A direct-to-consumer brand doing $4M in ARR, profitable, but watching CAC creep up quarter over quarter. The bottleneck was creative volume — the team could only test 2-3 concepts per week. After a Treetop Implementation engagement, the team rebuilt its creative pipeline. Here is what happened.
Composite case study: a synthesis of patterns we have seen repeatedly across similar engagements. Specific names, numbers, and details are illustrative; the patterns and outcomes reflect real client results.
Company: DTC brand in the wellness space, ~$4M ARR, 60% from paid social.
Team: 1 marketing director, 1 designer, 1 copywriter, 1 paid media manager (external agency).
Pain: Could test 2-3 new creative concepts per week. Winning ads burned out in 6 weeks. CAC climbed from $42 to $61 over 4 quarters.
Existing AI usage: Designer used Midjourney occasionally. Nobody used Claude or ChatGPT for marketing copy.
Week 1: Audit of last 30 days of ad performance. Identified the 4 angles that worked, the 6 that did not, and why.
Week 2: Built a Creative Generation Project loaded with: brand voice guide, top 20 performing ads, customer survey responses, common objections from reviews.
Week 3: Built a Landing Page Variant Project to spin up ad-matched landing pages in 30 minutes. Built an Email Flow Project for post-purchase sequences.
Week 4: Trained the marketing director and copywriter on the workflow. Set up weekly creative reviews.
Old workflow: Brainstorm angle → copywriter drafts 1-2 concepts → designer makes statics → ship to ads. 4-6 days per concept.
New workflow: Marketing director uses Creative Project to generate 12 angle variants → copywriter refines top 4 → designer makes statics → ship. 2 days per batch of 4.
Volume: Creative concepts tested per week went from 2-3 to 10-12. Winners surfaced faster.
Quality: Creative quality measured by 7-day ROAS held steady. The team caught more winners simply by testing more.
CAC: Blended CAC dropped from $61 to $44 over the first quarter post-engagement.
Revenue: Same ad spend now produced 38% more new customers. Revenue grew 32% without expanding the team.
Team capacity: Copywriter shifted 40% of her time from drafting to refining. Reported higher job satisfaction.
Investment: $4,500 Implementation + $300/month Claude Team for 6 seats. Total first-year cost: ~$8,000. Estimated value: $400,000+ in CAC savings annualized.