Day 131: January Strategy Reset and Where To Focus

We’re now on Day 131 of this 12-month journey to $240K, and it’s January 9th already, which feels slightly alarming in itself.

I didn’t record anything yesterday, so this post covers the last couple of days, but more importantly it lays out my strategy for January and the decisions I’ve made about where to focus.

Recent Numbers Snapshot

Over the 7th and 8th of January, sales came in at $802 and $881.

Across those two days, ad spend was £878, which works out at roughly $1,118.

Total profit over the two days was $503.

That’s profit, which is good, but it’s not quite where I want it to be given the current spend levels.

At £440 per day in ad spend, which is over $500, I really want to be closer to $500 profit per day.

That means consistently hitting around $1,000 in daily sales, which still feels like a big psychological number.

As of today, we’re at $452 by quarter to two in the afternoon, so there’s still time for this to push into the $800–$900 range.

Why I Need to Act Now

The first week of January has disappeared, and the reality is I haven’t actually done anything proactive to move the funnel forward.

The funnel has been running by itself, which is great, but that’s also where complacency can creep in.

I’ve learned before not to meddle when things are working, but there’s also a point where you need to protect yourself against a downturn.

Ad performance will fluctuate.
Audiences change.
Competition shifts.

What I can’t control is Facebook’s algorithm and who my ads are shown to.

What I can control is how well everything else is optimised.

Sales vs Profit Reality Check

When I reviewed the top-line numbers a few days ago, the picture was clear.

I’m slightly ahead of target on sales across the journey so far, but I’m behind on profit.

Four months in, with eight months still to go, that sets the agenda very clearly.
Sales alone don’t matter if profit isn’t keeping pace.

Funnel Metrics Review

I went through the funnel metrics in detail to see if anything obvious stood out.
I looked at initial conversion rates, average order value, front-end sales, order bumps, upsells, downsells, cart abandonment, and cart recovery.

Nothing jumped out as being fundamentally broken.

December looked better than November overall, which makes sense given seasonality and improved ad performance.

One thing I did notice was that cart abandonment recovery was lower than November, but that’s not always something you can directly control and it can swing month to month.

The Two Funnels Decision

At this point I’m running two funnels.

The first is my original RIFS funnel, which is where almost all of the revenue and profit is coming from.

The second funnel was introduced later, pushed hard through November and early December, but never got enough conversions to escape the learning phase.
It eventually hit Learning Limited and effectively stalled.

At the same time, I’m now developing a completely new product that’s more app-based and sits in the SaaS space, aimed at beginners.

That changes the equation.

Right now, restarting the second funnel would require time, money, and focus.
Given everything else going on, I’ve decided to park that second funnel for now.

That’s not an easy decision, especially given the time and money already invested, but it’s the pragmatic one.

The working funnel deserves my attention.

January Focus and Priorities

For January, and likely into February, my focus is entirely on optimising the funnel that’s already working.

The revenue from this funnel is what will fund further development elsewhere.

Everything I do comes back to three core metrics:
Cost per acquisition
Average order value
Lifetime value over 30–60 days

Small improvements across all three can dramatically change overall profitability.

What I’m Focusing On First

Right now, my priorities are CPA and LTV.

Cost per acquisition is currently around $33.
I’d like to reduce that by around 10%.

That comes down to two things:
The quality and volume of ad creative
The conversion rate of the offer page

Over the next few days, my first task is to add more ad creative into the campaign.
I’ve talked about this a lot, but now it needs to actually happen.

This helps prevent ad fatigue and gives the algorithm more options to work with.

Alongside that, I’ll run a new split test on the landing page.

The last test ran for about a month and is finished, so it’s time for a new one.

Lifetime Value Opportunities

I’m not planning to focus heavily on average order value right now.

I’ve tested multiple variations in the past, and the current setup is reasonably solid.

The biggest opportunity is lifetime value.

At the moment, LTV sits around $60.

If I can push that to $65 or $70, it makes a huge difference.

This is largely an email problem.

The first two weeks post-purchase are about product consumption, and I won’t change much there.

But weeks two to six are under-optimised.

In January, I’ll be reviewing the 30-day post-purchase sequence and introducing two specific offers during that window.

This is a zero-cost improvement that could deliver meaningful gains.

The Plan for January

My January plan is simple and focused.

Increase ad creative volume

Run a new landing page split test

Review and improve the 30-day post-purchase email sequence

Introduce two new backend offers

If the ads continue to perform and I execute on these changes, I should start seeing the impact by the end of January.

That timing matters, because I’ll be away for several weeks at the end of the month, so everything needs to be in place before then.

Closing Thoughts

Right now, I have clarity and a plan. The next step is execution.

I’ll keep sharing how this unfolds, what works, and what doesn’t, as we move through January.