Meta Ads and Shopify Conversion Rate Optimisation: How We Took a Pet E-commerce Brand From Five to Six Figures in Sales

Putting the Budget Behind the Best Seller

When something is already working, that’s where the focus should go first. We looked at which products brought in the most sales and the most returning customers, then narrowed the ads down to one: a travel accessory for dogs.

That product came in several colours, each its own SKU. The best-selling colour went into the main ads. The other colours were saved for retargeting, so anyone who saw the first ad and didn’t buy would see a fresh ad with a different colour the second time.

Testing Eight Angles to Find Three Winners

The client’s past ads and organic posts relied on one or two angles, even though the product gave us plenty more to work with. Based on their monthly budget, we split-tested eight angles on Meta. Three angles and two creatives came out on top. We combined those into new variations and scaled from there.

A Product Page Built to Sell on Mobile

Every ad sent people straight to the product page, which made that page more important than the homepage. For a problem-solving product, a photo and two lines of supplier copy leave the buyer with questions. We rewrote the page to call out the problem, say who the product is for, explain the benefits, and reinforce the end result the buyer is looking for.

Around 90% of visitors were on mobile, and the product image filled most of the screen. People couldn’t see the full product name or the price without scrolling. We reduced the image size and added a clearer carousel for choosing a colour. Halfway down the page sat a block recommending every other product in the store, which pulled attention away from buying. We replaced it with customer reviews.

Bundles That Make Sense for the Buyer

The existing bundle paired products that had little to do with each other. We replaced it with two offers: buy more than one of the same product at a better price, or buy it together with closely related items at a better price.

How can a brand afford that? The cost to acquire a customer is the same whether they buy one item or three, and sending several items to one address costs less than shipping them separately. That extra margin funds a discount that makes the bigger order an easy choice.

A Homepage for Visitors Who Already Know the Product

The homepage opened with a brand image and a list of categories. Since every ad pointed to the product page, most people reaching the homepage had already seen the product and clicked the logo to look around or check whether the brand could be trusted. We put the best seller above the fold and moved the categories below it. Seeing the advertised product featured first also builds trust, because it shows visitors this is the product the brand stands behind.

Reviews had all been sitting at the bottom of the page. We spread them out so one appears every one to two scrolls, on both the homepage and the product page. We also asked the client to collect customer photos taken in recognisably Australian and New Zealand settings, because people buy from people they can relate to.

Removing the Surprise at Checkout

Many shoppers were leaving within seconds of reaching checkout. We suspected the reason was simple: the total at checkout was higher than the price shown in the cart. We added a short line in the cart explaining that shipping and taxes are calculated at checkout. It sounds obvious, but telling the buyer upfront removes the surprise.

One-Click Upsells After the Purchase

Most brands start by adding upsells to the cart. With conversion rates already low, we wanted the path from add to cart to payment to stay as clean as possible, so we began with the lowest-risk option: a post-purchase upsell.

Using Sweet Upsell on Shopify, an offer appears on the order confirmation page right after payment. The buyer can accept it with one click, with no card or address details to enter again. Someone who has just paid is still in a buying mood, which makes this the easiest moment to offer more. We also looked at average order value, customer lifetime value and what returning customers came back to buy. That data confirmed what we see across e-commerce brands: the best upsell is the same product at a better price, even for products a customer only needs one of. Some buy on impulse, others buy it as a gift.

Once the path from ad to purchase was converting well, we began testing other cross-sells and upsells on top of the same-product offer.

Klaviyo Flows and Delivery Updates

We set up email flows in Klaviyo: a thank-you flow, a review request about a week after delivery, a winback flow for customers who hadn’t returned in 90 days, and a cross-sell flow for each product based on what its buyers most often purchased alongside it.

The order confirmation email is opened almost every time, because buyers check that their details are correct. That’s where we placed a time-limited offer to come back and buy again. It’s something we recommend to every e-commerce brand.

To reduce buyer’s remorse, customers were notified when their order was packed, shipped, and on the way. Delivery confirmation went out by SMS, since a text gets seen straight away, while an email is easy to put off and forget. Customers knew the moment their parcel arrived, which meant fewer “where is my order” messages and fewer disputes over parcels that had been collected by a family member or a neighbour.

Scaling Without Relying on One Product

With conversion rate and sales up, we scaled the ads. A small share of the monthly budget went to testing other products, which uncovered two more that sold well through ads. Most of the spend stayed on the best seller, with the other two ready to ramp up if it ever slowed down.

We then built separate landing pages for the best seller, each matched to an ad angle. Someone clicking an ad about convenience landed on a page about convenience. Someone clicking an ad about how happy their dog would be landed on a page about exactly that.