Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
I'll never forget the panic call I received at 9 AM on a Tuesday morning. One of my e-commerce clients had just watched their daily revenue drop from €2,000 to €200 overnight. What happened? Facebook had flagged their ad account for "policy violations" that weren't even real violations—just their algorithm being overly aggressive.
This client had been running a profitable store for 18 months, generating consistent revenue through Facebook Ads with a solid 2.5 ROAS. They'd built their entire business model around paid advertising, reinvesting profits back into more ads. But when that tap turned off, they realized they had no other way to reach customers.
The harsh reality? Relying solely on paid advertising is like building a house on rented land. You're completely dependent on platforms you don't control, with rules that change overnight and costs that only go up.
Here's what you'll learn from my real-world experience helping businesses recover from paid advertising disasters:
Why paid ads create a dangerous addiction cycle that gets harder to break
The hidden costs of paid advertising that most businesses don't calculate
How I helped clients build sustainable traffic sources that survive platform changes
The exact framework I use to evaluate when paid ads make sense (and when they don't)
A step-by-step approach to building distribution-led growth that doesn't disappear overnight
Industry Reality
What every marketing guru won't tell you about paid advertising
Walk into any marketing conference or scroll through business Twitter, and you'll hear the same story: "Scale with paid ads!" The standard playbook looks something like this:
Start with Facebook and Google Ads - They have the largest audiences and best targeting
Test different creatives and audiences - Find what converts and scale it up
Reinvest profits into more ads - Use the "growth at all costs" mentality
Diversify across platforms - Add TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube once you've mastered the basics
Focus on LTV optimization - Make the unit economics work through better retention
This conventional wisdom exists because it does work in the short term. Paid advertising delivers immediate results, measurable ROI, and predictable scaling. For venture-backed startups burning through runway, it's often the fastest way to prove product-market fit and hit growth targets.
The problem? This approach treats symptoms, not causes. You're essentially paying rent to reach your own customers, and that rent only goes up over time. Most businesses don't realize they're building a house of cards until it collapses.
Here's where the standard advice falls short: it assumes platforms will remain stable, costs will stay reasonable, and you'll always be able to "diversify" your way out of problems. But what happens when iOS updates kill your tracking, privacy regulations change the rules, or your competitor starts outbidding you for the same keywords?
The transition to sustainable growth isn't about abandoning paid ads entirely—it's about building a foundation that doesn't crumble when the algorithms change.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
Let me tell you about two clients that perfectly illustrate this problem. The first was running a successful Shopify store selling handmade products. They'd built their entire business around Facebook Ads, generating €50K monthly revenue with a comfortable 3x ROAS. Everything looked great on paper.
Then iOS 14.5 happened. Overnight, their attribution tracking broke, their audiences stopped working, and their ROAS dropped to 1.2x. What used to be profitable was now bleeding money. They came to me in panic mode, asking how to "fix" their Facebook ads.
The second client was a B2B SaaS startup that had been exclusively using Google Ads and LinkedIn for lead generation. They were spending €15K monthly and getting decent results—until their main competitor raised Series A funding and started outbidding them on every keyword. Their cost per lead tripled within two months.
Both clients shared the same fundamental problem: they had confused a marketing channel with a business strategy. They'd optimized their entire operation around platforms they didn't control, with rules that could change at any moment.
When I dug deeper into their businesses, I found some alarming patterns. The handmade products client had never invested in email marketing, SEO, or customer retention. They had a 15% repeat purchase rate and zero organic traffic. The SaaS client had built no content marketing engine, no referral program, and their organic search presence was nonexistent.
They weren't building businesses—they were building advertising machines that happened to sell products. And when those machines broke, they had no backup plan.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
My approach became about building what I call "platform-independent growth systems." Instead of trying to fix their broken ad campaigns, I focused on creating sustainable traffic sources that couldn't be turned off by algorithm changes.
For the e-commerce client, we implemented a complete distribution overhaul. First, I restructured their website for SEO optimization—something they'd never considered because Facebook ads were "working." We built content around their product categories, optimized for search intent rather than just brand messaging.
Within three months, we generated over 5,000 monthly organic visitors. More importantly, these visitors had higher intent and better conversion rates than paid traffic because they were actively searching for solutions.
But here's where it gets interesting: when we re-enabled their Facebook ads after building this organic foundation, their performance actually improved. Why? Because now they had multiple touchpoints. Someone might discover them through organic search, see a retargeting ad, then convert. The paid ads became amplification tools rather than the primary discovery method.
For the B2B SaaS client, we took a different approach. Instead of competing in the expensive keyword auction, we built what I call a "content moat." We created programmatic SEO pages for every use case and integration—hundreds of pages that captured long-tail keywords their competitors weren't targeting.
We also implemented a referral system and started building partnerships with complementary tools. Six months later, 60% of their leads were coming from organic sources, and their customer acquisition cost had dropped by 40%.
The key insight: sustainable growth comes from owning your distribution, not renting it. This means building systems where you control the customer relationship from discovery to purchase.
Risk Mitigation
Build multiple traffic sources before you need them—don't wait for disasters to diversify
Platform Dependency
Every algorithm change becomes an existential threat when you only have one channel
Hidden Costs
Track lifetime platform costs, not just monthly ad spend—most businesses underestimate the true expense
Sustainable Systems
Focus on owned media (email, content, SEO) that compound over time rather than depreciating channels
The e-commerce client saw their organic traffic grow from 300 to 5,000 monthly visitors in just three months. More importantly, these organic visitors converted 23% better than paid traffic because they had higher intent.
When we re-enabled their Facebook ads after building the organic foundation, something unexpected happened: their ROAS improved to 4.2x. Why? Because now they had multiple touchpoints in the customer journey. The combination of organic discovery + paid retargeting was more powerful than paid ads alone.
The B2B SaaS client reduced their customer acquisition cost by 40% while increasing lead quality. Six months after implementing the "platform-independent" strategy, 60% of their leads came from organic sources. Their monthly ad spend dropped from €15K to €8K, but revenue actually increased because of better conversion rates.
The most surprising result? Both clients reported sleeping better at night. They were no longer checking ad performance first thing in the morning, panicking about algorithm changes, or worrying about competitors outbidding them.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
The biggest lesson: paid advertising isn't inherently bad—it's the over-reliance that kills businesses. When used strategically as part of a diversified approach, ads can be incredibly powerful. But they should amplify your growth, not be the foundation of it.
Platform dependency is business risk - Any channel you don't control can disappear overnight
True costs compound over time - Most businesses only calculate monthly ad spend, not lifetime platform dependency
Organic + paid beats paid alone - The combination is more powerful than either channel individually
Build systems, not campaigns - Focus on creating repeatable processes that generate traffic without ongoing investment
Customer intent varies by channel - Organic traffic often converts better because it represents active search behavior
Diversification requires time - You can't build organic channels overnight, so start before you need them
Control the customer relationship - Own the entire journey from discovery to purchase whenever possible
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups, the risks are even higher because of longer sales cycles and higher customer acquisition costs. Here's your action plan:
Build content marketing early—start with use case pages and integration guides
Implement referral programs from day one to leverage existing customers
Focus on SEO for bottom-funnel keywords where buying intent is highest
Use paid ads for retargeting and amplification, not primary discovery
For your Ecommerce store
E-commerce faces unique challenges with platform dependency, especially on Facebook and Google. Your strategy should include:
Email marketing automation to own customer relationships beyond the first purchase
SEO-optimized product and category pages for organic discovery
Partnerships with complementary brands and influencers for authentic reach
Content marketing around your products' use cases and benefits