Meta Ads, run for new-customer acquisition.
Facebook and Instagram, planned around new-customer acquisition with creative held to a measurable test — not retargeting-led ROAS alone.
Most Meta Ads accounts mistake retargeting performance for the program working.
Retargeting on Meta converts at very high rates because the audience is already in-market. The ROAS dashboard looks great. The performance numbers stay high while new-customer acquisition flattens. The program looks healthy and the business stops growing.
We plan Meta around prospecting, with retargeting sized to the role it should play — not the role that maximizes campaign ROAS. Creative is treated as the lever it is on this platform. Measurement is designed in.
Three structures that hold Meta to new-customer acquisition.
Separate prospecting spend from retargeting spend.
Retargeting ROAS reflects existing demand; prospecting ROAS — adjusted for incrementality — is the new-customer signal. We never report them as one number.
On Meta, creative is the lever — not audience targeting.
Structured creative testing built around producing learning, not just identifying a winning variant. Variant pipelines, hypothesis-driven tests, and refresh cadence that keeps creative working as audiences fatigue.
Send the platform the signal it actually needs.
Conversions API, server-side events, and first-party data feeds keep Meta's algorithm seeing the right outcomes after iOS 14 — and let us read measurement clearly across the funnel.
Our approach
- 01Account architecture organized around new-customer acquisition, with retargeting sized to its role
- 02Structured creative testing with variant pipelines and refresh cadence
- 03Conversions API, server-side events, and first-party data feeds for signal quality
- 04Audience strategy on first-party data, intent signals, and modeled prospecting — not lookalikes alone
- 05Incrementality measured through geo holdouts and conversion lift studies, not platform-attributed ROAS alone
Outcomes
- Meta spend held to new-customer acquisition, not retargeting-led ROAS
- Creative working as a measurable lever, with a learning pipeline that keeps producing
- Confidence to scale Meta budget on numbers a CMO can defend
Visionist Partnered with QRY to Successfully Scale a New Website in a Crowded Space
How QRY helped Visionist scale a new luxury eyewear DTC site — driving 653% more website visits, 230% brand search lift, and positive ROAS within three months.
Read the full case studyCommon questions about Meta Ads.
- What's the right split between prospecting and retargeting on Meta?
- It depends on the business — but the answer is almost never the split that maximizes campaign ROAS. We size retargeting to the role it should play, prospecting to the goal of new-customer acquisition, and report both separately.
- How do you handle Advantage+ Shopping campaigns?
- Advantage+ has a similar dynamic to Performance Max: it optimizes for the algorithm's idea of efficiency, which usually means existing demand. We constrain it with audience signals, brand-keyword carve-outs, asset structure, and parallel reporting so it works for the brand instead of against it.
- How does creative testing work in practice?
- Hypothesis-driven testing — what we expect to work, what we're trying to learn, how we'll know. Variant pipelines that keep new creative ready as fatigue accumulates. The output is a creative-strategy frame the brand can keep using, not just a single high-performer.
- How do you measure Meta after iOS 14?
- Conversions API and server-side events restore signal at the platform. Incrementality testing — geo holdouts, conversion lift studies, post-purchase survey attribution — measure what platform reports can't show on their own.
- How is QRY different from a typical Meta Ads agency?
- Most agencies optimize toward the highest-ROAS spend, which is usually retargeting. We organize Meta around prospecting and new-customer acquisition, treat creative as the strategic lever, and measure incrementality directly. The numbers we scale on are the numbers a CMO can defend.
Talk through your Meta Ads program.
Start with a short strategy conversation. We'll assess fit and outline how Meta could be run for new-customer acquisition for your brand.