What’s the Hype About Shopify Audiences?

Finding new customers? There’s an app for that

Relying on the well-known phrase, “if you build it, they’ll come”, isn’t always the most profitable approach in business.

Unfortunately, in eCommerce, if you build it, they don’t always come – unless you’re proactive about customer acquisition!

However, if you’ve built your website using Shopify, the good news is that Shopify offers its merchants boundless tools to help promote their website and get it in front of the right people. Its most popular customer acquisition tool of the moment is Shopify Audiences – a Shopify app for finding new customers.

In this article, we’ll explain what Shopify Audiences is, how it works, who it’s available to, and why there’s currently so much hype surrounding the app.

What is Shopify Audiences, and how does it work?

Let’s begin with an introduction to Shopify Audiences.

Shopify Audiences is an app designed and built by Shopify that helps Shopify merchants find new customers and optimise their PPC advertising campaigns.

How does it achieve this? By generating lists of high-intent buyers likely to purchase the merchant’s products and then exporting these audience lists to their digital advertising accounts. The merchant can then target these highly relevant audiences with their next ad campaigns. Currently, Shopify Audiences is compatible with Meta, Google, Criteo, Pinterest, Snapchat, and TikTok digital advertising platforms.

So, how does it compile these audience lists? Shopify Audiences creates lists by looking at data from other participating Shopify merchants. It looks at the products you sell and uses an algorithm and machine learning to generate a list of people likely to buy these types of products. Over time, the algorithm learns and improves, allowing it to keep providing new and relevant audience lists.

The app is simple to use and can be conveniently set up and managed within the Shopify admin panel.

Other key features of Shopify Audiences include audience-level performance measurement, detailed reporting, and an insightful benchmarking feature.

The app provides merchants with useful audience-level (rather than campaign-level) performance management. This allows merchants to measure attribution and allocate their resources and budget accordingly.

Shopify Audience’s new benchmarking feature allows merchants to compare the performance of their store’s marketing campaigns over the last 30 days with those of similar stores. This can help merchants pinpoint areas where there is room for improvement in their key metrics.

How can Shopify Audiences benefit online store owners?

Implementing Shopify Audiences can give Shopify store owners a distinct strategic advantage. Let’s learn more about the benefits of Shopify Audiences, the effectiveness of Shopify Audiences, and how this clever app can help boost your customer acquisition efforts.

• Scale your advertising efforts – Shopify Audiences helps merchants extend their reach beyond their existing customer base. It provides access to highly targeted audience lists, helping businesses target individuals who are likely to be interested in their products.
• Enhance precision in ad targeting – Shopify Audience pinpoints the most interested buyers across various channels. When you target an audience list with high buying intent, it can significantly boost the effectiveness of your advertising campaign and increase your return on your advertising investment.
• Reduce customer acquisition costs (CAC) – One of the biggest challenges in digital marketing is managing the cost of acquiring new customers. According to Shopify, Shopify Audiences has the power to cut CAC by up to 50%! This helps businesses to allocate their budgets more effectively and increase their overall profitability.
• Gain a competitive edge – Not everyone is eligible for Shopify Audiences yet. In the competitive world of eCommerce, gaining access to a sophisticated targeting tool like Shopify Audiences ahead of your competitors can give you the boost you need to fight off competition and stay at the top of your game.
• Performance comparison – Shopify Audiences’ benchmarking feature helps businesses compare the performance of their marketing campaigns with similar stores, helping them identify areas where there is room for improvement. This ongoing learning and development process can lead to continual growth and success.
• Data-driven strategies – By harnessing the power of data gathered from across the Shopify network, Shopify Audiences helps businesses generate highly relevant audience lists backed by substantial data.

What type of data does Shopify Audiences use to target customers?

Shopify Audiences uses data and attributes shared by participating Shopify merchants. 

The app analyses data related to customers’ purchasing habits and behaviours across the network of participating Shopify stores, including which products they are buying and their overall buying habits. These insights are only available on Shopify. 

Shopify Audience’s powerful algorithm analyses the types of products a merchant sells before identifying which customers have shown an interest in similar products across the Shopify network. It then processes this data, identifying patterns and trends in customer behaviour to predict which users are most likely to be interested in the merchant’s products. It then compiles these customers into custom audience lists. 

Is Shopify Audiences compatible with all Shopify plans?

Currently, Shopify Audiences is only available to eligible Shopify Plus stores that use Shopify Payments and are based in the United States or Canada.

If this is you, it is free to install and use.

While it’s not currently available to those of us here in the UK, learning more about it now could help you hit the ground running if or when it does reach our shores.

How does Shopify Audiences comply with data privacy regulations?

If you’re wondering about Shopify Audiences data use sits with data laws – never fear!

Shopify Audiences is an official app built by Shopify. It has been designed to comply with all applicable data and privacy laws.

All data is encrypted and transmitted securely when audience lists are exported from Shopify to digital advertising platforms.

The raw data within the lists is used to match the advertising platforms’ records and then deleted. At no point can the lists be downloaded from the ad platform. Shopify Audiences also only uses data from merchants who have opted into Shopify Audiences and excludes those who have opted out of data sharing.

Scale your advertising efforts with Create8

While Shopify Audiences is not yet available in the UK, many other effective ways exist to drive more customers to your Shopify store.

At Create8, we are a Shopify agency offering Shopify web design and a wide range of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and digital marketing services designed to help expand your website’s reach and boost its overall performance.

From Google PPC advertising to social media management, we cover all bases. Ready to find out more? Contact our team today to learn how we can help enhance your online presence.