Solved: Best Paid Advertising Strategy for New Clothing Brand?

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out. I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance based on what you've shared about launching your sustainable clothing brand with that $5k budget.

It's totally understandable that you're feeling overwhelmed. Paid advertising can seem like a minefield when you're starting out, especially with a limited budget where every pound (or dollar!) counts. The good news is you're thinking about the right things – where your audience is, purchase intent, and not spreading yourself too thin.

That $5k budget for three months is definitely on the tighter side for getting significant traction, but it's certainly not impossible to make a start. The key, as you've already identified, is focus. You absolutely cannot be everywhere. Trying to run campaigns on Google Shopping, Meta, Pinterest, and TikTok simultaneously with that kind of budget will mean each platform gets maybe £10-20 a day, if that. You just won't spend enough to get meaningful data, let the algorithms learn, or even consistently show up for your target audience before the budget's gone.

The budget constraint and what it means for platform choice...

With a smaller budget like this, you need to be very strategic about where you put your money. It forces you to prioritise reach versus intent, and how quickly you can get data. For a new brand, you need both awareness and sales, but with $5k, you're probably going to lean slightly more into getting in front of people who *might* be interested, rather than solely targeting people with sky-high purchase intent who are already searching for something very specific (which is often expensive).

Platforms like Google Shopping are fantastic when people know what they want and are actively searching. But for a brand nobody knows yet, competing on broad terms like "sustainable t-shirt" or "organic cotton dress" is likely going to be very expensive. Big, established brands are bidding on those terms, and your small budget would likely just get burned through very quickly trying to compete, resulting in few clicks and even fewer sales. You'd probably need a much larger budget to make Google Shopping work effectively early on, focusing maybe on super niche, long-tail keywords, which isn't a fast way to scale.

TikTok is great for viral potential and awareness, but it's often a gamble with a small budget if your primary goal is direct sales tracking. It's fantastic for building organic hype or running huge reach campaigns, but reliably driving lower-funnel conversions like purchases from cold audiences on a small budget can be tricky to optimise effectively. It feels a bit less predictable for direct ROI at the scale you're working with right now.

Why visual platforms make sense for a new brand...

This leaves platforms like Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and Pinterest. These are much more visually driven, which is perfect for clothing. You can showcase your products, your aesthetic, and crucially, tell your brand story about sustainability and ethical production. This narrative is a huge part of the appeal for sustainable brands, and these platforms are built for sharing visuals and stories.

You can target people based on their interests – things like sustainable living, ethical fashion, organic products, specific environmental causes, yoga, certain lifestyle blogs, etc. This allows you to get in front of people who are *likely* to be interested in what you offer, even if they aren't specifically searching for *your* brand yet. You can then interrupt their scrolling with compelling visuals and messaging that speaks to your brand's values and product appeal.

You absolutely *can* and *should* optimise for sales (purchases) on these platforms, even with a smaller budget. You'll set up your campaigns with a conversion objective, pointing people to product pages or collections on your website. The platform algorithms will then learn who is most likely to purchase and try to show your ads to similar people.

The key to success on these platforms, especially with a tight budget, is nailing your creative. High-quality product photography is non-negotiable. But also, think about creative that highlights the sustainable aspect – maybe showing the materials, the production process (if possible and authentic), or lifestyle shots that resonate with the values of someone who buys sustainable clothing. Videos can work really well here too, explaining the 'why' behind your brand quickly. A really strong, authentic visual identity and message in your ads will be crucial to stand out and get people to click.

Getting traffic and building audiences...

Even if those initial sales aren't flying in immediately, getting traffic to your website from these platforms is incredibly valuable. This is where retargeting comes in, and it's often the secret sauce for smaller budgets.

Once someone visits your website (or even just views a product page, adds something to cart, or engages with your ads on the platform), you can add them to a retargeting audience. These are people who have already shown some level of interest in your brand. They know you exist. They might not have bought immediately for any number of reasons – not the right time, got distracted, wanted to browse more, etc.

Showing ads specifically to these people later is usually much cheaper and results in a much higher conversion rate than showing ads to cold audiences. You can remind them about your products, perhaps show them different angles, highlight customer reviews, or even offer a small discount to encourage that first purchase. This is often where you'll see your best return on ad spend, and it's only possible if you drive that initial traffic.

So, the strategy becomes: use your limited budget on Meta/Pinterest to get in front of relevant cold audiences, drive traffic to your site to build retargeting pools, and then allocate a portion of your budget (maybe 20-30% initially, increasing over time) to showing targeted ads specifically to those warm audiences.

Thinking about the budget allocation...

With $5k over 3 months, that's roughly £1660 per month, or around £55 a day total. If you split that across two platforms, you're looking at maybe £25-30 per platform per day. This is very low, so you'll need to be patient and give the campaigns time to gather data. You might only get a handful of clicks or impressions a day initially, but it's a start. Over 3 months, that £5k should be enough to get some initial data, hopefully a few sales, and build those crucial retargeting lists.

I remember one campaign we worked on for a women's apparel brand where we saw a really solid 691% ROAS using Meta and Pinterest. While results always vary, it shows these platforms can be incredibly effective for clothing brands when you get the creative and targeting right and leverage retargeting.

I'd suggest picking *one* primary platform (either Meta or Pinterest, whichever you feel has a stronger audience fit and where you can create the most compelling visuals easily) and putting maybe 60-70% of your budget there. Put the remaining 30-40% on the secondary platform to test the waters. See which one starts showing promise after a few weeks and potentially shift more budget there. Don't be afraid to pause campaigns that clearly aren't working after a reasonable test period (maybe 2-3 weeks if spending is consistent, but it's hard with such low daily budgets). It's better to consolidate the spend where you see any glimmer of hope.

Your website is critical...

I know you asked about ads, but your website's performance is just as, if not more, important, especially with limited ad spend. If you drive traffic to a site that isn't user-friendly, loads slowly, has poor product images, or doesn't clearly convey your brand's values and the quality of your sustainable products, people will just leave. Your conversion rate will be terrible, meaning your cost per purchase (CPA) from ads will be incredibly high, making the ads seem like they aren't working, when the real issue is the site.

Make sure your product pages have fantastic photos (show details, fit if possible, maybe even short videos), compelling descriptions that highlight the sustainable aspects and the quality, clear pricing, and easy ways to add to cart and checkout. Social proof like customer reviews will also be important once you get some sales.

Summary of Recommended Actionable Solutions:

Here's a quick overview of where I'd focus with that budget:

Give it time and be patient. With £55 a day total, results won't be instantaneous or massive. Focus on getting those first pieces of data, learning what messaging resonates, and building those retargeting lists. It's a building process.

Launching a brand is tough, and doing the paid advertising yourself with a small budget is a steep learning curve. There's a lot to get right – pixel setup, tracking, campaign structure, ad policies, creative testing, landing page optimisation... it's a lot to juggle alongside everything else involved in running a new business.

Sometimes, getting some initial guidance from someone who has done it before, especially with similar types of products or budget constraints, can save you a lot of wasted spend and speed up the learning process significantly. It means you can focus on teh thousand other things you need to do to get this brand off the ground.

If you feel like you'd benefit from talking through your specific setup in more detail and getting a clear plan tailored just for your brand, we'd be happy to offer you a free consultation. No pressure at all, just an opportunity to ask more questions and see if we can point you in the right direction.

Hope this helps!

Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh