How Arcteryx grew direct to consumer with a measurement led playbook

What if your next growth jump is hiding in how you measure across channels?

Arcteryx pushed into direct to consumer and tapped a simple idea. Let measurement set the plan, then run tight tests to find the next best move. The result is a loop you can repeat across search, social, shopping, and remarketing.

Here’s What You Need to Know

You do not need complex tricks to grow. You need clear targets, clean tracking, and a funnel that finds new buyers then closes the sale. Arcteryx set channel goals for average order value, ROAS, CPA, and key micro steps, then tuned the mix across paid search, social, video, shopping, and dynamic retargeting.

The real unlock was alignment. Set objectives by funnel stage, track them well, and move budget to the next best return based on what the data shows.

Why This Actually Matters

Premium brands see rising media costs and more noise in every feed. Guesswork burns budget. A measurement first plan lets you see which lever matters most right now. Maybe it is product feed quality for shopping, maybe it is creative that builds demand in new markets, or maybe it is remarketing waste.

Market context makes the choices smarter. If your category CPA and ROAS ranges are shifting, your targets should shift too. Benchmarks tell you whether search is saturated, social is under cooking, or retargeting is just recycling the same buyers.

How to Make This Work for You

1. Start with a simple model and targets

   • Pick a north star that reflects profit, such as contribution margin or blended ROAS.
   • Set guardrails by funnel stage. Top of funnel aims for reach and qualified traffic, mid funnel for engaged sessions and add to cart rate, bottom funnel for CPA and ROAS.
   • Use market benchmarks to set realistic ranges by country or category so you know what good looks like.

2. Map your funnel to channels and creative

   • Capture intent with paid search and shopping. Create intent with social and video. Close with dynamic retargeting and email.
   • Match creative to stage. Problem and proof up top, product and offer in the middle, urgency and social proof at the bottom.
   • Build a few evergreen themes you can refresh often, not dozens of one offs.

3. Get tracking and feeds right

   • Set up conversion events for primary sales and the micro steps that predict them, like view content, add to cart, and checkout start.
   • Clean product feeds with accurate titles, attributes, and availability. Dynamic retargeting only works when feeds are healthy.
   • Keep UTM naming consistent so you can read channel and creative performance without guesswork.

4. Plan budgets with response in mind

   • Think in tiers of intent. Protect search and shopping that show strong marginal return, then expand prospecting where you see efficient reach and engaged sessions.
   • Run a steady two week test cadence. Each cycle gets one clear question, one primary metric, and a stop rule.
   • Use holdout tests on remarketing to check if it is incremental or just taking credit.

5. Read, decide, and move

   • Shift budget based on marginal ROAS or marginal CPA, not averages.
   • Watch average order value, new customer rate, and paid share of sales to ensure growth is real, not just coupon heavy or brand cannibalization.
   • Adjust targeting and creative by market seasonality. Outdoor categories swing with weather and launch calendars, so set expectations by region.

What to Watch For

• ROAS by stage. Expect lower up top and tighter efficiency at the bottom. If prospecting ROAS trends up while reach holds, your creative is building quality attention.
• CPA and payback window. A rising CPA can be fine if average order value and repeat rate offset it. Track time to break even by channel.
• Average order value. Shopping feed quality and product mix often move AOV more than bids do.
• New customer rate. If this falls while spend rises, you might be over indexing on retargeting.
• Micro conversion rate. View content to add to cart to checkout start to purchase. Bottlenecks here tell you whether to fix landing pages, offers, or checkout friction.
• Assisted revenue and overlap. Heavy overlap between channels can hide waste. Holdouts and path analysis help you right size retargeting and branded search.

Your Next Move

Run a one hour audit this week. Check feed health, conversion events, and a simple funnel report that shows micro steps by channel. Pick one bottleneck and plan a two week test to move it. Keep the question narrow and the readout simple.

Want to Go Deeper?

If you want outside context, AdBuddy can compare your CPA and ROAS to market ranges by category and country, suggest the next best budget move, and share playbooks for product feeds, prospecting creative, and remarketing holdouts. Then you test, read, and iterate.