Should I focus my advertising to a "more narrow / highly targeted audience" vs a "more broad / less targeted audience" to increase website sales?

Depending on the advertising platform and your budget, you can run multiple highly targeted campaigns at the same time. The more targeted your campaigns the more profitable they will be. For example, Campaign A can target only those in US, while Campaign B, can targeted only those in Australia. Each campaign has its own messaging, landing pages and specific ad copy to that region. Campaign A and B can both run at the same time as long as you have the advertising budget to so, if you do not then I recommend choosing your most profitable country first.

A more niche site almost always converts better than a broad site.

A targeted site allows you to use specific language and terminology that will resonate with your audience. Trying to be all things to all people dilutes your message and ultimately cost you a considerable number of conversions.

The fact that you CAN ship to anywhere in the world doesn’t mean that you SHOULD; and, even if you do ship worldwide, that doesn’t mean that each and every country will have equal priority. We often want to cater to every consumer in every country because we feel like we have something of value that we want to share with the world and, less altruistically but also important, we want to make more money. This is not an effective strategy, however - in fact, it’s not a strategy at all.

Strategy is all about CHOICES. An effective business strategy will include choices when it comes to things like geographies i.e. which are your priority countries (or more specific e.g. cities or regions), customers (demographics and psychographics), product categories, and channels (online platforms, social networks, offline locations). This will allow you to focus your budget and time where it really matters.

When it comes to website traffic, you want to make sure that (i) it is the right kind of traffic i.e. you are bringing your ideal clients onto the website and (ii) you are converting that traffic once it lands on your site. Having a focused strategy in terms of the people and countries you’re targeting will help you both to run an effective marketing campaign targeting those people and getting them onto the site, and to convert these people into paying customers.

Get in touch if you’d like help with nailing that strategy!