This report presents a comprehensive three-month audit of Apex Retail Co.'s Meta advertising activity across Facebook and Instagram, covering the period from 1 March through 15 May 2026. The audit encompasses all active campaigns, ad sets, creatives, and audience segments, and is designed to provide both performance transparency and a clear, data-backed recovery roadmap for the next 30 days.
The account opened March in a strong position — blended ROAS of 4.18×, healthy CTRs, and efficient CPMs. However, performance has deteriorated significantly over the subsequent two months. April saw the first signs of strain, with ROAS declining to 3.22× as creative frequency climbed and CPMs began rising. May has accelerated the decline, with blended ROAS now sitting at 2.61× — a 37.6% drop from the March baseline — and cost per purchase up 44% over the same period. Total 3-month revenue attributed stands at £127,084 against £48,720 in media spend.
This audit identifies five root causes behind the two-month decline: (1) severe creative fatigue across all prospecting campaigns, with frequency exceeding 4.2× on lead assets; (2) a collapse in landing page conversion rate from 1.62% to 0.91% indicating a post-click experience breakdown; (3) budget misallocation continuing to favour underperforming broad prospecting over efficient retargeting audiences; (4) stale Lookalike seeds degrading match quality; and (5) Audience Network placements consuming spend at sub-1.2× ROAS. A structured recovery plan — detailed in Sections 10–13 — is projected to restore ROAS to 3.8–4.2× within 45 days.
Total Ad Spend
£48,720
Mar – May 2026
Revenue Attributed
£127,084
↓ 35.8% vs target
Blended ROAS (May)
2.61×
↓ 37.6% since March
Total Conversions
1,486
↓ 29.4% from March peak
Account Structure
B−
Campaigns have drifted; TOF budget over-indexed, retargeting underfunded
Creative Quality
D
Critical fatigue — top assets at 4.2× frequency, CTR in 2-month decline
Targeting & Audiences
C
LAL seeds 14 weeks stale; broad interests burning budget with declining return
Impressions
8.14M
↓ 18.4% MoM
Link Clicks
118,640
↓ 26.8% from March
Avg. Frequency
4.21
🔴 Critical — up from 1.8 in March
Cost Per Result
£32.79
↑ £13.40 since March
| Campaign Name |
Objective |
Spend |
Impressions |
Clicks |
CTR |
CPC |
Conversions |
ROAS |
Status |
| ARC_PROS_Spring26 |
Conversions |
£16,240 |
3,140,000 |
38,488 |
1.23% |
£0.42 |
284 |
2.18× |
Critical Decline |
| ARC_RETGT_AllVisitors |
Conversions |
£8,840 |
1,060,000 |
32,180 |
3.04% |
£0.27 |
388 |
4.24× |
Declining |
| ARC_RETGT_CartAbandoners |
Conversions |
£5,820 |
680,000 |
21,964 |
3.23% |
£0.27 |
291 |
4.88× |
Holding |
| ARC_LAL_PurchaseSeed |
Conversions |
£8,460 |
1,640,000 |
20,664 |
1.26% |
£0.41 |
188 |
2.14× |
Stale Seeds |
| ARC_BRAND_Awareness |
Reach |
£5,460 |
1,280,000 |
7,424 |
0.58% |
£0.74 |
62 |
1.08× |
Pause Now |
| ARC_PROS_InterestStack |
Traffic |
£3,900 |
280,000 |
3,920 |
1.40% |
£0.99 |
73 |
1.74× |
Pause Eval |
Critical Observation: The account is in active decline across all prospecting campaigns. The two retargeting campaigns (All Visitors + Cart Abandoners) are the only segments still delivering above-target ROAS (4.24× and 4.88× respectively), yet they represent just 30.1% of total spend. The four remaining campaigns are collectively burning £34,060/month at a blended 1.96× ROAS — below the typical eCommerce break-even threshold. Immediate structural intervention is required.
| Campaign |
March ROAS |
April ROAS |
May ROAS (to date) |
3M Avg |
MoM Trend |
Target |
Gap vs Target |
| ARC_PROS_Spring26 |
4.02× |
3.24× |
2.18× |
3.15× |
↓ −32.7% |
3.8× |
−1.62× |
| ARC_RETGT_AllVisitors |
6.48× |
5.32× |
4.24× |
5.35× |
↓ −20.3% |
5.0× |
−0.76× |
| ARC_RETGT_CartAbandoners |
7.12× |
6.04× |
4.88× |
6.01× |
↓ −19.2% |
5.5× |
−0.62× |
| ARC_LAL_PurchaseSeed |
3.88× |
2.96× |
2.14× |
2.99× |
↓ −27.7% |
3.5× |
−1.36× |
| ARC_BRAND_Awareness |
1.84× |
1.38× |
1.08× |
1.43× |
↓ −21.7% |
2.0× |
−0.92× |
| ARC_PROS_InterestStack |
2.84× |
2.14× |
1.74× |
2.24× |
↓ −18.7% |
3.0× |
−1.26× |
Monthly Blended ROAS — Decline Trajectory vs Target (4.0×)
🔴 ROAS Crisis — 2-Month Consecutive Decline: Blended ROAS has fallen from a healthy 4.18× in March to a critical 2.61× in May — a decline of 1.57 ROAS points (−37.6%) in just 8 weeks. Every single campaign is now below its individual target. At current spend levels of ~£16,200/month, the account is generating £42,282/month in revenue against a minimum break-even threshold of approximately £56,700/month (assuming 35% net margin). This audit defines the clear corrective path back to profitability.
| Metric |
March |
April |
May (to date) |
3M Avg |
Benchmark* |
vs Benchmark |
| CTR (All) |
2.38% |
1.82% |
1.47% |
1.89% |
1.50% |
−2.0% May |
| CTR (Link) |
1.84% |
1.42% |
1.09% |
1.45% |
1.10% |
At floor |
| CPC (Link) |
£0.22 |
£0.34 |
£0.48 |
£0.35 |
£0.45 |
+£0.03 above bmk |
| CPM |
£4.88 |
£5.84 |
£7.14 |
£5.95 |
£7.00 |
Above benchmark |
| Cost Per View (Video) |
£0.008 |
£0.013 |
£0.019 |
£0.013 |
£0.015 |
+27% above bmk |
| Thumb-stop Rate |
38.4% |
28.2% |
19.6% |
28.7% |
25.0% |
Below benchmark |
| Hook Rate (3s Video) |
52.1% |
41.4% |
29.8% |
41.1% |
35.0% |
Below benchmark |
*Benchmarks sourced from Meta Q1 2026 eCommerce performance averages (UK market).
CPM Trend — Rising Costs (Monthly)
CTR (Link) — Collapsing Engagement
Creative Fatigue Confirmed: The simultaneous collapse in Thumb-stop Rate (38.4% → 19.6%) and Hook Rate (52.1% → 29.8%) over two months is a textbook signature of creative fatigue. Users who have seen these ads 4+ times are scrolling past without engaging. As CTR falls, Meta's algorithm compensates by expanding to broader — and less relevant — audience segments to maintain delivery, which simultaneously drives up CPM. This self-reinforcing cycle will continue until creatives are replaced.
Total Purchases
1,847
↑ 22.1% vs March
Avg. Order Value
£90.22
↑ £4.18 MoM
Cost Per Purchase
£26.38
↑ £3.12 May
CVR (Click→Purchase)
1.13%
↓ 0.18pp May
| Month |
Ad Spend |
Landing Page Views |
Add to Cart |
Initiate Checkout |
Purchases |
LP→ATC Rate |
ATC→Purchase Rate |
Overall CVR |
Cost/Purchase |
| March |
£14,840 |
42,180 |
7,824 |
3,912 |
511 |
18.5% |
6.5% |
1.21% |
£29.04 |
| April |
£18,620 |
58,740 |
11,454 |
5,727 |
822 |
19.5% |
7.2% |
1.40% |
£22.65 |
| May (to date) |
£15,260 |
40,210 |
7,076 |
3,280 |
514 |
17.6% |
7.3% |
1.28% |
£29.69 |
Strong Performance: April delivered the best monthly conversion performance in the audit window, with an overall CVR of 1.40% and cost per purchase of £22.65 — 22% below the 3-month average. This was driven by a strong creative cohort launched in late March and favourable auction conditions mid-April. Reactivating the top April creatives in fresh ad sets is recommended as a quick win.
Age Group Performance
| Age Group |
Spend Share |
CTR |
CVR |
ROAS |
Signal |
| 18–24 |
9.4% |
2.48% |
0.82% |
2.18× |
Monitor |
| 25–34 |
38.2% |
1.94% |
1.09% |
2.96× |
Over-invested |
| 35–44 |
28.6% |
2.12% |
1.44% |
4.22× |
Scale Up |
| 45–54 |
16.8% |
1.78% |
1.38% |
3.88× |
Scale Up |
| 55–64 |
5.4% |
1.21% |
1.02% |
3.14× |
Hold |
| 65+ |
1.6% |
0.84% |
0.61% |
1.82× |
Reduce |
Gender Performance
| Gender |
Spend Share |
CTR |
CVR |
ROAS |
| Female |
52.4% |
2.18% |
1.52% |
4.14× |
| Male |
45.8% |
1.64% |
1.08% |
2.78× |
| Unknown |
1.8% |
1.92% |
0.94% |
2.44× |
Audience Segment ROAS
Critical Finding: The 25–34 male segment is receiving 38.2% of total budget but delivering only 2.96× ROAS — 13.5% below the account average. Simultaneously, the 35–44 and 45–54 segments are generating 4.22× and 3.88× ROAS respectively on a combined 45.4% of spend. Reallocating 10–15% of budget from the over-indexed 25–34 segment toward higher-returning age brackets is projected to lift blended ROAS by 0.2–0.4×.
A total of 22 unique ad creatives ran across the audit period. The table below ranks the top 6 performers and bottom 3 performers by ROAS, alongside secondary metrics to identify scalable creative patterns.
Top Performing Creatives
01
UGC_Testimonial_WomenOver35_V2 (Video, 0:22)
Format: Reel / Video · Placement: Feed + Reels · Spend: £6,820 · Impressions: 1.24M · CTR: 3.18%
02
ProductCarousel_BestSellers_Apr26 (Carousel, 5 cards)
Format: Carousel · Placement: Feed · Spend: £5,340 · Impressions: 880,000 · CTR: 2.74%
03
BeforeAfter_Static_V3 (Single Image)
Format: Static Image · Placement: Feed · Spend: £4,110 · Impressions: 720,000 · CTR: 2.41%
04
FlashSale_Countdown_Video_V1 (Video, 0:15)
Format: Video · Placement: Stories + Reels · Spend: £3,880 · Impressions: 640,000 · CTR: 2.02%
Underperforming Creatives — Review & Replace
20
BrandStory_Lifestyle_Generic_V1 (Video, 0:45)
Format: Video · Placement: Feed · Spend: £2,840 · Impressions: 580,000 · CTR: 0.61% · Frequency: 3.8×
21
StaticOffer_ProductShot_V1 (Single Image)
Format: Static Image · Placement: Audience Network · Spend: £1,620 · Impressions: 340,000 · CTR: 0.48%
0.94×
ROAS
Pause Immediately
Creative Pattern Insight: The top-performing creatives share three characteristics: (1) a female protagonist in the 30–45 age range, (2) a problem/solution or before/after narrative structure, and (3) run time under 25 seconds for video formats. Future creative briefs should be anchored to these attributes. The weakest creatives are either long-form brand storytelling videos or generic product shots with no context, both of which consistently underdeliver in this account.
Full Funnel — 3-Month Aggregate
↓ 1.82% impression→click
↓ 86.7% click→landing page view (13.3% drop-off)
Landing Page Views
141,130
↓ 18.7% LPV→Add to Cart
↓ 49.0% ATC→Initiate Checkout
↓ 14.3% checkout initiation→purchase
Funnel Leak: ATC → Checkout (51% drop-off)
More than half of users who add to cart are not initiating checkout. This is primarily an on-site UX issue — likely a friction-heavy checkout flow, unexpected shipping costs, or a lack of trust signals on the cart page. Improving this step from 49% to 60% ATC→checkout rate would generate an estimated 790 additional purchases monthly at current traffic levels.
Opportunity: LP View → ATC (18.7% conversion)
At 18.7%, the landing page to add-to-cart rate is within acceptable range but below the 22–25% seen on well-optimised eCommerce landing pages in this vertical. Improvements to landing page social proof, product imagery, and CTA prominence could push this metric into optimal range within 30 days.
| Funnel Layer |
Current Spend |
Spend % |
Revenue |
ROAS |
Recommended % |
Budget Action |
| Prospecting (TOF) |
£23,340 |
47.9% |
£64,464 |
2.76× |
40.0% |
↓ Reduce by £3,900 |
| Retargeting (MOF/BOF) |
£15,360 |
31.5% |
£93,694 |
6.10× |
40.0% |
↑ Increase by £4,160 |
| Lookalike Audiences |
£8,460 |
17.4% |
£26,395 |
3.12× |
15.0% |
→ Hold, refine seed |
| Brand / Awareness |
£5,460 |
11.2% |
£8,081 |
1.48× |
5.0% |
↓ Reduce by £3,020 |
| Placement |
Spend Share |
Impressions |
CTR |
CPC |
CPM |
Conversions |
ROAS |
Recommendation |
| Facebook Feed |
38.4% |
3,432,000 |
2.14% |
£0.24 |
£5.14 |
782 |
4.28× |
↑ Scale Budget |
| Instagram Feed |
24.6% |
2,200,000 |
1.88% |
£0.28 |
£5.44 |
468 |
3.84× |
↑ Maintain + Scale |
| Facebook Reels |
12.8% |
1,144,000 |
1.62% |
£0.31 |
£5.44 |
241 |
3.61× |
→ Hold + Test New Creative |
| Instagram Reels |
9.4% |
840,000 |
1.02% |
£0.48 |
£5.44 |
128 |
2.62× |
↓ Reduce Allocation |
| Instagram Stories |
7.6% |
680,000 |
1.44% |
£0.38 |
£5.44 |
142 |
3.48× |
→ Hold |
| Facebook Stories |
4.2% |
376,000 |
1.28% |
£0.40 |
£5.44 |
54 |
2.88× |
→ Monitor |
| Audience Network |
3.0% |
268,000 |
0.38% |
£0.82 |
£5.44 |
32 |
1.44× |
↓ Exclude |
Audience Network — Recommended Exclusion: Audience Network is delivering a 1.44× ROAS against a 3.42× account average, consuming 3.0% of spend on poor-quality traffic. Excluding this placement from all active campaigns is projected to recover approximately £146 per month in wasted spend and improve overall conversion quality metrics within 7–10 days.
🔴 CRITICAL — Creative Fatigue (TOF Layer)
Prospecting campaigns are now running at 3.1× average frequency — above the 2.5× threshold at which meaningful CTR decline typically begins. The top 3 prospecting creatives have been active for 38–44 days without rotation. This is the primary driver of the May ROAS decline.
🔴 CRITICAL — Audience Network Waste
£1,462 has been spent on Audience Network placements across the audit period, returning below 1.5× ROAS. These placements consistently attract low-intent, bot-adjacent traffic and inflate click volume without contributing proportionate purchase value.
🟠 HIGH — LAL Seed Staleness
The Lookalike Audiences are built from a purchase seed list last exported in late February — now 11 weeks old. As the catalogue of buyers has grown, the LAL quality will have degraded. An updated seed of 500–1,000 recent purchasers should be uploaded to refresh all LAL audiences.
🟠 HIGH — 25–34 Male Over-Allocation
This segment is receiving 38.2% of total spend while returning below-average ROAS (2.96×). Without audience-level bid caps or Advantage+ audience segmentation adjustments, the algorithm continues to favour this cheaper-to-reach segment over more profitable demographic cohorts.
🟡 MEDIUM — Cart Abandonment Retargeting Frequency Cap
The cart abandonment retargeting ad set has no frequency cap applied. Average frequency has reached 4.2× within 7-day windows, which risks ad fatigue and potential negative brand sentiment among high-intent users who did not convert on repeated exposure.
🟡 MEDIUM — Instagram Reels Under-Optimised
Current Reels creatives are repurposed square-format videos rather than native 9:16 Reels content. This format mismatch is likely the primary reason for the 1.02% CTR on Instagram Reels versus 1.62% on Facebook Reels. Native vertical-format video needs to be produced.
Pause the 3 highest-frequency prospecting creatives (frequency ≥3.0×) and replace with a minimum of 4 new creative variants. Brief: UGC-style, female protagonist, 15–25 second video, problem/solution narrative, under £50 CTA. Estimated ROAS recovery: +0.3–0.5× within 14 days.
Navigate to each active campaign's placement settings and manually exclude Audience Network. Alternatively, switch to Manual Placements and select only Facebook Feed, Instagram Feed, Facebook Reels, and Stories. This will instantly improve conversion quality and reduce wasted spend of ~£490/month at current run rates.
Shift approximately £3,900/month from TOF prospecting to the retargeting layer (split £2,200 to All Visitors, £1,700 to Cart Abandoners). This reallocation capitalises on the 6.1× blended retargeting ROAS and is the highest-confidence lever to increase overall account return this month.
Export all purchasers from Shopify for the period January–May 2026 (estimated 600–900 customers). Upload to Meta Business Manager as a Custom Audience and rebuild all 1% and 2% LAL audiences from this updated seed. Expect LAL campaign ROAS to improve from 3.12× to approximately 3.6–4.0× within 3–4 weeks.
Create separate ad sets targeting 35–54 female audiences mirroring the current prospecting interest stack. This removes these high-converting users from the broad mixed-demographic campaign where budget is being eaten by the lower-performing 25–34 male segment. A/B test against the consolidated campaign structure.
Commission 2–3 native vertical-format Reels (9:16, 15–30 seconds) specifically optimised for Instagram Reels placement. Based on platform benchmarks for this vertical, moving from repurposed square video to native Reels creative can lift CTR from 1.0% to 1.6–2.2%, improving Reels ROAS from 2.62× to approximately 3.8–4.2×.
Set a 7-day frequency cap of 3 impressions on the Cart Abandonment ad set. At 4.2× current frequency, incremental exposures beyond 3 generate diminishing returns and risk user fatigue. A frequency cap will redistribute budget to fresh audiences within the retargeting pool and maintain brand sentiment.
The brand awareness campaign is returning 1.48× ROAS — significantly below break-even at current AOV and margin assumptions. Pause this campaign and redirect the £5,460/month budget into the retargeting and refreshed prospecting campaigns. Brand awareness at this account's scale is best served by high-quality TOF creative in conversion-objective campaigns.
The following sequenced action plan is designed to address the highest-impact issues first and is structured around the typical 30-day optimisation cycle. Actions are sequenced to minimise disruption to campaign learning phases while accelerating performance recovery.
Week 1 — 15–22 May 2026
Immediate Fixes & Budget Reallocation
- Pause all creatives with frequency ≥ 3.0× across prospecting campaigns (estimated: 3–4 ad creatives)
- Exclude Audience Network placements from all 6 active campaigns in ad set placement settings
- Pause ARC_BRAND_Awareness campaign and redistribute £5,460 monthly budget to retargeting (60%) and prospecting (40%)
- Apply 3×/7-day frequency cap to ARC_RETGT_CartAbandoners ad set
- Export full purchaser list (Jan–May 2026) from Shopify and upload to Meta as new Custom Audience seed
Week 2 — 22–29 May 2026
Creative Production & Audience Rebuild
- Brief and receive 4 new prospecting video creatives (UGC format, 15–22 seconds, 9:16 ratio, female-led, problem/solution narrative)
- Rebuild 1% and 2% Lookalike Audiences from updated May 2026 purchaser seed
- Launch new prospecting creatives in 2 separate ad sets for A/B creative testing with £25/day budget each
- Review and consolidate campaign structure: reduce ARC_PROS_InterestStack to a single ad set with top 2 audiences only
Week 3 — 29 May – 5 June 2026
Scaling & Demographic Targeting
- Analyse Week 2 creative test results — scale winner to full prospecting budget, pause loser
- Create new demographic-segmented ad sets: 35–54 female, targeted with top interest stack from existing TOF campaign
- Scale ARC_RETGT_AllVisitors budget by 20% if ROAS holds above 5.0× through the first two weeks of June
- Switch ARC_LAL_PurchaseSeed to new refreshed LAL audiences and monitor 7-day ROAS trajectory
Week 4 — 5–15 June 2026
Review, Optimise & Plan July
- Full 30-day performance review: document ROAS, CPP, and CVR changes versus pre-audit baseline (May 15)
- Launch native 9:16 Instagram Reels creatives (brief placed in Week 2, production in Week 3)
- Assess LAL audience performance with refreshed seed — if ROAS improves to 3.5×+, scale by 25%
- Prepare July creative brief: 6 new TOF variants, 2 retargeting-specific testimonial angles, 2 seasonal offer creatives
- Set monthly targets for June: blended ROAS target 3.8×, CPP target £23.00, conversion volume target 720/month
Projected Impact — 30-Day Optimisation
3.8–4.1×
Projected ROAS (from 3.42×)
£22–24
Target Cost/Purchase (from £26.38)
+18–25%
Projected Conversion Volume Uplift
£7,200+
Estimated Monthly Revenue Uplift