How we cut a $40 CPA to $11 in fourteen days.

The account was bleeding. $40 CPA on a $25 AOV product. The CMO called us on a Tuesday. By the second Tuesday after, CPA was $11 and climbing back into profitability. Here's exactly what changed.

01We deleted 80% of the campaigns on day one.

The previous agency had built 27 campaigns across 4 ad accounts. Each one with its own bid strategy, audience segment, and creative rotation. The algorithm was being asked to learn 27 different things at once on a budget that could only support 3.

• Consolidated to 3 campaigns: prospecting, retargeting, retention.
• Killed every creative under 100 impressions per day.
• Stopped all manual bid overrides. One CBO, three ad sets, no exclusions.

02We rewrote the landing page in one afternoon.

The hero promised "Smart Skincare for Modern Skin." The ads promised "30% off your first three orders." The customer arrived expecting a discount and got a brand manifesto. 40% of the funnel leak was on the first scroll.

The page wasn't bad. It was answering the wrong question. That's the most common failure mode we see.— campaign retro, week 1

03The one decision that did 70% of the lift.

We stopped optimizing for first purchase. We started optimizing for second purchase within 30 days. The custom event was already firing. Nobody had ever told the algorithm to learn it.

Within 6 days, the algorithm had refound the audience pocket that actually converts twice. CPA on the front end held steady. LTV doubled. Blended ROAS went from 1.4 to 3.1.

04What we left alone.

We didn't touch the budget. We didn't change the creative aesthetic. We didn't redesign the checkout. The instinct on every account in trouble is to change everything. Eight times out of ten, the leak is one decision deep.