Facebook Ads doesn’t work for making money anymore…”, “TikTok won’t make you any money…” You’ve probably told yourself this a few times this year. And if you haven’t said it, you’ve surely seen it written on a Facebook wall or in a Facebook group with other entrepreneurs.
In reality, however, Facebook Ads and TikTok Ads are more productive than ever when done correctly.
In this case, we’re talking about promoting an online store with products for the automotive niche.
In November 2023, Ionuț came to us with a clear and confident mission. Due to time constraints and trust, Ionuț entrusted us with his Facebook and TikTok accounts for a 12-month collaboration to run paid advertisements.
Ionuț’s requirements weren’t extravagant. He clearly communicated the acquisition costs we could work within and the margins we could “play” with.
- The maximum cost per sale was set at 120 RON
- The average cart value is 1,000 RON
- Budgets are unlimited if the discussed costs are maintained
In the first two weeks of collaboration, we launched Facebook and TikTok campaigns with daily budgets between 200 RON and 400 RON for each platform. After the first two weeks of campaigns, we found that TikTok brought only 25% of Facebook’s conversions with similar budgets, so we always maintained this spending ratio for the two platforms.
The products sold here are for a relatively isolated audience, namely car drivers who want to upgrade their central navigation console. The mission wasn’t impossible, but it wasn’t very difficult either. Ionuț came to us with a brand that had already been in the market for 8 years, with very good, high-quality products and an IMPECCABLE website from all points of view, from tracking to appearance and colors. In short, more than 80% of Rocket Agency’s advertising efforts were already covered by Ionuț through building a serious, long-lasting, and quality brand.
Our initial tests began with a general catalog of all products. For context, the store’s Facebook and TikTok accounts were fresh, with 0 ad spend, 0 conversions. Only data collected from the store by Pixels. In the initial phase, we wanted to observe the costs of the accounts “from cold,” which is why we used general catalogs.
The First 30 Days
In the first 30 days, we had to (already) prepare for Black Friday and budget accordingly.
So, after seeing the average costs of the campaigns, we allocated a relatively small Black Friday budget, which lowered the average acquisition cost from 110 RON to 60 RON, on average, for these first 30 days on Facebook. For TikTok, we lowered the budgets to an absolute minimum for this time interval, spending less than 100 RON per day.
In December 2023, after 30 days of FRESH ads, the Facebook account ended the month with 175 sales and a total sales value of 175,524 RON, while TikTok brought in 18 sales with a total value of 20,549 RON.
The First 90 Days
In the first 90 days of running campaigns, we encountered many instabilities when trying to raise budgets, especially on Facebook Ads. The biggest problem was that every time we exceeded a daily budget of 500 RON, the Acquisition Cost increased to over 100 RON, which gave us headaches until mid-April, when we decided to approach budgets from a completely different perspective.
Until mid-April 2024, we used to create new campaigns to bring in additional sales, but this changed from April onwards. Based on a campaign’s performance at certain times of the day, we raised or lowered budgets to keep acquisition costs within optimal parameters. This change not only brought stability to the ad account but also allowed us to exceed the daily threshold of 500 RON spent on ads while keeping the cost per sale within optimal parameters and maintaining the number of sales at 8-10 per day.
Traditionally, you’d say that an average of 8-10 sales per day doesn’t bring you very high profits if you consider all the other costs, but in reality, because we signed with Ionuț for 1 year with upfront payment, Ionuț saved a few thousand euros with us over the 12 months of our collaboration.
To top it all off, we’ll tell you that the return rate is a maximum of 1 product per month out of an average of 600 orders, which greatly helps manage costs and, obviously, brings stability in calculating profit margins and cash flow.
Statistics reported after 6 months of collaboration with Rocket Agency
- The number of sales on the site increased by 49.5% through the introduction of Facebook Ads and TikTok Ads
- Total sales reported in Meta and TikTok: 1,509
- Total value of conversions in Meta and TikTok: 1,547,668.11 RON
- Average acquisition cost: 95.56 RON
On Google Ads, Ionuț, the store owner, manages the campaigns himself, and this combination of 3 platforms, along with excellent customer service, a very good product, and an impeccable store, can bring these increases for any store.
