Social Skills: How Shopify mastered personalized ads

“Historically speaking, you want to get as many people on the landing page and move down the so-called funnel,” he continued. “But one of the things that we’re doing is adding a little bit of friction before getting someone to the landing page.”

“Instead of getting an ad that takes you directly to a landing page for a free trial, we're asking you to take a fun quiz, asking interactive questions where you can just click through. Do you already have a domain? Do you have a product to sell? Are you shopping or are you selling another competitor store? And the reason we do that is so we can direct you to the right landing page. That in itself is a great way to personalize the experience for someone. You're not [directing] them to some landing page, [having them] figure it out.”

Shopify does not sell products themselves, Tony adds: “We’re really selling a dream.” According to him, from the mom-and-pops who may need help creating their online presence to those ready to start their side hustle, Shopify continues to use personalized ads to meet the wide range of their customers’ entrepreneurial needs.

“You used to have to do all sorts of crazy targeting strategies to set up a really personalized ad. But now, I've seen Facebook's algorithm find relevant people a lot easier, and if you're able to design something for those people to vibe with, that's a personalized ad.”

For Shopify, Tony says they pay close attention to the data they collect through their customer surveys in order to produce the most personalized experience. Learn more about how data fuels advertising.

Catch up on previous seasons of Social Skills to go behind the scenes with some of the industry’s social media editors and learn the secrets of their success.