RESULTS / CASE STUDY / DIY & Craft DTC (USA)
NookTales
NookTales is a DIY and craft brand with a strong seasonal gift business. When Kay came to us, the brand had spent a year on organic traffic from TikTok and Instagram, had never run an ad, and was doing about $30K a month. This page is about what the first 70 days looked like.
The founder, on camera, unscripted.
Where they started
Kay and her co-founder had been running NookTales for a year when we first spoke, in October 2024. Everything had come from organic: TikTok, Instagram, and more recently email. On the discovery call, asked what they were doing to get more traffic, the answer was one word: nothing. They had never run an ad.
The brand was doing about $30K a month with margins healthy enough to advertise on, and a product people genuinely loved. What it did not have was any plan for the seasonality that hits a gift business every year, or any idea which of its buyers were worth the most.
Kay had seen HoloGrowth's work before she ever got on a call. One of the brand's mentors was in the client portfolio. In her words: "So if our mentor works with you, there's no doubt, no hesitation." That referral is how most of our engagements start, and it is why the diagnostic comes before any spend.
"We saw one of our mentors also in the portfolio. So if our mentor works with you, there's no doubt, no hesitation."
What the audit found
The engagement started with the diagnostic, the same way every HoloGrowth engagement does. The finding was not that NookTales needed more creative or a bigger budget. It was that the money already being spent was aimed at the wrong buyers, and that the business was judging its months without accounting for the season it was in.
The account structure was starving a gift-buyer segment that turned out to be the brand's best. And with a product that sells hardest in the run-up to gifting occasions, the difference between a good month and a bad one was mostly the calendar. Nobody was planning around that curve.
Both of those are diagnosis problems, not spend problems. Which is why the first thing that moved was profit, not the budget. On judging ads by the wrong month, read Conversion Cycles.
What we did, in order
- October 2024Discovery call and catch-up, both recorded. Kay had never run an ad, had a year of organic behind her and about 50 to 60 percent margins. The first commitment we made was that the plan would be profitable before it was big.
- The diagnosticRe-allocated budget toward the gift-buyer segment the old structure was starving, and built the plan around the brand's real seasonal curve rather than a flat monthly target.
- First 30 daysProfit doubled at the same ad spend. Kay on camera: "In the first 30 days your team was able to bring the profit up like 100%." Nothing extra had been spent yet; the money was simply pointed at the right buyers.
- By day 70Revenue passed $500K a month, from $30K. Spend scaled behind the segment and the season once the first month had proved the mechanism.
What happened
The order matters. Profit doubled first, in the first 30 days, at the same ad spend, because the diagnostic found buyers the account was already paying to reach and not converting. Then spend scaled, and revenue went from $30K a month to $500K a month within 70 days.
Kay's own summary on camera: she had set herself a goal somewhere around $500K for the year, and hit a million. Her phrase for it was that it was way beyond their expectation.
Those are the figures Kay has on the record. The monthly numbers underneath them are the client's, and they stay in the client's dashboard.
Profit in the first 30 days
Indexed. Profit doubled in the first 30 days before spend went up, which is the part of this story that says the diagnosis was right.
Monthly revenue, day 0 to day 70
The two figures on the record. Spend scaled behind the segment and the season once the first month had proved the mechanism.
The order things happened in
Profit moved first, at the same spend, then revenue followed once spend scaled. Both series are indexed to 100 at the start so the shape is visible without showing the client's monthly figures.
What the business became
NookTales went from a brand that had never run an ad to one that scales spend behind a known buyer and a known season. The founders still make the product decisions. What changed is that the marketing decisions are now made against numbers they can defend rather than against a feeling about the month.
The year closed beyond the goal Kay had set. Her words for it are on the interview above, in full, unscripted.
"I hit my 1 million goal like last year... I set my goal in somewhere like 500K. It's way beyond our expectation."
Want to know what this would look like on your numbers? Start with a free 30-minute Strategy Call. We look at your dashboards live and tell you honestly whether the $5,000 Profit Clarity Audit is the right next step. Double-backed: 100% money-back if it wasn't clearly worth it, or the full fee becomes a credit if we can't quantify $75K in annual profit upside.
What you can take from this
Verify this case study
- The interview above is unscripted and on camera. Kay put her name and face to it.
- Every figure on this page is one Kay has stated on camera or signed off on: $30K to $500K a month in 70 days, profit doubled in the first 30 days at the same spend, and the year passing a million against a $500K goal.
- The starting position, a year of organic-only and no ads ever, is from our recorded discovery call of 2 October 2024.
- Read what partners say on Trustpilot.
- Ask about references on your Strategy Call. We will tell you exactly what is verifiable and how.
- Numbers on this page last updated 2026-09-24.
Run the same math on your own account
Every HoloGrowth engagement starts with the same five numbers. They are CM3, nCAC, 90-day LTGP:CAC, payback, and the new-versus-returning split. The free Scaling Scorecard gives you those five metrics with the exact scale/hold/fix/kill thresholds we use on managed accounts. You see the same picture before you ever talk to us. If you only want to run one number first, find the point where your next dollar of spend stops being profit with the ad spend ceiling calculator.
Get the Free Scaling ScorecardIf you have a product people love and have never run an ad, the first month should pay for itself.
It starts with a free 30-minute Strategy Call. We look at your numbers live, name your most likely constraint, and tell you honestly whether the $5,000 Profit Clarity Audit is the right next step. Double-backed: 100% money-back if it wasn't clearly worth it, or the full fee becomes a credit if we can't quantify $75K in annual profit upside.