Revenue
20,600
In sales
ROAS
X10
Account ROAS
Spend
2,000
Ad budget
Time
3 weeks
Of advertising
Introduction
In this case study we’ll explain and reveal how we took a streetwear brand selling limited edition sneakers from 0 to five-figures in sales and profit in just 3 weeks!
We managed to make profit for the client accounting for all costs and scale the campaigns to 10X account ROAS (1$ in ads makes 10$ in sales).
P.S Actually the last 1,5 week we were doing X14-X15 ROAS, the X10 is including the testing phase.
Case Study
We began the work by outlining the most crucial foundations – the client avatar, marketing angles, product benefits (tangible and intangible). It helps to remove the guesswork out of the process – which sometimes can turn out to be very costly. Based on that information the first round of testing was prepared, containing audiences, creatives and copy variations – each testing different a approach and vision. After each ad reached 1,500 impressions we knew the winners. Not performing ad sets and ads were “killed” (switched off) and the working ones graduated to test the conversions. We had to give the algorithm some time to optimize because of the high price of the product. Within a few days we’ve accumulated some sales and a lot of ATC’s, VC’s and IC’s. We have done and on-ad set optimization using various breakdowns to analyze the insights from every ad set. In the meantime we kept testing new creatives, copy and cold audiences to see which of them will bring the best results and should be further scaled.
We did not try to sell at the first touchpoint, but rather to build engagement and appear to lifestyle aspects and intangible benefits of the product. The goal was to make the prospect (that might have a purchase intent) rasie their hand up.
After some time COLD campaign achieved respectively X5.06 and X9.97 ROAS. Not a bad top of the funnel.
It is always a good sign when COLD campaigns bring returns of such caliber, but if not, do not worry – remarketing is where the most of the money is made.
For the remarketing we’ve splitted the campaigns to reach people who showed engagement as well as people who already performed some lower-tier conversions. The goal was to bring them back to the online store, show products that they’ve looked at before and to use tangible benefits. In those steps your audience is warmed up, so don’t be afraid to go for the sales with more sales-oriented messages.
For those stages of the funnel we’ve used custom audiences from the data gathered by COLD campaigns. You should be expecting higher CTR’s but also higher CPM’s in remarketing stages. Don’t be afraid to use testimonials, unboxings and talk more about the product.
*REMEMBER* The lower the conversion the smaller the time-window you should use in your custom audiences for retargeting. People who almost bought will give you a higher chance of returning and completing the purchase then those who were just browsing. Do not pick a conversion objective if you haven’t received at least 50 per week of a given conversion in your pixel from lower-tier conversions. (eg. 50 ATC’s from VC campaign) 50 is a minimum from which the algorithm can optimize for a given conversion. (It doesn’t mean you can’t test those objectives, just don’t waste your money if they are not performing) To conversion from the least important to the most important are:
- View Content (VC)
- Add to Cart (ATC)
- Initiated Checkout (IC)
- Add Payment Infro (PI)
- Purchase (PUR)
After some data came in and the sample group was big enough to accurately make adjustments (at least 1,500 impressions per ad) a good practice is to start optimizing your campaigns on ad set and ad level. There will be certain settings which perform better and by optimizing them and killing non-performers your ad set level performance can look like this:
It’s also crucial to constantly test new copy, audiences and creatives, that way when the frequency goes too high and campaigns which performed very well start to deliver no results, (audience or ad fatigue) you can quickly swap them with something that is already tested and working.
Treat your funnel like a few-step sales machine that has to serve a specific purpose on every level and then engeener exactly what you’d like to be happenig at which touchpoint. Mapping out the customer journey will help you modify the details when there are some malfunctions. In the end result acting quickly upon any failure will help you save the budget and increase returns.
Merge the technical knowledge of the ad platform with some in-depth, professional marketing education. It really helps to improve the details. Even when looking at CTR – more clicks means more eyeballs on your website. With bigger scale this will result in more purchases and the better, thus more efficient use of your ad budget.
Armed with all the data it’s easier to fine-tweak details, where something is not working. With proper adjustments we were able to score CTR’s like this:
The next logical step to further develop the funnel is to fire up Look aLike Audiences – people who are similar to those who performed certain actions. We’ve tested different % and source variations to boost up our cold campaign with the most profitable cold buyers Facebook can find – without us working with interest-based audiences.
I know it all sounds very hard to achieve in 3 weeks and with a relatively small budget but all it comes down to is preparation, know-how and acting in the right manner on data that was constantly flowing in – fast.
Summary
Don’t be afraid of spending money on testing. Make sure to test different marketing and technical aspects. For example: test different approaches, audiences, and ads but also run a quick test to see which conversion objective will give you lowest CPM, highest CTR and best conversions. Don’t think that you need to hit profitability with every single test. The data gives insight on where to head next, what to improve and what to scale. Let it guide you.
Prepare before you start running campaigns, map out the funnel, write down customer avatar, marketing angles, product benefits etc. It gives you a clear idea on where to start.
Remember to control your budget, the most of it should go towards cold campaigns and testing. Making someone who almost bought to pull the trigger is cheaper then making sure you have a constant flow of prospect at the top of your funnel.
If you are just starting out with Facebook Ads and have little to know idea about what we’ve discussed in this case study – no worries! Check out:
“5 Facebook Ads Hacks for Beginners That Marketers Begged Us Not to Reveal!”
If you’d like to know exactly how we form our funnels, strategy and how we run ads (based on an example of your company) feel free to click the blue button and schedule a free, no-obligation, 15-minute strategy call with me. We’ll go through how this framework can be applied to your business to bring profit predictably, at a wild scale.
To your success,
Martin Bujacz
CEO
