e-commerce facebook ads Case Study
Start To Summit Increased Fido Pro’s Quarterly Revenue by 71%
A behind-the-scenes look at the Facebook ad strategy and copy that got a D2C e-commerce start-up back on track to achieve their annual revenue goal.
Background
Company Name: Fido Pro
Website: www.fidoprotection.com
Fido Pro is a D2C e-commerce start-up providing high-quality emergency gear for outdoorsy dog parents to be safe on the trails with their canine best friends.
About 95% of revenue is attributed to the online store and Facebook/Instagram advertising is the only online advertising platform used to date.
The Challenge
“Our daily sales results were down up to 75%” – Paul Hoskinson, Fido Pro
At the time of Start To Summit taking over Fido Pro’s Facebook ad account, their gross revenue was down 11.5% compared to the previous month, cost per acquisition (CPA) had risen 20% in the past 30 days and their website conversion rate had dropped to an all-time low converting only 0.58% of the website visitors into sales.
Facebook/Instagram ads had been the only online advertising platform the company was using to drive traffic and sales thus far for the online store. When Facebook/Instagram ad results started a steep and steady decline in Q3 2019, Fido Pro knew they needed a different ad strategy to get back on track to achieving their annual financial goals and fully capitalize on the quickly approaching holiday season.
Additional Background Information:
- Never-before-seen products
- Core product costs $70
- Target CPA is $15 or less
- Sold in US & Canada
%
Decrease in Gross Revenue
%
Increase in Cost Per Acqusition
%
All-Time Low Conversion Rate
The Key To Success: Emotional, Long-Form Ad Copy
Analyzing the Previous Ad Copy
When Start To Summit took over the account, the ad copy that had been running to a cold audience, people who have never heard of this product before, included one sentence, “Whether you are in the backcountry or living in a high-rise, our Airlift rescue harness will help you get your dog to safety,” and the headline was “Fits Med., Large, XL Dogs.” See the previous ad on Facebook here.
The previous ad copy was unclear, lacked emotion and connection with the target audience, didn’t create demand for the product or answer any of the commonly asked questions about this never-before-seen emergency gear.
Although this ad copy did perform at the target CPA when initially launched, the ads were not able to sustain results over time.
Launching New Ad Copy that Generates Demand
The new ad copy immediately catches attention, emotionally connects with the target audience by shifting their mindset around emergency preparedness and primes the reader to buy with strategic, engaging storytelling copy. We tested three ad copy concepts to the cold lookalike audience – check out the copy below. We also launched a retargeting ad featuring a testimonial to reach all website visitors who hadn’t yet purchased.
Additional Actions Taken to Amplify Results
Expanding the Audience & Adjusting Ad Settings
The client was previously targeting various cold interests in some ad sets and using a 1% customer lookalike audience. We expanded the lookalike audience to 3% to give Facebook/Instagram’s algorithm a larger audience and more data to optimize these new ads.
Many of the client’s ad campaigns were also using an Ad Manager setting called Dynamic Creative. This Facebook ad setting allows you to test several creative options (i.e. ad copy, headlines and images) at one time. However, this setting is generally only effective if you’re testing three creative alternatives or less and your ad set daily budget is a minimum of five times the cost per result.
In less technical terms, you need a very large daily budget to effectively test Dynamic Creative for e-commerce businesses who are using ads to sell products direct to consumer. Otherwise, using this setting continuously can limit your results.
These two tactics – expanding the hyper-targeted lookalike audience and using alternative methods to test creative – were also a part of the strategy to success.
Scaled Budget After CPA was Back on Target
Once we were able to identify the top-performing ad copy and get the cost-per-acquisition to an average of $11.41 down from $13.48, we strategically scaled the ad budget to drive as much revenue as possible with maximum return on ad spend (ROAS).
“Our sales numbers were flat and our ads seemed tired and stale. I knew we needed a fresh set of eyes and new ads and copy. So we reached out to Erin as a result of a high recommendation from a trusted business associate. We saw our sales numbers turnaround and we were back to the levels we needed.”
The Ad Results
The campaign increased quarterly revenue by 71% and obtained a 6x ROAS (return on ad spend) with a product that has a 70% profit margin.
Even considering that Facebook ad costs rise an average of 25% during the holiday season, we were able to maintain an average cost-per-acquisition of $11.41, more than $2 below the ads that were running previously and well under the $15 target CPA for a healthy profit margin. With our new ad strategy and copy consistently converting at a higher rate and lower cost, we were able to significantly scale the ad budget to maximize our results.
%
Increase In Revenue
%
Increase IN Conversion Rate
%
Increase in Ad Budget While maintaining target CPA
These percentages are for a 10-week campaign period and are compared to the results from the previous 10 weeks. There were not any significant changes to the website or any other marketing initiatives implemented during this time.
“If we had stayed on the path we were on prior to hiring Start to Summit, it is highly doubtful we would have achieved our year-one sales goals.”
The Big Picture Results
Because of the ad strategies we implemented in Q4 2019 for Fido Pro, we changed the trajectory of this start-up. They hit their aggressive year-one sales goals, and with the revenue generated directly from our ads campaign, they have been able to make critical investments to continue to grow their business. In Q1 2020, they’ve invested in a new website, conversion rate optimization, video and product photography, and they’ve been able to begin to implement an expansion into markets overseas.
Fido Pro’s mission to serve dog lovers with emergency gear was born from their own close-call situation in the mountains near Aspen. They’re passionate about getting high-quality, USA-made products into the hands of dog parents everywhere to keep dogs safe on outdoor adventures. Start To Summit is proud to support the growth of this passionate, mission-driven business!
“Erin comes with a great skill set. She is capable of understanding the marketing needs for a wide range of products and services. We were lucky to come across her.”
About Start To Summit
Erin Roberts is the brains behind Start To Summit. With 10 years of marketing communications experience, Erin has managed hundreds of thousands of dollars in paid social advertising spend, written a myriad of results-driven words and developed solid marketing strategies for corporate brands, mid-size start-ups and solopreneurs.
Start To Summit is fueled by the desire to help passionate businesses make a bigger impact in the world AND their bottom line with smart marketing strategies, copywriting and high-converting Facebook/Instagram ads.
Curious about working together?
I thought you might be. Next, you might want to peruse my services list and pricing. Or, if you’re ready to have a conversation about working together, book a call!