How to advertise products online – 7 free or cheap ways

Want to know how to advertise products online without breaking the bank? Then you’ve come to the right place!

Studies show that 24% of retail purchases are expected to take place online by 2026. So, to help you take your slice of the pie, let’s look at seven free or cheap ways to promote products online:

1. List your products in an online store
2. Optimize your store’s website for search engines
3. Showcase your products on your social channels
4. Ask customers to write a review on Google
5. Encourage customers to refer friends for a discount
6. Build an email list to drive repeat purchases
7. Create bundles to increase your average order value

Let’s start with building your online store.

1. List your products in an online store

Before you think about how to market products online, you need to get your products online in the first place. If you’ve already set up your online store, feel free to skip to part two. Otherwise, keep reading!

An online store is somewhere to send people to buy your products – it’s as simple as that. So if you’re first starting out, remember that it doesn’t have to be fancy. It just has to work.

With that in mind, here are a few low-fi options you could try out:

• Facebook Marketplace – for selling handmade products and homewares to your local community
• Vinted or Depop – for selling clothes and accessories
• Etsy – for selling gifts, crafts, and personalized products

Then, when you’re ready to invest a little more time and money, you could set up your very own ecommerce website. This will give you more control over how your store looks, helping you make that coming-of-age transition from a creator into a brand. And, since these tools are designed with ease-of-use in mind, adding new products will be a doddle!

Here are a few great options for building a bespoke online store:

• Shopify
• Squarespace
• Wix

How much does it cost?

Listing products on Facebook Marketplace is totally free, while an online store with Shopify will set you back around $29/month for the most basic option. This lets you stock unlimited products and gives you access to basic reporting to keep an eye on your store’s performance.

2. Optimize your store’s website for search engines

Now that your ecommerce site is live, we’re ready to talk about how to promote your online store. In other words: getting traffic to your website. And the first step for any business trying to grow traffic is search engine optimization (SEO).

SEO is one of those business terms that ties a lot of people in knots. But at its heart, SEO is simply about using the right keywords on your website. So when someone searches those keywords on Google, your website shows up at the top. (This is easier said than done, but that’s your end goal.)

Ahrefs, one of the biggest players in the game, offers a bunch of free SEO tools to help you get started. With their keyword generator, you can look up any keyword and see how many people search for it every month – after all, it’s pointless using a keyword that nobody is searching for! You can also see the keyword difficulty (KD) for each word or phrase – and the lower the number, the easier you’ll find it to rank.

Let’s look at a quick example. Imagine that you’re selling personalized journals online and you want to know the best keywords to use. At the time of writing, here are the top 10 results from Ahrefs’ keyword generator:

Keyword	Keyword difficulty (KD)	Monthly search volume
personalized journal	24	1.7K
leather personalized journal	18	500
personalized journal cover	9	250
personalized journal for him	1	150
personalized journal and pen set	2	70
etsy personalized journal	0	50
personalized journal with scripture	3	50
personalized journal with photo	10	40
personalized journal notebook	28	30
personalized journal for girl	0	30

The next step is to strike the perfect balance between relevance, keyword difficulty, and search volume. If you only personalize the cover of your journals, “personalized journal cover” is probably the best option here. The KD is low, the search volume is decent, and it still uses the term “personalized journal” so you’ve got a chance to rank for that too.

If you really want to master how to promote a product online using SEO, check out Ahrefs’ guide for beginners.

How much does it cost?

Unlike running Google Ads and paying to appear at the top, SEO lets you promote products online for free. If you get really serious about it, you could invest in a paid plan, but the free tools offer everything you need to get started.

3. Showcase your products on your social channels

Social media is one of the best ways to promote products online – especially if you’re selling the sort of stuff people like to share and shout about to their friends.

Here are a few ways to promote products online using social media:

• Share teaser posts of new products you’re working on
• Create behind-the-scenes videos showing how your products are made
• Run competitions giving people a chance to win your products
• Use hashtags to tap into topics people are already talking about
• Repost photos from other people saying how much they love your products
• Promote flash sales and discounts to your followers

How much does it cost?

Whether you’re using TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, or all three, you can sign up and start promoting your products for free. And if you want to start running paid campaigns, you’re looking at somewhere between $0.20 to $2 for every click to your website.

4. Ask customers to write a review on Google

Did you know that 64% of people check Google reviews online before visiting a business? So if you want to know how to promote products online, you better make sure your profile is up to scratch.

For many creators and small businesses, the idea of asking for reviews can feel a bit, well, cringe. But here’s the thing: people understand the importance of good reviews – and they love supporting independent businesses. So suck it up, ask nicely, and reap the rewards!

Here are some ideas of how and when you can ask customers for reviews:

• Send an email the day after your product has been delivered
• Send a message on social media if a customer posts about your product
• Rally your community to help you hit milestones like 100, 500, and 1,000 reviews

How much does it cost?

Asking for reviews is another free way to promote products online and raise your business’ profile. 

5. Encourage customers to refer friends for a discount

One of the most effective ways to promote products online is through word-of-mouth advertising. That’s where happy customers introduce their friends and family to your company.

The most successful referral schemes include a discount to sweeten the deal, plus a little kickback for the referrer. Here are a few great examples:

• Harry’s: “Here’s $5 On Us – Every time a friend uses your invite link to start a Harry’s trial, both of you save $5 on your next box.”
• Cometeer: $50 for you, $50 for them – Coffee is better with friends – and we’re making it twice as nice. Refer a friend and you’ll both get $25 off your next 2 boxes.”
• Home Chef: “Want Free Credit? Refer A Friend! – Did you know you earn credit every time that you share credit with friends and family? That’s $35 for both of you for every referral.”

Once you’ve set up your referral scheme, here are some effective ways to promote it:

• Follow up with anyone who leaves you a five-star review 
• Comment on social posts from fans who share pictures of your products
• Send a timed email a few days after customers make a purchase

We’ll talk more about how to promote products online using email in the next section. 

How much does it cost?

A referral scheme is one of the cheapest ways to promote products online and grow your business.

You can set your discount and reward combo at a level you’re comfortable with and you can test it over time to find the perfect balance between customer volumes and revenue.

6. Build an email list to drive repeat purchases

Before we dive into the topic of email marketing, we need to take a second to talk about customer lifetime value (CLV).

CLV is the expected value of a customer to your company over their lifetime. After all, if you want to grow sustainably, you need happy customers to keep coming back for more.

Flash sales, new product launches, and gift campaigns are all great ways to increase your CLV. And email is the perfect tool for promoting them. So each time a new customer makes a purchase, add them to your email list ready for your next promotional campaign.

How much does it cost?

Email is one of the cheapest ways to run online promotions for your products. And with email marketing tools like Mailchimp, you can set up and run your email campaigns for free, as long as you’re sending under 1,000 emails per month. Once your email list hits that level, you can upgrade to the Essentials plan for $13/month, which lets you send 5,000 emails. And as long as you’re doing things right, the returns should be well worth the investment.

7. Create bundles to increase your average order value

We’ve talked about CLV already. Now we’re going to talk about AOV.

AOV is the average order value of your customers. You can work this out by taking your total revenue over a set period of time and dividing it by the number of customers you had during that period. 

Just like CLV, if you want to grow your business, you’ll want to crank up your AOV as much as possible. And one of the best ways to do that is by putting together product bundles.

If you create multiple product types, you could increase sales by bundling a few of them together. The key, then, is to offer enough discount that buying the products as a set feels like the only sensible option.

Let’s look at a few examples:

• The Full Face set by Glossier – This includes Stretch Fluid Foundation, Ultralip, Cloud Paint, and Lash Slick, and saves customers 14% compared to buying the products individually.
• The Original Craft Beer Club – This includes a choice of 12 or 24 craft beers from around the United States, giving customers a taste of different craft breweries without all the travel costs.
• Walk Kit by Wild One – This includes a dog harness, leash, treat pouch, and poop bag carrier, saving customers $11 compared to buying all the products individually.

Still not convinced?

Think of it like this: bundles massively reduce the barrier for repeat customers trying out a new product for the first time. And they also make your products feel more gift-worthy – perfect for existing customers buying for a friend or family member!

How much does it cost?

Bundling products is yet another cheap (if not free) way to promote products online. Sure, you may end up offering a small discount to reward customers for buying multiple products at once. But remember that, for every product you add to a bundle or set, you’re saving a little bit extra on shipping.

Final thoughts

I hope this article has taught you a lot about how to market products online for your business.

For many creators and small businesses, stepping into the world of advertising can be a bit daunting. But if you’re smart, apply the right tactics, and use the best business tools, you can make a little budget go a long way.

_{Featured image by Brandy Kennedy}