Northbound CoffeeDTC food & beverage
Scaling a coffee subscription without scaling the CAC
Rebuilt Northbound's paid social engine around a creative testing system and a subscription-first funnel.
- Customer acquisition cost
- −38%
- Subscription revenue
- +212%
- Blended return on ad spend
- 4.1x
The challenge
Northbound had outgrown its founder-run ads. Meta costs had climbed 60% in a year, new creative went live whenever someone found the time, and the checkout pushed one-off bags while the business depended on subscriptions. Every new customer cost more and stayed for less.
The approach
We started with a four-week audit of spend, creative and cohort data. It showed that subscribers who arrived through customer-made video stayed 2.3 times longer than those who came from static product ads, so we built the whole program around that insight.
- A weekly creative testing system. Twelve new concepts a month, scored on hook rate, cost per subscriber and 60-day retention instead of clicks.
- A simpler account structure. Meta and TikTok rebuilt into broad prospecting, warm retargeting and subscriber lookalikes, with clear rules for moving budget.
- A subscription-first funnel. New landing pages and a checkout that lead with the subscription, plus a first-bag-free trial for cold traffic.
- Retention from day one. Post-purchase email and SMS flows that catch at-risk subscribers before their second shipment.
The outcome
Within two quarters Northbound was acquiring subscribers for 38% less, paid social was profitable on the first order, and the in-house team now runs the testing system without outside help.
Maren didn't just lower our acquisition costs, she gave us a system. A year later we still run her creative testing playbook every single week.
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