THE CHALLENGE 

When most people think about Facebook and Instagram advertising, they picture e-commerce stores, gyms, or local tradies. There’s a common misconception that Meta ads generate poor quality leads and aren’t effective in getting leads and sales for high value products or services.  

But this client, a well established Australian cemetery, had a real commercial challenge. They had crypts available for sale, a high-value product with a long sales cycle, and a market that required careful, respectful communication. 

Crypts are not an impulse purchase. They're a significant financial and emotional decision, often made by people planning ahead for themselves or a loved one. The advertising had to work hard, not just to create awareness, but to build enough trust to move someone through a genuinely sensitive buying journey. 

The brief was straightforward: generate qualified enquiries from people interested in purchasing a crypt, so those inquiries could actually be converted into sales, not just added to a list. The budget was modest. The expectations were conservative. The results were not. 

THE STRATEGY 

We built a three-phase Meta ads approach across Facebook and Instagram, designed to meet potential buyers wherever they were in their decision-making process. 

PLANNING:

Before we event started building a campaign, we needed to get inside the head of our audience. To understand what was important to them. We identified 3 things we believed would be important to our audience. 

These three values would form the basis for every element of the campaign, especially the copywriting and the visual elements.   

PHASE 1. Brand awareness: making them visible 

Before asking anyone to enquire, we needed to build familiarity and trust. We ran branding-focused ads designed to increase the cemetery's visibility in the local market, establish credibility, and gently introduce the idea of crypt ownership to an audience that may never have considered it before. These ads weren't selling, they were warming. 

They were promoting specific pieces of content designed around the three values we identified earlier. Content designed to show how these values were embodied in the client's product and service, and how that would meet the specific needs of that audience. 

PHASE 2.  Meta lead form ads: reducing friction 

For people who showed interest, and cold audiences, we ran lead generation ads using Meta's native high intent lead forms. These allow a prospect to register their interest without ever leaving Facebook or Instagram. No website to load, no form to fill out from scratch, a simple stress free expression of interest. 

But with the high intent forms, there's an additional step to qualify and confirm contact details. Lower friction means more leads, and for a considered purchase like this, getting someone to simply raise their hand is a major first step, but a lead is no good if you can't contact them afterwards. The Meta high intent forms fix this traditional problem. 

PHASE 3. Conversion ads: capturing serious buyers 

We also used conversion-focused ads driving traffic directly to the client's website enquiry form. This audience, people willing to navigate to a website and fill out a form, signalled a higher level of intent. These leads were often further along in their decision-making process, and more likely to convert quickly.  They're typically more costly, there are usually fewer of them, but the payoff is generally a higher conversion rate. 

Running both lead form and website conversion ads in parallel gave us two streams of enquiries at different stages of readiness, and allowed the client's sales team to prioritise and follow up accordingly. A perfect balance of lower cost leads that can be nurtured and converted over time (often at higher prices)and more immediate revenue.

With a tight timeframe and relatively small budget, we used a targeted and strategic approach to run all three phases of the campaign simultaneously to ensure no momentum was lost, and every dollar of ad spend was maximised.  

THE RESULTS 

The numbers that really matter

On a total ad spend of $3,149, the campaign has generated $225,000 in crypt sales so far. That’s a return on ad spend of more than 71 times the investment. And it will almost certainly climb higher as there are still active leads being followed up by the client’s sales team. 

Is a ROAS of over 100 possible for this campaign? Absolutely!  

But beyond the numbers, what this campaign proved is something we believe deeply at Orbit Marketing: no industry is too difficult, too sensitive, or too niche for a well-built, planned and executed Meta ads strategy. 

WHAT MADE IT WORK 

We respected the audience and took time to understand what motivated them. The creative and copy acknowledged the emotional weight of the decision without being morbid or clinical. It spoke to people at all stages of the decision making process and focussed on what was important to them.  

We tested, measured and were vigilant. Our team monitored the campaign results closely, optimising as we went and directing more budget towards the specific messaging that was resonating most strongly. We used multiple versions of the copy and creative, being sure to give the algorithm enough variation to work with, then we listened to what it had to say and responded accordingly. The detail is in the data, and the data never lies.  

We built a system, not just an ad. The combination of awareness, lead gen, and conversion ads meant we were reaching people at every stage of readiness, not just those already primed to buy. 

We gave the sales team quality leads to work with. By separating lead form responses from website conversions, the client knew which leads were warm and which were hot, and could follow up accordingly.  

Having a dedicated and well trained sales team makes a world of difference to your conversion rate, and therefore your results! 

We kept the spend tight and the targeting sharp. $3,149 is not a big budget. Every dollar had to work. Precise audience targeting and ongoing optimisation meant we weren't wasting spend on people who would never buy. 

THE TAKEAWAY 

If a cemetery can generate a 71× (and climbing) return on ad spend selling crypts on Facebook and Instagram, what could the right Meta ads strategy do for your business? 

Most businesses we speak to have either never run Meta ads properly, or they've tried boosting posts and written the whole platform off. Neither is the answer. 

The answer is a strategy built around your specific product, your specific buyer, and a system that moves them from stranger to enquiry to sale. 

If you'd like to know what a proper Meta ads campaign could look like for your business, we'd love to have that conversation. No pressure, no pitch, just an honest chat about what's possible. 

👉 Talk to us now.