How Barkbutler Grew From ₹12L to ₹40L/Month While Bringing TACOS Down to 12%
Growth Was Coming With a Cost
When we onboarded Barkbutler, the brand was generating approximately ₹12 lakh in monthly revenue with a TACOS of around 15%.
The brand wanted to grow, but there was one major concern: increasing ad spend could put pressure on profitability.
This left the brand stuck between two goals — wanting to scale sales while being cautious about the cost of scaling.
To move forward, we needed to find an opportunity for growth while having a clear plan to manage advertising efficiency as the account scaled.
Finding Room to Expand
We started by auditing the brand's existing Amazon presence and found that it was targeting only a small portion of the overall pet supplies market. This showed us that there was significant room to expand.
The pet supplies category itself was growing by around 10% year-on-year, which further supported the opportunity to capture a larger share of the market.
Rather than trying to keep TACOS low throughout the entire scaling process, we took a different approach. Our plan was simple: accept a controlled increase in TACOS for a few months to capture more of the market, build momentum, and then focus on bringing TACOS back down once the account had scaled.
The brand agreed to the approach, and we began increasing advertising spend.
"Sometimes controlled investment is necessary to create the momentum required for larger growth."
How the Account Progressed
A Small Slice of a Growing Market
The brand was targeting only a small portion of the overall pet supplies market — a category growing around 10% year-on-year. That gap was the opportunity.
A Controlled Burn
As advertising spend increased and sales started growing, TACOS also increased — a planned trade-off to capture more market opportunity and build momentum.
Bringing TACOS Back Down
Once the account had built enough momentum, focus shifted back to efficiency — bringing costs under control without giving up the growth already achieved.
"Instead of judging the scaling phase only by short-term TACOS, we focused on whether the additional investment was helping the brand generate meaningful sales growth."
Revenue Growth & TACOS Reduction
Monthly Revenue
Approximate revenue before engagement vs. current run-rate
More Than 3X Monthly RevenueTACOS Over Time
A controlled rise during scaling, then brought back down
More Than 3X the Original Revenue
Monthly revenue
TACOS
TACOS
Monthly revenue
TACOS
That represents more than 3X the original monthly revenue, while bringing TACOS below the peak reached during the scaling phase.
So, What Made the Difference?
The biggest decision was not trying to keep TACOS at its starting level while aggressively pursuing growth. Instead, we treated scaling as a process with different stages:
For Barkbutler, this approach allowed the brand to move beyond its previous revenue level and capture a larger opportunity within the pet supplies market.
The case demonstrates that profitable Amazon growth does not always mean keeping advertising costs as low as possible at every stage. Sometimes, controlled investment is necessary to create the momentum required for larger growth — provided there is a clear plan to improve efficiency after scaling.
Results shown are based on the account performance during the period of our engagement and may vary depending on product, market conditions, competition, pricing, and advertising spend.
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