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title: I run paid ads across a portfolio of more than 40 apps
author: Giacomo Balli
published: 2026-08-03
url: https://BigBalli.com/blog/i-run-paid-ads-across-a-portfolio-of-more-than-40-apps
tags: SaaS, Product, Growth, Reading
---

# I run paid ads across a portfolio of more than 40 apps

*By Giacomo Balli* | *Published: August 3, 2026*

I run paid ads across a portfolio of more than 40 apps. Exactly one campaign makes money.

It sells a conduit bending tool to electricians.

That is not luck. The buyer has a job, a budget that is not his own, and a specific thing he needs on a job site. He searches, finds it, expenses it.

The consumer subscription apps in the same portfolio have a lifetime value between $3 and $12. A paid customer for one of those costs between $40 and $250 to acquire.

Read those two ranges again. They do not overlap at any point. No amount of creative testing or bid tuning closes a gap like that, and the agency proposing the budget is paid whether it closes or not.

If someone is asking you to fund user acquisition this quarter, make them show you lifetime value on real cohorts before you look at a single ad. Not the annual price. What a cohort actually paid you over its life. Then put that next to what a click costs in your category.

If the two numbers are an order of magnitude apart, the campaign is not the thing to buy.

https://lnkd.in/e5qpu9He

[Discuss on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7503127518443474944)

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**Tags:** SaaS, Product, Growth, Reading

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