profile, enhancing existing content, and improving performance. If you can land your Shopify store on the first page of Googe – you’ll see a massive increase in traffic.
Closing Thoughts: Can I Run Ads on My Shopify Store?
By now – you should understand why running paid ads on your store is NOT a good idea. It will hurt your credibility and make your brand seem weak. Not only that, but the ads you show are encouraging visitors to spend their money elsewhere. There are far better ways to earn extra income through Shopify – as well as advertise your store.
For more great content to help you develop your Shopify strategies, check out the rest of the merchant posts on the site. If you want to see a list of our top recommended Shopify apps visit this link here.
