Solved: Facebook & Instagram Ads Not Performing for Home Goods

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out and giving me a bit of background on things. Happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance based on what you've shared about the sustainable home goods store and the struggles you're having with Meta ads.

Losing money on ads, especially when you're a smaller brand, is rough, no doubt about it. A 0.9x ROAS means you're basically spending £1 to make £0.90 back, which definitely isn't sustainable in teh long run. With an average order value around the £85 mark on Meta Ads, you'd really want to be seeing figures much higher than that to cover your costs (cost of goods, ad spend, platform fees, your time, etc.) and actually make a profit. Generally, for direct eCommerce like yours on Meta, you'd be aiming for a 3x, 4x, or even higher ROAS to be in a healthy place. We've managed numbers like 6x or more ROAS for other eCommerce clients selling physical products on Meta, so it's definitely achievable, but it requires things to be aligned.

Okay, when I see low ROAS figures like this, especially when the ads are getting clicks but not translating into profitable sales, my mind immediately goes to two main areas: the quality of the traffic you're sending to the site, and perhaps more often, how well your actual website is converting that traffic into buyers. The ads might be working okay at getting people to click, but if the site itself isn't doing its job, all that effort and money is wasted.

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

Let's break that down a bit. On the traffic side, you mentioned trying different pictures and captions, which is good for getting clicks (improving CTR and potentially lowering CPC), but are those clicks coming from the *right* people? Are you targeting effectively? For sustainable home goods, you'd want to reach people who care about sustainability, home decor, quality textiles, maybe specific lifestyle interests. Meta's targeting options can be broad, so sometimes you might attract window shoppers rather than ready-to-buy customers. It's worth really digging into the targeting settings you're using and testing different audience segments to see if you can bring in more qualified visitors.

But often, even with okay traffic, the biggest bottleneck is the website itself. I've seen it time and time again where the ad campaigns look alright on paper – good CTR, reasonable CPC – but the money disappears because people land on the site and just don't buy. Your website is your digital storefront, and just like a physical shop, it needs to make a good impression and make the buying process easy and trustworthy.

When visitors come to your site, what are they doing? This is where your website analytics are crucial. Look at things like bounce rate (are they leaving immediately?), how many product pages they view, and most importantly, how many add items to their cart versus how many actually complete a purchase. Where are the drop-off points?

If people are landing on your homepage but not browsing products, it could be a navigation issue, or maybe the homepage isn't immediately showing them compelling products or the value proposition of your sustainable goods. Does teh homepage quickly tell them what you sell and why they should buy from you?

If they are viewing product pages but not adding to cart, that points directly to issues with the product pages themselves. This is a really common one. Are the product images high quality? Can people zoom in and see the texture or details of the towels and other goods? For sustainable products, people often want to see the quality. Maybe a short video showing the product in use or the texture could help? Are the product descriptions detailed enough? For sustainable goods, you have a great story to tell – where do the materials come from? How is it made? What makes it sustainable? Does the description convey this?

Pricing is also a factor, but assuming your pricing is competitive for sustainable products, it often comes down to trust. Especially for a smaller, unknown brand, people need to feel completely comfortable entering their payment details. Does your website look professional and trustworthy? Things like:

• -> Are there customer reviews visible on product pages or elsewhere? Social proof is massive.
• -> Do you have trust badges (secure payment, shipping info clearly visible)?
• -> Is it easy to find contact information? An email, phone number, or even a physical address can add legitimacy.
• -> Do you link to your social media profiles where people can see more of your brand and engagement?
• -> Have you been featured anywhere? Mentioning this can build credibility.
• -> Is the overall website design clean and easy to navigate? Clutter or a slow loading site can put people off instantly.

Lack of trust is a huge conversion killer. If people don't feel confident in your store, they won't buy, simple as that. Adding elements that build trust can significantly improve your conversion rate, meaning more sales from the same amount of ad traffic, which directly boosts your ROAS.

I'd say you need to give it more time...

Beyond the website and targeting, make sure your campaign setup is right. You absolutely must be optimising for 'Purchases' in your Meta campaigns. If you're optimising for clicks or landing page views, Meta's algorithm is just finding people likely to do that, not necessarily people likely to buy. Optimising for the actual desired conversion (a purchase) is critical to telling the algorithm what you *really* want.

Also, are you split testing enough? You mentioned trying different pictures and captions, which is good, but are you testing different ad *formats* (single image, carousel, video)? Different *offers* (e.g., free shipping over £X, a small discount for first-time buyers)? Different *audiences* against each other? Continuous testing is key to finding winning combinations that drive down your CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) and increase ROAS.

Retargeting can also be a game changer for eCommerce ROAS. Most people don't buy on their first visit. Setting up campaigns to show ads specifically to people who visited your website, viewed products, or added to cart but didn't purchase, can help nudge them back to complete the sale. These audiences are much warmer and often convert at a higher rate than cold traffic, which helps lift your overall account ROAS. It's definitely something you should implement if you haven't already.

The process of getting profitable on paid social for eCommerce often involves chipping away at all these areas – improving ads, refining targeting, and crucially, optimising the website and offer for conversions. It's not always a quick fix, and it takes consistent testing and analysis.

Here’s a brief overview of some key actions I'd recommend looking at:

Working through these areas systematically should help you identify the main roadblocks and start improving that ROAS figure. It’s a process of iteration – make changes, test, analyse results, repeat.

Navigating all of this while running the rest of the business can be a lot, especially when you're feeling overwhelmed. Sometimes having an expert eye look at your specific setup – your ads, your targeting, and critically, your website – can pinpoint issues and opportunities much faster than trying to figure it all out alone through trial and error. An experienced agency or consultant who's worked with eCommerce brands on Meta can often accelerate the path to profitability because they know what levers to pull and what benchmarks to expect. If you ever feel like you'd benefit from a more in-depth look at your specific situation, we're always happy to jump on a free consultation call to discuss things further and give you a clearer picture of potential steps.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh