16.0x
Return on ad spend (Meta Ads)
Return on ad spend (Meta Ads)
27
Purchases generated in May
Purchases generated in May
7,882 €
Total revenue from the campaign
Total revenue from the campaign
18.24 €
Average cost per sale
Average cost per sale
Client & context
Direct Message is a premium swimwear brand built on exclusive design, high‑performance materials, and a direct‑to‑consumer experience. Their aesthetic resonates with a global audience looking for quality and confidence by the water. In May 2026, the brand came to us with a clear brief: increase sales, improve the efficiency of every euro spent, and pinpoint which creatives and audiences could scale without losing profitability.
The challenge
- Efficiency at scale: the brand wanted to spend more, but only if the return stayed healthy, avoiding the trap of rising costs for diminishing returns
- Audience intelligence: they needed to understand whether broad targeting, lookalike audiences, or warm retargeting would be the real growth lever
- Creative clarity: with multiple formats in play (static images, Reels, AI‑generated content), the team had to identify which style turned scrollers into buyers most efficiently
Strategy & execution
We built a single‑channel Meta Ads engine designed to push volume through the formats and audiences that were already proving themselves, while continuously testing where the next wave of growth would come from.
01
Audience‑led budget allocation
We split spend across three audience types: broad prospecting, lookalike audiences, and website retargeting. Broad and lookalike audiences delivered the highest returns (23x and 31x ROAS respectively), while retargeting provided a reliable floor of conversion volume. By protecting the budget for the most efficient prospecting, we kept acquisition costs down and built a clear path to scale.
Audience‑led budget allocation
We split spend across three audience types: broad prospecting, lookalike audiences, and website retargeting. Broad and lookalike audiences delivered the highest returns (23x and 31x ROAS respectively), while retargeting provided a reliable floor of conversion volume. By protecting the budget for the most efficient prospecting, we kept acquisition costs down and built a clear path to scale.
02
Creative testing that backed winners
The campaign ran a mix of static images and Reels. Images were the workhorse — driving 16 of the 27 sales with solid efficiency. But the real surprise came from Reels: with a fraction of the spend, they generated a 27.4x ROAS, including some individual creatives surpassing 45x. We quickly shifted more budget towards these high‑efficiency formats, using data rather than guesswork.
Creative testing that backed winners
The campaign ran a mix of static images and Reels. Images were the workhorse — driving 16 of the 27 sales with solid efficiency. But the real surprise came from Reels: with a fraction of the spend, they generated a 27.4x ROAS, including some individual creatives surpassing 45x. We quickly shifted more budget towards these high‑efficiency formats, using data rather than guesswork.
03
Retargeting as a safety net
Retargeting accounted for two thirds of all sales, turning browsers into buyers at a controlled cost. Rather than over‑investing, we set clear ROAS boundaries to keep it profitable and used the insights from retargeting behaviour to feed the prospecting engine. This kept the funnel full without letting retargeting cannibalise the most scalable audiences.
Retargeting as a safety net
Retargeting accounted for two thirds of all sales, turning browsers into buyers at a controlled cost. Rather than over‑investing, we set clear ROAS boundaries to keep it profitable and used the insights from retargeting behaviour to feed the prospecting engine. This kept the funnel full without letting retargeting cannibalise the most scalable audiences.
04
Fresh creative, not just more spend
We kept a close eye on frequency (how often the same person saw an ad) and treated it as an early warning system. Rather than waiting for fatigue to hit performance, we rotated high‑performing Reels and images on a regular cadence, tested new variations with small budgets first, and scaled only the ones that proved themselves. This kept the Meta Ads engine running smoothly and made sure efficiency didn’t quietly erode.
Fresh creative, not just more spend
We kept a close eye on frequency (how often the same person saw an ad) and treated it as an early warning system. Rather than waiting for fatigue to hit performance, we rotated high‑performing Reels and images on a regular cadence, tested new variations with small budgets first, and scaled only the ones that proved themselves. This kept the Meta Ads engine running smoothly and made sure efficiency didn’t quietly erode.
Results
- 16.0x overall return on ad spend from a spend of just 492.61 EUR, turning every euro into 16 back in revenue
- 27 purchases generating 7,882.27 EUR in total sales, at an average cost of 18.24 EUR per order
- Highly efficient prospecting: broad audiences returned 23.0x and lookalikes 31.1x, proving that cold audiences were not just scalable but the most profitable
- Reels as the efficiency king: video creatives averaged a 27.4x ROAS, with top performers hitting over 45x on minimal spend
- Strong funnel health: a 2.71% click‑through rate and a cost per landing‑page view of just 0.26 EUR showed that both the ads and the website were doing their job
Key Takeaways
- Prospecting can be your most profitable lever: broad and lookalike audiences delivered multiples far above the campaign average, debunking the myth that cold audiences always cost more.
- Let the creatives do the heavy lifting: a handful of Reels on tiny budgets outperformed higher‑spend image campaigns, proving that format and message beat budget size.
- Retargeting is a conversion floor, not a growth ceiling: it secured volume reliably, but the real scalability came from the audiences that hadn’t met the brand yet.
- Data, not hunches, unlocks scale: every budget shift was guided by clear ROAS signals, giving the brand a confident roadmap to spend more without guessing.