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tl;dr

• Long-term vision: Fabric committed to the long view when testing podcast advertising for the first time, staying the course through early inefficiencies to build awareness, trust, and frequency.
• Strategic measurement evolution: A simple KPI framework grew into a sophisticated system of custom multipliers, enabling confident investment decisions.
• Relentless optimization: Testing across genres, refining landing pages, and iterating every stage of the funnel cut CPA by ~75% over two years.
• Sustained growth: Positive direct-response performance more than doubled, renewal rates tripled, and podcast now anchors Fabric’s broader marketing mix.

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About Fabric

Fabric by Gerber Life offers simple, modern term life insurance designed to help parents protect their family’s financial future. With a simple and accessible product experience, Fabric has built a reputation for making important financial decisions easier, and less intimidating, for today’s busy parents.

The Challenge

Fabric came to Right Side Up (RSU) in 2021 with a clear goal: expand beyond the limits of paid social and find new, scalable acquisition channels.

Their performance in core digital platforms was strong, but they had optimized into niche audiences with diminishing returns, stifling the brand's broader growth potential.

For Fabric’s first foray beyond core channels, RSU had high confidence Fabric could find and convert the right audience in terrestrial radio and satellite radio, which proved to be true. After uncovering key audience segment learnings from radio, RSU next turned attention to podcast advertising but approached the channel with more caution.

The category of insurance is highly competitive in podcast, and breaking through requires the right approach and mindfulness of the channel’s required ramp-up period. Fabric understood this from the beginning and entered the channel with realistic expectations, a long-term mindset, and a commitment to learning.

‍The Solution

RSU worked with Fabric to launch a test strategy based on learnings from radio, as well as incorporating natural contextual alignments within the podcast channel, including shows within parenting and finance.

But the team didn’t stop there.

RSU continued to test across a wide set of genres to find additional pockets of engagement, stepping outside the paid social targeting and obvious contextual alignments, and expanding their reach into wider, more diverse (sometimes even surprising) audiences.

Measurement was another cornerstone of the success of launching a new channel. RSU collaborated closely with the Fabric team to establish a clear attribution framework that allowed them to evaluate podcast performance in the context of their broader media mix and set realistic goals.

The framework evolved over time; a single KPI and standard multiplier slowly blossomed into a more complex set of KPIs and channel-specific, custom multipliers for podcast, and eventually YouTube.

This RSU-driven measurement system gave Fabric the confidence to properly evaluate the channel and continue investing as results continued to show promise.

“RSU wasn’t afraid to ask the hard questions, challenging our assumptions about the channel to stretch beyond the tried-and-true and find new pockets of growth. I was impressed by their willingness to go above and beyond for our business goals, evolving tactics, and resourcing as needed.” _{Wen Lui, Former VP of Marketing, Fabric}

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Crucially, Fabric didn’t pull the plug when efficient performance didn’t materialize immediately.

They knew it would take time to build brand awareness in the channel (and broader market). Instead, they stayed focused on their longer-term vision, observing, analyzing, and iterating based on all learnings collected over time, and allowing their growing presence in the channel to build frequency and trust with listeners.

This thoughtful, methodical approach extended beyond media buying. Fabric leaned into full-funnel optimization, iterating on landing pages to improve conversion and ultimately building what RSU considers a gold-standard podcast landing page.

They paid close attention to every corner of the funnel, consistently evaluating what else could be done to further improve efficiency.

The Impact

Over time, Fabric’s program evolved from a cautious test into a sophisticated, scaled channel. They stair-stepped into efficiency by applying learnings from every round of testing to inform renewals and future placements, optimizing spend along the way.

As RSU and Fabric honed their learnings, the target audience became increasingly precise. After two years of continued broader testing, they doubled down on what was consistently working and grew extremely selective in show choices—narrowing into a laser-focused strategy that cut the cost per app submit in half.

This marked a major turning point: positive direct-response performance jumped to 84% of shows, up from an average of just 33%, and renewal rates more than tripled.

From there, efficiency gains compounded. In the following six months, the CPA dropped another 34%. In the next six months after that, it had decreased again by nearly 50%—all while maintaining the same high level of positive direct-response performance and renewal rates.

“RSU has been a crucial partner as we iterated on this program over time. We leaned on them to build and nurture strategic partnerships over years which helped us reach our target audience to build awareness and drive measurable results.” _{Som Kandlur, Director of Growth Marketing, Fabric}

Throughout the partnership, Fabric has remained steady, curious, and collaborative, even when tests on individual shows didn’t go as expected.

They understood that occasional setbacks were part of the learning process and stayed grounded in the original goals. And as those goals shifted over time, RSU worked with them to realign strategy, evolve measurement, and keep pushing the channel forward.

Today, podcast advertising is a core part of Fabric’s marketing mix, with goals that are 90% lower than initially set.

With RSU’s guidance and Fabric’s willingness to test, learn, and optimize, they’ve built a durable, high-performing program that continues to drive growth.

RSU is now entering its 4th year working with Fabric—and still scaling.

Closing Thoughts

Fabric entered the podcast space with clear eyes and a long view. With realistic goals, a commitment to learning, and a close, trusting partnership with RSU, they turned a channel test into a mature performance program.

“RSU also championed our test-and-iterate approach which allowed us to unlock new partnerships which we might have initially passed on. In doing so it helped inform a more nuanced understanding of the channel and our audience which we have applied to other channels.” _{Som Kandlur}

Right Side Up’s role went beyond media planning and buying. By serving as a connector across strategy, data, and execution, RSU helped Fabric push past the paid social audience and discover a new engine for growth.

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Ready to Grow?

Right Side Up has worked with 1,000+ clients of all sizes, across all industries—from early-stage startups to mature companies. ‍

Want more examples? Let us know!

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