Case Studies

Real results from real accounts. Better decisions, clearer signals, and the confidence to scale.

E-Commerce · Fashion & Lifestyle

From Guesswork to Growth: Rebuilding a $40k/mo Google Ads Account

The Challenge

A mid-size NZ fashion retailer was spending $40k per month across Google Ads with a blended ROAS that had plateaued at 3.2x. The team suspected waste but couldn't isolate it — conversion tracking was fragmented across GA4 and Google Ads, attribution was unreliable, and campaign structure had grown organically over three years without a clear strategy. Decisions were being made on gut feel, not signal.

Our Approach

01

Audited the full measurement stack — GA4, Google Ads conversion actions, and GTM — to identify double-counted conversions and missing micro-events that were distorting ROAS.

02

Rebuilt campaign structure around product margin tiers and customer intent stages, replacing broad match sprawl with tighter, decision-ready segments.

03

Deployed an agentic monitoring layer that flagged anomalies in CPA and ROAS daily, surfacing actionable signals instead of raw data.

04

Ran a structured Decision Reset to align the founder and marketing lead on what "good" actually looked like for their margins.

Key Results

ROAS 3.2x → 5.8x

in 10 weeks, with the same budget

34% reduction in wasted spend

by cutting campaigns that looked busy but drove no margin

2.1x increase in new customer acquisition

by reallocating budget to high-intent non-brand terms

Weekly decision cadence established

replacing monthly "reporting calls" with real-time signal reviews

“We went from wondering if our ads were working to knowing exactly where every dollar was going. Luke didn't just fix our campaigns — he gave us a system for making better decisions.”

— Founder & CEO, NZ Fashion Retailer
B2B SaaS · Workforce Management

Cutting Through the Noise: How a SaaS Startup Halved Their CAC

The Challenge

A Wellington-based SaaS company building workforce management tools was scaling paid acquisition but watching their customer acquisition cost climb. At $380 per trial signup and a 12% trial-to-paid rate, the unit economics weren't working. The marketing team was running campaigns across Google and LinkedIn but had no clear view of which channels drove revenue versus vanity metrics. Every budget conversation turned into an argument.

Our Approach

01

Mapped the full funnel from ad click to paid conversion, identifying a 60% drop-off between trial signup and first login that was invisible in their reporting.

02

Built a custom attribution model connecting Google Ads click data to their CRM pipeline, replacing last-click guesswork with revenue-weighted signals.

03

Used agentic workflows to automate weekly pipeline-to-spend reconciliation, giving the founder a single dashboard that answered "is this working?"

04

Restructured Google Ads around job-to-be-done messaging rather than feature keywords, aligning ad copy with actual buyer intent.

Key Results

CAC reduced from $380 to $165

within 8 weeks of restructuring

Trial-to-paid rate improved to 22%

by fixing onboarding signals and retargeting engaged trialists

Pipeline visibility from 2 weeks to real-time

with automated daily reconciliation

Confident decision to cut LinkedIn spend 70%

data showed it drove awareness but not revenue

“Before Tripwire, every budget meeting was a debate. Now we walk in with clear data, make the call in 10 minutes, and move on. That clarity is worth more than any campaign tweak.”

— Head of Growth, NZ SaaS Startup
Professional Services · Legal

Signal Over Noise: Giving a Law Firm Confidence to Scale

The Challenge

A growing Auckland law firm had invested heavily in Google Ads for lead generation but couldn't tell which enquiries were valuable. Their CPA looked acceptable at $85, but the partners suspected most leads were low-value or misaligned with their practice areas. They were considering cutting digital spend entirely — but had no data to confirm or deny the instinct.

Our Approach

01

Implemented lead quality scoring by connecting Google Ads data to their practice management system, tagging each enquiry by practice area, case value, and conversion outcome.

02

Discovered that 45% of ad spend was driving enquiries for practice areas the firm was actively de-prioritising — a strategic misalignment invisible in standard reporting.

03

Rebuilt campaigns around high-value practice areas with negative keyword architecture that filtered out low-value intent signals.

04

Set up an agentic alert system that notified partners weekly of lead quality trends, replacing quarterly agency reports with actionable signals.

Key Results

Cost per qualified lead dropped 62%

from $85 to $32 by focusing on high-value practice areas

Revenue per lead increased 3.4x

by aligning ad targeting with firm strategy

Decision to increase budget by 40%

made with confidence because signal quality was now trusted

Partner alignment achieved

shared signal dashboard replaced conflicting opinions with shared facts

“We were about to turn off Google Ads completely. Luke showed us the problem wasn't the channel — it was that we couldn't see what it was actually doing. Now we trust the numbers and we're spending more, not less.”

— Managing Partner, Auckland Law Firm
Agentic Operations · Multi-Brand Retail

Scaling With Confidence: AI-Powered Operations for a Retail Group

The Challenge

A multi-brand NZ retail group managing five e-commerce stores was drowning in operational complexity. Each brand had its own ad accounts, analytics setup, and reporting cadence. The CEO was making investment decisions based on aggregated numbers that masked individual brand performance. The team was spending 20+ hours per week on manual reporting that was outdated by the time it reached decision-makers.

Our Approach

01

Designed and deployed an agentic operations layer that automatically ingested data from all five Google Ads accounts, GA4 properties, and Shopify stores into a unified signal system.

02

Built brand-level P&L dashboards that connected ad spend directly to gross margin, not just revenue — exposing that two brands were profitable and three were margin-negative on paid channels.

03

Automated anomaly detection across all brands, surfacing "decisions needed" alerts rather than raw performance data.

04

Ran a Decision Reset with the leadership team to establish clear criteria for when to scale, maintain, or cut spend per brand.

Key Results

Reporting time reduced from 20+ hrs to 45 mins

per week across all five brands

Identified $18k/mo in hidden margin-negative spend

that aggregated ROAS had been masking

Decision speed improved 4x

from monthly review cycles to weekly signal-driven decisions

Two underperforming brands restructured

with clear, data-backed turnaround plans

“Tripwire didn't just give us better reports — they gave us a system that thinks for itself. We went from arguing about what the numbers mean to acting on what they say. That's a completely different way of running a business.”

— CEO, NZ Multi-Brand Retail Group

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