Case Studies | Social Nucleus | Cleens YTD case study with BFCM

How We Scaled Cleens By 17% In 2025

The Overview

Cleens, a performance footwear and apparel brand, entered this partnership with strong product momentum but needed a strategy to unlock explosive scale. Having built a loyal following through distinct aesthetics and premium quality, they worked with Social Nucleus to transition from organic traction to a high-volume, automated acquisition engine.

The mission over the last 28 months was clear: Scale new customer acquisition aggressively, lean into product-specific strategy, and unlock full potential from seasonal peaks—all while maintaining a premium brand experience.

The Numbers (January – December 2025)

17%

Sales up by

21%

Orders up by

20%

Site visits up by

The Strategy

Cleens’ massive growth came down to platform mastery, creative breadth, and inventory-led scaling.

Creative Diversity & Andromeda

With Meta’s Andromeda update reshaping delivery, our strategy prioritised creative diversity to fight fatigue at high spend levels. We launched a wide mix of hooks, formats, and value propositions—from polished lifestyle content to raw UGC. This variety allowed us to scale delivery by 1,200% while maintaining high engagement.

SKU-Level Precision

Rather than running broad, generic campaigns, we broke out SKU-level strategies for hero products like the Pulse Runner Silver Bullet and Graphite. This allowed us to tailor messaging specifically to the shoe’s aesthetic and allocate budget where stock depth was highest. These hero products maintained exceptional sell-through rates thanks to this granular control.

Partnerships & Whitelisting

We ran whitelisted campaigns through trusted creators, allowing Cleens to show up more authentically in the feed. This expanded reach into new warm audiences, boosted CTRs, and contributed significantly to the +21% orders generated during this period.

Inventory-Led Scaling

We scaled most aggressively during periods of high-stock availability, ensuring media spend aligned with fulfilment capacity. This dynamic budgeting helped maximize conversion opportunities during drops and kept CPAs efficient.

The Success

The results of this long-term partnership have been transformative. In 2025, Cleens achieved an 17% uplift in total sales.

Traffic exploded by 20%, yet the conversion and retention engines held strong, proving that the brand could scale volume without sacrificing quality.

Campaign Spotlight:

Summer Sale Success

While long-term growth has been steady, our event-based strategies have delivered massive spikes in profitability. The 2025 Summer Sale was a standout performance:

Revenue: Summer Sale Revenue up by 212%.
Volume: Orders up by 202% and Units Sold up by 194%.
Efficiency: despite scaling Ad Spend by 130%, we achieved a 32% lift in ROAS and actually reduced New Customer CPA by 16%.
Retention: The campaign successfully reactivated the base, with Returning Customer Revenue up by 273%.

Cleens’ performance showcases what’s possible with long-term platform mastery—scaling from a growing brand to a category leader through data-led creative testing and product-driven acquisition.

Drive high-efficiency acquisition, increase repeat purchase behaviour, and prepare for the biggest Q4 the brand has ever seen.

Spotlight:
BFCM Week Dominance

The partnership’s momentum culminated in an unprecedented performance during Black Friday Cyber Monday week (Nov 24–30). By priming the funnel early and unleashing high-intent creative during the peak, we achieved explosive year-on-year growth.

Revenue Velocity: Total sales for the week surged by 716% compared to the previous year.
Order Volume: The demand was overwhelming, with order volume increasing by 918%.
Efficiency at Scale: The conversion rate skyrocketed by 391%, proving that the traffic we drove was highly relevant and ready to purchase.

Cleens’ performance showcases what’s possible with long-term platform mastery, scaling from a growing brand to a category leader through data-led creative testing and product-driven acquisition.