How an artisan baker platform saw a 460% increase in free trials within 1 month
Castiron offered a platform designed to help artisan bakers manage their businesses, from online storefronts to invoicing.
When they approached me, they were in the early stages of building their category and wanted to scale their acquisition of new bakers. They had a decent foundation with SEO and some initial traction, but their Google Ads weren't delivering the results they needed.
How an artisan baker platform saw a 460% increase in free trials within 1 month
Castiron offered a platform designed to help artisan bakers manage their businesses, from online storefronts to invoicing.
When they approached me, they were in the early stages of building their category and wanted to scale their acquisition of new bakers. They had a decent foundation with SEO and some initial traction, but their Google Ads weren't delivering the results they needed.
Project highlights
Industry:
Software company (with a B2C marketplace later on)
Tools:
Segment, Hubspot, Webflow
Who I worked with:
CEO, Head of Marketing, CTO
Before
Castiron wanted to scale their acquisition of artisan bakers who would subscribe to their platform. They were looking for a cost-effective way to drive sign-ups and grow their user base.
- They knew how important it was to capture high-intent users searching for solutions related to starting and running a food business.
- They had already invested in SEO and content marketing, which provided a good foundation for Google Ads to build upon.
But Castiron was facing a few key challenges:
- They were building a new type of platform, so potential customers weren't necessarily searching for the specific solution they offered.
- Castiron wanted to attract a very specific type of customer – artisan bakers – and needed help discerning that audience within Google Search.
- Their past attempts with Google Ads hadn't yielded the desired results, so they were eager to find an expert who could help them unlock its potential.
During
I took ownership of the entire process – from setting up conversion tracking to managing campaigns and optimizing creative.
- I worked with their CTO to implement conversion tracking, so that we could measure the entire customer journey from free trial sign-up to paid subscription.
- At first, I focused on volume-based smart bidding to drive a high number of free trials while reducing their cost per acquisition.
- As I gathered more data, I refined our bidding strategy to optimize for deeper funnel conversions, such as creating a product listing on the platform. This would target users more likely to convert into paying customers.
We had weekly or bi-weekly scheduled meetings to review the results – we looked at how many free trials they got, how much they spent, and how many new customers they signed up.
After
The initial impact of our Google Ads strategy was undeniable.
- Within the first two months, Castiron saw a massive increase in free trial sign-ups – over 460% and 320%, respectively – while reducing their cost per free trial by 70% and 63%.
- By optimizing their campaigns and targeting users deeper in the funnel, we achieved a 36% increase in paid customer conversions.
After about five months, Castiron decided to pivot their business model and focus on a B2C marketplace for artisan bakers.
This case study shows how a well-executed Google Ads strategy can drive significant growth, even for category creators and businesses with unique targeting challenges.
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