Case · DTC e‑commerce

8 months

MER from 2.2 to 3.6 with a subscription-first funnel

A supplement brand with nine ad accounts, three agencies and 22% of orders on subscription. We made subscription the default and cut CAC payback from 5.1 to 2.9 months.

Paid Social

Conversion Rate Optimization & Landing Pages

Email & SMS Lifecycle

Illustrative

Orders on subscription

22% → 38%

22%

→

38%

CAC payback, months

5.1 → 2.9

5.1 months

→

2.9 months

MER

2.2 → 3.6

2.2

→

3.6

Illustrative demo figures for a fictional client. Results vary with margin, market, offer and spend.

Challenge

Northdose sells a slow-release daily capsule with B12, magnesium and L-theanine. When it came to us, it ran nine ad accounts across three agencies, each reporting its own ROAS. Added together, the platforms claimed more revenue than the store actually took.

Monthly ad spend was €70k against €154k in revenue, a MER of 2.2. Only 22% of orders were subscriptions, so most customers bought once. With an AOV of €44, it took 5.1 months to earn back the cost of acquiring a customer, which capped how fast the brand could spend.

The subscription itself was part of the problem. Cancelling meant emailing support, and ad comments were full of people who had been burned by supplement subscriptions before.

Strategy

We consolidated nine accounts into one Meta account and one TikTok account owned by Northdose, and made MER the one number everyone reports against.

Mei’s team then made subscription the default on every paid landing page, at 15% off the one-time price, with skip, swap and cancel one tap away in the customer portal. Checkout starts rose from 3.4% to 4.4% of paid sessions, and checkout completion from 62% to 66%.

In Klaviyo we rebuilt the post-purchase flow for one-time buyers around a day-21 reminder that the jar is running low, with a one-click switch to subscription. We also added skip and pause options to the pre-shipment email, so customers who needed a break skipped an order instead of cancelling.

Creative approach

Two objections came up in every comment thread: supplements you can’t feel, and subscriptions you can’t leave. We gave each one its own ad.

The Stories video “One capsule. No 3 pm crash.” names a feeling everyone knows and shows the slow-release formula in the second frame. It ran at a 3.1× ROAS on Meta and became the main prospecting ad.

On TikTok, “Subscriptions you can actually cancel.” puts the skip, swap and stop buttons on screen within five seconds. Orders from it subscribe at 38%, the rate the whole account reached by month eight.

We kept the look plain: product on a flat color, one claim, one feeling. Over eight months we tested around 350 ads across Meta and TikTok.

Funnel

Where

the

extra

revenue

came

from.

Monthly volumes before and after, with the conversion rate at every step.

Fig. 1 — Monthly funnel, before and afterBeforeAfterIllustrative data

Bar length uses a log scale so every stage stays readable. Illustrative demo data; results vary.

Results

The

numbers,

month

month.

Fig. 2 — Northdose, MER by monthIllustrative data

MERMER 3.6, from 2.2, +64%

CAC paybackCAC payback 2.9 mo, from 5.1 mo, −43%

Subscribe rateSubscribe rate 38%, from 22%, +73%

RevenueRevenue €288k, from €154k, +87%

Over eight months, orders on subscription rose from 22% to 38%. CAC payback fell from 5.1 to 2.9 months. MER went from 2.2 to 3.6.

Monthly revenue grew from €154k to €288k while ad spend rose from €70k to €80k. Orders went from 3,500 to 6,261 a month, and new subscriptions from 770 to 2,379. AOV barely moved, from €44 to €46, so the gain came from more orders and more repeat revenue, not bigger baskets.

With payback under three months, Northdose can fund more acquisition from its own cash flow, and one dashboard replaces nine sets of platform reports.

Illustrative demo figures; results vary.

Creative