Meet Our Heroes
Amazing Custom Gifts landed in our inbox like so many eCommerce stores do: full of potential, but completely lost in the noise.
Run by Dimitre Mihaylov, Amazing Custom Gifts was built on a simple but powerful premise: help people find the perfect gift for life’s most meaningful moments. Valentine’s Day. Graduations. Anniversaries. Birthdays. The moments that matter.
The store had close to 250 products sourced through dropshipping platforms like Spoket, ranging from personalized jewelry to home décor to quirky novelty items. Dimitre had an eye for premium products and wasn’t afraid to go upmarket. He knew cheap, generic gifts weren’t going to cut it in a crowded market. But having great taste and a well-stocked Shopify store doesn’t automatically translate to sales.
When Dimitre reached out to us, Amazing Custom Gifts had been live for a few months. Traffic was minimal. Conversions were nonexistent. And despite boosting a handful of Instagram and Facebook posts with short product videos, nothing was sticking.
He had a $900 monthly ad budget, no active Google Ads account, and no clear idea which of his 250 products were actually worth promoting. He was flying blind, spending money on content that looked good but wasn’t converting, and he knew something had to change fast.
Their Goals
Dimitre’s goals were clear and ambitious:
- Hit consistent monthly revenue of $10,000 to $30,000 as a baseline.
- Identify winning products from the current catalog that could drive predictable profit.
- Build a scalable advertising system across Facebook, Instagram, Google, and YouTube.
- Eventually expand beyond the U.S. market to international customers.
He wasn’t looking for vanity metrics or viral moments. He wanted real, sustainable growth that could turn Amazing Custom Gifts into a legitimate, profitable business. And he was willing to do whatever it took to get there, including cutting underperforming products, restructuring the store, and testing aggressively until we found what worked.
The Challenge
Amazing Custom Gifts was facing the classic eCommerce nightmare: too many products, too little focus, and no idea what was working.
Here’s what we were up against:
No Product-Market Fit.
With 250 products across dozens of categories, the store felt more like a chaotic gift bazaar than a curated shopping experience. There was no cohesive brand identity, no standout hero products, and no clear reason for someone to buy from Amazing Custom Gifts instead of Amazon or Etsy.
Boosted Posts Without Strategy.
Dimitre had been creating short product videos and boosting them on Facebook and Instagram. The content looked polished, but the targeting was broad, the messaging was generic, and the posts weren’t optimized for conversions. Traffic was trickling in, but no one was buying. It was like shouting into the void and hoping someone would respond.
Zero Conversion Infrastructure.
The website had products, but it didn’t have a conversion funnel. No email capture. No retargeting. No optimized product pages. No upsells or cross-sells. Every visitor was a cold lead hitting a cold store, and there was nothing in place to warm them up or bring them back.
No Google Presence.
Amazing Custom Gifts wasn’t running Google Ads, which meant they were invisible during the most important moments: when people were actively searching for gift ideas. During peak shopping seasons like Valentine’s Day or Christmas, competitors were dominating search results while Amazing Custom Gifts wasn’t even in the game.
Unclear Profitability.
Dimitre knew some products weren’t performing, but he didn’t have the data to know which ones. He was sourcing premium items, which was smart, but without testing and tracking, he had no idea if the margins were good enough to scale profitably.
The bottom line? Amazing Custom Gifts had potential, but it was stuck in startup mode. It needed structure, strategy, and a system that could turn scattered effort into consistent revenue.
Our Process
We knew we couldn’t fix everything at once. So we broke the transformation into three focused phases: product validation, funnel optimization, and multi-channel scaling.
Phase One: Product Discovery and Validation
Before we could spend a single dollar on ads, we needed to answer one critical question: which products are actually worth selling?
We started by auditing the entire 250-product catalog. We looked at product quality, supplier reliability, pricing, margins, and how well each item fit into a clear gifting narrative. We also analyzed what competitors were selling, what was trending in the gift space, and what aligned with Dimitre’s premium positioning.
From there, we narrowed the store down to about 40 hero products across five core collections:
- Personalized Jewelry (engraved bracelets, custom necklaces)
- Home & Living (personalized décor, premium candles)
- Romantic Gifts (couples’ items, anniversary keepsakes)
- Novelty & Unique (quirky, conversation-starting pieces)
- Seasonal Essentials (holiday-specific gift sets)
Each collection had a clear customer avatar and a specific use case. Instead of being a generic gift store, Amazing Custom Gifts now had a focused identity: premium, thoughtful, personalized gifts for people who care about the details.
Next, we set up a rapid-fire testing campaign on Facebook and Instagram. We created thumb-stopping video ads for 12 products across the collections, targeting broad but intent-driven audiences: women aged 25 to 55 shopping for gifts, people interested in personalized products, and lookalike audiences based on Dimitre’s existing (albeit small) customer list.
Within two weeks, the data started coming in. Three products stood out immediately:
- A personalized leather bracelet for men (perfect for Father’s Day and anniversaries)
- A custom star map print showing the night sky on a specific date (weddings, birthdays, Valentine’s Day)
- A luxury scented candle set with custom labels (Mother’s Day, housewarming gifts)
These three products had the highest click-through rates, the lowest cost-per-purchase, and the best profit margins. We had our winners.
Phase Two: Funnel Optimization and Retargeting
Now that we knew what to sell, we needed to build a system that could convert traffic into sales and turn one-time buyers into repeat customers.
We started by overhauling the product pages for the three hero products. We rewrote the copy to focus on emotion and storytelling, not just features. We added high-quality lifestyle images, customer testimonials, and urgency-driven elements like “Only 3 left in stock” and “Order by Friday for Valentine’s delivery.”
We also added upsells and cross-sells at checkout. If someone bought the star map, we recommended a matching frame. If they bought the candle set, we suggested a premium gift box. These small tweaks increased average order value by 18% almost immediately.
Next, we built a proper retargeting funnel. We installed the Facebook Pixel and Google Analytics tracking across the site, then created custom audiences for people who:
- Viewed a product but didn’t add to cart
- Added to cart but didn’t purchase
- Purchased once (for repeat customer campaigns)
We launched dynamic retargeting ads showing people the exact products they had viewed, paired with time-sensitive offers like “Still thinking about it? Get 10% off if you order today.” These ads had conversion rates 3x higher than cold traffic campaigns.
We also set up email automation through Klaviyo. New visitors were greeted with a pop-up offering 10% off in exchange for their email. Cart abandoners received a three-email sequence reminding them to complete their purchase. Post-purchase customers got a thank-you email, a review request, and a follow-up offer for their next gift occasion.
The funnel was no longer a one-and-done experience. It was a machine designed to capture, nurture, and convert.
Phase Three: Multi-Channel Scaling
With winning products and a high-converting funnel in place, it was time to scale.
We expanded beyond Facebook and Instagram and launched Google Ads campaigns targeting high-intent search terms like:
- “personalized gift for boyfriend”
- “custom star map anniversary gift”
- “luxury candle gift set”
- “unique Valentine’s Day gifts”
These campaigns had immediate traction. People searching for gifts were ready to buy, and Amazing Custom Gifts was now there to meet them at the exact moment of intent. Google Shopping ads also performed exceptionally well, especially during seasonal peaks like Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day.
We layered in YouTube pre-roll ads showcasing the custom star map and leather bracelet. The video creative told a story: “Celebrate the night you met. Capture the moment forever.” It was emotional, visual, and perfectly suited for YouTube’s long-form format. The cost-per-acquisition on YouTube was slightly higher than Facebook, but the quality of traffic was better, and the lifetime value of those customers proved it.
On Facebook and Instagram, we scaled the winning creatives by testing new angles, formats, and audiences. We ran carousel ads showing multiple products, testimonial-style UGC (user-generated content) from happy customers, and seasonal campaign pushes around Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and Christmas.
We also introduced Lookalike Audiences based on purchasers, which allowed us to reach new people who looked and acted like Amazing Custom Gifts’ best customers. These audiences consistently outperformed broad interest targeting and became the backbone of the account’s growth.
By month three, we were running campaigns across four platforms simultaneously, all feeding into the same optimized funnel, all tracked and managed from a unified dashboard.
Results
The transformation was dramatic.
Within the first 90 days, Amazing Custom Gifts went from zero revenue to consistent $25,000 monthly sales. By month four, they hit their first $30,000 month, fueled by a combination of Facebook, Instagram, Google, and YouTube campaigns.
Here’s what the numbers looked like:
- Revenue Growth: From $0/month to $25,000–$30,000/month in under four months
- Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): Averaged 4.2x across all platforms (Facebook: 4.8x, Google: 3.9x, YouTube: 3.5x)
- Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): Dropped from $45 during testing to $22 at scale
- Average Order Value (AOV): Increased from $38 to $52 thanks to upsells and product bundling
- Conversion Rate: Improved from 0.8% to 3.1% after funnel optimization
- Email List Growth: Grew from 200 subscribers to over 4,500 in three months
- Repeat Purchase Rate: 23% of customers returned within 60 days for a second purchase
The three hero products (leather bracelet, star map, and candle set) accounted for 68% of total revenue and became the foundation for future product expansion.
Dimitre didn’t just hit his goal. He built a scalable, repeatable system that could weather seasonal fluctuations, test new products, and grow into new markets. Amazing Custom Gifts went from a directionless side hustle to a real, profitable eCommerce business with a clear identity and a loyal customer base.
And the best part? We were just getting started.
