Solved: Beauty Store Ads Giving Crazy CPMs - What to Do?

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! I've had a look at the situation you described with your beauty store's ads. It's a really common problem, so don't worry, it's almost certainly fixable. An $80 cost for one sale and high CPMs is definitely a sign that something fundamental is misaligned, but it's probably not your ad account itself being 'bad'. It's usually a problem with the strategy behind the ads.

I'm happy to give you some of my initial thoughts and a bit of guidance on how I'd approach this. It's not about finding one magic button to press, but about systematically figuring out where the weak link in your chain is and fixing it.

We'll need to look at your fundamental offer...

Before we even touch the ad account, we need to be brutally honest about the offer. This is the number one reason I see campaigns fail, especially in a crowded market like beauty. Founders spend ages perfecting a product but no time perfecting the offer, and they are not the same thing. A product is a bottle of serum. An offer is the promise of feeling confident without makeup in 30 days.

You mentioned you're running a beauty store. What problem are you solving? And for who? If your answer is "I sell high-quality moisturiser for women," you don't have an offer, you have a commodity. There are a thousand stores selling that. You'll be forced to compete on price, and you'll lose.

A strong offer is built on three pillars:

1. A specific audience: You're not targeting "women aged 25-45". You're targeting "new mums in their early 30s who are struggling with hormonal acne and have no time for a 10-step skincare routine." See the difference? One is a vague demographic; the other is a person with a real, urgent problem. This focus makes your message incredibly powerful because it feels personal.
2. An urgent problem: The new mum I just described doesn't just 'want' clear skin. She's deeply frustrated and her confidence is shot. She feels like she's lost control of her body. Your product doesn't just solve acne; it helps her feel like herself again. That emotional connection is what makes someone click 'buy now' at 2 AM while feeding the baby.
3. A clear, tangible solution: Your offer needs to be packaged as the perfect solution to that urgent problem. Instead of just "Acne Serum", it's the "5-Minute New Mum Glow Kit". It has a name, it has a defined outcome, and it feels simple and less risky to buy.

Without a strong offer, you're just throwing money at Meta and hoping someone, somewhere, will be interested. They won't be. You have to give them a compelling reason. The ad account isn't the issue; a weak offer means the algorithm has nothing to work with. It can't find buyers if the reason to buy isn't there in the first place.

I remember one campaign for an eCommerce client in the women's apparel space. They were in a very competitive market, much like beauty. By focusing on a strong advertising strategy built around a compelling offer, we were able to achieve a 691% return on their ad spend on Meta and Pinterest. This shows that when the core offer is right, the ads have a much stronger foundation to work from, and it's not just about technical targeting.

I'd say you need to diagnose the real problem...

Okay, so let's assume your offer is solid. The next step is to stop guessing and start diagnosing. "Crazy CPMs" and one sale for $80 tells me there's a leak in your funnel, but it doesn't tell me where. You need to look at your metrics step-by-step to find it. People get obsessed with one metric (like CPM or Cost Per Purchase) and ignore the story the other numbers are telling them.

Here's how you break it down:

• -> Low Click-Through Rate (CTR)? If people are seeing your ad but not clicking, the problem is the ad itself. Your image is boring, your headline is weak, or your copy doesn't grab them by the collar. A CTR below 1% in the beauty space is a red flag. Your creative isn't stopping the scroll.
• -> High CTR but low Add to Carts? If you're getting plenty of cheap clicks to your website but no one is adding products to their cart, then the problem is your product page. The ad did its job, but the destination let you down. This could be poor product photos, a confusing description, a high price without justification, or a lack of social proof like reviews.
• -> Lots of Add to Carts but no Purchases? If people are adding to cart but not completing the checkout, the problem is usually trust, price, or friction. Is your shipping cost a nasty surprise at the end? Does your site look unprofessional or untrustworthy? Is your checkout process long and complicated? This is the most painful leak, because these people wanted to buy.

An $80 cost per purchase with high CPMs suggests the problem is likely at the very top of the funnel. The ad platform is charging you a lot to show your ads because its algorithm predicts people won't be interested (high CPM), and the few who do click aren't converting (high CPA). This almost always points back to a weak creative/message or the wrong audience targeting.

Here's a simple flowchart of how you should be thinking about this. Follow the path and be honest about what the data is telling you.

You probably should rethink your audience targeting...

This is likely the biggest lever you can pull right now. Most people starting out with Meta ads do one of two things wrong: they either go way too broad (targeting "skincare") or they get obsessed with tiny, specific interests that don't scale. Neither works. You need a structured approach.

First, I want to debunk a huge myth. Stop running 'Brand Awareness' or 'Reach' campaigns. You are literally paying Facebook to find people who are cheapest to show ads to, which means they are the people least likely to ever buy anything. They're not in demand, so their attention is cheap. You are paying to reach non-customers. For an eCommerce store that needs sales, you should almost always be optimising for conversions (Purchases). Yes, the CPM will be higher, but you are telling the algorithm to find buyers, not just viewers. It's a critical distinction.

A proper Meta ads strategy for a beauty store involves segmenting your audiences based on where they are in their journey with you. We call this a ToFu/MoFu/BoFu funnel (Top, Middle, Bottom of Funnel).

Here’s how I would prioritise audiences for a new beauty store:

BoFu (Bottom of Funnel - Your Hottest Audience): These are people who are one step away from buying. They are your highest priority. Your first ad set should be a retargeting campaign for them.

• -> People who added to cart in the last 14 days (but didn't buy).
• -> People who initiated checkout in the last 14 days (but didn't buy).
• -> People who viewed your product pages in the last 30 days.

You can even group these together into one "retargeting" ad set if your budget is small. The ad copy here should be direct, maybe offering a small discount ("Still thinking it over? Here's 10% off to help you decide") or reminding them of the benefits.

MoFu (Middle of Funnel - Warm Audience): These people know who you are but aren't ready to buy yet. You need to build trust and stay top of mind.

• -> People who have engaged with your Instagram or Facebook page in the last 90 days.
• -> People who have watched 50% of one of your video ads in the last 90 days.
• -> All website visitors from the last 90 days (excluding the BoFu audiences).

The ads here should be more about education, social proof (customer testimonials, before-and-afters), and showing different use cases for your products.

ToFu (Top of Funnel - Cold Audience): This is where you find new customers. This is the hardest part and where most of your budget will eventually go, but you only scale this once your BoFu and MoFu campaigns are working. For a beauty brand, I would test these in order:

1. Lookalike Audiences: Once you have at least 100 purchases, create a 1% Lookalike Audience of your purchasers. This is your goldmine. You're telling Meta "go find me more people who look exactly like my existing customers". This is far more powerful than any interest targeting. You can also create lookalikes of 'Add to Carts' or even your email list.
2. Detailed Targeting (Interests): This is where you start. But you need to be smart. Don't just target "Sephora". That's too broad. Think about the niche. Are you a cruelty-free brand? Target interests like "Leaping Bunny Program" or "Vegan skincare". Are you for sensitive skin? Target brands known for that, like "CeraVe" or "La Roche-Posay". You could also target influencers in your niche or specific beauty magazines. Group related interests into themed ad sets and test them against each other.
3. Broad Targeting: This means only targeting by age, gender, and location, with no interests. This can work surprisingly well *after* your pixel has thousands of purchase events. The algorithm becomes smart enough to find buyers on its own. But do not start with this on a new account, it's a recipe for burning cash.

The mistake you are likely making is spending all $80 at the Top of the Funnel without a solid retargeting system in place to catch the people who showed interest. You're trying for a knockout punch with every ad, when in reality, it's a combination of jabs (ToFu/MoFu) and a final hook (BoFu) that gets the sale. It's not one ad, it's a system.

You'll need a message they can't ignore...

Once your targeting is sorted, you have to get the ad creative right. In beauty, this is everything. People buy with their eyes. Your ads can't just be 'good'; they have to be scroll-stopping. A blurry photo taken on your phone isn't going to cut it against brands with professional models and videographers.

But that doesn't mean you need a Hollywood budget. In fact, some of the best performing ads we see right now are User-Generated Content (UGC). These are videos that look like a real customer made them. They feel authentic and trustworthy.

Here are some creative angles you should be testing for a beauty brand:

• The Unboxing: A simple video of someone receiving your package and opening it for the first time. It builds excitement and shows off your branding.
• The Application/Demo: A 'get ready with me' style video showing someone actually using the product. Show the texture, the consistency, and how it looks on the skin. This is far more powerful than just a picture of the bottle.
• The Before-and-After: This is classic for a reason. If your product delivers a visible result (e.g., reduces redness, covers blemishes), show it clearly. Be careful with Meta's policies on this, but it can be done effectively.
• The Testimonial: A video of a happy customer talking about their experience. It's pure social proof and highly persuasive.

Your ad copy needs to follow the same principles as your offer. Don't talk about features; talk about benefits and transformations. No one cares that your serum has 'hyaluronic acid'. They care that it will make their skin look 'plump, dewy, and erase fine lines'. You need to connect the feature to the feeling they desire.

We often use the Before-After-Bridge framework for ad copy:

• Before: Paint a picture of their current frustration. "Tired of waking up to dull, lifeless skin? Feel like you have to pile on makeup just to look awake?"
• After: Describe the dream outcome. "Imagine looking in the mirror and seeing a natural, healthy glow. Feeling confident enough to go bare-faced to the supermarket."
• Bridge: Introduce your product as the solution. "Our Vitamin C Radiance Serum is the bridge. It's packed with antioxidants to bring your skin back to life. Get the glow you deserve."

You need to be testing at least 3-5 different ad creatives (a mix of video and images) and 2-3 different ad copy variations in each ad set. The algorithm needs options to find the winning combination. If you're only running one ad, you're not advertising; you're gambling.

I'd say you should calculate your numbers properly...

Finally, let's talk about that $80 cost per purchase. It feels incredibly high, and it probably is for your store. But how do you know what a 'good' cost per purchase actually is? The answer isn't a random number from a blog post; it's based on your own business maths. Specifically, your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV).

The LTV tells you how much profit a customer is worth to you over their entire relationship with your business. If a customer only ever buys one £30 product and never returns, your LTV is low. But if they buy that £30 product every two months for two years, their LTV is much, much higher.

Knowing your LTV is liberating. It tells you exactly how much you can afford to spend to acquire a customer (your Customer Acquisition Cost, or CAC) and still be profitable. A common rule of thumb is to aim for an LTV:CAC ratio of at least 3:1. This means if your LTV is £300, you can afford to spend up to £100 to get that customer.

Suddenly, that $80 CPA doesn't seem quite as catastrophic if your LTV is high enough. It's probably still not sustainable, but it changes the entire conversation from "how can I get cheap sales?" to "how can I afford to acquire valuable customers?"

Here's a simple way to estimate it:

1. Average Order Value (AOV): How much does the average customer spend in one transaction?
2. Purchase Frequency (F): How many times does the average customer buy from you in a year?
3. Customer Lifetime (T): How many years does the average customer stick with you?
4. Gross Margin %: What's your profit margin on each sale?

LTV = (AOV * F * T) * Gross Margin %

I've built a simple interactive calculator for you below. Play around with the numbers for your own business. This isn't just an academic exercise; it's the fundamental maths that underpins any successful advertising strategy. Without knowing these numbers, you're flying blind.

Here is my main advice for you:

I know this is a lot to take in. It's not a simple fix, but it is a solvable problem. You need to shift your thinking from 'fixing the ads' to 'fixing the system'. The ads are just the final piece of a much larger puzzle involving your offer, your website, your audience, and your message.

To make it more actionable, I've summarised my main recommendations for you into a table below. This is the process I would follow if I were in your shoes.

This systematic approach might seem like a lot of work compared to just launching another ad, but it's the only way to build a profitable and scalable advertising machine for your store. It requires patience and a willingness to test, analyse, and adapt.

Honestly, getting this right can be incredibly difficult, especially when you're also trying to run the rest of your business. The difference between a struggling store and a rapidly growing one often comes down to having an expert who has done this hundreds of times before, who can quickly diagnose the issues and implement a proven strategy.

If you'd like to go over your specific situation in more detail, we offer a completely free, no-obligation strategy session where we can have a look at your ad account and website together and give you some more tailored advice. It might be helpful to have a second pair of expert eyes on it.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh