Free Plus Shipping – How Free Plus Shipping Facebook Ads Work?


Free Plus Shipping business model is a quite popular ecommerce niche. Entrepreneurs from all over the world are taking advantage of this business model and raking in great profits. It’s a lucrative business and helps you sell great items to your customers at affordable rates.

This article is going to cover everything related to the free plus shipping business model and free plus shipping Facebook ads to help you start your own business. 

What is Free Plus Shipping and How it works?

Free plus shipping generally means that you sell a product for free, but you only charge shipping/handling fees.

One might even ask how such a type of business can make any money if they are giving out products for free.

That’s the real secret, instead of losing any money, this type of business generates a decent profit if done right.

You don’t charge for the product itself, but you add the product’s cost and your profit margin into the shipping cost.

For example, you find a Ring on AliExpress that costs $2.99 with free shipping. Now, instead of selling it for $5, you sell it for free, but charge $5 as shipping cost.

This way your potential customers will be attracted towards the free product and you will make a clean $2 profit on each purchase.

This type of business works well with advertising and promotion on social media channels like Facebook.

It’s also very important to understand your other costs as well. Free plus shipping Facebook ads could costs you anything, so keep that amount in mind when setting your shipping costs.


Free Ebook: 11 Facebook Audience Insights Hacks To Generate Sales in 60 Seconds
This book teaches you everything and anything that you need to know about Facebook Audience Insights and how you can use it to laser target your passionate audience on Facebook.

Free Plus Shipping Facebook Ads

Free Plus Shipping works great with social media promotion and advertisement. If you want to ensure that your free plus shipping offer is shown to the relevant audience then you should definitely try running ads on Facebook.

The perfect Facebook Ad design is necessary to attract customers. If you want to make sure that your free plus shipping offer converts well then you need to create an attractive Facebook ad that quickly grabs the attention of people.

Free Plus Shipping Facebook Ad Examples

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. There are already great Facebook ads out there that work. You can pretty much copy those ads or at the very least use them as an inspiration to create your own ad design.

Here are some of the best Facebook Ad examples for Free plus shipping offers.

Here’s an ad example from the Star Wars Fans page. It’s a solid ad that targets the hardcore fan-base of the Star Wars franchise.Free Plus Shipping Facebook Ad Examples

It’s simple and straightforward. It quickly grabs your attention if you are even remotely interested in Star Wars. The word “Free” is just icing on the cake and makes people click the ad for further information.

Another great free plus shipping ad example by Beautiful Jewelry. It even uses the “Fear of missing out” tactic by notifying that only the first 300 people will get the item for free.Free Plus Shipping Facebook Ad Examples 2

This type of ad creates a sense of urgency in the visitor and they often act quickly to avail the offer.

Finally, a simple ad example by Hot Grabber that targets animal lovers. Specially horse and zebra fans out there.Free Plus Shipping Facebook Ad Examples 3

If you want to create a Facebook ad for your free plus shipping offer then the above-mentioned ad examples should serve as great inspirational material.

You can even be extra creative and come up with something more unique. It’s all about testing anyway.

However, you need to be very careful not to break any of the Facebook ad guidelines otherwise your ad account will be banned before you can even say “Free”.

Shopify allows you to easily set up shipping for all the free products on your online store. Here’s how you can set up free + shipping on your Shopify store.

Why Free Plus Shipping Works?

It’s very simple to understand why free plus shipping works so well. People love free products. It’s basic human psychology that we love the idea of free products and the word “Free” just quickly grabs our attention.

It also works great with advertising on social media channels. It’s much easier to get decent click-through when you are “giving away free products” instead of selling them for retail price.

When people see the word free, they often click the ad to at least inquire about the product. Once they add the product to the cart and see the shipping charge, they are most likely to pay for it since shipping charges are mostly universal. It’s a great way to make people take action and order your free products.

Why Facebook Ad Accounts Get Disabled?

There are numerous things that could lead to your ad account getting disabled, but here are a few of the common ones.

  • Deceptive marketing, false claims, etc.
  • No privacy policy on your online store.
  • No match between the ad design and the landing page.
  • Using copyrighted material or selling copyrighted products.

There are many other reasons for having your account blocked. Even accessing your Facebook ad account through a VPN could lead to a ban.

Facebook doesn’t even tell you why your account was disabled. All they tell you is that your ad broke their ad guidelines or policies which makes it very difficult to know why your ad was actually banned.

For free plus shipping ads, you need to be very careful. Using the word free is quite profitable, but it could also lead to the demise of your ad account.

Facebook does allow free plus shipping ads. You can give away free products and advertise them on Facebook, but you have to mention the shipping costs.

You can not just write a free product and be done with it. You must mention that there are shipping/handling costs customers have to pay. You don’t have to mention the exact shipping amount, just a simple “Only Pay Shipping” will suffice.Facebook Ad accounts get disabled

Here are the complete Facebook Ad Guidelines. Whenever you are creating an ad, you should adhere to the official rules instead of following someone else’s advice regarding the ads.

If you do everything according to the official Facebook ad policies then you will not run into any problems. Make sure you cover the basics of your online store as well. Create a privacy policy, try to match the landing page with the ad design, and use clear descriptions and details for products.

Related Article:
How to create a Facebook Page without a Personal Account – is it possible?
How to Activate a Disabled Facebook Account

How to keep Free Plus Shipping Facebook Ads Safe?

Let’s understand how you can keep your free plus shipping Facebook ad safe and keep your account from getting disabled.

Here are a couple of things to keep your ad account safe.

  • Always mention the shipping/handling cost.
  • Never use figures like “$0” in the ad.
  • Don’t overuse the word “Free”. Keep the first point in mind.

Here are some examples of free plus shipping Facebook ads that could get your account disabled:

  • “Get this necklace for free.”
  • “We are giving away this watch absolutely free.”
  • “Price = $0”

This is considered deceptive marketing by Facebook because you are hiding the hidden costs. You are trying to mislead the customer into believing that the offer is completely free when in reality the customer needs to pay shipping costs.

Here are some examples of better and safer free plus shipping Facebook ads:

  • “Get this Ring for free. Just pay Shipping.”
  • “We are giving away this phone case for free. You just cover the shipping costs.”

This is how you can ensure that your free plus shipping Facebook ad is safe and your ad account is protected from bans.

Conclusion

Free Plus Shipping business model is being used for a few years now and even though it is not as profitable as it used to be back then, there are still plenty of scenarios where it works perfectly.

As I already mentioned, free plus shipping model is a great tool to acquire quick leads and then try to cross-sell them more expensive items from there.

But, if you are active enough and keep an eye out for upcoming trends then you can make bank through free plus shipping alone.

Let us know what are your experiences with the free plus shipping business model and Facebook ads. Feel free to comment below.

Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter for weekly ecommerce updates.

Dilawar Hussain

Dilawar Hussain is a professional blogger who loves gaming, technology, and ecommerce. He spends his time testing new strategies, hacks, and tricks to help the ecommerce community.

One Response to Free Plus Shipping – How Free Plus Shipping Facebook Ads Work?

  1. Lauren Freeman says:

    This is a really great post. I found it to be very informative and helpful. Thank you for writing 🙂

    I am launching my new shopify store and am still rather new to all of this. I am always excited to find informative articles like this one.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *