I Spent $6,000 on Meta Ads for My SaaS Startup. Here Are the Results.

I spent $6,000 on Meta ads testing SaaS customer acquisition. Real data: cost per lead dropped 60%, attendance tanked, but conversion held at 29%. Here’s why.

Most founders won’t share the real numbers until they know the outcome looks good.

I’m not most founders.

This week I’m breaking down my latest SaaS marketing experiment with Meta ads. The wins, the miss, and what I’m changing for next month as I build Theanna to $1M ARR.

The Backstory: Testing Cohort-Based SaaS Acquisition

Back in October and November, I decided to test paid ads for the first time. We’d been running Theanna as a SaaS with a standard self-serve model where people sign up through the site. But I had a hypothesis: what if we could improve product adoption with our new AI tooling by bringing people in through cohorts? And what if we could acquire customers faster this way?

I spent $10,300 on Meta ads for our first cohort program. It was a big bet for me at the time. But the return? $44,000 in annual subscriptions. A 4.38x ROI.

The numbers were great. But the process? Intense.

I manually reviewed over 300 applications in 2 weeks. I sent individual emails to every single applicant. I spent hours filtering, managing contacts, and deciding who was the right fit. It wasn’t scalable and I knew that going in, but I had to try it to see if it’s what the market needed and wanted in the first place.

And it worked. I proved that the market was ripe for this. Women wanted structured support to build their tech companies. They were willing to pay for it. But I needed to find a better way to deliver it without burning myself out in the process.

So I ran a second test in January.

SaaS Marketing Test #2: Automating the Customer Acquisition Process

I looked at what worked in the first cohort and asked myself: what do people actually need from me live versus what can I deliver asynchronously?

The answer was clear. People loved the accountability. They loved showing up with other women who were building. But the expert sessions? I’d already recorded over 250 hours of content. Why not use that?

So I pivoted. Instead of live expert sessions, I served up the replays with live accountability calls. That’s what actually drives results anyway. I reduced friction in the application process, simplified the offer to a quarterly membership, and let the webinar do the heavy lifting.

I also made the price super clear upfront. $297 for the quarter. If you weren’t willing to invest that, you probably weren’t serious about building. And I told people that directly on the landing page.

January Ad Campaign Results

• Ad Spend: $3,500
• Leads: 148
• Cost per Lead: $22.12
• Webinar Attendance Rate: 32% (48 people showed up)
• Conversion Rate: 29% (14 paying customers)
• Revenue: $4,158
• Result: Zero-day payback

That 29% webinar conversion rate? Insane for SaaS. Industry standard is 5%.

And I knew exactly why it worked.

I’ve hosted over 250 webinars in the last two years. I know how to hold a room. I know how to answer objections in real time. I know when to push and when to pull back. Our product actually works. Women in our community are winning pitch competitions, signing five-figure contracts, and shipping MVPs. I’m not selling a dream or some vague promise. I’m selling proven results with real people to back it up.

The people who showed up to the webinar were qualified. They’d read the landing page. They knew what they were getting and what it cost. So when I presented the offer, it wasn’t a surprise. It was a natural next step.

I looked at those numbers and thought: okay, this is the motion. This is scalable.

So I did what any founder would do. I decided to scale it.

SaaS Growth Experiment #3: Optimizing Cost Per Lead

After that January test, I sat with the data and thought about what I could optimize. The webinar was converting like crazy. The offer was clear. The people who attended were bought in.

So the bottleneck wasn’t the close. It was getting more people to the webinar.

I had a hypothesis: if I could reduce my cost per lead, I could scale faster without increasing my ad spend. More leads at a lower cost means more people in the room. More people in the room means more customers.

So I completely rebuilt our landing page. I studied what was working on other high-converting SaaS landing pages. I removed fields. Simplified the copy. Made it impossibly easy to register. Two fields. One button. Done. My goal was to eliminate every possible point of friction between someone clicking the ad and getting registered.

It worked. Sort of.

How I Reduced Cost Per Lead by 60%

The result? I dropped my cost per lead from $22.12 to $9.14. A 60% reduction.

I was pumped. If I could get the same 32% attendance and 29% conversion with cheaper leads, the math was beautiful:

• Ad Spend: $6,000
• Projected Leads: 653
• Projected Attendance (32%): 209 people
• Projected Conversions (29%): 61 customers
• Projected Revenue: $18,117
• Projected ROI: 3x

On paper, this was going to be our best month yet. I ran the ads. Watched the registrations roll in. 653 leads in total. I was excited.

But here’s what actually happened.

The Reality: Why Cheap Leads Don’t Convert

Out of 653 leads, only 61 people showed up.

That’s a 10.7% attendance rate.

I went from 32% to 10%. I’ve never had a webinar perform that poorly on attendance. Ever.

I sat there looking at the Zoom room and thought: what just happened?

The lesson hit me hard. Cheap leads aren’t quality leads.

When I reduced friction to drive down cost per lead, I attracted people who weren’t as serious. They registered on impulse. Not intention. They saw an ad, clicked, typed in their email in two seconds, and moved on with their day. No commitment. No consideration. Just a quick action that cost them nothing.

And that showed up in the attendance numbers. Big time.

I’ll be honest. It stung a little. I’d spent $6,000 expecting to crush it. Instead, I had a room of 61 people when I was expecting over 200.

But Here’s What Still Worked: High Webinar Conversion Rates

Out of those 61 people who actually attended, I’ve already closed 12. That’s a 20% conversion rate. And I still have 10 days left in the closing window. Based on how these usually go, I’ll probably close another 4–6, which puts me right back at that 26–29% conversion rate.

Even with the terrible attendance, my conversion rate held strong. The people who show up, buy.

That tells me something really important. The webinar works. The offer works. The product works.

What needs work? My lead quality at the top of the funnel.

My SaaS Marketing Strategy for March: Adding Strategic Friction

I’m not giving up on this motion. I’m doubling down. But I’m making some key changes.

I’m spending $6,000 again in March. But this time I’m adding friction back in. Strategic friction.

I’m asking for first name, last name, and email. Not just email. I’m making people scroll and read the full landing page before they can register. I’m being crystal clear about what this is, who it’s for, and what it costs upfront. No surprises.

I’m targeting a cost per lead around $15–18. High enough to filter out the casual browsers who are just killing time on Instagram. Low enough to scale efficiently without blowing my budget.

The goal? Zero-day payback with 25+ customers per cohort. That’s the benchmark I’m aiming for. And I think with better lead quality, I’ll hit it.

Why Cohort-Based SaaS Models Improve Retention

Here’s why I’m confident this is the right motion even when a test doesn’t go perfectly.

Right now, 75% of our members stay for 2 quarters. 50% stay for 6–12 quarters.

That means even if I just break even on month one, the LTV multiple is 6–9x. The economics work. I just need to dial in the acquisition side.

And our churn has dropped from 12% to 7% since we started running these cohort webinars. Why? Because when people go through the onboarding process with me live, they understand how to use the platform. They see the value immediately. They meet other women who are building. Product adoption goes up. Retention follows.

Real Results: SaaS Customer Success Story

The proof it’s working? Women like Jenna.

Jenna joined our November cohort with zero technical background. She’d left her corporate job as a mental health coach, tried working with a developer (which didn’t pan out), and was spinning her wheels trying to figure out what to build.

Seven weeks into the program, she’s conducted 20 customer interviews, validated her ICP (endurance moms in triathlon), built and shipped a live product in Lovable, and has beta users giving her feedback.

But here’s what she said that stuck with me: “It’s not just about the platform. It’s about the community. Having others that understand what you’re going through. The anxiety of posting online. The imposter syndrome. All of it.”

She also said something I keep coming back to:

“I told Nomiki all the time it was worth the money just for the connections. I don’t believe I would be where I am right now without it.”

The cohort model works because founders aren’t just getting software. They’re getting accountability, support, and proof that other women are doing the hard things too.

This is the go-to-market motion I’m scaling. Not because it’s perfect. Because it’s working. And I’m learning what levers to pull with each test.

Every experiment gives me more data. More clarity. More confidence in what works and what doesn’t.

Key Takeaways: What I Learned from $6K in SaaS Ad Spend

I didn’t hit my ideal outcome this month. But I didn’t lose money either. I’m at $3,564 in revenue with 10 days left to close, so I’ll likely break even or get close.

And more importantly, I have the data I need to make the next test better.

That’s what building a SaaS company looks like. Not every experiment is a home run. But every experiment teaches you something. And the founders who win are the ones who keep testing, keep learning, and keep adjusting.

So tell me, how would you approach this? Would you add friction back in or test something completely different?

— Nomiki

P.S. We’re accepting 10 more founders into Women Build Cool Shit Cohort 3 to go from idea to traction. If you’re a woman ready to build a tech company and you’re done waiting for permission, let’s go.