Trial-to-paid 4% → 11%, paid CAC down 42%
Strong free-trial signup volume — and most of it never converted. The funnel was healthy at the top, broken between trial and paid. We rewired the campaigns to bid on trial-quality (downstream activation) rather than trial-quantity.
Trial-to-paid conversion
Improved
Paid CAC
Improved
Activation rate (7d)
Improved
Trial CAC
Improved
Where the account was before we touched it.
Trial signups were the team's vanity metric: 1,800/month at $73 each. The board liked the chart. But trial-to-paid conversion was 4% and trending down, which meant the real paid-customer CAC was $1,825 — roughly 3× their ACV. The previous in-house manager (a junior six months into Google Ads) had been bid-stacking on broad-match "developer tool" keywords and counting every email signup. Activation (defined as setup + 5 API calls in the first 7 days) ran below 30%, meaning even the few who upgraded had brittle retention.
What we shipped, sprint by sprint.
- Sprint 1Month 1
Trial-quality conversion signal
Built a custom conversion in Google Ads called "activated-trial" that fired when a user completed the setup flow + made 5 API calls within 7 days. This became the bid target instead of raw trial signups.
- Sprint 2Month 2
Content-led campaigns for high-intent comparison queries
Audited search terms and found 14 high-intent comparison queries ("X vs. Y", "alternative to Z") where the brand was invisible. Built 14 long-form comparison pages and 14 SKAGs targeting them. CVR on comparison clicks ran 3× the broad keywords.
- Sprint 3Month 3
In-app trigger-based remarketing
Trial users who completed setup but stalled before activation became the highest-value remarketing audience. Built display + YouTube remarketing creative segmented by where they stalled. Activation rate moved from 28% to 41%.
- Sprint 4Months 4–6
PMax with activated-trial signal
Once activated-trial was a 90-day-stable signal, launched Performance Max using it as the primary conversion. Cut broad-match search budget by 60% and reallocated to PMax + comparison campaigns. CAC for paid customers dropped to $1,058.
Where the account ended up.
Trial-to-paid conversion ended the engagement at 11.2%. Paid-customer CAC sat at $1,058 — a 42% reduction. Trial signup volume dropped 18% (a deliberate tradeoff: fewer signups, much higher quality), which the board accepted once paid customer count crossed previous baselines in month 5. Activation rate held at 41% after the remarketing campaigns concluded, suggesting the funnel improvements were durable rather than dependent on ongoing spend.
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