Overview: In this case study, I walk you through the performance of Meta Ads I managed for a client in the seafood industry. I felt challenged with this particular client given that I had no previous experience managing ads for brands outside of cosmetics and fashion. However, I stuck to my expertise in the Meta platform + and the fundamentals of good marketing to inform the steps I took in stabilizing this account in it’s initial months on Meta.

May 2023: Campaign Optimization and Challenges I began managing the account in April of 2023. By May, the client decided to increase their ad spend which led to a 37% increase in traffic to their website. This move resulted in:

• A remarkable 19% increase in overall revenue
• A substantial 73% increase in purchases, amplifying some of the initial success we had seen on Meta

However, despite the budget increase, I realized that Average Order Value (AOV) decreased from $125 to $87, primarily due to a higher number of Meta purchasers who opted for lower-priced food items. This had a notable impact on overall Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), particularly in the campaigns targeted to prospecting new customers.

Another significant observation from this spend increase was the 68% increase in Add to Carts, which was not proportionally reflected in actual purchases, indicating a high checkout abandonment rate. I hypothesized that the high shipping fee could have been a key impediment to finalizing purchases. Furthermore, as a relatively new brand in the market, building trust among potential customers was an ongoing challenge.

Retargeting Campaign Success: The high checkout abandonment rate wasn’t necessarily a bad thing but an indicator of customer hesitancy. I saw an opportunity to refocus creative strategy from acquiring new customers and create video ads targeted to warm audiences that spoke to key customer objections. By the end of the month the impressive results showed me that I was going in the right direction:

• Average Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) dropped by an impressive 69%.
• AOV began climbing back to the $103
• The increase in AOV at the higher spend lifted overall account ROAS from 0.65 to 1.6X.
• Increased ad frequency (average of 6.1 times) was a good sign that our audiences were getting many opportunities to return to the site and reconsider making a purchase.