Selected Clients
Burntside is a senior performance marketing partner for ambitious DTC, outdoor, and lifestyle brands. We turn paid social, search, and lifecycle into predictable, profitable revenue.
Real results for DTC brands across outdoor, athletic, and lifestyle categories. From startup scaling to enterprise-level campaigns, these case studies showcase strategic performance marketing that drives sustainable growth.
A beloved hero product had been losing new customers for three straight years. The brand was over-indexed on bottom-funnel conversion campaigns that couldn't reach people who didn't know them yet. We shifted to an always-on awareness strategy across CTV, YouTube, and full-funnel architecture — and ran a controlled incrementality test before committing to scale. That test came back at 6x incremental ROAS.
Restructured the brand's entire digital program — paid media prospecting and retargeting — around a tight budget constraint. Rebuilt full-funnel architecture across Meta, Google, and email, and front-loaded upper-funnel ahead of peak season. Key SKUs sold through inventory before season's end.
Diagnosed a 20% CAC spike during peak season and led a turnaround across geo targeting, creative strategy, and margin-based KPIs — restoring efficiency in six weeks. Excluded zero-conversion geos across Meta, PMax, SEM, and YouTube, and realigned the KPI from ROAS to contribution margin with daily pacing reviews.
Revenue looked healthy — but new-customer acquisition was quietly declining, masked by strong retention from historical cohorts. Replaced ROAS with a net-contribution model built on AOV, product margin, and lifetime value. Leaned into Cutlery as the full-funnel category to unlock new media placements; ~40% of Cutlery-targeted spend drove a cross-category purchase.
Overhauled Klaviyo flow architecture with new zero-party lead capture, cross-sell, winback, and sunset sequences. Rebuilt timing, triggers, and incentive logic using customer behavioral data to match automation to real purchase cycles.
We build unified reporting layers for every client, blending business and platform-level data into a single decision-making surface that replaces conflicting platform metrics with a source of truth.
He didn't just drive results — he educated us along the way. He was a strategic partner we trusted to make smart decisions on our behalf. Any team would be lucky to work with him.
I worked with Carl for nearly two years as our growth partner at Wild Rye, and I can't recommend him enough. He truly operated as an extension of our team — taking the time to understand our business, growth stage, and financial realities, and applying that context to every decision.
Carl helped us set revenue goals that were both aggressive and attainable, and consistently walked our team through the nuances of performance marketing. His reporting was always thoughtful and clear, connecting channel-level performance back to broader business goals and giving our team confidence in how we were investing and growing.
Comprehensive solutions designed to drive growth. Faster decisions. Sharper creative feedback. Real accountability.
Full-funnel architecture from prospecting to retention. Creative testing systems built around what scales, not what gets engagement.
Brand vs. non-brand discipline, PMax control through asset groups, full-funnel YouTube execution. Continuous refinement of bids, keywords, and targeting.
Email and SMS tuned to real purchase cycles. Winback, sunset, cross-sell sequences that compound revenue per recipient.
Blended metrics and platform performance all in one view. A measurement framework your marketing and finance teams can align around. Measurement tests combined with platform analytics to show what's really driving revenue.
Fifteen years of experience in performance marketing that turns ad spend into scalable, measurable revenue.
Before opening Burntside Digital in 2023, I worked for more than ten years at top marketing agencies leading lifestyle brands like Yeti Coolers, Fjällräven, Dickies, Benchmade Knives and Klean Kanteen. I know what is required to drive revenue for high-growth consumer brands. I know how big agencies operate. That's why I built a new model to deliver exceptional agency service without excessive fees and management layers.
I believe in life long learning, hard work and lasting partnerships. I work hard to deliver for my clients so there are no questions about the value of an external marketing partner.
— Carl Johnson, Founder
Looking for a senior performance partner or hiring one in-house? Either way, let's talk.