6 min. read
Santiago RojasChapter 01
Starting point
Santiago Rojas started dropshipping when he was 18. At the time, he did not have the money to launch Facebook ads, which he saw as the main investment required to test and scale a dropshipping store.
Instead of starting with his own capital, he focused first on learning. He researched ecommerce through YouTube and Google, then found an investor who trusted him enough to help launch his first store.
That first store gave him more than sales. It gave him confidence and enough capital to keep going. Santiago said the early experience helped him understand the business model, build practical knowledge, and eventually launch his own stores without depending on outside investment.
Chapter 02
Opportunity
Santiago’s opportunity came from finding trending products that already showed demand. He does not recommend picking products based only on personal preference if the goal is to get sales quickly.
His product criteria are specific. A product should solve a problem, have a “wow” factor, carry high perceived value, be difficult to find in local stores, and be trending. For Santiago, trend validation is not a shortcut. It is a way to reduce guesswork before spending money on ads.
His first successful product was a fluffy dog bed, launched around 2019. He said that store reached about $200,000 in revenue before the investor pulled money from the business for another project.
Chapter 03
Breakthrough
The bigger breakthrough came when Santiago found a back-stretcher product in 2019 and began testing it in 2020. According to the interview, that single product generated more than $2 million in sales.
Timing also played a role. Santiago said ecommerce benefited during the pandemic because more people were at home and buying online. But the result was not only about timing. He paired the product with Facebook ads, structured testing, and a clear system for identifying winning audiences and creatives.
He also built conviction before launching. Rather than testing many random products at once, Santiago spends more time validating whether a product is likely to be a winner before committing ad spend.
Chapter 04
Supplier and product lessons
Santiago’s supplier lesson is tied to scale. In the beginning, he said beginners often use larger fulfillment platforms because they are easier to access when the store is still small.
As order volume grows, the supplier dynamic changes. Santiago said private agents may begin reaching out through email, Facebook, or Instagram once a store becomes more visible in the dropshipping industry. At that stage, the goal is to secure stronger supplier relationships that can support fulfillment as demand increases.
He also connected supplier reliability to ad-account risk. Facebook can be strict with dropshippers, especially when shipping times are slow or customer experience is poor. That means fulfillment is not just an operational detail. It can affect marketing stability, customer trust, and the ability to keep scaling.
Chapter 05
Marketing and growth
Santiago’s growth system is built around Facebook ads. He starts with ABO campaigns because they allow each audience to receive a defined amount of spend during testing. His structure begins with 10 different ad sets targeting different interests, with three ads inside each ad set.
At the start, he tests the same video ad with different scroll stoppers. Once an ad set produces three or four sales at a profitable rate, he duplicates it. If duplicates continue to generate sales, he moves the winning audiences into CBO campaigns for scaling.
His key metrics include CTR, CPC, CPM, cost per add to cart, cost per checkout initiated, cost per result, and ROAS. After iOS 14, he puts more emphasis on top-of-funnel metrics because Facebook reporting may not show every conversion accurately.
Retargeting is part of the scaling system too. Santiago recommends warm-audience and hot-audience retargeting campaigns once the store has enough traffic. When Facebook starts becoming harder or less profitable at higher budgets, he considers adding Google ads.
Chapter 06
Result
According to the interview, Santiago’s first successful store reached about $200,000 in revenue. His back-stretcher product later generated more than $2 million in sales.
During 2020 and 2021, Santiago said he scaled his dropshipping business to six figures per month and reached the seven-figure mark. He also said he now mentors more than 130 students through his Dropshipping Academy.
The result is not framed as a simple formula. Santiago’s story points to a combination of product research, timing, Facebook ad discipline, supplier reliability, and brand-building as competition increases.
Chapter 07
Where SaleHoo fits
Santiago’s story shows why supplier reliability and product validation matter before serious ad spend. Facebook ads can create momentum, but weak fulfillment, slow shipping, or a poorly validated product can make that momentum difficult to sustain.
For sellers following a similar path, SaleHoo fits into the supplier-research and product-discovery stage. Before building a store around a product or putting budget behind ads, sellers can use SaleHoo to compare vetted suppliers, explore product opportunities, and reduce avoidable sourcing risk.
The takeaway is straightforward: ads can scale a product, but the product, store, and supplier experience need to support the promise being made to customers.
