What’s Been Overlooked in Meta Ads 2025

I spent 6+ years as an engineer at Meta. I’m seeing a lot of recycled advice on campaign structure that doesn’t hold up. Here’s what’s actually working right now:

1. Email + Server Signal Collection

Combine paid and email marketing together. Collect more emails and customer data onsite.

2. Start with at least 2-3x your AOV/day

At a minimum, you need to set your daily budget to match your AOV. Ideally, you’d set the budget to 2-3x your AOV.

3. Campaign structure doesn’t save bad creative or poor offers

Great execution still starts with a strong product and messaging.

4. Think diamond-shaped, not funnel-shaped

Your setup should collect broad signals, enhance them, and then convert.

5. “Data” = server-side signals

First-party data and server-side implementation is non-negotiable now.

How It Looks In Practice:

🔹 Level 1: Server Signal Collection

I'm a huge advocate of having a combination of paid and email marketing. When they work in tandem, you get the highest quality signals that can feed into each other for not only retargeting, but also prospecting. Capturing intent, aka Leads from email popup opt-ins (not just purchases) via server-side events gives you a signal-weighting advantage inside Meta’s system, often 3x more weight than pixel-only.

🔹 Level 2: Signal Enhancement

During busy times, Meta may rebuild audience models every 6-8 hours, not every 24-48. You must feed consistent, granular signals: views, adds to cart, initiated checkouts, via server-side integration. This is where you give the algorithm its “brain food.”

🔹 Level 3: Conversion Drive

A rule of thumb for ad creative: if you’ve spent $500 or 5-6x AOV (whichever number is higher) and haven’t driven more than a single conversion, the ad is not working for now.

You probably want to dedicate enough budget to run ~10 rounds of testing, keeping in mind the minimum daily spend guidelines from the prior section.

Technical Foundations:

• Real-time API integration

• Server-side event processing

• First-party data capture (web + platform engagement)

• Value-based optimization

• Custom server events for New Customer/Return Customer

Real Account Results:

• $500/day account → 4.8× ROAS with first-party focus and server-side only

• BFCM campaigns → 3-4× better vs. pixel-only setups

The secret? Quality first-party data feeding directly into Meta’s algorithm. We’ve seen regular 2–3× ROAS gains once this is dialed in.

Happy to answer any questions!

Cheers ✌️

Yiqi

📚 Other helpful resources from the Aimerce team:

1. The reason why your Meta DPA (Dynamic Product Ads) doesn’t work

Why Meta Dynamic Product Ads break, how to check catalog match rate, and the fix to get them working again.

2. We audited 800+ Klaviyo accounts. Here are our top 7 Klaviyo hacks you may not know (yet)

We found the patterns, mistakes, and hidden gems most brands miss.

3. Understanding Facebook Attribution in 2025

Unlock accurate ad performance measurement amid privacy changes.

4. Meta Ads Cheat Sheet: Why Your ROAS Is Off (and How to Fix It)

We audited 200+ Shopify accounts. These are the top reasons your ROAS is misleading and what to do about it.

5. Is Your Tracking Setup Leaking Revenue? Take This 5-Minute Audit!

Run through this quick checklist to catch attribution issues before they ruin your campaigns. No dev work required.