Low eCommerce ROAS? 25 Tested Ideas to Boost Conversions

Wondering how to improve ROAS for your eCommerce store? Pick either of these two paths:

• Predictable: Inexpensive, on-site improvements that drive more repeat buyers, bigger carts, and better LTV
• Unpredictable: Expensive ad-side hacks that might pay off – but you’ll never really have control

We’ll cover both, but spoiler alert: the ‘Predictable’ path gives you control and consistent wins.

Here’s what we’ll cover: over 25 really smart ways to increase ROAS for your eCommerce store:

25 Tested Ideas To Increase Return On Ad Spend (ROAS)

On-Site Customizations to boost ROAS

1. Optimize landing pages for ad traffic

2. Get shoppers to spend more time on your site

3. Have UGC speak for your brand

4. Make seasonal marketing *more exciting*

5. Collect zero party data

6. Optimize SEO to offset paid ad costs

7. Get your mobile optimization right

8. Incorporate key conversational commerce elements

9. Craft your value proposition with care

10. Make your UX super smooth

11. Target repeat customers more effectively

12. Convert first-time visitors

13. Improve your localized targeting efforts

14. Use psychological nudges more strategically

15.  Feature offers that prompt purchases instantly

16. Optimize social proof display across the site

17. Don’t forget to tell a great story!

INCREASE ROAS WITH YOUR AD STRATEGY

18. Create lookalike audiences on high spenders

19. Supercharge your ad copy with emotional triggers

20. Upgrade your creatives like clockwork

21. Lower ad spend to improve ROAS

22. Scale your campaign structure to improve ad relevancy

23. Use negative targeting to stop wasting spend

24. Test ad placements like your margins depend on it

25. Get a jump on Google Shopping campaigns

Wait – What’s ROAS again?

ROAS is simply the revenue you make back for each dollar of ad spend (not to be confused with ROI, though, which measures the profitability against all the costs your business makes as a whole).

ROAS = Revenue ÷ Ad Spend (tracks top-line efficiency)

ROI = (Revenue – Total Cost) ÷ Total Cost (tracks real profit)

Do keep in mind: ROAS and ROI should both be calculated by campaigns. ROAS measures revenue, while ROI measures profitability.

What’s a good ROAS for eCommerce brands?

The average eCommerce ROAS benchmark? Anywhere above 2.05:1 (Firstpage). But averages lie. Ask yourself: Can you afford a 2:1 ROAS when your repurchase rate is zero?

So, a good ROAS depends on how much bank you make once shoppers land. This is why we begin with the inexpensive and predictable way (always the easiest lever to pull):

▶ On-Site Customizations to Improve ROAS

1. Optimize landing pages for ad traffic 

Best-converting landing pages grab people's attention, explain why a product is great, and nudge shoppers to complete the purchase. Here are some ideas you can try to improve ROAS with your landing pages:

✔ Align messaging with ad: Consistency in messaging increases trust and reduces confusion.

✔ Implement subtle micro-interactions: Animated buttons, hover effects and interactive tooltips enhance user engagement.

✔ Feature relevant social proof: Display the right reviews to the right demographics and prioritize quantifiable data over generic statements. 

✔ Look at mobile-first design: A simple landing page design with a single powerful CTA as well as crisp forms that are super easy to fill. 

2. Get shoppers to spend more time on your site

Considering almost two-thirds of all shoppers resort to weekly online shopping, you’ve got a huge opportunity waiting to tap into to improve your eCommerce ROAS. As long as you’re able to increase the time on site (TOS) on your website. 

✔ Make UX on high intent pages shine: Amongst other things, that would mean getting social proof right on the homepage, filtering & sorting sharp on category pages, highlighting the most critical info across product pages and prioritizing a sense of safety & reassurance on the checkout page. 

✔ Showcase highly specific offers: Personalize them based on past browsing, buying and even cart abandoning behavior, apart from finetuning them in context to seasonal behavior as well. 

✔ Feature engaging product content: Right from benefits to FAQs to competitor comparison charts, your visitors will love you and even buy from you when they find what they want (and don’t forget to optimize SEO!)

✔ Use the right psychological nudges: Pick the right ones based on your findings by studying purchase data, customer feedback and on-site behavior. 

eCommerce brand Warby Parker ensures sharp UX on their website apart from creating nudges throughout that support customers in their journey towards better buying:

Further Reading: 29 Best Examples of Nudge Marketing in eCommerce

3. Have UGC speak for your brand

Highlighting user-generated content means leveraging content created by your customers to enhance the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns

Here are some tips on how to improve return on ad spend (ROAS): 

✔ Focus on showing results-based content: The average shopper trusts “has helped 3000+ people with cleaner gut health” more than “3000 people have reviewed our product.”

✔ Feature Q&A sections across product pages: To facilitate customer interaction and address common queries.

✔ Choose UGC content with a clear narrative: Avoid UGC with a lot of inflating adjectives but a lack of benefit-driven pointers that can actually help potential shoppers make a choice. 

✔ Highlight elaborate reviews: If you have 6 markers across your review form, pick reviews that have all of them marked instead of just “this product fits great.”

If you look at eCommerce brand Aerie’s reviews, some show up as highly detailed such as this one, likely to help high intent shoppers more:

4. Make seasonal marketing *more exciting*

Seasonal promotions, done the right way, can help attract more customers, increase sales, and maximize return on ad spend during key holiday events. 

✔ Offer quality content that helps quicker, quality purchases: Make marketing campaigns complement your on-site promotions and drive traffic to your website. Create blog posts, gift guides, or holiday-themed videos that reinforce the seasonal messaging.

✔ Create an upsell / cross-sell strategy: Focus on pushing out related products, accessories, or add-ons that complement customers' purchases. See how Wayfair does it for St. Paddy’s Day:

✔ Make gift cards stand out: Incorporate seasonal designs and themes that customers would love to send to friends & family. 

✔ Make price comparisons drive buying: Recommend multiple products of differing prices, and ensure to make better offers on quantity purchases, subscriptions etc. 

Further Reading: 32 Holiday Marketing Ideas for eCommerce Stores (2025 Update)

5. Collect zero party data

Unlike first-party data, which is collected implicitly through user actions or transactions, and third-party data, which is acquired from external sources, zero-party data is voluntarily provided by shoppers with their explicit consent.

✔ Offer a product finder / bundle builder quiz: This helps customers discover products tailored to their needs or preferences.

✔ Use pop-ups as preference centers: Alongside offering rewards, discounts, or exclusive perks in exchange for providing information about their preferences, interests, or shopping habits. 

✔ Make it easier & more rewarding to wishlist: Find out who the users share these wishlists with, what they put into the wishlists and if they engage with products recommended on the basis of what’s in their wishlist. 

✔ Introduce a sticky feedback button on the website: Ensure you ask questions on the shopping experience as well as on website usability. 

6. Optimize SEO to offset paid ad costs

You can reduce your dependence on paid advertising, attract more targeted traffic to your site, and ultimately offset advertising costs with better SEO results.

✔ Aim to be featured in rich snippets: These are enhanced search results that provide immediate answers to user queries. Structure your content in a format that addresses common questions, FAQs, or "how-to" guides to increase the likelihood of being featured prominently in search results.

✔ Create content optimized for long-tail keywords: Hyper-specific, layered content helps to draw more traffic—so make sure your blogs are interlinked and you show targeted content across product & landing pages. 

✔ Localize to personalize: Optimize your website for local search by creating and optimizing Google My Business listings, local citations, and location-specific landing pages. 

✔ Build landing pages based on product comparisons: You can either feature charts comparing different products of the same theme from your own brand or compare with competitor products. 

eCommerce brand Vogue Candles features a number of product variations on their paid landing pages so that visitors can make their pick more easily without having to come back later:

7. Get your mobile optimization right

Many eCommerce brands forget that high intent traffic coming from ads have high expectations around a mobile experience. After all 66% of the eCommerce orders placed, come from mobile users.

To make your average ROAS for eCommerce grow with mobile optimization: 

✔ Opt for responsive design: This will automatically adjust and optimize the layout, content, and navigation based on the user's device screen size and orientation. 

✔ Prioritize hand gestures: Especially one-handed navigation that includes clicking, tapping and other actions like pinching, zooming etc. 

✔ Simplify forms: Make use of mobile HTML5 input types that naturally integrate keyboard methods, provide inline validation for instant error correction and break down complex sections with labels. 

✔ Minimize checkout steps: Provide one-click payment methods, feature social login options and fall back on a single page checkout with a progress bar. 

Further Reading: 30 Mobile Optimization Tips For eCommerce (+ Examples)

8. Incorporate key conversational commerce elements

In 2024, conversational commerce is more than simply adding a live chat on your homepage.

Here's how you can apply conversational advertising to improve ROAS:

✔ Embed a quiz that helps product discovery: For example, if you create custom-fit shirts, interested buyers would want their actual size to be replicated as closely as possible, or which a “What’s My Size” quiz can be highly beneficial to fetch style & fit recommendations. 

✔ Feature a “chat with an expert” functionality: This trumps a simple live chat functionality any day and helps build trust for audiences who may be relatively new to the brand. To improve UX, mention the expert’s name, what they do and how they can help in a blurb while the visitor waits to chat. 

✔ Show a Whatsapp chat widget: This is a key way of improving eCommerce return on ad spend by letting shoppers access a familiar channel of communication—since it’s more personal, more shoppers are likely to use it as well!

✔ Link to your community page: Feature it as a significant callout across product pages, as a prominent link on the footer as well as your loyalty program page. 

One eCommerce brand that’s high on conversational commerce is Begin Health, which creates prebiotics for kids—apart from a FAQ-enriched live chat (that also clearly mentions staff hours), the brand features links to active community groups on Facebook as well: 

Further Reading: Conversational Commerce: 21 Amazing Real-World Examples (eCommerce Brands)

9. Craft your value proposition with care

If shoppers are to consistently choose your brand from a sea of other competitors, you’ll have to clearly establish how you’re different and what you do differently.

That’s where how you craft your value proposition comes into the picture:

✔ Look into customer feedback to track repetitive pain points: This will reveal the kind of reassurances they’re looking for and what you can realistically state based on how you produce, curate or innovate. 

✔ Identify gaps in what competitors are selling: Getting a closer look at how competitor brands are positioning their products will tell you which unsaid factors to cover in your own communication. 

✔ Zero in on how your brand / products are different: Do you source your ingredients from ethically run farms? Do you have a policy of reusing materials that you end up not selling? 

✔ Drill it down to a hyper-specific message: Avoid generic ways of acknowledging what your brand is doing right and instead, focus on quantifiable information and facts to support your claims. 

Here’s a look at how eCommerce mattress brand has figured out measurable outcomes make potential shoppers interested—and how this in turn significantly improves their returns on ad spend:

10. Make your UX super smooth

There’s a reason why micro-conversions happen faster than conversions for a lot of clients we work with. 

And it tells a promising tale about how you can grow your ROAS while giving visitors ample opportunity to browse & buy:

✔ Sort out those landing pages first: Check if the ads you float are making visitors arrive at the right landing pages. Also check if elements like the hero image, the CTAs and trust signals are optimized. 

✔ Improve your main site’s loading speed: Bring in lazy loading, compressed images and get rid of redundant files, no matter which platform you’re using to host your eCommerce shop. 

✔ Make navigation simpler: Check if categorization is easy for shoppers to understand, transactional categories are higher up in hierarchy and if the site search function is optimal. 

✔ Pay special attention to the checkout flow: After a product is added to cart, find out how easy it is for shoppers to actually checkout—consider bringing in functionalities like express checkout on the product page itself, automatic discount application and auto form fillups where necessary.

11. Target repeat customers more effectively 

Repeat sales happening actually depend on how repeat customers feel about coming back to your store. 

And the more it is, the better are your profit margins, and the better your chances of offsetting your eCommerce ad spends. 

✔ Offer better value on subscriptions: For example, if your one-time purchases are available at $X, put a 20% discount on subscriptions and ensure you mention the value they’re deriving (“Valued at $200, subscribe for $170). 

✔ Talk about channel-specific deals: Increase the impetus of certain actions like email sign-ups and app downloads by declaring channel-only deals and discounts. 

✔ Have customer support stay up-to-date: You don’t want shoppers to repeat their pain points to customer support if they’re especially trying to resolve something across channels—so, maintain a centralized customer data platform and pick the right tool for omnichannel data integration. 

✔ Celebrate brand & customer milestones: Whether it’s your 10th year or the customer’s 2nd birthday spent buying with you, milestone offers go a long way in developing great relationships that in turn improve eCommerce ROAS considerably. 

Clothing brand The Limited is known to honor repeat customers by sharing special discounts on their birthdays:

Further Reading: 26 Brilliant Ways To Boost eCommerce Repeat Sales

12. Convert first-time visitors 

Every eCommerce brand knows how tough it can get to convince a potential customer to shop before they actually have—especially if they don’t have high intent or the brand operates in a crowded market. 

But to really max out on ROAS, it’s the first-time visitor you’ll need to court and coax into action:

✔ Focus on building trust: Since many of your first-time visitors won’t know your brand differently from competitors’, how you get them to see results, nudge them towards bestsellers and get their buy-in on your brand story becomes everything. 

✔ Let ‘em build their own bundle: Shoppers find more value in being able to make an informed choice when they’re first buying from a brand, making this a great starting point. 

✔ Feature first-time only offers: Mention it as microcopy on the product page or show it up as a pop-up when they first enter your site. 

✔ Make your welcome email powerful: Getting your first-time visitors to believe that you can be their go-to for a long time to come, is what will move them towards a purchase. 

Makeup brand Glossier sends welcome emails that tell first-time visitors what the brand’s vision is and what they can expect to get if they engage with the brand:

Further Reading: 18 Brilliant Ways To Convert First-Time Visitors Into Buyers (eCommerce)

13. Improve your localized targeting efforts

This can especially make a fundamental difference to improving your eCommerce ROAS during high-spending seasons.

Localizing your selling efforts could mean a bunch of things, though we’ll suggest only those we’ve really seen fly with clients:

✔ Go hyperlocal with recommendation updates: Factor in local weather conditions, cultural biases and language preferences to make these more on-point. For example, the same clothing store targeting residents in Colorado and residents in Nevada, would take different weather hooks into account (while Colorado shoppers would take more to winter clothing, those from Nevada would appreciate lightweight, summery recommendations.)

✔ Send inventory-based promos: With the help of geo-fencing it’s possible to trigger messages to shoppers when they enter a relevant area—something like “You’re close to our <enter name> warehouse. Order today to get an instant delivery and save 30% on your purchase!” can be compelling. 

✔ Show up payment methods preferred in that area: Incorporating geo IP tracking can help you do this, especially if you do crossborder commerce. 

✔ Allow them to choose a preferred language on live chat: A “chat in…” dropdown prompt right at the top of the chat window can create instant reassurance for shoppers. 

14. Use psychological nudges more strategically 

Ultimately, even if shoppers love the products you’ve got on your site, most of them need that last bit of push to actually buy. 

So, how you use psychological nudges across your site can contribute to your ROAS:

✔ Live purchase notifications on product pages: New shoppers on your site are always looking for extra reassurance when it comes to the first purchase, something live purchase updates can help to a great extent—consider using a “<Enter customer name> from <Place name> just bought <product name of the featured product on the page>” format. 

✔ Feature countdown timers alongside CTAs: Even if you’re not showing an actual countdown timer, ensure your microcopy drives urgency through statements like “Hurry Up! The sale ends tonight” and “Only 3 pieces left in stock!”

✔ Draw attention to the best-loved products: Though more subtle, recommending the “trending” and “bestseller” products on your site through prominent visual hierarchy can have a huge impact on your eCommerce return on ad spend. 

✔ Create value while showing nudges: Apart from the transactional assistance with deals & discounts, shoppers also look to brands for non-transactional help like blog guides, a money-back guarantee or a limited time risk-free trial. 

One eCommerce brand that specifically uses pop-ups as a psychological nudge to make messaging more targeted for paid ad visitors is Bille, a women’s grooming brand—here’s an example from their landing page when we went looking for “men’s grooming gifts for Christmas”, clearly targeting those who’re looking for gifts for multiple genders:

Further Reading: 29 Best Examples of Nudge Marketing in eCommerce

15.  Feature offers that prompt purchases instantly

As a CRO agency that works continuously on helping clients achieve more on-site conversions, we wish we could say all kinds of discounts help improve ROAS in eCommerce, but that wouldn’t be true. 

✔ Go for those quantity & tiered discounts: Shoppers love it if you're able to feature multiple quantity sizes and help them see they’ll get better discounts when they opt for the larger sizes. 

✔ Display bundles that “complete an experience”: The more complementary the products in a bundle, based on a shopper’s preferences, the more chances they’ll sell and improve eCommerce ROAS. 

✔ Feature a super-short flash sale: And make it exclusive to only your repeat customers—this way, you can even send them more targeted information on the sale. 

✔ Personalized deals based on browsing & buying behavior: Consider milestone offers as well as browse & cart abandonment deals to wheel shoppers back. 

16. Optimize social proof display across the site

While you may have great product reviews on your site, shoppers may still be looking for other kinds of social proof for a quick glance—so, to enhance return on ad spends, consider showing social proof on high intent pages like this:

✔ Highlight review snippets from diverse segments on the homepage: Alongside, mention the reviewer’s name, what they do, what they bought and the price point of the product. 

✔ Feature use cases along with reviews on the product page: Highlighting phrases like “great for a Sunday ritual” or “ideal for last-minute gifting” can draw attention from shoppers who’re actually looking to buy. 

✔ Show an overall category rating snapshot on the category page: This is ideal when you place it right below the banner image & a short banner description.

✔ Display shipping/ delivery related snippers on cart & checkout: This can act as last-minute assurance for those with complex customer objections or even the tendency towards cart abandonment.

Sephora is an eCommerce third-party aggregator brand that knows social proof can override a whole lot else to create confidence in customers across the funnel—here's an example of how effectively the brand uses different kinds of social proof (including numbers and UGC images) on their membership program page:

17. Don’t forget to tell a great story!

Last but not the least, eCommerce brands that see better ROAS and continued growth in customer lifetime value, have one thing in common: almost all of them tell a story that helps shoppers emotionally connect with the brand. 

✔ Embed customer pain points into your narrative: After all, customers need to know what they will experience differently with your brand to be able to make a purchase!

✔ Talk about the impact purchases create: Even if you don’t use cause marketing as a year-round tactic, telling shoppers if you’re donating a part of the cost to a charity or helping an NGO reforest a region, helps the “community” mindset of a typical shopper. 

✔ Set the standards in a buyer’s mind through BTS content: This is a great way to repurpose content that comes from either the UGC space or from your own employees to build trust and in turn, improve eCommerce ROAS. 

Outdoor Voices is an eCommerce brand that weaves its entirely storytelling around their values, which are about helping people connect with the “fun” element in being outdoorsy:

▶ AD STRATEGY OPTIMIZATION TO INCREASE ROAS 

18. Create lookalike audiences on high spenders

You’re not scaling if you’re only fishing in the same pond. When you’re trying to reduce ad spends and improve ROAS, targeting high-spending behavior is a must. But how will you know which areas specifically work? Here are a few suggestions:

✔ Look for buyers across categories: This indicates shoppers who’re genuinely interested in exploring your brand at a greater depth, helping you make note of which categories are most bought from as well!

✔ Find and target customers who spend 3× your average order: This is a clear indicator that such shoppers are already happy with your brand and may even be part of your loyalty program to be able to earn better deals & offers. 

✔ Target the top 5% of shoppers: Pull your top 5% of customers by total spend (or those with LTV > $500 or what’s a high LTV for your vertical) into a seed audience. Then, build 1%, 3%, and 5% lookalike audiences and run identical campaigns against each tier till each ad set reaches 5k impressions (do ensure you set exclusion rules).

✔ Look for those who’ve purchased X times every month: Consistency is key in identifying who purchases, let’s say, twice at least in three months across a year’s time. 

✔ Tap into referrals in your ads: Launch a referral ad loop → one campaign to attract new buyers, another to activate existing buyers to refer (with rewards). Keeps CAC low and ROAS tight.

Pro Tip: Measure the lift in Cost per Acquisition (CPA) and Purchase Rate against your broad targeting ad sets – CPA shouldn’t increase by more than 10%, and the purchase rate should be at least 20% (or else you might keep seeing low ROAS).

19. Supercharge your ad copy with emotional triggers

Even the best-targeted ads fall flat if the why behind a purchase is missing. Meta often pushes you to rely on automated targeting or broad interest groups, but that rarely captures emotional intent. To improve ROAS, speak to what your shoppers feel, not just what they do. Here’s how:

✔ Map emotional triggers to your product: A skincare brand doesn’t just sell a serum, it sells confidence. A sustainable snack brand isn’t about granola, it sells trust in ingredients. So, even before you decide on a strategy, understand specific emotions that pull people in.

✔ Turn those triggers into angles: Use your ad copy and creative to frame benefits emotionally, for example, “feel proud of what you feed your kids” beats “organic, gluten-free certified.” Or, “feel like yourself again” in awareness + a “dermatologist-approved” angle in retargeting just performs better.

✔ Target related topics and behaviors: Instead of just targeting “organic food,” target behaviors, communities, or influencers tied to those emotions, e.g., natural parenting groups, anti-fast-fashion communities, or mental wellness pages.

✔ Test emotional hooks vs. feature-based hooks: Run A/B tests with emotional-first messaging (e.g., “Build back your glow – and your confidence”) against your standard benefit-led copy in awareness ads. You’ll often find that emotion pulls better at the top of the funnel, while features help close the sale further down.

Here’s one awesome example of how Colorescience uses this tactic to appeal to two entirely different audiences in different funnel stages, to hype up their product launch:

Pro Tip: A/B test hooks in a 50/50 split for 5,000 impressions minimum. Look for a +15% bump in CTR and a 5 to 10% bump in conversion rate, for emotional over feature hooks. If emotion pulls a higher CTR, that’s just more clicks you didn’t have to increase ad spend for.

20. Upgrade your creatives like clockwork

You don’t need fancier ads. You need smarter ones. Your creative is often the single biggest driver of ROAS, especially in visual-first platforms like Meta and TikTok. Here’s what you need to do to improve your ROAS with your creatives:

✔ Run creative A/B tests fast: Test 1 to 2 variable changes at a time – like the copy, CTA, image style, model type, UGC vs product demo, persona, pain points vs. aspirations, models vs. product shots.

✔ Track what’s really working: Monitor thumb stop rate (3s video views), click-through rate (CTR), and post-click metrics like time on site. High scroll-stops but low add-to-cart? Tweak your value prop, not the hook. 

✔ Rotate in fresh content regularly: Ad fatigue sets in quickly. So, make sure to refresh angles every 2–3 weeks, even on winning creatives. 

✔ Create thumb-stopping copy: Go beyond “Shop now.” Try “Why 100K women choose this cleanser,” “It’s not just a jacket—it’s armor,” or “1 week. 3 compliments. Guaranteed.”

21. Lower ad spend to improve ROAS 

If you're still running one-size-fits-all campaigns, you’re likely bleeding ad spend. The best ROAS comes from dialing in the who, where, and how behind every click. Here’s how you can improve ad spend to boost ROAS:

✔ Split your ad spend by funnel: 60% TOF (cold), 30% MOF (engaged), and 10% BOF (cart & past purchasers) – and keep calculating the ROAS by stage on a daily basis.

✔ Automate budget shifts: Pause TOF ad spend if ROAS < 2:1 after $500 spend; pause MOF if ROAS < 3:1; and BOF if ROAS < 4:1. Use automated rules to move 10% of the paused budget into the next-highest-ROAS campaign.

✔ Scale with caution: Increase budget on winning ad sets by 10 to 15% every 3 to 5 days to avoid resetting the learning phase – a 50% jump in daily budgets is a great way to lower your ROAS (but make sure you let your campaigns learn first).

✔ Create clone ad sets: Instead of editing a high-performing ad set, duplicate it and test variations. This helps retain the campaign’s learning while still improving the creative or modifying the audience targeting.

✔ Avoid pausing evergreen performers: Pausing active campaigns, especially those still in learning, can drop performance fast. If in doubt, just reduce the budget by 15% (instead of turning them off).

✔ Run periodic ad audits: Once a week, check which campaigns are wasting spend, have low CTR, or low add-to-cart rate – if you’ve been running ads for 2 to 3 months, check:

• The repurchase rate
• The average time between viewing to purchase
• If your CAC has stabilized 

Pro Tips: 

• Every Monday, pause any ad set with CTR < 1%. Every Friday, review any ad set with a CPA > 2× target 
• Pick and clone ad sets (e.g., creative hook, lookalike tier, or placement) that offer the biggest delta in ROAS, and increase the budgets by 10% (if CPA goes up > 10%, scale back ad spend by 5%)

22. Scale your campaign structure to improve ad relevancy

If you keep blasting the same ol’ ad across the funnel, you're just gonna have low ROAS. Cold leads need a nudge. Warm leads need clarity. Hot leads need a push. Structure your campaigns to reflect where people are in the funnel. Here’s what we mean:

✔ Set up ad sequencing on behavior: Simply cast a wide net with any ad, create separate segments, and retarget with personalized creatives:

• 75% video viewed → showcase influencer quotes, before/afters, or quick user stories
• Cart page exit → show product benefit recap with shipping perks, or offers
• Viewed other categories → lead back with a product recommendation quiz (so you can nurture over email)
• Ad click with no scroll → switch creative format entirely

✔ Get your tracking into form: This means you shouldn’t lose data when shoppers move from your cart to checkout to thank-you page (or when they come back after 30 days).

✔ Re-engage abandoners: Keep dynamic ads that trigger for: browse abandoners (but after like within 3 days), cart abandoners (within 3 hours), and checkout abandoners (after 1 day, if they don’t engage with your emails).

✔ Set a limit for your ad frequency: Once frequency hits 4–5 and CTR starts dipping, switch creatives or rotate in a new offer. No one wants to see the same ad 12 times in a week.

✔ Run one campaign: Instead of 10 campaigns, have one campaign – break the ad sets down by funnel stage, creative format, and audience type.

Pro Tip: Always break your ad campaigns into ad sets to move shoppers through three stages: awareness (up to 4 weeks) → scale (up to 2 months) → sustain (after 3 months).

Also read: 12 Critical eCommerce Segmentation Mistakes (+ Ways to Fix Them)

23. Use negative targeting to stop wasting spend

Great targeting isn’t just about reaching the right people – it’s also about avoiding the wrong ones. Here’s what we mean:

✔ Block existing customers from awareness ads: If they’ve bought in the last 60 days or performed an action in your store, exclude them unless you’re cross-selling something fresh.

✔ Avoid refining personas, just target locations and leave it to the algo: Ad algorithms (especially Meta) are getting good at finding shoppers based on your creative, but make sure you limit the locations to limit your ad spend.

✔ Keep your abandoners separate from your core audience: This way, you don’t bombard them with irrelevant ads, which might take them away from the core goal.

✔ Block low-intent audiences: Exclude users with < 10s average session duration on the site, or those who had a page scroll depth < 20%.

24. Test ad placements like your margins depend on it

Not all ad placements are created equal, and sometimes the lowest CPCs come from the least valuable eyeballs. Here are some ideas you can try out:

✔ Run separate campaigns by placement type: Set up a static or video ad creative and use it to launch mini campaigns across all channels like Meta Stories, Instagram Reels, Google Display, and YouTube Shorts. Run each till each reaches 5k impressions (and then measure the effectiveness).

✔ Compare Shopping vs. Search vs. Video: Measure which form of ad campaign gets the highest number of cart abandonments and retains shoppers (will usually show you which platform actually balances cost for conversions).

✔ Skip partner placements for end-of-the-funnel ads: Display and YouTube ads are great for reach, terrible for conversions. At the bottom of the funnel, intrusive formats kill performance. Stick to in-feed placements (like Meta) where people can’t immediately tell they’re seeing an ad.

25. Get a jump on Google Shopping campaigns

For eCommerce stores, Google Shopping often brings in the most purchase-ready traffic, but only if you’ve optimized the feed to match real search behavior. Here’s what we mean:

✔ Enrich your product titles with search intent: Instead of “Comfort Runner 5,” use “Men’s Arch Support Running Shoes – Comfort Runner 5.” Mention materials, fit, brand, and delivery perks like “Ships in 24 hours.” It helps Google better match your product to the right queries.

✔ Update the offers in your product feed and set the offers to auto-apply: Set up feed-level promotions through Google Merchant Center and use the “auto-apply” setting so discounts are reflected directly in the cart (making it a great way to reduce drop-off and improve your ROAS in one go).

✔ Check your search terms report regularly and update keywords: Your search terms report shows which keywords shoppers actually search for and where ads get triggered. Once you get the data, group the keywords and find which product groups actually drive search volume (all while giving you real-time data on what to include in your product pages and product feeds).

KEEP READING:

23 Secrets to Running Successful Facebook Ads (For eCommerce Stores)

Convert more paid traffic—9 strategies that always work (eCommerce)

30 Underutilized Strategies For Increasing Customer Lifetime Value In eCommerce

eCommerce businesses also ask:

How to calculate ROAS?

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) is a key metric in e-commerce marketing that measures the revenue generated from advertising relative to the amount spent on those ads. 

It's calculated by dividing the revenue generated from ads by the cost of those ads. 

For example, if you spend $1000 on advertising and generate $5000 in revenue, your ROAS would be 5:1, meaning you earned $5 for every $1 spent on ads. 

ROAS is a critical indicator of the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns in driving sales and is used to assess the profitability of your marketing efforts.

What contributes to low eCommerce ROAS?

Even if you have really great product offerings and also a decent ad budget, your ROAS could still remain low, and here are the top 5 reasons why:

❌ Poor targeting: Since every segment of your larger audience is crucial to ad success and returns, if there’s no match between the messaging / offer and what a particular segment really cares about, ROAS is going to suffer. 

❌ Misaligned landing pages: Imagine a situation where the ad talks about a specific product, but when the visitor gets into the landing page, they see multiple listings and the product (& possibly offer) they want right away, is nowhere in sight!

❌ Value & pricing mismatch: When shoppers see that the price of a product is either too low or high compared to the value they perceive of the product, the tendency is to either find it too cheap or too expensive for purchase, leading to low eCommerce ROAS. 

❌ Ad copy not reflecting the value proposition: Typically, because a shopper will anyway see multiple ads when they key in a query, your ad copy has to differentiate from them effectively for the ad to make sense to the shopper. In the absence of that, shoppers will not click on the ad at all. 

❌ Lack of trust signals at key junctures: New visitors to an eCommerce store need multiple layers of trust building, period. This is why lower levels of social proof are always tied with poor eCommerce ROAS. 

How do I know what a good ROAS is for my store?

There’s no one-size-fits-all ROAS you have to hit. Instead, think of your target as a sweet spot that sits at the intersection of three things:

⭕ Your margins: If you’re selling a $100 product that only nets you a $20 profit (20% margin), you need a 4:1 to 9:1 ROAS just to break even. But if you’re sitting on a cushy 50–80% margin, a 3:1 ROAS can still make some bank.

⭕ How often do people buy: Got consumables like coffee or snacks (or a subscription)? Folks come back every month, so even a 2:1 to 3:1 ROAS pays off over time. Selling high-end sofas, electronics, or fine jewelry? If someone only buys from you every couple of years, you need 4x+ to cover the long wait.

⭕ Your pricing and cash flow: If you make your ad spend back in under 30 days, you can get away with a leaner 2:1 to 3:1 because you can reinvest quickly. If it takes 90 days or more to see that first dollar of profit, you’ll want 4:1 or higher just to keep payroll and rent afloat in the meantime. And if you have low-ticket items ($10–$30),  you’ll need higher volume, so a 5:1 to 6:1 ROAS can make sense because each dollar here can make you sweat bullets.

Pro Tip: For mid-ticket items ($50–$150), you get a bit more cushion, so a 2:1 to 3:1 ROAS often works. However, for high-ticket items ($200+), you get fewer purchases (+ higher risk), so aim for a 3:1 to 5:1 ROAS to cover acquisition and overhead.

How does ROAS differ from ROI (Return on Investment)?

ROAS specifically focuses on the return generated from advertising spend, while ROI considers the return on overall investment, which may include factors beyond advertising, such as operational expenses or product development costs. ROAS provides a more targeted view of the effectiveness of advertising efforts.

Effective UX precedes high ROAS

98% of visitors who visit an eCommerce site—drop off without buying anything.

Why: user experience issues that cause friction for visitors.

And this is the problem Convertcart solves.

We've helped 500+ eCommerce stores (in the US) improve user experience—and 2X their conversions.

How we can help you:

Our conversion experts can audit your site—identify UX issues, and suggest changes to improve conversions.