Cross-border e-commerce promotion strategy: a practical guide combining paid and free

In today’s digital era, cross-border e-commerce has become an important way for many companies to expand their markets. However, to stand out in the highly competitive e-commerce environment, an effective promotion strategy is crucial. This article will explore both paid and free strategies for cross-border e-commerce promotion and propose how to combine them to achieve the best results.

Paid promotion strategy

Search engine advertising

Use search engine platforms such as Google AdWords for paid promotion, attract potential customers and increase website traffic by setting keyword ads, positioning ads, etc. SEM (search engine marketing) includes not only SEO, but also paid business promotion optimization. Compared with SEO, SEM traffic comes faster and is easier to test. SEM ads are quick to produce results and have rich data information. They can be used for AB testing to compare and analyze which pages have better conversions.

Social media advertising

Purchase advertising space on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to display products to target audiences and increase brand exposure and customer conversion rates.

Internet Express

By purchasing advertising space on partner websites to display product information, attract more traffic and increase sales opportunities.

SEM bidding promotion method

Google Ads

Google Ads is a paid online promotion method that promotes websites by using Google keyword ads or Google’s global content affiliate network. You can choose from a variety of advertising formats including text, images and videos. Google Ads mainly has the following promotion forms:

• Text ads: Appear in the search results of search engines or on search affiliate websites.
• Image ads: A delivery method that appears in the display network of the Google Promotion Alliance.
• Other advertising: video advertising, Gmail advertising, marketing advertising, network alliance advertising and other rich media advertising forms.

Bing Ads

Bing promotion bidding ranking advertising is an online network promotion service provided by the Bing promotion platform. Advertisers’ promotional information will be displayed in Microsoft Bing’s search results for free. Bing Ads has the following 4 ad types:

• Expanded text advertisement: It consists of three parts: advertisement title, display link and advertisement description.
• Product advertising: consists of custom images, product titles, descriptive text, prices, and promotional information.
• App install ads: Provide an install button to link users directly to the Apple Computer Store or Google Store.
• Dynamic search ads: precision marketing ads automatically generated based on user search terms and website content.

Free promotion strategy

Social media marketing

Establish a brand account, regularly publish high-quality content, interact with fans, and increase brand awareness and reputation.

SEO optimization

Improve search engine rankings and increase natural traffic by optimizing website structure, keyword settings, page content, etc.

Word-of-mouth marketing

Expand brand influence through sharing and recommendations from satisfied customers.

Cooperative Marketing

Carry out cooperative marketing with relevant industries and platforms, such as cooperative promotion with bloggers, Internet celebrities, public accounts, e-commerce platforms, etc.

Implementation of combined strategies

Although free promotion has no direct cost, it also requires a lot of time and energy, and the effect may not be immediate. Therefore, combining paid promotion and free promotion strategies can achieve better results while ensuring continued promotion.

The successful promotion of cross-border e-commerce is inseparable from the effective combination of paid and free strategies. Enterprises should formulate comprehensive promotion plans based on their own circumstances and market needs, and continuously optimize and adjust strategies to achieve sustained brand growth and steady market expansion.

The advantage of paid promotion is that it can increase brand awareness, increase sales, and allow for targeted advertising. However, paid promotion also has shortcomings such as high cost, low advertising credibility, and may not necessarily generate revenue. Therefore, when choosing a paid promotion strategy, companies need to weigh the pros and cons, ensure they have sufficient budget, and adopt the most effective advertising strategy.

By combining paid and free promotion strategies, cross-border e-commerce companies can better cope with market competition and achieve long-term and stable development.