Customer acquisition continues to be one of the primary challenges for ecommerce businesses. Whether they’re dealing with rising costs, difficulty attributing new customers, or finding new channels to scale growth, few brands are free from some kind of acquisition concern.

But brands that were ready to experiment got a fresh opportunity in 2023 to target and acquire customers on a mobile-first channel. In 2023, Shopify launched Shop Campaigns, a new customer acquisition program that has helped brands attract and acquire over a million new customers. Find out from four leading brands how Shop Campaigns helped them overcome acquisition challenges and drive new customer growth on a new channel.

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Thrive Causemetics expands customer acquisition with the Shop app

Thrive Causemetics, an accessible luxury vegan makeup brand that caters to all ages, took a proactive approach to diversify their customer acquisition channels and experiment with new strategies.

Thrive — image of thrive causemetics product listing on a mobile device with their shop campaign promotion

Thrive Causemetics found a solution in the Shop app. Thrive aimed to optimize their mobile marketing strategy, offer an exceptional customer experience, and tap into a unique audience. They implemented several key tactics, including customizing their Shop presence with rich media to express their brand, incorporating shoppable videos for an enhanced user experience, and running Shop Campaigns to drive new customer growth.

“We turned it [Shop Campaigns] on originally because we're always looking for ways to diversify how we acquire new customers. Also, we know the people who use the Shop app are customers we would want to acquire.”

—Brendan Gardner-Young, Head of Technology, Thrive Causemetics

The results have been promising, with a 13x increase in Shop app orders since Q1 2023. Thrive’s adoption of Shop Campaigns as an acquisition tactic has yielded positive outcomes, providing a consistent flow of new customers at a controlled cost per acquisition. In 2023 alone, Thrive Causemetics acquired over 15,000 new customers while spending less than 2 hours a month managing and optimizing the Shop channel.

This low-lift and turnkey nature allowed Thrive to offer loyal customers an optimized mobile shopping experience while effortlessly acquiring new ones.

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OluKai drives cost-effective customer acquisition with Shop Campaigns

With rising costs and the goal of diversifying ad spend, OluKai, a B Corporation footwear company inspired by the island lifestyle, turned to Shop Campaigns as a way to test a new acquisition channel. Campaigns can be set up in minutes, which allowed the team to quickly experiment and assess their campaign performance. This, coupled with the pay-per-conversion pricing, made Shop Campaigns an attractive acquisition program to implement over the holiday season.

image of Olukai product listing on a mobile device with their shop campaign promotion

“It's incredibly powerful from a new customer acquisition standpoint. It's incredibly easy to set up and it's very intuitive.”

—Nick Daniels, Ecommerce Manager, OluKai

Over a four-week period, OluKai experienced exceptional results: a 12% increase in average order value and over 1,400 new customers. The Olukai team was so impressed by these results that they decided to make Shop a permanent channel in their acquisition portfolio.

“After our holiday campaign success, we've decided to make this a business-as-usual sales channel. We’re investing in this on a weekly basis and testing out different CPA targets, minimum order values, and daily budgets as well.”

—Nick Daniels, Ecommerce Manager, OluKai

OluKai’s impressive results serve as a testament to the ability of Shop Campaigns to drive cost-effective customer acquisition, with minimal setup costs.

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Caraway establishes a new customer acquisition channel with little effort and big returns

Caraway, a leading cookware brand, successfully improved their customer acquisition efforts through Shop Campaigns. Facing challenges such as rising costs, competition, and attribution complexities, Caraway needed an efficient and scalable solution to acquire and retain customers.

image of caraway product listing on a mobile device with their shop campaign promotion

Having already optimized their brand presence on the Shop app with customization tooling, they implemented Shop Campaigns to incentivize first-time customers with exclusive offers and drive sales. The ease of implementation impressed the team, letting them quickly launch and test a new acquisition channel without extensive web development or pixel tracking.

“The other reason I would encourage other brands to try it [Shop Campaigns] is because it’s just so easy to get going. You don't have to go gather a million assets. You don't have to go set up a bunch of pixel tracking on your site. You don't have to do a bunch of stuff to make sure that it's not going to break your checkout experience.”

—Connor Dault, VP of Growth and Digital Product, Caraway

The team was particularly appreciative of the direct attribution for new customers, especially because these customers were already using Shop Pay, making them higher quality acquisitions with better lifetime value (LTV). Being able to confidently acquire new customers at an efficient cost earned Shop Campaigns a permanent position in the brand's acquisition portfolio.

“We were looking for efficient customer acquisition, and we found it.”

—Connor Dault, VP of Growth and Digital Product, Caraway

The results speak for themselves. Caraway’s Shop Campaign led to a significant reduction in cost per acquisition (CPA), while allowing them to optimize their budget and resource allocation. They experienced a substantial 16x growth in Shop app orders, validating Shop Campaigns as a valuable acquisition channel.

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Kizik fuels impressive new customer acquisition at a set cost per acquisition

Kizik, the leading slip-on shoe brand, had ambitious growth goals in order to stay competitive in the footwear industry. They implemented Shop Campaigns, offered by the Shop app, to attract new customers while maintaining a similar cost per acquisition as their other channels. This allowed them to expand their customer base among Shop's mobile-first audience while giving them the same level of exposure on the channel as the biggest players in the market.

kizik — image of Kizik product listing on a mobile device with their shop campaign promotion

“Every brand who has digital-savvy consumers should be using this [Shop Campaigns].”

—Jesse Semchuck, Head of Acquisition, Kizik

Shop Campaigns yielded remarkable results for Kizik. Throughout 2023, the campaign attracted over 13,000 new customers, demonstrating its effectiveness in incentivizing first-time purchases. And overall the campaign earned a 3x return on investment.

Using the Shop app's reengagement tools and capitalizing on the pay-per-conversion pricing model for new customers in Shop Campaigns, Kizik achieved impressive growth at costs they could control. The campaign not only fueled their new customer acquisition but also increased brand visibility among a highly relevant audience.

“It's an opportunity for brands, especially ones that are in growth mode, to adopt Shop Campaigns, and it is something they should be taking advantage of. We can punch above our weight versus big players, and I think we've done that.”

—Jesse Semchuck, Head of Acquisition, Kizik

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Get started today

Shop Campaigns is available to eligible Shopify businesses in the United States. To get started, visit the advertising tab in the Shop channel in your Shopify admin, and click create campaign. Setup takes less than five minutes, and there are no new assets, pixel tracking, or complex configuration required. And, thanks to pay-per-sale pricing, you can test out this program with zero risk, knowing you'll only be charged when new customers convert.

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Emma Shanahan