Case study: SleepWellBaby | Growth For Purpose

“Growth For Purpose brought an impressive level of strategy and precision to our US expansion for SleepWellBaby. Their team immediately dove into audience archetypes and optimised every step of our user journey, from ASO to targeted messaging.

Their deep expertise in user journeys was clear as they prioritised each element—creative, channel, testing, and launch—based on impact, leading to rapid gains in both efficiency and engagement.

The creative design process was smooth and fast, with static and video assets and copy delivered to a very ambitious timeline, and at extremely high quality, across a variety of testing approaches. Feedback was minimal, and implemented efficiently.

In just weeks, we saw a remarkable reduction in acquisition costs and an increase in app visibility that exceeded our initial targets. Our cost per install hit the six-month goal within just four weeks, and cost per registration dropped by over 90%. Thanks to GFP’s data-backed approach, we’re now reaching more parents, helping them navigate the challenging early years with confidence and peace of mind.

We couldn’t have achieved this without GFP’s clear roadmap and commitment to real-world impact for our users.”

Background

SleepWellBaby (SWB) is an app designed to help parents improve their baby’s sleep and overall well-being through age-specific tips, tracking tools, and expert advice. After seeing success in Australia, SWB aimed to expand into the US market. Their core challenge was scaling efficiently in a highly competitive environment, while reducing customer acquisition costs and driving strong app retention rates.

Challenges

Entering a new and highly competitive US market.
High previous cost per install (CPI) performance and low monetisation rates.
Developing creative strategies and messaging that would resonate with US parents.
Understanding which audience archetypes and creative assets would best drive installs and long-term engagement.
Limited initial monthly budget for acquisition, with plans to scale.

Key goals

Drive efficient spend to maximize installs while staying within a target cost per install (CPI) of $25.50 by week 4 and $9.97 by month 6.
Optimize performance through a funnel from install to registration and ultimately subscription.
Build insights on the US audience to further optimize and refine the strategy.

Strategy

Growth For Purpose’s strategy for SleepWellBaby’s US expansion combined data-driven audience targeting, App Store Optimisation, and high-impact creative campaigns. By refining ad spend and optimising creatives weekly, GFP achieved rapid reductions in acquisition costs and strong conversion rates, establishing SleepWellBaby’s presence and setting the stage for scalable growth.

We began by defining and expanding audience archetypes using real user data and market research. By validating these archetypes with qualitative data from SWB's team in Australia, we aimed to build detailed profiles for the US market. These profiles helped us develop tailored creative assets and messaging strategies.

Key audience archetypes included:

The Tech-Savvy Millennial Mom: A professional who relies on apps for parenting advice and baby monitoring. She’s tech-driven and values innovation.

The Single Mom by Choice: Independent and driven, she wants immediate sleep solutions for her child.

The Mindful Mom: A yoga enthusiast seeking holistic wellness support while balancing motherhood and personal care.

The Young Stay-at-Home Mom: Often anxious about parenting, she desires clear, expert-backed guidance.

This approach ensured that our targeting resonated with specific segments of the parenting community in the US, improving the relevance and effectiveness of our messaging.

We overhauled App Store Optimization (ASO) to improve both discoverability and conversion rates. Key activities included:

Conducting keyword research to identify high-traffic, relevant terms such as “baby sleep tracker” and “sleep support.”

Optimising app titles, subtitles, and descriptions to include high-performing keywords and convey clear value propositions. For example, we used phrases like "SleepWellBaby: Support & Tips" and "Baby Sleep, Feed, Play Tracker" to capture high-volume searches.

Crafting engaging screenshot captions that highlighted app features like “personalized daily tracking” and “age-specific tips,” encouraging parents to download the app.

Redesigning the App Store and Play Store pages to maximise conversion from every click. This included designing 4 creative variants for testing, and revamping the video to align with the new design.

Implementing backend keywords to maximize discoverability without impacting user-facing copy.

This ASO strategy resulted in increased visibility and a significant lift in organic installs, especially on Apple Search and Google Play Search.

We launched performance marketing campaigns across Apple Search Ads (ASA), Meta, and Google Ads, with TikTok planned for phase two after initial learnings.

Key steps:

1. Define Target Audiences: Using our detailed audience archetypes, we identified which segments were most likely to convert. We tested thematic messaging to validate assumptions.

2. Creative Ideation: We developed three initial creative assets per test (video and static) for each archetype, focusing on key pain points like sleep deprivation, baby routines, and expert guidance.

3. ASO Research: We conducted in-depth keyword analysis to identify the most effective terms for high-value customers. Keywords like “sleep tracker” and “sleep support” were central to improving ad visibility.

4. Campaign Setup: We worked closely with SWB’s team to refine assets and set up attribution, creative uploads, and targeting across all platforms.

5. Ongoing Optimization: We optimized budget allocations weekly, increasing spend on high-performing channels and creatives while scaling back underperformers.

Results

Our efforts yielded impressive outcomes in a short timeframe:

Cost per Install (CPI) dropped significantly:
From $18.06 to $7.20 by week 4, surpassing the initial goal of $25.50.

Cost per Registration (CPR) fell dramatically:
From $408.19 to $30.23, a 92.59% decrease in just over 3 weeks.

Subscription Costs:
While the initial cost per subscription was high, the improved engagement from creative messaging and targeting will help drive future reductions in subscription costs. We’re still too early on in the journey to report on this further down the funnel data point and expect significant gains here once we gather sufficient CPR and CPI data.

These improvements were driven by the effectiveness of our messaging, positioning, and channel strategy.

We’ve helped SleepWellBaby lay a strong foundation for scalable growth in the US, driving impressive improvements in acquisition efficiency, user engagement, and retention.

With targeted audience segmentation, optimised app store presence, and high-impact creative campaigns, we surpassed all initial goals—dramatically reducing cost per install and boosting conversions.

SleepWellBaby

GFP developed a comprehensive launch and scale strategy for international expansion, with early results achieving 6 month targets in the first 4 weeks.

- Daniel Platt, CTO

Client

Year

Background

Key goals

Strategy

Audience Archetype Definition

Organic Acquisition – ASO & Copy Optimisation

Performance Strategy & Creative Development

Results

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