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The secret to a successful ecommerce business – how to attract Japanese customers to your online shop with Yahoo! JAPAN ads
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‘I am running an ecommerce store, but the number of customers does not increase as I expected’ – many online business owners have faced this problem. The truth is that simply opening an online shop is not enough to drive traffic and generate sales. Fortunately, there are a lot of tools people can use to advertise their business, and in Japan, Yahoo! JAPAN is one of the best platforms to do so.
In this article, we discuss the benefits of advertising on Yahoo! JAPAN, how it can attract new customers, and how to set your business up for success.
We all know what Google is, and chances are you’ve heard about Yahoo!, but what is Yahoo! JAPAN ? First of all, it is not the Yahoo! that the rest of the world is familiar with. Yahoo! JAPAN was created by SoftBank back in 1996,and is strictly in Japanese, made for the Japanese audience. It has over 100 services and many mobile apps such as Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Shopping, Yahoo! Weather, and Yahoo! Navigation. In addition, Yahoo! JAPAN offers credit cards as well as Paypay, Japan’s No.1 cashless smartphone payment system. With 79+ billion monthly page views, and an evenly distributed demographic of users, Yahoo! JAPAN can reach up to 65% of PC and 87% of smartphone users in Japan.
Running digital ad campaigns is a perfect way to attract customers to an online store. Here are the reasons Yahoo! JAPAN is one of the best platforms in the country to not only raise brand awareness, but also to increase sales.
Listing ads (ads that come up on top of the result page on search engine sites) are great for reaching users who are already interested in your products or services. With this type of ad , the algorithm displays ads related to a keyword searched by the user and since they are already looking for it themselves, it means that they are already aware of the product, or are considering the purchase. Listing ads are delivered at the best timing, when the user’s motivation is high, with a high chance of them visiting your store.
In order to run effective online ads, you need to consider who your target audience is. Using Yahoo! JAPAN’s comprehensive targeting tools allow you to get to the right users. In addition to user demographics and attributes, keywords, and browsing history, there are also retargeting options that will display ads to users who have already visited your site in the past.
One of the biggest advantages of digital advertising is the ability to checkr eal time performance – from the number of impressions, click-through rates, and conversions to seeing which ad content performs best. It makes it very easy to understand the effectiveness of your campaigns.
Yahoo! JAPAN provides advertisers with detailed data that will help you analyse and understand what users interact with well. Frequent reviews will allow you to implement measures to enhance the marketing operations and ad performance.
There are many different types of web advertising that can be done on Yahoo! JAPAN, and the best ones to attract customers to online stores are listing and display ads. Each of them has unique features, so it is important to carefully consider which type can benefit you best when setting up the campaigns.
Search ads are best if you want to reach motivated users, as they can directly lead to product purchases.
Display ads are displayed in the form of a banner on a website based on user demographics (age, gender, etc), as well as browsing history. They can be used to increase brand awareness and introduce your products and services to potential new customers.
Appeal to a wide range of users with display ads, and use listing ads to approach those with high purchasing intent.
Again, it is not easy to attract customers by simply setting up an online ad. Here are our tips you should keep in mind when creating campaigns on Yahoo! JAPAN.
Understand your strengths and how you are different from the competition. It is relatively easy to open an online shop, and the number of ecommerce sites is increasing rapidly. In order to attract a large number of customers , it is necessary to stand out from the crowd.
First of all, understand and clarify the selling points of your products and services, and list up the unique features of your business. These can also be used as a reference when creating the ad content.
You probably want to sell your products to as many people as possible, however online advertising is more effective when it targets a select group of users.
This is because ads that pinpoint user attributes are more likely to make them feel a sense of connection and interest because they feel that the information is just right for them. If the target is unclear, your ads may not resonate with the audience. If you use targeting settings well, you can display ads accurately to users who have a high affinity with online shops at a low cost.
This is why it is crucial to understand the target audience for your product . How old are they? Are they male or female? Do they live in a specific region or have a specific occupation? The more details you understand, the better your ad performance will be.
A user’s desire to purchase a product increases if it can solve their problems or worries. Try to understand what people are searching for, and use it as a point of appeal in your ad content.
For example, you may have to change the content depending on whether you want to appeal to: people who want to buy a product at the lowest cost, or people who want to buy high quality products even if they are expensive. It is important to clarify what kind of needs your products meet, and incorporate it into the advertising text and creatives.
Even if you succeed in attracting customers by posting online ads, users may still leave your site without purchasing the product if it is difficult to use. Improve the journey and reorganise your store to make it as user-friendly as possible.
Aim for a stress-free online shopping experience by predicting the user’s behaviour: from the moment they enter your website until the purchase is finalised. Consider details like the position and size of the ‘buy now’ button, the amount of information on one page, and product recommendations.
Here are our tips on how to create ads that will attract users to your ecommerce website and drive sales.
Users will scroll past your ad if the content is not eye-catching or specific. Display your business strengths and uniqueness in the ad’s text and banner design. Remember to have balance: too much information can be overwhelming and difficult to understand. There is a limit to the number of characters that can be displayed, so carefully analyse your points of appeal and create ads that concisely convey your message.
Make sure there is no discrepancy between the advertisement and the actual product. If there are differences between the ad content and the products users receive, you will lose the consumer trust and tarnish the brand’s reputation. It will be difficult to get customers to repeat purchases in the future.
Moreover, if the advertised content is different from the sold product, it may be a legal violation. Under the Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations Act, the following types of advertisements are prohibited :
Please be aware that not only intentional but also unintentional misrepresentation may result in violation of the law.
You can easily check the results of web advertising with data, which allows you to make regular improvements to your ads.
First, understand the problem: e.g. low number of impressions, low click-through rate, or poor cost-effectiveness due to the low number of conversions. Then, implement improvement measures. After a certain period of time, review the changes, and repeat the process to further optimise your campaigns.
– New to the Japanese market? Here are our tips on how to create a perfect marketing calendar for the first months of the year in Japan.
– Learn more about different ad formats offered by Yahoo! JAPAN.
– Read about how to improve your fashion ecommerce business with Yahoo! JAPAN online ads.
As part of the SoftBank family and a certified partner of Yahoo! JAPAN, DMFA provides complimentary support to advertisers – both agencies and individual clients – on Yahoo! JAPAN. Whether you are interested in running text, banner or video ads, our team of PPC experts will be able to support you in both English and Japanese from the creation of campaigns to their execution. Your dedicated bilingual account manager can provide benchmark reports and market insight while working with you to optimise campaigns on a regular basis.
If you need more information, please don’t hesitate to get in touch here.
