How We Helped Liquid Skateboard Kickstart Their Way to Success

What happens when you take a brand-new e-commerce start-up with zero ad spend, no sales data, and a skateboarding community eager for something fresh? Well, we at Born Global Consulting roll up our sleeves and get to work. Today, we’re diving into how we helped Liquid Skate, a Danish e-commerce brand, go from complete ad newbie to smashing their Kickstarter goal by more than 2.5 times, raking in €78,635.

So, let’s ride through the results, challenges, and strategies that got us there (no helmets required, but highly encouraged).

The Challenge: Zero Sales, Zero Data—But a Whole Lot of Potential

Let’s set the scene: It’s April 2024, and Liquid Skate had spent exactly €0 on advertising. Not because they were stingy, but because they were a brand new player with no proven product-market fit on Facebook or Instagram. When we took over, their online store was as dry as a desert. Zero sales. Zero audience insights. Zero data to guide us.

But hey, that’s what makes it fun, right? Right?

The founder, Alex, had a modest newsletter list but struggled to grow it, and the Kickstarter launch was looming. So, no pressure or anything. But we knew we had to start nurturing a solid audience well before the campaign even kicked off in June. Our mission was simple (but also not simple at all): build a warm audience, turn that audience into engaged backers, and launch Liquid Skate into e-commerce glory.

Our Strategy: From Ghost Town to Subscriber City

With no sales data to lean on, we decided to go all-in on building a warm audience—starting with the newsletter. The first order of business? Transforming the Liquid Skate website from a casual visitor hangout to a newsletter subscription magnet. After giving the website a little tune-up, we turned to our favorite tool in the digital toolbox: Facebook ads.

Throughout May, we ran several newsletter sign-up campaigns on Facebook, experimenting with different audiences and ad creative to see what stuck. This was all about figuring out who was excited about Liquid Skate, what kind of content they connected with, and how we could turn them into subscribers who’d eventually convert into backers.

When we started, Liquid Skate had a whopping 11 newsletter subscribers. After our campaigns? Over 1,000 subscribers joined the party, with 683 of them coming directly from Facebook. Mission accomplished—and just in time to launch the Kickstarter campaign in June.

The Kickstarter Campaign: Hitting the Pavement Running

On June 5th, the Kickstarter campaign launched, and boy, did it launch. Thanks to the prep work we’d done building that warm audience, Liquid Skate was poised for a solid start. Out of the 1,000+ newsletter subscribers, 630 became project followers on Kickstarter. The real kicker? 92 of those project followers converted into backers—a 15% conversion rate, which is like getting 15% of skateboarders to wear elbow pads (pretty impressive, right?).

Even better, 17% of all subscribers converted directly from email. It just goes to show: email is far from dead, and in Liquid Skate’s case, it helped drive a significant chunk of the campaign’s revenue. The Facebook ads during the campaign? They were rolling smooth too, with a Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) of 4.87, which means every euro spent on ads brought in almost five euros in revenue.

The Results: A Kickstarter Success Story

By the end of the campaign, Liquid Skate had over 200 backers, and the project had pledged €78,635—more than 2.5 times the original goal. What started as a no-data, no-sales, no-ad spend brand turned into a massive Kickstarter win in just a few months. It was the kind of result that makes us high-five over Zoom and maybe crack open a celebratory drink (or three).

Could Your Webshop Be the Next Liquid Skate?

So, there you have it. From zero sales to Kickstarter success, Liquid Skate went from a fledgling start-up to raising €78,635 in just one month. If your webshop could use a similar boost, whether it's building an audience or launching a killer campaign, we’re here to help.

Feel free to reach out—my email’s below, and there’s a link to my calendar if you want to chat about how we can help you skate past your business goals.