We consistently drive high-impact sales campaigns on Meta, and we're here to show you how, with tangible results to prove it.

Meta is a powerful sales engine, but only if you know how to use it. With rising ad costs and stiffer competition, running profitable ads takes a deep understanding of what actually works. Sales periods bring a surge in consumer demand, and businesses respond by ramping up their ad spend. With more brands competing for attention, ad space becomes more expensive, and standing out becomes more difficult. That’s why getting your sales strategy right is critical to maximising your ROI.

Whether you're planning a one-day flash sale or a full-scale seasonal campaign, keep reading to learn how to run high-converting sales on Meta.

Data Driven Strategy

Before building any campaign, review your ad account’s historical performance. Analysing what previously drove profitable growth allows you to allocate budget more efficiently, reduce costs, and scale based on data, not assumptions.

‍Choosing the Right Campaign Types and Objectives

For growth-focused businesses, this is where the difference lies between high-performing campaigns and wasted budget.

Explore Growth-Focused Campaign Types

Consider campaign types that unlock new opportunities. For example, in the lead-up to a sale, running a lead generation campaign offering early access can help:

• Build hype, demand, and scarcity
• Grow and diversify your custom audiences, which are often the first to become saturated
• Retarget high-intent leads with countdown ads and exclusive offers

According to McKinsey, personalisation marketing can reduce customer acquisition costs by as much as 50% and increase ROI by up to 30%.¹

Strategic Budgeting and Targeting

Next, analyse audience performance across:

• Interest-based audiences
• Custom audiences (e.g., website visitors or email lists)
• Lookalike audiences

Watch for Audience Fatigue and Scaling Limits

High frequency and declining ROAS often signal saturation. In these cases, you may need to:

• Refresh your targeting, narrowing or expanding the audience
• Expand into new segments, experimenting with new interests or behaviours

‍Example: If your lookalike audience is performing well but showing signs of fatigue, consider creating new lookalikes based on more granular actions, such as adding to cart or initiating checkout. Diversifying ad sets reduces fatigue and opens new growth opportunities.

Creative and Messaging That Converts

The ad level is where users interact with your brand most directly, so every creative decision has a measurable impact on performance. Start by identifying which ads delivered the strongest results in past campaigns, taking into account both top and bottom-of-funnel metrics to understand what’s capturing attention and what’s driving conversions.

Test Creative Formats

Evaluate how different formats performed across the funnel, such as:

• Static ads
• Carousel ads
• Collection ads
• Video ads

Branded content vs User-Generated Content (UGC)

For many brands, UGC and organic-style videos consistently outperform polished creative, as they feel more authentic and relatable. According to Nielsen, 92% of consumers trust earned media, like recommendations from friends and family, more than any other form of advertising, making UGC a powerful asset during high-competition sales periods.

Tailor Messaging to Audience Type

Finally, review which headlines and messaging angles delivered the best results.

• First-time buyers often respond well to introductory offers or urgency-driven discounts.
• Returning customers may be more influenced by value-based or loyalty-focused messaging.

The closer your creative aligns with audience intent, the higher the likelihood of conversion.

Case Studies

Real Results From Our Game-Changing Black Friday Strategies

E-Commerce Client A

To maximise Black Friday performance, we partnered with Client A to execute a full-funnel sales strategy. In the lead-up to the sale, we launched a multi-phase campaign including awareness and lead generation campaigns designed to build anticipation and grow a high-intent audience ahead of launch. The lead generation campaign brought in a total of 14,983 new leads.

During the sale, warm audiences:

• Delivered 145% higher ROAS
• 60% lower CPA compared to top-of-funnel
• Accounted for 66% of total revenue

With this structure in place, we were able to confidently scale ad spend by 102%, resulting in…

• New Zealand: 210% increase in revenue YoY for Black Friday, with a ROAS of 58
• Australia: 292% increase in revenue YoY for Black Friday, with a ROAS of 26

E-Commerce Client B

Client B launched an early access sale starting November 20, driving urgency with exclusive offers and personalised messaging. Leveraging their year-round lead generation efforts, we were able to tap into a large pool of high-intent prospects that was primed to convert.

The early access sale generated:

• 52% of total Black Friday revenue

This momentum carried into the official Black Friday launch, where we introduced a new campaign type, Advantage+ Shopping. The test proved highly successful, driving:

• 38% of total revenue and achieving a ROAS of 23.

Overall Results: 91% increase in revenue YoY for Black Friday, with a ROAS of 21.

E-Commerce Client C

For Client C, we launched a lead generation campaign nearly two weeks ahead of Black Friday, targeting key markets in New Zealand, Australia, and the United States. The campaign brought in 2,639 new leads, which were retargeted with conversion ads during the sale period. By layering audience segmentation and personalised messaging, we helped Client C achieve:

• 169% YoY revenue increase, with a ROAS of 6 across all markets.

Our lead generation strategy, proven effective for Black Friday, offers a valuable framework for building anticipation across various promotional events, including regular sales and product launches. By proactively capturing leads, businesses cultivate a primed audience who are more likely to convert. This pre-event engagement:

• Facilitates customer education about upcoming offers
• Generates hype for new products
• Fosters a sense of exclusivity

Ultimately, it drives stronger initial sales and a more engaged customer base from day one.

Conclusion

The most successful brands don’t launch and hope - they launch, measure, optimise, and repeat. Ultimately, testing isn’t just about improving performance, it’s about de-risking your investment, protecting margins, and building a repeatable system for scalable growth. For brands with high revenue targets and complex customer journeys, this is a crucial step to running profitable sales on Meta.

As platforms evolve and competition intensifies, the margin for error narrows. But with the right strategy in place, you can scale spend confidently, outperform competitors, and turn seasonal spikes into sustained growth.

‍Want to make your next sale your most profitable yet? Get in touch with our team to plan your next high-performance advertising campaign that drives results before, during, and after your big event.

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^{¹McKinsey . (2023, May 30). What Is personalization? McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-personalization}

^{²Nielsen. (2012, April). Consumer Trust in Online, Social and Mobile Advertising Grows. Nielsen. https://www.nielsen.com/insights/2012/consumer-trust-in-online-social-and-mobile-advertising-grows/}