Solved: Marketing Strategy for Small Business Startup on a Budget - PPC, SEO, Social Media, or Agency?

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out, happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance on getting your new ecomm business off the ground, especially with the advertising side when you're trying to keep costs down and it's just you.

Starting solo is a massive undertaking, so you're definitely right to be thinking about how to spend your limited time and money efficiently. Paid advertising can be a great way to get traffic and sales quickly, but you gotta be smart about it or you'll just burn through cash.

I'd say you'll need to focus on bringing in customers quickly...

You asked about PPC/SEO vs social media advertising. They serve different purposes, really, especially for a new business needing fast results.

PPC, things like Google Search Ads and especially Google Shopping ads for eCommerce, is fantastic for capturing demand right now. Think about it, if someone is typing "buy handcrafted wooden bowls" into Google, they have high intent to purchase. Shopping ads can put your specific products right in front of them when they are in that buying mindset. That's a very efficient way to get sales conversions relatively quickly if your products and prices are competitive.

Social media ads (like Facebook and Instagram ads) are more about putting your products infront of people who *might* be interested based on their demographics, interests, or even behaviour online. This can be good for discovery, getting your brand seen, or showing off visually appealing products. It's less about capturing immediate purchase intent and more about creating it or reminding people (retargeting). If you have really unique products or great visuals, social can work well, and in our experience running Meta Ads for eCommerce, we've seen some incredible results, achieving very high return on ad spend for clients selling things like cleaning products (633% return) or women's apparel (691% return). So it definitely works, but the audience isn't necessarily looking to buy *right now* in the same way as someone on Google Search.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is crucial for long-term organic traffic, but for a brand new website, it takes time. Like, months or even a year to build up enough authority and content to rank well for many keywords. It's not something you'll get immediate traffic from in your first year when you're trying to establish the business. You should absolutely do the foundational SEO stuff when you build your website (good structure, optimising product pages), but I wouldn't rely on it for significant traffic early on. Focus your active effort and budget where you can see results faster.

So, my initial thought is you probably need to lean into paid advertising first to get the ball rolling. Start with Google Shopping/Search if people are actively searching for your specific products. Once you have website traffic, adding Social media retargeting campaigns is usually a no-brainer as it's a cost-effective way to remind people who've already shown interest. You could test broader social media targeting later if budget allows and you have good visuals.

We'll need to look at your website's ability to convert visitors...

You mentioned paying for a "top tier e-commerce website". This is absolutely critical, perhaps even more important than the ads themselves, especially when you're starting out with limited funds. As we've seen with various clients, if your website isn't converting visitors into customers, you're just wasting every penny you spend on ads driving traffic there.

Based on experience reviewing many sites for clients whose ads weren't working, there are common pitfalls for ecomm sites:

• The site looks untrustworthy - crucial for a small new business. No reviews, unclear contact info, missing policies, poor design can all make people hesitate to buy. Adding things like customer testimonials, links to social media profiles (if active), clear contact info, maybe even trust badges can help build confidence.
• The website is slow to load - people are impatient, especially on mobile. A slow site means people bounce before they even see your products.
• Product presentation is poor - fuzzy photos, no or minimal product descriptions. People need to see exactly what they are buying, see it from different angles, understand its features and benefits. Professional photos (or even good quality photos you take yourself showing the product clearly, maybe even a quick video) and detailed, persuasive descriptions are a must. If someone gets to a product page but doesn't add to cart, this is often why.

Your website is your digital storefront. It needs to look professional, load fast, clearly show off your products, build trust with visitors, and make it easy for them to purchase. Before you spend significant money on ads, make sure your website is in the best possible shape to convert the traffic you send to it. Otherwise, those ad dollars just disappear.

Also think about your pricing and offers. Are you competitive? Could a special offer for first-time buyers help encourage conversions?

You probably should think about realistic budgets and lead costs...

Setting realistic expectations for cost and budget is important. You want to be surgical and efficient, which is smart. The actual cost to acquire a customer or get a sale will vary hugely depending on your niche, product prices, how competitive the market is, and how good your website is at converting. It's impossible to give you a precise number without looking into your specific market and products.

But to give you a rough idea from our experience with consumer services campaigns (which also involve getting customers from online efforts), costs per lead can range quite a bit. We've seen costs as low as £5 per lead for something like home cleaning services, but for more competitive areas like HVAC, costs can be $60 per lead or more. We're running a campaign for an HVAC company currently, they are in a bit of a competitive area, and they are seeing costs of around $60/lead. We’ve run ads for childcare services where the CPL was around $10 per signup. And our best consumer services campaign was for a home cleaning company which got a cost of £5/lead. I usually recommend a budget for ad spend of $1-$2k per month to start with - but this depends on how many leads you need (number of leads you need x cost per lead = ad spend).

This can work well depending on how many of these leads you can close and how large the contracts are - you likely won't get the biggest contracts this way, these are usually referrals.

You'll need to consider how you'll manage everything yourself...

You mentioned it'll just be you for the first year and asked about outsourcing. Managing paid advertising properly is a significant job in itself. It's not just setting up some ads and letting them run.

Good paid media management involves:

• Daily monitoring of performance metrics (cost per click, click-through rates, cost per acquisition, ROAS, conversion rates etc.)
• Constantly testing different ad copy, images, videos, and headlines to see what resonates best with your audience (creative testing).
• Testing different targeting options and audiences to find who is most likely to buy (targeting testing).
• Analysing the data to understand where people are dropping off (e.g., low clicks on ads, lots of clicks but no product page views, lots of product page views but no adds to cart, lots of adds to cart but no purchases).
• Optimising campaigns based on the data – shifting budget to what's working, pausing what isn't, adjusting bids and budgets.
• Keeping up with changes in the ad platforms (which happen all the time).

Trying to do all of this alongside building your website, managing stock, fulfilling orders, handling customer service, and everything else involved in starting an ecomm business is incredibly difficult. Something will likely suffer, and often it's the marketing optimisation, which means wasted ad spend.

Outsourcing paid advertising management to someone who does it full-time can be more efficient *if* you find the right fit. They have the expertise, the tools, and the time to dedicate to managing the campaigns effectively. This can potentially save you money in the long run by avoiding costly mistakes and getting better results faster than you could trying to learn and do it all yourself. You still need to oversee them and communicate your goals, but it frees you up to focus on other aspects of the business like product development, sourcing, and customer experience.

If budget is extremely tight, you might have to try managing it yourself initially, but be prepared for a steep learning curve and accept that results might be slower or less optimal than if managed by an expert. As you grow, it's definitely something to consider offloading.

This is the main advice I have for you:

Overall, launching an ecomm store alone is a big challenge, and getting the advertising right is crucial but complex. It requires balancing getting traffic with ensuring that traffic converts on your site, and doing it all within a budget and time constraint.

Getting expert help, while an investment, can often pay for itself by avoiding costly mistakes, accelerating the learning curve, and driving more efficient results than trying to navigate the paid advertising landscape alone while juggling everything else.

If you'd like to chat through your specific situation, products, and goals in more detail, we're happy to offer a free initial consultation where we can look at things more closely together.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh