---
title: 'How to Actually Start Shopify Dropshipping in 2026'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=wDBcYlt_DZU'
video_id: 'wDBcYlt_DZU'
date: 2026-06-28
duration_sec: 1699
---

# How to Actually Start Shopify Dropshipping in 2026

> Source: [How to Actually Start Shopify Dropshipping in 2026](https://youtube.com/watch?v=wDBcYlt_DZU)

## Summary

The video provides a complete step-by-step guide to starting a Shopify dropshipping store, addressing the common problem of conflicting advice that leads to inaction. The creator, AC Hampton, shares his eight years of experience and a proven order of operations: build a basic store first, find a winning product, secure fulfillment, brand the store, create ads, and launch a campaign.

### Key Points

- **The problem of conflicting advice** [00:00] — Many people are stuck because they receive conflicting advice on whether to start with products, branding, or finding a winner, leading to bouncing between strategies and never launching.
- **Creator credentials** [00:27] — AC Hampton has built multiple seven-figure dropshipping stores over eight years, generating over $10 million personally and over $50 million with students combined.
- **Root cause of failure** [00:40] — The reason most people never start is not the product, niche, or store, but being buried in conflicting information that causes them to freeze before they start.
- **Dropshipping store failure rate** [00:58] — 80 to 90% of dropshipping stores fail in the first few months, not because the model is broken, but because they started wrong.
- **Simple definition of dropshipping** [01:43] — You put a product for sale on your website, a customer buys it, then you order it from a supplier who ships directly to the customer. No upfront inventory, no storage.
- **The correct order of steps** [02:15] — The order is: build a basic Shopify store, find and validate a winning product, source and ship it, turn the store into a brand, create ads, and launch the first campaign.
- **Build store before product** [02:46] — Step one feels backwards: get a full store online before picking the product. This saves time and prevents overdesigning without data.
- **Using AI store builder** [03:20] — Sign up through a special link that sets up both the AI store builder and Shopify account simultaneously. Choose a niche (or 'I'm not sure'), pick placeholder banners, and activate Shopify with a special $1/month deal.
- **AI builds store in 60 seconds** [05:00] — The AI builder creates a fully functional store with banners, product layouts, navigation menu, and clean typography within a minute.
- **Don't perfect store yet** [05:30] — Resist the urge to design the perfect store immediately. Wait until after testing the product so you know exactly what to design for.
- **Data-driven product research** [06:02] — Use AutoDS to scan live data across thousands of stores, looking at engagement, pricing, and ad performance to find products already selling. Avoid guessing on AliExpress.
- **Example winning product** [07:25] — The Skintific Peptide Nourishing Lip Serum Set has over 68,000 total units sold, massive GMV, and high profit margins. It's validated by real sales data.
- **Fulfillment is critical** [08:55] — Finding a winning product and actually delivering it are two different things. Bad fulfillment (slow shipping, unreliable supplier) kills stores even with a great product.
- **Team Drop for fulfillment** [09:37] — Use Team Drop to connect with vetted suppliers, lock in factory pricing, and get fast delivery. It integrates directly with Shopify.
- **Clearing placeholders and setting up product** [10:35] — Delete placeholder items from Shopify, authorize Team Drop, find your product (e.g., hydrating lip gloss at $1.64 base cost), set retail price around $29.70, and list it.
- **Branding the store now** [12:33] — With the product and fulfillment locked in, it's time to brand: logo, colors, fonts, product images, and a strong product page. The product page must be a convincing salesperson.
- **Legal protection with Tailor Brands** [14:54] — Set up an LLC, business plan, coaching, legal documents, invoices, and bookkeeping using Tailor Brands to protect the business properly from the start.
- **Importance of multiple creatives** [16:12] — You need 10-15 ads with different angles (before/after, problem/solution, visual demo) to test. One ad is not enough; let data tell you what works.
- **Ecom Boss for AI creatives** [17:01] — Ecom Boss generates premium product images and UGC-style video reviews without hiring creators. Upload a product image, customize background, and create multiple angles. For videos, choose an avatar, write a script, and generate a realistic review.
- **Setting up Meta ads** [21:36] — Create a sales campaign with CBO, daily budget $25-50, conversion event purchase, targeting US and English, detailed targeting left blank. Use 10-15 ads across three angles, each with unique copy. Publish and monitor daily, turning off high-cost ads.
- **Key ad benchmarks** [22:15] — Target CTR above 2.5%, CPC under $1, CPM between $15-25, and ROAS above 2.0. These indicate healthy ad performance.

### Conclusion

By following the exact order of building a store, finding a data-validated product, securing fulfillment, branding, and launching multiple ad angles, even a beginner can launch a live campaign and get their first sale. The key is to stop guessing and let data drive decisions.

## Transcript

You've probably watched enough drop
shipping videos to know exactly what
you're supposed to do. Find a product,
build a store, run ads, but somehow
you're still stuck with an empty Shopify
account, and nothing actually launched.
One creator tells you to start with
products. Another says start with
branding. Someone else says don't touch
a store until you found a winner. So,
instead of making progress, you just
ended up bouncing between strategies and
starting over every few days. My name is
AC Hampton and over the last eight years
I built multiple seven figureure drop
shipping stores that have generated me
over $10 million with my students
crossing over $50 million combined and
counting. And I'm going to tell you if
there's one thing all these years have
taught me is that the reason most people
never get off the ground isn't the
product, the niche, or the store. It's
that they're so buried in conflicting
information that they end up freezing
before they start. And the very few who
do push through, they start in the wrong
order, build everything backwards, and
burn out before they ever see a sale.
That's why 80 to 90% of drop shipping
stores don't make it past their first
few months. Not because the model is
broken, but because they started wrong.
But listen, all of that stops right
here, right now. This is going to be me
handing you the exact path that is
proven from start to finish. The same
order I'd follow if I had to build a
brand new store from zero right now. And
this is probably the most valuep packed
video I'm going to drop the entire year.
So do yourself a favor, take notes,
don't be afraid to pause or rewind
whenever you need to lock something in
and go at your own pace because there's
no rushing this. And I promise you, if
you follow me all the way through, by
the end, you won't just have a store
sitting there. You'll have your first ad
campaign launched and live. And that
alone puts you ahead of nearly every
single beginner who talks about starting
but never actually does. So let's go
ahead and get into it. Now, before we
touch a single tool, let me explain what
drop shipping actually is. And I'm going
to say it like I'm explaining it to a
10-year-old because people love over
complicating this to sound smart. So,
here it is. You put a product for sale
on your website, somebody buys it, and
only then do you go order that product
from a supplier, which then the supplier
ships it straight to your customer's
door. And that's it. You never have to
buy the product up front. You never have
to store boxes in your garage, and you
never have to touch the inventory.
You're just the middleman with the
storefront where the money comes in
before money goes out. So, here's the
order that we're going to be following
today, and this is going to be from
start to finish. The first thing that
we're going to do is get a basic but
professional Shopify store built out in
less than 5 minutes. From there, we will
find and validate a winning product that
is already proven to be selling. Next,
we will lock in how you source and ship
it. And then, after securing the
fulfillment, we will then come back and
turn that store into a real brand. And
then lastly, we will create some ads
that will actually bring in sales and
launch our first campaign. And we'll be
following this in that order. And I want
to be straight up with you. Step one is
going to feel a little bit backwards.
And that's cuz we're going to get a full
store online before we even pick the
product to sell. But stick with me
because there is a real reason it has to
happen in exactly that order. So here's
where we start. And the link is in the
description for the free AI store
builder that we're about to walk
through. And there's a specific reason
that I'm sending you there first. And
let me go ahead and break down and
explain why. And it's because when you
sign up through that link, it's going to
set up your Shopify store at the same
time. So instead of you doing two
separate confusing steps, which is
creating a Shopify account and then
figuring out how to build a store, you
will just knock both out in one move. So
let me go and show you exactly how to
set it up. So first things first, I'm
going to go down to the description and
I'm going to go ahead and click the AI
store builder link. Once I go ahead and
click on that link, it's going to bring
me to this landing page right here. From
here, just go ahead and click on build
my free store. And now we're going to go
and set up our account with our name,
our email, and our password. Now, after
giving it that information, you can see
that this next screen is going to say we
want you to go ahead and pick a niche.
And if you already know what your focus
is, you can go ahead and select that
option right here. But if you're
completely undecided or brand new, do
not stress. Just go ahead and select I'm
not sure. And then hit done. Now that
that's selected, the next screen is
going to have us choose these homepage
banners. And here, we just want to keep
it clean and simple. We don't want to
overthink this. And I'm going to just
choose these two options right here for
now because we can actually come in and
completely switch these out later once
we go ahead and find our final product.
So this is kind of like a placeholder.
Now that those are selected, let's go
ahead and hit done. And now the AI store
builder is going to go ahead and do its
thing. Okay, perfect. Now that the
builder has laid the foundation, we need
to activate our Shopify on the back end.
This is what's going to connect your
Shopify account to this store builder.
So to do that, let's go ahead and click
access Shopify. And now you see it's
going to take us to this special page.
And this is a deal that you cannot find
anywhere else. So, it's going to give
you a free trial and then now for your
next 3 months, it's going to allow you
to only pay $1 a month. So, to activate
that special deal, all you have to do is
just log into your account, pick the
basic plan, enter your billing details,
and then hit subscribe. So, now once
that's active, we now have our Shopify
account, and now we need to connect it
to the store builder. So, let's go ahead
and go back to the builder and click
done. So, now from here, all we have to
do is just install the AI store builder
app right onto the Shopify backend. So,
just go ahead and click on install,
verify your payment plan, and then click
customize my store where you can see now
in like literally less than 60 seconds,
the AI builds us out a beautiful, fully
functional storefront, complete with
banners, sleek product layouts, and
clean typography. I mean, it even has a
smooth navigation menu where now you
guys can see our store is officially
live. And just like that, the hardest
looking part is already behind you.
You've got a real store. Now the
foundation is done and your Shopify is
set up all from that one link in that
simple setup. And look, I know some of
you right now are itching to jump back
and make that store look perfect right
now. I know it. But don't just leave the
design for later. And here's why. You
can always come back and build that
store out once you're fully confident in
your product. Because then you'll know
exactly which product is working for you
and exactly what angle is working. But
that's only after you get done testing.
I mean, you cannot design the perfect
store before you've tested because then
you don't even know yet what you're
designing for. And don't worry, we cover
the right way to build out your store
and test by the end of this video. But
for now, let's go ahead and move forward
because I want to show you how to
actually find a winning product in 2026.
Product research is no more scrolling
AliExpress and hoping that you spot
something that looks viral. That is
gambling. Real product research means
using data so you know a product is
already selling before you spend a
single dollar on ads. Because here's
what happens when you skip that. You go
out there, you pick something on a
hunch, it flops, and then you blame the
ads, the store, Shopify, the economy,
when the truth is the product never had
demand in the first place. So instead of
guessing, we use the product research
tool that I recommend to all my students
and still even use myself to this day,
which is AutoDS. It scans live data
across thousands of stores. is it looks
at engagement pricing and ad performance
and it even shows you which products are
taken off before they get saturated. Let
me go ahead and show you how to find
one. So, once you clicked on the link
below this video to get your AutoDS
account set up, it's going to go ahead
and get you connected to your store. And
then right here, you're going to land on
the marketplace dashboard. So, the first
thing you want to do is check your
settings at the top to make sure that
you're targeting the right currency and
the right shipping areas like the United
States. Now, instead of blindly guessing
what might sell, we can actually use
this section right here called the Tik
Tok analytics tab. As this section is
going to be actively pulling crazy
numbers of what's going viral right now.
So, now that we clicked on this section,
we can actually filter the data by
niches like beauty and personal care and
a bunch of other niches. We can also
check the top selling products over the
last 7 to 30 days. And this is actually
how I just spotted this product right
here, which is the Skintific Peptide
Nourishing Lip Serum Set. And I'm seeing
right now, I mean, this thing is going
insane. I mean, it has a crazy amount of
volume. It's a hot trend. And I mean, it
has incredible proof of concept. And
look, if we actually come in here and
look at the product insights inside
AutoDS right now, it is pulling in over
68,000 total units sold. It's generating
massive GMV and the numbers are
completely verified. We buy it at a low
cost and then it leaves us a ton of room
for profit margins. And that's the
information that we need to fully
validate this product. So, I'm cool with
moving forward with this. From here, all
we have to do is just click import
draft. This is going to load it straight
into our product drafts page right here
where we can now see all of our
variants, our images, and even our item
specifications. And then once we like
everything we see in here, we can go
ahead and import this to our store. And
because you already connected AutoDS to
the store that we just built out
earlier, now AutoDS is going to
instantly sync the entire thing and move
this product into our Shopify products
list. And look, because you made it this
far, I don't want you to be starting
from a blank page. And as a beginner,
especially with a limited budget, I know
how hard it is to find a winning
product. So, my team and I already did
the hard work for you. Right below this
video, you're going to find my top 10
winning products list of all winning
products that are working right now. And
these products were already vetted and
validated. So, you've got proven options
to start testing from day one. And I
mean, these are like the same type of
products I just took my student Jacob, a
14-year-old kid, from 0 to $60,000 in
his first 3 months. So trust me when I
say it's definitely worth checking out.
Okay, so at this point after looking
through all the data on AutoDS, we know
that we have found a winning product and
we have a product that shows that
there's common interest and people are
actually buying it right now. But I need
you to understand something and here's
the trap that nobody warns you about.
Finding a winning product and actually
being able to deliver it are two
completely different things. And the
second one, that's where stores quietly
die. And that's sourcing and
fulfillment. meaning where the product
actually is coming from and how it gets
to your customer's door once they order.
And it's the part that most beginners
completely overlook. They make the sale,
then they realize that their supplier is
slow, unreliable, and shipping takes
over a month. And suddenly they're
drowning in refund requests. That's why
this is so important because even if you
have the greatest product in the world,
if you have bad fulfillment, you will
still end up with a debt store. That's
why the tool that I use for this is Team
Drop. They are a reliable supplier and
honestly my top choice for drop
shipping. And it's because they use AI
to connect you with Vetta suppliers,
lock in factory pricing, and get you
fast delivery times without you having
to scramble. Now, real quick disclaimer,
heads up before we actually dive into
this is that this isn't the exact
product that I showed you a few minutes
ago. I actually did a little bit more
research and some digging and I saw that
this is one that a bunch of competitors
are actually running right now. And when
everybody's quietly rolling with the
same product, that's usually for a
reason. and margins on this really
aren't that bad either. So, I think this
is going to be the one that I'm going to
go ahead and go with. But, let me go and
walk you through it. Now, before we
finalize our lip serum, we want to clear
out any random stock or sample items
that the AI builder might have loaded
up. So, to do that, let's head over here
to the Shopify products tab. Select any
old placeholder items. Hit the three
dots and then click delete products so
that you have a clean slate. Now, what
we want to do is jump back over here to
team drop portal and click store
management on the left menu and then
select authorize store. So, let's go and
hit this little blue button right here
that says add store. Choose Shopify and
then click authorize. And what this is
doing is it's instantly linking your
specific storefront to Team Drop's
massive premium supplier network. So,
now that we have these connected, let's
go ahead and click on find a product to
now look up our winner. And here you can
search directly or just select from
their curated catalog. But here's our
product right here, the hydrating lip
gloss with mirror shine. And the base
cost with this product is incredibly
low. I mean, we're talking like what
$1.64 64 giving us a huge profit
potential here. So once we go and click
into the item, we want to make sure that
we choose our synchronized store from
the drop down. Select our category tags
like makeup and health and wellness. And
you can even come in here and refine the
product title to keep it clean like
hydrating lip gloss with glossy finish.
Lastly, we want to go ahead and click
over to the variance pricing tab. And
now Team Drop is going to show you the
exact product cost and shipping fee
directly to the United States. So now we
want to go ahead and simply enter our
desired retail price. Now if you don't
know what you should be selling this
product for, what you should just do to
make it easy is take a median of what
the market is currently selling it at.
Now I just went to Google. I typed the
product in. I saw multiple people
selling it at like 27 29 32 33. So what
I think I'm going to go ahead and price
this at is right around like $29.70
which is going to help us lock in a
massive profit margin on this product.
So, now that we have that entered, let's
go and click apply to all and then hit
confirm. Now, just go a and click list
now at the bottom. And what's going to
happen is Team Drop is now going to
automatically push this live item, the
descriptions, and high-quality images
straight into your active store page.
And just like that, the one thing that
quietly kills more stores than anything,
which is bad fulfillment, is the one
piece that you no longer have to worry
about, which means we finally earned the
fun part. Now, you remember that
barebones store that we threw up in five
minutes and then just like walked away
from? Well, now we're going to revisit
that and you're going to see why I made
you wait because this is the moment that
it stops being a template and starts
really becoming yours. And it hits
completely different now because now
we're not going to be sitting here
designing for a guess anymore. We're
going to be building the store around
the exact product that the data already
proved where every single choice that we
make from here has a real reason behind
it. Because here's the thing that you
have to understand is that if your store
looks like a generic drop shipping site,
customers are going to bounce before
they even read a single word. And when a
visitor does come to your website, trust
gets decided in the first 2 seconds. So
what we're going to do right here, right
now, is give this store a real identity.
So first thing that we're going to do is
the logo and the favicon. Swapping out
the default placeholder for something
that actually matches our product and
our vibe. And the main focus here is
that you want someone to land on your
store and immediately feel like this is
a real brand, not a side project that
somebody threw together overnight. Then
the colors. Now, here what we're going
to do is we're going to go through the
theme and make sure everything is
consistent. The buttons, the headers,
the accents, all tied to one cohesive
palette that fits the product that we're
selling. Nothing random, nothing that
clashes. And now we move on to the fonts
next. Small thing, but it matters. And
here the main focus is to keep it clean,
readable, and on brand. Now, the product
images, and this is where most people
are lazy, and it definitely shows. What
we're going to do is we're going to be
selecting the best angles, removing
anything that looks cheap, and making
sure that the first image a customer
sees is the one that makes them stop
scrolling. And then to the product page
itself. This is the big one. Now, one
thing you need to understand is that
your product page is your salesperson.
It never sleeps. It never has a bad day.
And it's either convincing people or
it's not. So, we're going all in. A
headline that speaks to the problem that
this product solves. bullet points that
answer the questions before the
customers even think to ask them, a
description that builds trust, and a
call to action that's impossible to
miss. A good product page can take an
average product and make it feel
premium. A bad product page though can
kill a great product. So, we definitely
do not want to rush this part. And just
like that, it doesn't look like a drop
shipping store anymore. It looks like a
real brand. And I mean, take a second
and really look at what you've got now.
A live store, a validated product, and
fulfillment handle. Most people who
start this never make it past step one.
And you're already here. And the word
brand is exactly why we need to pump the
brakes for about 60 seconds before we
send a single customer to it. Because
when I first started actually making
money with this, I had the store. I had
sales coming in. But on paper, my
business didn't even exist. No LLC, no
structure, nothing. And that's a mistake
that a lot of people make early on. So
what I want to do is I want to put you
onto something that I genuinely wish
that I had when I first started out. And
it's called tailor brands. And this is
super simple. You literally just go into
the platform, type in your business
name, answer a few questions about where
you're operating and what stage you're
at, and then it builds you a
personalized dashboard based off your
answers, showing you exactly what you
still need set up, like either your LLC
or your licenses, all of it. And it's
not just the LLC. You also get a
business plan, coaching, legal
documents invoices bookkeeping
everything in one place. So, you're not
piecing it together from 10 different
sources. So, really, just think about
it. If you're going to put in the work
to build something real, you might as
well protect it the right way from the
start. And I'll go ahead and leave a
link down in the description if you want
to go ahead and set yours up right, too.
So, now we have our store built. We have
our business as official as possible.
And the product is locked in, which
leaves exactly one thing standing
between you and your first sale. And
that's that right now, nobody's ever
seen your product or your store before.
They don't even know that you exist. And
getting people to see you, see your
visibility, know that you exist, all
comes down to one thing, and that's your
creative. Now, if you don't know what a
creative is, it's just the visual ad or
the post that you put out that drives
traffic to your website. And it's
honestly the difference between a
product that just sits there and one
that will legitimately sell. And this is
where the foundation starts to break for
beginners is that they go in, they make
one ad, they run it for 3 days, it
doesn't pop off, and then they sit there
and decide that drop shipping doesn't
work. No, that's just not how this
works. You can't come in here and think
you can win off of one ad. You win by
testing a bunch at the same time and let
in the data tell you which ones are
actually working. Which means that you
will never, and I'm going to tell you
straight up, never succeed off of only
one creative or ad. You're going to have
to have multiple. And to even be able to
do this, you still need to create them
fast ad volume and without spending all
your hard-earned money that you don't
have on a whole production team. And
look, there's a brand new tool called
Ecom Boss specifically built to solve
this exact problem where all you have to
do is just go into the platform, drop in
your product link or your competitor's
link, and then it generates premium
looking product images and AI video
content. The kind of stuff that used to
take a full creative team and hundreds
of dollars to pull off. Let me show you
exactly how to use it. So, the first
step obviously is always going to be to
sign up. And you can sign up with the
link in the description to get 25% off
your first month. Once you do sign up
and you have an account, you will then
head over here to the project studio.
And this is where we're going to go
ahead and create our product assets. And
no, we're not going to be going for
basic here. We're going to be going for
premium. So to get started with this,
all you have to do is hit add. And now
go ahead and upload your product image.
And since we're working with a beauty
product, we want visuals that feel
high-end right out the gate. So all you
have to do is just go ahead and click
into the custom prompt and type
something like silk fabric. And watch
how instantly that changes the feel of
the whole image. That's the kind of
aesthetic that stops somebody midscroll.
From there, you can actually add in a
water splash effect and match a color to
your product where it's going to create
this dynamic editor style shot that
looks like a brand paid thousands for
it. And all these images that you're
going to be able to create can be ran as
ads and be added to your store to
enhance it even more. But it doesn't
just stop there. Let's go ahead and
click on the angle factory. And we're
going to go and select Y studio. And
this is also going to be great to expand
the amount of creative images that you
have because this is going to give you
multiple perspectives of the product
automatically. So like different angles,
different compositions. So, by the time
that a customer does land on your
product page, they seen it from every
direction and they already trust what
they're buying. But that's only the
first part. The second part is where
everything goes absolutely crazy from
here. Now, we all know that we trust
other people speaking about the
products, right? If I'm going to be
buying a product online, I want to see
an ad of somebody using it that looks
like me, that talks like me, that
probably mimics a lot of my own life.
And Ecom Boss can be able to do all of
that just from the product photos that
you just created. and that is through
the AI video factory. So, this is going
to be where we create UGC style video
reviews without hiring a single creator
where on average you're going to be
saving about $100 to $200 per video just
by having this. So, all we have to do is
first head over here to this website
called Pixels. And this is a free
website that gives you a bunch of
different pictures and things that you
can use. And what we're going to do is
grab a clean face shot of a beauty model
and upload it into the avatar slot. Now,
Ecom Boss also has a bunch of avatars,
so you can also just use the ones that
are already pre-uploaded in here. But
what this is doing is it's generating a
real-looking person delivering your ad,
not a cartoon and not obviously AI,
something that feels authentic to
actually perform. So now that you've
chosen your avatar, the next thing we
need to do is type our script into the
audio text box. We want to go and select
happy English American for the tone and
then go ahead and hit generate. And now
what it's going to do is it's going to
render out a full video review with our
product and our messaging that is going
to be ready to test. Now, one thing real
quick is if you do run into a security
policy error on this image, just go
ahead and swap it out and regenerate. It
will be an easy fix. But here's the real
move here, and that's that you don't
want to only just make one version. Come
in and use multiple different avatars,
different demographics, different
scripts, because you don't know yet
which audience is going to respond, and
you want to let the testing and the data
tell you. But once it's done processing,
all you have to do is just hit download,
and now you've got everything. A
polished product photography, and a
video ad that is now ready to go. And
that's the whole point of all this. Even
majority of the things I'm teaching you
today is putting you in a position where
you're not guessing anymore. You've got
real assets built around a real product
going in front of real people. And now
the data starts working for you and not
against you. So now at this point, after
getting a couple ads created, you now
should have scroll stopping creative
sitting right in your downloads. But
here's the thing, the creative that just
sits there in your downloads is not
going to make you a single dime. It's
got to get in front of the right people.
And in the final step of what I'm about
to teach you, there's one targeting
setting that almost every beginner
switches on, swearing that it makes it
more precise, that's actually quietly
killing the results. And I want you to
keep that in the back of your mind
because I'm about to show you the exact
moment it bites. And this is where it
all comes together. Because everything
that we just built up to this point, the
store, the product, the fulfillment, the
creative, none of it will make you a
single dollar if nobody ever sees it.
Traffic is the whole game here. And in
2026, that traffic comes from meta ads.
Now, I know some of you guys hear meta
ads and you immediately tense up. You
think it's complicated, expensive, easy
to mess up. And yeah, that is true if
you go in blind. But I'm not about to
sit here and send you in blind. I'm
going to break it all down step by step
as easy as possible. And heads up, this
next part has the most moving pieces of
the whole video. So, if you're building
along, keep the tab open and pause me
whenever you need as I'm not going
anywhere. So, let's go ahead and jump
into this. So, I'm going to walk you
through exactly how I set up a campaign
from scratch. Okay. So, before we even
think about launching, the first thing
we need to do is just head into our ads
manager and set up our columns because
what you're going to see is that the
default view that Meta gives you tells
you almost nothing useful when it comes
to the data. So, to be able to do this,
what we want to do is go into our
columns and customize it. And here's
what you want to have visible. You want
to have delivery, adset name, bid,
reach impressions frequency
click-through rate, cost per click, CPM
or cost per thousand impressions, add to
cart, checkouts initiated, purchases,
amount spent, cost per purchase, and
then finally rorowaz. And this is kind
of what it should be looking like when
it's set up. And this is what your
dashboard should be replicating. When
you have it looking like this, this is
how you're going to know what is
actually working. Now, I know I just
named off a bunch of metrics, but let me
go ahead and give you some benchmarks.
Now, a few different numbers that you
want to keep in mind as you're running
is that you want to have a clickthrough
rate at 2.5% or higher. And in simpler
terms, that just means that people are
seeing your ad and they're legitimately
clicking on it and watching it. And
that's exactly what you want. Also, you
want to keep your cost per click under a
dollar if you can, which is just how
much it's costing for somebody to click
into your ad. And for your cost per,000
impressions, you want this to be
anywhere between like $15 and $25.
That's basically pretty healthy. Now,
for rorowaz here, you want anything
above 2.0 because that probably means
that you're going to be in a good amount
of profit. Now, depending on your
margins, below a 1.1 or 1.2 means that
you're probably going to be losing
money. So, you need to be able to know
those numbers. Now that we got that out
the way, let's go ahead and build out
the campaign. So, to do that, let's go
ahead and hit create. And now, we want
to go and select sales as our objective.
As we're not here for likes, we
obviously want to try to get as many
purchases as possible. Now, let's go
ahead and turn on CBO, which stands for
campaign budget optimization. And what
this does is it just lets Meta decide on
how to split your budget between assets
automatically, which is what we want
when we're testing. Now, we need to go
ahead and set our daily budget. And
here, you can go with anywhere between
like $25 to $50 to start depending on
your budget. Now, we want to go ahead
and name the campaign something like
whatever your product name is CBO. So,
when you're looking at 10 campaigns
later, because you're going to continue
to keep scaling past this video, you're
going to know exactly what each one of
these are. Now, let's head over here to
the adset level. And now, this is where
we're going to set up who sees our ads
and how they're going to see it. So,
let's go ahead and set our conversion
location to website. For performance
goal, we want to do maximize number of
conversions. And now we want to go and
connect our pixel and set the conversion
event to purchase. Now, if you don't
have your pixel set up yet, that does
need to happen before any of this as
that is what tracks every single sale
back to your ads. Now, for targeting, we
want to go and start off with United
States and go ahead and start off with
English. And here's something that
people try to fight me on, and that's
that you should be leaving detailed
targeting completely blank. And I know
it feels like you're being more precise
when you fill it in and you go ahead and
put in the target audience that you
think you should be targeting. But in
reality, it's only hurting you because
you're really just limiting Meta's AI
from finding new real buyers. So the
goal here is a let it work. You have to
understand that Meta's AI is backed by
billions of dollars in ad spend and
data. So it's way smarter than you and
me. Now that we left that open, let's go
and set our start time for midnight the
next day so we can get a full 24 hours
of data from day one. And now we're
going to go ahead and move on to the
creative. And this is the part that
actually determines whether you win or
if you lose. Now, here we're going to be
running three different angles. And I
want you to think of an angle as the
lens that you're selling through. And
our angles that we're going to be doing
are before and after, problem and
solution, and a visual demo, which
simply is just three different ways of
talking about the same product to three
different types of buyer groups. And for
each angle that we try to target, we
want to upload three to five videos,
which is going to come out to like 10 to
15 ads total going into this campaign
before we even launch. That's how you
get the best opportunity of succeeding
out the gate. That's how you get sales
starting off day one. So to get this set
up, what we want to go and do is select
single image or video and then click on
manual upload. Now, before you do
anything else, what we want to do is
turn off multi-advertiser ads, product
catalog, and enhancements. All of those
just add clutter around your ad that
pulls attention away from your creative
and we don't want any of that. Now, what
we want to go and do is set our call to
action to be in shop now across every
single ad, keeping it consistent, clean,
and direct. Now, let's go and set up our
URL parameters. Campaign, ad set, and ad
name. Now, if you don't know what URL
parameters are, this is just how you see
inside Shopify exactly which video is
generating each individual sale if it
doesn't show up on the ad side, which
sometimes happens. So, it's kind of just
having like a backup setup so you can be
able to see all your data in two
different places, allowing you to know
that if one angle is killing it and the
others aren't, well, you're going to see
that and know exactly why. So, make sure
you go ahead and get that set up. Now,
heading over here to your copy, and this
is going to be like your primary text,
your headline, and your description.
Now, here we want to use AI to generate
10 to 15 variations. So, you have one
for each ad matched to that angle
because you want your copy and your
creative saying the same thing. So they
should feel like they're all in one
single message together. Now, going back
to something very simple, you just want
to name everything clearly so you know
what is working and what's not. So for
example, I'm going to go ahead and name
this one angle one, video one, and then
for the next one, I'll just do angle
one, video two, and so on and so forth.
Again, I know it sounds simple, but when
you're like 3 days in and you're trying
to read your data and optimize, keeping
it clean like this will just save you so
much time and effort. Now, once all 10
to 15 ads are built and put in, just
review everything. And now what we're
going to do is go and hit publish. And
now the campaign is officially running.
From here, your job is just to check the
numbers every day. Now, yes, the way
that we set this up is that MetaCBO is
going to be pushing and routing more of
your budget towards whichever ads are
performing, but you still need to be in
there and know what is going on cuz you
don't want any ad burning spin with a
high cost per purchase and nothing to
show for it. You just want to turn that
type of thing off. So, your main job is
to protect the budget and to let the
winners run. So, this is what testing
actually looks like. Not one ad and just
hoping for the best, but 10 to 15
creatives, three angles, and real data
telling you what's working inside of the
first week. That's how you find your
winner. And once you got it, that's when
you're able to scale. And that is the
full play. Everything that you need to
make your first sale, even if you're
limited on time or limited on budget.
So, just to recap, we just built out the
store, found your winning product,
created highquality AI UGC ads for a
fraction of the cost that it typically
takes using real creators, and even
launch our first round of ads. And like
I said earlier, I know that Facebook ads
can be one of the most overwhelming
things to learn when first starting out.
But, you know, I got you covered. So, on
the screen right now, you're going to be
seeing a beginner friendly step-by-step
Facebook ad tutorial teaching in-depth
everything I just showed, but in a way
simpler tutorial format. So, make sure
you go and check that video out right
after this. As always, thank you guys so
much for watching. I'll see you in that
next one.