A solar installer had done low seven figures in annual revenue for six years – entirely from word of mouth. I built their first paid channel: an intent-based quiz funnel on Meta Ads, holding €16 cost per lead on an €8–20k ticket.
Six years of steady revenue, all of it from referrals. Word of mouth had a hard ceiling and no way to turn on more demand – and there was no paid infrastructure to capture, qualify, or follow up a lead once one arrived.
By the third month, the channel had found its stride.
Same scale. The €16 bar is in there – you just can’t see it next to the value it brings back.
The ads were never the bottleneck. The qualification system was.