For a well-known entrepreneur in the ecommerce space, we were tasked with taking an established sunglasses brand that was already performing well in the Netherlands and successfully launching it in Germany. The objective was clear: make a proven Dutch ecommerce brand work in a completely new market.

We had six months to make it happen.

That timeframe made the project particularly challenging. We weren't launching a new brand from scratch, but we also couldn't simply copy the strategy that was working in the Netherlands. Germany was a new market with its own consumer behavior, preferences and expectations. The question was therefore not whether the brand could sell sunglasses, but whether we could find the right positioning, creatives and customer journey to make German consumers buy as well.

One of the biggest mistakes when entering a new market is assuming that what works in one country will automatically work in another. Translating a website and running the same advertisements in a different language doesn't create a localized strategy. We needed to understand the German market, test different approaches and use data to determine what resonated before putting significant budget behind it.

Over the course of six months, we built that strategy through continuous testing on Meta, localized UGC and creative, and a gradual scaling process. The result was €2.4 million in revenue from €265,000 in advertising spend, a 9x ROAS.

Testing Before Scaling

From the start, we deliberately chose not to scale as quickly as possible. The first phase was about learning.

We tested different angles across Meta to discover what German consumers responded to. Rather than assuming that the messaging and creative concepts that had worked in the Netherlands would perform in exactly the same way in Germany, we used the initial advertising spend to collect data and identify the strongest opportunities.

This approach was important because advertising performance doesn't exist in isolation. During a market launch, there are multiple variables that can influence whether someone ultimately purchases: the creative, the offer, the website, the messaging and the overall customer journey. Scaling before understanding those variables can mean spending more money before you've actually figured out what works.

As the data accumulated, certain creative angles consistently started to outperform others. Those winning angles became the foundation of the scaling strategy.

We worked with German influencers and UGC creators to produce content that felt native to the market. This gave German consumers a way to discover and experience the product through people and content that felt familiar to them.

Alongside UGC, we used carousel ads featuring the products themselves. For a sunglasses brand, this format allowed consumers to browse different products directly within the advertisement. The additional swipes and clicks also generated valuable behavioral data, giving us more information about which products and creatives were attracting attention.

Once we had enough data to understand which angles, creatives and products were working, we gradually increased the advertising spend.

The process was therefore not launch → spend more → hope it works.

It was launch → test → learn → optimize → identify winners → scale.

From a New Market to €2.4M in Revenue

Within six months, we successfully launched the sunglasses brand in Germany and generated €2.4 million in revenue from €265,000 in Meta advertising spend.

That resulted in a 9x ROAS.

More importantly, the launch demonstrated that a brand that had already proven itself in the Netherlands could be translated into a successful German acquisition strategy without simply copying what had worked in its original market.

The campaign also highlighted an important part of international ecommerce scaling: successful market entry isn't about changing the language. It's about understanding the market, testing your assumptions and allowing data to determine what deserves to be scaled.

While our focus was on generating demand and revenue, the client also had to prepare the business operationally for the additional volume. Successful scaling can put pressure on inventory, delivery times, product quality and customer service.