Boosting Ad Performance: Key Lessons from Meta Ad Account Reviews
Optimizing performance for Meta ad accounts means being intentional about every aspect of your ad campaigns—from creative choices to bidding strategies. Recently, the Foxwell Founders members shared actionable insights on refining ad setups to get better returns on ad spend. Here’s a breakdown of their advice for maximizing ad efficiency, informed by real-world examples from Meta ad reviews.
1. Experiment with Cost Caps but Monitor Performance Carefully
Switching to a cost cap bidding strategy can be a popular move to control CPA (Cost Per Acquisition), but it requires close monitoring and isn’t always an exact science. For one brand, moving to cost caps brought CPA up by 10%—not ideal, but manageable with adjustments. The key takeaway? Test cost caps, but ensure they don’t disrupt your overall MER (Marketing Efficiency Ratio) or ROI/ROAS to an unprofitable level.
Action Step: If you’re testing cost caps, keep an eye on top-performing creatives and pause those underperforming after a reasonable testing period, especially if they’re using a limited daily budget.
2. Rethink Creative Strategy
It’s crucial to identify which ad creatives resonate best with your target audience via a few different “hard” and “soft” metrics - never look at just one metric to determine a winner or loser. Ads with strong “hook rates” (how well they grab attention) often yield the highest return. For example, a high hook-rate ad featuring a visually striking “glow-in-the-dark jacket” saw great click-throughs but needed a better value proposition to drive conversions.
Some metrics Foxwell Digital uses to grade ad creative include: Thumbstop, Hook rate, video view watch time (as a percentage), CPM, spend allocation (as a percentage), ROAS, engagement rate, and others.
Action Step: Pprioritize creatives that both engage and inform. If an ad has high engagement but low purchases, consider iterating with a more compelling value-driven message while keeping the viewer engaged.
3. Rotate Creatives and Scale with Top Performers
A successful campaign isn’t about launching one perfect ad—it’s about continually testing and scaling what works. A common approach is to launch a batch of ads, let them gather data, and then select the top performers to move (via Existing Post ID to retain social proof) into a separate ASC (Advantage+ Shopping Campaign). This way, ads that need more time can spend without taking budget away from proven winners and proven winners have the best opportunity to spend at scale.
Action Step: If you’re running multiple ads with limited daily spend, separate top performers from newer creatives. This allows each ad to spend optimally and gives fresh creatives the opportunity to show their potential.
4. Use ASC (Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns) for Scaling and Retargeting
ASC is particularly effective for retargeting during key shopping seasons, as it simplifies the process of reaching audiences who are already familiar with your brand. The Foxwell team’s advice? Run more than one ASC - one targeting primarily ONLY new customers (1% Existing Customer Budget Cap) and another with different ads that includes both new and existing/engaged customers with something like a 30-40% Existing Customer Budget Cap. Keep in mind that depending on the size of the existing customer audience, you may need to adjust the budget based on the frequency the longer the sale goes on. Let the data drive this decision and tell you what to do. This ensures that you’re capturing both new and existing audiences in an efficient way.
Action Step: Create two or more ASCs with top-performing creatives to capture both new and retargeting audiences with different Existing Customer Budget Caps. If budget allows, keep both campaigns running in parallel or adjust as needed.
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5. Use Specific, Seasonal Messaging for Higher Engagement
Seasonality plays a significant role in ad performance, especially for brands that are affected by seasons, such as fashion/apparel, home decor, or other weather-related products. For one fashion company, the headline "Jacket Season Starts Now!" proved to be effective because it capitalized on seasonal relevance, adding urgency and relevance without feeling forced. Tailor messaging (and emojis!) to match the season and give customers a reason to engage with your ad right now.
Action Step: Update headlines and overlays to match the current season or trend. Highlight the use case for your product, whether it’s “Jacket Season” or “Fall Essentials,” to connect with what’s top of mind for your audience.
6. Take Advantage of Dynamic Product Ads (DPAs/DABAs) for Apparel Brands
DPAs/DABAs (Dynamic Ads for Broad Audiences) are particularly beneficial for brands with a wide product range. They automatically display items relevant to the shopper, which can boost conversions. It also allows for a window-shopping experience for new customers to discover many products quickly, or it shows the exact product someone viewed or added to cart, but didn’t purchase, for retargeting customers. For example, a low-budget DPA campaign ($25/day) focusing on new arrivals yielded positive results, proving that even a small budget can work if optimized.
Action Step: For brands in apparel or similar sectors, allocate a small budget to a DPA campaign to drive conversions. Test ad copy variations, like “New Drops” or “Top Picks,” to see which resonates most with your audience.
7. Measure Click vs. View Data to Track Purchase Intent
Tracking click vs. view data on your ads can reveal valuable insights into customer behavior. For instance, one campaign found that click-through purchases aligned more closely with high-intent buyers than view-through conversions. As a result, optimizing for “click” rather than “view” improved the quality of engagement.
Action Step: Regularly compare “7-day click” versus “1-day view” in your attribution settings. If you notice a widening gap between clicks and views, shift focus to high-intent click data for a more accurate reflection of ad performance.
8. Test Gifting-Driven Messaging for Seasonal Sales
As the holiday season approaches, shifting to gift-oriented messaging can be a game-changer. Ads that appeal to shoppers looking to buy for others tend to perform better. For example, creatives that spoke directly to the “gift-buying spouse” resonated particularly well for one brand.
Action Step: Incorporate gift-giving language into your ad copy and creative. Phrases like “A Perfect Gift for Him” or “Surprise Her This Season” can add emotional value and prompt higher engagement.
9. Fine-Tune Audience Segments for Optimal CPA
For brands with high AOV (Average Order Value), tightening up audience segments can help improve CPA. In one case, viewing audience segmentation by “existing customers,” “engaged users,” and “new audiences” provided clear data on where to focus budget, where the algorithm was preferring to spend, and how each audience segment was performing. You can view this in Ads Manager by clicking the “Breakdown” dropdown, then choosing “Audience Segments”. This segmentation allowed for better performance tracking, which ultimately informed ad spend allocation.
Action Step: If your AOV is high, break down your audience segments to optimize for each group’s CPA. Allocate budgets based on performance within each segment to drive higher conversions efficiently.
Final Thoughts: Stick to What Works, Test Iteratively
In high-stakes ad seasons like Q4, going back to the basics can pay off. While the above tactics are great starting points, remember that every account and brand is different, so you have to use the data to know what works best for your account. And if you’re still not having success, don’t go at it alone and join us in the Founders Community to learn from some of the best e-commerce advertisers around the world.