Solved: Scaling Meta Ads for Laser Therapy Business

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out!

Happy to give you some initial thoughts on your Meta Ads campaign. Straight off the bat, it's great that you've got things running and are seeing some early conversions. That puts you ahead of many people. An €18 cost per lead (CPL) might feel good, and a low cost per click (CPC) seems like a win, but I'm going to be honest with you - these numbers, especially at this stage, can be incredibly misleading. A lot of the common advice you'll read about scaling ads is just plain wrong and will lead you to burn through your budget with nothing to show for it.

The real challenge isn't just getting cheaper clicks or more leads; it's about building a predictable system that brings in the *right* kind of customers, profitably, time and time again. You're asking about budget, creatives, and conversion rates, which are the right questions, but we need to look at them from a different, more strategic angle. Let's get into it.

We'll need to look at the budget trap...

Your first question is about increasing the budget. My blunt answer is: absolutely not. Don't touch it. Touching that budget dial right now is probably the single biggest mistake you could make.

Think of the Meta algorithm like a new employee you've just hired. Right now, you've given it a tiny task (spend €15) and it's brought you back 5 potential leads. It has absolutely no idea if these 5 people are good leads, bad leads, or just tyre-kickers. It's still learning the basics of the job. If you suddenly triple its salary (your budget), it's just going to do more of what it was already doing, but faster and more recklessly. It will spend your money trying to find more people who *look like* those first 5, without having any real data on whether those 5 are representative of a profitable customer.

The industry standard, and something we stick to, is that the algorithm needs about 50 conversions within a 7-day window to exit the 'learning phase'. This is the point where it has enough data to start making smart decisions and find efficiencies. You're at 5 conversions total. You are miles away from that point. Increasing the budget now won't "optimise" anything; it'll just break the fragile learning process that's barely begun.

But there's a much bigger question you should be asking before you even think about the 50-conversion threshold. The real question isn't "when can I scale?" but "what am I scaling?". Are these 5 leads actually worth €18 each? How many of them will turn into paying customers? And what is a paying customer actually worth to you over their lifetime?

This is where most small businesses go wrong. They obsess over the Cost Per Lead (CPL) without ever calculating their Customer Lifetime Value (LTV). Without knowing your LTV, your €18 CPL is a meaningless number. It could be a fantastic bargain or a catastrophic loss, and you have no way of knowing. I remember one client, a home cleaning company, who were getting leads for £5. They thought it was brilliant. But their LTV was low, so their profit margin on each lead was tiny. On the other hand, we have an HVAC client whose leads cost around $60, which sounds expensive, but a single job can be worth thousands, making that $60 an incredible investment.

You need to do this maths for your business. Let's figure out what you can truly afford to pay for a customer.

Once you know this number, your entire perspective changes. You stop chasing cheap leads and start hunting for valuable customers. An €18 CPL might be brilliant if your max affordable CPL is €70. Or it could be terrible if it's only €10. You need this data to make any sensible decision about your campaign's performance and scalability.

I'd say you should ignore your CPC...

Your second question, about the low CPC and refreshing creatives, leads us to another common trap: vanity metrics. A low CPC (€0.42) feels good. It feels efficient. Tbh, it tells you almost nothing of value.

Meta's algorithm is designed to do exactly what you tell it to. When you run a campaign, even with a conversion objective, it's constantly trying to find the cheapest way to get clicks from people within your audience who *might* take the action you want. A low CPC often just means it has found a pocket of people in your audience who are "click-happy". They click on lots of ads, which makes their attention cheap. The problem is, these people are often the least likely to ever buy anything. They are bored scrollers, not motivated buyers.

I would much rather see a CPC of €2.00 from a highly-targeted, motivated audience than a €0.42 CPC from a generic one. Why? Because the expensive click is far more likely to be from someone genuinely suffering from the problem you solve and is actively considering a solution. You are paying a premium for intent, and intent is what leads to conversions.

This is why we debunk the whole "Brand Awareness" campaign objective for businesses like yours. When you choose an objective like "Reach," you're literally telling Facebook: "Please find me the absolute cheapest people to show my ad to, regardless of whether they'll ever buy." The algorithm happily obliges, showing your ad to people whose attention is cheap for a reason. Real awareness comes from conversions, from a customer having a great experience and telling their friends. It's a byproduct of effective advertising, not the goal of it.

So, should you refresh your creatives? Not because your CPC is low. You should refresh them when they stop working – when your Cost Per Lead starts to climb, or your click-through rate (CTR) drops, a sign of ad fatigue. With so little data, you don't know if they are working well yet. Let them run.

However, you should be *thinking* about your next creative test. The message in your ad is everything. You're not selling "laser therapy." Nobody wakes up in the morning thinking, "I really need to buy some laser therapy." They wake up thinking, "I hate the way I smell," "I'm terrified of getting cancer," "I feel weak because I can't quit," or "I'm wasting so much money on cigarettes." You are selling a solution to a nightmare.

Your ad copy needs to reflect this. You should be using a framework like Problem-Agitate-Solve.

Problem: Hit them with a pain they recognise instantly. "Tired of your clothes smelling of smoke and feeling breathless after climbing the stairs?"
Agitate: Twist the knife. Remind them of the consequences. "Every cigarette is a choice that drains your wallet and your health, making you feel trapped and out of control."
Solve: Introduce your service as the clear, simple way out. "Our advanced laser therapy offers a painless, quick path to finally quit for good, without the cravings and withdrawal that have made you fail before."

This kind of messaging pre-qualifies your audience. The right people will read it and think, "That's me." The wrong people will scroll right past. This might increase your CPC, but it will almost certainly improve your lead quality and conversion rate, which is the only thing that actually matters.

You probably should obsess about your audience...

This brings us to your third question about improving your conversion rate. You ask if you should just "let it optimise with more data." Again, no. The algorithm can only optimise the ingredients you give it. If you give it a poor audience, it will just get very good at showing your ad to the wrong people. Your biggest lever for improving your conversion rate isn't on your website (though that's important too); it's in your audience targeting.

When I audit new client accounts, the single most common failure point is lazy or misguided targeting. People throw a few broad interests like "health" or "wellness" into the ad set and hope for the best. This is a recipe for disaster. You're competing with every yoga studio, supplement company, and health food blogger on the planet for that audience's attention.

You need to go deeper. You need to define your customer not by their demographics, but by their pain. Forget "Men, 35-55, interested in health". That's useless. Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is a nightmare, not a demographic. It's a person who has tried to quit smoking five times with patches and gum and failed every time. It's someone whose doctor has just given them a serious warning. It's a new parent who holds their baby and feels a wave of guilt. It's someone who adds up the €200+ they spend a month on cigarettes and feels sick. These are the people who are desperate for a solution, and they're the ones willing to pay for one that works.

So, how do you find them on Meta? You have to think like them.

-> What brands do they engage with? Think about stop-smoking aids (Nicorette, Champix). They might follow pages related to these products.
-> What authorities or influencers do they follow? Are there well-known doctors, health advocates, or authors who specialise in addiction or quitting smoking?
-> What other behaviours are linked? Perhaps they are also interested in things like "breathing exercises," "meditation," or "running" as they try to build a healthier lifestyle.
-> Layer your interests. Don't just target "Nicorette". Target people who are interested in "Nicorette" AND are also "Parents". Or interested in "Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking" AND "Engaged Shoppers". This layering helps you narrow down from a massive, generic audience to a much more specific, high-intent group of people.

This is where you build your campaign structure. You dont just have one ad set. You need to structure your campaigns to match the customer journey, from cold audiences who've never heard of you (Top of Funnel - ToFu), to people who've visited your site (Middle of Funnel - MoFu), to those who have started to book but haven't finished (Bottom of Funnel - BoFu).

You need seperate campaigns and ad sets for each of these stages. Right now, you're likely just running a ToFu campaign. Building out your MoFu and BoFu retargeting is often the quickest way to improve overall performance, as you're talking to people who are already familiar with you. If you have a small budget, you can combine MoFu and BoFu, but you must seperate them from your cold ToFu campaigns. You start with ToFu to get data, and as soon as you have at least 100 website visitors, you launch your retargeting campaigns. For your service, this is particulerly important. Quitting smoking is a big decision; people need time to think about it. Retargeting allows you to stay top-of-mind, build trust, and answer their questions over days or weeks until they are ready to commit.

You'll need an offer they can't refuse...

Finally, all the best targeting and creative in the world won't work if your offer is weak. I haven't seen your website, but I see this mistake all the time. The call to action is a bland "Contact Us" or "Book Now". This feels like a huge commitment to someone who is still hesitant and scared.

You need to de-risk the next step for them. Your offer's only job is to provide undeniable value and make them feel safe taking that next step. Instead of a hard "Book Now", consider a softer, more valuable offer:

• -> Free 15-Minute Quit-Smoking Consultation: This is non-committal. It allows them to talk to an expert (you), ask questions, and feel understood. You get to qualify them and build rapport. It's not a sales call; it's a help call.
• -> Download a Free Guide: 'The 5 Mental Hurdles to Quitting Smoking (And How to Overcome Them)': This captures their email address, proves your expertise, and gives them value upfront. You can then nurture them with an email sequence.
• -> Watch a Video Testimonial: Show, don't just tell. A powerful video of a past client describing their journey from skepticism to success can be far more persuasive than any sales copy you could ever write.

This is about changing the frame from "Buy my service" to "Let me help you solve your problem". I've seen it with SaaS companies that get no traction with "Request a Demo" but see massive success with a "Free Trial". The principle is the same. Lower the friction, increase the value, and you'll see your conversion rate climb.

I know this is a lot to take in, and it's a completely different way of thinking about running ads than just tweaking budgets and CPCs. But this strategic approach is what seperates campaigns that limp along from those that become powerful, predictable growth engines for a business. You need to stop being a campaign operator and start being a marketing strategist.

This is the main advice I have for you:

Implementing all of this correctly takes expertise and time. You have a good start, but turning it into a scalable system requires a deep understanding of the platform, marketing psychology, and constant testing and analysis. It's not just about setting up an ad; it's about building and managing a complex system with many moving parts.

If you'd like to go over this in more detail and have an expert eye look at your specific setup, we offer a completely free, no-obligation initial consultation. We can review your account together on a call, and I can give you some more tailored advice that you can implement straight away. It’s often incredibly helpful for business owners like yourself to get a clear, expert perspective on what to do next.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh