Overview
Kulani Kinis launched its first bikini collection in 2015, and its small, simple, undeniably cute designs quickly built a loyal following. By 2022 the brand had become a global swimwear name with a genuine community behind it. Kulani Kinis partnered with Growth Huntr in August 2020, and that partnership has fuelled further growth and international expansion since.
The Challenge
Kulani Kinis had been running paid and organic campaigns on TikTok globally for three years. The problem wasn't performance, it was proof. Attribution is one of the hardest problems in the current media landscape, and the brand wanted to know the truth: how much was TikTok actually adding in incremental sales in the US market? Not last-click credit, not assumed impact, but the real number of conversions TikTok was genuinely causing.
Our Approach
We ran a Conversion Lift Study to answer that directly. Rather than relying on standard attribution, a lift study compares an exposed group against a control group, isolating the conversions TikTok caused on top of what would have happened anyway. Over the month of July 2023, we measured incremental impact across the full purchase path, from Add to Cart and Initiate Checkout through to Add Payment Info and completed purchase, so the brand could see the true, causal value of its TikTok performance activity rather than an attributed estimate.
The Results
The study showed TikTok was driving real, incremental value in the US market. The exposed group delivered a 41% uplift in purchase conversions against the control, alongside a 33% incremental lift in search from the TikTok campaign, with positive movement across Add to Cart, Initiate Checkout and Add Payment Info too. That 41% is the number that matters: it's conversions TikTok caused, measured against a control, not credited by a model.
Key Takeaways
Attribution tells you what to guess; a lift study tells you what's true. For Kulani Kinis, proving 41% incremental purchase conversions gave the brand hard evidence of TikTok's real contribution in a key growth market. When a channel is carrying serious spend, measuring genuine incrementality is what turns confidence into certainty.
Looking Forward
With TikTok's incremental value proven in the US, Kulani Kinis can invest in the channel knowing exactly what it returns, and apply the same measurement discipline as it continues expanding internationally.