How Ceremony Matcha Reached a 4.4x Blended ROAS Across Meta and Google
By Kevin Veitia
- Client
- Ceremony Matcha, a Zurich-based organic ceremonial matcha brand
- Markets
- Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium
- Channels
- Meta Ads (Facebook, Instagram), Google Ads (Shopping, Performance Max, brand)
- Timeframe
- June 2024 to January 2025
The challenge
Ceremony Matcha sells premium organic ceremonial matcha online from Zurich, to customers in Switzerland and across Europe. When we came in, its Meta account was hitting a wall it couldn't see.
Average frequency had climbed to 4. We start getting nervous around 2.5 to 3, and on image ads, cost per purchase roughly doubled once frequency got that high. The same people were seeing the same ads over and over, and the brand was paying for the privilege.
On top of that, a payment problem in May had interrupted ad delivery. When delivery stops, the algorithm loses its footing, and cost per purchase jumped 33 to 40% while it recovered. Meanwhile, the Google account leaned heavily on Performance Max and hadn't had a meaningful change in months.
What we did
Built a creative rotation system
Frequency is a creative problem. At that budget, we capped live creative at six assets, three videos and three images, with a bench of ready replacements so a fading ad could be swapped the moment it started slipping. Keeping about two weeks of new creative in reserve meant the account never had to run tired ads while waiting on production.
Followed the placements that converted
Most purchases came from Instagram Stories, which had the lowest cost per purchase, followed by Reels. So the creative went vertical and story-worthy, made for where buyers actually were instead of resized for it.
Kept Switzerland and the rest of Europe apart
Swiss shoppers already knew the brand: fewer clicks, more purchases. International audiences were meeting it cold, and with them, video beat images. Separate campaigns learn separately, so we kept them apart and weighted video toward the international side.
The same logic applied to style. User-generated-style video can grate on people who already know a brand, but it worked on people meeting it for the first time. Instead of spinning up a new campaign, we tested it with a customer-list exclusion, so existing buyers never saw it.
Managed countries on evidence
Each market got judged on its own numbers. Germany's cost per purchase was trending down, the Netherlands held steady, and Belgium was weak. A country that spent about €200 without a sale was a candidate to cut. But we didn't split countries into separate campaigns too early, because thin budgets spread across too many campaigns starve the algorithm.
Rebuilt Google around Shopping
We cleaned up conversion tracking, setting unused events to secondary and shortening attribution windows, and launched a new Shopping campaign instead of leaning on Performance Max, whose reporting tends to overstate sales. In our experience, by about a third. We also pushed to test brand-forward product imagery against the white-background shots Google's guidelines favor, which made the products look dated.
Judged channels on lifetime value
Matcha is a consumable. People come back. That means a lot of "direct" sales are really repeat customers first acquired through an ad. Average customer value ran about €120 to €130 against a €60 to €70 first order, and by rough math, organic Instagram drove only a handful of sales a month. So we judged Meta and Google together against blended ROAS targets, instead of letting one channel take credit for the other's work.
Results
- 4.4x blended ROAS across Meta and Google in October 2024
- 1,600% ROAS on the new Google Shopping campaign
- The matcha set drove about €1,650 in Google revenue that month, which made it the obvious product to push into the holiday season
Heading into the new year, we shifted spend toward Google, where buying intent was strongest, paused Meta, and lined the German campaigns up for a creative refresh.
What you can take from this
- Frequency is a silent CPA killer. Keep a bench of creative so you can swap before costs double.
- Make creative for the placement that converts. Here, that was Instagram Stories.
- Separate people who already know you from people who don't. They want different ads.
- Don't let Performance Max grade its own homework. A standalone Shopping campaign showed the truth.
- For consumables, judge channels on blended ROAS and lifetime value.
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