3.2× qualified pipeline. CAC down 28%. Sales cycle back to 34 days.
They raised their Series A on strong early traction, but pipeline had stalled in the nine months since. CAC was climbing from £420 to £680 per qualified lead, and the growth team wasn't clear on which channels were responsible. Sales cycle had lengthened from 30 to 90 days without an obvious cause. The internal read was 'we need more content.' The real problem was different.
3.2×
Qualified pipeline
−28%
Customer acquisition cost
34 days
Sales cycle (from 90)
11 wks
Time to results
The situation
They raised their Series A on strong early traction, but pipeline had stalled in the nine months since. CAC was climbing from £420 to £680 per qualified lead, and the growth team wasn't clear on which channels were responsible. Sales cycle had lengthened from 30 to 90 days without an obvious cause. The internal read was 'we need more content.' The real problem was different.
What we did
The signal audit surfaced that 60% of paid budget was concentrated in a single channel with deteriorating lead quality: high volume, low conversion, long cycles. Two content channels were generating genuine pipeline but completely untracked, so they looked like cost centres. We reallocated budget away from the underperforming channel, rebuilt their attribution model to surface what was actually working, and overhauled the content operation using AI-assisted production to increase output without increasing headcount. The sales cycle fix came last: it turned out to be a qualification issue in the CRM, not a market problem.
- 1
Five-day signal audit: channel mapping, attribution rebuild, pipeline source analysis
- 2
Budget reallocation: shifted 60% of paid spend to validated high-conversion channels
- 3
Attribution model rebuild: connected content channels to pipeline for the first time
- 4
AI-assisted content operation: 4× output increase, same team, consistent quality
- 5
CRM qualification audit: identified and closed the gap extending the sales cycle
- 6
Six-week sprint: weekly optimisation cycles, bi-weekly reporting against agreed metric
“We'd spent six months trying to diagnose the pipeline stall internally. Ascent identified the root cause in five days and had us moving in the right direction within a week. The attribution clarity alone was worth the engagement.”
Head of Growth
Series A fintech, UK
Results
3.2× qualified pipeline in 11 weeks
CAC down 28% within the first sprint
Sales cycle back to 34 days at 6-month review
Results like these start with 30 minutes.
No deck, no pitch. We'll tell you what an audit would surface and whether a sprint is the right move.
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