Sales & Conversion
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
Last year, I was managing Facebook ads for a B2C Shopify store, and like most marketers, I got caught up in the complexity trap. Multi-stage funnels, detailed audience segments, elaborate retargeting sequences—the whole nine yards. The results? Mediocre ROAS and a constant feeling that we were optimizing ourselves into a corner.
Here's the uncomfortable truth: most paid media funnels fail because they're built on outdated assumptions about how people actually buy online. We're designing elaborate customer journeys while our customers are making instant decisions based on creative quality and immediate value perception.
After working with multiple e-commerce clients and testing everything from traditional funnel approaches to radical simplifications, I discovered that the most effective paid media strategy isn't about building better funnels—it's about understanding that creative quality is the new targeting.
In this playbook, you'll learn:
Why traditional paid media funnels are failing in 2025
The simple framework that outperformed complex sequences by 40%
How creative testing replaced audience optimization
The 3-creative weekly testing cadence that drives consistent results
When to stick with traditional funnels (and when to abandon them)
This isn't another guide telling you to build more complex attribution models. This is about what actually works when you strip away the marketing theory and focus on real-world results. Let's dive into what I learned when I stopped building funnels and started building systems.
Industry Reality
What Every Marketer Thinks About Paid Media Funnels
Walk into any marketing conference or browse through the latest "growth hacking" content, and you'll hear the same paid media funnel gospel repeated everywhere:
The Traditional Approach Everyone Recommends:
Awareness Stage: Broad targeting with educational content to capture cold audiences
Consideration Stage: Retargeting sequences with product-focused content and social proof
Decision Stage: Highly targeted ads with urgency, discounts, and strong CTAs
Retention Stage: Post-purchase upsells and loyalty campaigns
This framework makes perfect sense on paper. It mirrors how we think people should make decisions: learn about the problem, research solutions, compare options, then buy. The industry has built entire tech stacks around this assumption—multi-touch attribution, complex audience segmentation, sequential messaging.
The problem? This approach was designed for a world where targeting was precise and privacy regulations didn't exist. When Facebook could tell you exactly who looked at your competitor's page last Tuesday, building elaborate audience sequences made sense.
But here's what changed: iOS 14.5 killed detailed targeting. GDPR and other privacy regulations made tracking nearly impossible. The platforms started optimizing for their own revenue rather than your funnel efficiency. Meanwhile, consumer behavior shifted toward instant gratification and shorter attention spans.
Most marketers responded by making their funnels more complex—more audience segments, more sophisticated attribution models, more creative variations per stage. They treated the symptoms instead of diagnosing the real problem: the entire funnel-based approach had become fundamentally incompatible with how modern paid media actually works.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The wake-up call came when I was working with a B2C Shopify client who was burning through their Facebook ad budget with a 2.5 ROAS. On paper, everything looked right—we had the classic funnel setup, decent creative quality, and we were following all the "best practices" from the top marketing blogs.
The store had over 1,000 SKUs, all quality products. This should have been perfect for traditional funnel marketing—lots of inventory to showcase, multiple price points for different stages, clear upsell opportunities. But something was fundamentally broken.
Here's what I initially set up, following conventional wisdom:
Awareness campaigns targeting broad interests, showcasing lifestyle content and brand values. Consideration campaigns retargeting website visitors with product carousels and reviews. Conversion campaigns hitting cart abandoners with urgency messaging and discounts.
The results? Mediocre across the board. High CPMs, low engagement, and most importantly, customers who seemed to just... disappear between stages. The attribution was a mess—people were supposedly seeing 5-7 touchpoints before converting, but the actual customer journey felt completely disconnected from our elaborate funnel.
That's when I realized the fundamental mismatch: their customers needed time to browse, compare, and discover the right product. The Facebook ads environment demands instant decisions. We were forcing a slow-discovery shopping experience into a quick-decision advertising format.
Instead of trying to make the funnel work better, I made a radical decision: I abandoned the funnel approach entirely. No more stage-based campaigns, no more complex retargeting sequences, no more audience segmentation based on funnel position. Instead, I focused on one simple question: what creative would make someone stop scrolling and take action right now?
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Here's exactly what I implemented when I ditched the traditional funnel approach, and how you can replicate this system:
Step 1: The One-Campaign Structure
Instead of multiple campaigns for different funnel stages, I created a single campaign with a broad audience. The key insight: let Facebook's algorithm do what it does best—find people who are likely to convert—while we focus on what humans do best: create compelling content.
The setup was almost embarrassingly simple:
1 campaign
1 broad audience (basic demographics only)
Multiple ad sets with different creative angles
Weekly creative refresh cycle
Step 2: Creative-Based Targeting Philosophy
This was the game-changer. Instead of trying to target the right people with mediocre creative, I focused on creating diverse creative that would naturally attract different segments. Each creative acts as its own targeting mechanism.
For example: A lifestyle-focused creative naturally attracts aspirational buyers. A problem-solving creative attracts practical shoppers. A discount-focused creative attracts price-sensitive customers. The algorithm learns which creative resonates with which people, without us having to manually define those audiences.
Step 3: The 3-Creative Weekly Testing Cadence
Every single week, without fail, I produced and launched 3 new creative variations. This wasn't about quantity for quantity's sake—it was about giving the algorithm fresh data points and preventing creative fatigue.
The weekly process:
Monday: Analyze previous week's creative performance
Tuesday-Wednesday: Create 3 new variations based on winning angles
Thursday: Launch new creatives, pause lowest performers
Friday: Monitor and adjust budgets based on early signals
Step 4: Signal-Based Optimization
Instead of optimizing for funnel metrics, I focused on platform-native signals. Facebook wants engagement and conversions—so I optimized for CTR, conversion rate, and ROAS at the creative level. No more tracking "funnel progression" or "stage completion." Just: does this creative drive profitable actions?
The beauty of this approach is its alignment with how the platforms actually work. Facebook's algorithm is incredibly sophisticated at finding people who will convert—when you give it good creative to work with. By focusing our human effort on creative quality and letting the machine handle targeting, we played to each party's strengths.
Creative Testing
Systematic approach to testing 3 new angles weekly, tracking CTR and conversion signals
Broad Targeting
Single campaign with basic demographics, letting algorithm optimize based on creative performance
Signal Optimization
Focus on platform-native metrics rather than complex funnel attribution models
Weekly Cadence
Consistent refresh cycle prevents creative fatigue and provides fresh data points
The results were immediate and dramatic. Within the first month of switching to this simplified approach:
ROAS improved from 2.5 to 3.8 - a 52% increase in advertising efficiency
CPM decreased by 35% as we stopped competing in over-segmented audiences
Creative production time cut in half - no more versions for different funnel stages
Attribution clarity improved - simpler tracking, clearer results
But the most significant change wasn't in the numbers—it was in the operational simplicity. We went from managing 15+ ad sets across different funnel stages to managing 5 ad sets with different creative angles. Campaign optimization became about creative quality rather than audience segmentation complexity.
The weekly creative testing cadence also built a library of proven angles. After three months, we had clear data on which creative approaches drove the best results, allowing us to double down on what worked rather than constantly experimenting with audience targeting.
Interestingly, the simplified approach also improved the customer experience. Instead of being bombarded with different messages depending on their "funnel stage," customers saw consistent, high-quality creative that matched their actual intent and timing.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
This experience fundamentally changed how I think about paid media, and here are the key lessons that apply beyond just this one client:
1. Platform Physics Beat Marketing Theory
Facebook's algorithm is designed to find people who will convert, not to respect your funnel stages. Working with the platform's natural optimization rather than against it yields better results.
2. Creative Quality Is the New Audience Targeting
In a privacy-first world, your creative becomes your targeting mechanism. Good creative naturally attracts the right people, while elaborate audience segmentation just adds complexity without improving results.
3. Simplicity Scales Better Than Complexity
Complex funnels require constant management and optimization. Simple systems with consistent execution outperform sophisticated setups that require expert-level maintenance.
4. Weekly Consistency Beats Monthly Optimization
The 3-creative weekly testing cadence was more impactful than any single "optimization" I made. Consistency in creative refresh prevents fatigue and provides continuous learning.
5. Product-Channel Fit Matters More Than Funnel Design
Some products and business models are naturally suited to instant-decision advertising. Others need longer consideration periods that don't align well with paid social. Recognizing this mismatch early saves time and budget.
6. Attribution Is Less Important Than Results
Chasing perfect attribution in a cookieless world is a losing game. Focus on overall business growth and platform-native metrics rather than complex multi-touch attribution models.
7. Algorithm Partnership Over Algorithm Outsmarting
The best results come from working with platform algorithms, not trying to outsmart them with elaborate targeting schemes.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups looking to implement this approach:
Focus on creative that demonstrates immediate value rather than educational content
Test demo-focused creatives vs. feature-benefit angles weekly
Use broad professional targeting instead of detailed job titles
Track trial starts rather than complex funnel metrics
For your Ecommerce store
For e-commerce stores ready to simplify their paid media approach:
Create lifestyle, problem-solving, and price-focused creative angles
Use one campaign with broad demographic targeting
Test 3 new product showcase styles weekly
Optimize for ROAS rather than funnel progression metrics