Billion-Dollar Success Story: Crumbl Cookies Marketing Strategy

Crumbl Cookies just passed a billion dollars in sales, and there’s one reason why they’ve had so much success. At first, they realized that their customers weren’t placing repeat orders, so they asked why. The answer was simple—customers wanted to try new cookies. So, the crumbl cookies marketing strategy made one simple change that exploded their business to more than 600 locations: they launched a rotating menu of five special flavors each week. This gave customers a reason to keep coming back.

So, if your business depends on repeat customers, you need to steal this strategy from Crumbl.

Driving Billions in Revenue

The crumbl cookies marketing strategy helped them amass 9 million TikTok and 6 million Instagram followers, driving $2 billion in revenue.

Here’s how they did it:

• They release three new limited-edition flavors weekly, generating buzz and boosting promotion.
• They launched a social media show featuring product reviews, gaining 100,000–200,000 views per video and fueling viral content sharing.
• They encourage customers to bake at home and share their creations online, increasing engagement without hurting sales.

Even Kylie Jenner posted about Crumble Cookies on her Instagram.

Let’s get into what they did that made them so successful.

1. Engaging Website

So, we found the marketing strategy that Crumbl Cookies uses to become a billion-dollar brand. And let’s not even talk about their app, which is actually really popular—even more popular than Starbucks and Instacart.

On their website, you can not only order cookies, but you also get a loyalty program, which if you are a member of, you will get free cookies on your birthday, which is quite exciting. This makes consumers get the membership in the first place. But here’s where it gets interesting—they do this thing called an “Easter egg strategy.”

Crumbl would test new cookies in different states and place them in select stores. The only way you would know where these test cookies are and what the test cookies are is by going into their app and finding them. You’ve got to catch them all; this keeps the brand alive in people’s minds.

2. Word-of-Mouth Marketing

The reason Crumbl Cookies went so viral is due to the nature of the way they do drops. Every week, they release a new flavor lineup, giving customers a unique basket of different cookies. But what actually makes this go viral?

People naturally and organically started reviewing the Crumbl Cookies of that week—without Crumbl even spending money. Instead of Crumbl having to pay people to advertise the product and talk about it, they designed their drops in a way that made people want to talk about them.

If you look up “Crumbl review” on TikTok, you will see video after video after video with millions of views. Crumbl did not pay anyone to make these—they just naturally went viral. Word about Crumbl is spreading like absolute wildfire.

This is a beautiful organic marketing strategy. Crumbl is taking advantage of word-of-mouth marketing like almost no other company has. And that’s the main point here—if you take advantage of word-of-mouth marketing, your business can create a virtuous cycle where it no longer needs to spend on advertising.

Crumbl realistically does not have to pay money to advertise ever again. That’s the power of word-of-mouth marketing.

3. The Rotating Menu

What Crumble is infamous for is their rotating menu. While other cookie spots and bakeries have the same menu over and over again. The founders got inspired by the fashion industry and started doing weekly drops.

Side note: Look outside your industry. Get inspired and bring it inside your industry to stand out.

These drops happen every Sunday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, and it gets people so hyped.

And it’s not just “Let me grab my phone and post a menu”—these are high-production videos that drop on all platforms. They even do giveaways—if you tag three people in the comments, you get a chance to win, which increases brand awareness. This has created a raving community.

Thousands of people do reviews on them, and Crumble actually embraces it. They repost customer reviews on TikTok, which encourages content creators to make even more.

4. The Psychological Impact

As a marketer, I think their strategy is genius.

Your brain is literally tricking you into thinking they’re good because:

• The lines are crazy long.
• They’re expensive.
• The branding is sleek.
• Everyone is talking about them on the internet.

Here’s what every business owner and marketer should steal from Crumbl’s strategy:

1. FOMO Is Real: Psychologically, we want what we can’t have. So, if you drop something limited edition or run a flash sale, sales go up every time. Crumbl capitalizes on this by changing their flavors every week, making customers feel like they need to try the latest drop before it’s gone.

2. Social Proof Is a Must: The more people talk about your product, the more others are likely to buy. If you have a brand-new page with zero reviews and zero followers, people are going to be suspicious. Work on building that community before you start advertising anything.

Final Thoughts

Crumbl’s success is no accident. Their strategy is built on smart business moves, an engaging app, viral social media tactics, and a deep understanding of consumer psychology. They don’t just sell cookies—they sell an experience, a trend, and a sense of urgency that keeps customers hooked.

If your business relies on repeat customers, Crumbl’s strategy is one worth stealing.