Meta & Facebook Advertising
Facebook & Meta Ads for Ecommerce Brands
We run Meta advertising for Shopify and direct-to-consumer brands in wellness, supplements, food & beverage, beauty and fashion — built around creative testing, not guesswork.
Figures from our Batch Balance campaign, 14 June – 14 July. Full breakdown below.
How we run Meta
Scalable creative testing is the whole method
On Meta today the account structure is not the lever — the creative is. We test enough concepts, fast enough, to find the ones that earn attention, then put budget behind them.
Establish the baseline
We measure what the account already does: ROAS, cost per acquisition, and thumb stop rate on the creative currently running. Without a baseline there is nothing to beat.
Brief for the hook
We write structured video briefs aimed at the first three seconds. Production value matters far less than whether someone stops scrolling.
Ship platform-native UGC
Organic, Instagram-native creator content built around specific attention tactics consistently outperforms studio-polished assets in our accounts.
Fund winners, cut the rest
Concepts that earn a pause in the first three seconds convert more efficiently downstream. We move budget to them and kill what does not.
Thumb stop is the upstream lever everything else flows from. Creatives that earned a pause in the first three seconds went on to convert more efficiently.
Recent Meta ad creative from live accounts
These are real ads running for Forge clients, trimmed to the first six seconds — the only part that decides whether the rest ever gets watched. Thumb stop is the share of impressions that stopped scrolling long enough to register three seconds of video.
Metrics are Meta-reported for each creative over the trailing 90 days. Clips are silent and shortened; full cuts ran with audio.
Case study
Batch Balance: 2.34x to 4.29x ROAS in one 30-day cycle
Batch Balance was running a single evergreen static ad and early creator content. Thumb stop rate sat at 14.3%, capping everything downstream. Here is what changed in one testing cycle.
| Metric | Before | After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purchase ROAS | 2.34x | 4.29x | +84% |
| Cost per acquisition | $36.81 | $22.80 | −38% |
| Thumb stop rate | 14.3% | 31.2% | +118% |
| Purchases | 79 | 170 | +115% |
| Purchase value | $6,793 | $16,628 | +145% |
| Ad spend | $2,908 | $3,876 | +33% |
The breakout asset was a creator video of a mom explaining a muffin recipe that “took 15 minutes.” On $1,150 of spend it returned $8,622 at a 7.5x ROAS, a $14.37 cost per acquisition and a 57.7% thumb stop rate.
Scope
What Meta ads management includes
Included in the base management fee
- Static creative and graphic design included — produced against the testing roadmap each month, not a fixed quota
- Campaign strategy, build and daily management across Facebook and Instagram
- Structured creative briefs written against hook performance
- Ongoing budget optimization toward proven concepts
- Reporting against ROAS, cost per acquisition and thumb stop rate
Available as add-ons
- Product and lifestyle photography
- Videography
- UGC and creator content sourcing
Photography, videography and UGC are quoted separately from the base management fee.
Who we run ads for
Ecommerce niches we know
We are an ecommerce agency first. Meta advertising sits alongside email, SEO and conversion work for the same brands.
Supplements & sports nutrition
Repeat-purchase products where creative fatigue moves fast.
Shopify DTC brands
Full-funnel growth on the platform most of our clients sell on.
Food & beverage
Subscription and replenishment playbooks.
Beauty & skincare
Launches, bundles and lifecycle.
Fashion & apparel
Brand-led performance creative.
Ecommerce, broadly
Our flagship offer across DTC categories.
Pairs with Klaviyo email & SMS, conversion rate optimization and TikTok ads.
Client
Lower CPA and CPL
I was skeptical at first but then I gave FORGE a try and don’t regret it. What I like about this team is that they offer a wide variety of services, which is great for my business. They manage my Facebook Ads and we’re experiencing lower CPA and CPL.
JosephRampant Nutrition
FAQ
Questions about hiring a Meta ads agency
What is included in Meta ads management?
The base management fee covers campaign strategy, build and daily management across Facebook and Instagram, structured creative briefs, budget optimization, performance reporting, and 20 static creatives generated per month for testing. Photography, videography and UGC creator content are quoted separately.
How quickly can Meta ads performance improve?
One full creative testing cycle is roughly 30 days. In our Batch Balance account, purchase ROAS moved from 2.34x to 4.29x and cost per acquisition fell from $36.81 to $22.80 between 14 May–13 June and 14 June–14 July. Speed depends on ad spend, how many creative concepts can be tested at once, and the account’s existing history.
What is thumb stop rate and why does it matter?
Thumb stop rate is the share of impressions where someone stops scrolling and actually views an ad. It is the upstream metric on Meta: if creative cannot earn a pause in the first three seconds, targeting and bidding cannot rescue it. Raising Batch Balance’s thumb stop rate from 14.3% to 31.2% is what moved ROAS and cost per acquisition.
Do you produce the ad creative, or do we?
We produce the static creative — 20 per month are included for testing — and we write the video briefs. Brands can supply their own footage, or add photography, videography and UGC sourcing as paid add-ons.
Which ecommerce niches do you run Meta ads for?
Supplements and sports nutrition, Shopify direct-to-consumer brands, food and beverage, beauty and skincare, and fashion and apparel. We are an ecommerce agency first, so Meta usually runs alongside email, SEO and conversion rate work for the same brand.
Is Forge a Meta Partner?
Yes. Forge Digital Marketing is a Meta Partner Agency and has been running paid social for ecommerce brands for over a decade, from Naperville, Illinois.
Find out what your Meta account is leaving on the table
A discovery call is a look at your current creative, spend and thumb stop rate — and an honest read on whether we can move them.