Premium DTC Jewelry × Performance Agency
How Link Necklaces Cut Meta nCAC 22% and Nearly Doubled New Customers in Q4
Premium online jewelry brand Link Necklaces, with their agency SmartSites, used Wicked Reports’ FunnelVision and new-customer attribution to drop Meta nCAC 22% year-over-year and grow new customer volume 94% in Q4 2025 — the quarter where new customer acquisition was the #1 goal.
{ Results Overview }
At a glance
“Wicked Reports has been levels beyond any other attribution software I've worked with — the quick responses, the in-depth reviews and analysis. It's been awesome.”
{ Client Overview }
The Brand & The Agency
Brand: Link Necklaces
A premium online jewelry brand specializing in interchangeable necklaces. Founded and owned by Boukje ("B") van den Bosch, Link Necklaces has been operating for six years and profitable for the last two — sold exclusively direct-to-consumer to women in the United States, with the core customer between 55 and 65 years old.
Agency: SmartSites
A full-scale digital marketing agency. Isaiah Nabers leads PPC strategy for Link Necklaces from the e-commerce side of the business, where he focuses on Shopify brands across Meta, Google, and email channels. SmartSites has managed Link Necklaces for roughly three years.
“Conversion tracking is the foundation of everything I do. Being able to understand what is truly driving contribution versus just attribution — and seeing what campaigns all the way down to what ads are really driving top-line revenue at a profitable rate — that's the work.”
{ The Growth Challenge }
The Challenge:
Phantom Dollars and Platforms
Grading Their Own Homework
Phantom Dollars and Platforms
Grading Their Own Homework
Before Wicked Reports, the Link Necklaces / SmartSites team faced the same trap most performance-focused brands hit once they run across multiple platforms:
Phantom platform-attributed revenue
Meta and Google routinely claimed more revenue than Shopify actually recorded
Numbers were inflated, not real — but every decision still got made off of them
Platforms biased toward easy retargeting wins
Meta consistently optimized toward returning customers because they convert cheaper
Budget kept getting spent on existing buyers instead of new ones
Isaiah's words: "The platforms are happy to spend your budget on the easy conversions — your returning customers — versus actually doing the hard work of finding new customers."
Their prior attribution tool kept charging more for less
They had been using Triple Whale and in-platform metrics
Every feature they wanted to use was behind another paywall — paying more without getting more
Support was impersonal: "With Triple Whale, you were just a number. It was very hard to talk to somebody." — Boukje
“Sometimes your ad-platform attributed revenue is higher than what came into Shopify. Which would be nice. But those are phantom dollars at the end of the day if we don't understand what's actually driving real revenue versus the phantom numbers Meta or Google give you.”
The team needed:
A single source of truth they could trust across Meta, Google, and Shopify
Clear visibility into new customers vs returning customers at the campaign and ad level
A partner that actually picked up the phone and engaged with the account
Pricing that didn't punish them for using more of the platform
{ What stood out }
Why They Chose
Wicked Reports
Wicked Reports
Three things stood out when SmartSites and Link Necklaces evaluated
Wicked against what they'd been using:
Wicked against what they'd been using:
New customer acquisition baked into the model
Not just "better attribution" — a system explicitly built to separate new buyers from returning ones at every level
Made it possible to evaluate Meta campaigns by the customer type they were actually bringing in
FunnelVision — the breakout feature
Different attribution models applied to different funnel stages on purpose
First-click logic for top-of-funnel prospecting (where it actually matters)
Full-journey and last-click logic for bottom-of-funnel evaluation
Different ROAS targets at different funnel stages — built into the tool, not workaround
A real human on the account
Wicked CSM joins monthly to dive deep into the account
Boukje described his role as helping her "manage and understand the key questions I should be focusing on" — including the questions to ask her own agency
This is what "small business working with small business" looked like in practice
“With Triple Whale you were just a number. As a small business, it's important to me to work with enterprises that really care about their customers.”
“Whenever we're looking at the different FunnelVision boards versus what's in Meta — being able to say, hey, that ad is at 2.1 in Meta, but that 2.1 is solely new customers, or at least a majority of new customers — which is actually strong, versus if that 2.1 is returning. Having that has been a big aha moment.”
“I always leave every meeting with new nuggets that we're building into our processes and our understanding of the platform.”
{ Case Results }
Results — Q4 2025 vs Q4 2024
New customer acquisition was Link Necklaces' #1 goal for Q4 2025. Wicked Reports helped them hit it — and exceed it.
Meta nCAC down 22% year-over-year
- Dropped new customer acquisition cost on Meta campaigns 22% in Q4 2025 vs Q4 2024
- Achieved with FunnelVision and new-customer-aware budget reallocation
94% more new customers
- Acquired 94% more total new customers in Q4 2025 compared to Q4 2024
- Nearly doubled new customer volume in the same quarter, year-over-year
Hit and exceeded the new-customer goal
- New customer acquisition was the #1 stated goal for Q4 2025
- Wicked Reports played a direct role in hitting and beating it
{ Case Results }
Why It Worked
Trustworthy data, finally
Wicked reconciled to Shopify orders — no more phantom platform dollars distorting decisions.
New customers, separated from returning
Every campaign was evaluated on the customer type it was actually bringing in. Meta couldn't get credit for recycled buyers anymore.
Pricing aligned with usage
No nickel-and-diming for features — the team could use everything without their bill quietly climbing.
Right model for the job
FunnelVision let TOF and BOF campaigns be judged on the attribution model that fit their role — first-click for prospecting, full-journey for retargeting — instead of one blended view that hides the truth.
A partner, not a vendor
Monthly working sessions with Wicked turned Wicked into a coaching layer on top of the data. The brand owner walked into agency meetings sharper. The agency walked out with new playbooks.
“If you don't have an attribution software, Wicked Reports will be life-changing. To really understand what clicks are driving new customers versus returning customers — that's what matters at the end of the day. And if you're already on an attribution platform, Wicked has been levels beyond anything else I've worked with — the quick responses, the in-depth reviews and analysis.”