The post “How I Crushed Ecommerce Without Facebook or Aliexpress” first appeared on the AWC Facebook Page.

Recently Facebook has cracked down on low-quality drop shippers. We have a blueprint on how to solve that problem.

Earnest Epps delivered an epic step-by-step strategy to 6-figure drop shipping WITHOUT Facebook Ads or AliExpress at AWA17.

His secret recipe? Selling high ticket items. To a (well researched) target market. Using a US-based supplier. With minimal effort. Oh and all with low spend on Google Ads.

Here’s Earnest’s Four Key Steps to High Ticket Ecommerce Without Facebook Ads:

➡️ STEP 1. Product Selection
• Search a high price product idea that’s already selling on Google Shopping. Example: “Electric Fireplace”
• Write down the avg market value & info from the Product Listing Ads (PLA’s). $500+ = winner!
• Bonus tip: go to big box stores, malls, top seller lists and For Sale FB Groups for fresh product ideas.

➡️ STEP 2. Market Targeting

You want to target Upper Middle-Class audiences, because they’re emotional shoppers who see it, like it, buy it. Plus the avg household income is over $55k.

How? Fire up FB Audience Insights. You want…
• Age group market share to be 35-64.
• Education Level = College and/or Grad School
• Relationship Status = Married (double income)
• Gender = Majority Women would be great

➡️ STEP 3. Drop Ship Suppliers
• Find competitor website(s) that don’t have a physical location e.g. no showroom, warehouse or storefront = drop ship friendly.
• Contact them directly!

➡️ STEP 4. Run Ads & Crush It
• Fire up Google Shopping. Potential customers are already at the ‘Desire’ & ‘Action’ stage.
• Fulfill orders: Customers order → Forward order to supplier → Supplier ships directly to the customer. Too easy.

? The best part about this strategy? It’s scalable horizontally. This process can be applied over and over again across many different niches.

 

We asked the AWC community if they had any questions for Earnest and his strategy for e-commerce without Facebook or AliExpress. He kindly obliged.

Earnest Epps Ask Me Anything

Earnest Epps:
Hey Everyone, if you got any questions, feel free to drop them down below and AMA (ask me anything) about launching or scaling your High Ticket eCom business without Facebook Ads or AliExpress ??
It’s getting way too crowded on both those platforms LOL ? I like to hang out over in more lucrative areas hehehe

Using Facebook Insights for Google Shopping

James Whittaker:
@Earnest Epps The bit I don’t understand is when you find the audience using FB insights but then run the ads on Google Shopping. Is the FB insight part purely just for research/information (i.e., audience size)? Or is there a way of transferring that data across which I’ve never come across? Thanks!
Earnest Epps:
@James Whittaker using FB Insights is just to give us some additional insight into the actual niche before we get to approach it… Someone that’s older is going to have more disposable income versus someone that is younger. Married people make more money than Single people statistically… so if we don’t research that data we wouldn’t know 😉

The more data you have the more you can evaluate it and make an educated decision. The whole process of doing niche research is to give us a forecast of what things already look like in the marketplace based off the consumers already actively buying those particular products. I hope that makes sense. Even if you just skip that and do most of everything else I teach for niche research you’ll be okay lol don’t get hung up on one little thing.

Google Shopping Budget Issue

Robert Thompson:
Hi Earnest my man! Have you ever not had the Google Shopping tab show up? I’ve tried recently, and it doesn’t show up anymore. Tried a lot of online solutions but no dice ?
Earnest Epps:
@Robert Thompson Yes it’s because your daily budget is too low… Google has to determine in the algorithm when is the best time to display your products during the day based off what you say you can afford so if they feel like that time frame isn’t the best time to display your ads then they won’t be shown.

Example if you got a $20 budget with a $1 CPC means you can only afford to get 20 clicks a day… Google obviously won’t just want to burn through your budget (in some cases lol) so the algorithm has to figure out when is the best time to show you that will get you impressions and clicks because if there are 2000 people searching per day you won’t be able to get in front of all of them. Hope that makes sense.

Where to get started in Ecommerce on Google Shopping?

Summer Graves:
When someone who wants to get started with no knowledge at all on Dropshipping what would be the first steps to take and how much money will be needed to get everything up and running including any ads and how do you find the best products to sell.
Earnest Epps:
Hey @Summer Graves in the world of High Ticket eCom I like to break things down to the following:
Phase 1 and Phase 2:
– Building A list of Products to Research
– Completing Market Research on your list/Potentially Expanding that list
– Narrowing Down and Selecting A Niche
Phase 3:
– Picking A Business/Store Name
– Registering A Domain Name
– Registering A Shopify Account
– Getting A Business Email
– Getting A Business Phone #
– Getting A Logo
– Completing Business Registration requirements
Phase 4:
– Building out your demo store
– Building/Expanding your list of suppliers
– Researching information about your suppliers
– Preparing to Contact your suppliers
Phase 4.1:
– Uploading Productions from you approved suppliers
Phase 5:
– Optimizing the site for conversions
– Creating unique offers for people when they visit your site
– Having 1-2 eliminates of scarcity and urgency (most likely 1 of each)
– Testing everything to ensure it’s functional before turning on traffic: check out works, phone numbers work, email works, etc.
Phase 6:
– Turning on Traffic and Getting Paid
– Consistently adding Products
– Getting approved by more Suppliers
Phase 7:
– Improving Quality of Traffic
– Increasing Conversions
– Additional Optimization/Split Tests
Phase 8:
– Automation
– Outsourcing and Building A Team
– Creating SOPs
Bonus Phase for Scaling:
– Scaling to hit multiple six figures and on the way to seven figures
– Adding Additional Media Sales Channels
– Additional Revenue Generating Opportunities

Bidding and Scaling

Jonathan Sousa:
@Earnest Epps When scaling your ad campaigns to max out impression share using the daily increase in budget technique that was discussed briefly in Atlanta, how often do you modify your bids and by what increment. Is there a sweet spot where you just leave the bid alone and just continue to bump the budget?
Earnest Epps:
@Jonathan Sousa I do 15-20% increments but to the point where my influx of traffic has increased and I’m comfortable paying that CPC to acquire those clicks. I never like to make massive increases is the main deal so I’ll just keep raising it daily until I hit my satisfied daily budget.

The High Ticket Ecommerce Equation

Victor Barcia:
How can you get the discount of the drop shipper to be big enough, I suppose a fraction of the one of Aliexpress, because the prices on Ali are a fraction of the retail price charged outside China.
Earnest Epps:
@Victor Barcia you’ll be able to set up a wholesale agreement with the suppliers obviously it’s marked up so they can be profitable too but for example I sold a product recently for $2,700 my wholesale cost was $1,700 my shipping cost was $400 and my net profit was almost $600 after the processing fee so I made almost a 22% margin on that sale… they probably get it made for like $200-$300 so that’s how they profit

The Key Optimizing Tip

Mouhamed Fx:
@Earnest Epps what was your optimization that made the biggest difference in your business?
Earnest Epps:
@Mouhamed Fx Finding a unique offer for each store that was different than everyone else on the market place that was enticing enough for people to convert and do business with me versus everyone else

AWA18

Brent William:
Are you talking at this years AWA ? I’ll see you there if you are!
Earnest Epps:
@Brent William That’s awesome bro I’ll see you there 🙂 I’ll be speaking at ECML make sure to snag your ticket for that because I’ll be dropping some fire ??