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Scaling waterdrop® from $0 to $1M/Month in Under a Year

A Deep Dive into How to Scale an eCommerce Brand

INTRODUCTION

When waterdrop®, an already established European brand, decided to expand into the Australian market in 2023, they partnered with Webprofits to drive their direct-to-consumer (DTC) growth. Within 12 months, Webprofits had scaled their DTC revenue from $0 to $1 million per month, using our strategic approach rooted in a proven eCommerce Scaling Playbook.

Here’s how we achieved it.

KEY RESULTS

CHALLENGES

waterdrop® faced several challenges as they entered the Australian market:

• Building brand awareness in a new region
• Creating demand through online channels
• Optimising their marketing spend to achieve scale quickly
• Ensuring profitability despite fluctuating ad performance.

Part 1Our Approach: The Webprofits ECommerce Scaling Playbook

1. The Golden Rule of Scaling

Our foundational principle is to scale advertising while maintaining at least a breakeven return on ad spend (ROAS). For waterdrop®, the breakeven ROAS we were working with was 2.85. By ensuring profitability on customer acquisition, we maximised backend revenue through repeat purchases and customer retention.

2. Meta Ads as the Primary Growth Driver

We allocated 80% of our efforts to Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram) due to their unparalleled ability to create demand. With Meta’s advanced targeting capabilities and optimisation tools, we could reach large audiences efficiently and scale quickly.

Key tactics included:

• Developing creative assets tailored to Meta’s platform
• Running creative testing campaigns to identify high-performing ads
• Shifting winners into scaling campaigns with unlimited budgets

THE OUTCOME? By continuously testing and optimising, we maintained a consistent pipeline of profitable campaigns and scalable assets.

3. Creative Asset Development and Testing

We built a robust library of creative assets, including 11 types of videos and 7 static image formats. The creative mix included user-generated content (UGC), testimonials, product comparisons, influencer endorsements, and more, leveraging our eCommerce Creative Playbook to build assets at scale.

KEY TAKEAWAY: Continuous asset development was critical. As ad spend increased, so did the demand for fresh, engaging content to prevent creative fatigue.

💡 Our Creative Asset Development and Testing approach played a central role in driving waterdrop®’s rapid growth, so we’ll dive into this in more detail later in the case study. Keep reading…

4. Scaling ROAS and Budget Management

We closely monitored ROAS to determine when to scale ad spend and when to pull back.

• When ROAS dipped below the breakeven point, we reduced spend and optimised creative assets.
• When ROAS exceeded the breakeven point, we scaled aggressively.

THE OUTCOME? This dynamic approach allowed us to maintain profitability while rapidly increasing advertising budgets.

5. Supporting Channels: Google Ads and Email/SMS

Although Meta Ads were our primary growth driver, we supplemented them with key supporting channels:

• Google Ads captured high-intent traffic through branded search, Performance Max campaigns, and non-branded search.
• Email and SMS campaigns maximised customer lifetime value by driving repeat purchases and nurturing customer relationships.

BENCHMARK: 20% of revenue came from email and SMS, meeting industry standards.

6. Store Optimisation and Conversion Rate Improvements

We optimised waterdrop®’s eCommerce store to convert traffic efficiently, focusing on:

• High-converting landing pages designed around hero products
• Bundling strategies to increase average order value
• Fast-loading pages and streamlined checkout processes

THE OUTCOME? By creating dedicated landing pages for top-performing products, we improved conversion rates, driving a significant boost in overall performance.

7. Tracking and Attribution with Triple Whale and Real Time Data

Scaling ad spend effectively required precise tracking and attribution. We used Triple Whale to connect ad channels, track conversions and ensure that Meta Ads received proper credit for driving sales.

Furthermore, leveraging Webprofits own internally developed custom data dashboard, enabled the team to analyse performance metrics in real time, identifying and scaling top-performing creatives, hooks and messaging, reallocating budget to high-return products, and applying paid social learnings to email, search, and other channels. This agile optimisation enabled the team to accelerate waterdrop®’s growth, adjusting ad spend dynamically based on real-time performance, optimising ROI across all channels.

Part 2Creative Strategy as the Core Driver of waterdrop®’s Success

Having fully implemented the eCommerce Playbook, our creative testing and scaling framework was a key driver for waterdrop®’s rapid growth in the Australian market. By continuously developing, testing, and optimising creatives, we were able to maintain high performance and scale ad spend rapidly.

Given how instrumental this work was to the success of waterdrop®’s first year with Webprofits, we wanted to shine a spotlight on this to explain our approach:

The Webprofits Creative Scaling Framework: A Scientific Approach to Testing and Iteration

We apply a scientific approach to creative testing, removing guesswork and subjectivity by letting data guide decisions. Our framework can be broken down into four core steps:

1. Research:
   • We spend the majority of our time in this phase, deeply understanding the target market, the product, and the brand’s unique selling proposition (USP).
   • We dive into customer pain points, desires, and purchasing triggers through review analysis, customer feedback, social media comments, and forums like Reddit.
   • This research informs the messaging angles and creative concepts that will resonate with audiences at different stages of market awareness.
2. Hypothesis Development:
   • Based on research, we create specific hypotheses about what messaging and creative styles will perform best.
   • For example, “Focusing on the symptoms of dehydration for university students will generate high conversion rates on social ads.”
   • This hypothesis guides the creation of testable ad assets.
3. Creative Testing:
   • We deploy creatives into the market, testing various styles (videos, images, carousels, testimonials, UGC, etc.) and formats.
   • Our tests are structured to isolate variables, such as the headline, imagery, or hook, so we can identify exactly what drives performance.
   • We test different messaging angles, such as founder stories, product comparisons, or problem-solution narratives, tailored to different levels of customer awareness.
4. Iteration and Optimisation:
   • Winning creatives are identified through data-driven analysis.
   • We create multiple iterations of top performers by varying elements like the hook, music, format (video to image), or sequencing.
   • Each iteration unlocks new audience pockets, maximising reach and ensuring sustained performance as we scale ad spend.

Creative Diversity and Market Awareness: Unlocking True Scale

Our creative strategy is designed to address audiences across the five levels of market awareness, a concept inspired by Eugene Schwartz’s Breakthrough Advertising:

1. Unaware: Educational content, humor-based videos, and influencer endorsements introduce a problem the audience didn’t know they had.
2. Problem Aware: Founder stories, testimonials, and tutorials highlight the problem and the brand as a potential solution.
3. Solution Aware: Us-vs.-Them comparisons and feature-benefit callouts differentiate the product from competitors or traditional alternatives.
4. Product Aware: Unboxing videos and “Three Reasons Why” ads showcase the product experience and benefits.
5. Most Aware: Offer-based creatives, including guarantees and free returns, drive conversion.

By tailoring creatives to each level of awareness, we move audiences down the funnel efficiently and unlock scalable growth.

The Speed of Creative Development and Testing

Scaling creative production efficiently is essential for sustaining growth. For waterdrop®, we focused on rapidly creating, testing, and iterating new creatives. Our internal AI-powered tools, including a custom GPT model, streamlined the research process by quickly analysing product reviews and identifying messaging trends.

This allowed us to:

• Develop messaging angles faster
• Generate diverse creative formats (images, videos, carousels, etc.)
• Continuously test and iterate at scale

Key Tactics for Sustained Creative Performance:

• Testing hook variations:
  
• Changing the first 3 seconds of a video to capture attention:
  
• Repurposing winning videos into static images or carousels:
  
• Varying ad elements like audience demographics, visuals, or sequencing:
  
• Ensuring creative diversity to target new audience pockets and prevent fatigue:
  

Creative Testing Structure: Meta Ads as the Primary Testing Ground

Our creative testing campaigns for waterdrop® followed a structured approach:

• Creative Testing Campaign: New creatives were tested in broad audiences (using Meta’s Advantage+ targeting) to validate performance.
• Scaling Campaign: Winning creatives were moved into scaling campaigns with higher budgets, ensuring optimal allocation of ad spend.

This continuous feedback loop of testing, validating, and iterating enabled us to rapidly scale ad spend while maintaining a breakeven ROAS or better.

The Role of Data in Creative Success

We eliminate guesswork by letting data guide every decision. Through structured variable isolation (e.g., testing different headlines with the same image), we identify exactly what drives success. This allows us to double down on top-performing elements and scale them efficiently.

Part 3BFCM Strategy: How waterdrop® Achieved Its First $100K Day

A pivotal moment in waterdrop®’s scaling journey was achieving their first-ever $100K revenue day on the first day of Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM), doubling the brand’s performance from the previous year’s peak of $50K. This success was no accident—it was the result of a meticulously planned and executed BFCM strategy, leveraging the power of audience anticipation, creative diversity and full-funnel marketing.

Key Components of the BFCM Strategy

1. Hype and Tease Campaign:
   • We built anticipation through aggressive pre-launch teasers across social media and email, using ‘Get your cart ready’ messaging 24 hours before the offer went live.
   • This created excitement and primed both new and existing customers, ensuring a warm audience ready to convert as soon as the sale launched.
2. Diverse Creative Asset Development:
   • For BFCM, we created a range of creatives tailored to different audience segments and placements, including:
     • Video ads
     • Lifestyle images
     • Text-only creatives (focused on urgency and offers)
   • This creative diversity ensured maximum reach and engagement, with each asset optimised for its respective audience and platform.
3. Full-Funnel Marketing Activation:
   • We launched targeted emails and ads across the full customer funnel, covering both new prospects and existing customers.
   • For existing customers, we emphasized loyalty-based messaging and personalized offers, maximizing repeat purchases.
   • For top-of-funnel audiences, our creatives highlighted the urgency of the offers and the benefits of waterdrop®’s products, converting first-time buyers.

Laying the Foundation for Global Success

waterdrop®’s successful launch and rapid scaling in the Australian market exemplify the power of a focused, data-driven approach. By leveraging Webprofits’ eCommerce Scaling Playbook, waterdrop® achieved exponential growth.

Webprofits is now supporting waterdrop® in its further expansion into APAC and the Americas, with the work executed in the Australian market setting the foundation for long-term success and explosive growth.

Interested in scaling your eCommerce brand? Contact Webprofits to discuss how we can help you achieve similar results.

Alex Cleanthous

Director of Strategy + Innovation at Webprofits

Alex Cleanthous is an entrepreneur, writer, technologist, and marketing leader. He is Co-Founder of Webprofits, Australia’s largest private digital consultancy. With more than 20 years experience in the digital space, Alex stays at the forefront of digital innovation, strategy, and execution identifying new markets, platforms, and tools to keep pace with the exponential expansion of technology.