The $10k–$50k Meta stall is usually creative, not targeting
Most DTC brands in this range don't have a targeting problem. They have a 4-ad-set problem.
Same 3 winners, CBO on, budget up 20% every 3 days. ROAS holds for two weeks, then dies. Founder thinks the algorithm broke.
It didn't. Frequency on the winners is 4+. New creative is a Canva resize of the same UGC hook. And the last "scale" test was ABO with 12 interests.
If you're stuck between $10k and $50k/mo:
Kill anything under 1.5x MER after 7 days of spend
Ship 5 new hooks a week, not 5 new edits of the same hook
Scale only the ad set that already has purchase volume, not the one with the prettiest CTR
Targeting is rarely the bottleneck at this size. Creative velocity is.