Ricky Hayes – Ecom Lifestyle University

Drew here and welcome to my review on eCom Lifestyle University by Ricky Hayes. I’m sure you know who Ricky is, but for those who don’t, he’s best known for his Youtube channel. This article will go into details of his course and help you decide if it’s for you or not.

Ricky’s channel focuses on eCommerce and more specifically Facebook ads where he helps marketers get more traffic and more sales.

He also teaches Shopify Optimization, brand building strategies and product research. His channel has a lot of “white hat” Facebook case studies with actionable tips and real life examples.

Like most ecom Youtubers, Ricky has decided to launch a course and that’s probably why you are here – you want to see what others think of it.

Disclosure: Drew’s Review is supported by my readers. A purchase from a link may earn an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more

ECOM UNIVERSITY V3

His course is in its 3rd update and the price is still the same at $497. It’s geared towards noobs so if you’re new, you won’t have a problem following along.

I decided to pick up his course so let’s go through the modules so you have a better understanding of what you’re getting for your investment.

MODULE 1 – MINDSET & WELCOME

Not to be forgotten is the typical welcome video or in this case two videos. One is on mindset where he tells you how to stay motivated. Thankfully this isn’t dragged out and secondly the welcome video where you will see what you’re going to learn in the course.

MODULE 2 – BUILDING YOUR STORE A-Z

This section of the course has about 34 videos. It shows you how to set up your Shopify store from scratch.

Topics include connecting your payment gateway, setting up Google Analytics, currency converter, Facebook pixel, aftership tracking etc.

There’s a lot of apps he suggests to connect such as Bold Brain, Loox, Recart, Dropified, Klaviyo, Wheelio and more. I’ve never seen so many apps being suggested in a course but I guess it all depends what kind of store you are running and what you will need. He goes through all the apps so you’ll understand if it is necessary or not.

MODULE 3 – PRODUCT RESEARCH ACADEMY A-Z

In this module you are going to learn how to do product reseach according to Ricky’s style.

Ricky’s research methods includes research using Facebook, AliExpress and Shopify stores using myip.ms. If you want to know how to do this for free, check out my article titled How to Find Trending Products to Sell Online. Just jump to #10 for details.

He then goes on to discuss other product research methods on Facebook using Mobile. Apparently he says he found products on mobile that he wouldnt have found on Desktop.

Overall not bad research methods but to be honest it’s nothing you cant really find online already for free or in “most” other courses.

MODULE 4 – BUILDING YOUR BRAND

Building your brand is essential for a couple reasons. Brand recognition and trust. If people don’t recognize your logo or brand name, they aren’t going to trust you either. This needs to be earned and you do this by making sure people see your brand everywhere possible and obviously in a favorable light.

Ricky believes in building your brand with social sites like Facebook and Instagram. That’s what he teaches in this module. For me, remarketing was one of the best ways to attain brand recognition due to the “in-your-face” type of marketing.

MODULE 5 – FACEBOOK ADS ACADEMY

In version 3 of the course you’re going to get some additional videos. This module has been upgraded to include a total of 27.

If you are new to Facebook, don’t worry as he teaches you from scratch, even if you’re a noob. Some of the topics discussed in this section is as follows:

• Facebook ad copy
• Facebook ads strategy
• Interest targeting
• Custom audience retargeting
• Look-a-like scaling strategy
• Scaling your campaigns
• How to make high converting video ads
• Manual bidding
• Budget test & scaling
• How to get repeat customers
• Campaign based optimization

I’ve seen some courses with less than half the content for Facebook ads so this module does justice. However it still pales in comparison to the Facebook training that is found in a course like eCom Elites.

MODULE 6 – TEAM MANAGEMENT

If you’re new, you can probably just gloss over this section as you’re not going to need it just yet. When you grow your business, Ricky will show you how to outsource the mundane tasks to outsourcers. He tells you how to find and use them with Upwork, Trello and Slack.

MODULE 7 – GOOGLE MARKETING BONUS

For version 3 of the course you will get a module on Google Ads. Here you’ll learn how to set up your ads in Google Ads and Google Shopping and he also teaches you about Merchant Center.

The lessons include topics in:

• Google Ads setup
• Pixel installation
• Keyword research
• Ad layout
• Retargeting

I’ve seen other courses that have more detail in regards to Google Ads like in either eCom Elites or Tristan Broughton’s Google Ads Academy but if you’re just looking for something to get started with this module should benefit you.

MODULE 8 – MANYCHAT BONUS

Ricky believes that ManyChat is the future of eCom. There’s many chat programs out there so you do have options. I’ve tried ManyChat before and it’s a good program but you’ll most likely have to opt for the paid version at some point for $15.

The free version is pretty limiting in what you can do. However, it’s a good bonus and you’ll learn how you can implement this into your business.

MY THOUGHTS ON THE ECOM LIFESTYLE UNIVERSITY