Meta ads · Shopify and WooCommerce stores · Australia
Meta ads for Australian ecommerce stores, run by one senior specialist.
I’m Mark Tran, and from Melbourne I run Facebook and Instagram ads for Australian ecommerce brands. A lot of reported ROAS is ads shown to people who already follow you. Real growth comes from cold traffic, and cold traffic is harder. That’s the part I build for.
If your account is already running and unprofitable, that’s usually where I start: an audit of where the spend is going, and what your real break-even actually is once margin and management are in the maths. I’m based in Melbourne and work with stores across Australia, and the person you talk to is the person in the account.
Who this is for
Stores with a product that sells, and an account that should be doing more with it.
- Australian ecommerce stores selling physical products on Shopify, WooCommerce or similar
- Brands whose reported ROAS looks fine while sales stay flat
- Accounts that have grown past what the founder can run at night
- Stores spending too much on Meta for what comes back, and unsure which half
- Founders who want the person running the account on the call
Fashion and lifestyle brands, supplements, homewares, hardware and functional products all run through the same account logic. What I don’t take on: pre-revenue stores, products without a real market yet, and anything in gambling or get-rich-quick.
How I run it
Cold and warm, separated
Prospecting, retargeting and returning customers each get their own layer, with past purchasers excluded from cold campaigns. You stop paying to re-reach people who already bought.
Retargeting sized honestly
Retargeting looks great in Meta because Meta claims plenty of sales that were coming anyway. I size it to the audience that exists and put the growth budget into cold traffic, where growth actually comes from.
Test, then scale. Never both at once
New creative and audiences prove themselves in testing campaigns first. Winners scale in their own structure, so a test can't quietly drag down what's working.
Clear kill rules
An ad that hits twice the target cost per purchase without converting gets paused. No exceptions, no 'give it another week'.
Budget moves in steps
Scaling too fast resets learning and burns the data you paid for. Budgets move in controlled increments so performance carries forward.
Creative with a job
Every asset tests a specific angle against a specific audience. When something wins, we know why, and the next round builds on it.
The first 90 days
Tracking first, structure second, scale third.
Days 1 to 10
Audit and tracking first. I work out your real break-even ROAS with margin, GST and the management fee in it, check that Meta's purchase count matches your store's, and fix the pixel and Conversions API before touching a campaign. Access is by partner access to my business portfolio, so the ad account, pixel and data stay yours.
Weeks 2 to 4
Rebuild the structure: cold, warm and returning customers separated, purchaser exclusions on every cold campaign, and the first creative test live. A newly launched campaign then sits untouched for ten days, because Meta keeps crediting sales for days after the click or view and the first week reads low while they land. Broken tracking or runaway spend still gets fixed the same day.
Month 2
Read the test against cost per sale and real margin, not against Meta's headline. Winners move into their own scaling structure in budget steps; losers hit the kill rule. Discount offers, if you run them, go to cold audiences only.
Month 3 and on
The account is judged against your revenue and break-even, with the attribution gap shown rather than hidden. You get a short weekly update and a full monthly report, and with a newer account I favour a call every fortnight in the first three months, so decisions do not wait for the report.
Freelancer, agency or in-house
Who should run your Meta ads?
An agency sells you a process and a team. The pitch is done by a senior person and the account is usually run by a junior one, with an account manager relaying messages between you. A solo freelancer gives you the senior attention but often without the testing and reporting discipline. Hiring in-house is the right answer once your spend is large enough to justify a salary and keep a good operator busy.
I run the account myself, from strategy and build through to the monthly report, with the structure an agency would use and none of the handoffs. It is a deliberate choice to stay small and senior rather than grow into the model I left. If your spend outgrows one operator, I will tell you before you notice.
From a real account
An Australian bedding brand came to me with cold and warm blended into one structure and no purchaser exclusions at all.
Rebuilding it into a clean three-layer funnel, fixing a checkout friction point the ads were paying for, and testing creative systematically took an account that came to me averaging 2x to a 3.62x average across the 15 months tracked, as Meta reported it.
Read the full case study→Questions about Meta ads management.
What is a good ROAS for an Australian ecommerce store?+
There is no universal number. A 3x ROAS is excellent on a 70% margin product and a loss on a 30% one. Work out your break-even from margin after product cost, fees, returns, shipping, GST and management, then judge the account against that. Meta's headline ROAS on its own tells you very little.
Should I hire a freelancer, an agency, or someone in-house for Meta ads?+
An agency gives you process and a team, but the senior person is rarely the one in your account. A solo freelancer gives you that senior attention but not always the systems. In-house makes sense once spend is large enough to justify a salary. I sit between the first two: one specialist who runs the account personally, with the reporting and testing discipline of an agency, month to month.
Do you work with Shopify and WooCommerce?+
Yes, both, and any other store builder that supports the Meta pixel and a product feed. Catalogue set-up, pixel and Conversions API configuration, and matching Meta's numbers to the store's are part of the first ten days.
How much do I need to spend on Meta ads to start?+
Enough for the account to learn and for you to get a readable result, which depends on your price point and margin more than on a rule of thumb. On the call we work a starting budget back from your break-even. Under-spending is a slower way to waste money, not a safer one.
Who owns the ad account and the data?+
You do. You grant Step Digital partner access to your Business Portfolio rather than handing over logins, so the ad account, pixel, catalogue and history stay with you if we ever part ways.
What does it cost?+
A flat monthly base plus a percentage of ad spend, both ex GST, with the percentage stepping down as spend grows. Month to month on 30 days' notice. Ask on the audit call and you get a straight number for your spend.
How do you report?+
Against your revenue, not Meta's attribution. A short weekly note on what changed and why, and a monthly report that shows spend, sales, cost per sale, break-even and the gap between Meta's claim and what the store recorded. No vanity metrics.
Who supplies the creative?+
Ad copy, creative direction and recommendations are part of the job. You supply the images and video. If you need photography, video, UGC or design made, bring your own team or I'll quote it separately before any work starts.
Is there a setup fee?+
Only if the pixel, ad account or catalogue needs building from scratch. It's a one-off, and it's waived if you commit to three months. Already set up? No setup fee. Anything bigger, like a tracking rebuild or feed repair, gets scoped and priced before I start.
What's the commitment?+
Month to month, no lock-in. Either of us can end it with 30 days' written notice, and email is fine. A billing month that has started isn't refunded. The only exception to month to month is the optional three-month commitment that waives a setup fee.
Guides
Work through the numbers.
Get a straight answer on your Meta account.
Fifteen minutes, screen shared, on your live campaigns. I'll show you what your ROAS is actually made of.
Free, on your real account, no obligation.