Agency Turnaround: From 0.8x to 2.4x ROAS in 60 Days

This case study is based on patterns observed across multiple agency turnaround projects. Details have been combined and anonymized to protect client confidentiality.

Not every account you inherit is healthy. Sometimes you're brought in to save a struggling account—and your reputation depends on turning it around fast. In 2025's competitive Meta Ads landscape, where average ROAS sits around 2.19x industry-wide, inheriting a sub-1.0x ROAS account is a crisis that demands immediate action.

Here's the playbook that works.

The Situation

What We Inherited

A mid-size skincare brand came to us after firing their previous agency. The numbers were brutal:

• Monthly Spend: $25,000
• ROAS: 0.8x (losing $5,000/month on ads)
• History: 6 months of continuous decline
• Client Mood: Ready to pause all paid advertising permanently

The Audit Findings

Our comprehensive audit revealed multiple compounding problems:

1. Tracking Disaster

• Pixel firing on every page view, not just conversions
• No Conversions API implementation
• Duplicate purchase events inflating reported metrics
• Wrong currency settings distorting revenue data

2. Campaign Structure Chaos

• 23 active campaigns competing for $25K in spend
• Massive audience overlap causing self-competition
• No exclusion lists—retargeting existing customers at acquisition costs
• Retargeting audiences included recent purchasers

3. Creative Exhaustion

• Same 6 creatives running for 8+ months
• Frequency above 7 on some audiences (severe fatigue)
• No new creative production in 4 months
• Zero video content in a video-first platform era

4. Strategic Confusion

• Mix of awareness and conversion campaigns with conflicting goals
• Competing bidding strategies within the same funnel stage
• No clear customer journey structure
• Multiple conversion events being optimized simultaneously

Root Cause Analysis

The previous agency had set up campaigns, then let them run on autopilot. When performance dropped, they responded by launching more campaigns—creating more fragmentation and making things worse. This is a common pattern we see in struggling accounts.

The 60-Day Turnaround Timeline

Week 1-2: Stop the Bleeding

Days 1-3: Fix Measurement First

Before optimizing anything, we fixed our ability to measure accurately:

1. Removed all duplicate events from pixel implementation
2. Verified purchase event only fires on order confirmation page
3. Corrected currency and value parameters
4. Implemented Conversions API with proper event matching

Immediate Impact: Reported ROAS jumped from 0.8x to 1.1x—not because performance improved, but because we stopped double-counting conversions. This is why tracking audits come first.

Days 4-7: Campaign Triage

We categorized all 23 campaigns ruthlessly:

• Keep (4): Positive ROAS with sustainable metrics
• Pause Immediately (15): Negative or break-even ROAS
• Monitor (4): Borderline performance, worth watching

Action Taken: Paused 15 campaigns immediately, consolidated budget into the 4 survivors.

Week 2: Audience Cleanup

We fixed the structural problems:

• Created 90-day purchaser exclusion lists
• Built email subscriber exclusion audiences
• Eliminated overlap between ad sets
• Established proper lookalike hierarchy (1%, 2%, 3-5%)

Week 1-2 Results:

• Spend: $25K → $20K (intentional reduction while rebuilding)
• ROAS: 1.1x → 1.4x
• Status: Stopped losing money—now breaking even

Week 3-4: Quick Wins Phase

With tracking fixed and waste eliminated, we optimized what remained.

Creative Refresh (Zero Budget)

Budget was tight, so we worked with existing assets:

• Repurposed existing product photos into new ad formats
• Created 10 new static variations without new photo shoots
• Made 3 simple video slideshows from product images
• Wrote 15 new copy variations testing different angles

Total additional spend: $0 (used existing brand assets)

Campaign Restructuring

New simplified structure:

Campaign	Objective	Audience	Budget
Prospecting	Conversions	Broad + Lookalike 1%	$12K
Retargeting	Conversions	Site visitors (excluding purchasers)	$5K
Testing	Conversions	Broad	$3K

Bidding Strategy Optimization

• Removed restrictive cost caps that were limiting delivery
• Set ROAS targets at 1.8x (aspirational but achievable)
• Let Meta's Advantage+ features find optimal delivery

Week 3-4 Results:

• Spend: $20K
• ROAS: 1.4x → 1.8x
• Client Mood: Cautiously optimistic

Week 5-8: Scaling What Works

With a solid foundation, we pushed for performance gains.

Creative Testing (Week 5-6)

Launched structured creative tests following 2025 best practices:

• UGC testimonial videos sourced from existing customers
• Before/after imagery with proper compliance disclaimers
• Problem-focused hook formats
• Founder story content

Key Finding: UGC testimonials performed 40% better than polished product-focused creative—consistent with broader 2025 industry trends.

Audience Expansion (Week 6-7)

Tested new audience strategies:

• Lookalike 2-5% (broader than previous 1%-only approach)
• Interest expansion (beauty + wellness combined)
• Advantage+ Audience targeting

Winner: Advantage+ Audience combined with UGC creative hit 2.6x ROAS—outperforming our manual targeting.

Controlled Scaling (Week 7-8)

Gradually increased spend on winners:

• Days 1-3: +15% on top performer
• Days 4-6: +15% again if metrics held
• Days 7-8: Evaluate and repeat or pause

Week 5-8 Results:

• Spend: $20K → $25K (back to original budget)
• ROAS: 1.8x → 2.4x (3x improvement from starting point)
• Revenue: $20K → $60K/month

Final Results: Before vs. After

Metric	Day 1	Day 60	Change
Monthly Spend	$25,000	$25,000	0%
ROAS	0.8x	2.4x	+200%
Revenue	$20,000	$60,000	+200%
Net Result	-$5,000	+$35,000	+$40K swing
Active Campaigns	23	3	-87%
Active Creatives	6 (stale)	20+ (fresh)	+233%

Business Impact

The client signed a 12-month contract and increased budget to $40K/month by Month 4. What started as a rescue mission became a growth partnership.

Warning Signs: What to Look for in Account Audits

If you're evaluating an account, watch for these red flags:

Tracking Issues

• Conversion numbers don't match backend sales data
• Events firing on wrong pages or multiple times
• Missing Conversions API implementation
• Suspiciously high or impossibly low ROAS

Structure Problems

• More than 5-7 active campaigns for typical budgets
• Audience overlap warnings in Ads Manager
• No exclusion lists for purchasers or email subscribers
• Mix of conflicting objectives in the same account

Creative Debt

• Same ads running 60+ days without refresh
• Frequency above 3 on any audience
• No new creative added in 30+ days
• Only one format (all static or all video)

Strategic Confusion

• Can't explain why each campaign exists
• No clear funnel structure (prospecting → retargeting → retention)
• Competing bidding strategies
• Multiple conversion events being optimized

The Universal Turnaround Playbook

Phase 1: Diagnose (Days 1-3)

1. Complete tracking audit
2. Review account structure
3. Analyze creative performance
4. Document all issues found

Phase 2: Stabilize (Days 4-14)

1. Fix tracking first
2. Pause underperformers aggressively
3. Clean up audiences and exclusions
4. Simplify campaign structure

Phase 3: Optimize (Days 15-30)

1. Refresh creative with quick wins
2. Test new audience approaches
3. Refine bidding strategies
4. Monitor closely for regressions

Phase 4: Scale (Days 31-60)

1. Increase spend on proven winners
2. Launch advanced creative tests
3. Expand what works
4. Document playbook for maintenance

Key Lessons Learned

1. Tracking is Everything

We "improved" ROAS by 40% just by fixing measurement. Real performance gains came after—but accurate data made optimization possible.

2. Simplification Wins

23 campaigns competing for $25K = chaos. 3 focused campaigns = performance. Meta's algorithms in 2025 work best with consolidated structures.

3. Creative Compounds

Fresh creative had immediate impact. The 8-month-old ads were actively hurting performance through fatigue and irrelevance.

4. Transparency Builds Trust

We gave the client daily updates during the first two weeks. Honesty about what was broken—and clear communication about fixes—built trust during a scary period.

5. Set Realistic Expectations

We told the client upfront: "Week 1-2 is cleanup. Week 3-4 is optimization. Visible results by Week 5-6." Setting expectations prevents panic and gives optimization time to work.

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