Day 208: March Ad Losses and Rising Cost Per Purchase.

March has been one of the hardest months of this journey so far — but buried inside a tough week of ad losses is a small organic win that's genuinely exciting.

Key Takeaways

- Cost per purchase has nearly doubled — from £22 to £38 in just a few days, making profitability very difficult.

- Yesterday's result was a loss — £347 ($460) in ad spend against $353 in revenue, a loss of roughly $100–$110.

- YouTube organic views are up 1,000% in the last 7 days following a strategy of unpublishing underperforming Shorts.

- A budget reset and new ad creative are being planned for Monday to try and find a better-converting audience.

Where We Are: Day 208

We're on day 208 of the 365-day journey to $240K in online course sales, and we're sitting at the 28th of March. Honestly, looking at the current trajectory, March is going to be a really difficult month to report positively on.

There have been borderline break-even days, one significant loss day, and yesterday was another tough one. It's not where we want to be, but staying transparent about the bad stretches is just as important as celebrating the wins.

Yesterday's Ad Performance

Yesterday's revenue came in at $353, while ad spend was £347 (approximately $460). That's a loss of around $100–$110 on the day.

A couple of days prior we'd managed around $500, but it's been inconsistent and the trend is pointing in the wrong direction. Today is even more concerning — by 4pm we were only at $253.20, making it very unlikely we'll close the day in profit.

The Core Problem: Cost Per Purchase

The biggest issue right now is the cost per purchase. Yesterday it was sitting at £38. Compare that to what we were seeing on the 25th — around £22 — and we're looking at nearly double the cost to acquire a customer.

That shift is being driven by a rising CPM and falling click-through rates. The ads simply aren't getting in front of the right buying audience at the moment. When both of those metrics move in the wrong direction simultaneously, profitability gets squeezed fast.

What's Going Wrong With the Ads?

The root cause appears to be ad creative fatigue and audience targeting drift. The hooks that were working previously aren't resonating in the same way, and the algorithm isn't finding buyers as efficiently as it was.

New creative is being lined up and the plan is to launch fresh campaigns from Monday. There's also a strong case for pulling back the budget temporarily — letting things reset before pushing spend again. Running at a loss daily isn't sustainable, and sometimes stepping back is the smarter move.

Performance Snapshot

- Date: 28th March – Day 208

- Yesterday's revenue: $353

- Yesterday's ad spend: £347 (~$460)

- Net result: -$100 to -$110

- Today's revenue (by 4pm): $253.20

- Cost per purchase (yesterday): £38 vs £22 on the 25th

The YouTube Organic Win

Here's where the good news comes in. As part of an ongoing strategy of unpublishing underperforming YouTube Shorts, the channel's organic metrics have started to move in a very encouraging direction.

In the last seven days, watch time is up 308% and views are up approximately 1,000%. To put that in context, the entire month of February generated just 23 new subscribers.

In the last seven days alone, we've picked up another 25 subscribers — potentially quadrupling the monthly subscriber rate if this continues.

Why This Organic Strategy Matters

What makes this particularly exciting is the time investment involved — it takes less than five minutes a day to implement. It's almost entirely automated once the initial housekeeping of unpublishing poor-performing Shorts is done.

In a month where paid ads are eating into margins, having an organic channel that's gaining real momentum is genuinely valuable. It's not going to replace paid traffic overnight, but it's a meaningful step toward a more balanced traffic strategy.

What Happens Next

The immediate priority is reviewing today's final numbers and making a call on whether to reduce ad budget over the weekend. A reset — cutting spend, setting up new campaigns, and launching fresh creative on Monday — looks like the most logical path forward.

The goal is to stop the daily losses, give the algorithm a clean slate, and come back with stronger hooks and better-targeted audiences. It's not a panic move — it's a strategic pause to regroup.

Closing Reflection

March has been humbling. But documenting the hard months is part of why this journey exists — real business doesn't always go up and to the right, and pretending otherwise would defeat the point.

The organic numbers are a reminder that progress is happening on multiple fronts, even when one channel is struggling. We keep pushing, stay data-focused, and look for the next lever to pull. Monday is a fresh start.

Resources & Next Steps

Free Top 10 Split-Tests: https://www.jonathanhowkins.com/split-testing

Join the Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/coursecreatorads

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