How This Tactical Gear Store Scaled to $235K/Month with Facebook Ads

Background & Challenge

A specialized tactical gear store approached CTMarketing to jump-start top-of-funnel traffic on Facebook. With an average order value of $150 and a 1% site conversion rate, the goal was ambitious: hit $200K+ in monthly sales without blowing the ad budget. Google and TikTok were off the table; Facebook had to deliver.

Audience & Creative Testing

Step one was systematic: run separate tests pairing small sets of creatives (3–5) with precise audiences—interest groups and lookalikes. Each ad set had a cap of five creatives and a daily spend of $50. After three days, any ad set still meeting KPIs got a 20% budget “stress” bump. Only if performance held steady was it declared a winner and moved to the next phase.

Phased Scaling

Winners were scaled methodically: increase budgets by 15–20% each day while maintaining cost per purchase targets. CTMarketing used an Ad Set Budget Optimization (ABO) approach for testing and switched to Campaign Budget Optimization (CBO) only once a $250/day profit ceiling was proven. If performance slipped after a scale, budgets were dialed back 10% daily until benchmarks returned.

Middle & Bottom-of-Funnel Funnels

Retargeting was split into MOF and BOF streams. MOF ran with a $100/day budget across video-viewers, page engagers, and profile interactors from the past 6–12 months, excluding recent purchasers. BOF also started at $100/day, focusing on cart-abandoners, recent site visitors, and product page lookers over the last 60 days. In practice, CTMarketing ramped budgets by $100–$200 on these campaigns every few days to match TOF growth.

AI & Audience Building

To push ROAS higher, CTMarketing trialed an AI tool called Enhancer. It ingested high-value customer data to craft custom and lookalike audiences, surfacing pockets of profitability faster than manual interest targeting. Early results show AI-driven audiences matching or beating top manual finds, hinting at the next frontier in ad scale.

Results

Within one month, the store scaled to $235,000 in gross sales on a $60,000 ad budget—a 3.9× ROAS. Eight to ten profitable TOF ad sets ran alongside robust MOF/BOF campaigns. AI lookalikes began to show promise, opening new growth lanes.

Key Lessons

• Audience & creative pairings must be tested in isolation before scaling.
• Stress-test winning ad sets with budget increases to validate performance.
• Phase from ABO testing to CBO only after proving a $250/day floor.
• Invest in MOF/BOF retargeting budgets as top-of-funnel spend grows.
• AI tools can reveal profitable audiences faster than manual methods.
• Slow, controlled budget changes keep ROAS within target ranges.

Conclusion

This case illustrates how disciplined testing, phased scaling, and emerging AI targeting can combine to drive explosive growth for a niche e-commerce brand. The same framework—identify winners fast, stress-test, scale slowly, and layer in retargeting and AI—can be adapted to almost any vertical aiming for predictable ROAS.