The Monthly Read · 13 July – 9 August 2026
A real client
You spent A$2,202 and Meta recorded A$8,015 back from 96 orders. You need 1.67x to break even at your margin, so at 3.64x the account is running at more than double the point where it pays for itself.
Prepared 13 Aug 2026 · Meta Ads + Instagram · all figures AUD
The one thing to change next
If you do one thing this month
Everything on this list is something you can do yourself. None of it needs an agency. Ordered by what will move the numbers most: the first is the single highest-value change available to you right now, and the rest are worth doing in roughly this order as you get to them.
Slightly less spent, slightly more made
This month against last
Compared with the four weeks before it, 15 June to 12 July. Spend came down a little and revenue went up a little, so the return improved. That’s against last month; inside this month the final week softened, which is the creative warning further down.
Every week cleared break-even comfortably
The month, week by week
Spend sat between A$510 and A$574 every week, so nothing here is explained by budget. Each week is measured against its own break-even line, because break-even moves with what you spent that week.
Where people fall out on the way to buying
The leak · most recent week, 3–9 August
Out of every 100 people who clicked your ads, this is where they went. A funnel drops too steeply to draw at one scale, so it’s rebased: one cube is one person, and the four outcomes are exclusive, so they total exactly 100.
91 people added to cart and 69 of them left without buying. Getting even a quarter of them back would add roughly eleven orders a week, half as many again as you get now, without spending another dollar.
Three things working, two worth watching
What the numbers say
Your sales ads, one by one
Most recent week · 3–9 August
Pulled straight from the ad account, so you’re looking at the same creative your customers saw. Return figures on very small spend are unreliable; anything marked low spend is indicative only.
Australia and New Zealand
Where the money came from
What to hold lightly
Standing caveats
- Revenue here is what Meta claims credit for. Worth cross-checking against Shopify monthly, because the two rarely agree exactly.
- Break-even is calculated on an assumed 60% product margin. Confirm your real figure and this line moves.
- At roughly 24 orders a week, a single week is mostly noise. Judge direction on the monthly view rather than on any one number moving.
- There’s still no retargeting campaign running, and no customer exclusions on the main sales ad set. Both are structural gaps rather than this month’s problem.
Your checklist
Before the next read
Everything above, as a list you can work through. Tick them off as you go and this page will remember, so you can come back to it mid-month and see what is left.
The organic side
Instagram · name removed
Based on all 76 posts since 11 February 2026, about 2.8 posts a week to 23,032 followers. Engagement is likes and comments only. Reach and saves need an Instagram permission, the one-click item on your list above.
Reels against feed posts
Which opening line works
Your five best organic posts