Solved: High Add to Cart, Low Conversions on Facebook Ads

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out!

I've had a look over the numbers you sent. It’s a classic situation and one that drives a lot of store owners mad, so you're not alone. You’ve got traffic, you’ve got interest, but the final step – the actual sale – just isn't happening consistently. You’re right to suspect the website, but the problem is probably a bit deeper and more specific than just 'the website'.

I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance based on what you've shared. The good news is your ad seems to be working on the front end (the CTR is solid), which means you've already solved one of the hardest parts. Now we just need to fix what happens after the click.

We'll need to look at your tracking first...

Okay, before we get into anything else, we have to address the elephant in the room. Your metrics: 46 Add to Carts (ATC) and 57 Checkouts. This is technically impossible. A customer has to add an item to their cart before they can initiate a checkout. This isnt a small detail; its the most critical issue in your entire setup right now.

When your data is wrong, any decision you make is based on a lie. The Facebook algorithm is trying to optimise your campaign, but you're feeding it garbage information. It thinks it's finding people who initiate checkouts, but the signal is broken. You're paying to optimise for a faulty event, which will send your campaign down a very expensive and ineffective path. Forget about creatives, budget, or website design for a moment. This is priority number one.

So what's likely happening?

-> Pixel Firing Incorrectly: The most common reason is that your 'InitiateCheckout' pixel event is firing on a simple page load of the checkout page, while your 'AddToCart' event requires a specific button click. It could be that people are somehow getting to your checkout page without adding an item (maybe from a saved browser link, or your theme has a weird bug), or the ATC event just isn't firing reliably.

-> Double Counting: Your checkout event might be firing multiple times for a single user session, while the ATC only fires once.

Honestly, it doesnt matter what the exact technical cause is just yet. What matters is that you stop everything and fix it. You can't diagnose a patient with a broken thermometer. You need to install the Meta Pixel Helper extension for Chrome. Go through the buying process on your own store, step-by-step, and watch what events fire on each page and with each click.

Does the 'AddToCart' event fire every single time you click the add to cart button? Does the 'InitiateCheckout' event only fire after you've moved from the cart to the checkout page? The data needs to be clean and sequential. Until it is, you're flying completely blind and burning money. Tbh, a lot of people overlook this, they get excited by the big numbers in the checkout column without realising its a vanity metric built on a technical fault.

Solving this is non-negotiable. It's the foundation of everything. Once you have accurate data, you can start making real, informed decisions about where the real problem lies.

I'd say you need to diagnose the real drop-off point...

Right, let's assume you've fixed the tracking. Now we can look at the funnel with clear eyes. Based on your numbers, a more realistic funnel probably looks something like this:

263 Link Clicks -> (Some number of landing page views) -> 46 Adds to Cart -> (A smaller number of checkouts initiated) -> 3 Purchases.

This tells a much clearer story. The problem isn't just one thing; it's a series of leaks in your bucket. We need to plug them one by one.

Leak #1: The Drop from Clicks to 'Add to Cart' (263 Clicks -> 46 ATCs)

This is your first major drop-off. Over 80% of the people who were interested enough to click your ad decided not to even add a product to their cart. This points to a massive disconnect between what your ad promises and what the landing page delivers. Your ad is writing a cheque that your product page can't cash.

What causes this?

-> Poor Product Photography: Are your images clean, high-resolution, and professional? Do they show the product from multiple angles? In use? For eCommerce, especially for things like apparel or handcrafted goods, visuals are everything. I remember working on a campaign for a women's apparel client where we achieved a 691% return. This was after making several optimizations to their product pages and overall strategy. People need to be able to picture themselves with the product.

-> Weak Product Descriptions: Does your copy sell the benefit or just list the features? Don't just say "made from 100% cotton." Say "Incredibly soft, breathable cotton that feels amazing against your skin all day long." You have to sell the experience, not just the object.

-> Price Shock: Is the price immediately clear, or is it hidden? If the price is higher than what people might expect from the ad, they'll bounce immediately.

-> Slow Page Load Speed: If your page takes more than a couple of seconds to load, people are gone. They've clicked the ad, waited, and given up before your amazing product even appears.

Leak #2: The Drop from 'Add to Cart' to Purchase (46 ATCs -> 3 Purchases)

This is the big one. This is the "almost customer". They liked the product enough to put it in their basket. They've shown serious intent. But then, something stopped them cold. 43 people wanted to give you money and changed their minds at the last second. This is almost always a problem with trust or friction in the checkout process.

Think about the psychology here. They've made the emotional decision to buy. Now they're entering the logical phase of paying. Any little doubt or frustration will kill the sale. The most common culprits are:

-> Unexpected Shipping Costs: This is the number one killer of conversions, period. Someone has mentally agreed to pay £30 for your product. They get to the checkout, and suddenly it's £37.99 because of shipping. It feels like a bait-and-switch. They feel tricked, and they abandon the cart out of principle.

-> Forced Account Creation: Don't make people create an account to buy from you. Offer a guest checkout. It's an unnecessary step that adds friction when you should be making it as smooth as possible.

-> Lack of Trust Signals: The checkout page is where trust matters most. Is it a generic Shopify checkout, or have you customised it? Are there trust badges (Visa, Mastercard, PayPal)? Is there a link to your returns policy? Is your company address and contact info clearly visible? Without these, you look like a fly-by-night operation, and people won't risk their card details.

-> Not Enough Payment Options: Do you offer PayPal? Apple Pay? Google Pay? If someone has to get up and find their wallet to type in their card number, you might lose them. One-click payment options dramatically reduce friction.

You need to go through your own checkout process as if you were a skeptical new customer. Every field you have to fill in, every click you have to make, is a potential point of failure. Your job is to make it ruthlessly efficient and reassuring.

You probably should rethink your offer...

Everyone focuses on the ads and the website design, but they often miss the most important element: the offer itself. An irresistible offer can overcome a slightly clunky website. A weak offer will fail on the most beautiful site in the world.

Your offer isn't just the product. It's the entire package: the price, the shipping, the guarantee, the perceived value. The fact that 43 people dropped off after adding to cart tells me your offer isn't compelling enough to overcome that final moment of hesitation.

So, let's deconstruct it. We need to attack the reasons for hesitation head-on.

The Problem With Shipping

As I said, this is the biggest conversion killer. My advice is almost always to offer free shipping. "But I'll lose money!" I hear you say. No, you build the cost of shipping into your product price. If your product is £30 and shipping is £5, you should be testing a new price of £35 with "FREE SHIPPING!".

Psychologically, this is far more powerful. £35 with free shipping feels like a clear, honest deal. £30 + £5 shipping feels like you're being nickel-and-dimed. It transforms a negative surprise (a hidden cost) into a positive bonus (a free perk). We worked with a subscription box client where we achieved a 1000% Return On Ad Spend. This was after making several strategic adjustments to their offer and pricing.

Your Offer Needs to Be a No-Brainer

Right now, buying from you feels risky to a new customer. They don't know you. They don't know if the product is any good. They don't know if they can return it. You need to reverse that risk.

-> A Rock-Solid Guarantee: Do you have a "30-day no-questions-asked money-back guarantee"? Make it prominent. This removes the financial risk for the customer.

-> Social Proof is Everything: Do you have customer reviews on the product page? Not just a separate testimonials page nobody visits. Star ratings, quotes from happy customers, user-generated photos – these are what build trust. If you have none, you need to get some. Give the product to friends or early customers in exchange for an honest review to get started.

-> Bundles and Perceived Value: Can you bundle products together? "Buy 2 get 1 free" or "Get this free accessory when you buy today". This increases the Average Order Value (AOV) and makes the core offer feel like a better deal.

Your current offer is simply "Here is a product, please buy it". A winning offer is "Here is a fantastic solution to your problem, with free shipping, a money-back guarantee, and look at all these other people who love it." See the difference?

You'll need a better campaign structure...

Finally, let's talk about your ad strategy. Your instinct to test more creatives is a good one. A single ad is not a strategy; it's a lottery ticket. But simply launching another campaign with 5 creatives isn't quite right either. You need a proper structure.

Most beginners make the mistake of only running 'prospecting' campaigns (ToFu - Top of Funnel). They spend all their money trying to find new customers. But the real money in eCommerce is made in the 'retargeting' campaigns (MoFu/BoFu - Middle/Bottom of Funnel). You have a golden opportunity here that you're completely ignoring.

You have 263 people who clicked your ad. You have 46 people who added a product to their cart. These are not cold prospects anymore. They are warm leads who know who you are and have shown interest. You should be running separate ads specifically to them.

Here’s how a proper eCommerce ad account should be structured:

You need to have at least two campaigns running at all times: one for prospecting (ToFu) and one for retargeting (MoFu/BoFu combined if your budget is small). Your retargeting campaign will almost always have a much higher ROAS (Return On Ad Spend) because you're talking to people who are already halfway to buying.

For one of our clients, an outdoor equipment company, building out this exact funnel structure was what allowed them to scale. We started by driving traffic, and then systematically retargeted every user based on their actions. It's how we drove over 18,000 website visitors and built a sustainable sales engine for them, not just a one-off ad.

This is the main advice I have for you:

It's a lot to take in, I know. But fixing these issues methodically is the only way to build a profitable store. Throwing more money at a leaky bucket won't work. Here is a summary of the plan I'd recomend.

As you can see, it's not just about 'killing the ad'. It's about understanding the entire customer journey, from the first impression on Facebook to the final click on the 'confirm purchase' button. Each step has its own challenges and requires its own solutions. It's a process of systematic testing and optimisation, not just switching things on and off.

That's where professional help can make a huge difference. An expert can diagnose these issues quickly, implement the correct structures, and use their experience from hundreds of other accounts to accelerate your growth and help you avoid these costly learning curves.

If you'd like to go through this in more detail, we offer a free, no-obligation strategy session where we can actually look at your website and ad account together. It might help to have a second pair of expert eyes on it.

Hope that helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh