Scaling a Venture-Funded SaaS from $164K to $554K in Ad Spend
Overview:
Our client, a venture-funded startup, approached us with a clear objective: to accelerate growth on Meta platforms while maintaining efficiency. Despite having a strong internal team and a couple of winning ads, the brand struggled to scale efficiently. Their primary challenge was producing "high-spending" creative formats without requiring extensive management oversight.
The client articulated their needs as follows:
"We’ve seen great business results so far but need a partner to take us to the next level while maintaining efficiency."
Challenges:
Before partnering with us, the client's creative strategy lacked innovation and relied heavily on iterations.
This led to significant ad fatigue and stunted growth.
The most successful ad at the time had maxed out at approximately $40K in spend, highlighting the need for fresh concepts on a monthly basis.
Key Pain Points:
- Limited creative formats (stuck to outdated UGC)
- High ad fatigue
- Ineffective scaling of ad spend
- Lack of a clear creative strategy
Our Approach:
To address these challenges, we implemented a month-by-month strategy that combined advanced creative concepts, data-driven execution, and the deployment of our proprietary Stealth Creative System.
August 2024 - Introduction of New Creative Concepts
After conducting a market research and an analysis of the ad account, we launched 14 creative concepts:
- 4 Skit Conversations
- 1 Street Interview
- 1 Podcast-Style Ad
- Various educational and split-screen ads
Early success was evident, with two of our ads breaking into the client’s top four in ad spend. Engagement metrics, including hook and hold rates, showed promising improvements.
- Ad Spend: $164.8K
- Trials Started: 4,250
- Click-to-Trial Rate: 3.32%
- Cost per Trial: $38.81
September 2024: Implementing the Stealth Creative System
This was a key month where we transitioned from traditional ad formats to our full stealth creative system. The strategy included:
- Embracing Visual Variety and Creative Formats: We noticed that many ads lacked visual diversity and felt repetitive. Instead of sticking to a single format, we started testing a broad spectrum of creative approaches, including skit conversations, street interviews, podcast-style ads, VSLs, voiceovers, and tutorials.
The goal was to match the best format with the right angle for maximum impact.
- Creator Selection Overhaul: The initial creator pool lacked the execution needed for high-spending ads. We introduced better talent and the ability to use our own studio to have better control over the shooting.
- Refined Winning Angles: We adopted a more strategic approach by leveraging competitor comparisons, storytelling, and industry differentiation.
While we remain open to various formats, we consciously moved away from simplistic and often unconvincing fake UGC testimonials, as these consistently underperformed and felt inauthentic.
October 2024: Results of Iterative Testing
By refining our creative approach, we achieved breakthrough results:
- An iterated version of an August concept became the highest spender with $38K in ad spend and 30%+ hook rate.
- Experimented with new landing pages, enhancing trial start rates.
- Additional high-performing ads included a podcast-style ad.
Key Results:
- Ad Spend: $200K
- Trials Started: 5,070
- Click-to-Trial Rate: 5.47%
- Cost per Trial: $39.58
November 2024: Dominating the Ad Account
Our creative strategy took over the ad account.
Optimized ad formats and better execution started giving our client more trials and profitable ad spend.
- 5 out of the top 6 highest spenders were our ads, including:
- Skit conversation targeting competitors, positioning the client as the superior alternative ($44K spend)
- Tutorial UGC ad ($27K spend)
Watch how most of the concepts are from Oct/Nov, showing how most creative strategies need this feedback loop to form in order to find the true high-spenders.
December 2024: Full Creative System Optimization
By December, our strategy had matured into a robust creative system that is currently scaling profitably:
- 6 of the top 6 performers were our ads.
- The highest spender, a podcast-style ad, achieved $114K in ad spend.
- Complete shift away from tutorials and voiceovers, focusing on skit conversations, street interviews, and an optimized creator selection process.
Let's break down our winner from December.
This ad spent $114k in just 30 days and is still one of the highest spenders in the ad account to this day.
Couple of key points:
- Watch how we position our client's solution against a massive competitor like Canva
- Execution here is great (our team was at the studio coordinating)
- Creators did a great job in bringing the concept to life.
This creative shows something that a lot of brands are missing:
Positioning.
We showcase the features we have, while discrediting alternatives. Our stealth creatives allow us to handle common objections within the podcast conversation.
January 2025: Proven Scalability
By January, our ads consistently started to push our client's ad spend.
We currently account for the top 8 highest spenders in the account:
- Podcast Ad: $290K total spend, 19M impressions.
- Skit Conversation: $75K spend.
- Skit Conversation with Creative Role Variety: $64K spend.
By fully optimizing our creative system, we dominated the top-performing ads in the account.
Key Takeaways & Roadmap to Replicate Success
Our approach not only scaled the client's ad spend from $164K to $554K but also provided a sustainable creative strategy.
The Stealth Creative System demonstrated how innovative formats, targeted creator selection, and strategic messaging can lead to measurable growth.
What Drove These Results:
- A Diverse Creative Library: We focused on creating a wide variety of organic-looking formats, ensuring every ad felt fresh and different. This prevented ad fatigue and drove more trials by delivering new “stealth creatives” that blended seamlessly into their feed.
- Maximizing Content Consumption: This strategy led to audiences consuming 5-6 times more ads without skipping, compounding results month over month. The best results were seen after 2-3 months, recognizing that many customer journeys take weeks to convert.
How to Replicate These Results:
- Diagnose Your Creative Bottlenecks: Identify ad fatigue, low CTRs, and messaging misalignment.
- Diversify Your Creatives: Test a broad range of formats to avoid the "same ad" syndrome.
- Master the Details: Small improvements in ad production can transform good ads into scaling monsters.
If your brand is ready to scale efficiently like our client and you are currently spending over $50K/month in Meta, book a call with us here: