Day 218: March Was Our Worst Month. Here's Why.

March is closed, the numbers are in, and it's not pretty — but the story doesn't end there.

Here's a transparent breakdown of what went wrong last month and the early signs that April is heading in a much better direction.

Key Takeaways

- March was our worst month in seven months — front-end sales dropped from £6,500 to just £1,600 despite higher ad spend.

- A full campaign reset with new messaging has already pushed cost per purchase under £20 and improved click-through rates significantly.

- We're ahead of our overall sales target — £167,252 vs a £140,000 seven-month target — but profit is lagging behind at £56,665 against a £70,000 goal.

- The new hook and headline combination is producing a ~4% conversion rate on the landing page, with average cart value also improving.

The Overall $240K Journey Dashboard

We're now at Day 218, with seven months of data sitting in the spreadsheet. The headline sales number looks encouraging — £167,252 in actual sales against a seven-month target of £140,000 puts us roughly 10% ahead on revenue.

But the profit picture tells a different story. We're sitting at £56,665 profit against a target of £70,000 for this point in the year — meaning we're about £13,000 adrift on the metric that actually matters most.

What the March Numbers Actually Show

Compared to February, March saw a drop in leads, a drop in customers (from 327 down to 293), and a rise in ad spend. That combination is about as bad as it gets for a paid traffic funnel.

Front-end sales collapsed from £6,500 in February to just £1,600 in March. The cost per customer acquisition climbed from around £45 — already above my £40 target — up to £56. More money in, fewer sales out.

Why March Went So Wrong

If you've been following the recent daily updates, the context is already there. The short version: the campaign messaging drifted away from what had been working, and the results reflected that quickly.

The overall March profit landed at approximately £4,000 — roughly 50% down on the previous month. It's not where we want to be, but understanding why it happened is the first step to fixing it.

The Campaign Reset: Starting From Scratch

Rather than patching the existing campaign, I made the decision to reset completely — new proposition, new messaging, back to my own method. That meant restarting the campaign budget at £100 per day and letting the algorithm rebuild from fresh data.

Over the last three to four days, I've scaled that gradually. As of today, the budget is set at £200 per day. It's a slower rebuild, but a more stable one.

Early Results: What the New Messaging Is Doing

Yesterday's numbers came in at 8 purchases from £157 in spend — a cost per purchase of just under £20. That's a significant improvement from the £56 we saw across March as a whole.

CPMs are coming down, and more importantly, click-through rates on the new hook and headline are considerably higher than the previous creative. That means we're getting landing page views for less money before we even factor in conversion rates.

Conversion Rate and Cart Value Holding Up

Looking at the last two days of data (5th to 7th April), the landing page is converting at around 4%, which is a solid benchmark for this funnel. Average cart value is also up, which adds another layer of encouragement.

If these numbers hold over the next few days, I'll be confident enough to carry this messaging across to the organic side of the business and integrate it into the email automation sequence as well.

Ad Creative: One Headline, Multiple Visual Treatments

An interesting development in the current setup — all the active ad creative is running the same headline and body copy. The only variable being tested right now is the visual treatment.

If this messaging proves robust enough, the next step is to develop creative where the headline and imagery are built specifically to work together, rather than adapting existing visuals to a new message.

Revenue Snapshot: Back in Profit Day-on-Day

Yesterday's front-end revenue came in at $416 against an ad spend of roughly $280 — a profitable day. Today is already at $570 with spend at around $20.50, so we're on track for another profitable day as the budget scales up to £200.

After the grimness of March, seeing back-to-back profitable days — even at this early stage of the reset — is a genuine confidence boost.

What April Needs to Deliver

The priority for April is simple: hold the new messaging, scale carefully, and let the data guide the pace of that scaling. If conversion rates stay around 4% and cost per purchase stays under £30, we'll be back on a trajectory that closes the profit gap.

There's also work to do on the organic side and in the email sequence — bringing this new narrative through the full funnel rather than just at the top of it.

Closing Reflection

March hurt, and I won't dress that up. But the data made it clear what needed to change, and the early signs from the reset are genuinely encouraging. The journey to £240K was never going to be a straight line — this is just one of the dips we always knew were possible.

The goal now is to make sure April looks nothing like March. We'll keep tracking every number, sharing every result, and documenting whatever happens next — good or bad.

Resources & Next Steps

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