Instagram Ads success story · Home bakery

How a San Diego home bakery grew from a $10 Instagram ad to a commercial kitchen in three months.

Name: Overtop Media Digital Marketing
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Muse Cheesecakes and Bakery opened in a home kitchen in January 2024 with a $100 investment and one $10 ad that opened Instagram Direct. Orders, payment and pickup were all arranged in the chat. Three months later the bakery moved to a commercial kitchen, with Instagram ads bringing in half of its monthly revenue.

Business: Muse Cheesecakes and Bakery
Market: San Diego, California
Goal: Orders and revenue for a new small business

Whole Basque cheesecake with a dark caramelized top, one slice cut, on parchment paper

The results.

Meta published no comparison period. The business opened in January 2024 and now receives hundreds of orders on Instagram each month.

Halfof all monthly revenue from Instagram ads
3 monthsfrom a home kitchen to a commercial kitchen
$10first ad, on a $100 total investment

The owner’s own figures, as published by Meta. No campaign dates were given. Results are self-reported by the advertiser.

The challenge.

Muse Cheesecakes and Bakery is a San Diego bakery that specializes in Basque cheesecakes: crustless, caramelized outside, rich in the center, and different from the cheesecake most Americans know. It started in January 2024 in the owner’s home kitchen, with $100 for three molds and the ingredients for one cake.

There was no budget for a storefront or even a website. The bakery needed a way to find its first customers, explain an unfamiliar product, take orders and arrange pickup and payment, all for almost nothing.

Run a $10 adA tap opens a chat in Instagram Direct.
Talk it throughHelp the customer choose a cake in the chat.
Take the orderPayment and pickup arranged in the same thread.
Grow the audienceAwareness, traffic and message campaigns together.

What they did.

Ads that click to Instagram Direct · Photo and video ads · Awareness, traffic and engagement campaigns

One $10 ad: The first ad cost $10 and was an ad that clicks to message: a tap opened a conversation in Instagram Direct. The first order came soon after.
The whole sale in a chat: In Instagram Direct the owner built trust, helped the customer choose a cake, and arranged payment and the pickup point, with no website or store.
Food that sells itself: Photo and video ads showed off the look and texture of the cakes, the thing that makes a Basque cheesecake stand out in a feed.
Three campaigns working together: As the bakery grew, it ran awareness campaigns for likes and followers, traffic campaigns to its Instagram profile, and engagement campaigns that invite people to send a message and order.

Why it worked.

Our read on the decisions behind the numbers, and what any business can take from them.

No website needed: A chat did the work of a website, an order form and a customer service desk. For a new business, that removed most of the start-up cost of selling online.
A new product needs a conversation: Many people had never tried a Basque cheesecake. Messaging let the baker explain it and recommend a flavor, which turned curiosity into an order.
A visual product in a visual app: Instagram is where people look at food. Instagram ads put the cakes in front of locals who had never heard of the bakery.
Each campaign has a job: Awareness builds the audience, traffic brings people to the profile, and message ads close the order. Together they keep new customers coming.

How we would run this play for your business.

You do not need a national budget to use the same ideas. This is how Overtop Media Digital Marketing puts them to work in our instagram ads management.

Start small, measure everything: We launch with a modest daily budget and message ads aimed at your delivery or pickup area, then grow what brings in orders.
Photos and video that sell: We help you shoot product photos and short phone videos that show what makes your product different.
Replies that take the order: Quick replies, a menu and clear pickup and payment steps keep every chat moving toward an order. Our Instagram ads management sets them up.
Bring buyers back: Past customers hear about new flavors and holiday preorders first, through ads and email marketing.