How Centennial Cuts Achieved 204% Sales Growth in the Competitive Jerky Category

Centennial Cuts is a family-owned premium beef jerky brand known for clean ingredients, high protein, and minimally processed meat snacks made from Colorado-raised beef.

While the brand had established brick-and-mortar and direct-to-consumer channels, Amazon was a newly launched marketplace.  

The product was strong. The category was crowded. Execution would determine the outcome.

The Challenge

The Beef Jerky category on Amazon is intensely competitive. Established brands dominate search results, and discoverability depends on precise retail structure and keyword alignment.

As a newly launched Amazon account, Centennial Cuts was still building marketplace signals. Variation structure, listing components, and keyword indexing had not yet been fully optimized for Amazon’s ranking systems.

Advertising performance reflected that early-stage friction. Cost-per-click (CPC) was elevated, organic ranking sat deep in the category, and sales velocity remained modest.

Scaling investment at that point would have increased risk without addressing the underlying structure.

The brand needed alignment—not just activity.

Why Quartile

Centennial Cuts selected Quartile not as a tool, but as a true partner.

As a dedicated Customer Strategy Manager (CSM) was assigned specifically to the account, they could act as an extension of the brand’s team. That CSM worked closely with Quartile’s Center of Excellence—a cross-functional group of retail media specialists who analyze the account, review performance, and refine strategy based on market trends.  

This level of coordinated oversight mattered.

New Amazon accounts require disciplined architecture. Without it, campaigns fragment, budgets dilute, and learnings slow. Quartile’s managed approach ensured retail optimization, keyword intelligence, and campaign execution operated as one integrated system.

The objective was not short-term lift. It was durable growth.

The Solution

Quartile began with structure.

A full retail audit was conducted. Child ASINs were consolidated into optimized parent variations to strengthen indexing and unify review equity. Titles, bullet points, imagery, and A+ content were rewritten to align with Amazon search behavior and competitive benchmarks.

This retail alignment was coordinated with campaign strategy. The CSM collaborated with the Center of Excellence to design a simplified Sponsored Products framework focused on signal concentration.

A Bulk Auto campaign was deployed as a structured intelligence engine—systematically identifying high-performing search terms. These insights were reviewed, validated, and converted into disciplined Bulk Manual campaigns targeting exact-match keywords and competitor placements.

Special Product Targeting campaigns were introduced to defend product detail pages and protect conversion.

Importantly, the account was not overloaded with fragmented campaign types. Budget concentration and clarity were prioritized. The CSM continuously monitored performance cadence, worked with internal specialists, and refined structure as data matured.

As retail precision improved and keyword alignment strengthened, CPC declined. Cost per acquisition followed. Organic ranking improved as relevance signals compounded.

The result was not incremental optimization. It was structural momentum.

Results & Impact

Over approximately four months, Centennial Cuts transformed its Amazon performance:

• 204% increase in total monthly sales

• 100% increase in organic monthly sales

• 41% reduction in average CPC

• 66% reduction in cost per acquisition from peak levels

• 82% improvement in organic category ranking reflecting sustained sales velocity and materially stronger competitive visibility.

Growth accelerated while efficiency improved. That combination confirmed the system was working.

This was not driven by aggressive spending. It was driven by disciplined structure, coordinated expertise, and managed execution.

Ongoing Value & Future State

With a dedicated CSM and ongoing Center of Excellence collaboration, Centennial Cuts now operates with a scalable Amazon growth framework.

The brand benefits from:

• Clear keyword intelligence

• Stronger organic positioning

• Disciplined campaign architecture

• Structured seasonal planning for giftable and holiday demand

Growth is no longer reactive. It is engineered and actively managed.