# Case Study: What Happens When Growth Is Deliberately Chasing New Customers, Not Just Revenue | Crank Source: https://wearecrank.com/case-studies/revitalash A 38% revenue year that came with a falling blended return — and the separation that shows why that's the growth working, not a decline. --- Beauty & Skincare Case Study — RevitaLash # What Happens When Growth Is Deliberately Chasing New Customers, Not Just Revenue A 38% revenue year that came with a falling blended return — and the separation that shows why that's the growth working, not a decline. Challenge Revenue grew 38 per cent in a year on 75 per cent more spend — and blended return on spend fell 21 per cent at the same time, the kind of pairing that reads as a decline unless you can see what's actually driving it. Approach Test creative formats as controlled, same-week comparisons rather than gut calls, and track a known audience against cold traffic directly, so growth decisions come from evidence rather than a single blended number. Outcome The blended return falling turned out to be the growth strategy working exactly as intended — more spend deliberately went toward winning new customers, who cost more per sale than existing ones, which pulls the average down without anything having actually gone wrong. 01 ## A known audience, worth protecting The existing newsletter audience converted at 19.56 per cent during a seasonal sale. General Meta targeting for the same brand, the same week, the same offer, converted at 1.45 per cent — a same-week, same-offer comparison rather than an inferred effect, which makes the size of the gap hard to attribute to anything except audience warmth itself. 02 ## Creative tested properly, twice User-generated content was tested head-to-head against standard branded creative across a seasonal event: 2.8 times spend against 2.5 on existing customers, and 1.0 against 0.5 on prospecting. The same comparison, run again later, confirmed it — user-generated content returned 81 per cent better than standard creative. Click price, on the other hand, told an unreliable story. In one comparison of creative formats, the cost of a click rose 102 per cent — and the cost of a new customer actually fell 48 per cent over the same period. A doubled click price did not mean a worse result; the two numbers moved in opposite directions. 03 ## A site issue, caught in the reporting During a peak trading period, conversion rate fell 36 per cent against the prior year despite traffic holding up — the account's own reporting traced most of the affected sales to a site issue concentrated in the morning hours, rather than a demand or targeting problem. 04 ## What the growth actually cost Across the year, revenue grew 38 per cent to £1.91 million on 75 per cent more spend, with purchases up around 41 per cent. Blended return on spend fell 21 per cent, to 4.22\. The account review explains why rather than leaving it unexplained: Meta conversion rate moved from 5.0 to 4.0 per cent as more prospecting campaigns ran to bring in new customers, while Google click costs rose 43 per cent under competitive discounting pressure. Paid media rose from 48 to 67 per cent of total revenue over the same period. Read on the blended figure alone, this looks like a worse year. Read against what the account actually did — deliberately spend more to win new customers, who are always more expensive than reselling to existing ones — it's a growth strategy producing exactly the arithmetic it should. ## A year of deliberate growth, in the numbers that explain it 19.56%vs1.45% Conversion rate, known audience vs. cold traffic +81% Return on spend, user-generated content vs. standard creative +38% revenue/\-21% ROAS Same year — growth pulling the blended figure down +102% CPC/\-48% CAC Click cost and acquisition cost moving in opposite directions Figures drawn from Crank's own managed-account data and account reviews for RevitaLash, 2023–2025\. 2025 figures verified against the reporting database. ## Want to know what this looks like in your own account? These findings came from asking straightforward questions before any budget moved. We're happy to do the same for yours. [ Talk to Wearecrank](https://wa.me/447457416922?text=Help%20my%20business)[Get in touch](/contact) [← Back to all case studies](/case-studies)