Paid Ads Playbook

Bordable is a board management SaaS that centralizes communication, documents, meetings, and governance for nonprofit and for-profit boards. Founded in 2016 by Jeb Banner and co-founders after a client request, the product grew to $12M+ in funding, 2,000 customers in 40 countries, 50 employees, and multiple seven-figure ARR by focusing on the underserved nonprofit market, transitioning from product-led to sales-driven growth, and building proprietary features like Spotlight video conferencing and calendar-of-record functionality.

Iris Shure founded Oribi, an AI-based web analytics tool built on a no-code data collection platform that helps marketers make data-driven decisions without requiring developers. After spending a year researching the market and building an initial Facebook Analytics product that gained early traction (first customer in 30 minutes), she killed it per investor feedback and pivoted to the larger vision. The company grew from 2 people to 60+ employees, thousands of customers, and $28M in funding by focusing on paid acquisition via Facebook and YouTube ads and optimizing pricing to $500+/month.

Venuebook is a SaaS-enabled marketplace connecting event planners with venue managers, founded in 2010 by first-time entrepreneur Kelsey Wrecked. The company has raised over $9 million and operates with a dual revenue model: annual software fees for venue management systems and booking fees from marketplace transactions. Kelsey's unconventional approach of personally planning events to understand venue pain points led to building a sophisticated data infrastructure before launching the marketplace, ultimately achieving strong product-market fit.

Zammo Digital is a marketing agency founded by Aaron Zakowski that specializes in helping SaaS companies scale using Facebook ads. The agency works with notable clients including InVision, DigitalOcean, and Treehouse, demonstrating traction with established SaaS brands.

Brad Miller is a serial acquirer of underperforming SaaS companies. He bought an internet security SaaS company doing $5-6M in revenue for approximately $5.5M in equity and $1M in debt, then converted it from a perpetual license model to subscription recurring revenue, which increased revenue 40% overnight and turned the business profitable within a year. He later bought a bootstrapped property management app doing $3M revenue at a $6M pre-money valuation (2021), which grew to $7M ARR within a year through geographic expansion beyond Chicago.

Scatterspoke is a B2B SaaS product featured in a podcast episode where LinkedIn advertising expert Anthony Blatner consults with founder John Samuelson on how to effectively advertise the SaaS business on LinkedIn. The episode covers LinkedIn campaign strategy, audience targeting, budgeting, and free trial positioning for B2B SaaS growth.

Nuts.com is a family-owned direct-to-consumer nut and snack retailer that transformed from a struggling brick-and-mortar peanut shop in Newark, New Jersey into a $100M+ revenue business. Founded by Jeff Braverman in 2003, the company's explosive growth was driven by strategic Google AdWords campaigns, viral moments (including an accidental brand mention on Rachael Ray's show and a famous TV-prompted peanut shipment), and a memorable rap jingle. The company successfully built both DTC and B2B revenue streams while maintaining its family ownership and values through rapid scaling and COVID-era challenges.

Misfits Market was founded by Abhi Ramesh after discovering significant produce waste on farms near Philadelphia. He validated the concept with Facebook ads selling discounted "misfit" produce boxes, and within four months had thousands of customers and secured $2M in venture capital. Today the company operates in 48 states as a full online grocery store with 1100+ items and a $2 billion valuation.

Vuori is a men's athleisure brand founded by Joe Kudla in 2015 that grew to a $4 billion valuation by identifying an underserved market. After initial struggles with B2B wholesale placement in yoga studios, Kudla pivoted to DTC and discovered men preferred versatile activewear suitable for multiple activities. The company became profitable within two years after committing to a major marketing campaign.

Vince Nguyen resurrected his solo digital agency from semi-retirement, returning to 5+ figures per client in the first month. He specializes in Facebook Ads optimization and shares growth hacks for running a profitable solo agency, including WhatsApp-based customer outreach and outsourcing SDRs in Latin America.

MakeMeIcon is a Kenyan education technology platform teaching graphic design, web design, photography, and business skills. The founder Tony Mumo validated the concept by teaching 100 students in WhatsApp groups using minimal Facebook ad spend (~$1.50), then built a mobile app with $1,000 in developer costs and raised $18,000 in pre-seed funding from AfrinX Ventures. Launching a paywall in January at $10/month or $30/quarter, the platform currently has 102 beta users with 64 daily active users.

Wing Assistant is a platform connecting SMBs with remote talent, positioning itself as a software-driven alternative to traditional virtual assistant services. They grew from ~$1M to $10M in GSV by mastering Google Ads with sophisticated conversion tracking and analytics, using techniques like tracking 'inconspicuous words' in chat to identify high-quality leads while filtering out job seekers and fraudulent traffic. Their data-driven approach led to a $41,000 refund from Google after detecting and proving malicious click fraud.

Brad Miller acquired Awareness Tech, an internet security SaaS serving both consumers (parental monitoring) and businesses (employee productivity), for $6 million in 2010 when it was doing $5 million in revenue and losing $1 million. By converting the product from one-time payments to subscription billing, he immediately added $2 million in revenue. Over the next decade, Miller grew the business through two strategic acquisitions and took out $12 million in total dividends before selling the company for $35 million in late 2020, achieving a 9x return on his initial $5 million investment.

Top Hatter is a mobile marketplace for live auction discovery shopping launched in 2012. Operating with a 25% take rate on transactions, the company processes about $1 million in daily transaction volume (roughly 100,000 items) with an average item price of $10-20, projecting $300-400 million in gross transaction volume this year with $80-100 million in revenue. The company has raised $35 million total capital, operates at break-even while reinvesting heavily in marketing with a 30-60 day payback period, maintains 80% gross margins, and has doubled year-over-year since launch.

Survival Frog is an e-commerce company in the survival and preparedness market that evolved from an info product business. Founded in 2009, it achieved massive success with a survival info product called "37 Things Sold Out After Crisis" that generated $20 million in revenue over 2-3 years through paid email marketing. The company transitioned to 100% physical product sales and achieved $4.7 million in annual revenue in 2015 with approximately $500,000 in net profit, growing 27% year-over-year.

Andrea Lake launched Lessons.biz, an online course platform teaching entrepreneurs how to start businesses in specific verticals (starting with T-shirt companies, expanding to restaurants and personal training). The platform pairs detailed, actionable six-week courses with celebrity entrepreneurs who have proven success. With approximately 2,400 email subscribers and courses priced at $497 (self-guided) and $1,997 (with founder interaction), Andrea aims to become the #1 revenue generator in this space by 2018, having previously built six successful companies including StickerJunkie (which sold 20 million stickers).

YouStake is a marketplace where fans can buy equity stakes in professional poker players competing in live tournaments. Launched in June 2015, the platform has processed $2.8 million in stakes from 335 poker players and attracted 1.4 million in pledges from 2,700 users, generating approximately $70,000 in revenue through an 8% commission (5% to YouStake, 3% to payment processors). The team is targeting 50,000+ users and 20% month-over-month growth to hit a Series A by end of 2016.

Project Repat turns customers' old t-shirts into quilts made in the USA with recycled plastic bottle fleece. Starting with just $25k in seed funding and $8k in the bank, Nathan Rothstein and his co-founder scaled from struggling with a Groupon viral moment in August 2012 (selling 2,000 quilts in a week) to $750k in revenue by November 2015. They aggressively scaled through Facebook ads and email marketing (Klaviyo), reinvesting heavily into customer acquisition to dominate the blue ocean market of affordable t-shirt quilts.

Flourish and Thrive Academy is an online education platform founded by Tracy Matthews, a jewelry designer with 20+ years of industry experience. After her first jewelry brand failed despite nearly $1 million in sales due to poor business structure, she built an academy to teach emerging jewelry designers business skills, marketing, and operations. The academy has grown to 800 students in three years using a Facebook ad-driven funnel ($500/month spend generating ~1,000 monthly opt-ins) and webinar-based sales, with both one-time courses ($795 generating $160,000 from 245 signups) and newly launched subscription offerings ($49-$78/month).

Magic City Ford, run by serial entrepreneur Cameron Johnson, is a car dealership in Roanoke, Virginia generating close to $80 million in annual revenue. The business was founded by Cameron's great grandfather in 1938 and has been sustained through consistent hustle and staying power. Cameron has optimized customer acquisition to around $350 per sale by shifting away from traditional newspaper advertising toward a multi-channel approach (50% online, 20% radio, 20% TV, 10% direct mail), with online advertising driving the highest ROI through Google Ads and lead tracking.