Client: Cleo Lifestyle
Industry: Wellness & Lifestyle
Engagement: Fractional CMO
Markets: USA, Canada, UK
Background
Cleo Lifestyle is a wellness and lifestyle brand built around handcrafted pure copper drinkware and the Ayurvedic practice of Tamra Jal, combining traditional wellness rituals with modern design. When I joined as a Fractional CMO, the brand was primarily focused on the US market, with marketing spread across multiple channels and agencies but lacking a cohesive growth structure. My role evolved into building and coordinating the marketing function end-to-end, covering strategy, team building, performance marketing, website, retention, SEO and international market expansion.
Objective
To build a scalable marketing function that could improve acquisition efficiency, strengthen retention, create a premium digital experience and establish the systems, processes and team required to support Cleo Lifestyle’s next stage of growth.
Strategy
1. Establishing the Brand Foundation
The engagement began with the fundamentals: understanding who the brand was for, why customers should choose it and how different customer motivations could be translated into marketing.
I developed key archetypes around four distinct motivations:
- Belief-led: People drawn to Ayurveda, yoga and traditional wellness practices
- Problem-led: People looking for solutions around areas such as digestion, skin or other wellness concerns
- Value-led: Consumers motivated by sustainability, minimalism and reducing plastic usage
- Lifestyle-led: People who actively follow healthy lifestyles through fitness, nutrition, yoga and other wellness practices
The analysis revealed that the existing advertising was primarily speaking to belief-led and problem-led audiences. We therefore expanded the creative strategy to address the value-led and lifestyle-led segments as well, helping the brand reach new audiences without changing its core positioning.
2. Restructuring Meta Ads
When I joined, the Meta account had approximately 20 campaigns running against the available daily budget.
I completely restructured the campaign architecture into four core campaigns:
- Advantage+ Sales Core: Combining catalogue, Reels and static creatives
- Manual Sales Core: Focused on Reels, static and carousel creatives
- Topical Campaign: Built around moments such as Valentine’s Day, Easter, Prime Day and other relevant events
- Creative Testing Campaign: Dedicated to testing new concepts and formats
The new structure simplified account management while creating clearer roles for each campaign and a more systematic approach to creative testing.
Within 1- 2 months, ROAS improved from approximately 1.6 to 3.1.
3. Building Google Ads as a Second Acquisition Engine
Google Ads was introduced as another significant acquisition channel.
Within approximately two months, the channel reached around 4 ROAS, creating an additional source of profitable demand beyond Meta.
The focus was on establishing the right campaign and keyword structure while evaluating performance based on both channel metrics and overall business outcomes.
4. Building a Complete Retention Marketing System
Retention became a major growth pillar.
We started with around four campaigns per month, partly because deliverability needed to be strengthened. Over time, the program scaled to 12 campaigns in a month while also building a much more comprehensive automated lifecycle system.
We established approximately 7–8 key flows, including:
- Welcome flow
- Browse abandonment
- Site abandonment
- Cart abandonment
- Checkout abandonment
- Post-purchase
- Thank-you flow
- Upselling and cross-selling
We also introduced continuous A/B testing across flows and website pop-ups, including testing mechanisms such as scratch-card offers for the US audience.
5. Leading the Website Revamp
The website redevelopment became one of the largest projects within the engagement.
The existing website needed a significant improvement in both user experience and communication. I led the project from the strategic side, working through:
Figma design → design approvals → website content → Shopify development → launch
The objective was not simply to redesign the website visually, but to create a digital experience that could better communicate Cleo’s product quality, craftsmanship, wellness positioning and value proposition while improving the customer journey.
6. Building the Marketing Team and Processes
As a Fractional CMO, my role extended beyond channel strategy.
I helped build the marketing function itself, including hiring, defining roles & JDs, establishing processes and coordinating external agencies and internal resources.
I also created a central brand and marketing calendar that is used across social media, email and performance marketing to coordinate topical campaigns and maintain consistency across channels.
The relationship with the Meta Ads agency was also restructured, with clearer strategic direction, processes and performance expectations.
7. Expanding Into New Markets and Channels
Once the core US growth engine was strengthened, we began experimenting with additional markets including Canada and the UK.
We also tested TikTok Ads and explored emerging advertising opportunities, including early experimentation with ChatGPT advertising in the US.
Alongside paid acquisition, SEO was initiated through content and backlink-building efforts to create a longer-term organic acquisition channel. The brand has started seeing traffic and revenue from organic sources.
Results
- Meta Ads ROAS improved from approximately 1.6–1.8 to 3.1 within the first month
- Google Ads reached approximately 4 ROAS within two months
- Email marketing scaled from approximately 4 campaigns per month to 12 campaigns contributing 15% of revenue.
- 7–8 lifecycle flows established across the customer journey
- Continuous A/B testing introduced across email flows and website pop-ups
- Complete website redevelopment led from strategy through launch
- Marketing team, hiring processes established
- Agency management and marketing processes structured
- Canada and UK markets launched
- TikTok Ads and emerging channel experiments initiated
- SEO program established, with organic traffic and revenue beginning to develop
Conclusion
Cleo Lifestyle is a strong example of what a Fractional CMO engagement can look like when the requirement goes beyond individual marketing channels.
The role was not simply to optimise Meta Ads or manage an agency. It was to build the marketing function around the business.
From repositioning the customer segments and restructuring acquisition to building retention systems, leading the website redevelopment, hiring the team, establishing processes and expanding into new markets, the engagement brought the different parts of marketing together under one growth strategy.
The result is a more structured marketing engine with clearer ownership, stronger channel performance and the foundations required for continued international growth.
The goal of a Fractional CMO is not to become another layer between the founder and the team. It is to bring the strategic thinking, systems and leadership required to make the entire marketing function work better.