Meta’s Tumultuous Relationship with CPG Brands on Shopify: Who’s In, Who’s Out, and Why

Meta ads used to be a given—the first dollar in and the last dollar out, right?

Not anymore.

The first domino to fall was iOS 14, and since then there’s been an upheaval of changes over the past few years that fractured the original ads playbook. 2024 was rocky. And while 2025 shows signs of stability, the relationship is more complicated than ever.

Seeing these results start to spread among the DTC community, I reached out to several brands to ask them directly: “Is Meta still part of your playbook in 2025?” 

My first conversation on the topic with Julia Pérez, VP of Marketing at Owyn, stuck with me: 

“I don’t get the obsession with constantly having to narrow campaigns back to ROAS and attribution,” she said. “Meta can be a tool almost like what TV used to be,” she said.

Her opinion brought the complexity I was feeling about Meta into sharp focus… Meta isn’t even a major part of OWYN’s media mix anymore—not because it failed them but because their growth model evolved.

Her take raised a bigger question: Do CPG brands really need Meta to grow in 2025? 

Or is that just old DTC groupthink?

The answer? It depends.

I know, I know. “Cop-out answer.” But keep reading, I promise. 

Honestly, the question is less about using/not using Meta. It’s about when, how, and for what purpose. 

One thing’s clear: Meta’s role is changing fast. Here’s what we learned from experts:

1. Meta performance has improved, but it's not 2020.

Among brands still investing in Meta, sentiment is cautiously optimistic. Results are better than they were during Covid. But that rebound didn’t happen by accident, and it doesn’t mean the platform is back to its golden age. (It probably won't ever be.)

“We’ve actually seen steady improvements,” said Braxton Manley, Founder of Mystic Mastic Gum. “Nothing like pre-iOS 14 performance, but enough Meta success to be in the green again.”

That success didn’t come from waiting it out. It came from shifting the approach:

• Running evergreen offers like “Buy 2, Get 1 Free”
• Leaning into specific, values-based angles (like PFAS-free materials)
• Doubling down on conversion-focused creative testing

Karan Jassar, founder of the agency Socioh, which has worked with over 300 DTC brands, shared a similar view: “We’ve observed a noticeable improvement in Meta performance across the board… It feels reminiscent of Meta’s performance before the iOS 14 privacy changes.”

He credits the improvement to Meta’s AI catching up—finally optimizing despite weaker data signals. Targeting is better. Volatility is down. CACs are more predictable.

But the underlying reality remains: better algorithms alone aren’t enough. 

The brands succeeding are the ones that adapted, experimented, and improved their creatives, offer structures, and (most importantly, perhaps) expectations.

However, Meta isn’t fully “back”

The reality is Meta isn’t what it used to be. Despite the successes Braxton and Karan are seeing, aggregate numbers still show a tough reality.

According to the DTC Index report from March 2025, Facebook ROAS is still down 13.78% and average CAC across Meta is up 16.58% year-over-year.

Nerd Note: aMER is Attributed Marketing Efficiency Ratio.

aMER is a variation of MER, but instead of using total revenue, aMER uses attributed revenue—usually attributed by a specific platform, like Meta, Google, or your attribution tool.

Also, certain categories are getting wrecked—Facebook ROAS in the beauty segment is down 38.35% year-over-year:

There’s no “easy button” for Meta.

We have to stop running Meta campaigns like we did five years ago.

Brands that don’t adapt are going to die… It’s as sad and simple as that.

2. Meta still wins when you need to manufacture demand

While some brands have moved on from Meta, others remain deeply dependent on it—especially those that need to generate demand from scratch.

“We want diversity,” said Sean McGinnis, a marketing consultant who’s worked with many CPG brands. “But Meta is still 90% of our spend because, frankly, nothing else scales in the same way yet.”

Sean explained how Meta directly fuels Amazon sales. “Our ability to execute on Amazon is basically driven by our Meta spend. As Meta spend goes up, Amazon revenue goes up—it’s almost perfectly correlated.”

That doesn’t mean Meta is easy. 

Sean flagged ongoing volatility:

• Campaigns killed by compliance or health ad policy shifts
• Channel dependencies that cause ripple effects (like AppLovin banning VSL traffic)
• Ad performance whiplash, requiring constant adjustment

Sean’s bigger lesson wasn’t just "stick with Meta.” His advice is to build flexible systems, stay disciplined, and be ready to move quickly. 

“Everything is codependent,” he said. “You have to be willing to test different channels, different funnel stages, different messaging.”

If your success depends on capturing purchase intent—whether that's on your website or in marketplaces—you still need something that consistently puts new customers into your ecosystem. 

"Meta remains a key channel for CPG brands in 2025, especially those that are fully D2C, early-stage, or have a strong, differentiated value proposition."
– Karan Jassar, founder of Socioh

3. Growth at scale takes more than meta (and knowing when to lean on it)

“Beyond a certain scale, direct response advertising becomes essential to sustain and grow revenue,” said Karan. 

Even brands with strong organic engines—like SKIMS, Liquid Death, and Huckberry—still rely heavily on Meta to convert awareness into measurable performance.

At the same time, the operators and marketers succeeding today aren’t stubbornly trying to fix Meta. They’re orchestrating multiple levers around smarter growth. They’re also being brutally honest about when Meta is the right tool and when it’s not.

Back to Julia’s lesson from the beginning of this article… 

The deeper trend isn’t about whether Meta works. It’s about knowing when to use it—and when to lean elsewhere.

Depending on the category and the buyer journey, there are other platforms emerging as strong contenders on the digital side:

• Pinterest: Winning for visually-driven categories like home, decor, and DIY
• TikTok: Exploding growth for beauty and impulse-friendly CPG products
• YouTube: Converting with high-intent shoppers via long-form influencer content

"Meta is still often the most reliable and scalable paid channel for CPG—especially when it comes to predictable customer acquisition [and] retargeting," Karan said. "But it's not automatically the best tool for every brand, at every stage."

4. Omnichannel brands are reframing meta—and breaking free from the ROAS trap

As brands move beyond DTC into big-box retail and omnichannel distribution, Meta’s role shifts.

For Julia at OWYN, this realization was critical to evolving how they think about performance: too many DTC-rooted marketers are still applying old expectations to a new growth model:

• Hyper-fixation on exact attribution
• Unrealistic expectations for ROAS from every dollar spent
• Endless creative testing with no broader media mix perspective

That mindset leads to frustration. Not just with Meta, but with the overall marketing function. The real problem isn’t always performance. It’s measurement.

“There’s so much pressure to attribute every single purchase, but if you’re building a brand that lives across multiple touchpoints—retail, Amazon, DTC—that thinking will hold you back,” Julia said.

Instead of obsessing over ROAS, OWYN focuses on attention and awareness. 

During their Sam’s Club launch, the team used PostPilot to send direct mail to loyalty members near store locations. 

“Those efforts moved the needle in retail way more than another round of ad creative testing,” she explained. “And we didn’t need last-click attribution to prove it.”

Still, Julia isn’t dismissing Meta’s value. 

In fact, she views it as a highly efficient awareness channel, especially compared to TV.

“The Meta CPM is still going to be more efficient than a TV ad,” she said. “If you’re targeting Gen Z, millennials, even Gen X—they’re spending way more time on Instagram than anywhere else.”

For brands operating across retail, DTC, and marketplaces, Meta’s value may lie less in last-click performance and more in its ability to maintain attention at scale.

In other words, if you're using Meta to build brand presence, increase product awareness, or support a retail launch, that's a win. 

Just don’t expect the ad to do all the work alone.

Here’s what you should do next if you’re still in the Meta game

Here’s what top-performing brands are doing differently in 2025 and what you can borrow for your own strategy.

1. Treat creative as a core growth function

This isn’t optional anymore. 

On Meta, and increasingly across all platforms, creative is the most important variable. Not budget. Not targeting.

To win, you need to regularly ship new, high-volume creative. And not just slight tweaks of existing ads. We’re talking fresh angles, formats, and hooks that actually stop the scroll.

Think:

• Clear, immediate value props
• Strong product demos
• Emotional or culturally relevant narratives
• Visuals that pop in a sea of sameness

Creative fatigue is real, and it’s faster than ever. Assume your best-performing ad has a shelf life of weeks, not months.

“Today, success comes from consistently testing and iterating on content that resonates with your audience,” said Karan Jassar. 

“Whether you’re advertising on Meta, TikTok, or scaling through organic channels, creative is what drives performance. Founders and operators should treat it like a core growth function—not a side task.”

The brands doing this well have internalized the idea that content creation is ongoing, not campaign-based. And they’re resourcing it accordingly.

2. Leverage evergreen offers to stabilize CAC

Promo cycles come and go, but evergreen offers can anchor your Meta performance through the highs and lows.

Braxton Manley’s team leaned on a simple but powerful “Buy 2, Get 1 Free” deal that consistently delivered healthy returns.

These types of offers work because they increase AOV, reduce friction, and give shoppers a clear reason to act. Not to mention, a superior alternative to just running steep discounts all of the time.

Consider alternatives to basic discounting, like:

• “First Purchase” discounts
• Free gifts with purchase
• Tiered spend rewards
• Mix and match or bulk-order bundles 
• Bonus loyalty points

3. Focus on funnel matching, not just broad targeting

Sean McGinnis pointed out that while last-click performance still matters, expecting it to work without any upstream warmup is a mistake: 

“It’s about warming the customer up before expecting instant conversions.”

Broad targeting and one-size-fits-all ads don’t work anymore. Match creative and landing experiences to specific funnel stages instead.

• Top of Funnel: Attention-grabbing content that introduces your brand and value prop
• Middle of Funnel: Social proof, comparisons, education—anything that builds trust
• Bottom of Funnel: Urgency, clear CTAs, strong offers—built to convert

This approach warms the customer up through multiple touchpoints and gives Meta the signals it needs to retarget more effectively.

4. Accept fuzziness, but track what matters

Attribution in 2025 is murkier than ever, and that’s okay. 

The key is to stop chasing perfect clarity and start tracking the right signals.

Sean calls it “codependence.” 

Channels influence each other. Paid social fuels organic search. Meta ads lift Amazon performance. Retail velocity improves when your brand is buzzing online.

“You have to accept some fuzziness, or you’ll miss the bigger picture of what your marketing is actually doing.”
– Sean McGinnis

You might not be able to draw a straight line between every dollar spent and every dollar earned, but you can track movement across key metrics:

• Branded search volume
• Website sessions
• Add-to-carts and bounce rate shifts
• Repeat purchase rates after campaign launches
• Local store performance near Meta campaign geo-targets

Zoom out. Look at trends. That’s where the truth lives now.

5.  Understand the household penetration of your category

The role Meta plays also depends heavily on the maturity and household penetration of your category.

“For products like protein shakes, awareness is lower—it’s not like chips or soda where everyone knows what it is already,” Julia Perez explained.

If your product requires more education or isn’t part of an everyday routine, your Meta strategy will look different than a legacy snack brand or a trending beauty SKU. Awareness takes longer to build, and the value of top-of-funnel reach goes way up.

Knowing where you sit on that curve will help you set smarter expectations, build better offers, and choose the right ad formats.

6. Stay scrappy, stay profitable

And finally… the unsexy but essential advice: don’t let Meta drag you into an unprofitable hole.

If performance dips, don’t just throw more money at it. 

Pull back. Rebuild. Get closer to the work.

“If you need to claw back budget and start running your own email or ads again, do it,” Braxton said. “It’s better to be profitable and scrappy than broke and bloated.”

Sustainable growth beats growth-at-any-cost, every time.

Takeaway: Meta isn’t doing the same job for every CPG brand anymore

Meta is doing a different job now in CPG. 

For some brands, it’s still the backbone of demand. For others, it’s a megaphone for awareness.

But the brands winning in 2025 aren’t loyal to platforms. They’re loyal to performance. 

They’re making decisions based on what works now, not what used to.

“The era of ‘ad hacks’ is behind us.”
– Karan Jassar

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