Black Friday Case Study: 32× ROAS on a Broken Funnel

Black Friday Case Study: 32× ROAS on a Broken Funnel

A fast-growing ecommerce brand in Australia approached me just before their Black Friday campaign with limited backend marketing, a cluttered checkout, and limited  conversion optimisation. Despite these challenges, the brand achieved exceptional performance, including a peak daily 32× ROAS and multiple double-digit ROAS days since I started running Meta ads.

Overview

A fast-growing ecommerce brand in Australia approached me just before their Black Friday campaign with limited backend marketing, a cluttered checkout, and limited  conversion optimisation. Despite these challenges, the brand achieved exceptional performance, including a peak daily 32× ROAS and multiple double-digit ROAS days since I started running Meta ads.

Challenges

1. Extremely overloaded checkout

  • Multiple conflicting apps
  • Unnecessary upsells and pop-ups
  • Free gift logic adding friction
  • Shipping protection add-ons
  • Draft-order behaviour interfering with payment gateways

2. Broken payment options

  • Shop Pay, PayPal and AfterPay intermittently disappearing
  • Customers unable to complete checkout reliably

3. Zero lifecycle marketing

  • Limited email flows
  • Limited abandoned cart
  • No browse abandonment
  • Limited post-purchase automations
  • No warm audience nurture pre-BF
  • Limited organic activity

4. No funnel optimisation

  • App clutter slowing load speed
  • Unclear CTAs
  • Visual noise in cart and checkout

5. High client uncertainty

  • Client considered pausing ads mid-sale
  • No prior data or strategy to build from

Strategy

Paid Social (Meta Ads)

  • Rebuilt campaigns for efficiency and scale at the start of November
  • Aggressive audience refinement
  • High-performance creative targeting warm and cold audiences
  • Rapid testing of hooks, angles and formats
  • Dynamic ad structure to maximise conversions despite checkout issues

Conversion Band-Aid Fixes

(Since full CRO wasn’t possible pre-BF)

  • Improved CTA visibility
  • Reduced checkout friction where possible
  • Adjusted upsell settings to minimise confusion
  • Corrected shipping protection to opt-in instead of opt-out

Results

🚀 Peak Daily ROAS: 32×

🔥 Multiple Days: 10×+ ROAS

📈 5× Overall ROAS Across the BF Period

💰 Over $50K Revenue from $10K Ad send

Despite a severely compromised checkout and a complete absence of lifecycle marketing, the ads delivered:

  • Strong click-through rate
  • High add-to-cart volume
  • Consistent purchase activity
  • Excellent blended ROAS

This performance far exceeded industry benchmarks for brands with fully optimised funnels — let alone one with significant friction barriers.

Key Takeaways

  • Ads CAN perform in poor conditions — but only with the right strategy.
  • The strongest ROAS days happened when checkout issues were minimal, confirming the ads were bringing in highly qualified buyers.
  • Significant untapped growth remains once the checkout is streamlined and backend marketing is implemented.

Next Steps for the Brand

  • Remove conflicting apps
  • Clean and simplify the checkout
  • Implement abandoned cart, browse, and post-purchase flows
  • Launch a proper email strategy
  • Optimise load speed and remove unnecessary distractions
  • Build more evergreen top-of-funnel creative

With these changes, the brand is positioned to exceed this year’s results in future peak periods.

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