Before you fix the account, decide what it's for.
Most paid programs are executing well against a target nobody has interrogated in eighteen months. Efficiency against the wrong goal is just a faster way to be wrong.
Efficiently producing the wrong customer.
A CAC target gets set once, usually from last year's average, and then everything downstream optimizes toward it. Nobody revisits whether it reflects current gross margin, current payback expectations, or the fact that the enterprise segment now closes at four times the ACV of the segment the account is actually feeding.
So the account gets better and better at producing the wrong customer. Efficiently. On budget. Reported monthly.
This is the question that sits above the efficiency curve rather than on it: not where does the curve break, but should the curve be here at all. See the curve →
Six decisions, made with real numbers.
ICP & Segment Definition
Which segments to buy, in what proportion, based on close rate and gross margin rather than on which ones are easiest to generate.
Unit-Economics CAC Targets
Targets derived from gross margin and payback window, with separate thresholds per segment, so enterprise and SMB stop being averaged into a number that describes neither.
Offer & Message Architecture
The specific claim each segment needs to hear first, and the proof that has to sit next to it.
Channel Mix & Sequencing
Which channels, in what order, at what spend level each becomes worth running. Including which ones to turn off.
Pipeline Planning
Spend modeled to pipeline and revenue with stated assumptions, so a miss is diagnosable instead of a surprise.
Funnel Diagnosis
Where the drop actually happens: click to lead, lead to opportunity, opportunity to close. Paid media can only fix one of those, and it's worth knowing early which one is bleeding.
Building the function, not just running the account.
At Pilot, the performance marketing function didn't exist. It went from nothing to operating in four months, and eventually to driving 30–40% of company pipeline and ARR through paid search.
That work started with segment economics, not with campaigns. Which customers were worth buying, what each was worth, and what a defensible CAC looked like per segment. The campaigns came after, and they were straightforward once the targets were honest.
“In just four months, Jer scaled our performance marketing from zero to a hundred.”
When you don't need this.
If your unit economics are clear, your segments are well understood, and your team already argues about CAC targets with real numbers, skip this. Go straight to execution. Strategy work for a team that already has the answer is an expensive way to feel productive.
This layer earns its keep in exactly two situations: nobody can tell you what a good CAC is for your best segment, or the answer everyone gives is last year's number said with confidence.
Find out what's actually broken.
Thirty minutes, direct with Jer. He shows up with findings, not discovery questions.
Not ready to talk? See the case studies →