April was a strong commercial month and the front of the funnel is doing its job. But two of the three stages of the customer journey are flashing amber, and the market around us is getting harder, not easier.
Google, Meta, Reddit, Amazon, what each is doing for us
Who is buying, where they live, what they're worth
What worked in April, what fell flat, why
The case for Puppy and Travel as our next focus
What we're doing about it, on what timeline
Where we go from here
Google was the channel we leant into in April. We pushed budget through non-brand search into orthopedic and large-breed queries, and the account took it cleanly: $125k of spend, $516k of conversion value, 744 purchases. Cost per acquisition stayed in line with March.
Critically, scaling did not break efficiency. The account is structurally sound enough to absorb additional budget without ROAS collapse, which is a strong signal that there is headroom on this channel into May and Q2.
$49,886 of April spend, spread deliberately across three layers. Each layer measured against the right metric for its job, each one doing what it was built to do.
"Meet Their Super Power" lifestyle films. Built to put the brand in front of people who don't know us yet.
Engagement-led variants (Rush) keep people interacting with the brand. Click-through is the signal.
Static Dynamic catalogue ads. The conversion layer working the consideration that the upper layers built.
Live since 19 March. Reddit's first full month showed week-on-week growth in reach and engagement across a high-intent dog-owning community. Budget and subreddit coverage have both expanded into May.
$17,233 revenue, up 58% YoY. The first 14 days delivered 89.5% of the month. From 15 April an ODR breach collapsed the Featured Offer to ~2%, recovered to 62% on 6 May after buyer messages and feedback removals were worked through.
Of identified GA4 users in April, four age bands sit close together at the centre of gravity (25 to 64), with 65+ a solid fifth segment. Under 25 is a slim 5% sliver. The audience reads as established adults across multiple life stages, not a single narrow segment.
Prices increased in March. AOV continued climbing through April. New customer volume held flat. The premium positioning has been validated.
Top 10 states account for 52% of April active users. No single state dominates. The audience is national. Hover any state for detail.
Static Dynamic catalogue formats delivered over 270 purchases across April at strong ROAS. They are pulling so reliably that protecting their foundation, the merchant feed, the product data, the catalogue hygiene, is now as important as the creative itself.
The implication: static catalogue ads are this efficient because the feed is clean. Keeping it that way matters. Locked-down merchant hygiene, no rogue products, no ad-hoc changes to the catalogue, no buttons pressed without a clear reason. The conversion engine is fragile by design.
The Q2 "Meet Their Super Power" arc, anchored on Sleep is Your Dog's Superpower, was built to do one thing at the top of the funnel: reach audiences we have never put the brand in front of. April delivered against that brief at a scale we haven't seen on Meta before.
$2.02 CPM is exceptional for a video at this scale. Hero reach asset doing its job: putting the brand in front of new audiences cheaply.
4.5% CTR is roughly 4x our typical brand creative benchmark. Story is landing. Audience is leaning in. Engagement is the lead indicator for future demand.
The story: top-of-funnel lifestyle creative is doing what lifestyle creative should do, reaching new audiences cheaply, generating engagement, building the consideration pool. Measuring it by last-click ROAS would be measuring the wrong thing. The catalogue layer is there to convert what this layer brings in.
Re-skin and re-position what we already own. No new SKUs needed in 2026.
Right now we are still operating tactically. The data says that will not be enough through the back half of the year. Acquisition is getting more expensive, retention is not moving, and the competitive set is sharpening. The one strategic move that fixes the most problems at once is data enrichment, so we actually know our audience and can market to them properly.
Know who is buying. Know what life stage they're in. Know which segment converts at which AOV. Use that to market to each segment specifically, and turn them into repeat buyers at the same or higher AOV. Not lower.
New audiences, new platforms (Reddit), new lifestyle creative. We sell what we already have. We do not need new product to grow the audience.
Rising NCPA + flat retention + competitive heat. Q4 is where it really hurts. We close that window in May and June or we don't close it.
NPD is a 2027 conversation. 2026 is about getting strategic with what we already have.