"We knew we needed to grow our customer base, but 56% more new customers in a single year exceeded our expectations. Acquire made it happen."

— Gary Scullion, Director of E-Commerce, Pilot Coffee Roasters

 

Pilot Coffee Roasters is a specialty coffee brand known for direct-trade, small-batch roasting. Acquire partnered with Pilot Coffee to strengthen their paid media strategy and drive new customer growth.

 
 

The Ask

Pilot Coffee Roasters approached us with 3 requests:

  1. Grow new customers on their online channel

  2. Avoid cannibalizing sales from their physical store locations

  3. Keep CAC level as they scaled

The Results

Across 12 months, Pilot Coffee Roasters saw:

  1. 56% increase in new customers

  2. No cannibalization of in-store sales

  3. CAC remained stable while scaling

The Breakdown

Restructured for real conversions

Shifted account optimization away from upper-funnel metrics like landing page views, focusing instead on actions that actually drove revenue and customer growth.

Monitored and managed geo-targeting

Continuously adjusted targeting across major areas in Toronto outside their store radius, capturing new online customers without competing against retail locations.

Optimized the Google Merchant feed

Concentrated spend on higher-AOV products to maximize revenue efficiency across the product line.

Split and managed channel strategy

Google focused on maximizing AOV and revenue, while Meta was dedicated to driving new customer growth, giving each channel a clear, distinct role.