Sales & Conversion
Personas
Ecommerce
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
Last month, a Shopify store owner told me their Facebook ads "weren't working anymore." They'd spent $15K with their previous PPC consultant, got decent clicks, but sales were terrible. Classic story, right?
Here's the thing that most Shopify PPC consultants won't tell you: the problem isn't your targeting anymore. Privacy regulations killed detailed targeting. iOS 14.5 broke attribution. But most consultants are still playing the 2019 playbook.
After working on dozens of Shopify stores and watching the advertising landscape completely shift, I've learned that being a "traditional" PPC consultant is actually hurting your clients. The old approach of perfecting audience segments and optimizing for click-through rates? It's not just ineffective—it's expensive.
In this playbook, you'll discover:
Why audience targeting is dead (and what replaced it)
The creative testing framework that actually drives sales
How I restructured campaigns to let algorithms do the heavy lifting
Why most Shopify stores need fewer campaigns, not more
The simple metric shift that improved client ROAS
This isn't about becoming an expert in Facebook Business Manager. It's about understanding that growth in 2025 requires a fundamentally different approach to paid advertising.
Reality Check
What every Shopify store owner has been told
Walk into any Facebook Ads course or hire any "certified" PPC consultant, and you'll hear the same tired advice:
Perfect your audience targeting - Create lookalike audiences, layer interests, exclude previous purchasers
Optimize for clicks and engagement - Focus on CTR, CPM, and reaching the "right people"
Build complex campaign structures - Separate campaigns for cold traffic, warm audiences, retargeting
A/B test everything except creative - Test audiences, placements, bidding strategies
Scale by duplicating what works - Find winning ad sets and create variations
This conventional wisdom made sense in 2018. Facebook's targeting was precise, attribution was clear, and you could actually "hack" the algorithm with smart audience stacking.
The reason this advice persists? It's what PPC consultants learned to do, and it's easier to teach. Setting up audience targeting feels like you're doing something sophisticated. Clients see complex campaign structures and think they're getting value for their money.
But here's the uncomfortable truth: this approach is now fighting against how modern ad platforms actually work. Facebook's algorithm has become incredibly sophisticated at finding buyers—but only when you give it the right signals. And those signals come from creative, not targeting.
The targeting-first approach fails because it assumes you can outsmart an algorithm that processes millions of data points per second. You can't. But you can feed it better creative content.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
When I started managing Facebook ads for Shopify stores, I was guilty of everything I just criticized. I'd spend hours crafting perfect audience segments, analyzing demographics, and building elaborate campaign structures.
The wake-up call came with a B2C Shopify client selling fashion accessories. They'd been burned by two previous PPC consultants who used the "traditional" approach. Despite spending $8K monthly on ads, their ROAS was stuck at 1.8—barely breaking even.
I inherited campaigns with 47 different ad sets. Seriously. Cold traffic campaigns, warm audience campaigns, lookalike campaigns, behavior-based campaigns. It was a targeting nightmare that required constant management.
The previous consultant was proud of this complexity. "We're testing everything," they said. But when I dug into the data, I found something disturbing: the best-performing ads were succeeding despite the targeting, not because of it.
The same creative that worked in the "fashion enthusiasts" audience also worked in the "broad, 18-45 women" audience. The difference in performance wasn't targeting—it was creative fatigue. Good ads stopped working after a few days, regardless of how "perfect" the audience was.
That's when I realized we were solving the wrong problem. Instead of asking "who should see this ad?" I started asking "what ads actually make people stop scrolling and buy?"
This shift led me to discover what I now call the Creative-First PPC approach. Instead of fighting the algorithm with complex targeting, I learned to work with it by feeding it high-quality creative content consistently.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Here's the framework I developed after managing campaigns for dozens of Shopify stores: stop trying to find the perfect audience and start creating irresistible creative.
The New Campaign Structure (Simplified)
I completely restructured how I approach Shopify PPC campaigns. Instead of 40+ ad sets, I use this simple structure:
One broad campaign - Women 18-45 (or men, depending on product), broad interests, let Facebook optimize
One retargeting campaign - Website visitors from last 30 days
Multiple ad sets within each campaign - But each ad set tests different creative angles, not audiences
That's it. No complex audience layering, no lookalike audience testing, no behavioral targeting tricks.
The Creative Testing System
Here's where the magic happens. Instead of spending time on audience research, I developed a systematic approach to creative testing:
Weekly Creative Launch Schedule: Every Monday, I launch 3 new creative variations across different ad sets. Not 3 new audiences—3 new creative approaches testing different angles:
Problem-focused creative ("Stop struggling with...")
Lifestyle-focused creative (aspirational imagery)
Social proof creative (user-generated content)
The 48-Hour Rule: I let each creative run for exactly 48 hours before making any decisions. This gives Facebook's algorithm enough time to find the right people without my interference.
Performance Evaluation: After 48 hours, I look at one metric: ROAS. Not CTR, not CPM, not engagement. Just ROAS. Creative that hits 3.0+ ROAS gets more budget. Everything else gets paused.
Creative Refresh Strategy: Here's the key insight—good creative dies fast on Facebook. Even winning ads lose effectiveness after 3-5 days due to audience fatigue. So I'm constantly creating new variations of winning concepts.
For example, if a "before and after" video works well, I'll create 5 more "before and after" videos with different styling, music, or testimonials. Same angle, fresh execution.
Data-Driven Creative Development: I track which creative angles work best for each type of product. For fashion accessories, lifestyle shots outperform product-only images by 40%. For tech gadgets, demonstration videos crush static images. This data informs future creative production.
This approach requires closer collaboration with the client's content team, but the results speak for themselves. Instead of managing complex targeting, I spend time on what actually drives sales: compelling creative that stops people mid-scroll.
Creative Foundation
Setting up systematic creative testing workflows that feed Facebook's algorithm the content it needs to find buyers
Data Analysis
Tracking ROAS over vanity metrics and understanding which creative angles drive actual revenue for different product types
Algorithm Partnership
Working with Facebook's machine learning instead of fighting it through complex targeting and manual optimization
Content Calendar
Establishing consistent creative production schedules that prevent audience fatigue and maintain campaign performance
The results from this creative-first approach were immediate and dramatic. For that fashion accessories client, ROAS jumped from 1.8 to 4.2 within the first month.
More importantly, campaign management became sustainable. Instead of spending hours tweaking audiences and analyzing demographic data, I focused on creative performance and production planning.
The time savings were significant too. What used to take 10 hours per week of campaign optimization now takes 3 hours. The bulk of my work shifted to creative strategy and content planning—which actually drives results.
This approach also solved the attribution problem that plagues most Shopify stores. When you're testing creative angles instead of audiences, you can see clear patterns in what messaging resonates. Even if Facebook's attribution is off, you know which creative concepts are working.
The client was able to scale their ad spend from $8K to $15K monthly while maintaining profitability. More importantly, they had a clear content roadmap that didn't rely on "finding the perfect audience" that might disappear with the next iOS update.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
Audience targeting is dead - Privacy changes killed detailed targeting. Stop fighting this reality and start working with broad audiences.
Creative is your new targeting - The algorithm finds the right people when you give it compelling content, not complex audience rules.
Simplify campaign structures - Complex campaigns don't improve performance. They just make management harder and learning slower.
Focus on ROAS, not vanity metrics - CTR and engagement don't pay the bills. Revenue does.
Creative dies fast - Even winning ads lose effectiveness within days. Plan for constant creative refresh, not campaign optimization.
Content production is now part of PPC - You can't separate advertising from content creation anymore. Budget for both.
Work with the algorithm, not against it - Facebook's machine learning is incredibly powerful when you feed it quality inputs.
If I were starting over, I'd spend less time learning Facebook Business Manager tricks and more time understanding what makes people stop scrolling and click "buy." The technical skills matter less than creative strategy skills.
This approach works best for stores with visual products and the ability to produce video content regularly. It's harder to implement for service-based businesses or companies that can't create engaging visual content.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS companies looking to apply this approach:
Focus on demo videos and screen recordings over static feature lists
Test problem-focused vs solution-focused messaging angles
Use customer testimonials and case study snippets as creative content
Leverage SaaS growth strategies that emphasize content over targeting
For your Ecommerce store
For e-commerce stores implementing this framework:
Invest in user-generated content and customer video testimonials
Create lifestyle content that shows products in use, not just product shots
Test seasonal and trending content angles based on current events
Implement conversion optimization tactics on landing pages to support ad traffic