Case Study: Crio Bru | How Crio Bru Achieved a 147% Increase in Amazon ROAS and Reduced Ad Operations Time by 47% with Shirofune

Crio Bru, a fast-growing e-commerce company, achieved 10x growth but faced scaling challenges with manual ad management and underperforming agencies.
Discovering Shirofune transformed operations. By using third-party attribution data, Shirofune enabled unified performance measurement. This led to a 10% ROAS increase and 47% reduction in monthly ad operations time. Crio Bru also eliminated Amazon agency costs through automation.
Shirofune provided strategic clarity, facilitating dynamic budget reallocation and first-click attribution. Crio Bru plans further automation and AI optimization to boost customer lifetime value, ensuring sustainable growth.

When Cameron Archibald first encountered the story of Frederick Tudor—the 19th-century American entrepreneur who built a global business by shipping ice to the tropics—it deeply resonated with him. Tudor’s bold mission to deliver an unfamiliar product to distant markets, despite significant challenges, became a metaphorical blueprint for what Archibald would later build with Crio Bru. “I want to sell ice,” he remembers thinking. In his case, however, the “ice” was a modern-day superfood: cacao.

Founded on the idea of offering a healthier, less-processed alternative to coffee, Crio Bru roasts and grinds 100% pure cacao beans that can be brewed like coffee using a French press or drip machine. Unlike traditional coffee, Crio Bru’s product uses whole cacao beans—including the shell and cocoa butter—to deliver a rich, chocolate‑like flavor without the acidity or high caffeine content of coffee. Rich in magnesium, antioxidants, and mood-enhancing compounds, brewed cacao has earned its place as both a coffee substitute and a wellness beverage.

Crio Bru operates primarily as an e-commerce business, selling its products online across the United States, with additional distribution in Canada and Australia. While most sales occur through its direct-to-consumer website, Crio Bru products are also available in select retailers, including Whole Foods, Sprouts, and Utah-based Harmons.

Since Archibald took over as CEO in 2018, the company has grown more than tenfold. Today, Crio Bru employs around 20 people and operates with a high level of vertical integration. The team handles everything in-house—from roasting and grinding the cacao to packaging, fulfillment, and marketing. 

“We do all of the manufacturing in-house, as well as our marketing. All of our media buying and creative production is managed internally.”

This full-stack control has allowed Crio Bru to remain agile, data-driven, and closely connected to its customer base. But as the company scaled, so did the complexity of its marketing operations—setting the stage for a new chapter with Shirofune.

Before adopting Shirofune, Crio Bru had already made a strategic decision to bring all digital advertising in-house. The motivation wasn’t driven by cost-cutting or communication delays with agencies—it came down to one factor: performance. 

“We’ve consistently seen better performance when we manage our advertising in-house—mainly because it gives us greater creative freedom and tighter control over media buying.”

Agencies had previously played a significant role in Crio Bru’s digital strategy, particularly in managing Amazon and Google Ads. However, the results consistently fell short of expectations. Archibald recalled a simple yet revealing test: 

“We hired a big agency to help us and cut our budget in half. We said, ‘You take half the budget, we’ll take the other half—and let’s see who performs better.’ We outperformed them, even after factoring in the agency fees.”

This performance gap was most pronounced in Meta ads, which accounted for the largest share of Crio Bru’s ad spend. Gradually, the internal team took over more aspects of campaign management, eventually building a fully self-managed system—except for Amazon, where they retained agency support. The reason was practical: manually managing keyword-level bids on Amazon was highly time-intensive. 

Despite the internal team's success, the operational strain began to mount. Managing keywords, tracking budgets, and analyzing performance across multiple platforms became increasingly complex. Relying on spreadsheets and freelance data analysts introduced friction and slowed decision-making. It became clear that to scale their performance-focused, in-house approach, Crio Bru needed a solution that preserved autonomy without sacrificing efficiency.

Crio Bru’s journey with Shirofune began at the eTail conference, where Cameron Archibald attended a presentation by the platform’s co-founders. 

It was a compelling proposition for a brand that had outgrown manual ad management, yet still insisted on full transparency and performance control.

Cameron Archibald’s decision to implement Shirofune was sparked by a single presentation at eTail, where the platform’s co-founders demonstrated its core capabilities.

“I thought it was really interesting—the ability to use AI for programmatic buying, to automatically adjust cost caps, ROAS targets, and budgeting on the fly.”
 
In a crowded market of automation tools heavily reliant on platform-native metrics, Shirofune stood out for one key reason: its ability to optimize campaigns based on third-party attribution data—specifically from Triple Whale. Cameron even noted that without the Triple Whale integration, he would not have chosen to adopt Shirofune. 

For Crio Bru, that capability marked a turning point.

“I don’t care what Meta says. I really want to know what my ROAS and CPA are in Triple Whale.” 

The ability for Shirofune to dynamically reallocate budgets based on that external attribution data—not just Meta’s internal reporting—proved transformative.

While Crio Bru had previously experimented with automation tools—particularly for Amazon—they had fallen short of expectations. Most were limited to optimizing performance within individual platforms, rather than aligning with a unified, cross-channel benchmark like Triple Whale.

Shirofune was different.

It allowed Archibald’s team to manage Meta, Google, and Amazon campaigns through a single lens of truth, enabling real-time adjustments based on what was actually driving revenue and profitability—not just impressions or click-through rates.

Another deciding factor was Shirofune’s flexible, low-risk pricing model. Unlike many vendors that require long-term contracts, Shirofune offered a free two-month trial followed by a month-to-month subscription. Archibald saw this as a sign of confidence in the product; in his view, companies that insist on annual commitments often lack faith in their product’s long-term value. 

By contrast, Shirofune’s willingness to remove barriers to entry signaled that they trusted users would stay because the platform delivered real results.

The onboarding experience reinforced Archibald’s confidence in Shirofune from the very beginning. Setting up the platform was quick and hassle-free, taking approximately an hour and a half without any major issues.


Previously, the dashboard was limited to displaying the performance of all buckets simultaneously using only a single metric—either from the platform itself or via Triple Whale. With recent enhancements, however, the dashboard now enables users to view each bucket's performance individually, utilizing the most relevant and strategically important metric for each respective bucket.

Once the integration was complete, Crio Bru was able to designate Triple Whale as its primary attribution source, gaining a much clearer and more reliable view of campaign performance.

This integration wasn’t just cosmetic—it became foundational to how Crio Bru optimized its advertising. Sales and profit data from each channel, collected via Triple Whale, is continuously fed into Shirofune. In turn, Shirofune’s AI uses that data to optimize budgets and bidding strategies in real time. This seamless feedback loop ensures that performance decisions are always grounded in business outcomes—not just platform-native metrics.

Crio Bru also established a strong working relationship with the Shirofune team. In the early stages, the two teams held weekly check-ins, which later transitioned to biweekly calls. Plans were in place to reduce the frequency to monthly meetings as the Crio Bru team became increasingly self-sufficient.

This gradual shift not only reflected the responsiveness of Shirofune’s support team but also underscored how effectively the platform enabled Crio Bru to build operational independence.

Among all the platforms Crio Bru advertised on, Amazon posed the most significant operational challenges. Managing campaigns required intensive keyword-level bidding for every product, often involving hundreds of keywords. 

Adjusting bids based on performance was an extremely manual and time-consuming task. The company previously outsourced this work to an agency, which delegated the operations to a team in India. Internal management was not a viable option at the time due to the complexity and effort involved.

“Imagine that same process multiplied across hundreds of keywords—you need to go in and adjust the bids for each. Shirofune will do that automatically.”

By implementing Shirofune, Crio Bru was able to eliminate the need for external support and replace manual adjustments with automated, real-time bid optimization. This shift not only reduced operational overhead but also improved agility, allowing the team to manage Amazon campaigns more efficiently and responsively—without expanding headcount.

Further enhancing this efficiency, Shirofune also introduced a custom integration with the Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC). By leveraging this advanced data environment, the platform was able to segment campaign performance by customer type—tracking revenue from new vs. returning customers separately. This added layer of granularity helped Crio Bru align Amazon ad spend more closely with customer lifetime value, reinforcing the brand’s strategic focus on sustainable growth over short-term conversions.

As Crio Bru’s campaigns grew more sophisticated across multiple platforms and funnel stages, identifying exactly what was working—and what wasn’t—became increasingly difficult. To address this, Shirofune introduced a new feature that proved especially valuable for a data-driven team like Crio Bru: Campaign Comparison.

When overall performance declined, the team could activate this feature to instantly pinpoint which campaigns were dragging down results. Shirofune automatically scored and ranked each campaign’s contribution to the dip, allowing the team to focus their attention where it mattered most.

For a brand that segments by funnel stage and customer type, this feature was a major upgrade. Instead of manually digging through reports or relying on gut instinct, Crio Bru could now click into a detailed diagnostic report that outlined likely causes—whether it was creative fatigue, CPC spikes, or audience misalignment.

By combining this level of clarity with Triple Whale attribution data, Crio Bru was able to course-correct campaigns faster, minimize wasted spend, and maintain momentum—without sacrificing strategic oversight.

The implementation of Shirofune brought both immediate operational improvements and unexpected strategic advantages for Crio Bru. Within just a few months, the company achieved measurable performance gains, substantial time and cost savings, and greater strategic clarity—transforming how the marketing team approaches campaign optimization and attribution.

After adopting Shirofune, Zilker Partners experienced immediate and measurable improvements in how paid media was managed across the agency. Generalists, once limited by time and platform complexity, were now fully equipped to handle campaign execution with speed and precision. 

From simplifying workflows and centralizing operations to reducing errors and enhancing strategic focus, the platform delivered meaningful impact across every stage of ad management. Early performance indicators further reinforced its value—showing that efficiency gains didn’t come at the expense of results.

While it’s still early to isolate the long-term impact of Shirofune on overall revenue, Cameron Archibald notes that the platform has already begun to deliver meaningful improvements in key performance metrics. One clear sign of progress is an increase in ROAS compared to the previous year. 

“We’re seeing at least a 10% increase in our ROAS versus last year,” 

Though he attributes Crio Bru’s record-breaking April performance largely to a new ad format on Google, he acknowledges that Shirofune played a supportive role in enabling fast and effective budget reallocation.

Shirofune’s ability to seamlessly shift spend between channels—such as reallocating from Meta to Google in response to performance—allowed Crio Bru to react with agility and precision. This kind of cross-channel orchestration, previously time-consuming and fragmented, now happens with minimal manual oversight.

Crio Bru's partnership with Shirofune marked a turning point in how the company structured and scaled its digital advertising. Central to this transformation was a shift from generic campaign management to a funnel-based strategy that aligned each campaign with specific goals and attribution models.

Crio Bru now segments its advertising into three categories: top-of-funnel (TOFU) for new customer acquisition, mid-funnel for engagement and education, and bottom-of-funnel (BOFU) for conversion and remarketing. Retention campaigns are also managed separately to support long-term customer value. Each funnel stage is governed by its own ROAS targets, attribution rules, and pacing logic.

“I care more about linear paid attribution for returning customers, and I care more about first-click performance for acquiring new ones.”

Before Shirofune, executing this strategy was cumbersome. The team relied on spreadsheets, custom labels, and external freelancers to monitor performance, adjust budgets, and track attribution. It was reactive, time-consuming, and unsustainable at scale.

Shirofune replaced this friction with intelligent automation. Campaigns were grouped into “buckets” based on funnel stage, each with customized attribution models and performance targets. The platform automatically adjusted spend allocation based on real-time data—spending more when campaigns underperformed and scaling back once goals were exceeded.

“I like the ability to say, ‘I only want to spend this much on Google TOFU ads this month.’ If we’re behind, Shirofune automatically spends more. If we’re ahead, it slows us down.”

Shirofune’s integration with Amazon Marketing Cloud further enhanced this system by allowing Crio Bru to segment revenue by new vs. returning customers. Combined with automated bid and budget adjustments, this data-informed approach allowed Crio Bru to maximize efficiency across every stage of the customer journey.

The results were significant: ROAS reached 931% on bottom-of-funnel campaigns, 60% of purchases came from new customers, and customer acquisition grew 30% year-over-year. Most importantly, Crio Bru saw a 500% increase in customer lifetime value—proof that strategic automation, when paired with custom attribution, can drive both short-term gains and long-term profitability.

With only four internal marketers—including Archibald himself—Crio Bru operates an exceptionally lean team given the scale and complexity of its advertising efforts. Each team member is focused on a specific channel: one handles Google, another manages Pinterest, a third oversees creative production, and Archibald leads efforts on Meta and Amazon.

Despite this small team size, the implementation of Shirofune has significantly reduced manual workload and operational overhead. Before adoption, the team was spending an average of 36 hours per month on advertising operations, including daily adjustments to budgets, ROAS targets, and performance metrics.

With Shirofune in place, that number has dropped to 19 hours per month—a 47% reduction in time spent. This shift has allowed the team to redirect its focus toward higher-value activities such as creative strategy, campaign testing, and long-term growth planning.

This additional capacity has allowed the team to pursue initiatives that had long been on their radar but were previously out of reach due to time and system constraints. Many of the strategic and creative tasks they are now executing were priorities all along—yet simply couldn’t be addressed under the old, manual workflow.

The platform also enabled Crio Bru to eliminate its reliance on an Amazon ad agency that had been manually managing hundreds of keyword bids.

“Now we don’t need that anymore. It’s all automated by Shirofune, and I don’t need to spend much time on it, which is nice.” 

In addition to time savings, Crio Bru has achieved meaningful cost reductions. The budget previously allocated to freelancers and agencies for campaign management and data consolidation has been largely eliminated—enhancing both efficiency and profitability.

By automating the operational and empowering the strategic, Shirofune has become a foundational part of how Crio Bru runs its marketing operations—and how the team plans to scale them moving forward.

Beyond automation and performance gains, one of the most unexpected benefits of implementing Shirofune has been its influence on Crio Bru’s marketing strategy and decision-making processes. During onboarding, Cameron Archibald found himself reevaluating how campaign success should be defined.

He recalled how, in early conversations with a Shirofune team member named Rocco, he was navigating multiple attribution models—first click, last click, linear paid, Triple Whale attribution, and in-platform metrics—all while trying to interpret the implications of each.

“In my conversations with Rocco, I was triangulating data across different attribution models—first click, last click, linear paid, Triple Whale attribution, and in-platform metrics. But Shirofune forces you to ask: what’s the number one metric you want to optimize for?”

That challenge to prioritize led to a deeper strategic shift. Archibald ultimately concluded that first-click attribution was the most reliable predictor of future customer value—and began using it as Crio Bru’s primary performance benchmark.

This mindset shift allowed Crio Bru to align budget allocation with long-term outcomes, rather than being pulled in multiple directions by fragmented or conflicting attribution models. By standardizing how success is defined and measured, Shirofune has helped bring greater internal clarity and strategic focus—transforming attribution from a source of confusion into a driver of insight.

For Cameron Archibald, the implementation of Shirofune was more than just an operational improvement—it represented a paradigm shift in how modern e-commerce businesses can and should operate. As digital advertising grows more fragmented and competitive, the ability to respond in real time, intelligently, and at scale is becoming a core differentiator.

“I feel like this is the future of e-commerce businesses. If we can use AI to do a lot of the manual labor that a lot of my marketing team previously was doing, you can then take internal teams of five or 10 or 15 and shrink them down to two or three key individuals because of tools like this.”

What makes this vision possible is Shirofune’s ability to absorb a company’s strategic intent—budgets, performance thresholds, target attribution models—and translate them into automated execution at scale. Whether the goal is to increase spend when ROAS exceeds a certain target or pull back when performance dips, the system responds dynamically. Campaign adjustments that once required significant time and coordination can now be handled automatically, freeing up human teams to focus on higher-level strategy and creativity.

“Being able to plug in your goals, and then let the system go to work to optimize for that result—that’s where this industry is heading.” 

In that sense, Shirofune is not just a tool for today’s challenges, but a foundational element for how Crio Bru plans to scale smarter in the future.

As Crio Bru continues to scale its digital advertising strategy, one metric has emerged as particularly critical: customer lifetime value (LTV). For Cameron Archibald, optimizing around LTV isn’t just smart marketing—it’s fundamental to sound business logic.

The company closely tracks LTV benchmarks and uses them to set acceptable acquisition costs for both new and returning customers.

Although it’s still too early to assess the full long-term impact, Archibald credits Shirofune with enabling more effective budget allocation and improved cost efficiency—both of which support long-term profitability.

“We’re taking a lot more wasted dollars out of the system. We’re more effectively managing our contribution margin and are able to quickly funnel dollars toward the campaigns that are getting us the best results.”

One example can be seen in Crio Bru’s Amazon advertising efforts, where Shirofune has helped automatically identify and eliminate underperforming keywords. This not only reduces wasted ad spend but also increases the likelihood that budget is directed toward acquiring high-value customers. With a six-month LTV window as its standard evaluation period, the company is already seeing encouraging early trends.

By combining LTV benchmarks with automated campaign optimization, Crio Bru is redefining how it measures success in digital marketing—not just by immediate conversions, but by the lasting value each new customer delivers over time.

As Crio Bru continues to scale its marketing operations, Cameron Archibald remains eager to see Shirofune evolve alongside them. One of the company’s newest areas of experimentation is advertising on Reddit—a platform that, while less mainstream than Meta or Google, has shown promising early returns.

Unlike other channels, Reddit is not yet integrated into the platform, requiring manual oversight that stands in contrast to the automation Crio Bru enjoys elsewhere.

Archibald reached out directly to Shirofune’s co-founder about the issue. 

“I emailed him on Saturday and he responded on Saturday. Yes, they’re working on it”  

This direct line of communication reflects the collaborative partnership between Crio Bru and Shirofune—and the platform’s commitment to evolve in tandem with its users’ needs.

Looking ahead, Crio Bru hopes to bring all high-performing platforms under one management system. With Reddit showing early promise, Archibald is optimistic that future integration will allow for even greater efficiency and performance. For now, the roadmap is clear: keep testing, keep automating, and keep investing in what works.

When asked to sum up his experience with Shirofune in a single phrase, Cameron Archibald chose: “plug and play.” For him, the appeal lies in its simplicity and precision. 

“It’s just been super easy. You hook up your system, you let Shirofune go to work, you tell Shirofune what matters to you and what goals and objectives you have for your business, and then Shirofune uses its automated system to go to work to achieve those same metrics and objectives.”

In a landscape full of complexity, this ease of use—paired with advanced capabilities—has positioned Shirofune not just as a tool, but as an indispensable partner in Crio Bru’s continued growth.