Putting Your Best Foot Forward For Profitable Paid Social Growth
How a dynamic, full-funnel strategy helped a footwear brand scale while staying grounded in smart inventory and brand building—resulting in 225% YoY growth.
AANKL
eCommerce
2 Years
Paid Social
AANKL
eCommerce
2 Years
Paid Social
Challenge
For AANKL a fast- growth footwear manufacturer the ambition was clear: sell-through seasonal stock efficiently, without losing sight of long-term brand growth. But the execution was far from straightforward.
As a brand, AANKL had historically relied heavily on retention-based marketing strategies. This worked for loyal customers but left them exposed when stock levels were high and peak seasons loomed. With an over dependence on bottom-of-funnel audiences, there was limited visibility in the market and little control over new customer acquisition. The result? Unpredictable cash flow, inventory bottlenecks, and minimal brand equity being built at the top of the funnel.
Our challenge was to re-engineer this approach balancing short-term commercial wins with long-term brand strength, all while creating a more stable revenue engine that could support growth year-round.
Solution
We began by introducing a new channel into the mix: Paid Social. Our goal wasn’t just to advertise, but to help AANKL move from a transactional model to a full-funnel, brand-first growth engine.
The first step was foundational—build the top of the funnel. With a brand like AANKL, which had great product-market fit but low brand awareness, we focused on elevating their visibility through broad-reaching campaigns that didn’t just push product, but told a story. This involved crafting a distinctive tone of voice, and co-authoring a tone of voice document to unify creative and messaging across platforms.
We structured campaigns into clearly defined funnel stages and implemented a bespoke testing matrix to identify high-performing creative hooks, placements, audiences, and messaging styles. This “test and learn” approach rapidly matured into a refined playbook, helping us consistently dial up what worked and scrap what didn’t.
Inventory data also played a central role. Using our proprietary inventory tracker, we mapped ad spend and bid strategies directly to available sizing—so if popular sizes were running low, spend adjusted accordingly. Coupled with insights from Google Trends, we were able to stay one step ahead of seasonal surges (e.g. boots before the rains, sandals before the sun).
The result was a strategy that didn’t just sell stock—but did so in a way that built a brand.
An Extension Of The Team
What set this partnership apart was the mutual commitment to building a long-term, data-informed, creatively distinct brand. This wasn’t about chasing quick wins—it was about growing AANKL into a recognised name in seasonal and lifestyle footwear.
From early creative planning through to granular bidding strategies, we worked side-by-side with AANKL’s in-house team to balance brand and performance. The brand gave us space to experiment, and in turn, we gave them structure, insights, and clarity around performance drivers.
As engagement and traffic grew, our approach became more agile and more predictive, leveraging real-time inventory data, platform learnings, and first-party customer behavior to refine campaigns weekly.
Looking Ahead
Now equipped with a clearer brand identity, scalable acquisition strategy, and deep insight into market demand patterns, AANKL is well-positioned for its next stage of growth.
As peak seasons approach, we’re continuing to refine our inventory-based bidding system, expand prospecting into new international markets, and use data-driven creative to enhance emotional connection with new customer segments.
The journey isn’t just about clearing stock anymore. It’s about building a brand that fits as well as the product itself.
Growth Y.O.Y
Increase In Orders Y.O.Y
Average Roas
Stakeholders
Top Ads
"Our collaboration with The Graygency has been excellent, we have been so impressed by the insight they have brought to our marketing team. The Graygency are great at using their experience to guide us through building a brand while chasing short term targets. Our numbers and performance have been reaching new levels since their integration into the team".
