Full-funnel marketing has always been daunting. It takes time, resources, and testing to ensure your dollars are making an impact. But what if you could convert customers at a controlled cost, and retain them with a few simple steps?
Shop Campaigns makes that a reality. You set the price and only pay when a customer converts. Your products get promoted across top channels like Meta, Google, ChatGPT, and Pinterest, with no additional cost.
Getting started takes just a few minutes, and a handful of simple tips can go a long way. Here are eight ways to get more out of your campaign, from setup to scaling.
What is Shop Campaigns?
Shop Campaigns runs risk-free advertising for you, with ads powered by Shop. You set what you're willing to pay per customer, and it finds the right buyers across Shop, other merchants' online stores, and platforms like Meta, Google, ChatGPT, Pinterest, and OpenWeb. The best part? You're only charged when someone converts.
Setup takes less than 2 minutes on average, with no new assets or audience building required. You stay in control of your acquisition cost, target order value, and daily budget throughout, all while reaching and retaining customers, growing revenue, and opening a new channel for long-term, sustained growth. And since Shop is the advertiser, you can run your own advertising at the same time.
8 tips to optimize your campaign
1. Remove the guesswork
You can create your campaign in the Advertising section of the Shop channel in under two minutes. Skip the experimentation and use the suggested parameters for an optimal setup. These recommendations factor in your average order volume, industry, and Shop's relevancy algorithms, so you can get started quickly with a strong foundation.
“Managing and optimizing the Shop channel? Maybe two hours a month. It's very minimal for us.”
Brendan Gardner-Young, Head of Technology, Thrive Causemetics
Start by setting your base customer acquisition cost (CAC), which is the cost you're willing to pay for any conversion. From there, you can add custom pricing for high-value audiences like new or returning customers. You'll see recommended amounts for these costs, alongside your target average order value and daily budget. As you adjust your settings, you can also monitor your expected return on ad spend.
2. Target high-intent audiences
Shop Campaigns is built to create as much growth as possible. The price you set for 'All customers' is the base amount you're willing to pay per conversion. From there, you can add custom pricing to prioritize high-value segments like new customers or lapsed customers who haven't purchased in a while.
The audience building is handled automatically. Shop's relevancy models target shoppers with a high intent to purchase, and you can target multiple segments within a single campaign, so there's no need to recreate campaigns for different audiences.
3. Select your target average order value (tAOV) and budget
Your target AOV helps optimize how your campaign is placed across platforms, keeping your returns aligned with your goals. As you adjust your CAC and order value, you'll see an estimated return on ad spend (ROAS) in the estimates panel. Use this as a guide when setting up your campaign. Note that your ROAS estimate reflects a blended number across all segment types, with a breakdown by audience available in the results dashboard.
Since you only pay when a customer converts, we recommend setting the highest budget you're comfortable with. This reduces the chance of your budget running out before the day is done. At a minimum, aim for a budget that allows for at least five conversions per day. Your daily budget accumulates throughout the week to maximize traffic and resets each week.
4. Expand your campaign's reach
The modern shopping journey rarely follows a straight line, and Shop Campaigns helps keep your brand visible throughout it. It makes sure your campaign is targeting top ad platforms like Instagram, ChatGPT, Pinterest, and Google to reach more customers at the same acquisition cost. You set your campaign parameters and it handles the rest, handling the creative, selecting placements, and building your audience automatically based on your targeting.
These external channels are an important part of your setup, driving up to 62% of Shop Campaigns orders. And since Shop is the advertiser, you can run your own campaigns on other channels at the same time.
“We’re going to continue to allocate budget, and expand as more eyeballs get on Shop Campaigns.”
Matthew Hernstadt, co-founder of HydroMATE
Convert customers on 10+ channels
One campaign automatically reaches customers on top channels, and you only pay when they buy.
Create Shop Campaign5. Test and adjust your customer acquisition cost (CAC)
Shop Campaigns is designed to be low lift, but there are times when it's worth testing and adjusting your settings rather than leaving them as is. This might be the case if sales are slow or you want to accelerate your growth. One of the most impactful levers to test is your CAC. Increasing this amount raises your relative bid across channels, which can improve your ranking and get your products in front of more shoppers.
Regardless of where you start, we recommend waiting at least 14 days between campaign set up and any further changes. This allows time for the system to learn and optimize for the best possible results. We can’t guarantee results, but we can promise the system is always working to get you customers.
6. Own your customer data and analytics
Every customer you acquire through Shop Campaigns is yours to keep. You get full access to their order data, and since each customer is tagged with 'Shop Cash offers acquired' and the specific campaign name, it's easy to find and segment them in your admin.
You can use this data to build segments and filter by location, number of orders, predictive spend tier, and more. You can also see exactly which customers opted into marketing at checkout, making it straightforward to retarget them and grow the value of those relationships over time.
7. Customize your Shop Store
How your brand shows up on Shop matters. Your Shop Store is your owned storefront in the app, giving shoppers a place to discover your brand and browse your catalog. It's easy to customize with rich branding features like a logo, header image, color, or video, alongside enhanced content on your product detail pages. Plus, there’s no code required.
Use collections to make your catalog easy to navigate, and keep it clean by removing clutter and refreshing your SKUs regularly. If you're targeting new customers, lead with your most popular items and best sellers to make a strong first impression.
Syncing reviews to your store is one of the simplest ways to build trust and drive conversion. You can display reviews from supported apps, collect them directly on Shop, and respond to them in the reviews section of the Shop channel. Your total review count and average rating will be visible in your Shop Store header and across other key surfaces in the app.
8. Sync your full product catalog
Make sure your full product catalog is available on Shop. Since Shop acts as an additional sales channel, you can manage your published products directly in the Products section of your admin or within the Shop channel. Just navigate to the Catalog section to get started.
One thing to keep in mind: Shop checkout doesn't support customization requests, so it's best to avoid listing products that require them.
How to get access to Shop Campaigns
Creating a campaign is as simple as navigating to Advertising in the Shop section of the Shopify admin. From there, you can set up a campaign in less than 2 minutes, on average. Once the campaign is published, it goes live within 24 hours.
Grow your customers the easy way
Getting more from your campaign comes down to a few key areas: a strong setup, a well-curated Shop Store, and thoughtful adjustments to your CAC and AOV over time. Done right, these optimizations can build meaningful customer acquisition, boost revenue, and set your business up for long-term growth.
