Weekly Rundown
Strategic Growth Report
1,247 conversions at $10.89 CPA (best in 6 weeks). LinkedIn 'VP Decision Makers 35-55' segment drove 37% of all volume at 5.2x ROAS. Meta retargeting degrading -- frequency 11.2 on cart abandoners, CTR down 18% WoW. Google broad match leaked $340 on junk queries ('shoe repair', 'couch to 5k'). Competitor signal: Lattice, Rippling, and one unidentified advertiser entered Meta 'Tech Professionals' auction mid-week, pushing CPMs up 23%.
Key Metrics
Total Spend
$12,450
Impressions
2.4M
Clicks
76.8K
Cost Per Click
$0.162
Conversions
1,247
Cost / Conv.
$9.98
CTR
3.2%
CPM
$5.19
ROAS
4.2x
CPA
$9.98
Executive Summary
1,247 conversions at $10.89 blended CPA -- 15.8% more volume than last week at 12% lower cost per conversion. Three things drove this: (1) the LinkedIn 'VP Decision Makers 35-55' audience hitting its stride at 5.2x ROAS after two weeks of learning, (2) Meta's 'Product Demo V3' video pulling 3.4x the CVR of static across every ad set it ran in, and (3) a Google brand-term CPC drop of 8% as competitor Rippling appears to have pulled back on our branded auctions.
The risk this week: Meta retargeting is degrading fast. The 7-day cart abandoner pool shrank from 48K to 31K users post-BFCM traffic, frequency hit 11.2, and CTR dropped from 2.4% to 1.1%. Without intervention this segment will be uneconomical by next week. Also flagging that 3 new advertisers (Lattice, Rippling, one unknown) entered our 'Tech Professionals 25-45' Meta auction, pushing CPMs from $16.10 to $19.80. We need to decide whether to outbid or redirect that spend.
Platform Analysis
456 conversions (+18.5%), 5.2x ROAS. The 'VP Decision Makers 35-55, SaaS, 500-2K employees' audience is now our single most efficient segment across any platform. It exited learning phase on June 14 and has been accelerating since -- CPA dropped from $12.40 to $8.60 in 9 days.
'Product Demo V3' video drove 78% of LinkedIn conversions. The opening frame (customer quote: 'We cut reporting time from 4 hours to 15 minutes') hooks decision-makers; 62% watch past 15 seconds vs 28% on the static carousel. The campaign hit daily budget cap by 2:10pm on 4 of 5 days -- we're leaving conversions on the table.
Competitor note: Monday.com increased LinkedIn spend in adjacent 'Project Management' segments (visible via auction insights). No direct overlap with our audiences yet, but their CPMs in the 'VP Ops' segment rose 31%, which may spill into our auctions within 2-3 weeks.
Facebook & Instagram
523 conversions (+2.1%), 3.9x ROAS. Topline looks flat but there's a divergence underneath: prospecting video is up 34% while retargeting is collapsing. The 'Tech Professionals 25-45' prospecting audience delivered 289 conversions at $11.20 CPA with 'Product Demo V3,' but CPMs rose 23% mid-week after Lattice, Rippling, and one unidentified advertiser entered the auction (confirmed via Meta Auction Overlap report).
Retargeting 'Cart Abandoners 7d' is in trouble: pool size dropped from 48K to 31K, frequency hit 11.2 (was 6.8 last week), CTR fell from 2.4% to 1.1%, and CPA went from $7.80 to $12.60. The 'Free Shipping' banner has been live 19 days -- well past the 10-14 day fatigue window we've observed historically.
Action required: expand retargeting window to 14 days (est. pool: 58K), exclude anyone with 6+ impressions, and swap the 'Free Shipping' static for the 'Customer Success Story' video that's doing 2.1x better CTR in prospecting.
Google Ads
268 conversions (-5.2%), 4.1x ROAS. Brand exact-match remains a machine: 142 conversions at $3.65 CPA, and Rippling appears to have paused bidding on our brand terms (their ad stopped showing on June 19, confirmed via auction insights). Brand CPC dropped 8% as a result.
Broad match 'Running Shoes' is the problem: 1,400 clicks this week, 0 conversions. Top wasted queries: 'running shoe repair near me' (312 clicks), 'free running apps' (189 clicks), 'couch to 5k program' (97 clicks). That's $340 in pure waste. PMax is also matching on low-intent Display placements -- 40% of PMax impressions went to mobile game apps with 0.02% CTR.
Immediate: add the 14 negative keywords identified in the query audit. Longer term: consider switching broad match to phrase match and adding placement exclusions to PMax for game/app inventory.
Audience Insights
The 35-44 age band drove 52% of all conversions this week across platforms, up from 44% in May. Within that, job titles containing 'VP', 'Director', or 'Head of' converted at 2.3x the rate of 'Manager' level -- confirming that our ICP is senior leadership, not mid-management.
Geographic concentration: SF Bay Area (18% of conversions), NYC metro (14%), Austin (9%), Seattle (8%), Boston (7%). These five metros account for 56% of volume on 41% of spend, meaning non-metro targeting is diluting efficiency. Excluding APAC geos (which were added accidentally on June 12 and have delivered 0 conversions on $180 spend) would recover budget.
Cross-platform signal: users who saw a LinkedIn ad and then hit our site converted at 4.8% on Meta retargeting vs 1.9% for users who only saw Meta prospecting. LinkedIn is functioning as a top-of-funnel primer even when it doesn't get last-click credit. This supports increasing LinkedIn investment and building a retargeting audience specifically from LinkedIn engagers.
Creative Performance
Video outperformed static by 2.8x on CVR this week (3.1% vs 1.1% average across 12 ad sets). The winning format is consistent: customer quote in the first 3 seconds, product UI walkthrough from seconds 4-20, clear CTA at the end. 'Product Demo V3' is the top performer across both LinkedIn (7.1x ROAS) and Meta (4.2x ROAS).
Static creative fatigue is accelerating. Any static asset live for >12 days shows a measurable CTR decline (avg -22%). The 'Free Shipping' banner (19 days old) and 'Feature Comparison' carousel (16 days old) both need immediate replacement. The 'Customer Success Story' video series is showing early promise on Meta -- 2.1x higher CTR than static in the same ad set with only 3 days of data.
Production gap: at current rotation speed we need 4 new video creatives per month. We're producing 2. The delta means we'll keep running fatigued assets unless we increase creative output or reduce the number of active ad sets.
Budget Optimization
LinkedIn is under-invested: 5.2x ROAS and budget-capped daily. Adding $300/day ($2,100/week) would unlock an estimated 56 incremental conversions/week at $5.40 CPA based on the campaign's learning-phase exit curve. No signs of diminishing returns yet -- the audience pool is 180K and we're reaching <15% weekly.
Meta needs a rebalance, not an increase. Shift $200/day from retargeting (which is over-frequency at 11.2) to prospecting video (which has headroom in the 'Tech Professionals 25-45' audience). Net budget stays flat but expected CPA improves by ~$1.80.
Google needs a cleanup before any budget increase. The $340/week broad match waste and $120/week PMax app-placement waste represent a 22% efficiency drag. Fix the negative keywords and placement exclusions first, then reassess whether Google deserves incremental budget vs directing it to LinkedIn.
Strategic Recommendations
1. Raise LinkedIn B2B Lead Gen daily budget from $750 to $1,050 (+$300/day). Campaign is capped by 2pm daily. Est. +56 conversions/week at $5.40 CPA.
2. Swap Meta retargeting creative immediately: replace 'Free Shipping' banner (19 days, CTR 1.1%) with 'Customer Success Story' video. Expand retargeting window from 7d to 14d and cap frequency at 6.
3. Add 14 negative keywords to Google broad match ('shoe repair', 'free running app', 'couch to 5k', etc.). Block PMax from game/app placements. Est. savings: $460/week.
4. Remove APAC geo targeting added June 12 -- $180 spent, 0 conversions. Restrict to US + Canada only.
5. Build a Meta Custom Audience from LinkedIn ad engagers (past 30 days) and test as a retargeting segment. Cross-platform data shows 4.8% CVR vs 1.9% for Meta-only retargeting.
6. Commission 2 additional video creatives this month to close the production gap (need 4/month, producing 2). Prioritize the 'customer quote + UI walkthrough' format.