Solved: Meta Ads First Campaign (ecom) Warm Up?

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! Happy to give you some of my initial thoughts and a bit of guidance on getting your first Meta ads campaign up and running for your PS4 controllers. It can seem a bit daunting when you're starting with a fresh page and ad account, so it's good you're asking these questions before spending any money.

Let's get straight into it. Your main question is about 'warming up' the page or ad account with something like a brand awareness campaign before you go for sales. Tbh, my advice is to skip that step entirely.

If your goal is to get sales (conversions), then you should tell Meta that from day one. The system is designed to find people who are most likely to take the specific action you set as your objective. If you tell it to find people for 'brand awareness', it will find people who are great at looking at ads and maybe liking a page, but who have little to no intention of ever buying anything. You'd be spending money to collect data on the wrong type of person, which won't help you when you eventually switch to a sales campaign. It's much better to start with the 'Conversions' objective from the off. It might start a bit slower as the pixel has no data, but every penny you spend will be geared towards finding actual buyers, and the data it gathers will be far more valuable for optimising your campaigns down the line. It's about quality of data, not quantity.

Starting out, your focus shouldn't be on warming up the account, but on setting up a solid foundation for testing and finding what works. This involves getting your targeting right, structuring your campaigns properly, and having creatives that actually grab attention. It's a process of elimination and optimisation.

I'd say you should go straight for conversions...

So, let's expand on this a bit. When you select the 'Conversions' objective (which you should set to 'Purchase'), you're essentially giving Meta a direct order: "Go find me people who are most likely to buy my PS4 controllers." The algorithm is incredibly powerful, but it's not a mind reader. It does what you tell it to do. If you run a traffic campaign, it finds people who like to click. If you run an engagement campaign, it finds people who like to, well, engage. For an eCommerce store, these are vanity metrics. You need sales to stay in business, so that has to be the focus.

I know it feels counter-intuitive with a new pixel. You'll hear a lot about the pixel needing to 'learn', and that's true. But it learns best from relevant actions. A purchase is the most relevant action possible. Even getting 'Add to Cart' or 'Initiate Checkout' data is infinitely more valuable than getting 'Post Engagement' or 'Link Clicks' data. By starting with a purchase objective, you're training the pixel with top-tier data right from the start. The campaign will probably be in a 'learning phase' for a while, and your costs might be a bit erratic at first, but that's normal. You need to give it time and enough budget to exit that phase (usually around 50 conversions in a 7-day window per ad set). Don't panic and switch objectives if you don't see sales on day one. Paid advertising is a marathon, not a sprint.

I remember working with an eCommerce client who sold cleaning products. They came to us after spending hundreds on engagement campaigns, they had loads of likes and comments but virtually no sales. Their cost per purchase was sky high. We switched their campaigns to a pure conversion objective, restructured their targeting, and their revenue increased by 190% and they were seeing a 633% return on their ad spend. It's because we started feeding the algorithm the right signals. The same logic applies to you.

We'll need to look at getting your targeting right...

This is probably the most important part for a new campaign. Your product is for a specific niche: gamers, specifically PlayStation users. Meta is a brilliant platform for this because you can get really specific with interest targeting. Your number one job is to test different audiences to see which one contains your ideal customers at the lowest cost.

I usually structure this thinking in a funnel: Top of Funnel (ToFu), Middle of Funnel (MoFu), and Bottom of Funnel (BoFu). For you, starting out, you'll be almost entirely focused on ToFu, which is reaching cold audiences who have never heard of you before.

ToFu - Cold Audience Targeting

Your main tool here will be 'Detailed Targeting'. This is where you use interests, behaviours, and demographics. The mistake many people make is going too broad. You have to be specific.

For example, you might think targeting the interest "Gaming" is a good idea. But it's massive, with hundreds of millions of people. It includes people who play mobile games, PC gamers, Nintendo fans, etc. You'll waste a lot of money showing your PS4 controller ads to people who don't even own a PlayStation. I remember working with a B2B client who was trying to target eCommerce store owners and were using the interest "Amazon". That includes millions of shoppers, not just sellers. It was a complete waste. We had to switch them to targeting interests like "Shopify", "WooCommerce", and admins of Facebook retail pages to actually reach their target audience.

For your PS4 controllers, you should test ad sets built around specific, highly relevant themes. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• -> Theme 1: Console Specific. This is your most obvious group. Target interests like "PlayStation 4", "PlayStation 5", "PlayStation Network", "DualShock 4". These are people who have explicitly shown an interest in the ecosystem your product belongs to.
• -> Theme 2: Major Game Franchises. Think about the big PS4 games that are popular with dedicated gamers. An ad set could target interests like "Call of Duty", "FIFA", "Grand Theft Auto V", "Fortnite", "Apex Legends". People heavily invested in these games are more likely to be serious gamers who'd buy custom controllers.
• -> Theme 3: Gaming Peripherals & Hardware. Target people interested in competitor brands or complementary products. Interests could include "Razer Inc.", "Scuf Gaming", "Astro Gaming", "SteelSeries". This targets people already in the market for high-end gaming gear.
• -> Theme 4: Gaming Media & Influencers. You could target followers of major gaming publications or channels like "IGN", "GameSpot", or specific popular PlayStation-focused YouTubers or Twitch streamers if they are available as an interest.

The idea is to create seperate ad sets for each of these themes and let them run against each other. After a few days, you'll start to see which audience is delivering the best results (lowest cost per purchase or add to cart). You then turn off the losers and give more budget to the winners. This is the core of paid advertising optimisation.

MoFu/BoFu - Retargeting (Your Next Step)

Once you start getting traffic to your website, you can begin retargeting. These are your warmest audiences and will almost always give you the best return. You need at least 100 people in an audience to target them, so this will come after your initial cold campaigns have run for a bit.

You'd set up custom audiences based on actions people took on your site. The priority I'd use is:

1. 1. Added to Cart (but didn't purchase) in the last 7-14 days.
2. 2. Initiated Checkout (but didn't purchase) in the last 7-14 days.
3. 3. Viewed a specific product page in the last 14 days.
4. 4. All website visitors in the last 30 days.

You'd run a separate campaign for these audiences, often with a different message, like a reminder or maybe a small discount code to nudge them over the line. For a new store with a small budget, you could even group all of these into a single "Retargeting" ad set to begin with.

Lookalike Audiences (Your Longer-Term Goal)

Once you have enough data (ideally 100+ purchases from a single country), you can create Lookalike audiences. This is where you tell Meta, "Find me more people who look just like my existing customers." This is incredibly powerful. You'd create a Lookalike (1%) of your 'Purchase' event list. This often becomes the best-performing cold audience you have. As you get more data, you can also create lookalikes of people who 'Added to Cart' or even high-value website visitors. But this is a step for later, once your ToFu campaigns have generated some initial sales.

You probably should focus on a solid campaign structure...

How you organise your campaigns is really important for clarity and for making optimisation decisions. Don't just throw everything into one campaign and one ad set. A disorganised account is impossible to manage and scale.

For a new store, I'd recomend a simple but effective structure:

Campaign 1: ToFu - Conversions - Prospecting

• -> Objective: Conversions (Purchase)
• -> Budget: Set at the campaign level (Campaign Budget Optimisation - CBO). This lets Meta automatically assign more budget to your best-performing ad set.
• -> Ad Set 1: Targeting Theme 1 (Console Specific Interests)
• -> Ad Set 2: Targeting Theme 2 (Major Game Franchises)
• -> Ad Set 3: Targeting Theme 3 (Gaming Peripherals)
• -> Ad Set 4: Targeting Theme 4 (Gaming Media)

Inside each ad set, you should test 2-3 different ads (creatives). This structure lets you test your audiences against each other cleanly. After a week, you'll be able to see which ad set is bringing in the sales.

Campaign 2: BoFu - Conversions - Retargeting

• -> Objective: Conversions (Purchase)
• -> Budget: A smaller, separate budget. Maybe 15-20% of your total ad spend.
• -> Ad Set 1: Website Visitors (Last 30 Days) - Exclude Purchasers

This campaign will run in the background, showing ads to people who have already visited your site. The ads here can be different, maybe showing customer testimonials or highlighting your free shipping offer to overcome final objections.

This clear seperation of cold (ToFu) and warm (BoFu) traffic is fundamental. You talk to these two groups differently and they perform differently. Mixing them together just muddies your data and makes it impossible to know what's actually working.

You'll need to think about your creatives and landing page...

Even with perfect targeting and structure, your ads will fail if the creative (the ad image/video) is poor or if your website doesn't convert.

Ad Creatives

This is what people actually see in their feed. For PS4 controllers, you have a visual product, which is great.

• -> High-Quality Images: Don't use stock photos. Get professional-looking shots of your controllers. Show them from different angles. Show the textures. Make them look desirable.
• -> Video is King: Video ads almost always outperform static images. You don't need a Hollywood production. A simple video showing someone unboxing the controller, showing off the custom design, or even better, a short clip of someone actually using it to play a game, can be hugely effective. I remember one software client seeing fantastic results with simple User-Generated Content (UGC) style videos, so it definately works for consumer products too.
• -> Test Different Angles: Your ad copy and creative should test different selling points. One ad could focus on the performance and precision of the controller. Another could focus on the unique design and self-expression. A third could focus on it as a perfect gift. You don't know which message will resonate until you test it.

Your Website/Landing Page

This is where the conversion actually happens. You can have the best ads in the world, but if your website is slow, looks untrustworthy, or is confusing to navigate, people will leave without buying. I haven't seen your site, but here are common issues for new eCommerce stores:

• -> Trust is Everything: Why should someone buy a custom controller from you instead of Amazon or a major retailer? You need to build trust. This means having customer reviews or testimonials (even if you have to get them from friends and family to start). Clear contact information. A professional "About Us" page. Secure payment logos (Visa, PayPal, etc.). A clear shipping and returns policy. These things seem small but they make a huge difference to your conversion rate.
• -> The User Journey: Look at your analytics. Where are people dropping off? Are they getting to your product pages but not adding to cart? If so, your product photos, descriptions, or pricing might be the issue. Are they adding to cart but not completing the checkout? If so, maybe your shipping costs are too high or the checkout process is too complicated. Every click you can save a user is a potential increase in your conversion rate.
• -> Mobile First: Most of your traffic from Meta will be on mobile. Your website must be fast and easy to use on a phone. If it's not, you're throwing money away.

I've seen so many campaigns fail not because of the ads, but because the website wasn't ready to convert the traffic. Fixing your conversion rate on-site is often cheaper and more effective than trying to lower your ad costs.

I know this is a lot to take in. To make it a bit clearer, I've put the main action points into a table for you.

This is the main advice I have for you:

One final point is on cost. It's the question everyone asks: "what should I expect to pay for a sale?". For eCommerce selling in developed countries like the UK or US, your Cost Per Purchase can vary wildly. Based on the data we see across many accounts, a realistic range is anywhere from £10 to £75 per sale. If your controllers are priced at £50, a £10 CPA is amazing. A £75 CPA means you're losing money on every sale. Your goal is to get that number as low as possible through all the testing and optimisation I've talked about. The ultimate metric you'll want to watch is ROAS - Return On Ad Spend. If you spend £100 and get £500 in sales, that's a 5x or 500% ROAS. That's a healthy business.

As you can probably tell, getting this right involves a lot of moving parts. It's not just about setting up an ad and hoping for the best. It's a continuous process of strategic testing, data analysis, and optimisation across your targeting, creatives, and website. This is where having an expert in your corner can make a huge difference, helping you avoid common mistakes and scale faster.

We do this stuff day in, day out, and have seen what works and what doesn't across dozens of eCommerce and software businesses. If you'd like to chat through your plans in more detail, we offer a free initial consultation where we can have a proper look at your store and strategy together. It might help you get started on the right foot.

Hope this detailed breakdown helps you get going!

Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh