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How BarkBox Scaled With Meta Ads
Benefits of Consolidated Campaigns, Testing Framework and Repurposing UGC
Welcome back to the 20th edition of Digital Chapter! 🚀
Today’s edition is a focused piece where I go deep into a single strategy and discuss its tactical execution. I’ll be unpacking BarkBox’s meta ads scaling strategy.
Before we dive in, just wanted to let you know I will be having some time available for one-on-one consulting with DTC / e-commerce brands who are looking to grow. I've been getting a lot of requests, so decided to start a waitlist for anyone interested. You can register your interest here.
As always, thanks for turning up week after week 🙂
- Dev
In today’s edition, I’ll be covering:
Audience segmentation and personalisation approach
Benefits of a consolidated campaign structure
Key testing frameworks and optimisations
Why re-purposing UGC content for ads is smart
Peek at BarkBox tech stack
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FEATURE CASE STUDY
How BarkBox Scaled Meta Ads

BarkBox is a popular subscription service for dog owners, delivering a monthly box of toys, treats, and chews. Founded in 2011, they scaled rapidly and were valued at $1.6 billion by 2020 before going public. This unique DTC brand effectively communicates its product quality and has built a strong customer base through performance & content marketing and compelling offers.
THE STRATEGY
Emotionally Engaging Ad Content
Unsuccessful DTC brands typically offer short-term gimmicks that may appeal to people but don’t land or drive a lot of conversions.
BarkBox moves differently.
They focus on creating emotionally engaging and relatable content that connects deeply with dog owners. By taking a test-and-learn approach, they captured emotional bonds between pet owners and their dogs in their ads, which is proven to drive high engagement rates and conversions.
Keeping this at the core of their strategy, they take a multi-faceted tactical approach when it comes to scaling their subscriptions through Meta ads.
THE PLAYBOOK
Unpacking the Core Tactics From Their Meta Ads Strategy
Audience segmentation & personalisation

Targeting new dog owners
BarkBox collects and activates data from a wide range of sources leading with their website, Meta pixel, purchase history via the CRM, customer surveys and social engagement.
They build audiences based on behaviour to effectively target each key point in their customer journey.
A good example of this is their ads for new dog owners, which focus on introductory offers. Looking through the ad library, they are currently running a ‘gift with purchase’ style ad, and testing a range of creatives against that.
They also use dynamic ads, which automatically show products based on the shopper’s past interactions on the website. These ads remind customers to complete their purchase or take the desired action.
Key takeaway:
Segmented audience → personalised ad creatives and messages → increased relevance = higher conversion rates and repeat purchases/ customer loyalty.
Consolidated campaign structure at top of funnel

TOF Meta ad structure
Given its focus on creative testing and the inclusion of TV ads in its media mix, BarkBox has crafted its offers to appeal to first-time subscribers. They are likely using a consolidated campaign structure on Meta.
With this structure, they can leverage Meta’s advanced machine-learning algorithm to optimize ad delivery across a larger audience pool. In addition to this, they also benefit from:
Using broad targeting → allows the algorithm to find the most receptive audience within a larger potential customer base.
Reducing auction competition → minimizes the risk of competing against themselves in the ad auctions, leading to lower ad costs.
Focusing on creative testing and optimization → Dedicating more resources to testing and refining ad creatives, which is critical for engaging potential customers at the top of the funnel (TOF).
Ease of scaling → Enables easy budget increases without the need to create multiple new campaigns or ad sets. Typically, it’s recommended to raise budgets by 20% every few days to avoid dropping into the ‘learning phase’.
Key takeaway:
Using a consolidated campaign structure for Meta ads is a best practice for DTC brands aiming to scale by reaching new customers. This approach simplifies management, allowing a greater focus on creating and testing better ad content and creatives.
Test-and-learn approach
BarkBox always takes a test-and-learn approach when building its ad campaigns on Facebook and Instagram to make decisions based on data. Three tests they focus on:
Audience targeting tests
Broad interest - BarkBox split out its audience based on demographics ( age and location), interests (dog owners and pet supplies) and behaviours (past purchases and website visits).
Lookalikes and Remarketing - they use their CRM and Facebook pixel to inform and optimise their campaigns.
Ad copy and offering
Test different ad copies, emphasising various value propositions such as giveaways, free first box, simple discounting and limited edition themes.
Add urgency and scarcity tactics like limited-time offers, and have used countdown timers in ads before.
Details like copy variations, CTAs and product descriptions have also been included in these tests.

A/B testing creatives
Testing multiple ad creatives and formats
Different themes to continuously validate their approach; humour vs emotional vs storytelling vs direct product showcasing
Recently, A/B tested partnership ads, helped them improve conversions and reduced cost per subscription by 13%. They ran 2 reel-based ads with the influencer and the other via their account. The ad that was run as a collaboration generated the most conversions.
Key takeaway:
Your audience is subjective to your brand. Testing helps validate assumptions and allows you to hedge your bets in Meta’s ad auctions.
Repurposing user-generated content
BarkBox uses UGC to build an organic community and to drive up engagement. This allows dedicated fans to advocate across their networks, increasing their share of voice in the market and creating a repository of content they can repurpose in their ads.
Since launching a hashtag strategy to encourage customers to include #barkbox when posting content, it’s been mentioned over 4 million times on Instagram alone! Plus, the hashtag sees thousands of posts each month, which gives their team a constant flow of new content that fulfils their content creation and community-building objectives.
Key takeaway:
Kick-start a hashtag system that has a strong CTA to encourage people to start using it on Instagram and TikTok. Review those and re-purpose new content to test in your Meta ads.
TECH STACK
BarkBox Uses These Tools:
CMS - Contentful
CRM - Gladly
A/B Testing & Referral marketing - Talkable
Personalisation - Attentive
Customer data platform - Rudderstack
Analytics - Amplitude and Google Analytics
That’s all for today! Hope you found some useful insights that you can apply to your Meta ads strategy :)
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