Overview
The product line centres on personalised meal plans for puppies and adult dogs. New customers choose whether they have a puppy or an adult dog and complete a short quiz covering age, size, activity level and dietary needs5hounds.com.au. This data feeds into an algorithm that generates a tailored plan and portion‑controlled delivery schedule. Meals arrive frozen, can be paused or cancelled at any time5hounds.com.au and come with a 20 % discount on the first order (code GETSTARTED20). Beyond meals, 5 Hounds sells longevity treats and a synbiotic powder that combines probiotics, prebiotics and postbiotics to support digestion, nutrient absorption and immune health5hounds.com.au. The brand’s tone is educational and compassionate, and its mission is to help Aussie dogs live happier, healthier lives.
The Problem / Goal
Entering a crowded pet‑food market dominated by cheap kibble and canned food presented major hurdles. Dr Will’s mission—educating pet parents that long‑term health comes from real, gently cooked food—required more than flashy adverts. 5 Hounds needed to:
- Scale paid media profitably in a category with escalating CPCs and aggressive competition from multinational pet‑food brands.
- Balance new‑customer acquisition against subscription lifetime value; one‑off purchases were welcome but subscriptions were the growth engine.
- Educate consumers about why fresh food, synbiotics and gentle cooking are worth the premium. Many dog owners had never heard of synbiotics or customised meal plans, so advertising needed to be informative as well as persuasive.
- Manage creative fatigue and audience saturation. Meta’s algorithm rewards fresh creative, but constant production is costly. The brand had to continually supply authentic founder‑led and user‑generated content to keep audiences engaged.
- Optimise the funnel for subscription. Unlike impulse purchases, a dog‑food subscription requires trust, flexibility and a frictionless quiz and checkout process5hounds.com.au.
The Solution
Full‑Funnel Paid Media Strategy
5 Hounds invested in Meta (Facebook/Instagram) and Google Ads to reach dog owners throughout the purchase journey. The strategy included:
- Top‑of‑Funnel Awareness. Video and image campaigns on Meta introduced the brand story and Dr Will. Authentic founder‑led footage, scenes of dogs enjoying fresh meals and lifestyle shots far outperformed studio‑style creatives. Broad look‑alike audiences and interest‑based targeting maximised reach.
- Mid‑Funnel Education & Retargeting. Ads combined education with social proof. Creatives highlighted vet‑designed recipes, human‑grade ingredients and subscription flexibility, while testimonials and user‑generated clips built credibility.
- Bottom‑of‑Funnel Conversion. Dynamic product and catalogue ads retargeted visitors who completed the quiz or added meals to their cart. Messaging emphasised the 20 % first‑order discount and the ability to pause or cancel any time.
Continuous creative testing rotated hooks (“Not all dog food is created equal”), formats (single image, video, reels) and messaging angles (health benefits, convenience, ethics). Performance data showed that authentic founder‑led stories significantly outperformed polished studio ads. For example, one video featuring Dr Will and his dog generated over 731 add‑to‑cart events and 113 purchasesnoammarkting.reportgarden.com. Winning creatives were scaled; under‑performers were paused quickly to avoid fatigue.
Search & Shopping Optimisation
On Google the account was structured around brand search, high‑intent keyword groups and Performance Max campaigns. Brand keywords such as “5 hounds dog food” captured ready‑to‑convert consumers and delivered exceptionally low cost per conversion. High‑intent categories (e.g., “dog food delivery,” “healthy dog food”) were grouped into dedicated campaigns with targeted ad copy and landing pages. Performance Max broadened reach and fed the shopping feed with images and copy emphasising fresh meals and real ingredients. The team monitored keyword and asset performance weekly; high‑cost, low‑conversion terms like “pet food” were downweighted, while long‑tail phrases (“healthy dog food delivery”) were expandednoammarkting.reportgarden.com.
Conversion‑Focused Website & SEO Improvements
The website was designed to support both organic and paid visitors with clear structure and educational depth. The home page introduces the brand promise—“Fresh dog food and healthy treats, created by Dr Will for Aussie dogs of all ages”—and immediately offers pathways for puppies and adult dogs5hounds.com.au. A How it Works section explains the three‑step process: answer a quiz, receive a tailored meal plan and enjoy flexible deliveries5hounds.com.au. Another section compares fresh food to kibble, educating consumers on nutritional excellence, real ingredients and ethical sourcing5hounds.com.au. Product pages include unique descriptions, ingredient lists, dosage instructions and storage tips for the synbiotic powder5hounds.com.au5hounds.com.au. Icons reinforce brand values and guarantee that ingredients are 100 % human grade and ethically sourced5hounds.com.au. These improvements support SEO and answer customer questions upfront, boosting conversion rates.
Continuous Optimisation & Feedback Loop
Performance wasn’t left to chance. Meta and Google dashboards were reviewed monthly to track spend, ROAS, CPCs, conversions and funnel drop‑off pointsnoammarkting.reportgarden.com. Insights about creative fatigue, audience saturation and keyword efficiency informed budget shifts. Creative tests compared founder‑led videos, lifestyle footage, user‑generated content and studio photography. Audience tests explored look‑alike modelling, interest stacking and geographic splits. Winning variations were scaled while under‑performers were paused. Search keywords were continually refined: long‑tail phrases were added, expensive broad terms were removed and brand coverage was maintainednoammarkting.reportgarden.com. Recommendations for 2026 include scaling retargeting and look‑alike campaigns, refreshing creative while maintaining authenticity and expanding high‑performing branded and brand‑adjacent keywordsnoammarkting.reportgarden.com.
The Results
Meta (Facebook/Instagram)
- Purchase growth and funnel efficiency. Over 2025 the Meta account delivered 1 580 purchases, a 29.3 % increase versus the previous periodnoammarkting.reportgarden.com. Landing‑page views grew to 36 643, add‑to‑carts to 11 053 (+13.06 %), and checkout initiations to 2 446 (+25.76 %)noammarkting.reportgarden.com.
- Revenue & ROAS. Purchase conversion value reached A$99 318, up 28.84 %, with a blended ROAS of 2.64 and cost per purchase around A$62.86noammarkting.reportgarden.com. CPCs dropped to A$1.14, helping maintain efficiency despite a slight decline in click‑through ratesnoammarkting.reportgarden.com.
- Holiday performance. In December 2025, spend totalled A$22 232 and generated 14 250 clicks and 656 K impressionsnoammarkting.reportgarden.com. CTR softened after Black Friday, but lower CPCs preserved efficiency. The month delivered 1 277 add‑to‑carts, 501 checkouts and 358 purchases, a 1.70 % increase despite fewer upper‑funnel actionsnoammarkting.reportgarden.com.
- Top campaigns and creative. “BB Retargeting + MOF All Locations” generated 336 purchases, “BB TOF 25 Feb” produced 328 purchases and “Sales | TOF | All Locations” delivered 213 purchasesnoammarkting.reportgarden.com. Authentic founder‑led video ads achieved the highest conversion values; one ad alone generated purchase values of A$18 931.99 with 731 add‑to‑carts and 113 purchases on A$4 483.80 spendnoammarkting.reportgarden.com.
Google Ads
- Account growth. Google campaigns produced 8 097 clicks (+100 %), 194 K impressions (+338 %) and 1 296 conversions (+22.6 %) from A$8 227 in spendnoammarkting.reportgarden.com. Average CPC dropped slightly to A$1.02, while cost per conversion rose to about A$6.3 as more budget shifted toward broad keywords and Performance Maxnoammarkting.reportgarden.com.
- Conversion mix. Primary conversions included Google Shopping purchases (573), website purchases (355) and form starts (253)noammarkting.reportgarden.com. Brand‑name search delivered 830 conversions on A$715.90 spend, yielding an extremely low cost per conversion of ≈A$0.86 with a 51 % CTRnoammarkting.reportgarden.com.
- Performance Max impact. The “Max Conversions” campaign added 278 conversions at a cost of ≈A$19.75 per conversionnoammarkting.reportgarden.com, expanding reach to new audiences. High‑intent, brand‑adjacent keywords like “dog food delivery” and long‑tail phrases provided incremental conversions at manageable CPCsnoammarkting.reportgarden.com.
Business Impact
Collectively, the paid media program generated significant revenue growth while maintaining efficiency. Digital advertising revenue exceeded A$99 K on Meta alonenoammarkting.reportgarden.com, and Google added thousands of incremental conversions. Conversion rates improved across the funnel, and the strong growth in social followers and engagement provided a warm audience for future launches. Importantly, the brand achieved these results while staying true to its values of local sourcing, ethical production and personalised care.
