Cost per demo: $1,217 → $510.
Board narrative strengthened.
Post-Series B, Cascade needed efficient growth metrics before their next raise. Growth 8020 stepped in as an embedded team, hit the CFO's target, and helped make the investor story.
The problem
Cascade had raised a Series B and needed to show efficient growth to hit milestones for their next raise. The VP of Demand Gen was running paid campaigns in-house with a two-person team, but cost per demo had climbed to $1,200 and the CFO was pushing for a path to $600 CPD or lower before approving additional headcount. They couldn't afford a big agency and didn't have time to hire and train a full paid media team.
What we did
- 1
Took over Google Ads and Microsoft Ads management as an embedded extension of their marketing team
- 2
Identified that 60% of demo requests were coming from only 2 of 9 active campaigns — paused the underperformers and reallocated budget
- 3
Built a landing page testing framework: ran 4 variants in the first month, found a winner that improved conversion rate by 34%
- 4
Introduced dayparting and geo-targeting refinements based on their actual close-rate data by region and time
Results — first 120 days
Every number is real. No rounding.
Monthly ad spend
Before
$28,000
After
$26,500
-5%
Demo requests / mo
Before
23
After
52
+126%
Cost per demo
Before
$1,217
After
$510
-58%
Sales-accepted demos
Before
41%
After
67%
+63%
Pipeline velocity
Before
14 wks avg
After
9 wks avg
-36%
Investor outcome
Efficiency metrics directly strengthened board narrative for next raise
“Our CFO wanted $600 cost per demo. We hit $510. Our investors saw the efficiency metrics and it directly helped our board narrative for the next raise. Growth 8020 operates like a senior hire without the overhead.”