How to Get Traffic and Sales for an Online Store

To get traffic and sales for an online store, combine free sources that build over time (search, marketplaces, your email list, social content) with a small paid test, send every visitor to a product page that answers the buyer’s questions, and tag each link so you know which source produced the orders. Then move budget to the sources with the lowest cost per sale, not the cheapest visits. Traffic alone does not pay the bills; the order does.

Fix the product page before you buy a single visit

If a page converts one visitor in 200, each sale costs 200 visits. At one in 100, the same budget buys twice as many orders. That is why the page comes first.

• Photos that answer questions: the product in use, in scale next to something familiar, and every angle a buyer would check in a shop.
• The price and the total up front: show shipping costs and delivery times on the product page, not only at checkout. Surprise costs are a common reason carts are left behind.
• A description written for the buyer: what it solves, what is in the box, sizes, materials, and returns.
• A fast mobile page: most visitors from social and paid sources arrive on a phone.
• One clear action: a visible add-to-cart button and a short checkout with guest checkout allowed.

Our landing page checklist goes through these points one by one.

Free and paid traffic sources for a store

Collect email addresses from day one: every paid visit that joins your list can be reached again for free.

Track every source with UTM parameters

If you cannot see which source brought an order, you cannot decide where the next dollar goes. Add UTM parameters to every link you control:

https://example.com/products/knife-set?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=autumn_sale

Keep the naming consistent and lowercase. UTM parameters explained covers the naming rules and the mistakes that split one source into three rows.

Cost per sale beats cost per visit

Cheap visits are not cheap if nobody buys. Turn every source into the same number:

• Cost per sale = what you spent on the source ÷ orders from that source.
• Or, from a visit price: cost per sale = cost per visit ÷ conversion rate.

Then compare it with your maximum cost per sale: the profit of one order (price minus product cost, shipping, and payment fees) multiplied by the share you are willing to spend. A source that lands above it loses money on the first order, however cheap its clicks look. Repeat customers can justify a higher limit; What is ROAS? explains the return side of the same math, and the cost per result calculator does the division for you.

Retargeting basics

Most first-time visitors leave without buying. Retargeting shows your ads again to people who already visited, usually through a pixel or tag from the ad platform on your store. These people already know the product, so they often convert better than cold traffic.

• Split your audiences: product viewers, cart abandoners, and past buyers each need a different message.
• Cap how often the same person sees the ad, and stop showing it after they buy.
• Depending on where your visitors live, you may need their consent before loading advertising pixels, so load them through your cookie banner.
• Do not forget the free version: an abandoned-cart email to shoppers who entered their address.

Where Sharklio click campaigns and offers fit

Sharklio is a pay-per-result advertising platform, and two of its campaign types suit a store.

A click campaign sends users to your product or category page, and each visit counts only if the user stays for the view time you choose, from 5 to 60 seconds. Visits pass automated fraud checks before they reach you, and you set a price per country, starting at $0.002 per click. The page must load normally, with no pop-ups or redirects.

It is a cheap way to test a page, fill a retargeting audience, and see through your UTM tags whether any orders follow. Be realistic: users on an offerwall came for a reward, so expect a lower conversion rate than from search.

An offer campaign pays for steps your own store confirms. You can build up to 15 steps, for example product page visit, add to cart, and purchase, each with its own price per country. Your store backend or tracker sends a postback when a step happens, and a refunded order can be reversed for up to 30 days. Here the purchase price is fixed in advance, so your cost per sale cannot run away. Multi-step offer campaigns shows the setup in detail.

A worked example

The numbers below are an example, not a quote or a benchmark. A store sells a $45 knife set. After product cost, shipping, and payment fees, one order leaves $18. The owner wants to keep half, so the maximum cost per sale is $9.

Test 1, click campaign: 3,000 visits at $0.01 with a 30-second view time cost $30. UTM tags show 3 orders, a 0.1% conversion rate. Cost per sale = $0.01 ÷ 0.001 = $10, just above the $9 limit. Either the page needs work or these visits are better used to fill a retargeting audience.

Test 2, offer campaign: three steps priced by the owner.

Ten kept orders for $84 is $8.40 per sale, under the $9 limit, and the ten orders leave $180 − $84 = $96 before any repeat purchases. Next step: raise the budget slowly in the countries with the most purchases and watch the refund rate.

Frequently asked questions