How we work
Everything that happens after you say yes, written down. Read it before you talk to us.
Kevin Cho and Albert LieLast updated 11 Oct 202615 min readA note from us
Most businesses that come to us have been burned before. They hired an agency, sat through a good setup call, then got a monthly report of clicks, and still couldn’t tell whether the ads made them any money.
We started GTMLab after years on the other side of that table, as founders and operators who needed every dollar of ad spend to come back as revenue we could see. So we built the agency we wanted to hire.
We do one thing: performance marketing for businesses whose sales start with a conversation. Clinics, hotels, tour operators, developers, schools and B2B teams, where a customer messages, books or asks for a quote before they buy. Doing one thing is what lets us do it properly. Properly means:
- We judge our work on qualified leads and revenue from your CRM, not on clicks.
- We tell you what isn’t working, even when the answer is to spend less.
- Your ad accounts, analytics and CRM stay in your name.
- Every change we make is written down, with the reason.
- Every two weeks we sit down with you, and every month we go through every dollar.
Most of the work happens where you don’t see it: the daily budget check, the tracking that breaks quietly, the ad that wore out on a Tuesday, the WhatsApp lead that waited too long. This handbook shows you that work before you sign anything. If it reads like more than you need, it probably is, and we’ll tell you which part is.
If it reads like what you’ve been missing, we’d like to meet you.
Is this for you?
We look at how you sell, not what industry you’re in.
Most of the businesses we work with have one thing in common, and it isn’t their industry. Their sales start with a conversation.
A yacht-tour company in Bali, whose bookings begin in a WhatsApp chat or an enquiry for a private charter. IHH, a hospital group, whose patients fill in a form or call before they book. A premium orthopedic clinic that never sells a procedure without a consultation first. A property developer selling villas to investors who want a meeting before they commit. Different worlds, same shape: someone sees you, gets in touch, has a conversation, and then decides.
That shape is what we’re built for. When a sale starts with a conversation, most of the money is made or lost after the click: how fast you reply, what you say, who follows up, and whether anyone can tell which ad brought in the buyer who paid. That’s the part most marketing skips, and it’s where we spend most of our time.
It also means we’re not for everyone. If your customers add to cart and check out without talking to anyone, there are better agencies for you, and we’ll say so. Here’s how to tell.
You’re likely a fit if
- Your sales start with a conversation.A WhatsApp message, a call, a form, a booking or a quote comes before the sale.
- One customer is worth a lot to you.Enough that a qualified lead is worth paying for.
- You can reply to leads within minutes.Or you want help getting there.
- You’ll share what happens after the lead.Who qualified, who booked and who paid, so we can judge our work on revenue.
We may not be a fit if you
- Sell through an add-to-cart checkout with small orders.A shopping and catalogue specialist will serve you better.
- Only want someone to run the ads, and nothing after the click.A freelance media buyer costs less, and that’s fine.
- Can’t share sales data.We’d be judging our work on revenue we can’t see, so we’d be guessing.
- Need sign-off on every change, every day.We work in two-week cycles with rules agreed up front, so daily approvals would slow you down.
What performance marketing is
Why running ads alone doesn’t move revenue, and what does.
Performance marketing is marketing you can trace to revenue.
Not to clicks, likes or leads who never answer. Every dollar is followed from the first click to the sale, and the budget moves to whatever brings paying customers. Running ads is one part of it. Getting the rest right is most of the work, and that’s what this chapter is about.
Most ad budgets don’t fail at the ad. They leak after the click.
Picture someone in Jakarta who needs a dental implant. It’s ten at night, and your ad catches them on Instagram. So far, so good. They tap it, and land on your homepage: a dozen links, a slider, nothing about implants or what they cost. They scroll, find a WhatsApp button, and it opens an empty chat. They type “hi, how much?” and put the phone down.
Your team replies at nine the next morning. By then they’ve messaged three other clinics, and one of them answered in five minutes. If they do reply to you, nobody asks about their budget or when they want the treatment, so your team chases them like every other lead. They book a consultation, get no reminder, and don’t show up.
And when someone does pay, the sale sits in your CRM with no link back to the ad that found them. So next month the ad platform does what it does best: it finds you more cheap clicks from people like the ones who never bought.
That’s eight places to lose a buyer, from the ad to the sale, and an ad agency usually owns one of them. Fix the ad and leave the other seven, and the money still leaks. That’s why running ads alone rarely moves revenue, and why our work doesn’t stop at the ad account.
- 01The ad
It catches them at ten at night, on Instagram.
The ad agency’s part - 02The page
Your homepage: a dozen links, and nothing about implants or what they cost.
A leak - 03The chat
WhatsApp opens an empty chat. “Hi, how much?” Then the phone goes down.
A leak - 04The reply
Nine the next morning. By then three other clinics have answered.
A leak - 05The questions
Nobody asks about budget or timing, so every lead gets chased the same.
A leak - 06The booking
No reminder before the consultation, so they don’t show up.
A leak - 07The sale
It sits in your CRM with no link back to the ad that found them.
A leak - 08Next month
The platform finds more cheap clicks, like the people who never bought.
A leak
Eight places to lose a buyer. An ad agency usually owns one of them.
Running ads vs performance marketing.
| Question | Running ads | Performance marketing |
|---|---|---|
| What it’s judged on | Clicks, reach and cost per lead | Qualified leads, bookings and revenue, from your CRM |
| Where the work stops | At the ad account | At the sale: the page, the reply, the follow-up and the CRM |
| Where the budget goes | To whatever brings the cheapest leads | To the ads that bring paying customers |
| What the report shows | Screenshots from the ad platforms | Your whole funnel, step by step, with what each step costs |
| What each meeting is about | What was done last month | What’s working, and what to fix next |
Four parts, run as one system.
Performance marketing works when one team owns the whole path, from the first time a buyer sees you to the day they pay, and every part is judged on the same numbers.
That includes AI search. Buyers now ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Google’s AI which business to choose, often before they ever see an ad. Getting named there is part of getting seen.
Cost per qualified lead, and revenue for every dollar of ad spend: the two numbers every part is judged on.
- 1
Get seen by buyers, in ads and in AI answers
- 2
Turn visitors into leads with pages built for how they decide
- 3
Reply, qualify and book while they’re still keen
- 4
Trace every sale back to the ad, and move the budget
- Every lead tagged at the first click
- Followed into your CRM, all the way to the sale
- Budget moved to what sells, every two weeks
AI searchThat’s why every client starts with the same setup: your data wired, and your whole funnel on one screen.
Performance marketing is a team sport.
It isn’t one person who sets up the ads and checks them once a week. Done properly, it’s six teams working the same numbers, with operations underneath that catch problems before they cost you.
Strategy
Sets the plan, the targets and the next fix, and runs your reviews.
Every reviewMedia buying
Moves budget, audiences and bids toward the ads that bring buyers.
Every dayCreative
Makes new ads, and tests them before the current ones wear out.
Every two weeksPages & funnels
Fixes the page, the form and the follow-up wherever buyers drop out.
Every testData & tracking
Keeps every lead traced to the sale, and every tracking event firing.
Every weekOperations
Runs the checks underneath it all: pacing, anomalies, tracking health and reply speed.
Every day
Which teams work on your account depends on your plan. A Google Ads plan is run by our Google Ads team; a full engagement gets all six. The way we operate doesn’t change. Meet the teams
We do one thing: performance marketing for businesses whose sales start with a conversation.
And we do it well, because our whole operation is built around it: the teams, the playbooks, the checks, and the AI agents that watch your accounts between them. That’s how a growing business gets enterprise-grade operations behind its ads, and the outcomes that come with them. See how our operations run
Cheap leads aren’t the goal. Paying customers are.
Two campaigns with the same budget. One wins on the ad platform’s report. The other wins on revenue.
| Campaign | Leads | Cost per lead | Qualified | Cost per qualified lead | Customers | Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Campaign A · broad, cheap leads | 500 (the better number) | $10 (the better number) | 60 | $83 | 6 | $18,000 |
| Campaign B · fewer, better leads | 200 | $25 | 110 | $45 | 22 | $66,000 |
Judged on cost per lead, Campaign A wins and gets more budget. Judged on qualified leads and revenue, Campaign B brings in more than three times as much. Performance marketing scales B. Every number we report, explained
What it’s like working with us
Onboarding, the first tests, and the four stages every client moves through.
Every client moves through four stages.
No two markets move at the same speed, so we don’t promise dates. Here’s what happens in each stage, and what you’ll see when you get there.
- 1Stage 1
Set up
- What happens
- We learn how you sell, wire your data and build your funnel dashboard.
- What you see
- Your whole funnel on one screen, every step against a benchmark.
- 2Stage 2
Test
- What happens
- The first tests go to the step losing the most buyers: the ad, the page or the reply.
- What you see
- Early signals: which messages and pages bring qualified leads.
- 3Stage 3
Prove
- What happens
- Winners are kept, losers are cut, and every lead is traced into your CRM.
- What you see
- Your real cost per qualified lead, and which ads bring customers.
- 4Stage 4
Scale
- What happens
- Budget and work move to what sells, and we fix the next weakest step.
- What you see
- More qualified leads at a cost you’ve already proven.
We show you which stage you’re in, and what it takes to reach the next one, at every review.
We start with a working session, not a kickoff call.
Before we touch an ad, we sit down with you and the people who sell: how leads come in, how you qualify them, what a good customer is worth, and the numbers we’ll be judged on. You leave with written notes: every decision, owner and next step.
Then we wire your data. Every client, on every plan, gets the same setup: your ads, pages, WhatsApp and CRM connected, and your whole funnel on one screen.
Your accounts stay in your name. We work inside your ad accounts, analytics and CRM. You own them, and every number in them.
On a strategy plan, set up goes much deeper: in-depth audits of your ads, funnel and sales, market and competitor intelligence, and a custom go-to-market plan built before anything launches.
- 1
The onboarding session, with the people who sell
- Your offer, your buyers and how you sell today
- The numbers we’ll be judged on
- Written notes, the same day
- 2
Access to your accounts, all in your name
Google Ads
Meta Ads
Analytics
WhatsApp BusinessYour CRMYour website - 3
Your data wired, from the first click to the sale
- Every lead tagged with the ad that brought it
- Followed into your CRM, to the booking and the sale
- Mentions in AI answers tracked too, if AI search is in your plan
- 4
Your funnel dashboard, ready for your first call
- Every step from ad to sale, against a benchmark
- Walked through on every call
- What each step costs
The first tests go where the money leaks most.
We don’t test everything at once. Your dashboard shows which step loses the most buyers against its benchmark, and that’s where the first tests go.
- 01
We pick the biggest leak
The ad, the page, the form or the reply: whichever step sits furthest below its benchmark.
- 02
One change, one question
Each test changes one thing, so we know what made the difference, and so do you.
- 03
Judged on qualified leads
Not clicks. A test is called when it has enough results to trust, and written into the task log either way.
Before an ad goes live, our Persona agent tests the idea on 30 AI buyer types, so real budget only goes to ideas worth showing. People decide what runs; the agent flags what won’t land.
A snapshot of what a week looks like with us
The work behind an account in a single week, by the people and agents who do it.
Most people think an agency sets up the ads and disappears. Some do. They launch the campaigns, send a report at the end of the month, and hope nobody asks what happened in between.
We take the craft seriously. Your account isn’t left alone between reports. Budgets get checked against plan, new leads get tagged before they go cold, and ads that are wearing out get spotted before your cost per lead starts to climb. When something breaks quietly, like a tracking tag after a website update or a WhatsApp number that stopped forwarding, we usually find it before you do, and fix it the same day.
None of it is glamorous. It’s the small, repeated work that stops a good month turning into a bad one, and it’s most of what you’re paying for. Here’s an example of one week on an account like a Bali boat-tour operator, whose bookings start in two places: WhatsApp chats, and enquiries for groups and private charters. The numbers are illustrative; the routine is the one we run.
- 08:05OperationsMeta 16% over the daily plan after a weekend sale.
Daily budgets reset to plan.
- 09:40Signal · AI agentA broad ad set spent $180 since Friday with no charter enquiries.
Paused, and the budget moved to the private-charter campaign.
- 14:00Operations52 weekend chats and 9 charter enquiries tagged by source, group size and date.
4 enquiries had no source: the charter form was missing its tracking tag. Fixed.
- 10:15CreativeThe top Reel hit frequency 3.7, with click rate down 30% on the week.
New brief raised. Three ideas tested on 30 AI buyer types before any go live.
- 17:30Funnel Watch · AI agentCharter enquiries after 6 pm waited 52 minutes for a first reply.
Flagged to the sales team, and the after-hours reply script updated.
- 11:00Data & trackingBooking events down 24% overnight.
A checkout update had dropped the purchase tag. The client’s developer fixed it the same day.
- 15:00Media buying38 wasted searches found, like “ferry tickets” and “jobs”.
Blocked, so the budget only goes to people looking for a trip.
- 10:00The callFunnel dashboard walked through: ad, page, chat or enquiry, booking.
Two decisions and three next steps agreed. Notes sent by 11:10.
- 13:00Pages & funnelsNew test on the private-charter page.
Group size asked first, against the date asked first.
- 09:00OperationsWeekly review: cost per charter enquiry down 14% on the week.
Written into the task log, with what changed and why.
- 16:00Win alert“Group size first: 27% more completed charter enquiries after 250 visitors.”
Sent to the client, and rolled out to the other trip pages next week.
That was one week. The routine runs every week. How deep it goes depends on your plan; how disciplined it is doesn’t.
The rhythm and your team
A call every two weeks, a full review every month, and who does the work.
A call every two weeks. A full review every month.
Every client gets the same rhythm, so you’re never left wondering what’s happening or why.
- Every dayTask log and win alerts
What we changed in your account today, and why. The moment something starts winning, you hear about it.
- Every two weeksYour call
We walk you through your funnel dashboard: what moved, what we learned, and what we test next. The people doing the work are on it.
Short deck + written notes - Every monthThe monthly review
Every dollar traced, your funnel against the benchmark, the biggest gap and how to fix it, and next month’s plan.
Full deck + written notes - AlwaysYour shared folder
Every deck, note and file we’ve made for you, in one folder you can open any time.
What moved
- New page for the implant offer+38% form starts
- Broad-audience Meta adCut: no qualified leads
Decisions
- Move $1,200 from Meta broad to Google searchAgreed
- Reply to every WhatsApp lead within 5 minutesAgreed
Next steps
- Test a price-first headline on the new pageGTMLab · Mon
- Add a pre-filled WhatsApp first messageGTMLab · Wed
- Tag last month’s walk-ins in the CRMYour team · Fri
Want to see what’s in the decks and the dashboard? Reporting and the monthly review
Specialists, not account managers. Who’s on yours depends on your plan.
Whoever runs your account is the person doing the work, not someone passing messages along. How many of our teams work on it depends on what you sign up for.
- One serviceFor example a Google Ads plan: run by our specialists for that channel, with our operations behind them
- Several servicesA specialist for each, working from one plan and one set of numbers
- Full engagement or strategy planThe whole team, led by a growth strategist: in-depth audits, competitor intelligence and a custom go-to-market plan
Our AI agents watch accounts between checks and flag what needs a look. People make every decision.
Meet the teamFive things that make it work faster.
The more we can see, the faster we learn. Here’s what we ask of every client.
- Access to your accounts, in your name
- One person on our calls who can make decisions
- Feedback from sales: which leads were good, and which weren’t
- Quick answers on offers, prices and approvals
- Your team keeping the CRM up to date
The checks we run
The operating routine behind our accounts, and the rule behind every check.
Ads don’t run themselves. Most of the work happens where you don’t see it.
Behind your account runs an operating routine: checks every day, every week, every two weeks and every month, each with a rule, so problems are caught before they cost you. How deep it goes depends on your plan. How disciplined it is doesn’t.
- Budget pacingSpend against plan. Drift over 15% is fixed the same day.
- Anomaly checkCost per lead, click rate and delivery against the 7-day average. Off by 20%? Fixed or escalated that day.
- Lead taggingEvery new lead tagged with its source, intent and status.
- Reply speedWhatsApp leads spot-checked for a first reply within 5 minutes.
- Performance reviewCost per lead and lead-to-sale rate by ad set, with the actions written down.
- Creative fatigueFrequency over 3.5 or click rate down 30%: a new creative brief within 48 hours.
- Tracking healthLead and purchase events checked. A 20% drop goes to your tech team the same day.
- Lead qualityHow many hot leads bought. Under 10%? We review the script or the targeting.
- Audience sizesRetargeting pools checked. Any under 500 people, we fix the source.
- Creative refresh2 to 3 new ideas briefed before the current ads wear out.
- Audience refreshCustomer lists and lookalike audiences brought up to date.
- Sales script reviewCommon objections from your chats added to the WhatsApp script.
- New angle testOne new angle tested against the current winner.
- Budget reforecastActual spend against plan, and next month’s daily budgets reset.
- Buyer list uploadFresh customer data, so the ads find more people like your buyers.
- Competitor sweepRivals’ live ads checked for new angles and offers.
- Monthly reviewEvery dollar traced, and next month’s plan agreed with you.
Between checks, our AI agents keep watch. Signal flags spend that isn’t selling, Funnel Watch flags drop-offs and slow replies, and Scout tracks your competitors’ new ads. People make every call. We can run accounts this way because we do one thing: performance marketing for businesses whose sales start with a conversation. Meet the agents
Reporting and the monthly review
The dashboard and decks you get, and how decisions are made.
We don’t send you a dashboard and hope you read it. A dashboard on its own is a wall of numbers, and most agency reports are built to show activity: impressions, clicks, a chart that goes up and to the right.
Every meeting with us is a conversation about your business. We come with your funnel on one screen, what we changed since we last spoke and why, what worked, what didn’t, and the one gap we think is costing you the most. Then we work out together where the next win is, and who does what.
Picture the two calls side by side. On one, someone reads you last month’s numbers, tells you the cost per click went down, and asks if you have any questions. On ours, you’ll hear things like “your charter enquiries after 6 pm wait 52 minutes for a reply, and that’s where you’re losing groups”, or “Campaign A looks cheap, but none of its leads booked, so we moved the budget to B”. You leave knowing what’s working, what to fix next, and why.
It should be the most useful hour of your month, and we want it to be one you look forward to. If it isn’t, tell us.
Five things, on the same rhythm for every client.
Nothing to log in and dig for. Everything is set up for you, and walked through with you.
- Every day
Task log and win alerts
What we changed in your account and why, and an alert the moment something wins.
- Every two weeks
Your funnel dashboard
Every step from ad to sale, against a benchmark, with what each step costs. We walk you through it on every call.
- Every two weeks
A short deck and notes
What moved, what we learned and what we test next, sent after every call.
- Every month
The monthly review
Every dollar traced, the biggest gap, and next month’s plan, in a full deck with notes.
- Always
Your shared folder
Every deck, note, report and file we’ve made for you, in one folder you can open any time.
Your whole funnel on one screen, against the benchmark.
This is a real dashboard from a clinic, for one period of Google Ads, the kind we walk clients through on every call. Each step shows how many people made it, the rate against the benchmark, and what the step cost.
- Impressions1,221SpendFixedThe budget for the period$689 ad spend
- Clicks1139.3%AboveBenchmark 5.0 to 5.8% of impressions$6.10 per click
- Page views7364.6%BelowBenchmark about 71% of clicks$9.40 per page view
- WhatsApp taps2128.8%On parBenchmark about 30% of page views$32.80 per tap
- Chats startedBiggest gap733.3%BelowBenchmark 60% of taps$98 per chat
- Replied7100%No benchmarkEvery chat answered$98 per reply
- Qualified7100%No benchmarkAsked about price or booking$98 per qualified chat
- Arrived114.3%BelowBenchmark 19% of qualified$689 per patient
21 people tapped WhatsApp, and only 7 sent a message. That’s 33%, against a 60% benchmark, and it’s where this funnel loses the most patients. The fix: a pre-filled first message, so the chat opens with something to send, and an instant reply. We make the change, or brief your team to.
Your funnel starts in AI.
We track how often ChatGPT, Gemini and Google’s AI name you, and follow those buyers to your site and into your CRM. Want your ads in the same view? We can add them in the same setup.
- Step 1Mentioned by AIHow often AI names you for your buyers’ questions
- Step 2Visits from AIPeople who reached your site from an AI answer
- Step 3Leads from AIThe enquiries those visits turned into
One meeting a month about your business, not about our tasks.
Once a month we put the whole funnel on the table: every dollar traced, what moved and why, your funnel against the benchmark, and the decisions for next month. It comes as a full deck with written notes, saved to your folder.
Every review ends with one named gap and how to fix it, whether we make the change or your team does.
- 1
The number: ad spend, qualified leads and revenue, against last month and the plan
- 2
What moved, and why: the tests that won and lost, and what changed in your accounts
- 3
Your funnel against the benchmark: every step, its rate and what it cost
- 4
The biggest gap, and the fix: one gap, one fix, and who owns it
- 5
Next month’s decisions, agreed with you
KeepCutScaleFixTest next
Decisions follow your numbers, by rules we agree up front.
So you always know why budget moved, and nothing changes without a reason you can see.
- 01Judged on qualified leads, not clicks
Ads, pages and tests are judged on qualified leads and sales from your CRM.
- 02Budget moves to what sells
Every two weeks, budget shifts toward the ads and searches that bring paying customers.
- 03A test needs enough results
We don’t call a winner on a handful of leads. “Too early to tell” is an honest answer.
- 04The biggest gap goes first
We fix the step furthest below its benchmark first, because that’s where the most money leaks.
- 05You approve the big calls
Spend above the limit we agree at onboarding, new offers and anything public go to you first.
- 06Everything is logged
Every change goes in the task log with the reason, so you can see what we did and why.
Glossary and questions
Every number on your dashboard, in plain words.
- Cost per lead
- Ad spend divided by every enquiry, good or bad.
- Qualified lead
- An enquiry that matches who you sell to, by the rules we agree with your sales team.
- Cost per qualified lead
- Ad spend divided by qualified leads. Most of our decisions run on this number.
- Cost per booking
- Ad spend divided by booked calls, visits or appointments.
- Customer acquisition cost
- What it cost, in total, to win one paying customer.
- Return on ad spend
- Revenue from ads divided by what the ads cost.
- Benchmark
- The usual rate for a step in your industry, so you can see which steps are weak.
- AI visibility
- How often AI assistants name you when buyers ask about what you sell.
Your data stays yours. Your ad accounts, analytics and CRM stay in your name. We bring the dashboard, the analysis and the reviews. You own every account, and every number in it.
How often will we talk?
On a call every two weeks, plus a full review every month. Between calls you have the task log, win alerts and your shared folder, and you can message us any time.
Who’s on the calls?
The specialists running your account, and your strategist if your plan includes one. Bring whoever makes the decisions on budget and sales.
When will I see results?
We don’t promise dates, because no two markets move at the same speed. You’ll always know which of the four stages you’re in, and what it takes to reach the next one.
What if a test doesn’t work?
Most tests don’t win, and that’s useful: it tells us where not to spend. Every test, won or lost, goes into the task log with what we learned and what we try next.
Will my ad accounts stay mine?
Yes. We work inside your ad accounts, analytics and CRM, all in your name. If we ever stop working together, everything stays with you, including every deck and note in your folder.
Can I start with one service?
Yes. Every service has a monthly plan or a one-off build with its price on its page. Many clients start with one part of the funnel, then add the next once the first is working.
When do I see the dashboard?
On every call. We walk you through it every two weeks and again in the monthly review, and every deck is saved to your shared folder, so you can look back any time.
Do you report on revenue, or just leads?
On revenue, wherever the sale is recorded somewhere we can connect: a CRM, a booking system or even a spreadsheet. If sales aren’t recorded anywhere yet, we’ll set up a simple way to record them.
We already have a reporting tool. Do we need another?
We use what you have where we can, and add the steps it doesn’t show. Usually that’s everything after the lead: the reply, the qualifying, the booking and the sale.
Is performance marketing the same as digital marketing?
Digital marketing covers everything online, from social posts to brand campaigns. Performance marketing is the part judged on results you can count: qualified leads, bookings and revenue. If it can’t be traced to a sale, we don’t call it performance.
What does it cost?
Every plan and one-off build has its price on its own page. Ad management plans start from $990 a month, and landing pages from $1,500, one-off. Your ad budget is separate and paid straight to the platforms.
Where does AI search fit in?
Buyers now ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Google’s AI which business to choose, often before they see an ad. Getting named in those answers is part of getting seen, so we track it and work on it alongside your ads.
See it in practice. Real clients, their numbers and their own words.
