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Marketing/AdTech (Local Advertising)

Hijack: Cross-Network Facebook Retargeting Engine

Activated outside-of-Facebook intent signals for hyper-local campaigns, enabling parallel, non-overlapping Meta buys

3 engineers + 1 campaign strategist team members
Marketing/AdTech (Local Advertising)
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Project Overview

Using cohorts sourced from cross-network interactions (e.g., someone who tweeted about a pizzeria in downtown San Diego) Hijack exported hashed audiences and ran Meta campaigns focused on real, recent, local actions. This outside-graph approach minimized overlap with native FB interests, so clients kept their existing campaigns running concurrently. Results included a home-staging client jumping from approximately 0.05% CTR to approximately 3.2%; an independent stylist reaching approximately 13,750 local actives in one week (approximately 40 clicks, 22 site visits, 2 wedding leads) on approximately $70 ad spend (one closed wedding at $400-$700 produced 7-10x ROAS); and a New Orleans theater (via partner) selling out a show on approximately $1,000 with campaign-average approximately 0.057% CTR prioritizing capacity sold over vanity metrics.

Key Challenges

  • Platform policy alignment and compliant audience activation
  • Attribution clarity for parallel campaigns (native vs. outside-graph)
  • Audience freshness and churn (recency windows, weekly pruning)
  • Creative variance control to realize audience quality gains
  • Radius calibration for urban vs. suburban economics

Technologies & Solutions

Meta Ads API and server-side audience sync Cohort scoring (recency, frequency, proximity, semantic match) Hashed audience upload and event mapping PostgreSQL/Redis for audience state and refresh cycles Measurement framework for CTR, CPC, CPA, ROAS, and capacity utilization

Key Metrics

Home staging: ~0.05% → ~3.2% CTR
Independent stylist: ~13,750 reach, ~40 clicks, 22 site visits, 2 wedding leads on ~$70
Theater: sell-out on ~$1,000 monthly spend (CTR ~0.057% campaign avg.)
Parallel campaigns run without audience cannibalization
Best performance within 5-10 mile radius

Results & Impact

CTR lift from approximately 0.05% to approximately 3.2% (home staging), 7-10x potential ROAS on $70 spend (stylist), event sell-outs on approximately $1,000 (theater)

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