Solved: Facebook and Instagram Ads Not Generating Sales

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out. Happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance based on what you've shared about your D2C apparel startup and the challenges you're facing with paid ads on Meta.

It's pretty common to struggle with getting consistent, profitable sales from Meta ads, especially when you're trying to scale beyond initial organic traction. You mentioned low ROAS, and you're right to suspect it could be down to targeting, creative, or the offer itself. However, from my experience running campaigns for quite a few eCommerce brands, including women's apparel, often the biggest bottleneck isn't just the ads, but what happens *after* someone clicks – specifically, your website and the steps people take through your funnel.

We'll need to look at traffic quality and your website...

Think of your paid advertising like sending traffic to a store. If the store's a mess, hard to navigate, or doesn't feel trustworthy, it doesn't matter how good the traffic is – they won't buy anything. Ad platforms can get people to click, but your website has to do the heavy lifting of convincing them to buy. Low ROAS often happens when you're paying for clicks but your site isn't converting enough of that traffic into sales.

So, the first thing I'd strongly suggest looking at in detail is your website's performance metrics. You need to understand where people are dropping off between clicking an ad and making a purchase. This is crucial for diagnosing whether it's a targeting, creative, or website/offer problem.

Understanding where visitors drop off...

Let's break down the typical flow and what different drop-off points usually indicate:

1. People aren't clicking your ads (low CTR) or the cost per click (CPC) is very high: If you have low click-through rates on your Meta ads, chances are your ad creative (images, videos, ad copy) isn't grabbing attention or isn't relevant enough to the audience you're showing it to. For apparel, creative is absolutely massive. People are buying based on how the clothes look and how they imagine themselves looking in them. Are you using really high-quality images? Are they showing the clothes from multiple angles, showing details, and importantly, showing them being worn by models or real people? Video can work brilliantly too, showing the movement and fit. We've had eCommerce clients see massive jumps in performance purely from overhauling their creative. The Women's Apparel case study where we got 691% ROAS on Meta relied heavily on continually testing and optimising creative to resonate with the audience.

High CPCs can also indicate poor targeting quality, as the platform struggles to find people likely to click, or it could just be a competitive auction. But usually, if the ad is compelling to the right person, you'll see better CTRs which helps lower CPCs over time.

2. People click the ad and land on your site, but don't view many product pages: If people are clicking through but then bouncing quickly or not browsing your product catalogue, it could mean a couple of things. Firstly, your targeting might be bringing the wrong type of traffic – people who were curious about the ad but aren't actually in the market for your specific style of apparel. Look closely at your Meta audience targeting settings. Are you refining them enough? Are you using demographic, interest, and behaviour targeting that truly aligns with your ideal customer persona? Maybe you need to test more specific interests or exclude certain types of people.

Secondly, the landing page they first hit might not be engaging or relevant enough to what the ad promised. For apparel, this is often the homepage or a category page. Does it immediately show appealing products and make it easy to find what they were interested in? Is the initial impression professional and inviting?

3. People view product pages but don't add items to their cart: This is a classic sign that there's a problem on the product page itself. Even if you get the right people to look at a product, something is stopping them from taking the next step. This usually comes down to:

• -> Product Photography: Are your photos doing the product justice? Different angles, zoom options, showing texture, how it fits on a body – this is absolutely vital for apparel. Professional looking photos aren't just nice to have, they're essential for selling online.
• -> Product Descriptions: Are they just basic facts, or are they persuasive? Do they tell a story, highlight the benefits, mention materials, fit, care instructions? Good copy helps people imagine owning and wearing the item.
• -> Pricing & Offers: Is the price point right for the perceived value? Sometimes, a small introductory offer, free shipping threshold, or a limited-time discount can provide that extra push needed to add to cart.

4. People add items to cart but don't complete the purchase: This points towards issues in the checkout process or overall site trustworthiness. Is the checkout process smooth, fast, and easy? Are there unexpected shipping costs or fees? Does your site feel secure and legitimate? This is hugely important for any online store. If a website looks dated, is slow to load, or lacks basic trust signals, people get nervous about entering their payment details. Things like customer reviews and testimonials (maybe showing reviews from places like Etsy if you sell there, or Trustpilot), clear contact information, social media links, and even just a professional design go a very long way in building confidence. Remember, people are handing over their money to a company they've likely just discovered.

Your website's overall impression matters...

Looking at conversion rates for online stores, especially for apparel, the user experience on the site is paramount. Things like slow load times can kill conversions instantly – people are impatient. A cluttered layout makes it hard to find things. Poor mobile optimisation is a disaster, as most Meta traffic is on mobile. Make sure your site is fast, clean, easy to navigate, and looks great on phones.

Also, consider your initial offers or funnel. For a D2C brand, are you just sending everyone to the homepage? Or are you sending traffic from specific ads to relevant category or product pages? Tailoring the landing page to the ad creative and targeting can significantly improve conversion rates. We saw this with a Cleaning Products eCommerce client, where optimising the landing page experience dramatically improved returns.

Don't forget retargeting either. Many people won't buy on the first visit. Setting up retargeting campaigns on Meta (and elsewhere) to show ads to people who visited product pages or added to cart but didn't buy is essential. This is often where you'll get your most profitable sales because you're targeting people who have already shown high intent.

Considering other avenues and ad types...

While Meta is a key channel for D2C apparel, especially given your organic social background, it's worth considering if your target audience hangs out elsewhere online. For handcrafted or unique apparel, places like Etsy might be where people are actively searching, although you mentioned D2C so perhaps that's not the model you want. On paid search platforms like Google, are people searching for your specific types of clothing or related terms? Shopping ads on Google can be very effective for showing products directly in search results.

Within Meta, beyond just boosting posts, are you testing different campaign objectives and ad formats? Conversion campaigns optimised for 'Purchases' are usually the way to go if your goal is direct sales. Experiment with different ad formats like single images, carousels (great for showing multiple items or details), and video ads.

Summary of Key Areas and Recommendations

To help summarise the key areas to focus on based on your situation, here's a quick overview:

Getting all of this right – the ads, the targeting, the website, the funnel – requires a really deep dive into your data and a lot of systematic testing. It's not usually one single thing that's broken, but a combination of factors causing friction at different stages.

Why bringing in expertise can help...

Diagnosing these issues accurately and then figuring out the most impactful tests to run can be quite complex and time-consuming, especially if you're also focused on running the core business. Sometimes you need someone who's seen these kinds of problems many times before across different eCommerce businesses. An experienced pair of eyes can quickly identify potential culprits, interpret the data correctly, and prioritize the changes that are most likely to move the needle on ROAS.

Based on what you've described, it sounds like you're at a critical point where scaling paid ads could unlock significant growth, but you need to build a solid, profitable foundation first. We specialise in helping businesses like yours figure out these exact challenges.

We'd be happy to jump on a free consultation call to discuss your specific situation in more detail, take a look at your site (if you're comfortable sharing it), and give you more tailored advice on how to tackle these issues and start seeing profitable growth from your Meta ads.

Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh