r/Dropshipping_Guide

This is the first time i am running ads, i did my research and also asked people here on Reddit, and came to the conclusion that i should do Meta ads instead of Google and Pintrest Ads.

I have a budget a bit over 5000$ in total to use.

The problem I am facing now is that I don’t know if i should put my money on Instagram or Facebook, or let Meta decide where to place my money. 

My website is HomeSerenityStore i sell mainly lamps and lights that are trending. My market will mostly be women in the US age range 18-34. Therefor i was thinking maybe Instagram instead of Facebook since i know that Facebook mostly has a older audiance.

I am also unsure about Tiktok ads tbh. So i was wondering if you guys could help point in the right derection. 

I'm just starting out and trying to figure out how to choose the right supplier. I get that they handle fulfillment, but not sure what separates a good one from a bad one and how to tell the difference between them.

What should I be looking at when picking a supplier? Also want something that makes sense long term, so I don’t have to switch everything later if the store starts growing. What would you recommend?

Right now I'm doing meta ads only. I'm spending about 1k to 1.5k a day on ads, and I've heard that you lose trafic from people who search your product up in google and it does not show up in SEO. Is this true? Also, can you please share any good reasources (youtube videos, articles) that you guys have?

What can we start on a low budget? For promotion via ads—should we go with CPA Marketing or Dropshipping?

Hey,

I’ve been working on a Shopify app that helps generate ad creatives and product visuals much faster, especially when you need a lot of content for campaigns.

The idea came from a simple problem: creating banners, ads, and product images takes way too much time when you're running an e-commerce store.

So I built something that lets you:

• Generate visuals with AI
• Create multiple formats in one workspace
• Produce creatives in bulk using product data
• Do things like virtual try-on or quick background changes

The goal isn’t just “AI images,” but really to save time while keeping decent creative quality.

I’m not here to promote - I genuinely want feedback from people who run stores or work in e-commerce.

• Does this actually solve a real pain for you?
• What would you expect from a tool like this?
• What’s missing based on your current workflow?

If you're open to testing it or just sharing thoughts, I’d really appreciate it.

Can anyone share where you learned how to dropship I don’t want to pay for a course if I don’t have to but if there’s no free way to learn I will buy a course

In the last few weeks I've printed about 14k revenue, 3.5K profit from my store and Ive been using Meta Ads with a CBO using a budget of around $150-350, and an ABO with a budget of $50 that I have a duplicate of my winning creative in and have been testing other creatives. Creatives that don't preform well or fall under KPI I have removed from the ABO. My preformance was initially very sucessfull printing over $2000 profit in the first week but ever since its been quite variable with somedays being -$20 to -$100 then somedays being +$300, so I'd like some advice on how I can expand my business to capitalize on more oppurtunites and ultiize ads to achieve my fullest profit potential.

I’m 18 and just starting to learn, and I’m interested in making money through dropshipping. I don’t have any budget right now to spend on ads or anything else.

What I want to understand is whether dropshipping in 2026 is still actually worth learning, and more importantly, if it still works and makes money for beginners like me who are just entering the field, or if that opportunity was only good back when it was trending.

Also, I’m not expecting any of the unrealistic or “too good to be true” income numbers people usually talk about online. I know those are exaggerated. I’m just looking for a normal, realistic income—even small profits would be meaningful for me because of the currency situation where I live, so even modest earnings can make a big difference.

If it’s still profitable, I’d like to know what kind of money I could realistically make, how long it usually takes to get the first profit, and I’d appreciate any honest advice for someone starting completely from zero.

I’d also really like to hear from someone who actually started recently and managed to make money from it. If you’ve been in a similar situation or know someone who succeeded as a beginner in the recent period, your experience would mean a lot and would really help me.

They solve completely different problems at different stages.

Zendrop is a dropshipping and fulfillment platform. You pick from their catalog, connect it to Shopify, and orders move automatically. Their US warehouse option reduces delivery time on certain categories to something that actually competes with Prime. The product isn't exclusively yours, but operational friction is almost zero. That matters a lot when you're testing whether a product sells at all.

A dedicated sourcing agent is a manufacturing and procurement partner. You develop products, vet factories, manage quality control, coordinate logistics. Products can be entirely custom. Setup takes real time. Minimum orders and production lead times are part of the deal.

These are not the same type of product. One is for validation, one is for scaling what already works.

We run zendrop for fulfillment on a few catalog SKUs and kanary solutions for sourcing on our private label line. No conflict, no tension, they're doing genuinely different jobs.

Hey everyone,

I'm launching my first Meta ads campaign for a dropshipping product (under-sink organizer) targeting US women aged 25–50. I've done a lot of research but I'm getting conflicting advice and want to get clarity from people who actually run ads.

Here's my current setup:

• Shopify store connected to Meta Pixel (Conversions API + Maximum data sharing enabled)

• Sales objective selected

• Purchase as conversion event

• Broad targeting — US, age 25–50, no interests

• Budget: $15/day

• 3 UGC-style video creatives with different hooks

My product has 3 pricing models:

• Single item: $25.95 + $3.95 shipping (profit ~$18)

• Buy 2 Get 1 Free: $54.95 free shipping (profit ~$26)

• Buy 3 Get 2 Free: $78.95 free shipping (profit ~$33)

My questions:

1. For a first campaign with no pixel data, should I run 3 video creatives with different hooks inside one broad ad set — or should I test different formats (video + image + carousel) in the same ad set?

2. I've read conflicting advice about broad vs interest targeting in 2026. Some say go completely broad, others say stack interests for organizer/home niche. What's actually working right now?

3. My pixel shows an orange warning saying 'no conversion events set up' even though Shopify is connected with Maximum data sharing and Conversions API enabled. Is this normal for a brand new store with zero sales? Will it affect delivery?

4. Should I be pushing the single item or the bundle offer in my ad creative from day one?

5. At $15/day, how many days should I wait before making any decisions on whether to kill or scale an ad?

Any honest advice from people actually running ecom ads right now would be hugely appreciated. Not looking for course recommendations — just real experience.

Thanks

I have been working on my Shopify dropshipping store for a while now and to be honest, making listings is starting to feel like the most annoying part.

It does not look too bad to find products and even run ads but it takes forever to change the titles, prices and images for a lot of them.

i am still doing everything manually so maybe that is the problem

just wondering if this is something everyone goes through once they start adding more products?

how are you guys handling it?

Getting started with dropshipping and trying to pick a supplier, not just for the beginning but that I can go with long term. Don’t want to keep switching setups later if things go well.

What should I be looking for in a supplier as a beginner that also holds up as the store grows? Open to recommendations.

I’m pretty new to all this and trying to figure out the best way to get started, I don’t really know how to start.

Hearing how you all picked your niche, how you went about building your store or if you had someone do it for you and how you handled ads in the beginning, would help me out a lot to learn from yall. Thanks

I've heard people say "Oh, thats oversaturated" and see people still dropshipping that same vinyl LED record player from like a few years ago to this day. So I was just wondering if you are dropshipping the right way and approach a product the right way it isn't dead even if its very saturated?

Haven’t started dropshipping yet but planning to soon. I’m thinking if it’s worth getting coaching before starting or once the store is up and running. Not really trying to get into the whole guru course side of things just want to know if coaching in general is worth it at all or if it’s better to learn by doing and figure things out along the way.

Launching my first store soon but it is actually Tiktok Shop.

Hardest thing so far as a beginner for my product is finding a manufacture (in the US) that doesn’t have a really high MOQ, and does fulfillment and shipping that meets Tiktok’s requirements. And also cheap enough to where I still have good margins.

Plan as of right now is buying products from China, and expediting the shipping via air to Tiktok Fulfillment Center. You may think that’s more expensive but it’s about half of the price or better honestly.

Any recommendations starting out? Plan is to do affiliate marketing. Test the waters with about 100-200 products. 25-30% for affiliate commission. My niche is really popular right now and I have only seen 1-2 brands killing it but I think I can do better.

Would appreciate all advice I can get. Last time I tried dropshipping I was a broke Sophomore in college.

~360 add to carts

~100 purchases

That’s 250+ potential buyers gone

And I had zero way to contact them

Started capturing user details when they click Add to Cart

Now I follow up on WhatsApp

Recovered some sales already

Still early, but makes sense so far

A few months ago I started a Shopify store thinking it would be straightforward.

Get traffic → collect emails → sell.

That’s what everyone says, right?

Reality was very different.

For months, I kept running into the same issues:

• people showing interest but not buying
• leads that went nowhere
• no idea who was serious vs just browsing
• random emails I didn’t know how to use

At first I thought the problem was:

my product, my ads or my offer

But the real problem was much simpler.

I had no idea who my customers actually were.

Everything I was doing was based on guesswork.

Every visitor saw the same page, the same message, the same offer.

And the only thing I was collecting was name + email… which didn’t tell me anything useful.

So I couldn’t:

• understand what people really wanted
• adapt my offer
• follow up properly

It all felt messy and unstructured.

That’s when I stopped focusing on “getting more traffic” and started focusing on understanding the people I was already getting.

Instead of sending everyone straight to a product page, I added a conversational form before the offer.

Not a boring survey something that actually guided the user.

Once I did that, things changed pretty fast:

• I could see what people were actually looking for
• I started identifying patterns in responses
• my offers became way more relevant
• conversion rate improved without increasing traffic

And most importantly, I stopped guessing.

I ended up using a AI app to build those forms inside my store.

Not because it’s some magic tool, but because it let me:

• ask the right questions
• structure the flow based on answers
• actually use the data instead of just collecting emails

It removed a lot of the “blindness” I had before.

Selling online isn’t just about getting visitors. It’s about understanding them before trying to sell to them. If all you’re collecting is emails, you’re probably leaving a lot of money on the table.

Turn your Shopify visitors into real inquiries 👉Install Formiva – Create Smart Forms on Shopify (No Code)

Curious if anyone else realized this a bit late too.

I know there's a big demand for reps and I was wondering if it's something you can dropship. As i know the legality of it. Just wondering if there is any barriers you encounter wether through the advertisment stage or making the store in general.