The Halo Effect

Digital ads fuel total business growth

How Illumination Lighting's digital advertising drives revenue across online, in-store and trade channels. 18 months of data, Nov 2024 to Apr 2026.

Total net revenue

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Nov 2024 to Apr 2026 (18 months)

Total digital ad spend

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Meta + Google Ads combined

Revenue per euro of ad spend

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Every euro spent on ads generated this in total revenue

Pre-ad monthly baseline

€45,838

Average monthly revenue Nov 24 to May 25, before significant ad spend

Total online revenue

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From zero to a major revenue channel

In-store halo growth

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POS revenue above baseline, driven by digital visibility

Revenue vs ad spend

Ad spend scaled up, revenue followed

Monthly net revenue and total digital ad spend (Meta + Google). The pre-ad baseline sat around €46k/month. Once ads scaled, revenue consistently exceeded €80k, peaking at €137k in Nov 2025.

Revenue by channel

Online grew from zero. In-store grew too.

Online went from €0 to €229k post-baseline. In-store (POS) grew €187k above its pre-ad baseline. Both driven by digital ads.

* March 2026 channel breakdown not available from Shopify export. April 2026 includes Online Store, Point of Sale, and Draft Orders/trade.

The halo effect in detail

Online revenue and in-store halo

The in-store "halo" is POS revenue above the pre-ad baseline of €45,838/month. This captures how digital advertising lifts physical shop footfall and trade enquiries.

New  March and April 2026

Budget halved, efficiency doubled

For the first two weeks of March, total ad spend was roughly €500-600/day across Meta and Google. From mid-March through April, spend dropped to about €188/day. Revenue barely moved.

Combined ad spend (April)

€5,564

-51% vs March (€11,333). Meta €1,606 + Google €3,958

Shopify net sales (April)

€80,738

-7% vs March (€86,797), despite half the ad spend

Revenue per euro of ad spend (April)

14.5x

Up from 7.7x in March. Nearly double the return.

March 2026

Shopify net sales€86,797
Meta spend€3,282
Google spend€8,051
Total ad spend€11,333
Revenue / ad spend7.7x
Meta purchases81
Meta ROAS8.9x

April 2026

Shopify net sales€80,738
Meta spend€1,606
Google spend€3,958
Total ad spend€5,564
Revenue / ad spend14.5x
Meta purchases63
Meta ROAS13.0x

April sales by channel

Draft Orders / Trade

€37,276

46% of April net sales

Point of Sale (in-store)

€25,281

31% of April net sales

Online Store

€18,237

23% of April net sales

The Halo Effect, summarised

  • Digital ads created an entirely new revenue stream. Online sales went from zero to over €229k. This revenue did not exist before advertising began.
  • In-store sales grew above baseline. POS revenue exceeded its pre-ad baseline by over €187k across the ad period. Customers see products online, then buy in the showroom.
  • The effect persists at lower spend. When ad budgets were halved in April 2026, total revenue barely moved (-7%). Revenue per euro of ad spend nearly doubled from 7.7x to 14.5x.
  • Trade and wholesale also benefit. In April, Draft Orders (trade/wholesale) made up 46% of all sales, showing digital visibility drives B2B enquiries alongside consumer purchases.
  • The key insight: judging digital ads solely on online purchases misses more than three quarters of the revenue they drive. The halo across in-store and trade is the true measure of return.

Sources: Shopify Analytics net sales and POS data Nov 2024 to Apr 2026. Meta campaign exports and Google Ads campaign reports. Pre-ad baseline calculated as monthly average Nov 2024 to May 2025. March 2026 Shopify data is total only (no channel breakdown available from export).