Challenge
Growth Stalled After 2024 Boom
HEYSHAPE, a fast-scaling DTC womenswear brand, faced a sharp slowdown after its explosive growth in 2024 due to rising CPMs and more of their ad spend being wasted on existing customers. By Q4, new customer percentages were in decline and acquisition costs were climbing, all leading to a sharp drop in profitability.
Despite using every standard exclusion available — Shopify Audiences, built-in Meta exclusions, Klaviyo exclusions — too many ads were still hitting repeat buyers. Match rates varied, but the outcome was consistent: exclusions weren't holding, and marketing efficiency ratios kept eroding.
Solution
Exclusions That Actually Worked
The breakthrough came when HEYSHAPE's team spotted a tweet from Jones Road Beauty's leadership about a solution to the endemic "broken" existing workflows for Meta exclusions. After a nudge from an agency contact already testing WasteNot, HEYSHAPE decided to trial the platform.
Onboarding was quick: in under 10 minutes, HEYSHAPE was able to create a WasteNot account, link their data sources like Shopify and Klaviyo, connect their ad platforms, then define and activate nuanced exclusion criteria within individual Meta ad campaigns. Within just a few days, the team started to notice performance shifts.
“The setup was easy. After the first few days, we were already seeing an impact.
”
With exclusions finally sticking, the team had what they had been missing for months: a reliable way to stop budget from leaking into past customers and refocus 100% of spend on new customer acquisition.
Results
Efficiency Restored, Growth Reignited
Looking back, HEYSHAPE credits WasteNot with resetting the foundation of their growth engine.
The first test came on a single campaign that had begun underperforming. After WasteNot exclusions were applied, performance flipped.
Over time, they scaled the exclusions across all top-of-funnel campaigns, and all of their ad accounts' KPIs improved even further.
The measurable gains were clear. NCROAS increased by 26.25%, while nCAC dropped by 24%. Profitability rebounded as a larger share of budget flowed to net-new customers, and the team saw faster email list growth as more first-time buyers entered the funnel.
- 26%
- Increase in NCROAS
- 24%
- Decrease in nCAC
“We immediately saw an increase in NCROAS and also the new customer percentage.
”
The business impact extended beyond efficiency. The team gained capacity for creative testing and scaling while driving more new customers.
“At first, we were circling around the same group of people. Now we're driving more new customers, which gives more room for creative testing and scaling.
”
Conclusion
Time and again, exclusions (that actually work) have been one of the most effective ad optimization tactics for improving spend efficiency and growth KPIs.
Yet, traditional exclusion methods are woefully tedious to activate and manage, and often flat-out ineffective.
WasteNot offers a simple solution: exclusions that perform as they should, activated with ease and without the need for technical resources.
“WasteNot has been a game changer for us. We've really seen all metrics improve from new customer percentage to profitability to email list growth. You name it.
”
