A months ago we met a skincare brand with a big problem. Lots of people were buying their products and customers were really happy. They were losing money.
Their cost to get a customer was $58. The average order was $42. That doesn’t make sense. They were basically paying to lose money on every customer hoping enough would come back and buy again. Some months they made a profit. Months they didn’t.
So we sat down with them looked at the numbers and started asking questions.
The Problem Wasn’t “Ads Don’t Work”
That’s what founders usually think. It’s rarely true.
When we checked their ad accounts the issue wasn’t that Facebook or Google had stopped working. It was that they’d been running the ads for almost four months. They were targeting people who liked skincare. Not the people. Every ad sent traffic to their homepage. Not a special offer page. Just the homepage.
That one mistake was costing them a lot of money. When someone clicks an ad they want to land on a page that answers their question. If you send them to a homepage you’re asking them to do work. And most people won’t bother.
The ads focused on ingredients and science. That works if your audience is doctors. People buy skincare to look good or feel good. Not to learn chemistry. The ads weren’t answering customers questions.
What We Actually Changed
We didn’t make a lot of changes. We made five ones.
- We changed the offer. Of “20% off” we tested a bundle with a smaller version of their best product. It made it easier to buy. Gave us a chance to sell more later.
- We rewrote the ad messages. We focused on problems used simple language and wrote in words customers use.
- We fixed where ad traffic landed. Every ad got its landing page.
- We targeted the people. We looked like their existing customers.
- We built a retention plan. We sent emails (email marketing) and texts with tips and reminders to buy again.
What Happened Next
In ten weeks:
- Customer acquisition cost dropped from $58 to $31
- Average order value rose to $54
- Repeat purchases nearly doubled
- Ad spend efficiency improved from 1.4x to 2.6x
None of this happened overnight. It happened because several changes worked together.
The Real Lesson Here
When your customer acquisition cost is too high it’s tempting to blame ads or “the market”. Often the problem is your sales process. Offer, message, landing page or follow-up.
Fixing CAC isn’t about ads. It’s about making sure your whole sales process works together.
So if you’re worried, about your customer acquisition cost ask yourself: is this really an acquisition problem. Is it everything that happens after the click?
