BACK WORK

← back work

ZENIN

Anime clothing brand

2024

From unprofitable ads at ₹5L/month to ₹52L/month and ₹3.4 Cr in revenue — all with 11x ROAS and 60% prepaid orders.

Brand Overview

Zenin is a design-led, anime-inspired streetwear brand with a cult Gen-Z following. The products were well-made, the audience loved it, and the content was viral-worthy — but none of that translated into profit.

When we stepped in, they were doing:

₹5.2L/month in sales
₹4–5K/day ad spend
Negative ROI due to poor structure and random spending

It wasn’t scaling — it was surviving.

Challenges

1. No funnel. Just chaos.
Old agency was throwing everything into Advantage+ and shallow interest targeting. No cold-warm-retarget segmentation. No control over creative delivery.

2. Creatives didn’t convert
For a brand built on anime drops and culture, the ads felt flat. No hooks, no urgency, no storyline — just aesthetic product photos trying to do the job of an ad.

3. Bleeding margins
Despite a loyal fanbase and consistent traffic, Zenin was burning more than it was earning. Ad costs were high, ROAS was low, and the brand was stuck in a loop.

4. Zero scale system
No sandboxing. No data-led scaling. No performance predictability. If a campaign worked, it was luck — not repeatable.

Brand Overview

When we stepped in, they were doing:

₹5.2L/month in sales
₹4–5K/day ad spend
Negative ROI due to poor structure and random spending

It wasn’t scaling — it was surviving.

Challenges

1. No funnel. Just chaos.
Old agency was throwing everything into Advantage+ and shallow interest targeting. No cold-warm-retarget segmentation. No control over creative delivery.

2. Creatives didn’t convert
For a brand built on anime drops and culture, the ads felt flat. No hooks, no urgency, no storyline — just aesthetic product photos trying to do the job of an ad.

3. Bleeding margins
Despite a loyal fanbase and consistent traffic, Zenin was burning more than it was earning. Ad costs were high, ROAS was low, and the brand was stuck in a loop.

4. Zero scale system
No sandboxing. No data-led scaling. No performance predictability. If a campaign worked, it was luck — not repeatable.

Brand Overview

When we stepped in, they were doing:

₹5.2L/month in sales
₹4–5K/day ad spend
Negative ROI due to poor structure and random spending

It wasn’t scaling — it was surviving.

Challenges

1. No funnel. Just chaos.
Old agency was throwing everything into Advantage+ and shallow interest targeting. No cold-warm-retarget segmentation. No control over creative delivery.

2. Creatives didn’t convert
For a brand built on anime drops and culture, the ads felt flat. No hooks, no urgency, no storyline — just aesthetic product photos trying to do the job of an ad.

3. Bleeding margins
Despite a loyal fanbase and consistent traffic, Zenin was burning more than it was earning. Ad costs were high, ROAS was low, and the brand was stuck in a loop.

4. Zero scale system
No sandboxing. No data-led scaling. No performance predictability. If a campaign worked, it was luck — not repeatable.

Strategy That Actually Worked

1. We rebuilt the ad account from scratch
We created a full-funnel system:

Cold: Sandboxed creative tests with varied angles (anime references, product shots, scarcity plays)
Warm: Engagers, video viewers, website visitors — hit with drops, dispatch info, social proof
Retargeting: Abandoned cart flows, urgency ads, “first 100 orders” CTAs

This allowed us to scale without breaking ROAS.

2. Creatives with actual scroll power
We didn’t just make pretty ads — we made ads that made people stop and buy:

Lo-fi reels that mimicked anime trailers
Bold collection drops with “No Restocks. No Reruns.” positioning
UGC with dispatch timeline overlays and hype reactions
Side-by-sides of new vs restocked products

Every creative tested had a specific angle and objective.

3. Weekly sandbox + scale system

We tested 3–5 creatives per week at ₹500–₹1K budgets.
If they passed performance metrics, we scaled them.
If not, they were dropped. No emotions — just performance.

4. Cross-border targeting with A/B creative formats
We ran region-specific campaigns in the US, Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands with local copy adjustments. Same engine, new fuel.

5. Prepaid optimization
We introduced urgency overlays and incentives for prepaid buyers. This helped push prepaid conversion from 30% → 60%+ — adding margin stability and reducing RTOs.

Results

Start point:

₹5.2L/month
Losing money
ROAS below breakeven
Ad account structure: nonexistent

First month: ₹13L

Full funnel rebuilt. Creative testing loop activated.

Then:

→ ₹17L → ₹20L → ₹25L → ₹30L → ₹37L → ₹52L last month (at 11x ROAS)

Annual snapshot:

₹3.4 Cr+ in revenue in under 12 months
ROAS: 10x–12x consistently, with top creatives hitting 15x–18x
CPP: 2-digit across cold and warm audiences
Daily Spend: ₹8K–₹12K
60% prepaid order rate sustained over last 90 days

Strategy That Actually Worked

1. We rebuilt the ad account from scratch
We created a full-funnel system:

Cold: Sandboxed creative tests with varied angles (anime references, product shots, scarcity plays)
Warm: Engagers, video viewers, website visitors — hit with drops, dispatch info, social proof
Retargeting: Abandoned cart flows, urgency ads, “first 100 orders” CTAs

This allowed us to scale without breaking ROAS.

2. Creatives with actual scroll power
We didn’t just make pretty ads — we made ads that made people stop and buy:

Lo-fi reels that mimicked anime trailers
Bold collection drops with “No Restocks. No Reruns.” positioning
UGC with dispatch timeline overlays and hype reactions
Side-by-sides of new vs restocked products

Every creative tested had a specific angle and objective.

3. Weekly sandbox + scale system

We tested 3–5 creatives per week at ₹500–₹1K budgets.
If they passed performance metrics, we scaled them.
If not, they were dropped. No emotions — just performance.

4. Cross-border targeting with A/B creative formats
We ran region-specific campaigns in the US, Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands with local copy adjustments. Same engine, new fuel.

5. Prepaid optimization
We introduced urgency overlays and incentives for prepaid buyers. This helped push prepaid conversion from 30% → 60%+ — adding margin stability and reducing RTOs.

Results

Start point:

₹5.2L/month
Losing money
ROAS below breakeven
Ad account structure: nonexistent

First month: ₹13L

Full funnel rebuilt. Creative testing loop activated.

Then:

→ ₹17L → ₹20L → ₹25L → ₹30L → ₹37L → ₹52L last month (at 11x ROAS)

Annual snapshot:

₹3.4 Cr+ in revenue in under 12 months
ROAS: 10x–12x consistently, with top creatives hitting 15x–18x
CPP: 2-digit across cold and warm audiences
Daily Spend: ₹8K–₹12K
60% prepaid order rate sustained over last 90 days

Strategy That Actually Worked

1. We rebuilt the ad account from scratch
We created a full-funnel system:

Cold: Sandboxed creative tests with varied angles (anime references, product shots, scarcity plays)
Warm: Engagers, video viewers, website visitors — hit with drops, dispatch info, social proof
Retargeting: Abandoned cart flows, urgency ads, “first 100 orders” CTAs

This allowed us to scale without breaking ROAS.

2. Creatives with actual scroll power
We didn’t just make pretty ads — we made ads that made people stop and buy:

Lo-fi reels that mimicked anime trailers
Bold collection drops with “No Restocks. No Reruns.” positioning
UGC with dispatch timeline overlays and hype reactions
Side-by-sides of new vs restocked products

Every creative tested had a specific angle and objective.

3. Weekly sandbox + scale system

We tested 3–5 creatives per week at ₹500–₹1K budgets.
If they passed performance metrics, we scaled them.
If not, they were dropped. No emotions — just performance.

4. Cross-border targeting with A/B creative formats
We ran region-specific campaigns in the US, Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands with local copy adjustments. Same engine, new fuel.

5. Prepaid optimization
We introduced urgency overlays and incentives for prepaid buyers. This helped push prepaid conversion from 30% → 60%+ — adding margin stability and reducing RTOs.