Boden

The objective

Demonstrating TikTok's revenue impact

Boden is a beloved British clothing retailer renowned for its vibrant prints, sustainable sourcing, and timeless style. While the brand holds a strong heritage in the UK and has been rapidly accelerating its growth in the US, it targeted the competitive market to drive new customer acquisition and find new ways to engage and inspire customers.

To achieve this, Boden partnered with Social Hit, an official TikTok Marketing Partner, to introduce TikTok into its paid media stack for the first time. The primary challenge was not just generating awareness, but proving the commercial viability of advertising on TikTok.

The goal was to launch a campaign that would provide evidence of the platform's ability to drive incremental purchases, ultimately determining whether TikTok should become a permanent fixture in the brand's US strategy.

The solution

Measuring incremental growth with a Conversion Lift Study

To scientifically validate the impact of TikTok on US growth, Boden required a partner that could unify high-quality creative production with rigorous media execution. Social Hit stepped in as a full-service partner, helping to manage the entire campaign lifecycle from the initial creative concept to the final media buying and optimisation.

As a certified TikTok Creative Exchange partner, Social Hit was responsible for producing 100% of the campaign assets. Moving away from traditional, glossy ads, the agency developed a TikTok-first strategy centered on bespoke creator videos and remixed brand content.

The campaign focused on showcasing Boden's Autumn collection, utilising carefully selected creators who were aligned with the brand's premium look and feel. The creators produced TikTok-first assets by styling the collection in real-world settings, helping the ads blend naturally into the For You feed.

On the execution side, Social Hit leveraged Smart+ Catalog Ads, an AI-powered, automated advertising solution designed to drive e-commerce sales by transforming product catalogs into dynamic shoppable ads.

Social Hit worked with Boden to manage the ad account directly, ensuring the media strategy complemented the creative. The campaign focused on the 25-44 age group, Boden's core target market, and a high-value segment on the platform.

By working closely with Boden on both creative production and ad management, Social Hit was able to optimise the campaign in real time, identifying which creator assets resonated most with the audience and scaling spend accordingly.

To measure success beyond standard clicks, Boden and Social Hit implemented a Conversion Lift Study, a first-party incrementality test that measures the impact of TikTok advertising. The study allowed Boden to look beyond surface-level attribution and see the campaign's true incremental impact by comparing the purchase behavior of the exposed audience with that of a control group.

The results

Driving incremental sales delivered within Boden's allowable CPA

The campaign delivered exceptional results, validating TikTok as a performance driver for Boden in the US market. The Conversion Lift Study revealed a +17.58% lift in purchases, proving that the ads drove significant incremental conversions that would not have occurred otherwise.

Beyond final sales, the campaign also fueled the upper funnel, driving a +16.91% lift in add-to-carts and a +22.07% lift in content views, demonstrating high intent and engagement from the new audience.

The campaign achieved these results with high efficiency, generating an incremental ROAS of 9.52x. This figure far exceeded initial expectations for a "test" channel, confirming that the TikTok-first strategy resonated with the TikTok community.

By successfully combining authentic creator content with rigorous ad management, Social Hit unlocked a reliable new revenue stream for Boden's US expansion.