New DTC Sellers Can't Make Ads Profitable
New direct-to-consumer (DTC) business owners are facing significant challenges in acquiring customers and achieving profitability. They're grappling with high advertising costs, low engagement, inconsistent sales, and issues like comment spam impacting ad performance. Many are seeking advice and validation on their strategies.
SOURCES (60)
“I would like to see your ad copy and social media page. I think cold ads to landing pages do not work as well as they used to.”
“Congrats on getting the site up. Since you’re selling from a small audience, I’d focus less on “more people” at first and more on making it very easy for the people who do visit to buy. Put your best few products/services first, show prices clearly, explain pickup/shipping/booking, and add a small FAQ for the questions people usually ask before buying. A lot of small shops lose people because the page looks nice but the next step isn’t obvious.”
“so i run meta ads and test a new offer now why people dont buy, got like 6 abdanoned checkouts”
“They look the same because everyone shows unverifiable"+40% conversion" case studies. Ignore the marketing and test them live: asl for 2-3 real stores they built with client references, and make them tell you what they'd change on your store on the first call. Talkers stay generic; pros get specific instantly. Also ask who actually does the work vs subcontracts it.”
“guys, whats your take on meta shop? submitted by /u/Careless-Classic9342 [link] [comments]”
“Stop spending on ads and go sell 20 things yourself in local Facebook groups or WhatsApp chats for one specific need. You'll learn exactly why people say no way faster than any ad dashboard can tell you.”
“I'm planning to sell my store, maybe somebody else has more knowledge how to get it back on track. Leave a comment here if you are interested.”
“Easiest places to start is with people already promoting similar products. If someone has already made content around those products, clearly it converts at least somewhat (or they would not keep making them) Ideally creators with a small but very specific audience for the problem your product solves. A good YouTube video for a creator with 10k subs will do much more for you than a generic creators with 100k. You can find all of the ones that fit with affilitatefinder.ai Start with shortlist of”
“I like the brand name. Looking at the site it needs to be SUPER SIMPLE so it will convert. Black, white, and 1 accent color that’s it. Crop your logo so that the banner doesn’t take up a lot of space. Also what is your market? Write emotional copy that gets people to feel their pain. I would also change those cta’s to something that stands out, but still fits the brand. Also an offer that’s irresistible and a really good lead magnet. It’s a lot of work but it’s worth it once you start getting sa”
“How does etsy calculates CPC if I run 1 dollar a day ad? How much do they charge per click , 1 dollar? And can I change/set cpc according to me or it's done by etsy? I'm a new seller and after 9 days I can run ads that's why I'm asking submitted by /u/GIMNER [link] [comments]”
“Hi everyone! I was wondering if anyone is using Youtube shorts to get trafic to their shop or listings? If you are using it succesfully, might sharing your experience and your way around it? If it is a no-go, please share to! For me, I started posting on shorts today. I have put my link in the bio. Idk.. if that helps? 🥲 My shop is 4 years old, and its now I have put items on it (has been 1 week). My first sale was 3 days ago. Thankyou! X Lilly ( submitted by /u/ParticularSelect5339”
“Let me show you my stats. The first site (2023) used to generate about one sale per day, but sadly, that is all gone now. The second one (the current, new site) is starting to bring in about 0-1 sale per month, but like I said, it's a totally new site, and I just started driving traffic to it. https://preview.redd.it/fnln1de9h5eh1.png?width=1025&format=png&auto=webp&s=8591ac3b0bb7f03aa7b1a377b0aee9055e942e6c”
“Glad it helped. One thought on your instinct: be careful about adding MORE to the homepage. Beginners to fragrance don’t need more menu options, they need fewer decisions. What works better than extra info is guided paths: a ‘New to fragrance? Start here’ link that goes to a collection of your 3-4 most universally liked scents, and grouping by mood or occasion (fresh for daily wear, warm for evenings) instead of technical categories. One short quiz-style section or even just ‘If you like X mains”
“Thanks for the great tips. I think I need to add more information and menu options on the homepage for someone who's very new to fragrances”
“it sounds like your SEO rankings were better handled by yourself instead of agencies or freelancers. I feel that myself. sometimes we understand our product better than so-called "experts". so far I find using Claude or Codex to do SEO helped me. do you find those AI tools helpful?”
“I have started posting in a shop that I started 5 years ago. I’m having trouble getting views, though I’m willing to give it a little more time to see what happens. It’s kinda discouraging though. I have ads on the $1/day setting, but should that be on all listings? Or just some? Also, if I upped the ad spend a few days, would that be better for all listings? The Etsy platform is the one out of all the ones I sell that I understand the least, so I’m just asking for advice. submitted by ”
“I had 3 days with losses an just 2 days with an average performance, i want to know if My campaigns are dying or is it for everyone, i don't want to spend another day seeing bots sending messages with no intention of buying anything... submitted by /u/Ukantor08 [link] [comments]”
“Sort of, we had absolutely built a successful in person business, but the website was just a side piece. I believe the ad would have worked in different circumstances. We had a creative from a maker go viral and she gave us the video. This video organically saw 100,000 views and got 30 or so sales, got sales the second I made it an ad. I would attribute 90% to the power of the creative and 10% to the trust signals my website is giving off. But I have lots of people who don’t even go off the one”
“competing on price is a really bad place to start, if that's the main angle you're on a race to the bottom. you really need to offer customers an advantage over and above what your competitors have. this could be as simple as: the first 10 all get a direct email/number for one of the founders, and a regular check-in.”
“I spend around 100 dollars on ads on my new sass. I’m a tech founder that have other companies as well, a developer but this sass that I create is an experiment with a few friends to see if we can make so side money. I tend to create products that I will use on others business that I own, and This one is no different, à uptime tool with status page and sla tracking. https://usekeeup.com/ Anyways I’m not sure how to improve the google ads, and even if it’s relevant anymore with the sea of new sas”
“yo can someone tell me how you even find a product that isnt already being sold by 500 other stores? feels like everything i look at already saturated”
“I recently launched a website selling gift boxes with candles and reed diffusers. I’m currently paying for ads and getting visitors, but I still haven’t managed to make my first sale. At this point, I’m not sure whether the problem is the website, the product, the pricing, the offer or the advertising. Please be completely honest and roast the website. What would stop you from buying? Is anything confusing, untrustworthy or unconvincing? What should I change before spending more money on ads? We”
“hey guys a newbie here, so basicall i launched my store a few days a go and made a few sales, but i noticed that many people went to checkout but didnt buy anything i also set up abandoned checkout flows but no one converted i checked and there is no payment issues, is it because of the shipping costs people jump off if its not communicated in the cart drawer? submitted by /u/LitMeme69 [link] [comments]”
“Getting zero orders in your first month is incredibly common, especially in a saturated space like personal care. Marketplaces like Amazon and Flipkart rely heavily on established reviews to rank their search results, so brand-new listings usually get buried at first. Depending purely on their algorithms right out of the gate is definitely a tough uphill battle. A lot of new sellers bypass this by driving their own external traffic, like posting short 9:16 vertical videos on Reels or TikTok to h”
“I run a golf accessories store (linksidecustoms.com). All my traffic so far has been organic, and before I put real money into campaigns I want to fix the obvious conversion problems first. I’m on vacation right now so I can’t make the changes yet, but I drafted the full list and figured I’d post it here for feedback before I start. Tear it apart. 1. Trust info under the Add to Cart button. Raise the product price to $35–40 with free US shipping built in, then list it right under the button so p”
“interactions without sales usually means your site or offer isnt convincing enough, not that the ads are broken”
“I just started and launched my store and am currently running meta ads, I have interactions with my store just no sales. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Here’s my store itsblendly.myshopify.com submitted by /u/Own_Race_9551 [link] [comments]”
“I only started getting traction once I stopped talking about “hosted checkout” and started talking about “the exact mess it fixes.” I sat with 5–10 small brands and wrote down their actual sentences: “I’m scared of Stripe webhooks,” “I hate maintaining my own checkout UI,” “our dev is drowning in one-off payment hacks.” Then every cold email, landing page, and case study was literally those lines + how we fixed them. What worked best was hand-picking a niche (for me it was small DTC brands on Wo”
“your funnel data tells a clearer story than you think. 122 add to carts from 2,338 sessions is a 5.2% ATC rate, that's actually healthy for a ₹12k product. traffic intent and product appeal are fine. the real leak is cart to checkout: 122 carted, 13 reached checkout. that's 11%, and on stores we audit it normally sits at 40-60%. something between cart and checkout is killing it, usually shipping costs showing up for the first time, a forced login step, or a cart drawer that buries the ch”
“Hmmm, do you currently have interest in the area?(site traffic/organic coverage/orders) Have you validated demand and planned out your GTM campaign? I'm curious how it has been going so far”
“Has anybody had clients bamboozled by the Shoptimised Incremental pitch? Essentially, they claim to only take ghost products from a Google Ads account, put them into their own GMC and feed, but set up rival PM campaigns in the same account. This doesn't increase the amount of auctions, so it just means their feed and your feed complete. I've never seen it actually increase the efficiency of the account, but has anyone seen this work? Also, if anyone can tell me how they can have a separa”
“Us too, Shopify bot traffic spiked from 12/07-16/07 all from china, and we had 0 conversions usually we get 2-3 per day but our abandoned cart skyrocketed to 100 with 30 checkouts but 0 conversions which is so odd, traffic sessions were at 2500 also.”
“9000 sessions but only 11 orders? That wasnt great to begin with.. How much did you spend to get 9000 sessions in the first place?”
“I am a complete newbie in this business started 2 weeks ago I have shipped around 20 orders now some got returned & some got cancelled but I am still not in loss but not much profit either. I have been marketing it via Meta ads for now but is there any more efficient way in which I can generate some meaningful amount of orders that get successfully delivered so I don't have to take loss for cancelled orders Any help or guidance is appreciated 😊 submitted by /u/Lazy_Eye_3027”
“Looking for some honest feedback because I genuinely can't figure out what's changed. I run a premium handcrafted ethnic fashion brand on Shopify in India (AOV ~₹12k). Earlier we used to get regular orders every week, but over the last couple of months sales have been steadily dropping, and now it's been an entire week without a single order. Recent weeks: 9,112 sessions → 11 orders 2,917 sessions → 12 orders 2,743 sessions → 4 orders 2,338 sessions → 0 orders This week's funnel:”
“I run performance marketing for a few D2C brands and kept hitting the same wall. Every time a founder wanted to run a sale or push CAC higher, I'd end up manually running the same numbers again. Price, COGS, returns, fees, CAC, all of it, just to figure out what ROAS actually keeps them profitable versis safe ROAS. Good teams calculate this while most I feel don't. They just watch the ROAS number and go with a gut feeling. 3x feels safe, but nobody's actually checking if that's t”
“majority of people would just gave up before day 100 for merchants who actually made it, how long did it take you to reach $100/day profit? what were the key turning moments? is it possible to get there solo or with 2 people nowdays? just curious about the real story here submitted by /u/fragilePeculiar [link] [comments]”
“I started my shop around 2 weeks ago (store says 8 years but that's because I was going to start years ago and chose not to.) In that time I've had roughly 6 views per days, usually less. I've made 3 sales in total, 2 of which were to family members. I understand my designs are fairly niche but am I wrong to think I should have at least expected slightly more views? I would be so grateful if anyone could take a look at my page and advise? https://banjaxedclothing.etsy.com Thank you s”
“Yesterday I had alot of sales by 1pm, then nothing on 5 campaigns. Today still no sales on 5 campaigns. I know there was an outage, but something seems like it changed not normal for sure. What are you seeing? submitted by /u/Huge_Kaleidoscope_40 [link] [comments]”
I was using content view as the optimization, so just visiting the website where counting as link clicks, i fixed it with purchase but got a payment problem on tiktok, so until…
“Thanks a lot bro, the day 2 still no sales i got online visitors but no sales, i got some payment issues that caused my ad campaign to stop, i m trying to fix it so i can go back, for the creatives, i just used my competitors ads with some simple edits, I’m trying to make my own for the next days”
“Hey everyone, I need some advice/insight from those who've been through this. Background: B2B industry (industrial/medical supplies) Switched from Maximize Clicks to Maximize Conversions bidding strategy 3 days ago Before the switch, under Maximize Clicks, I got 3 conversions (form fills from potential clients) The issue: Impressions have dropped noticeably since the switch Clicks are also down 0 conversions so far (3 days in) Daily budget is barely being spent — only about 10% of the budget”
“Hello, I started with $50 daily budget for product price $70 on my website targeting USA, In 48 hours I got 1 sale, 12 Checkout Initiate and spent $105 total. I had 5 Ad sets , CBO campaign , 4 Ad sets with interests(advantage turned on) , 1 Ad set broad . The 1 sale came from broad . CTR 5% , CPM $38~$40 What should I do? Should I continue on this product ? What is the best daily budget should I use? I need help! submitted by /u/Dangerous-Gur-7371 [link] [comments]”
“Big red flag is the click-to-session gap, not the zero sales. 252 link clicks turning into about 15 Shopify sessions means tracking is broken, the page is failing to load for a lot of users, or TikTok is counting junk taps that never become real visits. Before spending day two, check TikTok pixel + Shopify analytics with a test order, open the site on mobile data, and compare UTMs in Shopify/GA. If sessions are real, optimize for purchase once you have enough data; if they are not, fix tracking/”
“Hi, Started dropshipping (and media buying) 2 months ago or so. Had some conversions but always (ALWAYS) had high cpms, probably due to bad creatives. Started working on a supplement brand. Last week I started messing around with native statics, first test had great metrics right off the bat (~$20 CPM, 6% CTR, $0.9 CPC) but 0 add to carts let alone conversions after $300 of spend. After research I've figured the copy was probably targeted to broad instead of directly towards my angle (correc”
“I’m going to give OpenAI ads a try, just setting up The option to optimize for conversions is not yet available, only for clicks. The max CPC field was set to £2 by default with a message that it would not be enough! £2 seems very high even for a conversion campaign, let alone a traffic campaign. Has anyone got experience of this yet and whether CPC is very high and whether conversions do happen? submitted by /u/Fantastic-Roll5074 [link] [comments]”
“Ads were doing 4x ROAS for a 6-8 weeks then as soon as I posted an organic instagram giveaway post for a related but different product my ROAS dropped to 0.2x. The conditions to enter the giveaway was to like my post, comment and follow us and the other brand (who are giving away these items). The post was on our account but was a collaborative post between both accounts. Is my theory that instagram’s targeting for my meta ads got poisoned by this organic engagement (bait) on this giveaway post”
“Curious to hear if anyone still runs the old ASC campaigns before it changed (i think end of 2024)? They called it advantage plus shopping campaigns instead of advantage plus sales campaigns (i think). If so, whats the performance like? submitted by /u/Deep_Ad5338 [link] [comments]”
“Search Impression Share is <10% Search Lost IS Rank >90% Search Lost IS Budget 0.00% I’m on a Maximize Conversion strategy. The campaign isn’t spending, how is my rank that bad? What would you check? submitted by /u/Recent_Decision5479 [link] [comments]”
“For the past few weeks I noticed my link-in-bio click numbers looked decent but conversions were way lower than they should've been. Started actually digging into the raw visits instead of trusting the totals, and a solid chunk of it wasn't real people. Bots, scrapers, some traffic that behaved nothing like an actual person clicking through, instant hits with no real browsing pattern. It made me realize how many creators are probably reading bad data without knowing it. If a chunk of you”
“Budget is decent, but running a campaign for one day is far too short. Also, instead of optimizing for add to cart, optimize for purchases (But keep in mind that for Meta ads to exit the learning phase, you need a considerable number of conversions. The number you often hear is around 30–50 per week.) Overall, 250 link clicks, which probably means fewer actual sessions, is not a lot for that amount of money. I don't know what you sell, but unless it's very niche, boring or expensive, the”
“I think you're asking the right question. By the time someone abandons a cart, you're already pretty far down the funnel. I work on an eCommerce ERP, and we've seen merchants get better results by using browsing behavior and repeat visits to build customer context earlier, instead of relying only on abandoned cart events. That said, I'd make sure your product pages and checkout experience are already solid before adding more tracking or automation.”
“i've seen this happen a few times, usually the sudden drop in conversions is what gives it away first”
“Never set your optimization event to Add to cart. You want sales, so set it to Purchases.”
“So here is a quick recap about my situation: Selling a ~$1,000 luxury sofa online and honestly struggling hard with conversions. We offer free returns, 30-day home trial, financing, etc. Advertising: Running Meta sales + awareness campaigns, Google PMax + Shopping . Getting traffic, clicks, even ATCs, but almost no actual sales . What marketing strategy do you would work best and what type of campaign do you think would get the best ROI? Anyone here have experience scaling high-ticket ecommerce/”