Skip to content

Case studies · Scenario

A D2C ecommerce brand whose growth depends on rising ad spend

Illustrative Growth Scenario

This is not a client result. It describes a realistic starting situation and the plan we would propose for it. No company is named and no results are claimed.

Get Your Growth Audit
Industry
Ecommerce
Market
One home market, with early international orders
Business profile
A direct-to-consumer brand with a few hundred products across a handful of categories, selling through its own Shopify store.

The situation

Where the business starts.

Most new customers arrive through paid social. Each year the same revenue costs more to buy, and the founders can no longer tell which campaigns are profitable once returns and discounts are counted.

Organic search revenue is almost entirely brand searches. Category pages are product grids with no guidance, and filter combinations have created a large number of thin, indexable URLs.

Email is used for promotions. There is no structured welcome, post-purchase or replenishment sequence, and repeat purchase is left to chance.

The diagnosis

What the diagnostic would be expected to show.

  1. 01

    Paid and organic are buying the same sale

    We would expect a meaningful share of paid spend to fall on searches and audiences that already know the brand. An overlap analysis would size it.

  2. 02

    The catalogue is not built for search

    A crawl would show which filtered URLs are indexed, which categories compete with each other and where product data is incomplete for shopping surfaces.

  3. 03

    The second order is unmanaged

    Cohort analysis from store data would show how many customers buy again and how long it takes, which sets what an acquisition is worth.

The plan

What we would do, in order.

  1. 01

    Report on contribution margin

    A single view built from store data, joining ad spend, discounts, returns and cost of goods, so that channel decisions are made on profit.

  2. 02

    Put the catalogue in order

    Indexation rules for filters, consolidated categories, complete product attributes and a clean merchant feed.

  3. 03

    Make categories useful

    Selection guidance and buying guides for the categories with the most non-brand demand, written with the people who know the product.

  4. 04

    Separate brand from prospecting

    Paid campaigns restructured so that brand, existing customers and new audiences are budgeted and judged separately.

  5. 05

    Build the retention flows

    Welcome, post-purchase, replenishment and win-back sequences across email and, where customers opt in, WhatsApp.

  6. 06

    Test the product page and checkout

    Research-led changes to mobile product pages, delivery information and checkout, tested where traffic allows.

What would be measured

What would be measured

  • 01Contribution margin after ad spend
  • 02New-customer revenue by channel
  • 03Non-brand organic revenue
  • 04Conversion rate on mobile
  • 05Repeat purchase rate by cohort

Targets are set after the diagnostic, against your own baseline.

Reporting

What a result report would contain.

  • Margin by channel from the store's own data, with the reconciliation to platform figures explained
  • Non-brand and brand organic revenue reported separately
  • Cohort tables showing repeat purchase before and after the retention flows went live
  • Each experiment with its hypothesis, sample and outcome, including inconclusive tests
  • Seasonality and promotions that affect how the period should be read

No figures appear on this page because there are none to report. When we publish client work, the numbers come from the client’s own systems, with dates and sources, and only with written approval. How we document results.

Related services

The work involved.

For how we approach the sector as a whole, see Ecommerce marketing and growth.

Start with a growth audit

Stop Buying Marketing Activity.Start Building a Growth Engine.

Tell us where you are today, where you want to go and what is holding growth back. We’ll identify the highest-impact opportunities.

Get Your Growth AuditTalk to a Growth Strategist

What happens next

  1. 1

    You tell us where you are

    A short form about the business, its goals and what is holding growth back.

  2. 2

    A strategist reviews it

    Search, AI visibility, paid media, content and conversion, read together.

  3. 3

    You get the priorities

    The highest-impact opportunities, in order, with the reasoning shown.

No obligation, and no guaranteed outcomes promised. Just an honest read of where you stand.