How We Hit $1 Million/Month For This Apparel Brand ??

IN TODAY’S EDITION

• The FTC is BACK and ready to take names. (It’s coming for you, AI Avatars)
• How we scaled an apparel brand to its first million-dollar month

Let’s dive in!

News & Updates

• The FTC made it official! It has added federal rules now combating fake reviews as well as AI testimonials from people who don’t exist. This means you want to avoid using AI avatars in UGC content. At Brick, we personally love using AI, but this has been something we have warned our team internally and clients from doing. (AP)

How We Helped An Apparel Brand Hit Their First Million-Dollar Month

The Stats:

• 70% Sales Growth: Increased sales by 70% in Q3, maintaining ROAS.
• Ad Spend Efficiency: Doubled Meta ad spend with strong returns.
• Seasonal Shift: Solved summer dependency with a data-driven strategy.
• Reels Boost: Reels outperformed static ads for lower CPMs.
• ASC+ Success: Isolated campaigns drove new customer acquisition.

Deep Dive:

In Q3 of this year, our team undertook a transformative journey with an apparel brand, propelling its sales by 70% compared to the period of 2023. This was achieved by nearly doubling our Meta ad spend while maintaining the blended ROAS goal. Today, I will share the analytical depth and nuances that helped us achieve such scale for this client... So you can do the same. Let's get into it.

The Seasonal Challenge

We performed all of our analyses using features within Triplewhale. We used Triplewhale’s dashboard to analyze sales over time for a period of two years. The data revealed a pattern that underscored the brand's challenge: a significant reliance on the summer season. During that peak period, the brand thrived, but the graph showed a clear drop in sales once the summer ended. The stark difference between summer sales' heights and the lows of other seasons showed the brand's seasonal dependency, which has made it difficult for it to scale. The sales graph showed a notable dip after the summer peak, indicating decreased customer engagement and purchases. The numbers depicted the problem; a strategic pivot was needed to maintain sales momentum throughout the year without the warm weather to bolster sales. The fluctuating graph lines didn't just represent numbers—they symbolized the brand's pressing need to diversify and stabilize its sales cycle throughout the year. This analysis was a wake-up call, highlighting the urgency of a shift in strategy to address the inherent seasonality issue and ensure a more consistent sales performance year-round.

Our challenge was complex, but not one we hadn't tackled before: Break the brand's dependence on a single seasonal peak and drive success for their newly launched winter line. This strategic pivot wasn't just about introducing a new set of products but about reshaping the brand’s seasonal narrative and capturing market share in a competitive space. The task was twofold. First, we needed to make the winter line stand out in a saturated market, ensuring it was visible and desirable to loyal customers and potential new ones. Second, our work required a careful balance between pushing the new line and maintaining profitability. We couldn't just throw resources at the problem; we had to be smart, using multiple data sources to guide our decisions.

Our Strategy:

Our approach was tuned to kick off the year by boosting our new product line sales and smoothly transitioning our focus towards our summer lineup as the year progressed. The main hurdles we encountered involved navigating the high costs of reaching our audience due to stiff competition and finding the right ad strategy that would allow us to boost our ad spending efficiently while keeping our ROAS and ad costs within our target range. The turning point in our strategy came from a collaboration between our media buying and creative team to identify insights from rigorous A/B testing. Our media buying team extensively used Triplewhale’s triple pixel charts feature to analyze CPMs of different creative formats, such as static images and reels, for the new winter product line. The goal was to identify which creative format consistently had low costs and good results. These tests revealed that Reel ads were significantly more cost-effective and engaging than traditional static ads. This discovery informed our decision to shift ad spending towards Reels to scale the new product line.

Another interesting insight we discovered was that isolating winning creatives into their own ASC+ campaign yielded better results for new customer acquisition. We used Triplewhale’s Triple Pixel new customer ROAS (ncROAS) data to compare the performance of this new isolated ASC+ test with other campaigns, and we saw better results here. This allowed us to gain more control over our ad spend and optimize for new customer acquisition and overall ROAS. We started testing isolated ASC+ campaigns with a 50% existing customer cap. Using this strategy, we scaled a single piece of creative from $100 per day to about $1,400 per day while keeping the average ROAS around 2X.

To further refine our approach, we leveraged Triplewhale’s attribution models to track the performance of our ads across various customer touchpoints. This helped us identify the most effective creatives from previous peak seasons, focusing on those with high spend, high engagement, and low costs. We repurposed these winning creatives for new customer acquisition, particularly transitioning into the warmer weather product ads. By using post IDs of these highly engaging ads, we set up isolated ASC+ campaigns at smaller budgets and scaled them as we observed positive results.

Results

The outcome of our strategy was a substantial increase in sales, achieving an impressive 69% growth in a 5-month timeframe compared to the same period in the previous year, and we were able to crack the first $1m in sales for this client for the first time. This growth was not just a numerical milestone but a significant transformation in how the brand approached its marketing and sales strategies. The strategic use of Reel ads, which captivated audiences with dynamic and engaging content, played a pivotal role in this success. By leveraging the power of data-driven scaling using Triplewhale and creative repurposing, we effectively broke the brand's dependency on seasonal trends, ensuring a more stable and consistent sales performance throughout the year.

Our next goal with this brand is to achieve its first $1.5 million sales month. We’re on track to do that and have no intention of stopping there.

Our strategy moving forward involves using a similar framework to rigorously A/B test different creative types, formats, and copy for summer apparel to identify winning combinations that can be scaled in isolated ASC+ campaigns for new customer acquisition without hurting secondary metrics like CPMs at higher spend. We will continue leveraging Triplewhale's comprehensive analytics suite to monitor performance, optimize ad spend, and drive sustained growth.

In summary, our success with this apparel brand and many other partners underscores the power of strategic, holistic, and data-driven decision-making.

How We Can Help You

1. Apply to work with Brick. Own a brand spending $50k+ per month on ads? if you're ready to scale to $1M+ per month and beyond, consider working with our team at Brick. We keep our client roster small, and when brands join, they rarely leave. We don’t often have openings, but if you're serious about growth: Book a call with Toby here.
2. Want my team to audit your ad accounts and ad creative for free? We'll examine every aspect of your acquisition strategy, identify issues, and create a custom growth plan—all in 50+ slides tailored to your brand. There are no strings attached, and it won’t cost you a dime. Apply Here!
3. Follow us. If you’re not already following Toby, now’s the time! I share free resources, in-depth case studies, and daily e-com insights to help you scale your brand—follow along and level up your game: LinkedIn / Twitter.