Case Study
Under Armour: 2.4x new customers at 31% lower acquisition cost
Under Armour’s Gulf online store was generating about USD 15M a year, but rising sales were putting pressure on margin. Mohamed Gamal, now Gambra’s founder, led the move to profit-based campaign decisions in his role as Director of Growth Marketing at the regional retail group. During his tenure, new customers grew 2.4x, acquisition cost fell 31% and profitability improved 30%.
new customers, at 31 percent lower acquisition cost
Under Armour online revenue a year, the store this ran on
The brief
Under Armour’s official UAE and Saudi online stores launched in 2021, in English and Arabic, alongside more than 30 physical stores in the region. By the time Gamal led growth for the brand, online revenue was about USD 15M a year. Sales were rising while margin fell. The group needed to restructure paid media in the UAE and acquire more customers in Saudi Arabia without further reducing profitability.
The constraint
Campaigns were judged on return on ad spend, or ROAS, which measures revenue without accounting for product margin. Catalogue ads promoted high-volume sellers, including products that lost money. Product-level sales and profit data sat in the group’s systems, separate from the advertising platforms. Campaign decisions needed access to that data before budgets increased in Saudi Arabia.
The approach
Gamal made profit on ad spend the primary campaign metric. The group’s sales data was connected to BigQuery at SKU level so the team could review profit by product each day. Catalogue campaigns were rebuilt around products that earned margin. High-volume products that lost money were removed from bidding. The UAE account was restructured first, then new-customer acquisition expanded into Saudi Arabia using the same profit-based measurement.
The result
During Gamal’s tenure, new customers grew 2.4x at 31% lower acquisition cost, and profitability improved 30%. The online store was generating about USD 15M a year. These figures are reported by Gamal from his work at the regional retail group.
Why it matters
Product-level profit data changed which items the team promoted. It gave them a way to spot products that sold well but lost money, remove them from catalogue campaigns and use the same measurement when expanding into Saudi Arabia. This was work Gamal led before founding Gambra.
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Frequently asked questions
Who is Under Armour in this case?
Under Armour is the American sportswear brand. Its Gulf stores and official online stores for the UAE and Saudi Arabia are run by a regional retail group, where Mohamed Gamal, Gambra's founder, was Director of Growth Marketing.
What did Gamal own?
Gamal held P&L responsibility for about USD 60M of online revenue a year across the group's nine stores, with a 14-person in-house team and a global agency reporting to him. On Under Armour he owned the switch from ROAS to profit on ad spend, the SKU-level profit measurement in BigQuery, the catalogue campaign rebuild, the UAE restructure and the scale into Saudi Arabia.
What were the results?
On an online store doing about USD 15M a year, new customers grew 2.4x at 31 percent lower acquisition cost and profitability improved 30 percent, on a catalogue rebuilt around the products that earned margin.
How can I check this?
Gamal’s role at the regional retail group is listed on his LinkedIn profile, and trade coverage records the UAE and Saudi online launches in 2021. The performance and revenue figures are reported by Gamal from his responsibilities at the group. They are not presented as independently audited results.
