Your Shopify store has been around for a while yet your traffic numbers aren’t what you’d hope them to be? Maybe you’ve poured your heart and soul into setting it up only to open up shop and wonder where all the eager shoppers are. The truth is, that every successful eCommerce business has mastered the art of driving a steady flow of quality traffic to its website. More traffic is likely to bring more sales to the online store.

So, what’s next?

Option one involves diving into the world of paid marketing tactics to drive traffic to your dropshipping store (which isn’t possible if your budget is tight).

Option two is, you can look for some amazing free traffic-driving techniques to increase your sales and conversions.

While the first strategy looks more promising, the second one can save you lots of money (which is crucial, especially if you’re a startup).

In this article, we’ve compiled a comprehensive dropshipping store checklist, highlighting proven strategies for driving low-cost traffic. Let’s tackle this together, shall we?

Run Paid Ads Campaigns

If you have a budget to spare, tap into the power of paid ads. You can create highly targeted campaigns that serve tailor-made ads to the customers who are most likely to click through and purchase your products. Paid Ads can make a huge difference to your dropshipping marketing and sales. Not only do ads make your products more visible, but they allow you to target a very specific audience of potential customers.

1. Low-cost Traffic via Facebook Ads for Dropshipping

With 2.6 billion active users all over the world, Facebook ads have become the most used social media channel providing wide opportunities to reach new customers and drive traffic to your online store. The platform facilitates you to target potential customers based on interests, location, behavior, etc. You can easily target that specific age group and increase your chances of sales and conversions.

If you’re brand new to Facebook ads, check out this guide for more context:

Insights for a Cost-Effective Facebook Ads Approach:

• You can spend more money if you have it (10 ad sets or a daily budget of $10 a day will naturally be more effective and provide you with more data).
• Remember, content is king. The quality of your videos, images, and copy will largely determine the success of your ads.
• While a stellar Facebook ad is essential, it won’t compensate for a poorly-designed store. Your store is where the sale is secured.

2. Low-cost Traffic via Google Ads for Dropshipping

Google ads can be a great way to drive traffic to your store. There are 3.5 billion Google searches every day, and your store can tap into that traffic. All you have to do is connect your store with Shopify’s Google Shopping app and follow the instructions below. Google will choose the best places for your ads to appear and the best people to show them to.

Want to advertise on Google? Learn about setting it up and creating your first Google Ads in this video:

Insights for a Cost-Effective Google Ads Approach:

• Since the process is automated, make sure your store has high-quality product images and descriptions. Google will automatically pull this content.
• You can start with $5 daily budget, and aim to run your campaign for a minimum of two weeks, ideally stretching it to 30 days. The total expenditure would then be $150.
• This automated process is great for getting started, making early sales and collecting audience data. However, as you move forward, consider developing more customized Google ads.

You can also use other platforms, such as Instagram Ads, TikTok Ads, and Pinterest Ads based on where your target audience is!

Utilize Top Social Media Channels To Drive Free Traffic

1. Instagram

Instagram is an incredibly popular platform, with more than one billion active users worldwide. The platform has made drastic changes in its interface that emphasize shopping. You need to create a business account on Instagram to run the ads. After signing up, you can connect with potential customers via photos, videos, stories, and carousel ads.

The best free Instagram marketing strategy for beginners:

• Create an Instagram account related to your niche and start posting photos 2-4 times per day.
• Target hashtags related to your niche. Use free photos from Unsplash and Pexels, repost other people’s images, or share funny memes and gifs.
• Add the link to your Shopify store in the bio of your Instagram account and occasionally post photos of your product (in a way that it looks natural amongst your other images).
• Continue growing your niche Instagram account organically. It’s only a matter of time before you get a few sales.

2. TikTok and YouTube

TikTok is evolving so fast that it’s setting new standards for social media content. Every product has potential for creative storytelling and the short TikTok video format is perfect for that.

Meanwhile, YouTube is and will stay the giant of video content for the foreseeable future though. Any kind of more lengthy product videos or how-to tutorials about your product will find their audience there.

The best free TikTok and YouTube marketing strategy for beginners:

• Testimonials from customers: The best way to increase people’s trust in your dropshipping store is to show them other people who bought products from you. You can ask your past customers to make a video of them talking about the product they bought and why they like it. Of course, give your customers something in return for this, and ask them for permission before you use their video or pictures.
• Educational videos: These are videos that are going to educate the people inside your products. If your customers are happy with the information, they can remember your brand and maybe even visit your store in the future.: These are videos that are going to educate the people inside your products. If your customers are happy with the information, they can remember your brand and maybe even visit your store in the future.

Improve rankings with proper SEO to Drive Organic Traffic

1. Product descriptions

Informative, unique and convincing product descriptions will help your product pages outrank the competitors and drive high-converting traffic. Pick out the most distinct feature like the AI Writing tool and craft a concise, well-structured description in a single click.

2. Store speed

More importantly, optimizing your website’s loading speed is crucial. Web pages with faster loading speeds rank higher and help offer a pleasant user experience to customers.

If you want your Shopify store to load fast, do the following:

• Choose a lightweight and fast theme: Consider and try some of Shopify’s free themes first with Dawn, Craft and Colorblock. They go with pretty fast loading time, and minimalist design, and are made specifically for a quick launch.
• Optimize images: Compress and resize images to perfection, choose the right format and you will lift a lot of weight off your website.
• Use Shopify apps effectively: Introduce Swift Page Speed SEO Optimizer – one of the best Shopify apps for speed optimization. Swift guarantees faster and more efficient performance, helping you leapfrog the competition and providing your customers with the best user experience every time. Try it out today!

If you’re struggling to find effective techniques, hire Swift Experts – senior Shopify developers with over 5 years of experience in app development and site optimization. Plus, if they don’t improve your Google PageSpeed Insights score by at least 10 points, you’ll receive a full refund as per their policy here. Try Swift Experts now!

Leverage Email Marketing to Gain Organic Traffic

Email marketing can be a cheap and effective way of attracting customers to your online store. Since most online customers aren’t ready to buy, you can get them to subscribe to your newsletter and nurture them until they are.

You start with building an email list, which means collecting people’s emails at every opportunity. Having an email list is a great long-term strategy for driving traffic to your store consistently.

The best free email marketing strategy for beginners:

• Use free email marketing software like Flowio to build an email list based on your customers’ past actions. This way, you can send marketing campaigns to your subscribers (welcome emails, promos, sales, etc.) and recover abandoned carts with automatic emails.

• Set up forms, popups, and other lead-generation tactics to attract subscribers. These email subscribers will now enter the first stages of your purchasing funnel. For example, you can incorporate the pop-up with a ‘Welcome new subscriber’ flow. Whenever a visitor signs up, they will automatically receive a welcome email, including a new product listing or a discount code. This will help you follow up on them and motivate them to quickly use the promo code before they expire.
• Send regular emails with valuable content (ideally links to your blog posts), your latest products, or anything that’s going to educate or entertain your subscribers. An easy way to start is by creating emails for events and holidays like Black Friday, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Christmas, New Year’s Eve etc).
  
• Ensure there’s a clear benefit for users to click through to your site (while avoiding spammy tactics).

Get ready to generate traffic!

Bring in promising success to your Shopify store by driving a lot of traffic to your website. High traffic opens the door to increased sales opportunities.

Now that you know four amazing ways to get traffic to your dropshipping store on a tight budget, the path to success is clearer and more attainable. It’s time to pick your strategies wisely, attract visitors, and boost those sales. Good luck with your journey toward skyrocketing traffic to your dropshipping store.