Supplement Brand Increased Revenue by 2.5x
By calculating CLV and aligning ACOS towards customer acquisition, we leveraged high repeat purchase rates to drive exponential growth.
Client Overview
Industry
Health & Supplements
Product Range
Nutritional Supplements
Monthly Ad Spend
$125,000
The Challenge
This supplement brand had a strong product line and loyal customers, but was struggling to scale new customer acquisition profitably. Traditional ACOS-focused campaigns were limiting growth potential because they didn’t account for the high lifetime value of supplement customers.
Key Challenges:
- •Limited new customer acquisition in competitive supplement market
- •High customer acquisition costs with traditional marketing
- •Need to scale revenue while maintaining healthy unit economics
- •Complex customer lifetime value calculations for subscription model
Customer Lifetime Value Analysis
The foundation of our strategy was understanding the true value of each customer over their entire relationship with the brand. Our analysis revealed that supplement customers had significantly higher lifetime value than typical e-commerce purchases.
Average Order Value
Initial purchase amount
Purchase Frequency
Annual repeat purchases
Customer Lifespan
Average customer retention
Total CLV
Lifetime customer value
CLV Impact on ACOS Targets
With a CLV of $789 and an average first purchase of $67, we could afford ACOS targets up to 70-80% for new customer acquisition while maintaining positive unit economics over the customer lifetime.
Our Three-Phase Growth Strategy
Phase 1: CLV Foundation (Months 1-3)
Established CLV tracking and initial upper-funnel campaigns
Key Metrics:
- • ACOS: 65-80%
- • New Customers: +45%
- • CLV Tracking: Implemented
Focus Area:
Building foundation for long-term customer value optimization
Phase 2: Scale & Optimize (Months 4-8)
Scaled successful campaigns and optimized based on CLV data
Key Metrics:
- • ACOS: 55-70%
- • New Customers: +120%
- • Revenue: +150%
Focus Area:
Aggressive scaling while maintaining CLV-positive acquisition
Phase 3: Efficiency & Growth (Months 9-12)
Achieved sustainable growth with improved efficiency
Key Metrics:
- • ACOS: 45-60%
- • New Customers: +189%
- • Revenue: 2.5x
Focus Area:
Sustainable growth with strong unit economics
Implementation Strategy
Comprehensive Keyword Research
Mapped the entire customer journey from awareness to conversion across supplement categories
Implementation Details:
- Analyzed 800+ health and wellness keywords
- Identified upper-funnel awareness opportunities
- Mapped keywords to customer intent stages
- Created comprehensive negative keyword lists
Upper Funnel Management Strategy
Focused on capturing customers early in their health journey with broad targeting
Implementation Details:
- Implemented broad match campaigns for discovery
- Created awareness-focused ad copy
- Targeted health condition and symptom keywords
- Utilized all placement types for maximum reach
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) Calculation
Developed sophisticated CLV models to inform bidding and targeting decisions
Implementation Details:
- Analyzed 18 months of customer purchase data
- Calculated average order value and frequency
- Factored in subscription retention rates
- Created CLV-based ACOS targets
New-to-Brand Customer Focus
Optimized campaigns specifically for acquiring first-time customers
Implementation Details:
- Created new customer acquisition funnels
- Implemented first-purchase incentives
- Tracked new-to-brand metrics closely
- Optimized for customer acquisition over immediate profit
Results Achieved
Revenue Growth
Total revenue increase in 12 months
New Customers
Increase in new customer acquisition
CLV Optimization
Improvement in customer lifetime value
Repeat Purchase Rate
Customers making second purchase
The Upper Funnel Advantage
Why Upper Funnel Keywords Drove Better Long-Term ROI
Instead of only targeting bottom-funnel "supplement" keywords, we invested heavily in upper-funnel health and wellness terms. This strategy allowed us to:
- • Capture customers earlier in their health journey
- • Face less competition and lower CPCs
- • Build brand awareness among potential customers
- • Educate customers about supplement benefits
- • Create a larger addressable market
While these keywords had higher initial ACOS, the customers acquired through upper-funnel campaigns had similar lifetime value but lower acquisition costs.
Key Learnings
- CLV-based bidding allows for much higher ACOS targets than traditional profit-focused campaigns
- Upper-funnel keywords often have better long-term ROI despite higher initial costs
- Supplement customers have high repeat purchase rates when properly onboarded
- New-to-brand customer acquisition should be measured differently than repeat customer campaigns
- Subscription models fundamentally change the economics of customer acquisition
Conclusion
This case study demonstrates the power of CLV-based advertising optimization for businesses with high repeat purchase rates. By understanding the true lifetime value of customers and optimizing for long-term profitability rather than immediate ACOS targets, we were able to achieve exponential growth.
The key insight was that supplement customers, once acquired and properly onboarded, become highly valuable long-term customers. This allowed us to invest aggressively in customer acquisition, knowing that the lifetime value would more than compensate for higher initial acquisition costs.
Ready to Optimize for Customer Lifetime Value?
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