Solved: DPA Catalog Optimization Tools Worth It?

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out about those dynamic product ad tools like Feedr and Adflow. It's a really good question, and one I see come up a fair bit. I'm happy to give you some of my thoughts on it, based on the campaigns we've run.

Honestly, my immediate reaction is that these tools, while they look slick, are often a solution looking for a problem. They promise to fix your CTR and ROAS by optimising creatives, but nine times out of ten, the real issue isn't the specific border colour or font on your dynamic ad. It's usually something much more fundamental in your strategy. Spending money and time on a tool like this before you've got the foundations rock-solid is like trying to pick out new curtains for a house that's got a cracked foundation. It might look a bit nicer, but it's not going to fix the real problem.

The core of a successful eCommerce ad campaign, especially with DPAs, comes down to three things: diagnosing where your funnel is actually leaking, getting your audience targeting right, and understanding the real value of a customer. Before we even touch creative, we need to sort these out. I'll walk you through how I'd approach this.

We'll need to look at diagnosing the real problem... not just the symptoms

Okay, so your CTR and ROAS aren't where you want them to be. The temptation is to blame the ad creative, because that's the most visible part. It's what you see in the ad manager. But the creative is just the tip of the iceberg. The numbers tell the real story, and you need to act like a detective to figure out where the actual issue lies.

Let's break down the customer journey from seeing the ad to making a purchase. People drop off at every stage, and your job is to figure out where the biggest leak is. This is how I'd approach it:

-> Low Click-Through Rate (CTR) and High Cost Per Click (CPC)?
This is the one scenario where the creative *might* be the main culprit. If people are seeing your ad but not clicking, it means the image or the headline isn't grabbing their attention. The product images might be low quality, or the ad copy isn't compelling. But even here, it could still be a targeting issue. Are you showing ads for women's apparel to men? Are you showing luxury goods to an audience looking for a bargain? A low CTR often means there's a mismatch between the ad and the audience. Before you pay for a tool to add fancy overlays, you should first test completely different product images, maybe lifestyle shots instead of just product-on-white-background. Test different headlines. This costs nothing but your time.

-> High CTR but very few Product Page Views?
This one is a classic. You've got people interested enough to click, but they bail before the product page even loads. A few things could be happening here. First, your website speed. If your product page takes more than a couple of seconds to load, especially on mobile, people will just leave. They're impatient. Second, it could be a 'scent' issue. Does the ad promise one thing, but the landing page looks completely different? If the branding, style, or offer in the ad doesn't match what they see immediately after clicking, it feels jarring and untrustworthy, so they bounce. Finaly, and most likely, you're just getting the wrong type of traffic. The audience you're targeting is curious enough to click (maybe your creative is a bit click-baity?) but they have zero actual intent to buy your product once they realise what it is.

-> Lots of Product Page Views but no 'Adds to Cart'?
Alright, so you've got them to the right page. They're looking at your product. But they're not taking the next step. This is almost never an ad creative issue. The ad did its job. The problem is on your product page. This could be a whole host of things:

• Product Photos: Are they high-resolution? Do they show the product from multiple angles? Is there a video of it in use? For clothing, are you showing it on a model? People can't touch or feel the product online, so your imagery has to do all the work.
• Product Description: Does it actually sell the product? Does it describe the benefits, not just the features? Is it persuasive? Have you answered common questions people might have? A lazy, one-line description won't cut it.
• Pricing and Shipping: Is your price competitive? Are the shipping costs a surprise at checkout? High, unexpected shipping costs are one of the biggest reasons for cart abandonment. Be transparent upfront.
• Trust: Your store needs to look legitimate. Do you have reviews? Trust badges (secure payment, etc.)? A clear returns policy? An 'About Us' page? Without these, people will feel uncomfortable giving you their credit card details. I remember one eCommerce client whose 'Add to Cart' rate shot up by 30% just by adding customer reviews and a clearer returns policy to their product pages.

To make this process clearer, here’s a simple diagnostic flowchart. Follow the questions based on your own campaign metrics to find where your funnel is most likely breaking.

You see? By following the data, you can pinpoint the real issue. And it's very rarely something that a dynamic creative tool can fix. Spending your budget on solving the *actual* problem will give you a much better return than slapping a fancy border on an ad that's being shown to the wrong people or is sending them to a page that doesn't convert.

I'd say you need to fix your targeting before your creative...

This is probably the single biggest lever you can pull to improve performance, and it's something I see messed up in almost every new account I audit. People get obsessed with testing dozens of random interests, thinking that's the path to success. The truth is, a structured, prioritised approach to audience testing will beat random guesswork every single time.

Your best customers are always going to be people who are already familiar with your brand or are very close to making a purchase. Your worst-performing audiences will almost always be broad, cold traffic that has never heard of you. So, your budget and effort should be allocated accordingly. I structure my eCommerce campaigns based on the marketing funnel: Top of Funnel (ToFu), Middle of Funnel (MoFu), and Bottom of Funnel (BoFu).

BoFu (Bottom of Funnel - Hot Audience): These are your absolute highest-intent people. They are on the verge of buying. This is where you should spend your first dollar. Your goal here isn't to find new people; it's to close the deal with people who are already interested. Audiences here include:

• -> Added to Cart (in the last 7-14 days)
• -> Initiated Checkout (in the last 7-14 days)
• -> Viewed specific products but didn't add to cart (in the last 14-30 days)

MoFu (Middle of Funnel - Warm Audience): These people know who you are but aren't quite ready to buy. They've shown some interest. The goal here is to bring them back and get them to look at products more seriously.

• -> All Website Visitors (in the last 30-90 days, excluding purchasers)
• -> Engaged with your Facebook or Instagram page (liked, commented, shared)
• -> Watched a significant portion of your video ads (e.g., 50%+)

ToFu (Top of Funnel - Cold Audience): This is everyone else. People who have likely never heard of you. This is the most expensive and lowest-converting part of the funnel, but it's neccesary to grow your business and fill up your MoFu and BoFu audiences. This is where most people go wrong. They start here and spend all their money on cold traffic without a solid retargeting system in place.
When targeting cold audiences, you need to be smart. You should prioritise lookalike audiences over broad interest targeting, because lookalikes are built from your actual customer data. The priority should be:

1. Lookalikes of your best customers: Start with a 1% Lookalike of your 'Purchase' event. Or even better, upload a list of your highest-value customers and create a lookalike from that. This is pure gold.
2. Lookalikes of lower-funnel actions: If you don't have enough purchasers for a good lookalike, use 'Initiate Checkout' or 'Add to Cart'.
3. Detailed Targeting (Interests): This should be your last resort. When you do use interests, be specific. If you sell high-end hiking gear, don't target 'Hiking'. That's way too broad. Target brands like 'Arc'teryx' or 'Patagonia', magazines like 'Outside Magazine', or specific hiking locations. You want to find interests that your ideal customer would have, but the average person wouldn't.

Here’s what that structure looks like visually. All your new customer acquisition efforts at the top are designed to feed the much more profitable and efficient retargeting funnels at the bottom.

If you implement this structured approach, you'll see a much bigger lift in performance than any creative optimization tool will ever give you. This is because the core issue is almost always the audience, not the ad's border colour. I remember one campaign for a women's apparel client where we achieved a 691% return. That kind of result doesn't come from creative tools; it comes from a disciplined focus on targeting the right people at the right time in their buying journey.

You probably should calculate your LTV to understand your real ROAS...

You mentioned ROAS as a key metric, which is great. But most advertisers only look at Transactional ROAS, meaning the return from a customer's first purchase. This is dangerously short-sighted, especially for businesses that have repeat customers. The real question isn't "How much did I make from this one sale?" but "How much profit will this new customer generate for my business over their entire lifetime?"

This is called Customer Lifetime Value (LTV). Once you know your LTV, it completely changes how you think about advertising costs. A campaign that looks unprofitable on the first purchase might actually be incredibly profitable when you factor in the value of that customer over the next year or two.

Let's do some simple maths. You need three numbers:

1. Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA): This is just your average order value for a given period, let's say per month.
2. Gross Margin %: What's your profit margin on each sale after cost of goods sold?
3. Monthly Churn Rate: What percentage of your customers do you lose each month? (If you have repeat purchasers, you can calculate this as 1 - repeat purchase rate).

The formula is: LTV = (ARPA * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate

Let's take an example. Say you run a subscription box for coffee.

• ARPA = £30/month
• Gross Margin = 60% (0.60)
• Monthly Churn = 10% (0.10) of subscribers cancel each month

So, every new subscriber you acquire is worth £180 in gross margin to your business over their lifetime. Now, let's say your cost to acquire that customer (your CPA) was £40. If you only looked at the first month's revenue of £30, you'd think you lost £10. You might even turn the campaign off. But knowing the LTV is £180, a £40 acquisition cost gives you an amazing 4.5x return over the long run (£180 / £40). You shouldn't turn that campaign off; you should be trying to pour more money into it!

Knowing your LTV is the key to scaling agressively and intelligently. It frees you from the tyranny of trying to get the cheapest possible clicks or leads and allows you to focus on acquiring high-value customers. To help you figure this out for your own business, I've put together a simple, interactive calculator below. Play around with the sliders to see how small changes in your business metrics can dramatically affect your LTV.

So... what's my final recommendation?

Hopefully, you can see now why I'm sceptical of quick-fix tools. They distract from the real work that actually moves the needle. Getting your ads to perform isn't about finding a magic software; it's about disciplined, strategic thinking and execution. It's about understanding your customer journey, targeting with precision, and knowing your numbers inside and out.

My advice is to forget about tools like Adflow for now. Instead, redirect that budget and energy into mastering the fundamentals. Work through the diagnostic steps I outlined, build a proper, tiered audience structure, and calculate your LTV so you know what you can truly afford to spend.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you in a table below to give you a clear, actionable path forward. This is the exact process we follow for our eCommerce clients, and it's what consistently delivers results.

I know this is a lot to take in, and it's certainly more work than just plugging in a new piece of software. But this is the work that separates the stores that struggle month after month from the ones that scale profitably and sustainably. Doing this foundational work right is the diffrence between guessing and having a predictable system for growth.

If you'd like to go over your specific account and have an expert eye look at your funnel and targeting structure, we offer a completely free, no-obligation initial consultation. We can jump on a call, share screens, and I can give you some specific, actionable advice on where I see the biggest opportunities for improvement in your campaigns. It's often really helpful to get a second opinion from someone who does this day-in, day-out.

Let me know if that's something you'd be interested in.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh