What was our solution?
To address Prep Kitchen’s ambition of increasing brand awareness while keeping the CAC low, Silverbean developed a carefully phased strategy that prioritised audience alignment, content led exposure and affiliate diversification, all while maintaining strict budget allocation.
Strategic Gifting to Unlock Free and Discounted Content Exposure
With traditional tenancy based content partnerships often commanding high fees which would in turn drive up CAC, the team introduced a gifting strategy to secure editorial inclusions with relevant publishers. This approach enabled the brand to gain valuable exposure while avoiding large upfront costs.
Gifting was used as the primary exchange for unpaid content placements with publishers such as Glamour and the Evening Standard, which helped build Prep Kitchen’s presence in high authority media environments. In some cases, like with Talksport, gifting was paired with heavily reduced rates to secure cost effective placements (£500 vs standard pricing), enabling the team to stretch the budget further while targeting Prep Kitchen’s core demographic.
Selective CPA Increases to Drive Visibility
In parallel with the gifting campaign, the team leveraged CPA increases strategically with relevant partners where it could enhance visibility or unlock better placements. The increases were not applied broadly but were used selectively to ensure incremental value and protect CAC. This flexibility allowed Silverbean to maintain a love baseline spend while still being competitive with partners in key verticals.
For example the team worked with Compado on CPAi model to improve Prep Kitchen’s ranking onsite against competitors, allowing the brand to stand out in a comparison led environment without needing tenancy fees.
Diversifying the Affiliate Mix
When Silverbean took over the affiliate programme, it was heavily skewed towards voucher code partners, which, while effective for volume, did not align with the brand’s longer term focus on lifetime customer value.
To rebalance the mix, the team proactively onboarded closed user groups, content publishers and other upper funnel partners. This shift enabled Prep Kitchen to start reaching a more relevant, high intent audience, individuals more likely to stay subscribed beyond the initial trial period. Some of the partners recruited include Collinson (loyalty), Reward Gateway (CUG), Nextjump (CUG) and Independent (Content).
There was also a conscious effort to begin engaging with niche verticals, such as fitness and lifestyle publishers, including gym groups, to ensure that affiliate efforts reflected the customer base the brand was trying to attract.
Testing, Optimisation and Strategic Budget Allocation
The client’s willingness to allow for testing and flexibility played a key role in the programme’s evolution. With freedom to trial different types of exposure and partner incentives, the team could gather and analyse performance data, enabling a test and learn approach to refine strategy over time.
Rather than committing to large tenancy spends, the budget was managed carefully, with an emphasis on:
- Securing additional value (e.g. bonus exposure or added placements)
- Prioritising partnerships likely to drive long term LTV
- Remaining adaptive to opportunities, including inbound interest from content partners like Talksport.
This approach ensured CAC remained under control without compromising on the quality or impact of exposure.
