Case Study
The complete breakdown of how OFFSAGE killed 6 underperforming campaigns, rebuilt CloudMetrics' audience targeting from scratch, and unlocked $127k in monthly revenue.
Industry: B2B SaaS (Cloud Infrastructure Analytics)
Annual Recurring Revenue: $12M
Team Size: 75 employees
Monthly Ad Spend: $38,000 (Meta, LinkedIn, Google Ads)
Sales Cycle: 14-21 days (demo → trial → paid conversion)
CloudMetrics provides real-time cloud cost analytics for DevOps teams at mid-market tech companies. Their platform helps engineering leaders optimize AWS, Azure, and GCP spending by identifying waste and recommending infrastructure changes.
Their ideal customer: Engineering managers or CTOs at companies spending $50k+/month on cloud infrastructure.
In December 2023, CloudMetrics' Head of Growth, Marcus Rodriguez, reached out with a common but critical problem:
"We're spending $38k/month on ads and getting tons of demo requests, but our trial-to-paid conversion is abysmal. Our previous agency kept saying we needed 'more traffic,' but we knew something was fundamentally broken in our funnel."
Their previous agency had been running campaigns for 18 months with minimal strategic iteration. The approach: broad targeting, generic "book a demo" messaging, and monthly reports full of vanity metrics.
"We need more top-of-funnel traffic. Our demo request volume is too low."
After analyzing 14 months of ad spend data, CRM records, and product usage analytics, we found the real problem:
CloudMetrics was attracting the wrong demos.
Their campaigns were optimized for quantity (demo requests), not quality (demos from companies that actually fit their ICP).
| Audience Segment | % of Ad Spend | Demo → Trial Rate | Trial → Paid Rate | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Broad "DevOps" interests | 32% | 68% | 4% | Wasted |
| Lookalike (all customers) | 28% | 61% | 9% | Wasted |
| LinkedIn job titles | 15% | 55% | 18% | Mediocre |
| Retargeting (website visitors) | 12% | 74% | 31% | Goldmine |
| Intent signals (pricing page) | 8% | 82% | 47% | Goldmine |
| Other campaigns | 5% | — | — | — |
60% of their ad spend was going to audiences with sub-10% trial-to-paid rates. Meanwhile, only 20% of their budget was allocated to high-intent audiences that converted at 31-47%.
Instead of asking "How do we get more demos?", we asked:
"Who are the people who actually pay for CloudMetrics—and how do we find more of them?"
We deployed our proprietary Conversion Momentum™ framework:
Goal: Reverse-engineer CloudMetrics' top 20% of customers to build predictive audience models.
Goal: Align creative messaging to each micro-decision in the customer journey.
Goal: Build scalable systems to improve trial-to-paid conversion without manual work.
Week 1: Audit & Discovery
What we delivered: 47-page audit report + 23-minute Loom walkthrough
Key insight: "You're paying $17,800/month to talk to people who will never buy."
Week 2: Audience Modeling
What we built: 3 high-value personas + 12 new audience segments
Milestone: Killed the "Broad DevOps" campaign ($12k/month savings)
Week 3: Creative Overhaul
What we shipped: 18 new ad variants across 3 messaging tiers
First win: CTR improved by 41% in the first 72 hours
Week 4: Retargeting Launch
What we launched: 7 micro-retargeting campaigns based on user behavior
Result: Trial-to-paid conversion jumped from 14% → 19%
Week 5-6: Optimization Sprint
What we tested: 34 creative variations + 8 landing page changes
Winner: "ROI Calculator" ad drove 3.7x more paid conversions
Week 7-8: Scale Phase
What we did: Doubled budget on top 4 campaigns, killed 3 underperformers
Milestone: First $50k revenue month from paid ads (previous high: $31k)
Week 9-10: Automation Rollout
What we built: High-intent scoring system + automated email sequences
Impact: Sales team closed 22% more demos without adding headcount
Week 11-12: Performance Lock-In
What we optimized: Creative refresh cadence (every 18 days) + budget reallocation
Final result: ROAS stabilized at 3.2x (up from 1.8x)
Week 4 was when everything clicked. After killing the broad campaigns and launching micro-retargeting, trial-to-paid conversion jumped 5 percentage points in 7 days. Marcus (Head of Growth) messaged us: "Whatever you just did, do more of that."
| Metric | Before OFFSAGE | After 90 Days | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Ad Spend | $38,000 | $40,000 | +5% |
| Monthly Revenue (from ads) | $68,400 | $127,000 | +86% |
| ROAS | 1.8x | 3.2x | +78% |
| Demo Requests | 287/month | 218/month | -24% |
| Demo → Trial Rate | 62% | 71% | +15% |
| Trial → Paid Rate | 14% | 27% | +93% |
| CAC (Customer Acq. Cost) | $210 | $122 | -42% |
| Paid Customers (per month) | 25 | 41 | +64% |
| Payback Period | 8.4 months | 4.9 months | -42% |
We got 24% fewer demo requests, but 64% more paid customers.
By focusing on quality over quantity, we helped CloudMetrics spend less time on unqualified demos and more time closing deals.
The Problem: CloudMetrics was running 14 campaigns. Six of them had never generated a single paid customer.
What We Did:
Impact: Instant 42% improvement in overall ROAS just from budget reallocation.
The Problem: Their previous agency targeted "DevOps Engineers aged 30-45 interested in cloud computing." Too broad.
What We Did:
Impact: Intent-based audiences converted at 4.2x higher rates than demographic targeting.
The Problem: Ads said "Optimize your cloud costs" (what the product does) instead of addressing why someone would care.
What We Did:
Impact: Objection-focused ads had 2.3x higher click-through rates and 1.8x higher trial signups.
The Problem: The sales team was spending equal time on all demos, even though some were clearly more likely to buy.
What We Did:
Impact: Sales team closed 22% more deals without working longer hours. They simply focused on the right people.
The Problem: CloudMetrics ran the same 4 ads for 6 months. CTR dropped 41% over that period.
What We Did:
Impact: Sustained high CTR (2.8-3.4%) for the entire 90-day period (industry average: 1.2%).
Conversion Rate: 11.2% (vs. 3.1% average)
CAC: $87 (vs. $210 average)
Paid Customers Generated: 14 in first 30 days
What Made It Work:
The Ad Copy:
"Engineering teams at companies like yours are wasting an average of $47k/month on cloud costs. Use our free calculator to see your exact waste—takes 60 seconds."
Why It Outperformed: It gave value before asking for a demo. Most SaaS ads demand a demo upfront. This one built trust first.
Recovered Trial Users: 37 (who had previously abandoned onboarding)
Paid Conversion Rate: 43% (vs. 14% baseline)
Revenue Recovered: $63,000 in 60 days
What Made It Work:
The Insight: Most agencies would have written these users off as "low intent." We saw them as "high intent but stuck." Big difference.
CAC: $98 (lowest of all campaigns)
Trial→Paid Rate: 39%
Average Deal Size: $18,000/year (vs. $12,000 average)
What Made It Work:
Why It Outperformed: These users didn't need to be convinced cloud cost optimization mattered—it was literally their job. They just needed to know CloudMetrics was the best tool.
All 3 wins had one thing in common: They targeted people based on behavior or role, not demographics.
Demographics tell you who someone is. Behavior tells you what they're trying to do. The latter converts.
What Happened:
In Week 2, when we paused 6 campaigns (including their largest one at $12k/month), CloudMetrics' CEO got nervous.
"We just cut 40% of our ad spend. What if demo volume tanks and we miss our Q1 target?"
How We Handled It:
The Outcome: After 14 days, demo-to-trial rate improved from 62% → 71%. The CEO never asked to restore the old campaigns.
Lesson: Killing campaigns is scary. But showing the opportunity cost of keeping them makes the decision obvious.
What Happened:
In Week 7, our top-performing ad ("ROI Calculator") saw CTR drop from 4.2% → 2.1% in just 9 days.
Why It Happened:
How We Fixed It:
The Outcome: CTR recovered to 3.8% and stayed stable for 4+ weeks.
Lesson: Even great ads fatigue. Build creative rotation into your workflow from day one.
What Happened:
In Week 8, demo volume was so high that the sales team (3 people) couldn't respond within 24 hours. Response time ballooned from 4 hours → 31 hours.
Why It Mattered:
How We Fixed It:
The Outcome: Response time dropped to 6 hours, and conversion rate recovered to 26%.
Lesson: More leads isn't always better. Better leads + faster response = higher conversion.
"Our previous agency was just executing campaigns. OFFSAGE actually strategizes. They found waste we didn't even know existed, rebuilt our targeting from scratch, and helped us almost double our paid customer acquisition in 90 days."
"The biggest difference? They don't optimize for vanity metrics. They optimize for revenue. Demo requests went down, but paid customers went up 64%. That's all we care about."
Marcus Rodriguez
Head of Growth, CloudMetrics
As of September 2024 (6 months post-engagement), CloudMetrics has:
Most agency engagements see results decay after the agency leaves. CloudMetrics' ROAS has improved by 6% since we transitioned them to their in-house team—because we built systems they could own, not just campaigns they'd rent.
After the initial 90-day sprint, CloudMetrics could have brought everything in-house. Instead, they kept us on retainer (at a reduced rate) for:
Marcus put it this way:
"We could do this ourselves now, but why would we? OFFSAGE costs us $4k/month and generates an extra $40k/month in revenue. That's a 10x return on a retainer. We'd be stupid to cancel."
This case study was powered by our proprietary Conversion Momentum™ framework. Here's how it works:
Goal: Identify who your best customers are—and find more of them.
What We Do:
For CloudMetrics:
Most agencies build audiences around who someone is (demographics). We build them around what someone does (behavior). Behavior predicts intent. Demographics don't.
Goal: Align your messaging to each micro-decision in the customer journey.
What We Do:
For CloudMetrics:
Most brands show the same ad to cold prospects and hot leads. That's like proposing marriage on the first date. We match messaging to the stage of the relationship.
Goal: Build systems that improve conversion without manual work.
What We Do:
For CloudMetrics:
Most agencies focus on the top of the funnel (getting traffic). We focus on the entire funnel—because a 10% improvement in trial-to-paid conversion is worth more than a 50% increase in traffic.
CloudMetrics had 6 campaigns that produced <5 paid customers combined. Killing them freed up $17.8k/month for better campaigns.
Action: Look at your last 90 days. Which campaigns have the worst ROAS? Pause them for 14 days and reallocate budget.
Targeting "DevOps Engineers aged 30-45" is too broad. Targeting "people who visited your pricing page in the last 7 days" is gold.
Action: Set up retargeting for high-intent actions (pricing page, blog posts, demo requests).
A cold prospect needs problem awareness. A hot lead needs urgency. Don't show the same ad to both.
Action: Create 3 ad tiers: Cold (problem), Warm (solution), Hot (urgency).
CloudMetrics got 24% fewer demos but 64% more paid customers. Quality > quantity.
Action: Track "cost per paid customer" instead of "cost per lead."
Don't wait for CTR to drop. Refresh creative every 18-21 days (before performance decays).
Action: Set a calendar reminder to review creative every 2 weeks. If CTR is down >15%, rotate it out.
The "high-intent scoring" system helped CloudMetrics' sales team close 22% more deals without working longer hours.
Action: Create a simple scoring system (e.g., pricing page visit = +10 points, demo request = +20 points). Prioritize high-scorers.
We killed 6 campaigns in Week 2. We didn't scale the winners until Week 7 (after proving they were sustainable).
Action: If a campaign isn't profitable in 30 days, kill it. If it's profitable, scale it slowly (10-20% budget increases/week).
Most agencies optimize for activity ("we launched 12 campaigns!"). We optimize for outcomes ("we generated $127k in revenue").
Your ads should make you money, not make you busy.
OFFSAGE is a boutique digital marketing agency specializing in predictive audience modeling for ambitious DTC e-commerce brands and SaaS companies ($2M–$50M revenue).
| Client Type | Avg. ROAS Improvement | Avg. Time to Results |
|---|---|---|
| B2B SaaS ($5M-$20M ARR) | +72% | 78 days |
| DTC E-commerce ($2M-$10M) | +64% | 62 days |
| DTC E-commerce ($10M-$50M) | +51% | 94 days |
Ideal Client Profile:
We're NOT a good fit if:
90-Day Sprint: $18,000 (one-time)
Ongoing Retainer: $6,000/month (after sprint)
Guarantee: If we don't find $10k/month in waste or missed revenue, we refund your first month.
If you're spending $20k+/month on ads but feel like your agency is "just executing" (not strategizing), we should talk.
We'll analyze your last 90 days of ad spend and show you exactly where you're leaking money—even if you don't work with us.
(Normally $2,500. Free for qualified applicants.)
Apply Now →We're selecting 2 new clients this month. Audits close in 6 days.
If we don't find at least $10,000 per month in wasted spend or missed revenue opportunities within your first 30 days, we'll refund your entire first month's fee. We've never had to honor this—but it's there.
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© 2024 OFFSAGE. All case study data verified and approved by CloudMetrics.