For cash on delivery brands, give every product its own test campaign with several creatives, keep the winners and switch off losers within days, and add a click-to-WhatsApp campaign so buyers can talk before they commit. HS Supply used this approach across 219 campaigns and kept failed tests to 2.4% of spend.
Why are cash on delivery brands different?
With cash on delivery (COD), the customer pays when the parcel arrives. That removes the fear of paying online, which helps conversion. It also means some orders are refused or never confirmed, so a purchase on Meta is not the same as money in the bank.
Many COD buyers also want to chat first, usually on WhatsApp. A COD ad account usually has two jobs: drive website purchases, and fill the WhatsApp inbox with people your sales team can convert.
How should you test products?
HS Supply sells trending household, wellness and gadget products, and its catalogue changes constantly. Every new product has to prove it can sell before it earns a real budget.
The method that worked: one testing campaign per product, with several creatives running against the same audience. Winners were scaled in place. Losers were switched off within days.
- One product per campaign, so every result maps to one decision
- Several creatives in one campaign, because creative matters more than narrow targeting
- Wait for a meaningful number of orders before calling a winner. Of the 120 purchase campaigns, 65 reached 10 or more orders
How do you limit wasted spend?
Fast kills protect the budget. In the HS Supply account, 43 campaigns produced no result, and together they used PKR 46,331, about 2.4% of total spend. That kept money available for the next winner.
Four creative-testing campaigns produced 2,641 purchases, which is 53% of all orders in the account, on 31% of the spend. Their combined cost per purchase was PKR 231, against PKR 297 for the account as a whole.
Where does WhatsApp fit in?
Click-to-WhatsApp campaigns send the customer straight into a chat. Across the account, WhatsApp campaigns produced 59,440 conversations at about PKR 6.9 each. The best campaigns got the cost per chat under PKR 5, down from around PKR 40 in the early tests.
A cheap chat only helps if it closes. Track lead quality next to cost per chat, and listen to what the sales team says about the people arriving.
What should you track for a COD brand?
- Cost per purchase, and the confirmed or delivered rate behind it
- Cost per WhatsApp conversation, and how many of those chats become orders
- Spend that went to campaigns with no result
- Retargeting cost per purchase for visitors who browsed but did not order
Frequently asked questions
Does cash on delivery work with Meta ads?
Yes. COD is common for ecommerce in Pakistan and many other markets, and Meta can optimise for purchases or for WhatsApp conversations. The key is tracking confirmed orders, not only purchases reported by the pixel.
How many creatives should you test per product?
Run several in one campaign (three to five is a good start), let them compete, and scale the one that wins. Switch off the rest.
Should COD brands use WhatsApp ads or website purchase ads?
Often both. Website purchase ads capture buyers who are ready now. WhatsApp ads capture people who want reassurance first. HS Supply ran both and split spend roughly 76% to 21%.