Back in 2021, ahead was just another supplement company struggling to gain traction. Their initial product line wasn't resonating, and the numbers weren't adding up. But while their supplement sales were flatlining, their Klar dashboard was quietly telling a different story.
Buried in the data was a noteworthy pattern: sugar-free bars were consistently outperforming their other products.
The founders Johannes & Philip made a significant decision: pivot the entire company based on what their data was suggesting. By late 2023, ahead had repositioned their brand around sugar-free alternatives, starting with bars and gummy bears, then expanding into spreads, cereals, cookies, and even crisps.
AHEAD X KLAR
The Numbers That Matter
Comparing Q1 2024-2025 to the previous period, ahead's transformation has been impressive:
- Net Revenue: +355%
- Marketing Efficiency (MER): +9.14%
- New Customer AOV: +21.69%
What makes these numbers particularly noteworthy isn't just the growth itself. It's that ahead managed to maintain and improve marketing efficiency while scaling. That's often the mark of thoughtful, data-informed decision making.
THE ATTRIBUTION RECIPE
Seeing the Full Picture.
Like most eCommerce brands, ahead was getting limited insights from last-click attribution. They were missing how customers actually discovered their products.
Klar's Marketing Mix Modeling served up a more complete story:
Ahead's channel performance was dramatically better than they thought.
TikTok, which seemed to be underperforming, was actually delivering a +171% ROAS >1, when the full customer journey was considered. That's the difference between scaling back and scaling up.
THE IMPACT
Scaling the Sweet Success
Armed with accurate attribution, ahead could make confident scaling decisions:
- Scaled Meta and Influencer campaigns based on true performance
- Expanded TikTok investment with confidence
- Diversified their product range guided by reliable conversion data
Klar's MMM provides real-time insights including brand awareness impact, letting ahead optimize their full marketing mix daily.
Finding What Really Works
Today, ahead has built something impressive. A data-informed approach to growth. Their success isn't about having the perfect product from day one (they didn't). It's about having better data to guide decisions along the way.
The ahead approach:
- Let data drive major strategic decisions, even complete pivots
- Don't trust last-click attribution alone
- Scale with confidence when you see the full picture
- Optimize for the complete customer journey
The nutrition market is challenging, but ahead found their approach: combine solid products with solid data insights.
The Sweet Spot: ahead's journey from struggling startup to 8-figure nutrition brand shows what's possible with better attribution insights, proving that the best business decisions come from truly understanding your data.
