Getting customers: ads and content
A shop without visitors doesn’t sell. There are two routes: paying for visitors (ads) or earning them (organic content).
Paid ads (Meta, TikTok, Google)
It’s what most people do, but it’s where the most money is lost. Do the maths before you spend:
Each click costs you €0.40 and 2 in 100 visitors buy
→ 100 clicks = €40 to get 2 sales
→ €20 in ads per sale
If your product leaves you €15 before ads, you lose €5 per sale.
→ 100 clicks = €40 to get 2 sales
→ €20 in ads per sale
If your product leaves you €15 before ads, you lose €5 per sale.
At the start the cost per sale is usually high: the ads have to “learn” and your shop has no reviews or trust yet. Many new shops convert fewer than 1-2% of visitors.
How to test without burning money
- Decide in advance how much you’ll spend per product (for example, 2-3 times your profit per sale) and don’t change it on impulse.
- Test several different videos: the video matters more than the targeting.
- If there are no sales with that money, stop. Don’t raise the budget “to see if it takes off”.
- Look at the real cost per sale, not the likes.
Organic content (free, but it costs time)
Posting videos of the product on TikTok, Reels or Shorts every day. You don’t pay per visit, but you need consistency: dozens of videos before one works. If you’re starting with little money, it’s the safest way to test whether a product interests people.
Not allowed: making up reviews, saying “only 3 left” when it isn’t true, fake countdowns or “was” prices that never existed. These are misleading practices that consumer law punishes, and they can get your ad accounts shut down.