Repeat purchases turned acquisition profitable

Item: Profit Bid
Rating: 5
Author: Priya N.

A Shopify supplements brand had a 90-day reorder habit but bid only on first orders. Tying POAS to repeat-purchase profit reshaped the whole acquisition model.

Store: Shopify
Ads: Meta Ads
Duration: 120 days

The challenge

Customers reordered reliably every ~90 days, but Meta campaigns were judged on the first purchase, which looked barely profitable. The team under-invested in a channel that was actually building a profitable subscriber base.

Approach

Synced Shopify orders and subscription reorders with cost per item.
Measured POAS by reorder cadence and cohort.
Sent profit-weighted purchase values to Meta via CAPI.
Set acquisition targets referencing 90/180-day repeat profit.
Kept a first-order profit floor as a safety guardrail.

Performance

POAS by reorder cadence

Profit Bid

Both cohorts start at the same first-order POAS, then diverge sharply as reorders compound profit.

First-order POAS106%
Held steady
180-day POAS214%
Reorders counted
Reorder rate47%
Post-purchase flows

Results

First-order POAS

104%106%

Held steady

180-day POAS

104%214%

Reorders counted

Reorder rate

38%47%

Post-purchase flows

Meta budget

€9k/mo€15k/mo

Confident scale

“Our customers come back every quarter like clockwork. Once bidding understood that, Meta went from marginal to our best channel.”
— Priya N., Founder, supplements brand