E-commerce · A DTC skincare brand

Rebuilding acquisition for a DTC skincare brand

Acquisition costs had climbed past the point where growth was profitable. We rebuilt the positioning, the creative system, and the account structure so paid media was measured against contribution margin instead of return on ad spend.

Brand StrategyContent Strategy & ProductionPerformance Marketing

The challenge

  • Blended acquisition cost had risen to the point where the first order no longer covered the customer who placed it.
  • Creative production was outsourced and slow, so campaigns ran on fatigued assets for weeks at a time.
  • Prospecting, retargeting, and retention spend were blended, which made healthy repeat revenue hide an unprofitable top of funnel.

What we did

  1. 01

    Reset the economics

    We started from contribution margin and ninety-day repeat rate rather than platform return on ad spend, and set a target acquisition cost the business could actually finance.

  2. 02

    Sharpen the positioning

    A founder-led positioning sprint produced a clear statement of what the range replaces and who it is obviously for — which became the angle library for every ad.

  3. 03

    Rebuild the creative system

    In-house production on a fixed cadence, structured as a testing roadmap: one variable per batch, winners iterated weekly, fatigued assets retired on schedule.

  4. 04

    Separate the funnel

    Prospecting, retargeting, and retention split into readable campaigns so each could be judged and funded independently.

  5. 05

    Layer lifecycle

    Welcome, browse and cart abandonment, post-purchase education, replenishment, and win-back flows rebuilt to raise lifetime value and loosen the acquisition ceiling.

Where it landed

  • A creative pipeline that ships new concepts monthly instead of quarterly.
  • A reporting view the founder can read in two minutes: spend, acquisition cost, margin, and repeat rate side by side.
  • Scaling decisions made against payback period rather than platform-reported return.

Recognise your own situation here?

A 30-minute call to look at where you are and what we would do differently.

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