Day 80: Funnel Testing Costs, and Retargeting Strategy

Today marks Day 80 and the numbers finally showed signs of stabilising after a bumpy few days.

The new funnel is officially running, although still deep in the learning phase, and that means it’s pulling down short-term profitability.

Google Ads continues to be a headache with still zero impressions despite multiple fixes.

On the brighter side, the video engagement campaign has now built an audience of more than 5,500 through-plays, which opens the door for a retargeting test.

A new split test comparing the 42-riff package vs. the separated three-volume version is underway, and early indicators show they are performing almost identically.

The focus today is balancing testing costs with long-term performance gains while maintaining momentum in the primary funnel.

What You’ll See

• Daily revenue stabilisation after previous drops
• Complete stall on Google Ads despite optimisation
• New funnel still in learning phase and temporarily unprofitable
• Engagement campaign building a 5,500-person retargeting audience
• Retargeting traffic campaign planned at low daily budget
• Updated split test using aligned imagery for a fair comparison
• Early split test results showing identical conversion rates
• Expectations for the new funnel’s first sale
• Strategic tradeoffs between testing and short-term profit

Strategy Breakdown

Yesterday finished at $860, which helped offset the weaker performance of the days before. Because the new funnel has just begun spending, total ad spend for the day rose to around $544 once the additional funnel and engagement campaigns were included.

Profit landed at roughly $316, which is acceptable given that new campaigns typically create short-term drag.

The Google Ads campaign remains stuck at zero impressions, even after switching the bid strategy to maximise conversions.

No errors are showing in the dashboard, but with the new funnel already consuming budget in its learning phase, there is hesitation about continuing to fund Google at £120 per day.

Meanwhile, the video engagement campaign has been quietly running for about two weeks, accumulating around £39 in spend and building a 5,500-person through-play audience.

A custom audience has now been created from these viewers, and once populated fully, a test traffic campaign will be launched at around £5 per day to see if warm-audience traffic converts at a lower cost.

The main split test for the riffs funnel continues.

The earlier test was flawed due to inconsistent design and proposition, so the revised test uses visually matched packaging while comparing a single 42-riff bundle to a three-volume layout.

After three or four days, both versions are converting at roughly 3 percent, with only a slight variance in first-step engagement.

The plan is to let this run longer to gather meaningful data.

With the second funnel’s learning phase underway, the big milestone being watched for is the first sale.

Early CPMs are predictably high due to the newness of the campaign, but once it exits learning mode, those numbers should stabilise.

Focus

The focus today is on managing the unavoidable cost of testing while still keeping a healthy daily profit.

With two funnels, an engagement campaign, and warm-audience retargeting about to begin, this week is about creating the infrastructure required for bigger gains next month, even if it reduces profit temporarily.

Insight

Day 80 is a reminder that sustainable scale requires absorbing short-term friction.

Funnels entering learning phases, retargeting audiences filling, and new split tests running all create temporary noise in the numbers.

The key is understanding that each of these steps builds leverage.

The more data the system collects today, the cheaper and more profitable acquisition becomes tomorrow.

Staying patient through these phases separates the campaigns that plateau from those that break through.