Solved: Ad not generating enough sales

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out!

I understand you're facing a common challenge, probably the most common one we see. You've got an ad running, you're spending money, but the sales just aren't coming in to make it worthwhile. It's frustrating and feels like you're just burning cash. You’re right to question whether it’s the audience or the creative, but the issue is often a bit deeper than that. I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance based on what we see day in, day out running these campaigns for clients.

The short answer is you need to look at both your audience and your creative, but not in a random way. You need a proper structure. But before we even get to that, there's a much bigger, more fundamental issue we need to tackle first, because if you get this wrong, nothing else matters.

You're probably telling Facebook to find the wrong people...

Here’s an uncomfortable truth that most people don't realise about Meta ads. When you set up a campaign, the objective you choose is a direct command to Facebook's algorythm. If you choose an objective like "Reach" or "Brand Awareness," you are telling the system: "Go and find me the largest number of people for the absolute lowest price."

And the algorithm, being the ruthlessly efficient machine it is, does exactly what you asked. It goes out and finds all the users inside your chosen audience who are the *least* likely to click, the *least* likely to engage, and definitly the least likely to ever buy anything. Why? Because those people's attention is cheap. No one else is bidding for them because they don't convert. You are, in effect, paying the world's most powerful advertising platform to find you the worst possible audience for your product. It’s a complete waste of money if your goal is sales.

I know it sounds backwards. You'd think "I need to build awareness first, then people will buy." But for a business that needs to justify its ad spend with actual revenue, that’s a luxury you can't afford. For businesses like yours, awareness is a byproduct of making sales and having a great product that people talk about, not a prerequisite for making a sale. You need to get the sales engine running first. Which leads me to my first, and most important, bit of advice.

I'd say you need to switch your campaign objective immediately...

If you are not already doing this, you must change your campaign objective to "Sales" (or "Conversions" depending on when you set up your account). This is non-negotiable.

When you select "Sales", you change the command you're giving to Facebook. Your new command is: "Go and find people within my audience who have a history of buying things from ads like mine."

Suddenly, the algorithm's entire focus shifts. It ignores the cheap, passive users. It starts actively seeking out the people who click 'Buy Now', who enter their credit card details, who complete checkouts. Yes, reaching these people is more expensive on a per-impression or per-click basis, because other advertisers want them too. But it's infinitely more effective. You'd rather pay £1 to reach one person who might actually buy something, than £1 to reach 100 people who absolutely won't.

Running a sales campaign is the only way to properly measure your Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) and determine if your ads are actually profitable. I remember one of our subscription box clients achieved a 1000% return on their ad spend. This focus on sales allowed them to clearly measure their Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) and determine profitability, rather than just getting views without customers.

We'll need to look at your audience AND your creative, but systematically...

So, you’ve switched your objective to sales. Great. Now we can address your original question: audience or creative? The answer is both, tested within a structured system. You don't just randomly change one thing and then the other. You build a campaign structure that allows you to test them methodically. For eCommerce, I usually structure campaigns based on the sales funnel: Top of Funnel (ToFu), Middle of Funnel (MoFu), and Bottom of Funnel (BoFu).

This might sound complex, but it's just a way of seperating your audiences based on how familiar they are with your brand. You talk to strangers differently than you talk to people who've already added something to their cart, right? Your ads should do the same.

Here’s what that looks like in practice. You'd have seperate, long-running campaigns for each part of the funnel.

Inside each campaign (ToFu, MoFu, BoFu), you create different ad sets to test your audiences. In your ToFu campaign, one ad set might target 'Interest A', another 'Interest B', and a third a 'Lookalike of Purchasers'. Inside each of those ad sets, you test 3-5 different creatives. After a few days, you can see which audiences and which creatives are performing. You turn off the losers and scale up the winners. This isn't guesswork; it's a process of elimination to find what works.

You probably should redefine who you're actually talking to...

The structure above is great, but it only works if your "Detailed Targeting" interests are actually any good. And this is where most people fall down. They target something incredibly broad and wonder why it doesn't work.

Forget the sterile, demographic-based profile like "women aged 25-45 who like shopping". That tells you nothing of value and leads to generic ads that speak to no one. To stop burning cash, you have to define your customer by their *pain* or their specific, niche passion. Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) isn't a demographic; it's a problem state. What nightmare are they trying to escape? What deep desire are they trying to fulfill?

Let's say you sell high-quality, sustainable yoga mats. A bad interest to target would be "Yoga". It's huge, and includes everyone from people who did it once five years ago to serious practitioners. It's too noisy.

A good approach is to think about the *nightmare* of a serious yogi: a cheap mat that slips during a difficult pose, causing them to lose focus or even risk injury. Or the desire: to have gear that reflects their commitment to sustainability and mindfulness. Now, who do you target?

-> Niche Brands: Instead of "Yoga", target followers of high-end yoga wear brands like 'Lululemon' or 'Alo Yoga'.
-> Influencers/Gurus: Target followers of specific, well-known yoga instructors.
-> Publications: Target readers of 'Yoga Journal'.
-> Related Software: People who use apps like 'Down Dog' or 'Glo'.

You see the difference? You're not targeting the activity; you're targeting the ecosystem around the committed enthusiast. This is how you find your people. Do this work first, or you have no business spending a single pound on ads.

You'll need an offer they can't ignore...

This is the part of the equation that almost everyone misses. You can have the perfect campaign objective, a flawless structure, and hyper-specific targeting, but if your ad creative and the offer on your website are weak, people still won't buy. The number one reason campaigns fail is a bad offer. Not a bad product, but a badly communicated offer.

Your ad needs to speak directly to the pain you identified in the last step. A great framework for this is Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS).

-> Problem: State the problem they know they have. "Tired of your yoga mat slipping during downward dog?"
-> Agitate: Poke the bruise. Make them feel the pain. "It ruins your flow, kills your focus, and makes you worry about your next move instead of being present in the moment."
-> Solve: Introduce your product as the solution. "Our Gecko-Grip mat is made from natural rubber that sticks to the floor, so you can stick to your practice. Get back your focus. Find your flow."

This kind of copywriting, which connects emotionally, is what drives action. I remember one of our clients in the women's apparel niche achieved a 691% return on ad spend. This highlights how crucial it is for ad copy to connect emotionally and drive action. People don't buy what it is; they buy what it does for them.

And the offer doesn't stop at the ad. When they click, your landing page or product page has to continue that story. It needs to be flawless.

-> High-Quality Imagery/Video: Show the product in its best light, being used by people who look like your ideal customer.
-> Trust Signals: Do you have customer reviews? Testimonials? "As seen in" logos? Secure payment badges? A clear returns policy? All of this reduces the perceived risk for a new buyer.
-> Clear Call-to-Action (CTA): One big, obvious "Add to Cart" or "Buy Now" button. Don't make them hunt for it.

You need to look at your analytics. Where are people dropping off? Are they clicking the ad but not viewing the product? Your ad might be misleading. Are they viewing the product but not adding to cart? Your product page is probably the problem (price, photos, description, lack of trust).

You'll need to understand your numbers to know if you're succeeding...

So how do you know if your "sales" campaign is actually working? How much is too much to pay for a sale? This is where many business owners get scared. They see a £15 Cost Per Purchase and panic, without knowing if that's good or bad.

The real question isn't "How low can my Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) go?" but "How high a CPA can I afford to acquire a great customer?" The answer lies in calculating your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV).

For a simple eCommerce business, a basic LTV can be estimated by looking at average order value and repeat purchase rate. But let's use a more robust model that works for subscription businesses too, as it's a wierdly powerful way to think about any business.

Now you have the truth. With a £350 LTV, a healthy LTV to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) ratio is 3:1. This means you can afford to spend up to £350 / 3 = ~£116 to acquire a single customer and still have a very profitable business. Suddenly, that £15 CPA doesn't look so bad, does it? It looks like an incredible bargain. This is the maths that unlocks aggressive, intelligent growth and frees you from the tyranny of cheap clicks.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

This is a lot to take in, I know. It's a shift from just "running ads" to building a proper marketing system. To make it easier, here is a summary of the actionable steps you should take, in order.

Getting this right isn't just about flicking a few switches in Ads Manager. It's about understanding the deep mechanics of advertising and human psychology. It's a persistant process of testing, learning, and optimising. It takes time and expertise to build a system like this that reliably generates profitable sales.

That's where professional help can make a huge difference. An expert can implement this entire process for you, avoiding the costly mistakes most people make along the way and getting you to profitability much faster. If you’d like to see how this could apply specifically to your business, we offer a free 20-minute strategy session where we can have a look at your ad account and give you some direct feedback. It's a good way to get a sense of what's possible.

Hope that helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh