Diet catering company

About the industry

The meal-box diet market in Poland

Diet catering (the so-called meal-box diet) is a sales model built on ready-made, balanced meals delivered to the customer's door — most often on a subscription basis. It is one of the most dynamic segments of food e-commerce in Poland, which accelerated markedly after 2020 alongside growing health awareness and the popularity of remote work.

The market is highly fragmented — from large nationwide brands to local kitchens serving a single city. This means fierce competition for customers in performance channels, where the edge comes from measurement precision, service quality, and customer retention over time.

Online marketing challenges

• High and growing competition translating into cost-per-click (CPC) pressure in Google Ads
• Subscription model — profitability is driven not by the first sale but by customer retention and order renewals
• Strong price sensitivity and easy offer comparison, which makes margin building difficult
• Pronounced demand seasonality (peaks after New Year and before summer, dips during holidays and vacations)
• Geographic delivery limits — advertising must be precisely targeted locally to avoid wasting budget outside the delivery zone
• A long trust-building process (meal quality, dietitian support, reviews) despite a seemingly quick purchase decision
• Growing measurement requirements (GDPR, cookie restrictions) demanding robust, independent conversion tracking
• Restrictive ad policies for health and weight-loss content (including platform limits on health claims and body imagery) that narrow the permissible ad messaging

Market context

• Multi-year, dynamic growth of the meal-box segment and the broader healthy-food market in Poland
• High supply-side fragmentation — hundreds of catering companies operate in the market, from local to nationwide
• A healthy lifestyle and convenience as the main, growing purchase drivers
• A shift of ad budgets toward performance channels (Google Ads, Meta) at the expense of brand activities

We present market context descriptively, based on well-established industry trends — without quoting unverified figures.

About the client

A diet catering company offering boxed meal plans delivered to the customer's door. Sales are conducted entirely online, with a strong reliance on repeat orders and seasonal demand. We took over the account recently — the results presented come exclusively from the last 6 months of our work, not from the account's entire history.

The challenge

Solutions we implemented

• A clear improvement in return on ad spend (ROAS) in a short time
• Increasing the value of orders from advertising
• Stable sales despite seasonality
• Acquiring new customers within the delivery zone at a controlled cost

Execution

How we did it

1. 1

   Account takeover and audit

   After taking over the account, we performed an audit and cleaned up conversion measurement including order value. As a result, every optimization decision is based on real revenue, not proxy metrics.

2. 2

   Migration to ICBM Polska CSS

   We migrated the Shopping campaigns to ICBM Polska CSS (Comparison Shopping Service). As a result, Shopping ads are served at a lower effective cost per click, which directly improves sales profitability.

3. 3

   Conversion measurement in Campaign Manager 360

   We implemented Campaign Manager 360 with Floodlight tags, ensuring precise conversion measurement independent of any single platform. This is the foundation of reliable data on which we base every optimization decision.

4. 4

   Campaign management in Search Ads 360

   We run and optimize campaigns through Search Ads 360 — a platform that lets us manage budgets and bid strategies at scale and respond to performance changes faster than in the standard interface.

5. 5

   Smart bidding strategies

   We switched campaigns to target-ROAS strategies powered by Google's machine learning. Campaigns respond on their own to seasonality and user purchase intent.

6. 6

   Continuous optimization

   Every month we expand exclusion lists, test creatives, and analyze search queries, sustaining the account's growing efficiency.

Results

Measurable outcomes

Data comes from the client's Google Ads account and covers exclusively the last 6 months of our account management. We present relative values — ROAS multiples and percentage changes between the first and last of those months. No amounts or client data.

Results in numbers

How the account's performance grew

All values are relative — ROAS and indexes, with no amounts or client data.