Context
A direct-to-consumer health brand had been running profitable Meta Ads for 2 years. After iOS 14 privacy changes, ROAS dropped from 4.2x to 1.6x in 60 days. They were considering abandoning paid social entirely.
Problem
Attribution was broken. The brand was optimizing against signals that no longer existed. Creative testing was unstructured, audiences were overlapping, and there was no first-party data strategy to compensate for the loss of pixel data.
Strategy
Rebuild the entire paid media architecture from the ground up with a first-party data foundation. Shift optimization events from purchase to add-to-cart (higher signal volume), build a creative testing system, and implement server-side tracking via Conversions API.
Execution
Phase 1: Implemented Meta CAPI via Shopify integration + GTM. Phase 2: Rebuilt campaign structure (1 campaign per funnel stage, broad targeting, CBO). Phase 3: Launched a weekly creative sprint — 3 new concepts tested per week in a structured DKI framework. Phase 4: Built a first-party data capture flow (quiz funnel) feeding a custom audience of 14k+ in 90 days.
System Built
Shopify → Meta CAPI → Event Match Quality score improved to 8.4/10. Creative testing tracker in Airtable with hooks scoring wins. Klaviyo email flows triggered from quiz funnel entries. Weekly automated performance report via Looker Studio → email.
Outcome
ROAS recovered to 3.8x within 90 days. Monthly ad spend scaled from €15k to €45k while maintaining profitability. Creative pipeline reduced guesswork — top-performing creative identified within 7 days instead of 30.