Paws For Thought - How Tails.com Drives Sustainable Growth With Relevance

Meeting the challenge: Rising competition, flat demand

Tails.com competes in the fast-moving, highly saturated DTC pet food space. As post-pandemic pet adoption plateaued and competitors increased spend, acquiring new customers became harder and more expensive. Elaine Wan, Head of Performance Marketing at Tails.com, said,

In a market where everyone’s targeting the same customer, you need more than just efficient spend. You need the right partner, a test-and-learn mindset, and a clear view on what drives real, long-term value.

The brand needed a new way to break through, drive scale, and protect efficiency.

Moving beyond performance fatigue

For years, Tails.com leaned into traditional lower-funnel tactics such as paid social, PPC, and affiliate marketing. These channels delivered early wins but eventually plateaued. Cost-per-acquisition (CPA) rose, and customer acquisition rates declined.

The team decided to rebalance their marketing mix, shifting toward awareness-building, refining creative, and testing platforms that could deliver incremental value over time. Wan said,

Which channels we invest in is underpinned by econometrics insight, and also making sure that we're making data-led decisions on the most profitable channels over the long term. And Rokt is a great partner for us because we're able to optimize spend with them according to the key metrics that they drive value over time.

Testing, learning, and unlocking value with Rokt

According to Lucy Whitear, Performance Marketing Manager at Tails.com, success came from leaning into experimentation with data-led partners.

The linear path to conversion doesn't exist anymore. Understanding that and being brave enough to invest in new channels is one of the new things that we need to do more of as brands.

An early test of a multi-box offer didn’t perform as expected. Rather than scrapping the initiative, the team adjusted the message for the Transaction Moment. The new offer landed, and it delivered results.

The impact: 153% increase in customer acquisitions

Refining the messaging and format paid off. The optimized offer delivered:

Key outcomes:

• 153% increase in customer acquisitions
• 3-point lift in customers staying for a second paid box
• Measurable improvement in lifetime value (LTV)

This success validated the team’s commitment to test-and-learn and to making decisions grounded in data, not gut instinct.

Prioritizing what matters: LTV over CPA

While the team continues to monitor customer acquisition cost and volume, their primary success metric is customer lifetime value. Wan said,

We still track CPA and new customer numbers, but LTV is what we care about most. That’s where real growth happens.

To measure performance accurately, Tails.com uses a hybrid approach: last-click proxies for short-term signals and econometrics to model long-term impact. Every channel, message, and investment is measured against this core benchmark.

Looking ahead: Agile testing fuels long-term growth

The pet food market will continue to evolve, and Tails.com is focused on staying ahead by staying agile. The team plans to continue scaling what works while experimenting with new messaging and channels. Wan said,

Test and learn is at the heart of what we do. Sometimes ideas don’t work the first time, but if you fail fast and keep iterating, you’ll find what sticks.