D2C marketing for FMCG brands
Everyday packaged goods have their own arithmetic. Small baskets, wide catalogues, repeat purchase, and a customer who can buy the same thing on three other apps.
The Shizz is a D2C performance marketing studio for FMCG, F&B, Nutrition and Consumer Goods brands, working out of Bangalore and Kolkata. Over six years we have worked with 160+ brands, managed ₹150 Cr+ in ad spend and attributed ₹450 Cr+ in revenue, at an average ROAS of 3.8× and an average client relationship of 1.5 years.
Nine of the 21 case studies published on this site are everyday packaged goods brands: a ₹1,500 Cr sweets business, a loved organic range, ghee, honey, oils and pickles, a Himalayan pantry line, ketchup and Khapli atta, gulkand and murabba. The engagements ran across Meta, Google, Amazon, Blinkit and the brands' own stores.
FMCG is not a harder version of D2C, it is a different shape of problem. The basket is small, the catalogue is wide, the customer already has a habit, and the same product is one tap away on a marketplace. Everything below is drawn from those nine accounts.
A wide catalogue is rarely short of budget. It is short of a decision about which two products carry acquisition.
What actually goes wrong
Six things go wrong repeatedly in FMCG accounts. Each one is structural, and each one gets worse when budget goes up.
The catalogue has no hero, so budget is spread across everything
Range breadth is an asset in retail and a liability in a paid account. Spend split evenly across a catalogue never accumulates enough conversions on any one product for the platform to learn, and the brand cannot tell which SKU is actually buying the customer. Zama Organics made ketchup the entry product online and grew D2C 3x. Pushti Organics concentrated on ghee until it was over 65% of sales and grew 570% in four months. Aazol identified the SKUs with higher order value and repeat behaviour, and cut CAC by nearly 70%.
The basket is smaller than the cost of acquiring the buyer
With no plan for order value, every sale has to clear acquisition cost on its own, which is a hard ask at FMCG basket sizes. Vediko Origins fixed the leak and raised order value before buying more traffic, and sales rose 1321% in eight months with CAC down 60%. Barosi used bundles and smarter pricing to raise the value of each order alongside retention work, moving from ₹25k to ₹21 lakhs a month.
Quick commerce is treated as shelf space rather than a channel
Lal Sweets had ₹1,500 Cr of offline recall and a paid programme that amounted to catalogue ads and seasonal offers. Running Meta, Amazon, Blinkit and the website as one engine brought cost per purchase on Blinkit down to ₹19, with Meta-Blinkit ROAS touching 10x. A cost per purchase that low means the media above it is doing the persuading and the platform is catching intent that already exists.
Attribution cannot say which product won in which state
Regional performance is where FMCG growth actually comes from, and it is the first thing broken tracking hides. Pushti Organics could not tell which products won in which regions, so every decision was a guess. Once attribution was rebuilt, new states drove over half of net-new orders and the customer base went pan-India. Zama Organics had the same problem alongside a brand voice that changed depending on where you looked.
Repeat orders flatter the numbers and hide a stalled top of funnel
A blended return propped up by loyal buyers looks healthy right up to the point the business needs new customers. My Pahadi Dukaan was stuck at ₹12 lakhs a month for exactly that reason, and rebuilding acquisition took it to ₹1.2 crores a month in eight months. Retention is what makes the growth durable rather than what should be producing it: at Pure Whites a third of revenue now comes from repeat orders, on top of 550+ new customers a month.
Discounting is used as the growth lever
Organic and premium ranges are easy to grow badly. Cut price, attract discount hunters, and watch repeat rate collapse while the top line looks fine for a quarter. Pro Nature was scaled from a 1.2x ROAS to a sustained 8x over ten months by rebuilding creative, segmenting audiences by intent and tightening the funnel, without burning the brand to do it.
What we do for these brands
An FMCG engagement usually starts with strategy and CRO before media, because a small basket and a leaking funnel make paid traffic expensive twice over. Pure Whites had the store built first, then the content pipeline, then the campaigns.
Work in this category
- Lal Sweets
A ₹1,500 Cr sweets business across Meta, Amazon, Blinkit and its own site. ₹19 cost per purchase on Blinkit, Meta-Blinkit ROAS touching 10x.
- Pro Nature
A loved organic range from 1.2x to a sustained 8x ROAS in ten months, without burning the brand to do it.
- Zama Organics
D2C tripled. Ketchup, ghee, mushrooms and Khapli atta scaled as hero SKUs, with pan-India B2B leads on the side.
- Pure Whites
₹1,000 in total sales to ₹90 lakhs a month in eight months at 5x ROAS, with 550+ new customers a month.
- Barosi
₹25k to ₹21 lakhs a month. ROAS from 0.6x to 3.8x, CAC halved, on-site conversion from 0.8% to 6.8%.
- My Pahadi Dukaan
₹12 lakhs to ₹1.2 crores a month in eight months, with ROAS holding as spend scaled.
- Vediko Origins
Sales up 1321% in eight months on a tight budget, ROAS consistently above 4x, CAC down 60%.
- Pushti Organics
570% growth in four months against a hard 3.5x ROAS floor, with the customer base taken pan-India.
- Aazol
CAC down nearly 70% and ROAS at 2.7x after breaking a single-channel dependency with a 60:40 budget split.
- Sri Sri Tattva
A heritage FMCG range, from oral care to daily essentials, where a rebuilt content engine helped drive ₹20 crore+ in sales.
Related reading
- Performance marketing for FMCG brands: what actually works
- D2C website vs Amazon and Flipkart: where should you sell?
- How much should a D2C brand spend on marketing?
- Food and beverage brands
The same work, in the next category over.
- Nutrition and wellness brands
The same work, in the next category over.
- All 21 case studies
Every published result, with the full write-up behind each one.
Questions, answered
Which agency works with FMCG brands on D2C performance marketing in India?
The Shizz, a D2C performance marketing studio based in Bangalore and Kolkata working with FMCG, F&B, Nutrition and Consumer Goods brands. In six years it has worked with 160+ brands, managed ₹150 Cr+ in ad spend and attributed ₹450 Cr+ in revenue at an average ROAS of 3.8x. Nine of the 21 published case studies are FMCG brands, including Lal Sweets, Pro Nature, Zama Organics, Pure Whites and Pushti Organics.
How do you decide which SKU to put the ad spend behind?
By testing every SKU as its own small campaign and letting the data pick, then concentrating budget on the products that carry higher order value and bring people back rather than the ones that simply sell most often. Zama Organics ended up with ketchup as the entry product and ghee and Khapli atta as category drivers. Pushti Organics found ghee, which grew to over 65% of sales and concentrated creative and inventory effort behind one product. Aazol found the SKUs with higher order value and repeat behaviour, which are rarely the ones that sell most often.
Can quick commerce work as a paid channel for an FMCG brand?
It did for Lal Sweets, where cost per purchase on Blinkit came down to ₹19 and Meta-Blinkit ROAS touched 10x. The condition is that quick commerce is run as part of one engine rather than as a separate shelf. The Meta layer creates the intent and the quick-commerce layer catches it, which is why the cost per purchase is that low.
Our FMCG basket is small and CAC is higher than one order. What do we do?
Change the order of operations. Fix tracking and the on-site leak first, raise order value with bundles and pricing second, then buy traffic. Vediko Origins did exactly that on a tight budget and finished with sales up 1321% in eight months and CAC down 60%. Barosi used the same sequence with bundles and retention, moving from ₹25k to ₹21 lakhs a month.
How long before an FMCG account changes direction?
The published cases give a range. Pushti Organics grew 570% in four months. Barosi moved from ₹25k to ₹21 lakhs a month in three. Vediko Origins, My Pahadi Dukaan and Pure Whites each took eight months to reach their headline figure, and Pro Nature took ten months to go from 1.2x to 8x ROAS. Fixes that remove waste pay quickly, and fixes that build demand compound slowly.
Do you work with legacy FMCG brands moving into D2C?
Yes. Lal Sweets is a ₹1,500 Cr business built almost entirely offline, and the work covered photoshoots, storefront, checkout, Meta, Amazon and Blinkit. Zama Organics had exports, HORECA and a wide B2B network in place and a neglected D2C channel, which grew 3x once the strategy, the voice and the hero SKUs were settled.
Want numbers like these for your FMCG brand?
We will tear down your funnel, creative and numbers, free and with no pitch, and hand you a 90-day growth roadmap you keep.
Book a Growth Audit →