From January to October 2026, House of Play's Meta ads returned 8.67x on 1,062 platform-attributed purchases, and its Google Ads returned 11.2x on 500 conversions. Brand search on Google returned 25.5x. Syte runs paid social and creative for House of Play, a South African activewear brand (yoga, training and lifestyle pieces) sold online at shop.play.co.za. Google Search and Performance Max also run on the account and are part of the same story.
| Client | House of Play |
| Vertical | Activewear / athleisure, online store |
| Market | South Africa, national |
| Channels | Meta Ads, Google Performance Max, Google brand search |
| Period | 1 January – 31 October 2026 |
| Meta Ads | 8.67x ROAS · 1,062 purchases |
| Google Ads | 11.2x ROAS · 500 conversions |
| Google brand search | 25.5x ROAS · 313 conversions |
The challenge
Activewear is a crowded feed. Shoppers see the same silhouette from several brands in one scroll, so creative, product images and remarketing have to work harder than a generic prospecting blast. House of Play also sells through Google: people who already know the brand search for it, and people discovering products need Shopping coverage. The client sheet lists Meta and Design as the paid focus; Google is live in Alice and produces a clear return, so both channels are reported here. The test is whether paid social and Google can grow purchase counts without the return collapsing.
Approach
We treat Meta as the volume channel and Google as brand-plus-feed:
- Meta for catalogue-led sales. From January to October 2026 Meta returned 8.67x on 1,062 purchases. Cost per purchase fell 32% versus the previous period of the same length, while purchase count rose 356%. Return rose 14% over that previous window.
- Google brand search for high-intent demand. The Brand+Phrase campaign returned 25.5x on 313 conversions and a 40.4% CTR — most of Google's conversion count at the strongest return.
- Performance Max on the product feed. The All Products PMax campaign returned 5.56x on 187 conversions. It is the discovery and Shopping layer next to brand search.
- Year-on-year, Meta held its return while scaling. Against 1 January to 31 October 2025, Meta purchase count rose from 79 to 1,062 and ROAS moved from 8.38x to 8.67x. The return did not give up as volume grew.
Channels used
- Meta Ads: main purchase volume; platform-attributed ROAS.
- Google brand search (phrase): high-intent, high-return demand.
- Google Performance Max (all products): feed-based Shopping and discovery.
- TikTok: a sales campaign appears in October 2026 only (2.63x on 7 conversions). Too early to treat as a settled channel on this page.
- Design: listed on the client sheet for creative production that feeds Meta.
What we changed
- Meta scaled through 2026 while holding an 8x-plus return (see Results for the dated comparison).
- Google runs as Brand+Phrase plus a single All Products Performance Max campaign — the structure present in the 1 Jan–31 Oct 2026 Report BOT pull.
- Client-sheet note (29 October 2026): sheet services list Meta/Design, while Alice also holds a Google account; both are active in the data used here.
- Dated creative or bid-change rows were not in the notes folder at draft time, so this page does not invent them. Outcomes are taken from the platform pull for the stated period.
Results (platform-reported)
Meta
| Measure | Jan – Oct 2026 | Prev period (3 Mar – 31 Dec 2025) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meta ROAS | 8.67x | 7.59x | +14% |
| Purchases | 1,062 | 233 | +356% |
| Cost per purchase | n/a | n/a | −32% |
| CTR | 1.75% | 1.96% | −0.21 points |
| Meta spend | n/a | n/a | +208% |
| Measure | Jan – Oct 2026 | YoY (1 Jan – 31 Oct 2025) |
|---|---|---|
| Meta ROAS | 8.67x | 8.38x |
| Purchases | 1,062 | 79 |
| Measure | Jan – Oct 2026 |
|---|---|
| Google ROAS | 11.2x |
| Conversions | 500 |
| CTR | 2.63% |
| Conversion rate | 1.80% |
| Google campaign | Conversions | ROAS | CTR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brand +Phrase | 313 | 25.5x | 40.4% |
| PMax All Products | 187 | 5.56x | 2.21% |
Google's previous-period window in Report BOT had almost no spend (three conversions), so it is not used as a comparison. The useful Google story is the live 2026 split: brand search carries return; Performance Max carries feed coverage.
Methodology. Figures are platform-reported (Meta and Google Ads) for 1 January to 31 October 2026 unless stated. Meta previous period is 3 March to 31 December 2025; Meta year-on-year is 1 January to 31 October 2025. Meta purchases and ROAS use Meta's own attribution and overlap with Google, so the two channels must not be added together. No revenue, sales value or rand spend totals are shown. Spend appears only as a percentage change.
What's next
Meta is the sheet's primary channel and is scaling with its return intact; the next work is creative refresh so the 8.7x does not rely on ageing ads. On Google, Performance Max at 5.56x is the weaker sibling to brand search at 25.5x — a feed and asset-group review is the honest next step before putting more weight on PMax. TikTok stays a watch item until it has more than one month and more than a handful of conversions.
FAQ
What return can an activewear brand expect from Meta Ads in South Africa?
House of Play's Meta ads returned 8.67x from January to October 2026 on 1,062 platform-attributed purchases, up from 8.38x over the same months in 2025.
Is Google brand search worth running alongside Meta for a clothing brand?
For House of Play, yes. Brand search returned 25.5x on 313 conversions in 2026, with a 40.4% CTR.
Does Performance Max work for activewear?
It can. House of Play's All Products Performance Max campaign returned 5.56x on 187 conversions in 2026 — useful, but well below brand search, so it needs its own feed discipline.
Can Meta scale without killing ROAS?
In this account it did. Year on year, Meta purchases rose from 79 to 1,062 while ROAS moved from 8.38x to 8.67x.
Should Meta and Google ROAS be added together?
No. Meta and Google both claim credit for some of the same orders. Report each channel on its own, as this page does.
Related
- Meta Ads service: /services/meta-ads
- Google Ads service: /services/google-ads
- Retail case studies: Gym Gear (/case-studies/gym-gear), Maxwell Williams (/case-studies/maxwell-williams)
- Contact: /contact
