Disclaimer — This is not a get-rich-quick scenario. This is one example of what Facebook advertising can do for a new ecommerce business. There is no guarantee of any specific result, but we have applied these strategies across many businesses with consistently positive outcomes.
This ecommerce meat client found Black Bear Advertising through a Facebook ad, jumped on a call, and then came back eight months later once they’d launched their business and were ready to run ads. I told them the same thing I tell every new client: “We hope to get up to a 2X ROAS within the first 3 months of advertising a NEW business.” Of course, things turned out much better than expected.
They achieved approximately 3.84X ROAS — rounded to 4X in the headline. (At the time, a Facebook Ads Manager bug didn’t correctly total certain columns, so a few numbers were entered manually.)
Worth noting: I have also had several clients with brand new businesses hit very high, profitable ROAS numbers within their first 3 months. I always hope for it — but a nearly 4X return right out of the gate isn’t “industry standard.”
Starting Facebook Ads for a New Business
This client didn’t launch at a 4X ROAS. The ramp looked like this:
- Week 1: 0.5X ROAS
- Week 2: 1X ROAS
- Week 3: 1.5X ROAS
- End of month 1: ~2X ROAS
- Months 2–3: 4X ROAS
The ROAS would be even higher if we excluded all the testing spend from the early weeks. But after identifying the right audiences and “winning” ad formats (the right images and copy), we were able to spend less and get more.
Warm audiences were seeing up to almost 700% return. Cold audiences were seeing over 400% return.
Facebook Ads That Get the Best Return on Ad Spend
Some of the best ads for this client were short 10–15 second Instagram videos, but they also had high-performing static images. In general, images and videos that highlight the product and show it being used or prepared perform best. This pattern holds true across most of the accounts I manage — polished produced videos can work, but they’re not always necessary. Giving potential customers a simple, real look at what they’ll receive when it ships usually does the job.
For copy, reviews at the opening of the ad and key product benefits in the headline (things like “shipped right to your door” or “billionaire’s beef”) consistently outperformed everything else we tested.
Bonus tip: Spending a small amount on PPE (paid engagement) ads to build social proof — likes and comments on posts — meaningfully improves the sale performance of your main ads. If you can do it, do it.
Here are some examples of this client’s best performing ads:
I’m Perry Sessions, co-founder of Black Bear Advertising. If you own an ecommerce store and want more online sales, I’d love to talk through how to apply this same approach to your business. Schedule a free strategy call below.