Challenge
Too Many Ads Hitting Existing Customers
Portland Leather Goods is a fast-growing DTC brand known for handcrafted leather bags, wallets, and accessories that combine durability with timeless design. With millions of existing buyers already in their system, the team knew that showing those same people top- and mid-funnel ads was wasting ad spend and hindering growth.
The marketing team tried everything to keep existing customers out of prospecting campaigns. They rotated constant CSV list uploads, leaned on automations through Klaviyo and Shopify, and tried every other native exclusion workflow Meta offers.
Despite those efforts, exclusions were still failing. Too many repeat buyers continued to slip through, dragging down the efficiency of Portland Leather's biggest growth channel.
The breakthrough came when the brand's CMO spotted a tweet about WasteNot.
Solution
Exclusions That Finally Stuck
Onboarding was a breeze. Even with Portland Leather's large customer base, they were able to set up their WasteNot account in under 30 minutes since it only required connecting their data sources, like Shopify and Klaviyo, and their ad accounts using WasteNot's built-in connectors and codeless interface. WasteNot exclusions were live in their campaigns the day after they completed setup.
The difference compared to manual methods was clear:
- No more CSV uploads or constant monitoring of syncs
- Better quality of data
- Proprietary automated exclusion methods resulting in more effective exclusions
- Cleaner visibility into what percent of the budget was actually reaching new customers
“We were already doing more than most people with SOPs and CSV uploads. But it sounded like a great product, and we wanted to be at the forefront.
”
Results
New Customers Replacing Existing Buyers
Within just 30 days of activating WasteNot, Portland Leather saw its acquisition mix transform, without changing budgets or creative strategy.
- New customer purchases increased by 69% with WasteNot, with no increase in overall spend or other optimizations
- The percentage of new customer purchasers (as a share of all purchases) increased by 68% with WasteNot
- While new customers only represented 49% of total purchases before WasteNot, they represented 82% of purchases after activation
- 69%
- Increase in new customers
- 68%
- Increase in the percentage of new customer purchasers
- 82%
- Share of new customer purchases after activation
“You start seeing a higher percent of new visitors to your landing pages within the first 7–10 days. We didn't make any huge changes during our pilot other than activating WasteNot.
”
This new clarity reshaped how Portland Leather approached scaling. With exclusions finally working, acquisition targets became more reliable, budgets were easier to justify, and growth projections were easier to define. WasteNot carved out a clear role in their stack, a focused tool built to do one job exceptionally well: expanding reach to new customers.
WasteNot didn't just improve efficiency. It gave Portland Leather the clarity it needed to align every ad dollar with its growth goals and gain the confidence to execute new bold growth initiatives.
“When you're throwing large budgets at new customers only, you want to know what percent is actually going to new customer eyeballs.
”
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.
“Knowing that we can increase our reach on new customers solely by adding this software for one purpose — it's a beautiful niche WasteNot provides.
”
