Challenge

Dossier entered a crowded fragrance market dominated by heritage brands and aggressive CPC inflation. Early growth was fueled by virality and brand interest,but by 2023, paid performance began to erode.

The brand faced three core challenges:

• Declining ROAS on branded and generic search
• Increasing competition driving a race to the bottom on acquisition cost
• A high-churn product with limited organic retention

The goal was no longer just growth,it was scalable, profitable growth. Paid media needed to evolve from short-term activation to a performance engine aligned with brand, margin, and LTV.

Strategy

We re-engineered Dossier’s paid strategy around profitability and intent capture. The shift included:

• Moving away from saturated branded search
• Structuring performance campaigns by margin and segment, not volume
• Activating new, high-return channels: Amazon DSP, TikTok Shop, and Meta Advantage+
• Layering in geo-lift measurement and creative segmentation to improve efficiency across markets

Paid wasn’t just about traffic,it became a system to acquire the right customer, in the right market, at the right cost.

Execution

• Search & Meta Performance Realignment: Using Primelis Signal tech, branded search investment was capped based on proven incremental value. This allowed for a strategic reallocation of budget toward high-intent, non-branded queries with favorable margin-to-conversion ratios. On Meta, campaigns were rebuilt around value-based bidding strategies, prioritizing high-ARPU audience segments. Creative pipelines were accelerated to match Gen Z expectations,favoring short-form, culturally relevant formats designed for high retention and engagement.

• TikTok Shop as a Revenue Driver: TikTok Shop became a core growth channel through the deployment of live shopping formats that blended entertainment with direct purchase paths. Through continuous testing cycles, we identified the product bundles and categories that performed best under 60-second formats. These insights were quickly scaled, driving seven-figure revenue within months and achieving a lower customer acquisition cost than other paid channels.

• Amazon DSP Rollout: The launch of the Dossier Originals line was supported by a full-funnel Amazon DSP strategy. Campaigns combined precise audience segmentation,lookalikes, interest-based, and re-engagement cohorts,with tailored product creatives. This media expansion diversified the brand’s acquisition portfolio, reducing dependency on Google and Meta while unlocking a new stream of high-converting traffic across Amazon’s ecosystem.

• International Paid Expansion: Dossier expanded its paid footprint into five new markets,UK, Australia, Brazil, Canada, and Mexico,using a localized test-and-scale approach. Each market launch was supported with adapted creative assets and region-specific product messaging. Budget distribution was data-driven, relying on geo-lift experimentation and CAC benchmarks to guide investment decisions and accelerate profitable growth abroad.

All figures reflect performance growth in 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.

Impact

Paid media became more than a performance lever,it became a strategic growth channel engineered around margin, geography, and audience quality.

By shifting from volume-based media buying to profit-based acquisition, Dossier unlocked scalable, defensible growth,even in a high-CPC, high-churn category. The brand now operates with a paid engine that balances reach with efficiency, and performance with brand equity.