Advertising
Ad spend continues, sales keep falling: what should ecommerce businesses change first?
ClassMaster · Updated
You pay for ads every month, yet sales keep falling. You ask how to improve and hear “try new images” or “another audience”. After another round, the problem is still unclear and next month starts from scratch.
Know what you're changing before the next campaign
For an ecommerce owner, the hard decisions are what to retain, what to change, and how much more spending will reveal the answer.
We first break down the sales decline. Fewer visitors and similar traffic with fewer buyers need different responses. Changing creative, audiences and offers together obscures which change worked, even if results improve, leaving little learning for the next campaign.
Look beyond clicks to why people click
If clicks are broadly unchanged but orders fall, chasing more clicks may amplify the problem. First examine who the ad attracts and whether the website gives enough reasons to buy.
Suppose durability and after-sales service justify a product's price, but the ad highlights only discounts. It may attract price-comparing visitors who still find it expensive. Bigger discounts or cheaper traffic might improve ad metrics while increasing dependence on price cuts.
Our starting hypothesis: the ad's appeal may be disconnected from the product's real buying reasons. Keep campaigns that convert and run a limited test of clearer use cases, product differences and matching pages. Compare website conversion and cost per sale across equal-length periods with similar promotions and conditions. Does the change help the right customers decide?
If ads still bring add-to-carts but payments fall, priorities change. Unexpected delivery costs, payment errors or unavailable variants merit checking before rebuilding all creative. If website conversion holds but ad traffic falls, examine reach, audiences and creative response first.
All may be called “poor ad performance”. They need different responses.
A case of recovering a declining account
An ecommerce client switched to ClassMaster after low advertising ROI and continued sales decline. In the first three months, ROAS reached 6.5: each HK$1 of ad spend corresponded to HK$6.5 in sales during that period.
Over more than 20 months, HK$113,800 in ad spend brought 1,044 customers and HK$470,089 in sales. The highest single month recorded 82 customers and HK$36,123 in sales.
Owners considering a new advertising partner should examine two timescales. The first three months show initial recovery; over 20 months show accumulated customers and sales across a longer partnership. Both matter when choosing a team.
Build the next campaign on what you've learned
Sustained acquisition means retaining what works. Starting over whenever results fall costs both ad spend and time spent relearning.
Before adjusting, clarify the suspected problem, planned change and result that would support the hypothesis. If clearer product messaging gets more clicks but lowers website conversion and raises cost per sale under similar conditions, revisit the judgement.
We consider audiences, ad content and the purchase journey together, prioritize the issue, implement campaigns and track results. Owners should know what this budget tests and which effective approaches the next campaign retains.
If your ads keep changing but business doesn't improve, tell ClassMaster on WhatsApp what's changed. Fewer visitors? Traffic and inquiries without corresponding orders? We can start there and discuss what deserves attention first.