The Momofuku brand started in 2004 when chef David Chang opened Momofuku Noodle Bar in New York City. Since then, the brand has grown to additional restaurants across the globe, as well as at home products like their signature Chili Crunch and single-serve ramen.
The Challenge: DTC Data Faraday Cage
Momofuku has brought its bold, umami-rich flavors from restaurant tables to retail shelves, but scaling that success on Amazon presented new challenges.
Despite rich shopper insights from its direct-to-consumer (DTC) site, the team struggled to activate its first-party data within Amazon’s advertising ecosystem. Signals like product views, add-to-cart events, and purchase behavior were siloed and largely unactionable.
Turning those insights into real, on-Amazon performance required deep technical expertise from manual tagging to SQL queries, resulting in weeks of setup. For a fast-moving brand, this process was too slow, too fragmented, and too resource-intensive to keep pace with its growth goals.
Momofuku needed a seamless, scalable way to connect DTC and Amazon data, unlocking unified targeting, measurement, and optimization without adding engineering overhead.
The Solution: Audience Builder +
Trellis stepped in with Audience Builder +, a no-code technology built to bridge the gap between DTC insights and Amazon Ads.
Through a simple Shopify app installation, Trellis automated the flow of behavioral signals, such as page views, add-to-cart events, and purchases, directly into Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC), with zero engineering required.
Once connected, the system automatically:
- Captured and normalized 1P data using Amazon’s Conversions API and Events Manager
- Merged it with Amazon-native signals for a unified shopper view
- Activated audiences across Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Display, and DSP through the Amazon Ads API
The platform then layered on dynamic bid multipliers powered by real-time performance insights from Amazon Marketing Stream, optimizing campaigns around intent, recency, and funnel position.
Setup that once took three weeks now took less than a day, giving Momofuku’s team full control of their audience strategy through an intuitive, self-serve interface.
The Results
The results spoke for themselves, exceeding every original goal:
- 145% increase in CTR: from 0.48% to 1.18%, more than triple the engagement target
- 41% lift in conversion rate: from 20.5% to 29%, proving the power of activating first-party data for precision targeting
- 97% of campaign spend reached the ideal high-intent audience segments, driving both performance and media efficiency.
- Setup time reduced from three weeks to under two hours, eliminating manual workflows and freeing teams to focus on strategy.
The campaign not only surpassed expectations but created a repeatable framework for scalable, data-driven growth across Momofuku’s product portfolio. Following its success, the brand began expanding AMC-powered strategies to new categories, using Trellis’ automation to unlock continuous optimization and audience expansion.
The Impact of Owned Audiences & Audience Builder +
Through Audience Builder +, Trellis turned complex data engineering into an effortless, marketing-ready workflow, allowing Momofuku to transform its first-party insights into high-impact Amazon Ads performance.
This collaboration proves that data-driven doesn’t have to mean technically daunting. With automation and AI-enabled intelligence, even the most sophisticated advertising strategies become accessible, measurable, and scalable.
For Momofuku, it wasn’t just about reaching more shoppers, it was about reaching the right ones faster than ever.Looking to integrate your DTC or owned-audience data with Amazon Marketing Cloud for more efficient ad campaigns? Book a demo to see Audience Builder + in action.