u/Anna_Karakhanyan

What’s your biggest “we thought this would work” moment in performance marketing?

What’s your biggest “we thought this would work” moment in performance marketing?

What’s your biggest “we thought this would work” moment in performance marketing?

What’s your biggest “we thought this would work” moment in performance marketing?

A lot of people think saying yes keeps clients happy.
In reality, saying no at the right time protects both the work and the outcome.
I had a client who wanted to push into enterprise via LinkedIn.

And I get it that’s where the bigger deals are.
But it’s also one of the most expensive channels, and the economics have to make sense.

In this case, they didn’t.

The product wasn’t enterprise-ready yet.
LTV to CPA wasn’t there.
And at that level, LinkedIn needs roughly a 3:1 ratio to be sustainable.

So instead of saying yes and burning budget, we pushed back. Not a hard no, a structured one:

1. Yes, the direction makes sense
2. No, not right now
3. Yes, here’s what we should do instead

We focused on channels that matched where the business actually was (Google, Meta), improved onboarding, and proved retention first.

We still haven’t launched LinkedIn. Not because it won’t work, but because we want it to work when we do.

When was the last time you said no to a client (or should have)? What happened after?

A lot of people think saying yes keeps clients happy.
In reality, saying no at the right time protects both the work and the outcome.
I had a client who wanted to push into enterprise via LinkedIn.

And I get it that’s where the bigger deals are.
But it’s also one of the most expensive channels, and the economics have to make sense.

In this case, they didn’t.

The product wasn’t enterprise-ready yet.
LTV to CPA wasn’t there.
And at that level, LinkedIn needs roughly a 3:1 ratio to be sustainable.

So instead of saying yes and burning budget, we pushed back. Not a hard no, a structured one:

1. Yes, the direction makes sense
2. No, not right now
3. Yes, here’s what we should do instead

We focused on channels that matched where the business actually was (Google, Meta), improved onboarding, and proved retention first.

We still haven’t launched LinkedIn. Not because it won’t work, but because we want it to work when we do.

When was the last time you said no to a client (or should have)? What happened after?

A lot of people think saying yes keeps clients happy.
In reality, saying no at the right time protects both the work and the outcome.
I had a client who wanted to push into enterprise via LinkedIn.

And I get it that’s where the bigger deals are.
But it’s also one of the most expensive channels, and the economics have to make sense.

In this case, they didn’t.

The product wasn’t enterprise-ready yet.
LTV to CPA wasn’t there.
And at that level, LinkedIn needs roughly a 3:1 ratio to be sustainable.

So instead of saying yes and burning budget, we pushed back. Not a hard no, a structured one:

1. Yes, the direction makes sense
2. No, not right now
3. Yes, here’s what we should do instead

We focused on channels that matched where the business actually was (Google, Meta), improved onboarding, and proved retention first.

We still haven’t launched LinkedIn. Not because it won’t work, but because we want it to work when we do.

When was the last time you said no to a client (or should have)? What happened after?

A lot of people think saying yes keeps clients happy.
In reality, saying no at the right time protects both the work and the outcome.
I had a client who wanted to push into enterprise via LinkedIn.

And I get it that’s where the bigger deals are.
But it’s also one of the most expensive channels, and the economics have to make sense.

In this case, they didn’t.

The product wasn’t enterprise-ready yet.
LTV to CPA wasn’t there.
And at that level, LinkedIn needs roughly a 3:1 ratio to be sustainable.

So instead of saying yes and burning budget, we pushed back. Not a hard no, a structured one:

1. Yes, the direction makes sense
2. No, not right now
3. Yes, here’s what we should do instead

We focused on channels that matched where the business actually was (Google, Meta), improved onboarding, and proved retention first.

We still haven’t launched LinkedIn. Not because it won’t work, but because we want it to work when we do.

When was the last time you said no to a client (or should have)? What happened after?

A lot of people think saying yes keeps clients happy.
In reality, saying no at the right time protects both the work and the outcome.
I had a client who wanted to push into enterprise via LinkedIn.

And I get it that’s where the bigger deals are.
But it’s also one of the most expensive channels, and the economics have to make sense.

In this case, they didn’t.

The product wasn’t enterprise-ready yet.
LTV to CPA wasn’t there.
And at that level, LinkedIn needs roughly a 3:1 ratio to be sustainable.

So instead of saying yes and burning budget, we pushed back. Not a hard no, a structured one:

1. Yes, the direction makes sense
2. No, not right now
3. Yes, here’s what we should do instead

We focused on channels that matched where the business actually was (Google, Meta), improved onboarding, and proved retention first.

We still haven’t launched LinkedIn. Not because it won’t work, but because we want it to work when we do.

When was the last time you said no to a client (or should have)? What happened after?

A lot of people think saying yes keeps clients happy.
In reality, saying no at the right time protects both the work and the outcome.
I had a client who wanted to push into enterprise via LinkedIn.

And I get it that’s where the bigger deals are.
But it’s also one of the most expensive channels, and the economics have to make sense.

In this case, they didn’t.

The product wasn’t enterprise-ready yet.
LTV to CPA wasn’t there.
And at that level, LinkedIn needs roughly a 3:1 ratio to be sustainable.

So instead of saying yes and burning budget, we pushed back. Not a hard no, a structured one:

1. Yes, the direction makes sense
2. No, not right now
3. Yes, here’s what we should do instead

We focused on channels that matched where the business actually was (Google, Meta), improved onboarding, and proved retention first.

We still haven’t launched LinkedIn. Not because it won’t work, but because we want it to work when we do.

When was the last time you said no to a client (or should have)? What happened after?

What CAC are you seeing for B2B/enterprise on LinkedIn vs Google/Meta?

What CAC are you seeing for B2B/enterprise on LinkedIn vs. Google/Meta?

What CAC are you seeing for B2B/enterprise on LinkedIn vs. Google/Meta?

What CAC are you seeing for B2B/enterprise on LinkedIn vs Google/Meta?

A founder showed me their Google Ads account last year.

Lowest CPA they’d ever seen.
Signups were growing fast.
Everything looked like it was working.

But two months later, revenue was flat.

The issue wasn’t the ads. It was what they were optimizing for.

Their signup flow was intentionally frictionless, just an email (PLG).
But that signup was also set as the main conversion in Google Ads.

So the algorithm did its job.
It found more people willing to sign up.

Just not people willing to pay $200/month.

We made two changes:

– Started feeding purchase events back into Google instead of signups
– Captured UTMs at signup and tied them to the user, so every purchase could be traced back properly

Performance changed quickly.

ROAS improved ~3x, not because we “fixed” ads, but because the system finally understood what a real customer looked like.

A lot of teams don’t have a traffic problem.
They have a signal problem.

Honest question, are you optimizing for signups or actual revenue?

A founder showed me their Google Ads account last year.

Lowest CPA they’d ever seen.
Signups were growing fast.
Everything looked like it was working.

But two months later, revenue was flat.

The issue wasn’t the ads. It was what they were optimizing for.

Their signup flow was intentionally frictionless, just an email (PLG).
But that signup was also set as the main conversion in Google Ads.

So the algorithm did its job.
It found more people willing to sign up.

Just not people willing to pay $200/month.

We made two changes:

– Started feeding purchase events back into Google instead of signups
– Captured UTMs at signup and tied them to the user, so every purchase could be traced back properly

Performance changed quickly.

ROAS improved ~3x, not because we “fixed” ads, but because the system finally understood what a real customer looked like.

A lot of teams don’t have a traffic problem.
They have a signal problem.

Honest question, are you optimizing for signups or actual revenue?

A founder showed me their Google Ads account last year.

Lowest CPA they’d ever seen.
Signups were growing fast.
Everything looked like it was working.

But two months later, revenue was flat.

The issue wasn’t the ads. It was what they were optimizing for.

Their signup flow was intentionally frictionless, just an email (PLG).
But that signup was also set as the main conversion in Google Ads.

So the algorithm did its job.
It found more people willing to sign up.

Just not people willing to pay $200/month.

We made two changes:

– Started feeding purchase events back into Google instead of signups
– Captured UTMs at signup and tied them to the user, so every purchase could be traced back properly

Performance changed quickly.

ROAS improved ~3x, not because we “fixed” ads, but because the system finally understood what a real customer looked like.

A lot of teams don’t have a traffic problem.
They have a signal problem.

Honest question, are you optimizing for signups or actual revenue?

A founder showed me their Google Ads account last year.

Lowest CPA they’d ever seen.
Signups were growing fast.
Everything looked like it was working.

But two months later, revenue was flat.

The issue wasn’t the ads. It was what they were optimizing for.

Their signup flow was intentionally frictionless, just an email (PLG).
But that signup was also set as the main conversion in Google Ads.

So the algorithm did its job.
It found more people willing to sign up.

Just not people willing to pay $200/month.

We made two changes:

– Started feeding purchase events back into Google instead of signups
– Captured UTMs at signup and tied them to the user, so every purchase could be traced back properly

Performance changed quickly.

ROAS improved ~3x, not because we “fixed” ads, but because the system finally understood what a real customer looked like.

A lot of teams don’t have a traffic problem.
They have a signal problem.

Honest question, are you optimizing for signups or actual revenue?

A founder showed me their Google Ads account last year.

Lowest CPA they’d ever seen.
Signups were growing fast.
Everything looked like it was working.

But two months later, revenue was flat.

The issue wasn’t the ads. It was what they were optimizing for.

Their signup flow was intentionally frictionless, just an email (PLG).
But that signup was also set as the main conversion in Google Ads.

So the algorithm did its job.
It found more people willing to sign up.

Just not people willing to pay $200/month.

We made two changes:

– Started feeding purchase events back into Google instead of signups
– Captured UTMs at signup and tied them to the user, so every purchase could be traced back properly

Performance changed quickly.

ROAS improved ~3x, not because we “fixed” ads, but because the system finally understood what a real customer looked like.

A lot of teams don’t have a traffic problem.
They have a signal problem.

Honest question, are you optimizing for signups or actual revenue?

A founder showed me their Google Ads account last year.

Lowest CPA they’d ever seen.
Signups were growing fast.
Everything looked like it was working.

But two months later, revenue was flat.

The issue wasn’t the ads. It was what they were optimizing for.

Their signup flow was intentionally frictionless, just an email (PLG).
But that signup was also set as the main conversion in Google Ads.

So the algorithm did its job.
It found more people willing to sign up.

Just not people willing to pay $200/month.

We made two changes:

– Started feeding purchase events back into Google instead of signups
– Captured UTMs at signup and tied them to the user, so every purchase could be traced back properly

Performance changed quickly.

ROAS improved ~3x, not because we “fixed” ads, but because the system finally understood what a real customer looked like.

A lot of teams don’t have a traffic problem.
They have a signal problem.

Honest question, are you optimizing for signups or actual revenue?