Case study: Retail media
How an established personal care brand generated +$5.8M net sales with incremental ads
From a steady but flat sales trajectory to sustained growth, by focusing on efficiency and incrementality while increasing ad budget.
The challenge
Our client, an established personal care brand, had static weekly sales. Outside of one-time events, growth had stalled. They suspected their ad budget was holding them back, but past attempts to spend more hadn't paid off.
They came to Bearing to break through the sales slog and sustain higher growth.
Our approach
Diagnosed when spend is needed
Earlier budget tests disappointed because of a poor campaign mix, generalized keywords and cannibalized existing customers. By reading TACoS, reinvestment rate, repeat order rate and brand affinity, we confirmed more budget would pay off.
Set the right goals
We look past attributed ROAS to true incrementality: the sales that wouldn't have happened without advertising. We corrected for Amazon's over-attribution, split branded (defensive) from keyword (incremental) benchmarks, and used new-to-brand rates to read DSP.
Continued scaling successfully
With a validated framework, each spend increase lifted the daily sales baseline. We set benchmarks per campaign type, automated reporting on TACoS and incremental contribution, and kept a test-and-scale rhythm to avoid diminishing returns.
| Phase | Avg. monthly sales | Avg. monthly spend |
|---|---|---|
| Before Bearing | $1M | $37K |
| Phase 1 (growth) | $1.4M | $62K |
| Phase 1 (new baseline) | $1.8M | $98K |
| Phase 2 (current) | $2.1M | $143K |
Results