Beauty salon chain case study in Poland and Germany: 4,850 leads and 460% ROAS in 5 months

About the client and the goal

A chain of 6 beauty salons in the affordable-premium segment (€95 average ticket) came to us: 3 salons in Poland (Warsaw, Kraków, Wrocław) and 3 in Germany (Berlin and Munich, with 2 salons in different districts). Main treatments: manicure/pedicure, brows, lashes, facials, device-based cosmetology.

Before working with us, the client used local freelancers in each city. The average CPL was €11-16, visit conversion 22-28%, and no-shows reached 35%. The client's goals:

• Cut CPL to €7 or less on the same budget
• Lift first-visit conversion to 35%+
• Fill specialists' weekday schedules to 85%+ capacity
• Start selling treatment packages on the very first visit

Final numbers after 5 months

The funnel: why Reels + an Instagram DM bot worked

The key decision was to send all traffic to Instagram DMs instead of a landing page. The reasons:

• The beauty audience lives on Instagram, not on websites, so returns are 2-3 times higher
• DMs let you book the client at the moment of peak interest, not a day later
• The bot collects details (city, treatment, time) faster than a website form
• DM reminders cut no-shows from 35% to 11%

Funnel layout

1. Reels ads with UGC creatives lead to Direct (Messages objective)
2. The bot greets the user and asks 2 questions: salon city + treatment of interest
3. It shows the 3 nearest slots with the specialist and the price
4. The client picks one, and the booking goes straight into the CRM (Booksy)
5. 24 hours before: a reminder with the address, parking and “What to bring”
6. 2 hours before: a final confirmation with a “Cancel” button (reduces conflicts)
7. 2 days after the visit: a Google review request + a package offer with a 15% discount
8. After 21 days: a reminder to book the next treatment

Creatives: what worked best

Top 1: UGC before/after with an honest review

A real client shows her results and talks about her experience on a phone camera (no professional studio editing). 20-30 seconds, vertical 9:16. CTR +90% versus studio creatives, and a 35% lower CPL.

Top 2: Close-ups of the specialist's hands

The specialist at work, filmed vertically from above: lash extensions, nail coating, a peel. No voiceover, just a text overlay in Polish/German. A hypnotic effect with 85%+ completion rates. Booking conversion +40%.

Top 3: Atmospheric salon videos

The interior, the sign, the reception desk, tea and biscuits for clients. We use these in retargeting campaigns for people who have already seen the UGC creatives. They build trust in the brand. CTR is lower, but visit conversion is 15-20% higher.

Targeting: how we ran 5 cities at once

Each salon has its own ad account and its own campaigns. The general approach:

• Location targeting: a 5 km radius around the salon (reduced to 3 km in big cities)
• Age: 22-55 (core 28-42)
• Gender: 90% women, but 10% for men (manicure, facials)
• Interests: not used, as Advantage+ Audience performed better
• Languages: Polish and Russian in Poland; German, Polish and Russian in Berlin (there's a large Ukrainian diaspora there)
• Lookalike: 1-3% based on clients with an LTV of €300+, separately for each city

“In 2026 the beauty niche is a messenger war. Clients don't fill in a form on a website; they send a DM. Salons that haven't learned to work in DMs lose 60% of leads between the ad and the website. Our job was to build a system where thinking about a salon visit and booking it is a single 30-second DM conversation.” — Natalia Maslakova, founder of MAS Project

Selling a package on the first visit

Half of the ROAS came not from the first visit but from package sales. The specialist's script:

1. During the treatment: ordinary conversation, no selling
2. 5 minutes before the end: “I'd like to show you something just for you”
3. She presents 2 package options: 4 treatments at 20% off or 8 treatments at 30% off
4. If the client hesitates, she offers a package with a discount valid today only (a promo effect)
5. Card payment on the spot: 42% of clients buy a package on their first visit

The average first-visit ticket is €95, and a package costs €340-680. First-month LTV grew from €95 to €280 thanks to the package model.

Working with the diaspora in Berlin and Munich

A separate strategy for Berlin and Munich, which have large Ukrainian and Polish communities. What we did:

• Separate creatives in Russian and Polish (not translated from German, which people can tell)
• We extended location targeting to districts with the highest concentration of the diaspora
• Russian- and Polish-speaking specialists were critical: the audience is wary of “having to speak German at the salon”
• Reviews from other Ukrainian/Polish clients in the creatives: +200% trust

The diaspora accounted for 45% of all clients in Berlin and 60% in Munich. The diaspora CPL was €4.1 versus €6.8 for the German-speaking audience.

3 key takeaways

1. Send all traffic to Direct, not to a website: conversion is 2-3 times higher in the beauty niche
2. UGC creatives outperform studio content by 90%+: an ordinary client on a phone camera is more convincing than a professional shoot
3. ROAS grows through packages, not first visits: build a system for selling a package on the first visit with a ready-made script