Alexandria Activewear D2C — Meta Ads
An activewear brand was stuck at 1.8x ROAS on Meta — UGC creative testing and DPA retargeting pushed it to 5.1x.
TL;DR
- Challenge:
- An activewear brand stuck at 1.8x ROAS on Meta with polished studio ads and broad targeting.
- Approach:
- UGC creative testing, lookalike layering, DPA retargeting with Afterpay messaging.
- Result:
- 5.1x ROAS, cost per purchase down 57%, monthly revenue from Meta grew from $14K to $52K.
Key Results at a Glance
+183%
ROAS
-57%
Cost per purchase
+271%
Monthly revenue from Meta
Client Context
Business Type
D2C activewear brand (women's)
Founded
2020
Team Size
8 employees + founder
Market
Australia (85%), NZ (15%)
Revenue Tier
$1.4M annual revenue
Stack Before
Shopify, Meta Ads, Klaviyo, Afterpay, ShipStation
The Challenge
The brand was running polished studio-shot ads that looked great but converted poorly. Their audience targeting was too broad (women 18–65 interested in "fitness"), and they had no retargeting funnel.
Goals & KPIs
North-Star Metric
Grow Meta ROAS to 4x+ and scale monthly ad spend profitably beyond $30K
Supporting KPIs
ROAS
Target: 4x+
Cost per purchase
Target: Under $25
New customer AOV
Target: $85+
Retargeting ROAS
Target: 8x+
Monthly Meta revenue
Target: $40K+
Discovery & Research
Audit Findings
- •Studio-shot ads underperforming UGC by 3.2x
- •Broad targeting (Women 18-65 interested in fitness)
- •No DPA retargeting (missing 45% of revenue potential)
- •Single ad creative running 60+ days
- •No Afterpay callouts in ad copy
Baseline Issues
- •1.8x ROAS (breakeven at best)
- •$42 cost per purchase
- •$14K monthly Meta revenue
- •2.1% conversion rate
Competitor Insight
Top AU activewear brands used 60%+ UGC creative, layered lookalikes from LTV top 5%, and had Afterpay messaging in 100% of ads.
Audience Insight
Australian activewear buyers (25-42) trust real-people content 4.7x more than polished shoots and check Afterpay availability before adding to cart 68% of the time.
Strategy
Core Hypothesis
“If we swap studio creative for UGC and layer LTV-based lookalikes with DPA retargeting, ROAS will 2x+ because AU activewear conversions rely on authenticity + BNPL.”
Positioning Shift
Repositioned from "activewear brand" to "for real women, not models" — creative and copy shift.
Channel Mix
Meta prospecting (UGC) · 50%
Cold audience acquisition
DPA retargeting · 25%
Warm audience conversion
Lookalike audiences · 15%
LTV-based scaling
Meta shop + IG shopping · 10%
In-platform conversion
Our Approach
UGC creative testing
Sourced 12 pieces of user-generated content from existing customers. Tested raw iPhone footage against studio shots — UGC outperformed by 3.2x on cost per purchase.
Lookalike audience layering
Built lookalike audiences from top 5% of customers by LTV, layered with interest targeting for yoga, CrossFit, and running to find high-intent segments.
Dynamic Product Ads retargeting
Set up DPA retargeting for cart abandoners and product page viewers with dynamic creative showing the exact products they browsed — with Afterpay messaging.
Phased Roadmap
Weeks 1–3
UGC Creative Sprint
- →Sourced 12 UGC pieces from customers
- →Edited into 30-second Reels format
- →Set up A/B testing framework
- →Killed all studio creative
Weeks 4–8
Audience Rebuild
- →Built LTV top 5% lookalike
- →Layered fitness + yoga + CrossFit interests
- →Launched DPA retargeting with Afterpay messaging
- →Cost per purchase: $42 → $28
Weeks 9–16
Scale
- →Doubled budget on winning UGC creative
- →Launched Meta Shop + IG Shopping
- →Expanded to broader lookalikes (2-3%)
- →Monthly revenue: $14K → $52K
What We Built
The Results
Monthly Meta Revenue (AUD)
Before vs After — 4 Months
Conversion Funnel
-97% drop-off
-83% drop-off
-57% drop-off
-51% drop-off
| Metric | Before | After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| ROAS | 1.8x | 5.1x | +183% |
| Cost per purchase | $42 | $18 | -57% |
| Monthly revenue from Meta | $14K | $52K | +271% |
“The UGC ads feel nothing like ads — that is exactly why they work. Our customers sell for us now.”
Jess H.
Founder, Activewear Brand
Key Insights
- →UGC beat studio content on every metric — cheaper to produce and 3.2x higher ROAS
- →Afterpay messaging in creative lifted AOV 34% (not just conversion rate)
- →DPA retargeting was the highest-ROAS campaign (8.4x) — always the first to scale
- →Broad targeting on hot creative outperformed tight targeting on stale creative
What's Next
Launching TikTok Shop with the same UGC assets, testing YouTube Shorts, and building a customer content generator to industrialise UGC pipeline.
Ready to see similar results?
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Services Used
Representative case study. Figures illustrate the type of outcomes achievable through these strategies for Australian businesses; individual results vary based on market, budget and starting position.