An introduction to paid traffic

Paying for traffic is a viable and scalable option. It is a more advanced method, so please follow this advice carefully before trying.

Prove your store first

Before investing in any paid traffic, make sure your store is already generating some sales. This will prove that your niche is profitable and is a good indication that paid traffic can work.

Spammy paid traffic

There are some services offering guaranteed traffic for a price (e.g. 1000 visitors per day) or a traffic swap system.

These should be avoided because the traffic they give you will never turn into buyers.

Facebook Ads

Facebook offers you the option to create a Facebook campaign and advertise. You can set up the campaign and place how much you want to spend and which countries you want to target.

Your targeting is important. If you have a USA focused store but your ads are targeting people in India, chances are you won’t be making any of that money back.

You can also target specific niches by choosing people who have liked certain pages or topics.

Google Ads

Using Google Ads will put your store at the top of the SERPs for the keywords you choose. You pay per click (PPC) and you can choose your budget, maximum cost per click (CPC), and narrow down your audience with targeting.

Be careful with some of the extra options in Google Ads. Putting your ads in the Display Network can burn through your budget as it shows your ads on websites, where the quality of traffic is generally poor.

Social Media Ads

When you create social media pages for your website, such as Instagram and X, you can usually opt for CPC (cost-per-click) or CPM (cost-per-impressions). Cost per click means you pay a certain amount every time a customer clicks on your ad. Cost per impressions is a set amount you pay for a set of impressions.