Solved: How to Attract E-commerce Clients Online Effectively?

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out and explaining your situation. It sounds like you've built a really solid business helping small e-commerce stores, and getting clients through referrals is always a great sign that you're doing good work. Wanting to scale up and find clients consistently online is totally understandable, but yeah, you're right, it can feel like screaming into the void sometimes, especially with limited budget.

Just putting stuff out there or boosting posts often doesn't work for finding specific clients like the e-commerce store owners you help. It's not about being louder or just spending more; it's about being smarter and getting in front of the *right* people at the *right* time with the *right* message. Your service is specialised, like a B2B service even if they're small businesses, and that needs a different approach than just trying to sell a generic product to everyone on social media.

Let's break down some initial thoughts and guidance based on what you've described and my experience with similar situations, particularly B2B and specialised service offerings.

Figuring out where your ideal clients are online...

The very first thing I'd say is you need to really think about your ideal customer persona – these small e-commerce shop owners. Who are they, specifically? What are their biggest pain points when they're stuck and not growing? What words would they use to describe their problems or the help they need?

This is crucial because it dictates where and how you should try to reach them online. It's not just about being on Facebook or Instagram; it's about being there when they are receptive to your message or actively looking for a solution.

Based on what you help them with – fixing things, figuring out marketing that works *for them* – I'd guess your ideal clients fall into two main categories online:

1. Those who are actively searching for a solution: These are the people who know they have a problem (e.g., sales are flat, ads aren't working, website isn't converting) and are going online to find answers or help. They might be searching on Google for things like "how to increase shopify sales", "ecommerce marketing help", "why are my online sales stuck", "ecom consultant small business", or similar phrases. For these folks, Google Search Ads is usually your absolute best bet. When they search for a solution, your ad can appear right there, offering exactly what they need. You're capturing demand that already exists. This is often the most cost-effective starting point for a service business because you're not trying to convince someone they have a problem; they already know it.

2. Those who aren't actively searching, but fit the profile: These are small e-commerce owners who might not yet be desperate enough to search for help, but they have the underlying problems you solve. You need to get in front of them while they are doing other things online – scrolling social media, reading articles, etc. For B2B-style targeting like this, LinkedIn can be powerful because you can often target people based on job title ("small business owner", "e-commerce store owner", "founder") or even company size/industry. Meta (Facebook/Instagram) has some more limited B2B targeting options, like targeting people interested in e-commerce platforms (Shopify, Etsy, etc.) or certain business categories, and you can sometimes layer interests related to small business ownership. The challenge here is you're interrupting their scrolling, so your ad creative and messaging needs to be spot on to grab their attention and make them realise they need your help.

Trying to reach specific business owners by just boosting a general post on social media is often why you see money burn without results. You're showing it to too many people who aren't your ideal client, or aren't in the right mindset to engage with a service offering at that moment.

It's not just about the ads; your website is critical...

Okay, let's say you nail the targeting and get the right people to click on your ad. Where do they go? This is just as, if not more, important than the ad itself. If you send them to a generic homepage that doesn't immediately speak to their specific problems and offer a clear next step, they're likely to bounce straight off. This is a huge part of why ads "don't work" for many businesses – the traffic they drive isn't converting on the website.

For a service like yours, you're not selling a product they can just add to a cart. You're selling your expertise and ability to solve their business problems. So, the website (or specific landing page you send ad traffic to) needs to be highly persuasive. It needs to:

-> Immediately show you understand their struggles (being stuck, slow growth, marketing confusion).

-> Clearly present your specialised service as the solution they need.

-> Build trust and credibility (testimonials, case studies, explaining your process).

-> Have a clear, compelling Call To Action (CTA) – what do you want them to do next? For a high-value B2B-type service, a free consultation, strategy session, or audit is often the best next step. It lowers the barrier to entry compared to asking them to pay straight away, and it gives you a chance to understand their specific situation and explain how you can help.

We've seen time and time again with B2B and service clients, like software companies or agencies, that optimising the landing page and the offer on that page can dramatically change the cost per lead and the quality of those leads. Sending them to a homepage that just says "Welcome to my business" isn't going to cut it. It needs to be a dedicated page focused entirely on converting someone interested in your specific solution into a lead.

This is often where getting some professional copy written for your landing page can make a massive difference. Someone experienced in writing for service businesses or SaaS understands how to structure the page and messaging to connect with business owners' pain points and motivate them to take that crucial first step.

Testing and optimising is key...

Once you start running ads, whether it's Google Search or social platforms, it's not a "set it and forget it" thing. You need to constantly test and optimise to improve performance and lower your costs while maintaining lead quality.

This means testing different things:

-> Ad Copy: Different headlines, descriptions, and calls to action. Which messages resonate most with your target audience? Does focusing on "fix slow sales" work better than "expert marketing help"?

-> Targeting: If using social ads, testing different audience parameters. If using Google Search, refining your keywords and negative keywords (terms you *don't* want to show up for).

-> Landing Page: Testing different headlines, copy, images, and the call to action on your landing page. Does a "Free Consultation" work better than a "Free Audit"?

Look at your metrics. Are your ads getting clicked (good CTR)? If not, the ad creative/copy or the targeting is likely off. Are people who click on the ad filling out your form or booking a call (good conversion rate)? If not, the landing page is the issue, or perhaps the traffic isn't the right quality (meaning your targeting or keywords need refining).

Just like with scaling software campaigns where costs can increase unless you optimise the funnel and targeting, scaling your service business requires constant attention to these details. Boosting posts gives you none of this granular control or insight into what's working or why.

Overview of Recommended Actions:

Here’s a summary of steps you could consider taking based on these points:

This approach is how you move from just throwing money at the wall to building a predictable system for generating leads for your specialised service. It's how you cut through teh noise by speaking directly to the people who need you, right when they might be looking.

We've run B2B campaigns for software and service businesses where the cost per lead varied hugely based on targeting and landing page optimisation. For a B2B SaaS client targeting decision makers, we saw CPLs around $22 on LinkedIn, which was effective for them. For another B2B software campaign on Meta, we were getting registrations at $2.38, though the qualification process after the lead often takes more work. The cost per lead for services like yours can vary a lot depending on competitiveness, but focusing on precision is always the most cost-effective strategy in the long run.

It sounds like you have a valuable service, and the referral success proves that. The challenge online is replicating that word-of-mouth quality by finding people who *would* be a good referral fit, but doing it proactively and at scale.

How expert help can make a difference...

Trying to figure all this out yourself, especially the nuances of different ad platforms, campaign structure, and conversion rate optimisation, can be a steep learning curve. It often involves a good bit of trial and error, which can end up costing you money and time. An expert who's done this before, particularly for B2B or specialised service businesses, can help you set up the right foundations from day one – figuring out the best platform, building effective campaigns, designing landing pages that convert, and setting up proper tracking and optimisation processes.

They can help you avoid common pitfalls that lead to wasted spend and get you results faster. Based on what you've shared, I believe a structured approach to paid advertising, focusing on specific targeting and conversion on your site, is absolutely the way to find those 'good ones' you get from referrals, just on a larger scale.

I'm happy to chat through your specific situation in more detail and offer some initial thoughts on how you might approach this. We could look at who your ideal clients are, where they're likely to be online, and what kind of offer and landing page would work best. No pressure at all, just an opportunity to get some tailored advice.

Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh