Sound familiar?
- You have a launch date and no idea which channel to start with
- An agency quoted a retainer bigger than your whole marketing budget
- You boosted a few Facebook posts and cannot tell if anything happened
- Investors ask for customer acquisition cost and you do not have the data
- You are tempted to ask friends for reviews to look established
- The founder is doing marketing at midnight between everything else
Key facts
- Consultancy, strategy and training at £45 an hour + VAT, or a fixed quote
- Ad management from £150 a month + VAT, plus ad spend paid to the platform
- GA4 set-up £95 + VAT one-off; conversion tracking £145 + VAT one-off
- Google required Consent Mode v2 for UK and EEA traffic from March 2024; without it, personalised advertising features are limited
- Klaviyo and Mailchimp both have free plans capped at 250 contacts and about 500 sends a month
- Since 6 April 2025 the CMA can fine businesses directly for fake reviews and drip pricing
- Monthly, cancel with notice
Tracking before spending
The most common startup mistake is spending before measuring. If GA4, Google Ads and Meta are not recording sign-ups, demo requests or sales properly, every test is a guess and the platforms' bidding has nothing to learn from.
We start with the plumbing:
- GA4 with your key events defined (sign-up, trial start, purchase, demo booked). £95 + VAT one-off.
- Google Tag Manager so tags can change without developer time.
- Consent Mode v2 with a cookie banner. Google required it for advertisers using UK and EEA traffic from March 2024; without valid consent signals, remarketing and personalised ads are limited.
- Conversion tracking in Google Ads and Meta, including the Conversions API. £145 + VAT one-off.
With that in place, you can tell investors your cost per acquisition by channel with a straight face.
Choosing your first channels
Pick the channel that matches how your customers already behave:
- People already search for the solution: Google Search ads. Fastest feedback, clear intent.
- Nobody searches yet because the product is new: Meta, TikTok or LinkedIn ads to create demand, with a strong visual or video.
- B2B with a defined buyer: LinkedIn ads and founder-led LinkedIn posts.
- Ecommerce: Google Shopping plus Meta, with email capture on site.
Test two channels at most, with a fixed budget and a fixed period, and decide in advance what result means 'scale' and what means 'stop'. A test that teaches you a channel does not work is still worth having.
Building an audience you own
Ad platforms change prices and rules; an email list does not. Capture emails from day one with a waitlist, early access offer or useful guide, and send a short welcome sequence that explains what you do and why. Both Klaviyo and Mailchimp have free plans limited to 250 contacts and about 500 sends a month, which is enough to start. Under PECR you need consent for marketing emails to individuals unless the soft opt-in applies to existing customers. Email marketing management is from £95 a month + VAT when you need it.
Reviews and claims: start clean
Social proof matters, but shortcuts are now expensive. Since 6 April 2025 the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 bans fake and incentivised-but-undisclosed reviews, and the CMA can fine businesses directly. Asking friends to post reviews of products they have not bought is a fake review. Claims such as 'the UK's leading' or 'trusted by thousands' need evidence under the CAP Code. We help you collect genuine reviews from real customers through post-purchase emails, and write claims you can stand behind.
The same goes for launch offers. A 'was double, now half price' launch claim needs a genuine earlier price that customers could actually pay, and a countdown timer must reflect a real deadline. Pricing tactics that worked for growth hackers a few years ago are now enforcement priorities for the CMA, and a fine or a public ruling in your first year is a story no investor wants to hear.
Paying only for what you need
Most startups do not need a full retainer. You can book strategy, audits or training by the hour at £45 an hour + VAT, have us set up tracking and the first campaigns, and run them yourself with occasional check-ins. When spend grows, monthly management is from £150 a month + VAT. Monthly, cancel with notice.
We are also happy to work alongside a founder or a first marketing hire: we handle the technical set-up and the paid accounts, and they own the brand voice, content and customer conversations. As you grow, the balance can shift towards your team, and we hand over accounts, tracking and documentation cleanly. Everything is set up in accounts you own from day one, never ours.
What you get
- A one-page marketing plan: audience, offer, two or three channels to test, budget and success measures
- GA4, Google Tag Manager, Consent Mode and conversion tracking set up properly
- Small test campaigns with clear stop and scale rules
- An email list and welcome sequence from the first visitor
- A simple dashboard showing cost per lead or sale by channel
- Training so the founder or first hire can run the basics
How it works and what it costs
Google Ads management from £150 a month, social media management from £125 a month and email marketing from £95 a month, all + VAT. Ad spend is separate and paid to the platform. No long contracts.
Free review
We look at your current ads, social, email and analytics, or your plans if you are starting out, and tell you plainly what we would change.
Plan and price
You get a written plan with targets, budgets and a fixed monthly fee before anything starts.
Set up properly
Tracking and consent first, then campaigns, audiences, content calendars or email flows, all in accounts you own.
Run and improve
We manage it every week: search terms, bids, creative, posts and tests, cutting what does not pay and doing more of what does.
Report in plain English
A monthly report on leads, sales and cost per result, not vanity numbers, with what we will do next.
Frequently asked questions
How much should a startup spend on ads?
Enough to get a clear answer from a test, and no more until you have one. For many startups that means a fixed test budget over four to eight weeks per channel. We help you size it from your expected conversion rate and the value of a customer.
Can you just set things up and let us run them?
Yes. We can set up tracking and campaigns, train you, and step back. Consultancy and training are £45 an hour + VAT, GA4 set-up is £95 + VAT and conversion tracking £145 + VAT one-off.
Should we use an agency or hire in-house?
Early on, an agency or freelancer gives you specialist skills without a full salary. Once marketing is proven and constant, an in-house hire often makes sense. Our in-house vs agency comparison sets out the costs.
Can friends and family leave reviews to get us started?
Not if they have not genuinely used your product. The DMCC Act bans fake reviews and the CMA can fine businesses directly. Collect real reviews from early customers instead, and disclose any incentive clearly.
Do you work with pre-revenue startups?
Yes. A few hours of strategy before launch often saves more than it costs. We focus on tracking, positioning, an email list and a small first test, rather than a large retainer.
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Get a free marketing review
We'll look at your ads, social, email and tracking, and tell you plainly what we'd change. No obligation.