You named a category. Your buyer named a problem.
The phrases on your homepage are the ones you invented. The phrases your buyers actually type describe the problem in their own words, at many times the volume, and you appear on almost none of them. We build the pages that meet them there — which is also what makes you citable when somebody asks an assistant the same question.
Three failures that look like a demand problem and are not.
01
The monthly number hides the month that broke
Signups are reported as one figure, so a cohort that churned out before it repaid is averaged against one that did fine. The blend stays flat and reassuring for two quarters while the newest intakes get quietly worse, and by the time the average moves the cause is six months behind you.
02
Activation is somebody else's metric
Marketing is measured on signups and product on retention, so the step in between — whether a new account ever reaches the moment your software becomes useful — belongs to neither. It is the cheapest number in the business to improve and the one nobody owns.
03
Free trials are counted as though they were customers
A trial is a cost until it converts, and a channel can produce them endlessly at a flattering price. Optimising to trial starts selects precisely for the people least likely to pay, which is why the cheapest acquisition channel so often has the worst twelve-month retention.
What we would report on, and what each one is for.
You already watch some of these. The difference is that they are managed together, by cohort, so a cheaper signup can never quietly become a shorter-lived customer.
CAC payback by cohort, not blended
How long each monthly intake takes to repay what it cost. Blending them is what lets a channel fail for half a year without showing up in a report.
Activation rate
The share of new accounts that reach the moment the product proves itself. Every point here shortens payback across every channel at once, and it costs nothing in media.
Trial-to-paid, held apart from signup volume
Two channels producing identical trial numbers can differ by a factor of four here. It is the first place a cheap channel stops looking cheap.
Net revenue retention
Whether the accounts you bought last year are worth more or less this year. It decides what you can afford to pay for the next one.
CAC by channel, held apart
Costed separately so the moment one source turns is visible in the week it happens rather than in the quarterly average.
Contribution after CAC and cost to serve
What is actually left once acquisition and the cost of running the account are paid. Some healthy-looking ARR is not worth having.
3 products get named. You are not one of them.
Tick what is true. Three or more and this is your stage.
The stage you need is decided by what already repays, not by what you raised. Switch stage below and the list changes with it.
Tick the ones that are true.
Nothing is submitted and nothing is stored — this is here so you can rule the stage out as easily as rule it in.
Tick the ones that are true.
Nothing is submitted and nothing is stored — this is here so you can rule the stage out as easily as rule it in.
Tick the ones that are true.
Nothing is submitted and nothing is stored — this is here so you can rule the stage out as easily as rule it in.
Foundation for SaaS, line by line.
Every line links to the service page it comes from, with its standalone price, so you can check the arithmetic rather than take our word for it.
Excludes ad spend, which you pay directly to the platforms.
One channel with a cohort that visibly repaysTwo channels and an activation step that holds under volumeAcquisition, activation and expansion run as one model
Cohorts rebuilt from your billing data
The last twelve months read as intakes rather than as a monthly line, joined to what each has actually billed since. Almost every SaaS we look at finds at least one month that never repaid and nobody had noticed.
Part of CRO & Analytics → 02Activation defined and instrumented
One sentence describing the moment your software becomes useful, agreed with you and then measured. Every point of activation shortens payback on every channel at once.
Part of CRO & Analytics → 03One acquisition channel, run properly
Up to $10,000 a month in ad spend on the channel closest to existing intent, judged on trial-to-paid and payback rather than on trial starts.
Part of Media Buying → 04Two ad sets a month
Eight pieces sized for every placement, written around the problem your product removes rather than around the feature list.
Part of Performance Creative → 05A monthly call against the cohorts
Thirty minutes with the person running the account, reported as CAC, payback and activation rather than as impressions.
Part of Media Buying →Media buying across two channels
Up to $25,000 a month in ad spend. The second channel is added because the first has run out of people who convert at the payback you need.
Part of Media Buying → 02A creative retainer, not a creative order
Eight statics and four videos a month, produced against what the cohort data says is tiring rather than against a brief written in January.
Part of Performance Creative → 03Onboarding sequences that shorten payback
The fastest way to improve payback is rarely a cheaper click. It is getting more of the accounts you already bought to the moment the product proves itself.
Part of Lifecycle Management → 04Two experiments a month on signup and activation
Run where accounts are actually lost, with the decision rule written before the test and the result recorded whether it worked or not.
Part of CRO & Analytics → 05Cohort reporting joined to billing
CAC, payback, trial-to-paid and net revenue retention read from your own revenue rather than from a platform's conversion event.
Part of CRO & Analytics →Media buying across every channel that earns it
Budget allocated on payback and net revenue retention, moved monthly, with the reasoning written down each time it moves.
Part of Media Buying → 02Creative produced at the rate the channels consume it
Statics, video and the long-form pieces a technical buyer reads before signing up.
Part of Performance Creative → 03Organic and AI visibility as a managed programme
The compounding channel, including how your product is described when somebody asks an AI assistant for options. It is the line that lowers blended CAC in year two.
Part of SEO & AI Visibility → 04Lifecycle across onboarding, expansion and churn
The sequences that decide whether a cohort repays in seven months or fourteen, and whether it is worth more next year than this one.
Part of Lifecycle Management → 05Cohort reporting and alerts, automatically
The model assembled from your own billing on a schedule, with alerts that fire when an intake turns rather than when somebody notices.
Part of AI Automation →What this would cost you separately.
Read this honestly: at $1,340 of fixed lines against $1,700, you are not buying a discount here. You are buying the cohort and activation work that decides whether the media spend was ever worth making — and one person accountable for telling you when a channel has stopped repaying. Figures on the left are the closest equivalent line from the à la carte menu; a line inside a stage is never an exact copy of a standalone service, so treat this as a fair comparison rather than an identical one.
At $3,150 of fixed lines against $3,300, the saving is not the argument. The argument is that acquisition and activation stop being two teams. The people buying the account are accountable for whether it reaches the moment the product proves itself, which is the only place payback genuinely improves. Figures on the left are the closest equivalent line from the à la carte menu; a line inside a stage is never an exact copy of a standalone service, so treat this as a fair comparison rather than an identical one.
At $6,300 of fixed lines against $6,200, the price is almost exactly what the parts cost. What you are buying is that they are one model rather than six suppliers. One definition of a repaid account across acquisition, activation and expansion, maintained monthly, so the number in the board pack is the number the team optimises against. Figures on the left are the closest equivalent line from the à la carte menu; a line inside a stage is never an exact copy of a standalone service, so treat this as a fair comparison rather than an identical one.
What this stage leaves out, on purpose.
Named here rather than discovered in month three. Each can be added, and each links to what it costs.
A second channel
Foundation proves one. A second before the first has a readable payback period doubles the spend and halves the clarity.
Media Buying — from $900/mo →Lifecycle and onboarding sequences
Activation is measured here but not yet rebuilt. Improving it is the highest-return work available once acquisition is honest.
Lifecycle Management — $800/mo →Organic and AI visibility
Search compounds, which is why it is rarely the first move. It belongs once you can afford to wait for it.
SEO Essential — $850/mo →Organic and AI visibility as a programme
Structure stays in channels readable inside a quarter. Compounding search work belongs at the stage where you can wait for it.
SEO Growth — $1,600/mo →Automated internal reporting
The cohort model is assembled by us here rather than automated. Worth automating once the definitions have stopped changing.
AI automation Care Plan — $350/mo →A rebuilt marketing site
We will run experiments on the pages that lose signups. A rebuild is a separate piece of work with a separate price.
Business Website — from $1,500 →Product or onboarding engineering
We will tell you precisely where accounts stop activating and test around it. Building the product change is your team's work.
Sales headcount for enterprise deals
If your motion needs a sales team, marketing feeds it — it does not replace it, and we will not pretend otherwise.
Media spend itself
Every figure here excludes the money that goes to the platforms. It leaves your card, not ours.
What we will not do, whatever you pay us.
01
We will not optimise to trial starts
Trials are a cost, not a result. Every campaign is judged on trial-to-paid and on payback, because a channel that produces cheap trials and expensive customers is the most common way a SaaS marketing budget is wasted.
02
We will not report a blended number without the cohorts behind it
Blended CAC and blended payback appear in every report next to the monthly cohorts that produced them. If one intake is dragging the average, you see which one in the same week we do.
03
We will not route your ad budget through our account
It goes from your card to the platforms. We never hold it, float it, or take a percentage of it as margin. Management up to $10,000 a month of spend is a flat $900 — scaling your budget does not inflate our invoice.
Signature to first campaign: 5 to 10 business days.
What happens, and what we need from you at each point. The second column is the one most agencies leave vague.
We take access to what already exists in your name and rebuild the last twelve months as cohorts rather than as a monthly line — what each intake cost, and what it has repaid so far.
Approve access requests from your own logins. No shared passwords, ever.
Activation is defined in one sentence and instrumented. Not signup, not login — the specific moment your software starts being useful to a new account.
Thirty minutes with whoever knows the product best, to agree that sentence.
Billing and product data are joined to the ad accounts so trial-to-paid and payback are read from your own revenue rather than from a platform's conversion event.
Point us at the billing system and the product analytics.
First campaigns go live against a payback target agreed in advance, with the rule for ending an experiment written before it starts.
One round of comments, from whoever owns the number.
First full report: CAC and payback by cohort and by channel, activation, trial-to-paid, and what we got wrong — because month two depends on month one being read honestly.
45 minutes, and a decision on what changes.
What you are committing to.
The same terms apply to all three stages and every service on the site.
- Invoiced monthly in advance. Three-month minimum, then month-to-month with 30 days’ notice. Three months is the shortest honest term for anything measurable.
- Ad budgets are paid by you, directly to the platforms. We never hold, route or mark up your media spend, and the management fee is the only thing we are paid.
- Platform subscriptions stay on your billing. Advertising accounts, email platform, messaging, hosting — all in your name, so none of it is hostage to the relationship.
- You own every account, asset and piece of data created during the engagement, including after we part ways. That is not a courtesy at the end; it is the arrangement from day one.
- Onboarding is 5 to 10 business days from signature to first launch, depending on which services are in the plan.
- Custom scopes are always available. If none of the three stages fits, tell us the goal and the budget and we will price the actual work rather than sell you the nearest box.
- The $95 strategy session is credited in full toward your first invoice, so if we work together the session costs you nothing.
The questions that decide it.
Our CAC looks healthy. Why start with cohorts?
Because a healthy blended CAC is compatible with half your intakes never repaying. The average is held up by the cohorts that did well, often ones acquired through a channel you have since scaled down. Splitting the number is usually the first time anyone can see which months actually worked.
We are product-led. Does paid acquisition even apply?
It applies exactly as far as activation holds. Product-led growth means the product does the selling, which makes buying traffic above a weak activation step more expensive, not less. We instrument activation first for that reason, and if it does not hold we will tell you to fix it before spending.
Can you guarantee a CAC or a number of signups?
No. What we will do is agree a payback target before we spend, report every cohort against it, and tell you in month two whether it is reachable. A guaranteed signup number is a promise to buy the cheapest available trials, which is the opposite of what you want.
How long before this is worth judging?
Activation and trial-to-paid move in weeks. Payback moves on the schedule your billing sets — if customers repay in nine months, no report can honestly declare success in six. The monthly report separates what has actually resolved from what is still in flight, so you are never asked to take an early number on faith.
What happens if we stop?
Every account, asset and piece of data created during the engagement is yours, including after we part ways. Paid channels stop when the spend stops; the instrumentation, the content and the tracking keep working. That is the arrangement from day one, not a courtesy at the end.
Who this works for, and who it does not.
A good fit if
Most of this work looks like the following.
- People pay you monthly or annually and you know what an account is worth over a year.
- Something already retains — accounts activate and a reasonable share stay.
- You will give access to billing and product analytics, not just the ad accounts.
- You can hold a payback target for a full payback period rather than four weeks.
- You would rather know a channel is failing in month two than in month eight.
The wrong choice if
Said plainly, so nobody spends a call finding out.
- You want a guaranteed cost per signup before anyone has seen activation.
- Activation is broken and the plan is to buy more trials anyway.
- Nobody can say what an account is worth over twelve months.
- Reporting has to stay blended because the cohort view would be awkward.
- You need paying customers before you will commit any budget at all.
A paid strategy session, credited back.
45 minutes. $95, credited in full toward your first invoice.
Bring twelve months of signups and what they have billed since. We will rebuild them as cohorts and show you which ones have repaid what they cost — including if the honest answer is that most have not.
- Your last twelve intakes, rebuilt as cohorts on your own billing data
- Which of them have repaid what they cost, and which never will
- An honest read on which stage fits, or that none of them does yet