High-Value Audiences: The Secret to Scaling Paid Social
- RCKSTR Media
- Aug 1
- 4 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
How One Tactic Used High-Value Lookalikes to 14x ROAS and Hit $1M
When it comes to paid social, success isn't about luck - it's about strategy. And in this case, that strategy delivered a 14x return on ad spend (ROAS) and over $1 million in revenue. Let’s break down a story of how a blend of high-value audience targeting, seamless creative execution, and smart campaign structure created a performance-driven powerhouse.
Why the Strategy Worked
This campaign succeeded thanks to the perfect storm of product-market fit, seasonal timing, and brand familiarity. The brand was a well-established player launching a new product line at a time that aligned perfectly with market demand. That alone gave them a leg up.
But timing wasn’t the only factor. The brand also enjoyed high awareness, meaning the audience didn’t need to be introduced to the company - they just needed a nudge to explore something new. This reduced the cost of customer acquisition and shortened the sales cycle significantly.
The Power of High-Value Pricing
The products in this campaign ranged from $200 to $400, with an average order value (AOV) around $300. This pricing sweet spot offered significant advantages:
Higher ROAS Potential: Even if the cost per acquisition (CPA) increases, the revenue per purchase far outpaces it.
Algorithmic Efficiency: Meta’s algorithms have more flexibility to optimize when the AOV is higher.
For lower-ticket items, brands can hedge by implementing subscription models or focusing on lifetime value. But when AOV is strong from the start, it gives the campaign room to breathe and scale.
Seamless Ad to Landing Page Cohesion
Too often, brands drop the ball between the ad and the landing page. Not this time. This campaign excelled at maintaining visual and thematic consistency:
Matching fonts and color schemes across ads and pages
Repeating ad visuals on the landing page
Making the landing page feel like a continuation of the ad
This alignment reduced bounce rates and reinforced conversion intent, which ultimately improved ad quality scores and reduced CPMs.
High-Value Lookalike Audience Strategy
The cornerstone of this campaign was the use of high-value lookalike audiences. Rather than just targeting "all purchasers," the team created audiences from:
Repeat buyers
High AOV customers (30%+ above average)
High LTV clients
Buyers of specific product categories
These audiences ensured that ad impressions were served to users most likely to purchase at a high value. And because the system was adaptive, each high-value purchase fed back into the lookalike modeling, continuously refining the audience.
This approach required a large dataset, but for brands that have one, the payoff is enormous.
Strategic Use of Advantage+ Campaigns (ASC)
Once the high-value lookalike campaigns hit their stride, the team layered on ASC campaigns for broader scalability. Think of ASC as the amplification tool - great for expanding reach after you’ve fine-tuned performance in your core segments.
By feeding top creatives from the high-value campaigns into ASC, they avoided audience fatigue and reduced overlap, creating a tiered funnel:
High-intent lookalikes
Broader ASC reach
This created a system where each layer served a purpose: engagement, conversion, then scale.
Importance of Ad Quality & Ranking Scores
Meta’s own guidelines emphasize that better quality ads win more auctions at lower costs. The team focused heavily on:
High-quality visuals and copy
Engaging headlines
Optimized landing pages to reduce bounce
They monitored quality, engagement, and conversion scores weekly, using them as optimization signals. Better scores meant lower CPMs and better delivery, creating a flywheel effect.
Full Funnel Strategy Recap
This wasn’t just a media buying win. It was a masterclass in full-funnel strategy:
Awareness Layer: High-performing creatives to spark engagement
Conversion Layer: High-value lookalikes capturing purchase intent
Scaling Layer: ASC campaigns reaching broader audiences with proven creatives
Each phase fed the next, turning performance data into future targeting fuel.
FAQs
What is a high-value lookalike audience?
A custom audience modeled after users who take high-value actions (e.g., big spenders, repeat buyers).
How do you build a scalable ad campaign on Meta?
Start with high-intent segments and layer in broader campaigns as performance stabilizes.
Why is AOV important for ad performance?
Higher AOV gives algorithms more room to optimize CPA while maintaining profitability.
What makes an ad quality score go up or down?
Relevance, engagement, and landing page performance.
Can low-ticket products still succeed with this strategy?
Yes - with tactics like subscriptions, bundling, and LTV-focused retargeting.
Final Takeaway
This 14x ROAS result wasn’t a fluke. It was the result of deep strategic planning, precise audience segmentation, and adaptive media buying. Brands that want to replicate this success need to master intent-based targeting before pushing for scale.
Looking to build a strategy like this? Book a call with our team and download our ad scaling guide to get started.
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