The problem
The store sells caps and clothing online and was already advertising on Facebook. Sales had stalled, and the account needed a more structured strategy to turn spend into purchases.
Sales had stalled despite continued ad spend.
No structured retargeting: visitors and cart abandoners were treated like strangers.
No consistent structure across campaigns.
Audiences and creatives had not been tested against each other.
Budget was not following the campaigns that produced purchases.
What we built
We rebuilt the account around the purchase event. Advantage+ Shopping campaigns took over prospecting, with location and audience targeting for the markets that mattered. Everyone who touched the store was then sorted by stage: visitors, people who added to cart without buying, and previous purchasers each got their own retargeting campaign with its own message. Audiences, creatives and campaign structures were tested, and budget was moved continuously toward whatever was producing purchases.
Campaign structure
Meta Ads · by funnel stage
Tier 1
Prospecting
- Advantage+ Shopping
- Location targeting
- Audience targeting
Tier 2
Retargeting
- Website visitors
- Add to cart, no purchase
- Previous purchasers
Tier 3
Testing and budget
- Audience tests
- Creative tests
- Budget to purchase campaigns
Performance analysis
Existing campaigns and customer behaviour reviewed to find where purchases were actually coming from.
Advantage+ Shopping campaigns
Meta's automated prospecting given the catalogue and the markets to work with.
Location and audience targeting
The regions and interests with purchase history prioritised.
Retargeting by stage
Separate campaigns for website visitors, add-to-cart users and previous purchasers.
Structured testing
Audiences, creatives and campaign structures compared on purchases, not clicks.
Budget discipline
Spend consolidated into the campaigns generating purchases.
How it works
From trigger to result.
How the system works
7 stages
01Prospecting
AudienceAdvantage+ Shopping with location and interest targeting.
02Pixel events
DataView, add to cart and purchase recorded for every visitor.
03Visitors
AudienceSaw the store, did not buy. Shown the range again.
04Cart abandoners
AudienceAdded to cart, left. Reminded to finish.
05Past purchasers
AudiencePrevious customers, retargeted separately.
06Budget to purchases
LogicSpend moves to the campaigns that convert.
07Purchases
ResultOrders tracked back to the campaign that produced them.
Our approach
How we worked.
Analysis
Audited the account and traced purchases back to the campaigns that produced them.
Prospecting
Launched Advantage+ Shopping with the catalogue and target markets.
Retargeting
Built the visitor, cart and purchaser campaigns with distinct messages.
Testing
Compared audiences, creatives and campaign structures on purchases.
Scaling
Moved budget toward the campaigns with the strongest ROAS.
The outcome
What changed.
1,959 website purchases across the account, with Facebook Ads now a consistent purchase channel rather than an occasional one.
An average purchase ROAS of 2.91 across 76 campaigns, with the strongest retargeting and Advantage+ campaigns between 4.5x and 10.5x.
7,336 add-to-cart events and 53,544 landing-page views captured as audiences for retargeting.
Budget now follows purchases, with each funnel stage judged on its own.
Where this goes next
Retargeting brings a shopper back. It does not help them choose. The shopping assistant we designed for an online retailer searches the live catalogue by what the customer describes and only recommends what is in stock.
Retail & E-commerceAI shopping assistant that recommends from a live catalogue
Questions
What people ask.
What is Advantage+ Shopping and when does it help?
It is Meta's automated campaign type for online stores. You give it the catalogue, the markets and the creatives, and it finds buyers. It works best once the pixel has purchase history to learn from, which is why we build the retargeting structure alongside it.
Why separate visitors, cart abandoners and past purchasers?
They need different messages. A visitor needs the range. A cart abandoner needs the item they chose and a reason to finish. A past purchaser needs something new. One campaign for all three wastes budget showing the wrong message to each.
What does a good ROAS look like?
It depends on margin. A store with high margins can be profitable at a lower ROAS than one selling on thin margins. We agree the break-even number with the store owner first, then judge every campaign against it.
