Solved: Meta Ads Likes But No Sales - Strategy Change?

Hi there,

Thanks for your enquiry about your Meta ads for your clothing brand. It's a really common situation to be in – seeing some activity like likes but not the sales you need. It’s frustrating, but the good news is it's usually fixable once you know where to look.

The short answer is that yes, you almost certainly need to change your strategy, but probably not in the way you think. The problem often isn't just the audience setting; it's usually a bit deeper in the process. Let's break it down a bit.

We'll need to look at why 'likes' are a dangerous distraction...

Right, first things first. We have to talk about the 'likes'. I know it feels good to see them pile up. It feels like validation, like people are "intersted" in what you're doing. But in the world of direct-response advertising—which is what you're doing when you're trying to sell clothing—likes are one of the most dangerous and misleading metrics you can look at. They're what we call a vanity metric. They look good on the surface but have zero correlation with actual sales and profit.

Think about how the Meta algorithm works. It's an incredibly powerful machine designed to do one thing: get you the result you ask for, as cheaply as possible. If your campaign objective is set to 'Sales' but the algorithm isn't getting enough sales data, it can sometimes default to optimising for cheaper actions, like clicks and engagement. Even with Advantage+, which is supposed to be smarter, you're telling a machine what to do. You've told it to find people who will buy, but if no one is buying, it might be showing your ad to people who are just chronic 'likers'.

I've seen this happen before. You're essentially paying Facebook to find you an audience of non-customers. The algorithm identifies users within your targeting parameters who are known to engage with content but rarely, if ever, make a purchase. Why? Because their attention is cheap. They aren't in high demand from other advertisers who are optimising for conversions, so Meta can serve them your ad for a fraction of a penny. You get a 'like', Meta gets paid, and you're left with no sales. It's a cycle that burns cash fast.

The only metrics that should matter to you right now are the ones that happen after the click. We're talking about Add to Carts, Initiated Checkouts, and ultimately, Purchases. Everything else is just noise. So, rule number one: ignore the likes completely. They're irrelevant. Your focus has to shift from "Are people interested?" to "Are people buying?". The data will give you the answer, and that's what will guide our next steps.

I'd say you need to become a detective in your own sales funnel...

Since we've established that the problem isn't the likes, we need to figure out where the real issue is. This means you need to put on your detective hat and investigate your entire sales funnel, step-by-step. People are clicking the ad (which is a start!) but they are dropping off somewhere between that click and making a purchase. Your job is to find out where and why.

This isn't guesswork; it's a process of elimination based on the data in your Meta Ads Manager and your website analytics (like Shopify or Google Analytics). Here’s how you break it down:

1. The Ad Itself: Look at your Click-Through Rate (CTR). Is it low (e.g., under 1%)? If very few people who see your ad are clicking on it, then the problem is with your ad creative (the image/video) or your copy. It's not grabbing attention or it's not relevant to the audience you're reaching. Maybe the photo is poor quality, or the headline doesn't create any curiosity.

2. The Landing/Product Page: Let's say your CTR is decent, so people are clicking. But are they sticking around? Check your website analytics. Do you see a lot of visitors hitting your product page and then leaving immediately (a high bounce rate)? This points to a few potential problems. Either your ad is misleading and sets the wrong expectation, or your website is failing to make a good first impression. Is it slow to load? Does it look untrustworthy? Is the design cluttered and confusing on mobile? If you promise a specific dress in the ad, the click MUST lead directly to that dress's product page, not your homepage.

3. The 'Add to Cart' Step: Okay, so people are clicking through and landing on your product page, but nobody is adding items to their cart. This is a super common sticking point for clothing stores. This almost always means the problem is with your product presentation or your offer.

• Product Photos: Are they high quality? Do you show the clothing from multiple angles? Is there a photo of it being worn by a model (ideally one who looks like your target customer)? A flat lay on a white background isn't enough. People need to see how it fits, how it moves. Video is even better.
• Product Description: Does it just list the material and size? Or does it sell the feeling? Does it talk about the fit, the fabric's feel, where someone might wear it? Good copy helps people imagine themselves wearing the clothes.
• Price & Value: Is the price clear? Does it feel fair for what's being offered? If your prices are high, you need to justify it with exceptional quality, unique design, or a strong brand story. A simple "special offer" or "free shipping over £50" can sometimes be enough to nudge people over the line.
• Trust: Your store needs to look legitimate. Do you have customer reviews? A clear returns policy? Professional branding? People are wary of handing over card details to a store they've never heard of.

4. The Checkout Process: This is the final hurdle. You can see in your data how many people 'Initiate Checkout' but don't complete the 'Purchase'. A big drop-off here usually signals friction. The most common culprit is unexpected shipping costs. If you only reveal a £5.99 shipping fee at the very end, many people will abandon their cart in frustration. Other issues could be forcing people to create an account, a long and complicated form, or not offering popular payment options like PayPal or Apple Pay.

By looking at the numbers for each of these stages, you can pinpoint exactly where your funnel is leaking money. It stops being a vague "ads aren't working" problem and becomes a specific "my add-to-cart rate is only 1%, I need to improve my product photos" problem, which is much easier to solve.

You probably should rethink your offer and messaging...

Once you've identified the leaks in your funnel, it's time to fix them. And very often, the fix comes down to improving your offer and how you talk about it. It’s not enough to just show a picture of a t-shirt and say "buy now". You're competing with thousands of other brands in an incredibly crowded space. You have to give people a reason to care.

The biggest mistake I see is businesses defining their customers by simple demographics. "Women aged 25-34 who like fashion". This tells you nothing useful. It leads to generic ads that get ignored. You need to go deeper. What is the *problem* your clothing solves? What is the *transformation* it offers? Nobody buys a dress; they buy the way they feel in the dress. They buy confidence, they buy comfort, they buy the feeling of looking great on a night out.

Your ad's only job is to communicate this transformation. A great framework for this is the "Before-After-Bridge".

• Before: You describe the customer's current, frustrating state. What's their pain point?
• After: You paint a picture of their desired future state. How do they want to feel?
• Bridge: You present your product as the vehicle that gets them from the 'Before' to the 'After'.

Let's imagine you sell comfortable, stylish linen trousers. A generic ad would say "Shop our new linen trousers. Available in 3 colours." A 'Before-After-Bridge' ad would say something like: "(Before) Dreading another summer stuck in restrictive jeans? Feeling overheated and uncomfortable just running errands? (After) Imagine breezing through your day feeling cool, comfortable, and effortlessly chic. Turning a simple t-shirt into a stylish outfit without even trying. (Bridge) Our 'Breeze' Linen Trousers are the bridge to that feeling. Made from 100% breathable linen, they're designed for real life, from the school run to a sunset dinner."

See the difference? The second one connects on an emotional level. It doesn't just sell trousers; it sells a feeling, a solution to a common problem. This is what you need to be doing in your ad copy, your product descriptions, and all over your website. For one of the women's apparel clients we worked with, refining the messaging to focus on the feeling of confidence was a huge factor in us achieving a 691% return on ad spend for them. It definitely works.

This approach forces you to stop thinking about your product and start thinking about your customer. When your message resonates deeply with a specific person's problem or desire, your ads become infinitely more powerful, and you start attracting people who are not just 'likers', but actual buyers.

You'll need to understand the numbers that actually matter...

This might be the most important shift in mindset you can make. The goal isn't just to get sales; it's to get sales *profitably*. To know if you're doing that, you have to move beyond just looking at the cost of your ads and start understanding the real value of your customers.

The two most critical numbers here are your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and your Lifetime Value (LTV).

CAC is simple: It's the total amount you spend on marketing to get one new customer. If you spend £100 on ads and get 4 new customers, your CAC is £25.

LTV is a bit more involved, but it's the magic number. It's the total profit you can expect to make from an average customer over the entire time they shop with you. A customer is rarely a one-time transaction. If you sell quality clothing and provide a good experience, they'll come back. They might buy a dress today, a jumper in the autumn, and a coat next winter.

Why does this matter? Because if you only focus on the first sale, you'll make bad decisions. Let's say your average order is £50, and your profit on that is £25. If it costs you £30 in ads (a CAC of £30) to get that first sale, it looks like you're losing £5. Many people would panic and turn the ads off. But what if you know that, on average, a customer comes back and buys two more times over the next year, bringing their total profit value (their LTV) to £75? Suddenly, paying £30 to acquire that customer looks like an incredible bargain. You've spent £30 to make £75. That's a business you can scale.

Calculating a precise LTV can be complex, but you can create a really solid estimate with three figures:

1. Average Order Value (AOV): Total revenue divided by total orders.
2. Gross Margin %: The percentage of revenue left after you've paid for the goods themselves. (Revenue - Cost of Goods Sold) / Revenue.
3. Repeat Purchase Rate: How often customers come back to buy again in a year.

When you know your LTV, it completely changes how you approach advertising. You stop asking "How low can my cost per purchase be?" and start asking "How high a CAC can I afford to acquire a customer who is worth £X to my business?". This frees you from the tyranny of cheap, low-quality traffic and allows you to invest confidently in finding great customers who will stick around. Use the calculator below to get a feel for your own numbers.

We'll need to look at your audience strategy beyond Advantage+...

So, let's talk about Advantage+ Audience again. It can be a very powerful tool, especially for accounts with a lot of conversion data, because it lets Meta's AI do the heavy lifting. However, it's not a magic wand, and it's not the only way to structure your campaigns. For a new or smaller store, it can sometimes struggle if it doesn't have enough sales signals to learn from.

A more structured and reliable approach, especially when you're trying to figure things out, is to think of your audience in terms of a funnel: Top of Funnel (ToFu), Middle of Funnel (MoFu), and Bottom of Funnel (BoFu).

Top of Funnel (ToFu): Cold Audiences. These are people who have never heard of your brand before. This is where you find new customers. With Advantage+, you're essentially lumping all of this together. But you can get more control by testing specific interest-based audiences.

• Think about your ideal customer. What other clothing brands do they like (e.g., & Other Stories, Sezane, Zara)? What magazines or influencers do they follow? What are their hobbies?
• You can create seperate ad sets to test these different 'themes' of interests. For example, one ad set targeting people interested in sustainable fashion brands, and another targeting fans of a specific high-street competitor. This lets you see which pockets of potential customers respond best to your ads.

Middle of Funnel (MoFu): Warm Audiences. These are people who have shown some interest but haven't been to your website yet. They might have watched one of your video ads or engaged with your Instagram page. You can create custom audiences of these people and show them a slightly different ad, maybe highlighting a customer review or a specific product feature.

Bottom of Funnel (BoFu): Hot Audiences. This is your lowest-hanging fruit and where you should get your best return on ad spend. These are people who have already visited your website. They've looked at products, maybe even added something to their cart. They are *this close* to buying. You need to be running retargeting campaigns to this audience.

• Create custom audiences for 'All Website Visitors (in last 30 days)', 'Viewed Content (last 14 days)', and most importantly, 'Added to Cart (last 7 days)'.
• Show these people ads that remind them what they were looking at. Dynamic Product Ads are perfect for this, as they'll automatically show the exact items someone viewed.
• You can add a small incentive here, like "Still thinking about it? Get 10% off your first order" or "Complete your order and get free shipping". This is often the push they need.

This structured approach gives you much more clarity. You'll know exactly how much you're spending to acquire new customers (ToFu) versus how much it costs to bring back interested shoppers (BoFu). A healthy account will be spending on both. Without ToFu, your BoFu audience will eventually dry up. Without BoFu, you're leaving a huge amount of money on the table from people who were already interested. One campaign we ran for an eCommerce client selling outdoor equipment used this structure to drive over 18,000 highly relevant website visitors in a month, because we could control the message at each stage.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

So, to bring it all together, "should I change strategy or continue?" is a bit of a false choice. You should always be changing, or rather, *testing*. Sucessful advertising isn't about finding one magic formula and sticking with it forever. It's about building a system of continuous improvement. You need a structured plan for testing.

This process transforms you from being reactive to being proactive. Every pound you spend on ads should be teaching you something new about your customers and your business. It takes time and can feel overwhelming, which is why many brands decide to get expert help.

Running ads for eCommerce is a specialised skill. It's not just about setting up a campaign; it's about understanding consumer psychology, data analysis, creative strategy, and the technical nuances of the ad platforms. Trying to learn it all while also running every other part of your business is a massive challenge.

Working with someone who does this day-in, day-out can shortcut that learning curve dramatically. We can bring years of experience from other clothing and eCommerce brands, implement these proven structures quickly, and start getting you the data you need to make profitable decisions.

If you'd like to have a chat about your specific situation, we offer a free, no-obligation strategy session where we can take a look at your ad account and website together and give you some more tailored advice. It might be the clarity you need to get things moving in the right direction.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh