Deepnote: How I Cut CAC by 72% and 2.5×’d Paying Customers

In 12 months, Tomas increased the volume of paying customers from paid channels by 158%, while cutting CAC by 72%.

Marc Delacroix

COO at Deepnote

Unprofitable paid channels? or CAC too high?
Deepnote was right there — and they needed paid to start paying back fast.

After taking over their paid acquisition, the turnaround came quickly:
72% lower CAC while growing above the plan: 158% more paying customers from paid in the first year only.

Approach

Learning from the Past

The first step was to dig into past data and really understand what was happening. I analyzed paid users’ journeys, focusing on how their behavior differed from other sources. By using BigQuery data, I was able to map out key product milestones to know what soft conversions to track and optimize for.

Tracking

I found a way to push ICP criteria directly to marketing platforms using a server-side GTM setup. This allowed us to validate traffic more effectively without investing in additional Martech.

Validation

Sometimes, the best way to find out what works is to test fast and iterate. I set up an exit-intent popup questionnaire, which gave us a quick assessment on the traffic. This approach allowed us to spot promising trends early on and focus our energy where it mattered most.

Wide Testing with PPC automation

I needed to test many hypotheses quickly without exceeding the budget. My semi-automated campaign creation helped to quickly set up campaigns for various topics (everything from niche use cases to complementary services, alternative categories, and much more). The goal was to explore the full range of possibilities and see what is promising. Lower bids kept costs down while gathering insights on which search terms and audiences were delivering results. And the tracking and traffic validation setup enabled me to cut what wasn’t working quickly and doubling down on what was.

Refining the Winners

Once the top-performing campaigns were identified, the internal team focused on the most promising use cases. We refined ad copy, optimized landing pages, and scaled the best campaigns.

Results

This approach allowed us to expand campaigns and find new, high-converting value propositions without exceeding the budget. Revenue from paid channels increased by 158%, while CAC was reduced by 72%.

Rare mix: deep technical execution with clear business focus.

He rebuilt our tracking, validated demand, and brought a systematic approach we hadn’t seen before. That’s what led to a 158% increase in paying customers while cutting the CAC.

Jakub Zitny

Head of Growth at Deepnote