We Spent 6 Figures on Marketing. Here’s What I Learned and What We’re Doing Now

At the end of last financial year, we sat down with our accountant and reviewed the numbers. Profit was at an all-time high, margins were strong, and the business was performing well across every metric that mattered. From the outside, and frankly from the inside, it looked like we had cracked the formula.

Naturally, I assumed the next step was simple: scale it.

We’d grown 100% year-on-year for four straight years. Our model was proven, our team was solid, and our reputation was driving consistent demand. It felt like the right time to invest in serious growth. So we decided to increase our marketing budget, upgrade our sales funnel, and bring in external expertise to help us expand faster.

A few weeks later, we signed on a well-regarded marketing agency from Sydney. They were sharp, well-organised, and had a clear plan. I want to say upfront: this article isn’t a critique of them. Their work was thoughtful and professional. What follows is a deeper reflection on what we learned, the internal shifts, the operational strain, and the strategic blind spots that became obvious only after we’d committed hundreds of hours and six figures to the effort.

Lesson One - Trust Your Instinct

By the end of our first month of advertising, we had spent over $25,000 on Google and Meta campaigns, almost more than our entire marketing spend from the previous year. Enquiries started flowing in quickly. On paper, everything looked promising: site traffic was up, ad metrics were “healthy”, and our inbox was busy.

Our funnel at the time was straightforward. Prospects would enquire via our website, then book directly into my calendar for a discovery call. Within weeks, my schedule was completely full, back-to-back meetings, Monday through Friday. We’d thought we’d cracked the code, every business owners dream had just come true, a pipeline full of engaged prospects.

This should have been a great sign. We were generating interest. The machine was working.

But something didn’t feel right…

I started noticing a shift in the quality of conversations. We had more no-shows. Some phone numbers were fake. Others had little understanding of our services, budget expectations, or process. A few calls were genuinely strong, but most felt rushed, misaligned, or premature.

Before this campaign, my close rate was strong, usually around 50%. That made sense, given most prospects came from referrals or direct experience with our work. Now, I was spending entire days in meetings and closing almost nothing.

At first, I blamed myself. Maybe I wasn’t closing well enough. Maybe the fatigue of too many calls was showing. But over time, it became clear: this wasn’t just a sales problem, it was a systems problem.

Lesson Two - Starting Every Month Behind Adds Pressure

Our marketing spend changed the economics of the business. With $20K–$30K going out the door each month, we were starting from a deficit. We needed a minimum of two new deals per month just to break even on marketing. That pressure distorted our focus and forced us into pushing hard for the wrong type of client. 

It made it harder to think clearly, harder to be selective, and harder to protect the quality standards we were known for. Every “maybe” conversation became a “we should try”. Over time, the line between a good-fit client and a stretch-fit client started to blur. This is a particularly dangerous game to play when you’re in a service based business (the business of people). 

Lesson Three - The Automation Trap

In response to the influx of low-quality leads, we did what most modern companies do: we built automations.

We introduced a five-step, logic filled Typeform to qualify leads, connected it to Zapier, updated our SMS flows, redesigned our email sequences, and rebuilt our booking logic. At one point, we had a web of tools working together in a way that was very impressive, if you ignored the results.

Despite all this, lead quality barely improved. Worse, I started losing visibility over what was actually happening in the funnel. Enquiries would come in, but it was unclear whether they’d booked a call, abandoned the form, or dropped off entirely.

Meanwhile, our spend on CRM tools and automation software ballooned, and I found myself spending more time managing workflows than running the business.

The automations made us feel like we were being proactive but in reality, they added complexity without fixing the core issue: we were attracting the wrong people.

What we lost in this process was clarity.

Moonward was built on reputation. On delivering excellent work, then earning referrals and repeat business. Most of our best clients had found us through word of mouth or through using the products we’d built. They came informed, curious, and committed.

Now, we were dealing with volume. Lots of activity but not a lot of alignment.

Lesson Four - The Inconvenient Truth About Volume Marketing

Early in our engagement with our Marketing Agency, one of the company leads asked a question I didn’t give enough weight at the time:

“If we significantly increase your leads, do you have the infrastructure to handle them?”

My answer was a quick. “Yes, absolutely.”

In hindsight, I didn’t think the question through properly. In my mind I thought; If they generated double or triple the number of our current leads, everything would be fantastic. 

I thought we had the capacity for more clients.

What we didn’t have was the operational capacity to sort the right leads from the wrong ones at scale.

An increase in quantity doesn’t guarantee an increase in quality.

Before the campaign, we’d spend time with clients who had done their homework, read our case studies, researched our process, or had been personally referred. Now, we were fielding enquiries from people who were nowhere near ready to work with us, and in many cases, were never going to be.

Lesson Five - Metrics Without Sales Means Very Little

About eight months in, we stepped back and reviewed everything. We looked at all the dashboards. Every acronym, datapoint and metric our marketing company threw our way; CTR. CPC. CPA. Bounce rates. Conversion funnels. Dozens of metrics that looked “good”.

But the one number that our marketing company failed to mention and the number that mattered the most was being neglected: Closed deals 

We hadn’t been clear enough on our closed deals and ROI tracking…

So we simplified.

We started tracking just three things:

1. How many enquiries we received

2. How many calls we had

3. How many clients we signed

Within a few weeks, it was obvious: the campaign wasn’t working. We had volume, but not conversion.

Resetting the Vision

By month ten, we had spent close to $200,000 on marketing, plus hundreds of man hours. The results were clear, and not in the way we had hoped.

But the experience wasn’t a waste.

In fact, it helped me rediscover the kind of business I want to build and, equally important, the kind I don’t.

For a year, we were operating in a way that didn’t align with our values. Everything felt reactive. Fast-paced. Frantic. We were hiring quickly, managing at capacity, and solving short-term problems with short-term decisions. Yes, revenue grew. But so did mess. And in many ways, we lost the joy and clarity that had made our company special.

Today, we’ve returned to what works for us.

High-trust relationships.

Thoughtful projects.

Clients who are the right fit not just any fit.

We’ll still explore creative marketing when it makes sense. But never again at the expense of quality, culture, or clarity.

If you’re in the early stages of scaling through paid marketing, I hope this gives you a few useful checkpoints. Growth is exciting but only when it brings you closer to the company you want to build, not further away.