Client interview · Gnarly Nutrition

Gnarly Nutrition client interview: 102% new-customer growth year over year

With Aaron Santanello · Published 2025-12-18 · 15 minutes · Hosted by Andrej Tumachowitsch

Gnarly Nutrition client interview: 102% new-customer growth year over year

Aaron Santanello is the marketing director at Gnarly Nutrition. It is a sports nutrition brand based in Utah. This is the full transcript of his client interview with Andrej Tumachowitsch. Aaron says he was about two and a half months into the partnership at the time. He explains why the brand stopped growing. Then he covers what changed once the paid media plan was rebuilt around new customers.

Aaron says the business ran like a 10-year-old startup. Revenue had been flat for years. The brand had started in the climbing community, then kept selling to the same loyal group. He was three or four months into the role when he started digging into the paid media setup.

This one is for founders and marketing leads whose ad reports look fine while growth stays flat. Aaron says the conversation happened in November 2025, during Black Friday and Cyber Monday week. Comparing November with the prior November, Gnarly's new-customer orders were up 102%.

What you will take away

• Ran like a 10-year-old startup Aaron says the business was essentially a 10-year-old startup. It had been stuck at one revenue level for years. He had been marketing director for three or four months when the work started.
• Paid media was half the problem Aaron says the media side was at least 50% of the equation. He also points to site experience and CRO issues. He says HoloGrowth helped the team identify those.
• 85% of buyers were repeat buyers Aaron says 85% of Gnarly's consumers were returning, and that their lifetime value was high. Loyalty was strong. Growth had to come from people who had never bought.
• Chasing every sport at once Aaron says Gnarly started in the climbing community, then chased jiu-jitsu, mixed martial arts, bodybuilding and general fitness. The team is now repositioning around the outdoor community, from trail runners to backpackers.
• Targets came from five scenarios Aaron says the team talked the November goal through first. They built five scenarios across new-customer acquisition cost and AOV. Then they picked the one to work toward.
• Three audits, same conclusion Aaron says three agencies audited the Meta and Google accounts, and HoloGrowth was one of them. All three found the same issues. He says the HoloGrowth audit came back as a 20 plus page research document that also proposed solutions.
• Same revenue on less ad spend Aaron worried that return on ad spend could tank during the handover. It did not. Gnarly kept the same revenue on 25-30% less ad spend.
• New-customer orders up 102% Aaron compared November new-customer orders with the same month a year earlier. New-customer orders were up 102%.

Full transcript

Lightly edited from the interview captions for readability. The recording is the record - where they differ, the video wins.

Aaron: And now that we're about two and a half months into working with them, we are aggressively focused on new consumers. And when we look at our new consumer orders in this month compared to last November, it's up 102%. That just proves that HoloGrowth is putting a strategy in to reach new consumers and it's actually working. We spent about 25 to 30% less ad spend a month capturing that revenue. So that just proved that okay, the previous agency was not using a sound strategy.

Andrej: And hey Aaron, how are you doing?

Aaron: Doing well, Andrej. How are you?

Andrej: Yeah, doing great. To kick things off, do you just want to give a quick intro, who you are and what you do?

Aaron: Yeah. I'm Aaron Santanello, the marketing director at Gnarly Nutrition, a sports nutrition company out in Utah.

Andrej: Nice. And where was Gnarly before we started working together? Both in terms of business, but also specifically in terms of paid ads.

Aaron: Yeah. So when we started working with each other, I was still only three or four months into the role at Gnarly, but the business was essentially a 10-year-old startup, as funny as that is to say. Stagnated at a certain level of revenue, not really growing for a number of years. And then when I started, I really found out that their paid media partner of four or five years was just not really providing that growth that they needed. Which led us to HoloGrowth after doing a bunch of agency interviews. So that's what brought us to where we are now.

Andrej: And do you think the paid media partner was the main reason why the company was still stuck in the startup mode, or were there any other issues?

Aaron: Yeah. So the media side of things, I would say at least 50% of the equation. When I started, I dug in, really found out that the previous partner was deploying a lot of smoke and mirror tactics. Really focused on returning consumers, really focused on click-through. Just not great tactics if you're looking to actually grow a brand and reach new consumers.

Now there's other issues too that HoloGrowth has actually helped us figure out. Our website's not the greatest. User experience is not on par with a lot of our competitors, and a lot of CRO issues too. But yeah, paid media is probably 50% of the equation, which we aggressively started to figure out with HoloGrowth.

Andrej: Yeah. And when you joined the company, from your perspective, what were the biggest challenges holding the business back?

Aaron: It was really a lack of a sense of what the brand was. They just chased a lot of different target consumers. Messaging was all over the board. No clear mission behind the brand or the products that we were making. And no sound strategy of how to bring that all together to reach new consumers and have a clear target that you resonate with. So just a lot of disorganization essentially.

Andrej: Yeah. And I had the feeling when we joined the team that it had an amazing customer base and a lot of people who really love the product, love the brand, but the business wasn't really able to get past that. I would like to expand the circle, expand the customer base. It was stuck with that small user base, customer base. But wasn't really growing.

Aaron: Yeah. So to touch on that, Gnarly was really born in the climbing community in the sports nutrition world. And over the years tried to go after jiu-jitsu people and mixed martial arts and bodybuilding and general fitness, and again lost its way as what Gnarly actually stood for. And a big problem was a good problem technically, I guess, depending on how you look at it. 85% of their consumers were returning. So it seemed like once people try the brand, they tend to stay loyal for a long time, and that LTV is actually quite high.

And knowing that most of those consumers are actually from the climbing community, outdoor space, is really what led us to pivot our mission and our strategy to focus on outdoor enthusiasts and the outdoor community as a whole. And not only climbers, but trail runners, skiers, snowboarders, mountain bikers, gravel riders, hikers, backpackers, you name it. Speak to the broad spectrum of the outdoors. And that's what we're leaning into now, to hopefully resonate with new consumers and have them be that really affluent returning consumer too.

Andrej: Yeah. And I think that's the right strategy. And what made you want to partner up with us initially? What stood out with our approach compared to other media partners that you were talking with?

Aaron: Yeah. So I had an inclination that our old partner was again doing a lot of smoke and mirrors, not giving us right data. Just a lot of shadiness essentially. And I started reaching out to a few agencies just based on references from my network, to do some audits of our Meta and Google accounts, just to really dig in and confirm my suspicions. And of the three agencies we talked to, with HoloGrowth being one of them, all found the same issue. A lot of smoke and mirror tactics, way too many ads, not leveraging Meta's algorithm. Google budget solely focused on branded terms. So all the agencies came back confirming our suspicion.

Where HoloGrowth really blew my mind was the level of the audit that they provided and Andrej's team provided. And the level of thought behind not only here are all the problems we see, but here are all solutions that we can provide as far as strategy and tactics, to really bring the brand back in the right space and really resonate with new consumers and actually convert them. Not just get clicks, actually drive conversions.

So yeah, I think it was the 20 plus page research document we received after the audit that was really mind-blowing. I mean, the other agencies barely gave us a one-page Google doc on what was wrong and didn't provide any solutions. And after going through that process, we really felt that HoloGrowth was not only going to fulfill our paid media need, but really push on us to be better as a marketing team too, as well. So yeah, it's been nothing but an amazing experience getting to work with Andrej and his team.

And also was a great reference through our email agency as well. So we did have some tie to Andrej, and that really just validated us working with him even more.

Andrej: Yeah, love to hear that. And from what I hear is that so far, with the experience of working together, you're quite satisfied.

Aaron: Yes, it's been amazing. Like I said, Gnarly's marketing team, I'm the marketing director. We have marketing manager and director of content. So only a three-person team, stretched pretty thin across a lot of different areas of the marketing mix. And when we sign a contract to work with a partner, we really need them to not only fulfill that need, but actually push on us to be better. Because we have so much stuff going on, we might not see between the weeds and stuff.

So it's just been amazing. I mean, Pol's been pushing on our e-commerce agency to get better, calling out all these CRO issues and user experience issues on our site. It's just the positive effect of HoloGrowth on our entire business has already been seen in first two, three months. So super satisfied.

Andrej: Love to hear that. And I know we're still quite early in our partnership, but so far, what kind of results did you see working together? And so far, how do you see our service helps with what you were struggling with before we partnered up?

Aaron: Yeah, I think I come from a space working with big local brands. It's my first time working on a really small team, really small business. And I think my initial hesitation with switching to a new agency was, oh man, our return on ad spend could tank with a new agency right off the bat and take a while to build back. So when HoloGrowth took over, not only did revenue stay relatively stable, we spent about 25 to 30% less ad spend a month capturing that revenue. So that just proved that okay, the previous agency was not using a sound strategy, and HoloGrowth is just really on it with their tactics and being efficient and impactful.

And now that we're about two and a half months into working with them, November 2025, huge, huge month for CPG brands with Black Friday, Cyber Monday, we are aggressively focused on new consumers. And when we look at our new consumer orders in this month compared to last November, it's up 102%. So that just proves that HoloGrowth is putting a strategy in to reach new consumers and it's actually working. So really excited to see those numbers. Really just excited to see that compound into 2026, into the future. And really see now start growing.

Andrej: Yeah. Same here. From your side, what do you see were the biggest improvements from our partnership compared to where you were before?

Aaron: I mean, it doesn't take much to improve on our previous agency, I'll tell you that. I think it's just again the thoughtfulness to really understand the Gnarly business, understand where our new strategy lay, and how to apply that to your research and how you structure campaigns and ads to reach this target consumer that we have, that we've laid down as our north star for growing the business.

And it's just again providing creative briefs on ads you're seeing work for other sports nutrition brands, our competitors in industry, and how we can apply those concepts to who we think Gnarly is and our values and our aesthetic and our messaging. Again, HoloGrowth is just consistently pushing on us every day to get better and do better work. So it's just refreshing to have, I don't know, a partner with such sound reasoning and strategy and integration into what we're doing, not just from a paid media sense. They're really invested in making our whole business a success.

Andrej: Was there anything that surprised you about our service, or something that you didn't expect going into it?

Aaron: Yeah, I mean, honestly, the frequency of communication I'm pleasantly surprised by. Because just working with previous agencies we have, it's like you send a Slack message, you don't get something back for a day or two. You send another, it's just a constant volley back and forth. But Andrej and his team are on it with communications via Slack, email. You ask them a question, they're answering within an hour, with actual meat and depth to their answer as well. So that's actually been a really amazing pleasant surprise.

Andrej: Yeah. And I think that's very important, and a lot of agencies or businesses in general neglect that. That it's not only about doing a great job and making sure that everything is working, but also the communication aspect. Because it's just very, very important to have quick feedback loops, tight communication, to just keep growing, keep improving.

Aaron: Yeah, totally agree.

Andrej: What would you say to another brand that is thinking about working with us, partnering up with us, but is still not sure whether it's the right choice?

Aaron: I would say take the leap. I think the second you start engaging with HoloGrowth, you're going to see the level of thoughtfulness and expertise within the paid media space right away. And again, the amount of upfront work HoloGrowth puts into that initial engagement without being compensated is honestly something to respect. So I think just starting that engagement will open your eyes and make you realize that yeah, HoloGrowth is the right partner to move forward with. Especially if you are seeing your paid strategy start to stagnate.

I think HoloGrowth also does provide a lot of different scenarios as well. When we looked at November and our goals, it wasn't just us saying we hit a goal. We had a conversation about it. Looked at those key metrics across new customer acquisition costs and AOV and all this stuff. And really built five different scenarios to figure out what scenario makes the most sense to work towards. So I think again, just engaging in that initial audit with HoloGrowth and having them do a little bit of research on your brand, I think your eyes will be open to really working with them pretty fast.

Andrej: Awesome. Yeah, really, really appreciate that. Perfect. Any last thoughts you'd like to share about the experience or anything else?

Aaron: Yeah. I mean, honestly, Andrej, you've been amazing, man. It's been so fun to get to know you. And your team, your team's amazing. It's also fun to work with a bunch of people that are all very worldly. Andrej's team's all over the world. And it's fun to work with different personalities. And again, everybody on the team is so amazing and so communicative and has great ideas. And yeah, it's just been nothing but a pleasure experience working with Andrej and his team.

Andrej: Awesome. Yeah, that's great. I appreciate you hopping on this call with me, especially in the busiest week of the year basically. Still doing this call.

Aaron: I got some UGC videos to produce after this.

Andrej: Awesome. Yeah, that's very important. Really looking forward to those. Awesome. Then, thank you.

Aaron: No worries. Thank you, Andrej. Appreciate you, man.