8 Proven Ecommerce Marketing Tactics to Accelerate Your Business Growth

Promoting a new ecommerce business requires dedication and strategic effort. Successful ecommerce marketing involves constantly testing and refining ad campaigns, enhancing your website for better conversions, improving your content and SEO tactics, allocating your budget wisely across different channels, and ensuring a solid return on investment.

If you operate an online store, recent ecommerce statistics are quite promising: ecommerce sales are expected to reach $4.5 trillion by 2021, with an annual growth rate of 23%. Furthermore, about 4 out of 10 purchases are completed solely through online channels for research and purchasing. Those figures underline the massive potential in online retail.

However, as consumer expectations evolve—thanks largely to companies like Amazon—new hurdles have emerged. Customers now anticipate fast shipping, often within two days, and many abandoned carts highlight friction points in the purchasing process. Rising costs of digital marketing also pose challenges. Online shoppers are more demanding, so your marketing tactics must be sharp, your conversion funnel optimized, and your checkout process streamlined to match this high standard of service.

In ecommerce marketing, it’s impossible to excel at every tactic perfectly. Instead, you should understand each tactic’s role within your sales funnel, establish a strong baseline for performance, and maintain consistency across all platforms. This approach will maximize your revenue growth. For example, when planning your holiday ecommerce campaigns, ask yourself:

– Do my Facebook ads align visually and message-wise with my email campaigns and affiliate banners?

– Are my Google Shopping Ads featuring promotions that match my PPC ads and homepage banners?

If your answer is no or uncertain, it might be time to explore some of the strategies outlined below.

This ecommerce marketing guide will highlight the most effective strategies for your online store, explain how each fits into your sales funnel, and offer tips to ensure success this year.

Ecommerce marketing involves promoting your online store through inbound advertising, search engine optimization, and various other tactics designed to increase website traffic, boost brand awareness, and drive sales. This includes creating awareness using social media, search engines, email campaigns, digital assets, and optimizing your website to convert visitors into customers.

Ecommerce marketing leverages many digital marketing methods to turn website visitors into buyers.

Here are some common marketing channels that, when used effectively, can significantly increase your online store’s sales:

Ecommerce marketing must be a coordinated effort across multiple channels, with some channels delivering better results than others. Conversion rates can vary greatly depending on the source of traffic and device used. For example, conversion rates differ substantially by platform:

SEO is a vital long-term strategy that aims to increase your site’s visibility through higher organic search rankings. For ecommerce, this involves optimizing technical aspects like site speed, mobile compatibility, URL structure, keyword tags, and internal linking. Also crucial is producing high-quality content for product and category pages, along with regularly updating an SEO-optimized blog to attract and engage visitors.

Complementing your organic strategies, PPC advertising uses paid platforms such as Google Ads to target specific audiences, drive immediate traffic, and increase sales quickly. Effective PPC campaigns require strategic keyword selection, compelling ad copy, and optimized landing pages to maximize return on your ad spend.

and Bing Ads to secure search engine placements.

Running a successful pay-per-click (PPC) campaign involves bidding on keywords related to your business to attract more visitors and increase sales. These ads typically appear above and below organic search results on engines like Google and Bing. They are an effective way to quickly drive more traffic to your website.

Utilizing email marketing tools is one of the most effective methods to connect with potential buyers and upsell to current customers.

In the realm of ecommerce email campaigns, a variety of approaches can be employed. Automated email sequences such as welcome messages when someone signs up, and cart abandonment reminders are popular tactics. These automated emails nudge users to complete their purchases.

Beyond automation, sending regular promotional emails and newsletters can keep your audience informed about upcoming sales, new products, and special offers, encouraging repeat business and higher engagement.

Affiliate marketing involves partnering with other websites through an affiliate network to promote your products.

These website owners, or affiliates, advertise your products using text links and banners. Once a sale is made through their referral, they earn a commission based on the purchase price.

The great advantage of affiliate marketing is that it is highly scalable and offers positive return on investment (ROI). Ecommerce brands set their own commission rates, and this model provides a guaranteed ROI because advertisers only pay for successful sales.

You can explore my list of the top 105+ affiliate programs for more details.

Given that many users spend daily time on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, your ecommerce brand should be active on these platforms too.

Through social media marketing, you can grow your following, interact with existing customers, manage your brand reputation, and create targeted ads tailored to user interests.

Organic social media efforts involve posting updates and engaging content on your brand’s pages, allowing users to connect naturally. Paid social advertising involves creating eye-catching image or video ads and promoting them to specific groups based on their demographics, interests, and shopping behaviors. This approach prioritizes customer-centric ecommerce marketing by enhancing user experience.

Combining organic and paid social media tools yields the best results. It’s a powerful way to increase brand awareness and showcase your business personality.

Ecommerce business owners can leverage the Google Display Network (GDN) to easily create banner ads that reach audiences across the web.

This expansive network covers over 2 million websites and reaches 90% of internet users. With various ad formats and sizes, GDN enables precise targeting based on users’ browsing habits and interests—making it an excellent tool for broad or niche advertising campaigns.

Retargeting involves displaying ads—be it text, banners, or social media ads—to visitors who have already interacted with your website or products.

When someone visits your ecommerce site, platforms like Google or Facebook can place a tracking pixel in their browsers. As they browse other sites, they see ads reminding them of your brand and offerings.

Retargeting ads are usually paid on a cost-per-impression basis and are especially effective because they target users already familiar with your business, increasing the likelihood of conversion.

Many consumers rely heavily on reviews and recommendations from peers and influencers when making online purchasing decisions.

Partnering with influencers in your niche allows you to tap into their followers. Influencers promote your products through their blogs, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube channels, helping to build trust and brand awareness.

Typically, an ecommerce store compensates influencers with an upfront fee—larger followings often command higher rates—and they create content that features your products, extending your reach to potential customers.

Before optimizing these marketing strategies, it’s important to clearly understand your business objectives, available marketing budget, and how different channels can work together effectively.

Converting a website visitor into a buyer is typically a long-term process—it often requires 7 to 13 touchpoints before a sale is made. Potential customers need multiple interactions with your brand and products before they decide to purchase. Therefore, your marketing approach should involve a coordinated mix of tactics that engage potential buyers at every stage of their journey.

Source: code95.com

At the top of your marketing funnel, or brand awareness stage, you’re reaching out to audiences who have never encountered your products before. These potential customers are unlikely to buy immediately. Your strategies include paid and organic social media posts, display ads, and other outreach efforts aimed at increasing impressions, gathering email addresses, driving website visits, and growing your social media following. For instance, optimizing your ecommerce SEO by targeting keywords related to your products is essential. If you sell camping gear, creating a detailed blog about the Top Ten Camping Destinations in the United States can attract interested readers, help build brand recognition, and allow for retargeting with ads later. Many ecommerce SEO agencies can assist you in developing effective search engine strategies. Visitors might see your Facebook ads, visit your website, but not buy right away. These visitors help grow your email list and social following—ideal for retargeting campaigns. When they revisit product pages without purchasing, they stay warm leads who can be nurtured toward conversion. A good return on investment (ROI) for top-of-funnel marketing efforts is typically around 2 to 2.5 times the cost.

Once potential customers have shown some interest or familiarity with your brand, they are more likely to convert into buyers. This is where bottom-of-funnel marketing tactics come into play, such as brand-specific pay-per-click (PPC) ads, retargeting campaigns, and abandoned cart emails. These tactics target users actively searching for your brand or those who have already visited your site or added items to their cart. The primary goal here is to close sales. For example, Zoma Sleep effectively uses engaging animations and customer reviews on their mattress pages to boost conversions. To draw users to your product pages, investing in targeted Google ads that focus on brand keywords—terms with high likelihood of conversion—are particularly effective because these users already know your brand and are intent on purchasing. Maintaining top positions for your brand terms (around 1.0 to 1.5 on search engine marketing platforms) ensures visibility and better ROI. Conversely, bidding on non-brand keywords (which tend to have lower ROI) can still be worthwhile if done strategically, aiming for positions around 2.5 to 4.0. Retargeting via Google and Facebook further enhances conversion chances; Facebook’s Dynamic Product Ads can showcase exactly what users viewed in a carousel format. By creating different retargeting windows—such as 3, 7, 14, 30, or 180 days—you can tailor bids based on how recent the visit was. For example, bidding higher for users who viewed your products three days ago makes sense since they are more likely to convert soon. Tools like Facebook Power Editor allow you to adjust bids accordingly, emphasizing shorter timeframes for maximum ROI. Similar strategies apply to Google retargeting, where separating audiences by duration window allows smarter bidding. Testing discounts for retargeted audiences can also enhance returns. A typical ROI benchmark for bottom-funnel campaigns is around 3:1 for brand keywords and 5:1 or higher for Facebook retargeting efforts.

Understanding your repeat purchase rate (RPR)—the percentage of customers who buy from you again—is crucial for growth. Calculating RPR involves dividing the number of repeat buyers by your total customer count and multiplying by 100. Additionally, identify and address common “silent” conversion killers such as hidden shipping charges, lack of discounts, or limited payment options, which can undermine your efforts. To retain existing customers and maximize their lifetime value, targeted marketing through retargeting, email campaigns, and social media is essential. Remember that it typically costs five times more to acquire new customers than to retain current ones. Using platforms like Facebook Ads and your ecommerce email tools, you can craft special campaigns for previous buyers—offering VIP discounts, exclusive deals, or personalized messages—which reinforce loyalty and encourage repeat purchases. These strategies help convert satisfied customers into brand advocates and repeat buyers, boosting overall revenue and customer lifetime value.

With the current digital landscape, there are more opportunities than ever to generate income through an online store. However, success hinges on well-planned marketing strategies and a clear understanding of the conversion funnel that aligns with customer behavior. Getting each tactic to deliver a solid return on investment means you can afford to scale your efforts, reach a wider audience, and increase sales. Simplifying your ecommerce marketing approach and focusing on proven techniques will help you grow your business efficiently and profitably this year.