Zia Pia Case Study

The Situation

Zia Pia sells artisan Italian pasta, olive oil, and sauces direct to consumer. It's a category where product quality is real but discoverability is everything. They had a following among those who found them, but sales were entirely organic, which meant growth was capped by whoever happened to find them. The goal was to change that equation without losing the artisan identity that made the brand worth finding in the first place.

Strategy

We designed an entry into paid media that built infrastructure first and scaled second, treating early spend as an investment in data as much as in transactions.

• Search Media: Launched Zia Pia's first-ever search campaigns to capture existing brand demand and category interest, placing the brand directly in front of motivated shoppers at the moment of discovery.
• Meta Social: Visual storytelling campaigns introduced Zia Pia's artisan heritage to new audiences of food-curious shoppers. Ads emphasized provenance and quality to build real interest in the brand alongside conversions.
• DTC Funnel Optimization: We analyzed early performance data continuously to tighten the consumer journey from ad click to checkout, turning new traffic into repeat customers.

Results

A brand that had never spent a dollar on paid media built a profitable growth engine in its first full year, with both channels performing independently.

• DTC Transformation: Total DTC sales reached $232K, a +64% increase over the prior year, driven entirely by paid media that didn't exist 12 months earlier.
• Balanced Channel Performance: Search and Social each hit a ROAS near 175%, confirming that both channels are independently viable growth engines as the brand scales.