Gluten-free bakery · England
Instagram growth · UK
Client confidential · Full case study on request
Profile visits up 222%. The inbox came alive: orders, press and a stockist.
A small bakery that bakes gluten-free and sells at three local markets. In the first month of my content plan, more locals found the profile and started messaging. Next: turning those messages into stall visits and cake orders.
+109%reach in the first planned month
+222%profile visits
+77%views
Liveinbox: from silent to orders, press and a stockist in 80 days
The first planned month against the month before, read from Meta Business Suite. Messages counted from the Instagram inbox over 80 days.
01 · Where it stands
Instagram started working. Next: turning messages into orders.
02 · The plan
Instagram has two jobs here.
Job 1
Fill the stall
Thu · Market ASat · Market BSun · Market C
For market regulars and the gluten-free community. Tell them where we are, and what's on the stall.
BirthdaysChristmasTwo weeks' notice
For family buyers and people who can't make the market. A safe, special cake for someone who usually misses out.
03 · The weekly rhythm
Every market day gets a heads-up the night before.
Mon
Cake post: order for the weekend after next
Tue
New bake, made because you asked
Wed
Teaser: Market A tomorrow
Thu
Market: A. Stories live
Fri
Teaser: Market B tomorrow
Sat
Market: B. Teaser for Sunday
Sun
Market: St Osyth. Stories live
Sized to the real limit: 8 feed posts and 10 Story frames a month, with teasers built once and reused.
04 · The cake journey
From "do you do birthday cakes?" to a cake collected at the market.
See a cake post or ad
Message "CAKE"
Ready reply: sizes and notice
Date and market agreed
Collected
< 2 hoursreply to order messages on market days. Fast replies turn messages into orders.
1 follow-upafter three quiet days, then let it go.
Labelledevery message tagged by type, so cake orders are counted, not guessed.
05 · Instagram ads
Small, local ads, each with one job.
Market-day reach
Story ads within about 5 km of each market, on the evening before and the morning of trading. The teaser is the ad.
Measure: local reach and profile visits on market days
Celebration cake messages
Click-to-message ads across four nearby towns, aimed at gluten-free and coeliac interests and parents.
Measure: cost per cake message, messages that become orders, and ROAS against a 6× target
06 · Working back from cake orders
Start with the cakes, then price the messages.
20cake messages needed
56%ad spend a month · £2.00/day
£7.50ad cost per cake, 16.7% of the order
£360cake orders a month
Target ROAS on the cake ads6.0× cake orders ÷ ad spend · plan
Within what the kitchen can bake1.8 cakes a week
The limit isn't the ad budget. It's how many cakes one kitchen can bake.
07 · Measure
No till data, no website. The inbox is the order book.
OrderCakeWhere are you today?PraisePressStockist
Market-day reachAre people near the stall seeing us?
Cake messages and ordersThe number the plan is built on.
Reply timeUnder 2 hours on market days.
Cost per cake messageAgainst the ceiling the cake value allows.
08 · The first 90 days
Set up, test, then the Christmas cakes.
Weeks 1–2Set upInbox labels, ready replies, a cakes highlight, ad audiences around the three markets.
Weeks 3–6TestMarket-day ads on. Cake ads test two angles: the occasion, and safe for coeliacs.
Weeks 7–12Christmas cakesAn order-by date two weeks out. Put the budget behind the winning angle.
What this says about how I work
I plan from the ordernot the like.
Capacity before budgetnever sell more than the kitchen can bake.
Fix the leak firsta fast reply beats a bigger ad.