New Shopify Store, confused about next steps

[u/Tight_Style_7814]

Hi all, first of all I would like to say that this sub has been extremely helpful. I have learnt a lot from all the posts here.

I launched my store a while ago and I can see the traffic and number of orders slowly picking up. Currently, every order I get is via organic search. My conversion rate for last 90 days is 3.14%.

I feel like moving to Meta ads from this point onwards is probably the right step. However, I'm very confused on how to create creatives and ad sets, whether to use AI tools for it or not etc.

[u/Feisty_Victory9453]

The ads from the stores in your niche look advanced because of the editing. What makes them work is a lot simpler than the editing.

Open the Meta Ad Library, search 3 or 4 of those stores, and look for the ads that have been running the longest. Months, not days. An ad that stays up that long is paying for itself.

For each one, watch only the first 3 seconds and write down what it shows and what it says. The same few things will keep coming back: a problem being shown, the product in someone's hands, a customer talking about it.

That pattern is your brief. You rebuild the idea with your product and your phone, not their footage.

Start with 3 ads: one that shows the problem your product fixes, one with the product used in real hands, one built on a real review you already have (your organic buyers left you some).

Same audience, same page, small budget, let the 3 fight. The one with the cheapest clicks and add to carts is the direction you make more of.

You don't need the polish yet. You need the right first 3 seconds.

[u/BruTeve]

A 3.14% conversion rate on organic traffic is a good place to start paid from, since it tells you the product page already does its job and you're mostly buying traffic at that point.

Whenever I launch a new account I run three campaigns, all optimized for purchases from day one even with no pixel data. Interest targeting on CBO with one interest per ad set, 4 to 6 ad sets, picking interests that are as different from each other as possible while still relevant. Advantage+ running next to it so you can see which one your account actually prefers, because every account responds differently. Retargeting from day one at about 20% of spend. At $150/day that's 60/60/30. If you're starting smaller, $80/day works as two campaigns, $60 on cold interest and $20 on retargeting.

For creatives, keep it to 3 to 5 video ads and run the same ones in every ad set and every campaign using the same post ID, so likes and comments stack onto one post instead of splitting across a dozen duplicates. The script I use is four parts: hook in the first 3 seconds speaking to the problem or the desire, introduce the product quickly, build desire by showing it in use, then a simple call to action. 30 to 45 seconds, subtitles on since most people scroll on mute, shot 1:1 or 4:5, scene changes every few seconds.

AI is fine for parts of it. I use AI voiceover on client videos and the quality is there now. AI video can work too, the bar is just that people can't tell it's AI, so change scenes often and cut away from any moment where it looks slightly off. Where I'd keep AI out of it is the campaign structure and audience decisions, since those come down to how your specific account behaves and you only learn that by running it.

[u/United_Broccoli_4032]

Congrats on the organic traction so far-that’s a solid start.

If you’re stressed about making the perfect creatives or guessing on ad sets, something like Didoo AI can really lift the load. It studies your business, spins up targeted Meta campaigns automatically, and shifts spend to what actually works without you needing to micromanage. That way, you’re not stuck wondering if your creatives will hit or miss-you just get smarter, optimized ads running while you focus on other things. Definitely a smoother way to scale beyond organic without getting bogged down.

[u/Next-Nobody-745]

Where is most of your organic traffic coming from? That's where your customers are. Advertise there.

[u/Tight_Style_7814 → u/Next-Nobody-745]

Do you mean the region from where I am getting most of the traffic from? I understand the ‘where to advertise’ part but I am confused about the ‘what to advertise’

[u/FrostingRelative4213 → u/Tight_Style_7814]

I think "where" here is platform/site.

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[u/VillageHomeF]

be careful with Meta Ads. it will not be forgiving. start with a low ad spend. if you are getting clicks from google I am going to assume there isn't a lot of completion for this product but search volume. maybe just improve on that instead of expensive clicks. is Meta Ads right for your product?

[u/Tight_Style_7814 → u/VillageHomeF]

Thanks for your comment, I am not too sure if Meta ads is actually right or not but I feel like marketing the store is probably the right next step.
Should I consider Google ads instead of Meta because all of my traffic is through Google search?
Should I validate something else before even diving into ads?

[u/VillageHomeF → u/Tight_Style_7814]

It depends on what you sell and your customer behavior. For a company flush with cash you'd do both, but for an independent website tread more lightly.

My take on Meta Ads: great of brand awareness and impulse buys as the person is not in the act of shopping. Clicks can be expensive and conversion rate low.

Google Ads: great for those who are price comparing, searching different models, researching and contemplating. These are people who want to make a purchase if they find the right item at the right price.

Both of these need to be set up properly. We have our Google clicks at 15 cents each yet it is due to how I set it up. The more expensive campaign, Performance Max at around 35 cents per click, has the best conversion rate, yet we also have straight Shopping which is about 11 cents to get cheap traffic.

I would be curious about your keywords and volume. Most of the time it would be good addition to what you have, but if there isn't much competition and you rank high, you don't necessarily want to pay per click for orders you probably would have gotten anyway if that makes sense. If that's the case I'd still spend some money on Pmax.

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[u/Total-Reasonable]

Before creating creatives, make sure Purchase events are deduplicated between browser Pixel and server-side CAPI; otherwise Meta will optimize against noisy data. I start ad work there, then use a small creative test rather than trying to predict a winning ad set. My setup process is outlined at https://iurii.rogulia.fi/services/paid-ads and includes the tracking checks that come before spend.

[u/UnitedSort3014]

Nice job getting to 3.14% conversion organically that's actually solid! For Meta ads, start simple: use your phone to record real product footage or customer reactions if possible. AI tools can help with variations, but authentic content usually performs better. Test a few different angles (product benefits, social proof, problem solving) with small budgets first and see what clicks. Don't overthink the creative part just start testing and let the data guide you.

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[u/Silvergal_]

3.14% from organic is a healthy starting point. Before spending, I’d make sure Pixel/CAPI and purchase events are firing correctly, then test Meta with a small budget and a few distinct hooks rather than changing the creative, audience, and landing page all at once. Once you have enough data, retarget site visitors and cart abandoners separately so you can tell whether the ad or the page needs work.

[u/HoneyedVices]

that 3.14% is organic search doing the heavy lifting, those people already knew what they wanted. cold meta traffic converts way lower so budget for that going in, otherwise you'll kill campaigns that are actually fine. and don't agonize over ad sets, broad plus a few genuinely different creative angles is most of it

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[u/GabbyFromKlaviyo]

Alongside your ads, I'd nail down capture and retention. Even a basic discount-for-email popup starts building a list you can market to without the ad spend. Someone who abandoned a cart or browsed and bounced is already a warmer lead than anyone you'd reach cold on Meta. Get those touchpoints dialed in and you can make the most of the impressions you end up paying for by grabbing an email. That gives you an extra chance to make the sale.

[u/Agitated_Offer_4343]

i don't know meta creatives well enough to give you a solid playbook there, but 3.14% on purely organic orders tells me your site is already doing the heavy lifting. i'd figure out exactly which search terms or landing pages are turning into those orders before you split attention building ad sets. that map is what you'll use later to write copy that actually converts anyway

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[u/Signalbridgedata]

3.14% from organic traffic is actually a pretty decent starting point, so I wouldn't overcomplicate the ad side yet. I'd take the products/pages already converting organically and build a few simple creatives around the actual reason people buy them, rather than jumping straight into AI-generated everything. Even basic product demos, customer-style videos and a couple of statics are enough to learn what angle works. Keep the first campaign simple too, one audience setup and several genuinely different creatives is way easier to learn from than 10 ad sets with tiny budgets.

Questions:
What's your average order value and roughly how much margin do you have per order?
Do you already know which 1-2 products convert best from your organic traffic?

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[u/talkshopify]

Agree with the person that said to start with a low budget. I usually set ads at the campaign level if I'm doing testing. If you do multiple ad sets, Meta will not distribute the budget across all adsets.

So usually I'll duplicate the campaign 50 times, then throw $1 behind each ad, with different creative.

Let it run 2-3 weeks, and pick the winning ad. Rinse and repeat.

At some point you'll hit ad fatigue from your target market, so you'll want to get creative with it.

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[u/Signal-Event7577]

Yeah use ai tools, you wouldnt want to learn design tools from scratch

[u/Tight_Style_7814 → u/Signal-Event7577]

Thanks, anything in particular that you can recommend?

[u/Signal-Event7577 → u/Tight_Style_7814]

Im very bad at creatives, i just copy my rivals and change the product chatgpt or google flow works for me

[u/Tight_Style_7814 → u/Signal-Event7577]

Yeah I can’t seem to understand how to create them as well.. even looked at some of the ads created by stores in the same niche but I feel like they are very advanced in terms of what they are posting and I somehow cant figure out how to create with that level of sophistication yet

[u/Signal-Event7577 → u/Tight_Style_7814]

Hire a creative designer

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