the case study — spencer consulting co.
self-funded case study ·live

i believe in ads.
so i pay to run my own.

one month. one audience. a lean budget and a clear thesis. the results are coming — this is the setup.

see the results work with me
$1k
monthly budget
2
channels
4
video ad variants
live
campaign status
linkedin ads· google search· video retargeting· saas-specific lp· high-intent keywords· sqls, not clicks· performance with taste· early-stage saas· linkedin ads· google search· video retargeting· saas-specific lp· high-intent keywords· sqls, not clicks· performance with taste· early-stage saas·

the premise

10 years at agencies. none of that work is mine to share.

so instead of waiting for case studies, i became one.

  • 01 $1k/mo is a real constraint. that's the point. good strategy doesn't need a big budget to prove itself — it needs a clear one.
  • 02 one audience, focused. saas startups at the growth stage. not everyone — the right people, served the right message at the right moment.
  • 03 the results aren't in yet. but the thinking is. come back in 30 days.

the strategy

linkedin to build the audience. google to catch people already looking. both feeding the same funnel.

01

linkedin — video ads + thought leadership

live

four video ads, each testing a different hook against the same saas startup audience. alongside those, one thought leadership post from me — not branded, just a genuine point of view. the combination builds both reach and credibility. the goal at this stage isn't a conversion. it's a warm room.

4 video variants thought leadership saas startups
02

retargeting audience — building toward conversation ads

building

everyone who engages with the linkedin content gets added to a retargeting audience. once that pool is large enough, conversation ads go live — a direct message to people who've already shown interest. no cold outreach. no guessing. just the right ask at the right moment.

warm audience conversation ads
03

google search — unlisted saas landing page

live

while the linkedin audience builds, google handles the people who are already searching. the landing page isn't linked from my site — you can only get there through an ad. that means every visitor is exactly who i wanted. high-intent keywords, matched messaging, clean signal.

exact + phrase match unlisted lp high-intent only
04

conversation ads — when the room is ready

coming

the retargeting pool needs to be big enough to matter before conversation ads go live. patience here is part of the strategy. when it launches, the audience will already know who i am.

coming soon conversation ads

deliberately lean.
intentionally documented.

$1,000/mo is low. that's the point. if this generates pipeline at a constrained budget, it proves the model works — not just that money was spent.

linkedin60%
google search40%
linkedin — video ads
4 creative variants · awareness objective
60%
$600
google search
exact + phrase match · saas-specific lp
40%
$400
total monthly
tracked · optimized · documented
$1k

the targeting

specific by design. early-stage saas orgs. the people who own the marketing decision.

linkedin audience

who sees the video ads

company stage
early-stage, funded saas orgs
company size
11–50 employees
job titles
cmo · head of growth · vp marketing · founder
industry
saas · software · tech
geography
us + canada
retargeting trigger
75%+ video completion

google keywords

high-intent only — exact + phrase match

saas marketing consultanthigh intent
saas advertising consultanthigh intent
paid media consultant for saashigh intent
b2b saas paid ads experthigh intent
google ads consultant saashigh intent
linkedin ads for saas companieshigh intent
why it's not linked from my site

if the page is only reachable through a paid click, every visitor is accounted for. no organic traffic muddying the data. no direct visits from people who already know me. pure signal from paid.

the results

updated as it runs. full breakdown at the 30-day mark.

live
campaign status — linkedin + google both active
4
video ad variants running simultaneously on linkedin
2
channels active — awareness + intent capture
30d
next update — full performance breakdown published

what i'm tracking

linkedin video completion rateprimary
retargeting audience sizeprimary
google ctr + cpcsecondary
landing page conversion ratesecondary
conversations startedthe goal

the results are coming.

month one is about laying the foundation — the right audience, the right signal, the right creative in market. the 30-day update is where the numbers come in.

that's what i do for every client. this is just the version where the client is me.

how it's sequenced

every phase has a reason. nothing ran before it was ready.

01
done

four videos. one point of view.

four video ads testing different hooks against the same audience. one thought leadership post from me — no logo, just a perspective. the creative mix matters as much as the media plan.

video adsthought leadership
02
active

warming the room.

everyone who engages gets added to a retargeting audience. patience here is deliberate. the conversation ads only go live once there are enough warm people to make them worth it.

warm audienceconversation ads
03
live

catching intent on google.

while linkedin builds the audience, google handles the people who are already looking. an unlisted landing page purpose-built for saas search terms. every visitor earned.

google searchunlisted lp
04
upcoming

the results. back soon.

30-day breakdown published here. spend, performance, what worked, what didn't. no spin.

30-day update

seen enough?
let's talk.

tell me what you're working on. no commitment, no hard sell. if it's a fit, we'll figure it out together.

we'll reply within one business day.

the point of all this

10 years at agencies. the work isn't mine to share. so i built something that is. this is what it looks like when i'm the client.