THE TOOLS OF THE OPTIMISER’S TRADE
These are the tools I’m using on a daily basis to help Shopify clients optimise their way to real ecommerce growth. I want to make sure you’re making best use of them too (hint: subscribe to How To Optimise)

On my list is to create a course around each of these tech essentials - for the time being, here are the tools I recommend you investigate, invest in and master…

Optimising Google Ads using your profit (not revenue) data…
ProfitMetrics.io - the majority of accounts I audit are using revenue data to determine how they bid (or how they let Google bid…). Revenue doesn’t paint the big picture. Instead, you need to understand what products you profit from and use that layer of data to activate a bidding strategy that’s focused on what you make, not what you spend.

Optimising your Google Merchant Centre data feed…
FeedOptimise.com - not enough work takes place optimising the product data you feed into Google Ads. FeedOptimise is a tool I’ve relied upon for years to ensure I’m pushing all necessary product data into Google so I can bid with confidence. Hugely recommended tool.

Optimising using real Google attribution data…
Littledata.io - countless meetings where folks are talking up the value of attribution and yet the data is all over the shop. Varied purchase windows. Last/first click attribution. The list goes on. Using a server-side tracking tool like Littledata.io will allow you to get access to reliable data meaning greater confidence in the way you optimise your work and performance.

Optimising the customer trust-building experience…
Gorgias.com - yes, it’s a chatbot build for pretty much all ecommerce platforms (inc. Shopify / Shopify Plus). And it’s a great way to consolidate all customer comms into one single platform. However… the CONVERT tool within Gorgias is a seriously underutilised way to provide incentives, upsells and to give customers confidence to make their purchase.

Optimising using real business insights…
Lifetimely - around 90% of the clients I work with signup to Lifetimely in order to better understand business performance such as lifetime value, profit margins and key unit economics. Their daily email updates reporting your ecommerce data are worth the subscription fee alone. Lifetimely is an ecommerce essential.

Optimising to create better ad creatives…
Foreplay - this is a tool I use extensively to streamline the process behind creating highly effective Facebook Ads. Store the ads that inspire you and research competitors all under one roof. Such a useful tool for any ecommerce marketer serious about creating ads mastering creative hooks and driving the ad optimisation process.

Optimising landing pages…
Pagefly - this is my go-to landing page builder that works easily within your Shopify theme template. I’m not a designer or developer, but out of the box Pagefly gives you enough templates to work from to start producing mobile-first landing pages that work. You can (and should) be creating landing pages that are fine-under for email campaigns, facebook ads and SEO (articles) and this is your cost-effective route to working outside the constraints of shopify pages and blog posts. I don’t think any client I’ve introduced to PageFly has left them.

Optimising your SEO process…
SEOtesting.com - probably one of ecommerce’s best kept secrets and a ridiculously useful tool to help you make sense of the data found within Google Search Console. With it’s testing tools you’ll finally understand the impact of any optimisations you’re making on your store, whether on collections, product pages or your homepage. Very easy to use, super useful daily updates on trending queries and a treasure chest of insights from within Google Search Console for you to start working with right away. Hugely recommended.

Optimising your work around the questions people ask…
AlsoAsked - your route to discovering the questions people are asking about your products, competitors and within your market place. Extracting the data from behind Google’s ‘People Also Ask’ to give you ideas on creating content for FAQs, blog posts, emails and product pages. Can’t recommend this cost-effective too enough.

Optimising for AOV growth…
Rebuy - the tool I mostly use for growing and optimising AOV across product pages, carts and post-purchase. Simple platform to implement, but the level of opportunities you can dive into whether you have a few SKUs or thousands of products are immense. Rebuy will always pay its way as the reporting will clearly demonstrate the impact each AOV-building widget (eg. People Also Purchased) has on your business.

Optimising for multiple purchase…
UPSELL - I’ve just started using this tool as an alternative to Rebuy as I was looking for a way to incentivise customers to bulk buy products (whether that’s 2 or 50). Only worked with a few clients using this tool, but so far I’m hugely impressed. If you’re looking for a way to incentivise your customers to purchase 2 or more products, take a good look at UPSELL.

Optimising for post-purchase customer experience…
OrderEditing - want to allow your customers easy access to editing their orders (eg. adding more products?) before dispatch? This is a must have tool for helping grow AOV as well as providing a useful experience for your customers if they want to make any changes (so you’re reducing those support tickets) to their orders. It’s what they call a no-brainer for Shopify stores.

Optimising for customer insights pre-purchase…
Alia - forget the ‘Hey signup and get 10% off’ popups - Alia provides you and your customers with a next-level popup that moves beyond just a discount code dispensing machine. This is your route to demonstrating what differentiates you from the competition and shows the real value of your products incentivising customers to register and purchase. Hugely useful tool.

Optimising for the video experience…
Videowise is a tool that helps you take those carefully crafted social videos and present them on your homepage or product pages. Don’t let your best work disappear into swipe oblivion, turn your creatives into evergreen content pieces that help convert more visitors into customers. Videowise is a great tool for helping you make best use of all your video creatives.

Optimising for better quality reviews…
Junip - pretty much my go to reviews platform for Shopify stores? Why? direct integration into Klaviyo (so you can send review requests via Klaviyo making best use of segments), ease of launch (we’re talking minutes), ease of importing from other platforms and then the actual review experience itself helps you get more reviews, better reviews. Use this link to save 25% off your first two months also.

Optimising Klaviyo flows and campigns…
…and then there’s Klaviyo which you’re probably already using (but might be making a fraction of the impact you could with the email/sms platform. Yes, the attributed revenues are laughable, but function and performance wise Klaviyo is a tool I’ve helped many ecommerce marketers master of the past 7-8 years. I’ve been using this tool since launch. It’s awesome. It just takes a little more work than the typical ecommerce marketer focuses their time on. We’ll fix that with my HOW TO OPTIMISE lessons.

Optimising your work using post-purchase insights…
Fairing - one of the most underutilised tools in the ecommerce marketer’s arsenal is the post-purchase survey. I use them across all clients to gather key customer insights (detailed qualitative reasons why people buy alongside quantitative data for attribution and customer learning). You’re unlocking a whole new layer of insights using post-purchase surveying right on the order success page and tools like Fairing and KnoCommerce are hugely cost-effect routes to getting to truly know your customer and feeding Klaviyo customer profiles.

All of these tools are well documented and examples are providing across the journey with my HOW TO OPTIMISE newsletter. Start making best use of today’s ecommerce marketing technology by subscribing today…