How we Scaled Cleens By 190% in 2024

  • Total Sales Up By 190%
  • Total orders up by 164%
  • AOV Up By 11%
  • Site Visits Up By 231%
INDUSTRY:

Health & wellness

Why Listen To Us?

Data-Driven Strategy

Every move we make is grounded in data. We analyse trends, consumer behaviour, and market performance to craft strategies that deliver results.

Unrivalled Creative Offering

Get access to 60 top-tier creatives each month—across all formats and types—at no extra cost. Every creative piece we produce is guided by data, ensuring maximum impact.

Global Ad Management

Managing over £20 million in ad spend annually, we have the experience and insight to keep your brand at the cutting edge of market trends.

Results-Oriented Campaigns

With over £150 million in sales driven annually, we know what works. Our campaigns are designed to convert, leveraging our extensive market knowledge.

Click the link below to explore how our data-driven approach and creative offerings have led to remarkable outcomes for our clients, scaling to 8 figures and beyond.

Introduction

Founded in 2021, British owned trainer brand Cleens emerged with a vision to satisfy the growing demand for a footwear brand that delivers on expert craftsmanship, accessibility to good design and transparency.

They joined forces with us in November 2022, and were able to scale rapidly with a new system in place for restocking efficiently, which helped capitalise on the rapidly growing demand.

They soon saw their best year YET- and year on year, our partnership keeps on hitting new heights.ts.

How Did We Fix It?

  • MER: Marketing efficiency ratio
  • CAC: Customer acquisition costs
  • NCAC: New Customer acquisition costs
  • NC / RC: New Customers vs Returning Customers
  • AOV: Average order value
  • CVR: Conversion rate

In 2024, we saw incredible YOY growth for Cleens, after considerably consolidating the ad account structure, avoiding ad spend wastage and increasing creative output to further scale the account.

We focussed our strategy on acquiring new customers and allowed lifecycle marketing to pick up low hanging fruit. This strategy allowed for real back-end, incremental results over time. We're not here for ad account ROAS, we're here for real business growth in the long term.

A key element of driving profitable growth for Cleens throughout the year was creating ‘marketing moments’ that drove man-made revenue peaks during quiet periods. These helped to stabilise cash flow and strengthen customer retention, enhancing long-term advertising efficiency. Examples of these peaks could be seasonal promotions, product launches to fill dips in the sales cycle, and limited-edition drops to drive urgency.

Pain Points

The main aim here was to profitably increase sales. Taking the brand to the next level & dominating the footwear scene countrywide before expanding overseas, but profitably & efficiently. Unfortunately, this is something a lot of brands run into and hit a wall where they feel they can no longer scale past a certain number profitably.

Building upon the strategies that yielded success across the year, we maintained our focus on optimising creatives and identifying "winning" ads.

Creative Challenges:

  • Limited creative testing: Testing fewer than 15 creatives per month restricted opportunities for performance optimization.
  • USPs not clearly communicated: Creatives didn’t effectively highlight Cleens' core USP of "luxury footwear made accessible through quality craftsmanship and premium materials.
  • Over-reliance on studio shots: Content was mostly studio-based, lacking dynamic lifestyle imagery to connect with the target audience.
  • Unengaging video transitions: Slow and ineffective video transitions didn’t grab viewer attention.
  • Lack of emotional appeal: Ads focused too heavily on products, missing out on creating a strong emotional connection with potential customers.

Ad Account Challenges:

  • Too many campaigns running simultaneously, leading to severe overlap and cannibalisation.
  • Ad account over-reported sales due to an inefficient optimisation window.
  • Testing via ABO with 96% of spend wasted on underperforming ads.
  • Budget spread too thin across multiple campaigns, starving the machine.
  • A heavy focus on retargeting, with little attention to driving incremental sales.

What Sets Us Apart?

Consolidation is Crucial

Running too many campaigns can lead to overlap, and overlap often results in over-reporting. Over-reporting skews your data and leads to poor decision-making, particularly if you're still relying on a 7-day click and 1-day view attribution model. To maintain clarity, it's essential to streamline your campaigns and avoid unnecessary complexity.

Cost Control

By applying cost controls to your ad account, you can direct the algorithm to deliver the CPA you need. When testing new creatives, Meta uses its forecasting tools to predict expected CTR (eCTR) and conversion rate (eCVR) before entering the auction. If the system predicts that the creative won't hit the required CPA, it simply won't spend any budget. No spend means no wasted resources, which ultimately preserves margin—a crucial factor for any emerging brand. More margin = more growth potential.

Focus on Click-Based Outcomes

Ensure your account is optimising for click-based outcomes only. Avoid relying on view-based conversions, as these sales aren't truly incremental and don't provide genuine value. Their only impact is inflating your ROAS, making it seem more impressive than it really is. This is precisely why your advertising platforms like Google and Meta might report higher sales figures than your backend system does. The key to an accurate understanding of your campaign's performance lies in focusing on outcomes driven by genuine engagement, not passive views.

Creative is Always King (or Queen!)

Creative is the cornerstone of success. You must be continuously testing multiple ads weekly in your ad account. Think of it in simple terms: approximately 96% of your ads will either underperform or receive little to no spend. The quicker you can test 100 ads, the quicker you'll discover the 4 that deliver strong returns. Constant testing isn't a luxury—it's a necessity in today’s competitive landscape.

Trust the Machine

Stop trying to outsmart Meta’s algorithm, which processes more data daily than any other platform in the world. Meta has insights beyond what any human can access, and in most cases, it knows best. Sometimes this means putting your ego aside—forcing spend on underperforming ads, pushing for fake engagement, or overly retargeting can hurt your results more than help. Let the machine do what it’s designed to do, and you'll avoid creating unnecessary challenges for yourself.

Unit Economics

We prioritise a deep understanding of your Unit Economics during onboarding. We analyse your product margins, identify your most profitable lines, and set clear north star metrics. This gives us a clear path to hitting your goals. Many brands rely on vague figures, leading to poor decision-making. By grounding our strategy in precise data, we make informed, confident decisions that optimise your ad spend and drive sustainable growth. With a firm grasp on your Unit Economics, we focus on the right products, set achievable targets, and build campaigns for long-term success.

The Next Steps:

Creative Strategy:

  • Our in-house creative team began delivering 60 new creatives per month for Cleens.
  • We placed a strong emphasis on the key USP— a sustainable, progressive fashion brand.
  • Our creative strategist scripted and sourced UGC (user-generated content) to amplify these USPs.
  • We focused on promoting high-margin products, allowing for a higher NCPA (New Customer Acquisition Price) within the ad account.
  • We introduced new copy alongside the increased creative volume to ensure alignment between visuals and messaging.
  • Multiple mood boards were created to guide their future shoots, ensuring their content aligned with our creative vision.

Ad Account Strategy:

  • We set up a Testing/Scaling campaign structure to minimise wastage when introducing new ads.
  • The entire ad account was shifted to a Cost Cap setup, instructing the machine to find sales at our target CPA and no higher.
  • Using Cost Caps also reduced wastage and gave us another lever to pull when we found winning creatives to scale.
  • We changed the optimisation window to a click-only attribution model, forcing the machine to work harder to generate sales.
  • A creative feedback loop was implemented to ensure continual improvement in the quality and performance of our ads, week by week.

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