Solved: Ads Strategy Suggestions for Polo T-Shirt Business

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! Happy to give you some initial thoughts on your new polo t-shirt business. It's an exciting stage to be at, but also one where a lot of new brands make costly mistakes with their first ads.

You’re asking about offers and ad strategy, which is smart. But honestly, most new apparel brands I see focus on the wrong things. They think a clever ad or a 15% discount code is the magic bullet. It's not. Before you even think about the right Facebook ad, you have to get the foundations right, otherwise you're just pouring money down the drain. We'll get to the ads, but first we need to talk about the stuff that actually makes people buy.

We'll need to look at your store first... because that's where the money is made (or lost)

This might sound harsh, but it's the most important piece of advice I can give you: your ability to sell anything has very little to do with your ads and everything to do with your website. You can have the best ad in the world, targeted perfectly, but if it sends people to a store that looks amateurish or untrustworthy, they won’t buy. It's like having a brilliant TV commercial for a shop with a broken door and dusty shelves. No one's coming in.

I've seen it a hundred times. A client comes to us wondering why their ads have a high click-through rate but no sales. The problem is almost always the destination. People are interested enough to click, but the landing experience kills the sale instantly. For an apparel brand, this is even more true. You're not selling a utility; you're selling a look, a feeling, a piece of someone's identity. Your store has to reflect that.

So, before you spend a single pound on ads, you need to do a brutally honest audit of your store. Ask yourself these questions:

• -> Product Photography: Are you using the stock photos from your supplier? Or photos you took on your phone against a white wall? This won't cut it. You need high-quality, professional lifestyle photos. People need to see your polo shirts on actual people, in different settings. They need to imagine themselves wearing it. I remember one of our women's apparel clients, who saw a 691% return on ad spend, invested heavily in their photography. It makes all the difference. Show the fit, the fabric, the details. A video of someone wearing and moving in the shirt is even better.
• -> Product Descriptions: Is your description just "Men's Blue Polo Shirt, 100% Cotton"? That's a specification, not a sales pitch. Why should someone buy your polo? Is it the unique fit? The sustainable material? The way the collar sits perfectly? You need to write copy that sells the benefit, not just the feature. Tell a story.
• -> Trust Signals: Why should a complete stranger give you their credit card details? A new, unknown store is inherently untrustworthy. You need to build that trust on the page. This means having customer reviews (even if you have to get them from friends and family to start), a clear returns policy, a professional "About Us" page that tells your brand's story, and easy-to-find contact information.
• -> The User Journey: Is your site easy to navigate? Is it fast to load? Is the checkout process simple and clear? Every extra click or slow-loading page is a reason for someone to leave and never come back.

The typical journey from ad to sale has several potential failure points. If you're losing people at any of these stages, your ad spend is wasted. The ad's only job is to get the right person to the start of this journey.

I'd say you need to rethink the 'offer'...

Now, onto your question about what offer to give. You mentioned a 32% profit margin. The immediate temptation is to offer a 10% or 15% discount. Don't. At least not yet.

For a new brand, competing on price is a race to the bottom. You can't win against the big players on price. Your 'offer' needs to be about value, not discounts. The real offer is the product itself, the brand story, and the customer experience. Why should someone pay a premium for your polo shirt instead of buying a cheaper one from a massive retailer? You need to answer that question first.

Think about it like this:

• Weak Offer: "Our Polo Shirt - Now 15% Off!" This attracts bargain hunters who will never buy at full price and have no brand loyalty.
• Strong Offer: "The Perfect Polo. Made from ultra-soft Peruvian Pima cotton that never loses its shape. Designed in London for a modern, tailored fit. Free shipping & returns so you can try it risk-free." This speaks to quality, fit, and confidence. It builds value and justifies the price.

Your first offer to new customers shouldn't be a straight discount. It should be something that adds value and reduces their risk of trying a new brand. Here are some ideas that work much better:

• -> Free Shipping & Returns: This is non-negotiable for online apparel. It removes the biggest barrier to purchase: "What if it doesn't fit?"
• -> A Small Gift with Purchase: A pair of quality socks, a set of collar stays, a leather-care wipe. Something small and relatively inexpensive that adds perceived value and makes the unboxing experience special.
• -> Bundle Deals: "Buy any 2 polos and get the 3rd at 50% off" or "Buy a polo and chinos, save 20%". This encourages a higher average order value (AOV), which is critical for making paid ads profitable.

A discount can be a useful tool later for specific promotions or to clear old stock, but it shouldn't be your opening move. Your opening move should be to convince people your product is worth the full price. Build the brand first, then you can play with promotions.

You'll need a simple but effective ads strategy...

Okay, assuming your store is now looking profesisonal and your offer is about value, we can talk about ads. For a new store, you don't need a complex, multi-platform strategy. You need to master one channel first, and for apparel, that's almost always Meta (Facebook and Instagram).

The goal is simple: find people who might be interested in your products and convince them to visit your store. Then, remind the ones who visited but didn't buy to come back and finish their purchase. This is a basic advertising funnel.

1. Top of Funnel (ToFu) - Finding New Customers

This is your 'prospecting' campaign. The goal is to reach cold audiences who have never heard of you before. The campaign objective in Meta Ads should be Sales, optimising for Purchases. Don't listen to anyone who tells you to run "Brand Awareness" or "Traffic" campaigns. You're not a massive brand with money to burn. You need sales. By optimising for purchases, you're telling Meta's algorithm to find people within your target audience who are most likely to actually buy something.

Your main job here is to test audiences. You need to figure out who your ideal customer is. I would structure this with one campaign and multiple ad sets inside, with each ad set targeting a different group of interests. For polo shirts, I'd start by testing themes like:

• -> Competitor Brands: People who have shown an interest in pages for Ralph Lauren, Lacoste, Fred Perry, Sunspel, etc.
• -> Lifestyle Interests: Think about who wears polos and what else they're into. Test audiences interested in 'Golf', 'Sailing', 'Rugby', 'Country clubs', 'Yachting'.
• -> Publication Interests: People interested in magazines like 'GQ', 'Esquire', 'The Rake'.
• -> Broad Targeting: Once your Meta Pixel has enough data (after a few hundred purchases), you can test a 'broad' ad set with no interest targeting at all, just age, gender, and location. The algorithm can often find customers better than you can, but it needs data first.

2. Bottom of Funnel (BoFu) - Bringing People Back

This is your 'retargeting' campaign. It's often the most profitable part of your advertising. Here, you're targeting 'warm' audiences – people who have already visited your website but didn't buy. It takes multiple touchpoints to convince someone to buy. This campaign is that crucial second or third touchpoint.

Again, set the campaign objective to Sales with a Purchase optimisation. Your audiences here will be Custom Audiences based on your website traffic. I'd start with a simple one:

• -> All Website Visitors (Last 30 Days) - Excluding Purchasers: This targets everyone who came to your site but didn't buy. The ad creative here can be different. You could show them a carousel of your best-selling products, or an ad highlighting your free returns policy, or even a customer testimonial. You are reminding them why they were interested in the first place.

As you grow, you can get more specific with retargeting (e.g., targeting people who added to cart but didn't purchase), but to start, a general 'all visitors' audience is perfect. I remember one eCommerce campaign we ran for a client selling maps and navigation products, which generated an 8x return on ad spend, and a significant portion of that success came from effectively re-engaging interested visitors.

You probably should know your numbers inside out...

This is the part that most people ignore, and it’s why they lose money. You told me your profit margin is 32%. This is the most important number in your entire business when it comes to advertising.

It dictates your Break-Even Return On Ad Spend (ROAS). ROAS is simple: for every £1 you spend on ads, how much revenue do you get back? If you spend £100 and get £500 in sales, your ROAS is 5x.

Your break-even ROAS is the point at which you are making back exactly what you spent on ads, plus the cost of the goods you sold. Any ROAS below this number means you are losing money on every sale. Any ROAS above it means you're profitable.

The formula is: 1 / Profit Margin

For you, that's: 1 / 0.32 = 3.125x

This means for every £1 you spend on ads, you need to generate at least £3.13 in revenue just to cover your costs and break even. Your target ROAS should be higher than this, maybe 4x or 5x, to actually make a profit and grow the business. This number is your north star. You need to track it relentlessly. If an ad set is only getting a 2x ROAS after a few days, you turn it off. It's that simple.

I've built a small calculator for you below. Play with the profit margin and ad spend sliders to see how it affects the revenue you need to be profitable. It's a simple tool, but internalising this relationship is the difference between gambling and investing in your marketing.

This is the main advice I have for you:

There's a lot to take in here, I know. It's not as simple as just 'running some ads'. But getting these fundamentals right from the start will save you a huge amount of time, money, and frustration. Here’s a summary of the action plan I'd recommend.

Getting traction with a new eCommerce brand is a marathon, not a sprint. It involves methodical testing, a deep understanding of your numbers, and a brand that people actually want to buy into. It's easy to get overwhelmed or burn through your startup capital with nothing to show for it.

This is where expert help can make a significant difference. Instead of spending months and thousands of pounds on trial and error, an experienced hand can help you build the right foundation, implement a proven strategy from day one, and interpret the data to scale profitably. We've helped numerous eCommerce brands, from apparel to high-ticket products, navigate this exact process.

If you'd like to go over your specific situation in more detail, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation. We can take a look at your store together and map out a more tailored advertising strategy. It's a great way to get some clarity and expert advice before you commit to a significant ad spend.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh