There's something about a $13/day budget that forces you to think differently about where every pound goes. The setup: DTC skincare brand, about six months old, built entirely on organic traction until now. Hero product is a $29 moisturiser, with a subscription model and a bundle offer coming soon. Forty five-star reviews, 69% gross margin. Geo-targeted to Sun Belt metros - Phoenix, Vegas, Denver, Austin, SLC - though that's not set in stone.
Budget sits at $400 a month, so roughly $13 daily. What's surfaced:
- Traffic campaign ran for several weeks: 5% CTR, $0.17-0.30 CPC, and zero purchases. Clicks without intent.
- Sales campaign, on the other hand, brought in 11 purchases across two winning ads. Currently sitting at 1.5x ROAS. CPMs are $36 on that conversion objective.
The pattern is clear enough. Sales campaign is doing the heavy lifting; Traffic campaign is effectively paying for window shoppers who glance at the price tag and walk away. At this scale, every dollar needs to earn its keep. Scaling the Sales campaign seems sensible, but splitting budget feels like throwing a coin into a wishing well.
Questions I'm chewing on:
- Do I scale the Sales campaign and kill the Traffic one, or keep splitting the small pool?
- ABO versus CBO at $13/day - heard that CBO starves ad sets at low spend, but some claim Meta's delivery engine is smart enough now to handle it.
- Is it better to concentrate the whole budget on one winning ad set, or spread across two or three to test angles?
Would appreciate tactical input from anyone who's grown something from this kind of shoestring. No agency suggestions, please - just practical experience with small budgets.
