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Facebook Ads for Dropshipping: The Ultimate Guide For Beginners
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Aleksandra -
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Chief of Content Marketing
Aleksandra teaches marketing and management at various levels in High School. She writes about marketing, the economics and logistics of the dropshipping business and ecommerce in general.
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Chief of Content Marketing
17 minutes

When we talk about Facebook Ads for dropshipping, many dropshippers fail to realize how important a marketing tool like Facebook is.

The majority of highly successful dropshippers, like Scott Hilse, Andreas Koenig, Ethan Dobbins, and many others started with Facebook. 

The best part about it is that they started with some small investments and managed to rise to great wealth in a relatively short period of time.

Before you go anywhere, let’s dive into this ultimate Facebook ads guide so you can learn how to drive those sales up.

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Are Facebook Ads Good for Dropshipping?

facebook ads dropshipping

Facebook ads are great for dropshipping, especially for beginners who have a smaller budget and don’t have the full expertise on advertising yet.

The customizability with Facebook ads is almost unimaginable. You can select countless features about your customers to ensure that only those who are most likely to buy see your ads.

In any case, here are just a few areas where Facebook ads for dropshipping will always thrive:

Driving Traffic

Facebook is the biggest social media platform in the world with the most users. It has been around since 2004 and has a great history of driving traffic to countless businesses. 

As of now, close to 3.07 billion users in the world use Facebook! Don’t forget that Facebook is also the owner of Instagram & WhatsApp so they are a worldwide traffic center.

As a result, learning all about Instagram marketing for dropshipping is also a very wise idea.

You can connect all of Facebook’s owned platforms, your website, and your profile, and grow on all of them simultaneously.

Let’s also not forget that you can post links on Facebook in your post description. This is a direct link to your website or to anything you are promoting.

πŸ‘‰ Learn How To Sell On TikTok Shop As an Ecom Beginner In 2024.

Target Your Buyer Persona

Facebook ads are great for personalizing and targeting your buyer persona. The ads allow you to choose which location you want to target, what kind of people, age groups, interests, and so much more.

As a result, you can easily find more people who are highly likely to buy your product. In return, you end up wasting less and less money on ads.

For example, if you’re a creative person, I’ve got a cool suggestion for you. When I divide my target audience, I create various profiles for the ideal buyers.

So, you can just grab some pre-made templates from Canva and fill in details like their personal info, job, hobbies, why they might want to buy your stuff, and such. I even jot down how much money they make or how much they can spend.

By doing this, I create several customer profiles, and that’s how I create my market segments.

Brand Awareness

All businesses that use Facebook and Instagram are shown to be very connected to their customers. 

And, guess what? 

When you are connected to your customers, that also means they will be more connected and loyal to you. Engagement rates go higher, which directly corresponds to higher conversions and more sales.

The higher your brand awareness is, the more people will trust and buy from your brand. This is why branded dropshipping has huge potential for long-term wealth.

πŸ‘‰ Check out my Guide To Facebook Marketplace Fees – How Much Does It Cost?

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How To Create a Campaign on Facebook Ads

To create a Facebook ads campaign, there are a few steps everyone must follow:

  1. First, open the Facebook Ads Manager
  2. Click on Create
  3. Select a Campaign Objective (read below on what each one is for)
  4. Click on Continue
  5. From there, you can customize Ad Sets and the Ad itself

But, before you start any campaign on Facebook, you have to first have all of the essentials taken care of, including:

Choose a Product 

You should know which product and niche you belong in. This is one of the most important steps when setting up a Facebook ad.

Now, choosing a product isn’t always easy.

You need to learn how to find winning dropshipping products in order to maximize your conversions. The easier the product sells, the faster you can scale and earn more money.

Here’s a simple way to start: head over to Google Trends, type in each product keyword, and see what customers are searching for.

This gives you valuable insights because you can spot the products in high demand. This technique also helps you decide which products to include in your specialized store. Let’s give it a shot! πŸ‘‡

Now, there are several fantastic tools to help you discover your winning products. Personally, I use the AutoDS product research tool, and it’s excellent for swiftly finding, checking, and adding products.

With this tool, I can easily search for popular products and gather information such as product details, suppliers, profitability, prices, shipping, ratings, and reviews.

Write Good Product Descriptions and Ad Copy

What most dropshippers fail to pay attention to is writing a good product description and a catchy ad copy. 

Keep your description and ad copy unique. Avoid going around and trying to write the same copy you see somewhere else. It rarely works that way!

Describe every appealing benefit of your product. Write ads that entice even yourself to click and see exactly what kind of product this is.

For example, if you are A Shopify user Shopify Magic can assist you in writing SEO-friendly product descriptions. However, you only need to give the tool a few instructions. Thus, let’s try this out. πŸ‘‡

However, ChatGPT can also assist you in writing product descriptions, you just only need to use the right prompts.

That’s the first step, getting users to click on your ad. It’s one of the first steps to creating successful eCommerce sales funnels.

Do some research on your product. Come up with several descriptions and ad copy. Test what works best and which one drives the best results. The results you get tell whether the copy is good or not.

Then, scale the ads that end up being successful and stop the ones that are doing poorly.

Use High-Quality Photos

When people get bored of reading, they pay attention to photos. You want to make sure your photos are not low quality. 

It makes you look unprofessional and won’t result in successful ads.

The more unique your photos and the higher quality they are, the better they will make your brand look and the more clicks you’ll get.

Set Up Your Dropshipping Store

You can’t start running Facebook ads for dropshipping if you don’t even have a store. Where are you going to send all that traffic to? πŸ€”

Make sure you create one on Shopify or you can even learn how to use the Facebook Marketplace for dropshipping.

When it comes to creating an online store, I prefer using website builders. They’re simple, quick, cost-effective, and convenient, and you don’t need any coding skills.

That’s why my top pick is Shopify. It has a user-friendly interface and offers a range of attractive themes designed specifically for dropshipping stores. πŸ‘‡

What makes it even better is its drag-and-drop editor, allowing you to easily build and customize your store.

There are countless options out there. If Shopify isn’t your style, you can try any of the dozens of Shopify alternatives and have a running store in hours.

How Much Do Facebook Ads Cost?

dropshipping facebook ads

There is literally no concrete way to answer this question. How much you pay for Facebook ads depends on an array of factors. You can choose to pay as little as $5 per day if you want. 

However, that won’t bring the same speedy and efficient results as paying $100 per day would.

That’s just something to keep in mind when doing Facebook ads for dropshipping.

Something you want to take into consideration is that the performance of paid ads on Facebook also greatly depends on how well you do organically. 

If your posts aren’t engaging and are not getting enough comments or likes, you will waste more money than you should.

You want to first aim at setting up the right ad, getting some organic engagement, and then promoting the ad.

To lower Facebook ad costs and make every dollar count, make sure you always discontinue ads that aren’t bringing in results.

Don’t use something that is useless. Only continue to invest in the ads that are bringing the most results.

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Types of Facebook Ads

The different types of Facebook ad formats you can choose from, including the following:

  1. Image ads
  2. Video ads
  3. Lead ads
  4. Dynamic ads
  5. Story ads
  6. Collection ads
  7. Slideshow ads
  8. Messenger ads

There are different types of ads you can place on Facebook and all of them should be taken into consideration when setting up Facebook ads for dropshipping. 

Here’s what you should know about each type of Facebook ad format.

Image Ads 

facebook image ad

One of the best ways to get started with Facebook ads when you are a beginner is with Image ads

They are very simple to set up, but also need to be high quality. Boring images with a lot of text on them will almost never work.

Instead, you will need high-quality, colorful, and extremely eye-catching images. 

That’s what drives results.

Image ads specs:

  • Headline: 40 characters
  • Link Description: 30 characters
  • Body Text: 125 characters

Video Ads

facebook video ads

Video ads are not only for YouTube and Tiktok, as they do pretty well on Facebook too. 

You can use Facebook ads to show your product in action, or show what it does or how it is used.

If the video is interesting enough with your product in it, it will easily become a trend on Facebook.

Video ads specs:

  • Headline: 40 characters
  • Link Description: 30 characters
  • Body Text: 125 characters

Lead Ads 

facebook lead ads

Lead ads are mostly made to get contact information for users. 

They are very effective Facebook ads for dropshipping because you can use this to also send personalized messages to potential customers.

If your purpose is to get contact info, then lead ads will be the most cost-efficient choice.

Lead ads specs:

  • Primary Text: 125 characters
  • Headline: 40 characters
  • Description: 30 characters

Dynamic Ads 

You can also call these types of ads personalized ads. They are ads that are displayed to people with the same interests. 

For example, if you are interested in home decor products, Facebook will scan your engagement with similar content and show you these kinds of ads.

And probably the most promising Facebook ads format for dropshipping is the concept of the dynamic ad.

Here you can find the top home decor suppliers in the USA.

You have to keep in mind that to use these types of ads you also need to have a Facebook Business Manager account.

Story Ads

facebook story ads

Story ads are extremely popular and worthwhile when used on Instagram.

They show up on Facebook as well but have better exposure on Instagram since it is more focused on stories compared to Facebook.

Story ads specs:

  • Resolution: At least 1080 x 1080 pixels
  • Primary Text: 125 characters

Collection Ads

Collection ads let you see and find out more about your product with a more enjoyable visual experience.

They can be images and videos in the same ad, very good for dropshipping, and allow you to showcase products.

When you showcase these products, you can also include purchase options that allow customers to buy the product without leaving Facebook.

facebook collection ads for ecommerce stores

Collection ads specs:

  • Headline: 40 characters
  • Body Text: 125 characters

Slideshow Ads

facebook slideshow ads

Facebook Slideshow ads allow you to create short video-like ads from texts, photos, and video clips. You can slide through them and quickly go through each to find something you like.

They are similar to video ads but they use fewer data. These types of ads can easily be created using the Ads manager.

Slideshow ads specs:

  • Headline: 25 characters
  • Link Description: 30 characters
  • Body Text: 125 characters

Messenger Ads 

Facebook Messenger ads appear in between your texts on the Messenger app.

They do have their use but aren’t as effective as most of the other types of Facebook ads on this list.

Messenger ads specs:

  • Headline: 40 characters
  • Body Text: 125 characters

How to use Facebook Ads for Dropshipping: Step by Step Guide

Before you use Facebook Ads manager, you have to first create a Facebook business page. Without one, you can’t run any Facebook Ads.

Here are a few steps by step instructions on how to create your Facebook ads for dropshipping:

Step 1 – Choose an Objective

On Facebook Ads manager, you have to select the Campaigns tab and then create a new Facebook ad campaign.

There are eleven different ad objectives you can choose on the Facebook Ads Manager, including the following:

  • Brand Awareness
  • Reach
  • Traffic 
  • Engagement
  • App Installs
  • Video Views
  • Lead Generation
  • Messages
  • Conversions
  • Catalog Sales
  • Store Traffic

You should choose the objective based on what you want to achieve with your ad.

If you are all about driving traffic to your website, choose website traffic, if it is branding, choose brand awareness, and so on.

facebook ads manager

Step 2 – Choose Who Sees Your Ad

Choosing who sees your ad is an important step that can contribute greatly to reducing costs and improving results. Here are your choices:

  • Those who liked your page
  • Those who liked your page and their friends
  • People who engaged with your page
  • People who engaged with your ads and page

Ads have different purposes, so that is up to you to decide who you want to see your ads.

facebook ads for dropshipping

Step 3 – Choose Your Target Audience

Location

You can now choose the location you will want to target. If you are going local, then, of course, you should target your city or even the entire country.

Also, there is no limit to how many countries you want to target.

Gender

Other than locations, you have to also set the age and gender group you are targeting.

Maybe your product is fit for a certain age group, or maybe just for females or males. The great thing about Facebook ads is their personalization!

You can also name your own audience and customize your targets. You can create multiple audiences and test them to see which one works better.

Step 4 – Set a Budget And Schedule

You can choose a lifetime budget or a daily budget. 

A lifetime budget is a total amount you’re willing to spend over a certain period of time that you determine.

A daily budget is setting a daily limit and deciding when to stop or to increase the amount as the ad progresses.

You can also choose which period of the day the ads are active and when they’re paused. 

Ads can be scheduled to run continuously, later, now, or for a certain time period as well.

facebook ads manager guide for dropshipping stores

Step 5 – Ad Placement

This lets you choose which platforms you want your ads to be displayed on. You can choose Automatic placements which lets Facebook decide the best possible platforms for your ad to be placed.

Or, you can choose Manual placements which lets you manually select which platforms your ads should show on and which ones they should avoid.

This helps you prevent Facebook from wasting your budget on unnecessary platforms.

With Manual placements, you can choose from the following:

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Audience Network
  • Messenger

You can also expand these categories and further narrow down your placement choices.

facebook ads placements

Step 6 – Ad Delivery

When you scroll down a bit further in the Ads Manager, you will see ad delivery. This determines how and when your ad is presented to the audience you’re targeting.

You have the following options:

  • Impressions – delivering to people as many times as possible
  • Post Engagement – ads get delivered to the right people who help you get the most likes, shares, comments, etc.
  • Daily Unique Reach – ads are delivered to people once a day
success stories of dropshippers who used Facebooks ads

Step 7 – Finalize Your Ad 

In the last step, before you set up your Facebook ads for dropshipping, you can choose whether to create a slideshow, which templates to choose from, and whether to hide any adult content that isn’t for people under 18.

You have a preview tool that gives you a sneak peek of how your ad will look before it is published. You always want to check that before putting the ad up.

Tips on Running Successful Facebook Ads for Dropshipping

If you want to increase your chances of running successful Facebook ads for dropshipping, then make sure to read the following tips.

1. Split Test (A/B Test)

A great way to start seeing results fast is to test as many different ad sets as your budget allows you. A/B testing allows you to try several versions of your ad with different variables. 

Then, you can see which ones you should scale and which ones to deactivate.

The ads that are bringing great results can be scaled and the ones that perform poorly and waste money should be deleted completely.

2. Track Conversions 

You can do this by installing Facebook Pixel. In fact, there are no Facebook ads for dropshipping without the Facebook pixel, one of the most crucial Facebook features.

Once you install the pixel on your website, it’ll then be ready to get to work.

Tracking your conversions lets you gather critical data which you can then use to significantly improve countless aspects of your store.

3. Don’t Blindly Follow Others

It’s crucial that you create your ads and choose your target audience based on actual research. 

Don’t simply follow a β€œfoolproof Facebook ads for dropshipping strategy” that is described to work for any business. 

You need to really think about what your audience likes. You need to get in your target customer’s heads and find their deepest fears or most powerful desires. 

Once you find an answer to this, you can easily create a winning ad that drives lots of sales.

Use Facebook Ads To Grow Your Ecommerce Business

If you need more reassurance, we have a whole article on success stories of dropshippers who used Facebook ads for skyrocketing dropshipping stores.

Maybe it won’t be as easy at the start for everyone, but there’s no doubt that Facebook ads for dropshipping can help owners create a lot of wealth.

The best part about Facebook Ads is that you can initially use them with a small budget. Follow our ultimate guide on best marketing practices for dropshipping and learn how to skyrocket profits and success.

If you need more expert advice on Dropshipping, then our knowledge center is full of helpful guides.

Are Facebook Ads For Dropshipping Still Profitable in 2024?

Yes, Facebook ads are still profitable in 2024. And, if you wonder why, I have facts.

So, starting from social media statistics, according to Statista, the total number of social media users is predicted to reach 5.17 billion people in 2024.

And, Facebook remains a major player with a whopping 3.07 billion monthly active users, making up 62.24% of all global social media users.

In the United States, Facebook boasts 243.5 million users, ranking second in terms of user base.

What’s more, dropshippers need to understand their audience. Therefore, you should note that 56.6% of Facebook users are male, while 43.4% are female.

The majority of Facebook users fall in the 25 to 34 age group, with 18.4% males and 12.6% females.

More importantly, looking ahead to 2024, Facebook is expected to have over 10 million active marketers.

Additionally, 63.7% of Americans aged 13 and above are exposed to Facebook advertising. Thus, the advertising reach of Facebook is estimated to be 1.98 billion.

Additionally, the average click-through rate for Facebook ads stands at 1.4%.

The projected Facebook ads revenue for 2024 is an impressive $170.82 billion, with video marketing anticipated to be the most popular marketing method.

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Conclusion

These were our ultimate guides on helping you create up running and successful Facebook Ads.

The testing and results will all depend on how you implement the knowledge you’ve gathered here.

For more tips and tricks on applying the most successful Facebook Ads for dropshipping, make sure to visit our FREE Dropshipping Resource Center.

About the Author

Profile picture of Aleksandra
Aleksandra Miteva
Aleksandra teaches marketing and management at various levels in High School. She writes about marketing, the economics and logistics of the dropshipping business and ecommerce in general.