- What advice would you give another Depop seller looking to start using IG ads?
"I’d think about what you’d want to promote. For example, I wouldn’t promote a £10 t-shirt as it’s value is insignificant compared to the money you’d put behind it. Another example would be if you’re spending £5 on an ad, you'd only want to only advertise higher price point products. It’s also a great way to advertise a sale that you’re running on your Depop shop, just choose your Depop profile picture or a popular item from your shop to advertise it."
"Another thing to consider when setting up an ad, is to think about what action you want people to take. You can choose from the website, click-through to ‘Shop Now’ or ‘Learn more’ which can click-through directly to your Depop shop."
- What are your objectives when you start? E.g. clear old stock, to gain more followers, sell newer items
"I mostly advertise a sale. In general, I do 2 different types of ads. One will be a product-focused ad and the other would be to advertise new stock that’s just dropped in my shop. I’ll screenshot my Depop shop and use that as the ad image itself, using my audience sets to focus on driving traffic from my IG to Depop. For higher value items, I use the product image as the ad image and use ‘Shop Now’ as the button with the product link to my Depop. I target people using my audience sets, I have 2 custom groups for women’s and men’s. They have different demographics set up for each audience to maximise engagement, and I only target people that have interests in Depop from Instagram, to further increase my chance of selling."
- How do you decide how much to spend? Managing budget, what would you recommend?
"I think about the value of the item, and never usually spend more than 5%-15% of the item value on the ad. For on-going promotions, I usually budget on how much I’m willing to pay per day, and that determines how much I spend. I could spend £5 or £10 per day depending on how many accounts I want to reach, so my advice would be to look at the money you’ve got spare as you don’t need to spend a lot. It also depends on item value, you wouldn’t spend a fiver to promote a £10 t-shirt, so you need to find the right correlation between item value and promotional spend. I’d recommend starting off small with a £10 budget and learn as you go. I wouldn’t throw £50 at something, just use the insights and the knowledge you acquire overtime to learn, expand and shape how you promote future items."
- How long do you run ads for, does this stay the same year-round? Do you use images of current stock, do you run ads when sales are slow, what would you recommend?
"If I have stock coming in, I usually promote things on a Sunday and Monday as they’re really good days for me. For example, if I run a promotion on a Sunday afternoon and that item sells that evening, I just pause the ad and then save the money and use it to promote other new items. Seasonally, streetwear sellers will always want to get winter-wear ready, so it may be worth keeping a budget aside for promoting winter stock. If sales are slow, you can just run an ad that promotes your whole shop, that’s a great way to drive traffic from Instagram to your Depop shop."
- Has using IG ads helped you grow your business on Depop, do you see an increase in sales or followers when you run an ad?
"It’s not guaranteed, but using Instagram ads will definitely get your products seen by more people. Generally speaking, your item is more likely to sell faster if you promote it. It’s also a great way to gain more followers too by only spending a small amount. You could promote some jeans for £1 and you’ll have more people looking at the item, which means it’s more likely to sell and increase your followers on Depop. The important thing to remember is even if you spend £10 on an ad and it sells quicker than expected, you can pause the ad and use that money to promote other items. Start off small by advertising anything in your shop, then use the knowledge you acquire overtime to influence how you advertise future items."