Seattle-based pet care marketplace Rover Group Inc. (Nasdaq: ROVR) highlighted its marketing efficiency in the company's fourth quarter 2021 earnings, released Monday.
The company said it spent $13 last quarter for each customer it acquired, down from $42 in Q4 2019. Rover said in November the company was going to increase its paid marketing efforts during the last two months of 2021.
"We got very conservative during the pandemic, for obvious reasons," Aaron Easterly, Rover's co-founder and CEO, told the Business Journal in November. "As we started to turn back on marketing, we wanted to start with the relatively short lead time marketing channels, like search."
Easterly also said the strength of Rover's organic growth, along with uncertainties around Covid-19 and the company's ability to measure how well its marketing was working, had made Rover slow to lean fully into its paid efforts.
Nevertheless, the company felt at the time it might be leaving money on the table by not putting more into paid advertising.
Rover reported revenue of $38 million during the fourth quarter of 2021, up from $27 million during the fourth quarter of 2019. The company compared its numbers two years back because of the irregularity caused by Covid-19 in 2020. Rover generated $109.8 million for the full year of 2021, up 16% from 2019.
The company said it expects to generate $160 million to $180 million in revenue in 2022.
Rover, founded in 2011, connects pet owners with walkers and sitters. The company went public on the Nasdaq through a special purpose acquisition company merger in August. Since rising to a $14.68 close in late September, Rover's stock has slid 67%, closing at $4.85 on Tuesday.
In addition to its earnings, Rover announced Monday that Chief Financial Officer Tracy Knox will step down from her role in August but remain with the company as an adviser through the end of the year, after which she will retire. Charlie Wickers, Rover's vice president of finance, will take over as CFO after Knox steps down.
"This gradual and comprehensive process will ensure continuity in financial stewardship and progress towards achieving our long-term objectives," Knox said in a news release. "I am deeply grateful to have had the opportunity to work with such a dynamic and talented team, and I look forward to watching Rover continue to grow and prosper.”
