Connecting the dots from wasted external spend to reinvested growth.How cutting outside vendor spend by $2M, brought core capabilities in-house, and used the reinvestment to help fuel 47% YoY revenue growth — without slowing execution down.
The Situation
The brand was relying on a wide bench of outside vendors and agencies to cover work that didn't need to live outside the company — driving up costs and adding friction between strategy and execution. Leadership needed to protect (and reinvest in) growth, but budget was tied up in redundant vendor relationships rather than in-house capability. The mandate: cut cost without cutting output, and do it without losing momentum on an aggressive growth roadmap.
The Strategy
Phase 1 — Audit & Diagnose
The process started with a full audit of every outside vendor relationship, mapped against actual output, cost, and speed. This surfaced redundant, overlapping, and low-leverage spend that wasn't earning its keep, and gave a clear benchmark for how much of that work the internal team could realistically absorb.
Phase 2 — Build the Business Case
From there, each vendor relationship was modeled for cost-to-value, which made it clear which capabilities made the most sense to bring in-house first based on savings and execution speed. That analysis became the foundation for a phased in-housing plan presented to leadership — framed not just as cost-cutting, but as a budget reinvestment strategy.
Phase 3 — In-House & Upskill
With the plan approved, core execution work — campaign management, creative and copy support, and reporting — shifted from agencies to the internal team. AI-assisted workflows were layered in to absorb the added workload without adding headcount, allowing the outside vendor count to drop while campaign quality and cadence stayed intact.
Phase 4 — Reinvest & Scale
The final phase redirected the $2M in freed-up budget toward paid media, lifecycle marketing, and subscription growth initiatives. The faster, internal execution loop also increased testing velocity across channels, and a unified revenue and retention reporting framework kept the reinvestment's impact visible and trackable.
The Outcome
$2M
Annual vendor spend eliminated
+47%
YOY eCommerce revenue growth
+9%
Blended ROAS
2x
Content output across social