How Unrefined Meal Prep Expanded from Cleveland to Columbus at 4x New Customer ROAS
Northeast Ohio's leading meal prep service entered an entirely new market, and started acquiring new customers at $20 CPA with $8-$10 cost per purchase across scaled ad sets.
Entering a Brand-New Market from Scratch
Unrefined Meal Prep, founded by Riley Tatonetti in Cleveland, Ohio, had established itself as Northeast Ohio's leading meal prep and catering service. Known for 100% gluten-free, seed-oil-free, dietitian-approved meals, the brand had built a dominant position in the Cleveland market. The next step was ambitious: expand into Columbus, Ohio, a city over two hours away where Unrefined had zero brand recognition, zero customers, and zero operational history.
This was not a simple radius expansion. Columbus represented an entirely new market that required building awareness, trust, and a customer base from the ground up.
Dual-Track: Expansion + New Customer Acquisition
We built two parallel campaign structures. The first track was a dedicated Columbus expansion campaign, designed to introduce the Unrefined brand to an entirely new audience and drive first-time orders. The second track was a new customer acquisition campaign in the existing Cleveland market, using exclusion audiences to filter out all previous purchasers.
For the Columbus expansion, we set a clear benchmark: achieve a 2.5x ROAS within the initial launch period. Creative testing and optimization were planned from the outset, with a roadmap to refresh ad creative as the campaign matured.
Profitable Expansion and Efficient Customer Growth
Both campaign tracks delivered strong results. In the core Cleveland market, the new customer acquisition campaigns consistently delivered 4x ROAS at $20 CPA — proving the paid media engine is healthy and scalable. The Columbus expansion campaign achieved approximately 2x ROAS in its first month of entering a completely new market with zero brand recognition, approaching the 2.5x target with creative refreshes planned to push performance further.
Cleveland vs. Columbus Performance
The dual-market approach allows us to clearly measure the health of the core business alongside the growth trajectory of the new expansion.
| Market | Campaign Type | ROAS | CPA | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cleveland, OH | New Customer Acquisition | ~4x | ~$20 | Scaling |
| Cleveland, OH | General Purchase | $8-$10 CPP | N/A | Scaling across ad sets |
| Columbus, OH | Market Expansion | ~2x | ~$57 | Month 1 (creative refresh planned) |
Cost Per Purchase Across Scaled Ad Sets
In the core Cleveland market, we are consistently driving purchases at $8 to $10 across several different ad creatives and scaling campaigns. This cost efficiency, combined with the 4x ROAS on new customer acquisition at $20 CPA, demonstrates a healthy and scalable paid media engine. The Columbus expansion, while still in its first month, is already generating a positive return.