The $47K Attribution Nightmare That Almost Killed a Series A Startup

The $47K Attribution Nightmare That Almost Killed a Series A Startup

The $47K Attribution Nightmare That Almost Killed a Series A Startup

How We Uncovered a Facebook vs Google Attribution Disaster in 72 Hours (And Saved a CEO from Presenting Fake Metrics to His Board)

How We Uncovered a Facebook vs Google Attribution Disaster in 72 Hours (And Saved a CEO from Presenting Fake Metrics to His Board)

How We Uncovered a Facebook vs Google Attribution Disaster in 72 Hours (And Saved a CEO from Presenting Fake Metrics to His Board)

CASE STUDY 1 - How We Uncovered a $47K Monthly Attribution Leak That Was Killing a Series A Startup's Growth

The Client Series A B2B SaaS company, $3M ARR, targeting mid-market sales teams. Recently raised $12M, board expecting 3x growth, CEO burning through cash on ads that "weren't working."

The Nightmare The CEO was getting questioned by the board about burn rate while the CMO was 48 hours from killing Facebook entirely. Facebook ads showed terrible performance while Google looked amazing. The CMO was ready to kill Facebook and triple down on Google. But something felt wrong.

  • Facebook dashboard: $180 CAC, terrible ROAS

  • Google dashboard: $95 CAC, great ROAS

  • Reality: They were about to fund their worst channel and kill their best

The deeper problem? Their attribution windows were completely misaligned with actual customer behavior. B2B buyers were taking 4-6 days to convert, but Facebook was only getting credit for same-day conversions.

Three weeks before our intervention, he presented "strong Google performance" to the board. After the fix, he had to email them saying "I was completely wrong about our best channel."

What We Found in 72 Hours: We traced 100 recent customers from first touch to purchase. The results were shocking:

  • 67% of customers credited to "organic" actually came from Facebook

  • Google was getting credit for users who clicked Facebook ads 3 days earlier

  • They were burning $47K monthly, scaling the wrong channel

  • Their "organic" growth was paid Facebook traffic

The Fix That Changed Everything. We rebuilt their attribution stack in 3 days with cross-device tracking and proper conversion windows. The real numbers revealed a complete reversal:

  • Facebook true CAC: $78 (not $180)

  • Google true CAC: $156 (not $95)

  • Monthly waste eliminated: $47K

  • Growth acceleration: Immediate

The 30-Day Results

  • Reallocated $40K monthly from Google to Facebook

  • Overall, CAC dropped 34%

  • Lead quality improved (Facebook drove more qualified prospects)

  • The board meeting went from damage control to celebration

Why This Matters Most Series A companies are presenting fake growth metrics to their boards while funding their competitors.

The CEO's Reaction: "I was 48 hours away from killing our best channel and doubling down on our worst. Godwin didn't just save us money - he saved our entire growth trajectory."

Ready to see where you're leaking money? I'll audit your attribution for free. If I don't find at least $50K monthly in waste, dinner's on me.

Stop Bleeding Money You Don't Even Know About

I'll find your $10K leak in 15 minutes — or you owe me nothing.

Stop Bleeding Money You Don't Even Know About

I'll find your $10K leak in 15 minutes — or you owe me nothing.

Stop Bleeding Money You Don't Even Know About

I'll find your $10K leak in 15 minutes — or you owe me nothing.