Pull The Plug Patches went from stagnant growth to doubling revenue within 3 months of starting with Right Hook, here’s how we did it.
Niche
Licensed Merch
+103% revenue growth
22% increase in AOV
39% decrease in return customer revenue ratio
Niche
Licensed Merch
The Background
Pull The Plug Patches is an independent online retailer specialising in officially licensed band merchandise, with a focus on woven and embroidered patches. Serving the global metal and punk community, they’ve built a reputation for authenticity, ethical production, and supporting artists by ensuring every item sold directly benefits the bands themselves. Alongside their signature patches, the brand offers a wide range of clothing and accessories, creating a one-stop shop for fans who want to represent their music with pride.
THE CHALLENGE
PTP struggled with scaling after organic revenue slowed down in 2022 when organic sales plateaued. Realizing that organic sales were not going to sustain growth, PTP started trying to run ads internally. However, their ads were not working – they were just trying to boost posts, not running actual strategic campaigns.
The core issues were clear: poor ad performance, a significant skills gap, no testing of ads, and no overarching strategy. Time and skill limitations created the need to partner with experts who could bring structure and results.
Hear from the founder himself
The Strategic Transformation
- Paid Social Strategy
The Approach: UGC-focused content with official merchandise callouts became the foundation. The strategy centered on new customer acquisition, knowing that retention would support ongoing repeat revenue – a smart bet given the product’s unique selling proposition in the metal merchandise space.
The Game-Changing Shift: The major strategic pivot was promoting whole products while changing messaging to showcase nostalgic merch of key bands that wasn’t being sold by the bands themselves. This wasn’t just a marketing tweak – it fundamentally changed the commercial operation of the business. PTP was no longer drop-dependent and began bringing in stable revenue each and every day.
CREATIVE WE MADE FOR PTP
- Google Search Strategy
Starting Point: When PTP came onboard, they weren’t running any active Google Ads. They had previously trialed a Smart Campaign, but it lacked targeting and ran globally without structure or optimization. There was no campaign architecture in place, no feed segmentation, and no creative testing.
The Foundation: The first step was building a campaign structure aligned with their top-performing geography – the USA. After auditing the website, campaigns were developed based on the highest-performing product segments. This strategic foundation has since been rolled out across other key regions, including Europe, Australia, Canada, and select Nordic markets.
Testing Framework: The approach is straightforward: scale what’s working, cut what’s not.
Top Revenue Drivers:
- Performance Max (Shopping-only)
- Standard Performance Max
- Dynamic Search Ads
- Retention Strategy
The Evolution: Originally, the strategy consisted of teasers and new drop emails only. Six months ago, they upgraded to a comprehensive package enabling a mix of new drop emails, sales emails, and educational story-driven content. In this industry, the audience responds exceptionally well to educational content about the bands.
Brand Consistency: A complete overhaul of all flow emails was completed in the last six months to ensure branding consistency through both design and copy.
CREATIVE WE MADE
THE RESULTS
Revenue Performance
- +103% revenue growth (2.03x year-to-date vs same period 2024)
- Orders up 55%, with AOV increasing 22% – showing that even with scale, both volume and value improved
- 39% decrease in return customer revenue ratio – successfully bringing in new customers
Quarterly Performance
- Quarter-to-date vs 2024 shows accelerated performance:
- Gross sales up 140% (2.4x)
- Orders up 84% – demonstrating both volume and value increases
The Transformation Beyond Numbers
- A Fully Aligned Team
The shift to regular, predictable income transformed the business from both cashflow and operational perspectives. Planning workload and spend became significantly easier.
- Process That Scales
The business model transformation created sustainable, daily revenue streams that removed the uncertainty of drop-dependent income.
- Creative Engine Independent of Founders
As noted in founder interviews: “The team comes in often more prepared than me” – showing the development of systems that don’t rely solely on founder input.
Team Insights & Final Takeaways
Pia
“My final takeaway is that they are so much more than just their products. It’s a brand, it’s a family, and they love learning more about all the different brands. They have a lot of potential to reach new places in the world and create an even bigger community.”
Mirko
“One of the only female-led companies (Marnie CEO) in the heavy metal industry. Simon and Marnie are a joy to work with. They provide nostalgic products that metal fans love and add to the culture. Working with the bands that we are exposed to through PTP is a personal joy for me. Metallica, Slayer, Sepultura, Def Leppard etc are bands I grew up with. Bands I’ve seen live. It’s a joy to help a family-owned, family-run business grow and make metal culture merch more accessible.”
Tyler
“Keep the calendar full and maintain a willingness to test new ideas. Structure is key.”
The Bigger Picture
This transformation represents more than just improved marketing metrics. PTP evolved from a drop-dependent business struggling with unpredictable revenue to a company with stable daily income, allowing for better planning, scaling, and growth. The combination of strategic paid social, structured search campaigns, and comprehensive retention marketing created a sustainable business model that serves both the company and the metal community it passionately supports.
When you partner with us, you don’t just get someone to ‘watch your ad account’. We’re your strategic marketing arm, your outsourced CMO and your on-the-pulse, eCom growth experts ready to guide you every step of the way
We treat your business as if it were our own, looking at the bigger picture and constantly brainstorming ways to improve, add value and scale your brand profitably. Because when you win, we win. It’s not about getting a certain number of clients for us, it’s about getting the right clients. You know your potential. We help you get there.
So what will it be, growth or death?
