I run a small workshop in Bursa making home decor and custom ceramic pieces... I launched my website 6 months ago but nobody visited except friends and family... After watching a few videos, I jumped in wondering "what are Meta ads and how do you run them?" My goal was to sell directly through Instagram and Facebook on my own budget without handing thousands of liras over to big agencies.
The first month, I set a 14,000 TL budget and hit the "boost post" button inside the Instagram app to target broad random audiences. btw the result was a total disaster; I got over 4,000 likes and hundreds of followers but only 2 orders came through the site the entire month. Not giving up, I opened Ads Manager on desktop for month two set up the pixel on my site, and put together dedicated creative sets targeting people interested in "home decor."
By the end of month three, I managed to hit 92,000 TL in revenue from the site against 45,000 TL in total ad spend. Starting from scratch, I burned through a lot of cash, but I also figured out how the whole thing works. While sharing my own journey and rookie mistakes Id also love to hear budget optimization tips from anyone whos walked a similar path.