Case study · Marine nutrition & skincare
PhycoHealth
A viral Meta run took a decade-old science brand vertical, then receded. New customers fell 42%. Revenue grew anyway, because of what got built in the eight months in between.
- Klaviyo · Loop · Shopify
- Australia
01 · Where they started
The wave that outgrew the machine
PhycoHealth turns seaweed into nutrition, gut health and skincare, farmed and formulated in Australia on two decades of marine biomedical research by founder Dr Pia Winberg. For ten years it grew the slow way: a small, loyal base of returning customers, with Pia running the email account herself between the farm, the factory and the lab.
Then, in 2025, a Meta funnel found her ideal customer and the brand went vertical. Orders multiplied in months. A customer base built patiently over a decade was suddenly outnumbered by strangers who had bought exactly once.
"I felt like I was standing on a cliff."
Pia Winberg, on the months before the engagement
She was right to be nervous. Fulfilling the surge consumed every hour, and the machine behind the front door was still built for the old scale.
A surge like that always recedes. The question was what would be underneath when it did.
02 · What we found
Ranking the leaks
We reset measurement first, so every number told the truth, even when the truth was less comfortable. Then we ranked the leaks by what they were costing.
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The first 30 days were almost silent
Post-purchase was the most neglected stretch of the journey. New customers heard almost nothing, and some of what they did hear was returning-customer copy. With most customers buying once, every point of first-to-second conversion was worth more than any single campaign.
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Second orders were routines, not refills
Most second orders were a different product. Customers were not replenishing, they were building a routine across skincare, gut and nutrition, and nothing sequenced that journey for them.
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Subscription was a discount, not a programme
Subscribers were worth a multiple of one-time buyers, yet churn was steepest in the first two months and cancellations clustered around fixable frictions, like deliveries arriving faster than people could use them.
And one more thing: an entire segment of past buyers had unsubscribed their way beyond email's reach altogether. That finding would matter later.
03 · What we built
Built in the order the leaks demanded
We started shipping in week one. The engagement began mid-surge and days from Black Friday, so the first send went out before the onboarding call had even happened: a plain-text note in Pia's voice, not a templated promo blast.
"I was really blown away with the very strategic and architectural engineering approach."
Pia Winberg, on the first month
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Campaigns first, because the demand existed now. A full monthly calendar of sends, each segmented by recency, category and subscription status and planned a month ahead. New popups began capturing email, WhatsApp and the health goals that would drive personalisation.
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The flows that move lifetime value, not the flows agencies usually build first. Welcome and abandoned checkout could wait; new customer onboarding across email and WhatsApp could not. Subscription mechanics shipped alongside it: milestone gifts through the churn-heavy first two months, a rebuilt cancellation flow, automatic payment recovery. And NannoSea, the brand's algal omega-3, launched through the new early-access list and sold out in days.
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The subscription programme went on the product page with a new widget, and subscriber growth inflected within days. Then replenishment timed to each customer's buying rhythm, a subscription converter, SMS as a channel, delivery frequencies re-matched to real usage, and the old bolted-on points scheme retired.
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Compounding. Cross-sell built to walk skincare buyers into gut and nutrition. The whole programme migrated to Loop once the mechanics were proven, with a save flow catching subscribers who pause in their first month. And the unreachable segment finally got a channel: a printed card in the post that paid for itself more than twice over.
04 · The numbers
What it added up to
- +160% returning customers in eight months
- 2.5x returning-customer share of revenue
- +118% subscription revenue, its share of total doubled
- +42% active subscribers
- 2x share of first orders taken as a subscription
- +74% email and SMS share of revenue
"It wasn't a one hit wonder. It has got strength."