If Your Ads Aren’t Driving Profit, Look Here First

You’re getting clicks. Your conversion rate isn’t bad. But somehow...you’re still not seeing profit from your paid campaigns.

That’s not an ads problem. That’s a profit per session problem.

Most Shopify brands look at AOV, ROAS, or CAC to determine performance. The metric that quietly makes or breaks your bottom line? Profit per session (PPS)—the amount of profit you earn every time someone lands on your site.

Let’s discuss how bundles can help you improve this metric.

Why PPS > AOV or ROAS

AOV tells you cart size. ROAS tells you revenue per ad dollar. But Profit Per Session (PPS) connects the full picture: your margins, your traffic quality, and your conversion rate.

And unlike top-line vanity metrics, PPS forces you to ask better questions:

Are my bundles helping customers buy more?
Are my margins aligned with my ad bids?
Is this traffic actually profitable—or just expensive window shopping?

If your answer is “I’m not sure,” it’s time to rethink how you’re packaging and positioning your products.

The PPS logic (and why it matters)

Let’s say your average order value is $60 and your profit margin is 50%. That gives you $30 in profit on each order.

Now imagine your conversion rate is 2%. That means for every 100 visitors, 2 of them buy—and you make $60 in profit total.

So your profit per session (PPS) is: $60 ÷ 100 sessions = $0.60

That’s your true earning power for each visitor—before you even think about ad costs.

Now here’s why this matters: if you’re paying more than $0.60 per click on Meta, Google, TikTok, or anywhere else, you’re losing money.

That’s why PPS matters more than AOV, ROAS, or CAC alone:

AOV can be high, but if conversion is low, your PPS tanks.
ROAS can look good, but it doesn’t tell you what’s left after costs.
CAC tells you what you’re spending, but not what you’re earning per visitor.

PPS forces you to look at the full picture: how well you’re converting, how profitable each order is, and how much each session is actually worth.

And if it’s too low? You’re either paying too much for traffic—or not getting enough value from each visit.

Bundles help fix that because if customers are spending more per purchase, your margins from Meta, Google, or TikTok will be healthier. With healthier margins, you can either keep your spend the same or even be more aggressive with your ad spend.

Let’s get into how to apply bundles across different parts of your funnel to increase profits.

How bundles fix your PPS (without discounting your brand)

Bundles aren’t just a way to lift AOV. When used right, they improve your unit economics.

Here’s how:

Pre-purchase bundles (like starter kits, multipacks, or build-your-own sets) raise your average cart value without increasing the cost to serve each session.
Post-purchase funnels let you layer on logical, margin-friendly offers after the initial sale—without cannibalizing the first purchase or overwhelming the shopper.

Think of bundling as the highest-leverage move for boosting session value without overhauling your funnel or your pricing.

Pre-Purchase Bundles: Lift AOV Without Discounting

Pre-purchase doesn’t just start on your site—it begins with the first impression, often through a paid ad. And when that ad leads directly to a bundle, you’re creating a more compelling reason to click, convert, and spend more.

That’s exactly what ILIA Beauty does with their Meta ads.

Ad → Bundle → Higher AOV & ROAS. That’s the move. And it makes so much sense.

Just ask Ilia Beauty 💄

Why this example nails it:
- Sells results, not products: The ad clearly says, "makeup set for sunkissed dimension and a soft glow."

- Clear value, no math required: $171… pic.twitter.com/2JsC10yeCY
— Simple Bundles (@SimpleBundles) February 18, 2025

ILIA’s ad promotes a $202 value makeup set for $171, positioned around a clear outcome: “makeup set for sunkissed dimension and a soft glow.”

Why it works:

Sells results, not just SKUs: The ad highlights the benefit, not the ingredient list.
Easy math, high perceived value: Customers instantly see the savings.
Clean fulfillment: Each item is broken out at checkout—no confusion for the customer, no headaches for the warehouse.

The funnel is simple and effective: Ad → Bundle → Higher AOV & ROAS.

Done right, pre-purchase bundles help you:

Raise AOV without discounting core SKUs
Move more units per transaction
Reduce shipping cost per item
Make buying easier by removing decision fatigue

What works best: bundle types that drive PPS

Even when you get a potential buyer to click onto your website, before the shopper ever hits “Buy Now,” bundles can dramatically raise how much they spend—and how profitable each order becomes.

Here are the types that work best:

Build-your-own bundles: Let customers mix and match from a set of products to create a bundle that feels personalized. This works especially well when you have SKUs that are often purchased together or need variety.

FlavCity’s Mix & Match Bundle is a great example. Customers can pick any 10 items, with dynamic pricing that adjusts for premium choices. It offers flexibility, raises AOV, and gives the brand strong margin control—all while delivering a great user experience.

Thematic sets: Solve a specific need with a pre-selected set of products. Think “starter kits,” “sleep essentials,” or “morning skincare.” These help customers quickly understand what to buy and why it matters. Here’s an example from Three Ships, which bundles its best sellers in a kit called “Give Me More.”

Tiered pricing: Create bundles at multiple price levels so shoppers can self-select based on budget. Think: basic, better, best. Each level offers a stronger perceived value, and these can be perfectly aligned with the type of buyer you’re reaching through your ads. For example, if you’re retargeting loyal shoppers who have a history of spending more, they may want the “best” bundle offer.

Free shipping unlocks: Use a strategic bundle price threshold to help customers qualify for free shipping. This subtly encourages them to upgrade to the bundle when the price will bring them to that threshold.

Glow Recipe does this beautifully with a sticky footer that showcases their best-selling bundles. It gently nudges shoppers to explore higher-value options without interrupting their flow—and it works exceptionally well on mobile.

Post-purchase bundles: unlock extra margin without risk

Post-purchase is the highest-margin moment of the funnel—because the first order is already secured. Instead of relying on single-product upsells, brands are turning to post-purchase bundles to boost profitability without hurting conversion.

Here’s how it works:

After the initial checkout, you present customers with a curated bundle offer that complements their original purchase. Not just “add one more thing,” but “upgrade what you already bought” or “get the full experience.”

These upsells follow a clear logic. Each bundle must:

Be relevant to the shopper’s original purchase
Provide clear added value
Be framed as a logical next step or upgrade

You’re not just offering one more thing—they’re being guided into a new buying journey. If the first purchase lands, the next one should feel even more aligned. That’s when you see conversion rates go up, not down.

What to consider when choosing a bundle to highlight post-purchase:

Margins: Only offer bundles that still leave you with a healthy margin after costs.
Price sequencing: Don’t follow up a $20 product with a $200 bundle. Build momentum with steps that feel natural.
Angle and positioning: “Take 40% off” is not a strategy. Frame the offer in a way that reinforces the value of the initial purchase.
Triggers: Use logic to decide which bundle shows. Returning customer? Show a different offer than what a new shopper would see. Subscription buyer? Upsell buying in bulk with a 6-month subscription window.

The ops mistake that kills profit

This is one of the most common—and costly—mistakes brands make: you can have a great bundling strategy, but even the best strategy will fall apart if your backend can’t support it.

This means things like

Inventory mismatches that show incorrect stock levels
3PL errors from bundles that aren’t properly broken down
Shipping delays because your fulfillment team doesn't know what goes in the box
Customer service tickets from confused shoppers (“What exactly is in this bundle I bought?”)
Reporting headaches when you can’t track performance at the individual SKU level

When your bundle logic lives only in your marketing layer and not in your fulfillment workflow, it becomes a margin killer:

You oversell inventory that isn’t actually available
You pay for returns and reships due to picking errors
You lose valuable insights because you can’t report on SKU-level performance

We talk about overcoming some of these issues on our YouTube channel here:

How Oliver Cabell keeps ops clean with bundles

Take Oliver Cabell. They launched a high-margin orthotic insole and wanted to bundle it with their top-selling shoes.

The idea was strong:

Strategic product pairing
Operationally efficient add-on
Great customer experience

But executing it was another story. Bundling that way would’ve created a single line item that their 3PL couldn’t interpret correctly. That would’ve:

Broken inventory sync between the insole and the shoe
Created picking errors in the warehouse
Required a custom script just to fulfill one bundle

Instead, with Simple Bundles, each component of the bundle was broken into its own SKU at checkout—automatically. Inventory updated in real time. Fulfillment stayed error-free. Reporting stayed clean.