How VirtueCore built a high-intent Instagram audience for an Amazon FBA mentorship, at less than half the UK cost per follower.
The Client
The Arbitrage Blueprint is a UK Amazon FBA mentorship, teaching everyday people to build profitable online-arbitrage and wholesale businesses. Its buyers are aspiring entrepreneurs aged 25 to 45 chasing financial independence, an audience that lives on Instagram.
The Funnel
A 15% follow-through rate means roughly 1 in every 6.7 people who visited the profile chose to follow. Cheap clicks are easy. Cheap clicks that convert to followers are what build a pipeline.
The Proof
Cost per Instagram follower, this campaign against the UK market. Lower is better.
| Metric | Result | Benchmark | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per follower | £0.78 | £1.50–£3.00 UK avg | Under half the market |
| Cost per profile visit | £0.12 | £0.20–£0.50 | ~4× cheaper |
| Follow-through rate | 15.0% | 5–10% typical | Well above range |
| Click-through rate | 6.80% | ~1–2% | 3–6× stronger |
| Reach / frequency | 68,479 @ 1.03× | 1.0–2.0 ideal | Near-unique delivery |
| Total spend | £542.29 | n/a | Full 22-day flight |
What We Actually Did
One hero creative, a "Day in the Life" video, run across Instagram and Facebook. Rather than spread budget evenly, we let performance decide where the money went.
At £0.10 per profile visit it was the cheapest, highest-volume placement, and where the lifestyle creative naturally belonged.
Aspirational, authentic and native to how this audience already scrolls, which is why follow-through hit 15%.
Frequency held at 1.03×, so almost everyone saw the ad once. Efficient reach, not budget burned re-serving the same people.
On 14 September the campaign delivered 55 new followers at a cost per visit of just £0.08.
| Placement | Cost / visit | Read |
|---|---|---|
| Instagram Reels | £0.10 | Winner: cheapest and highest volume |
| Instagram Explore | £0.11 | Efficient, under-used, room to scale |
| Instagram Feed | £0.12 | Solid, on-benchmark |
| Instagram Stories | £0.14 | Steady supporting placement |
| Facebook Reels / Stories | £0.53–£0.60 | Cut: 4–5× more expensive |
"Cheap growth is easy to fake. Growth that follows, engages and buys is the hard part, and that is exactly what £542 bought here."VirtueCore campaign team
The Opportunity
699 warm followers and 4,658 profile visitors are not the finish line, they are inventory. The next phase turns that audience into booked calls and enrolled clients.
Campaign period 13 Sep – 4 Oct 2025. All figures are actual reported results from the client's Meta Ads account. Benchmark ranges are cited industry figures, not client data. Individual results vary with offer, audience and spend.
Free Resources
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The full 6-page write-up: results, funnel, benchmark scorecard, placement breakdown and the next-phase plan.
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From zero to profit in 14 days: a Meta Ads lead-generation funnel for an online tutoring business.
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