BUBS Naturals triples return on ad spend with Shopify Audiences and doubles conversion by doubling down on direct-to-consumer

BUBS Naturals, named for Glen “BUB” Doherty, a beloved U.S. Navy SEAL who died in the line of duty, is a big player selling supplements and other fitness and nutrition products. After enjoying swelling success, the company quickly realized it needed to both adapt its paid advertising strategy to better align with recent changes in the digital marketing space, and double down on its direct to consumer offering (its revenue was originally split evenly selling both on Amazon and through its own Shopify site). Shopify Plus was the answer to both.

Shopify Audiences

Looking for new solutions to address increasing costs and difficulty in finding new customers, BUBS Naturals tapped into Shopify Audiences, a Shopify Plus exclusive feature. This provided the brand with high-intent audiences that gave it the confidence it needed to uncap its advertising spend and reach more qualified buyers.

BUBS Naturals now uses Shopify Audiences to generate audiences based on the products they want to sell, which allows the brand’s top-of-funnel advertising to be much more focused and less competitive. By removing the guesswork with audience creation, Shopify Audiences simplifies the brand’s customer acquisition efforts and helps BUBS Naturals find new buyers faster.

Install Shopify Audiences.

With Shopify Audiences, BUBS Naturals saw significant improvements to customer acquisition, including:

• Improved ad targeting and performance
• Heightened ability to reach more qualified buyers
• Increased Return On Ad Spend

"Shopify Audiences has helped us regain confidence with top-of-funnel advertising and reach qualified buyers with return on ad spend as high as 3x. The ability to leverage Shopify’s understanding of intent and create audiences focused on our products significantly enhances our acquisition efforts."

TJ Ferrara, Co-Founder, BUBS Naturals

Automations

Soon after upgrading to Shopify Plus, BUBS Naturals rolled out new functions like tiering discounts by custom segments, offering discounts based on tagged customer segments, and disabling discount codes during larger sales periods. With new automation capabilities available on Shopify Plus, BUBS Naturals now runs an in-house business—without the need for external services—to deliver its best end-user experience yet.

With automations, the brand’s online store performance saw results fast.

• 100% increase in conversion rate
• 10% increase in overall revenue from its direct-to-consumer site
• 84% repeat customer rate

“Selling on Amazon, you just kind of plug along. You’re not there competing for the brand story,” said Ferrara. "With Shopify Plus, you’re able to really start to take control of your destiny. Do them both, but your Shopify Plus site is going to be infinitely more profitable. You’ll see that scale as you stick with the game.”