The Challenge
The client, a fast-growing SaaS scale-up offering generative AI tools to automate customer interactions, saw strong traction following the launch of a new AI Agent in late 2023. In response, the business increased prices by 15% and raised marketing investment by 50% to boost acquisition through their 4-week product trial.
By mid 2024, performance lagged expectations. Most of the marketing budget was allocated to Paid Search (80%+) and the lack of value-led communication to support price increase sharply reduced trial-to-sign-up conversion. With brand recognition already low due to limited brand-led comms, performance marketing alone was no longer enough to sustain growth.
With low brand equity translating into weak mental availability for the brand, and media investment nearing saturation, the business needed a new way to measure what would actually drive growth.
The Solution
The engagement began with a comprehensive data & martech audit to confirm that data capture, tracking, and infrastructure were fit for advanced marketing analytics. We then implemented a combined measurement framework using marketing mix modelling and geo-targeted incrementality testing to assess whether the current spend mix could support sustainable growth.
Preliminary MMM showed that simply increasing spend in high-intent channels was not enough to offset the price increase without stronger brand support.. Paid Search, SEO, and Performance Max remained strong contributors but had reached saturation. Meanwhile, mid- and upper-funnel channels accounted for less than 6% of spend, were inconsistently used, and were statistically weak within the model.
To overcome these limitations, we ran geo-targeted incrementality tests across underused channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Digital Display, using existing creatives to control costs. The results were fed back into the model to calibrate optimisation and scenario planning, giving the business the confidence to break out of the performance-marketing doom loop and reallocate spend towards a more balanced brand + activation strategy.
The Impact
Incrementality tests were run sequentially to isolate effects cleanly, with each channel phased into the media mix once results were validated.
Over a six-month period, branded impressions increased by 38%, signalling a measurable uplift in brand visibility when benchmarked against key competitors. In parallel, trial-to-sign-up conversion improved by 24%, reversing the post-price-increase decline and restoring confidence in the acquisition funnel.
Paid Search remained stable in absolute spend but declined as a share of total investment. The client now operates a fully integrated multichannel communication plan combining brand-building and performance activity, aligned to both short-term efficiency and long-term growth objectives.
Key Takeaways
Brand investment was critical to restoring conversion performance following a price increase.
Marketing Mix Models alone were insufficient given historic lower-funnel bias and required supplementing with testing.
Geo-targeted Incrementality Tests unlocked scalable mid- and upper-funnel investment decisions.
Rebalancing spend reduced over-reliance on Paid Search while improving overall acquisition resilience.
Tools and Techniques
- Data & martech audit
- Marketing mix modelling
- Incrementality testing
- Budget optimisation
- SQL
- R
- BigQuery (Data warehousing)
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