The Strategy

We built a complete Facebook and Instagram advertising ecosystem designed to attract busy home cooks who wanted faster, easier meal planning without wasting ingredients.

Ideal Customer Research & Avatar Deep-Dive

We analyzed Simon’s existing user base and identified three primary avatars:

(1) busy moms (ages 28-45) cooking dinner for families 5-7 nights per week, overwhelmed by meal planning and wasting groceries

(2) health-conscious professionals (ages 25-40) wanting to cook at home more but struggling with recipe ideas for random ingredients, and…

(3) budget-focused households (ages 30-50) trying to reduce food waste and stretch grocery budgets.

All three groups shared common pain points: tired of cooking the same boring recipes, no time to browse Pinterest or cookbooks, ingredients going bad before getting used, and decision fatigue around “what’s for dinner.”

High-Converting Landing Page & Free Trial Funnel

We built a dedicated landing page with the headline “Never Cook the Same Boring Recipe Again – From Fridge to Fabulous in 10 Seconds” and positioned ChickenCraft as the stress-free solution to dinner planning.

The page showcased key features: instant recipe generation from ingredients you already have, step-by-step cooking instructions, grocery list generation, and meal planning calendar.

We included social proof from existing users: “I saved $300/month on groceries,” “No more wasting food,” “My kids actually eat what I cook now.” The funnel flow: Facebook/Instagram ad → landing page highlighting free tier → instant app registration (no credit card required) → onboarding sequence showing premium features → upgrade prompts to Premium ($7.99/mo) or ($72/yr) tiers.

Facebook & Instagram Ad Targeting & Creative Testing

We built multi-layered targeting: interest targeting (cooking, meal planning, food and drink, recipe apps, Tasty, AllRecipes, Budget Bytes), behavior targeting (parents with young children, grocery shoppers, meal kit subscribers, cooking enthusiasts), demographic targeting (ages 25-50, parents, household income $50K-$100K, primary grocery shoppers), and lookalike audiences based on Simon’s existing paid subscribers.

We tested 12 different ad creatives including image ads showing fridge-to-recipe transformations (“5 Ingredients → 3 Delicious Meals”), video ads demonstrating the 10-second recipe generation, and carousel ads showcasing before/after meal examples.

We ran split tests on headlines (“Stop Wasting Food” vs. “Never Wonder What’s For Dinner Again”) and CTAs (“Start Free Trial” vs. “Get Recipes Now”). Within 10 days, three ad sets delivered leads at $13-17 each while underperformers hit $25+. We killed the losers and scaled the winners.

Automated Onboarding & Upgrade Nurture Sequence

We connected the landing page to ChickenCraft’s app with a complete automation system. New free-tier users immediately received a welcome email with a quick-start video showing how to add ingredients and generate recipes.

Over the next 7 days, they received automated emails highlighting premium features: Day 1 = “Welcome! Here’s how to create your first recipe,” Day 3 = “Did you know Premium members get unlimited meal plans?”, Day 5 = “See what Standard subscribers unlock,” Day 7 = “Limited-time upgrade offer: 30% off your first month.”

The email sequence was designed to demonstrate value on the free tier while creating urgency to upgrade for advanced features like meal planning calendars, grocery list automation, and nutrition tracking.

Multi-Platform Retargeting & Conversion Optimization

We set up Facebook and Instagram retargeting pixels to track user behavior: users who visited the landing page but didn’t sign up, users who signed up for free but hadn’t opened the app, users who opened the app but hadn’t generated a recipe, and users who actively used the free tier but hadn’t upgraded.

Each segment received custom retargeting ads: abandoned landing page visitors saw social proof ads (“10,000+ Families Cook Better with ChickenCraft”), inactive free users saw feature reminder ads, active free users saw upgrade testimonials from paid subscribers. This layered retargeting system increased both sign-up conversions and free-to-paid upgrades.

In March 2025, the campaign delivered 957 free app sign-ups which lead to 296 annual-paying premium users at $16.02 per lead ($4,737.06 total spend). Compared to Simon’s previous Google search ad campaigns (costing $40-50 per paying customer), this represented a 60% reduction in customer acquisition costs.

More importantly, the predictable daily lead flow of 9-10 sign-ups meant Simon could forecast monthly recurring revenue growth and plan product development around a consistent user pipeline. With a 40-60% year on year retention rate, those 296 leads translated to 130-179 annual paying subscribers generating $29,000-$35,000 in annual recurring revenue.