Chatbooks Acquisition Walkthrough — Wednesday, March 25, 2026

Executive Summary

New Customers

625

Plan 467 · 7d avg 637

Direct CAC

$57.47

Plan $62.17 · 7d avg $53.20

Direct Spend

$35.9K

Plan $29.0K · LY $26.9K

MTD Customers

12,082

MTD Plan 11,208 · +7.8%

Lead CVR

3.48%

7d avg 3.64%

Paid Leads

12,089

7d avg 11,945

Where are we?

+874 customers ahead of MTD plan (+7.8%); YTD gap is +1.7%. MTD actual of 12,082 vs MTD plan of 11,208. The team has been ahead of plan for over a week and the cushion continues to grow.
MTD Direct CAC of $54.69 is running 12.0% below the $62.17 plan — efficiency is the story. Spend is 5.2% behind plan ($660.8K vs $696.8K), but strong CAC is overcompensating for the shortfall, delivering 874 more customers than planned.
Only 342 customers/day needed over the final 7 days to finish on plan — the 7-day average is 637/day, nearly double the required rate. The team has substantial cushion heading into month-end.

Has anything changed?

Google PMax CPA spiked to $98.29 yesterday — up 58% from its 7d average of $62.08 and the highest single-day PMax CPA since 3/14 ($127.03). Google's overall share rose to 23.7% of spend while efficiency deteriorated sharply. No logged change in #paid-change-log explains the spike.
Carly scaled Minis FBfor5 to $2.4K/day on 3/24 after confirming a healthy 7-day CPA trend. Yesterday's FBfor5 CPA of $70.15 is below the $76.13 7d avg — the campaign continues its recovery from the $490 spike on 3/18.
SCMB 12for24 scaled to $8K/day on 3/23 with 2 new creatives uploaded. Yesterday's CPA of $53.01 was the campaign's best day in the 7-day window, well below the $75.11 7d avg.

New Customers MTD: 12,082 of 14,477 plan (83.5%)12,082

Spend MTD: $661K of $900K plan (73.4%)$661K

Calendar: Day 24 of 31 (77.4%)24 days

Section 1

Top-line — How is the acquisition engine performing?

Yesterday delivered 625 new customers on $35.9K in direct spend, producing a $57.47 Direct CAC. Customers came in 34% above the daily plan of 467, though below the 7-day average of 637. Spend was $6.9K above the $29.0K daily plan — the team continues to outspend the plan rate on a daily basis, which is helping build the MTD customer surplus. CAC of $57.47 was $4.27 above the 7d average of $53.20 but still 7.6% below the $62.17 plan target, keeping the efficiency story intact.

MTD through day 24: 12,082 new customers vs 11,208 plan (+874, +7.8%). Spend is $660.8K vs $696.8K plan (−5.2%), and MTD Direct CAC is $54.69 — 12.0% better than the $62.17 plan. The gap between spend (behind plan) and customers (ahead of plan) underscores how much the below-plan CAC is doing. At the current 7-day pace of 637 customers/day, the team would finish March at ~16,541 new customers, well above the 14,477 plan. Even at a much lower rate, only 342/day is needed over the final 7 days — the month is effectively secured barring a major disruption.

Metric (3/24)	Yesterday	7d Avg	MTD	MTD Plan	% to Plan
Direct Spend	$35,917	$33,907	$660,812	$696,768	−5.2%
New Customers	625	637	12,082	11,208	+7.8%
Direct CAC	$57.47	$53.20	$54.69	$62.17	12.0% better

Daily trend — Spend, new customers, Direct CAC (last 30 days)

Daily Direct Spend / New Customers / Direct CAC — CY (teal) vs Plan (dark dashed) vs LY (gray)

💡Chart interactions: Click a data point to pin its tooltip. Click a legend item to highlight that line. ⌘/Ctrl+click a legend item to isolate it (hide all others). Works on all charts.

Cumulative — MTD spend, customers, Direct CAC

Cumulative Direct Spend / New Customers / Direct CAC

Month is effectively locked in. With 874 customers of cushion and a required daily rate (342) that's 46% below the 7-day average (637), the team would need to see a sustained collapse in performance to miss March plan. Focus shifts to maximizing the surplus and maintaining CAC efficiency through month-end.

Section 2

Platform breakdown — Where is spend going?

Meta took 75.1% of yesterday's spend ($26,664) at a $54.64 CPA — a strong day and well below its 7d average CPA of $65.40. Google accounted for 23.7% ($8,399) but CPA jumped to $86.23, sharply above its 7d average of $60.36. Apple Search contributed $359 (1.0%) at its usual sub-$4 CPA. The Meta/Google split was close to the 14-day norm (Meta has averaged ~73% of spend over the past two weeks), so no unusual mix shift — but the efficiency divergence is notable. Meta delivered 488 platform conversions vs Google's 97, meaning Meta drove 5× the conversions at 63% of Google's CPA.

Looking at the 14-day CPA trend, Meta has been volatile (ranging from $34 to $113) but yesterday's $54.64 was the second-lowest reading in the window. Google CPA had been relatively stable in the $55–65 range from 3/18–3/23 before yesterday's spike to $86.23. The spike is concentrated in PMax (see Section 4).

Platform spend mix (14 days)

Spend lines (left axis) + % of total bars (right axis, filled to 100%) — Meta (coral), Google (teal), Apple (gray)

Platform CPA trend (14 days)

Meta and Google platform CPA

Platform (Yesterday 3/24)	Spend	% Mix	Conversions	CPA	7d Avg CPA
Meta	$26,664	75.1%	488	$54.64	$65.40
Google	$8,399	23.7%	97	$86.23	$60.36
Apple Search	$359	1.0%	94	$3.82	$3.97
Bing	$66	0.2%	0	—	$62.67

Section 3

Meta campaign drill-down

Meta campaign spend mix (7 days)

Spend lines (left axis) + % of total bars (right axis, filled to 100%)

Meta campaign CPA trend (7 days)

Campaign CPA — dashed gray line marks the $150 clip threshold; Minis FBfor5 actual peak was $495 on 3/17

Campaign	Yesterday Spend	Yesterday CPA	7d Avg CPA	Health
12for12	$14,375	$53.64	$59.97	Maintain
SCMB 12for24	$8,376	$53.01	$75.11	Maintain
Minis FBfor5	$2,385	$70.15	$76.13	Maintain
SCMB FBfor5	$1,528	$54.56	$68.00	Maintain

12for12 — $14,375 spend (53.9% of Meta), $53.64 CPA. This is the campaign's best CPA day in the 7-day window and well below the $59.97 7d average. Spend share has drifted down from ~59% earlier in the week to ~54% as 12for24 scales, but absolute spend remains steady at the $14K budget. Two low-performing ads were paused on 3/23, which may be contributing to improved efficiency. Health: Maintain.

SCMB 12for24 — $8,376 spend (31.4% of Meta), $53.01 CPA. Excellent day — the lowest CPA in the 7-day window, down from a volatile range of $53–$103. The campaign's share of Meta spend has grown from 25.5% on 3/18 to 31.4% yesterday as budget scaled from $7K to $8K. Two new creatives were uploaded on 3/23 alongside the budget increase. Health: Maintain.

#paid-change-log Carly scaled SCMB 12for24 to $8K/day on 3/23 and uploaded 2 new creatives. Yesterday's $53.01 CPA suggests the campaign is absorbing the budget increase well — no learning-phase volatility visible yet.

Minis FBfor5 — $2,385 spend (8.9% of Meta), $70.15 CPA. Spend share ticked up slightly as Carly scaled to $2.4K/day on 3/24. CPA of $70.15 is below the $76.13 7d average and continues the recovery trajectory from the $490 spike on 3/18. The campaign has now posted 5 of the last 6 days below $100 CPA. Health: Maintain.

#paid-change-log Carly scaled Minis FBfor5 to $2.4K/day on 3/24, noting the 7-day trend looks "really healthy." This is the first budget increase since the $490 CPA spike on 3/18 — a measured scale after confirming sustained recovery.

SCMB FBfor5 — $1,528 spend (5.7% of Meta), $54.56 CPA. Solid day, well below the $68.00 7d average. This BAU campaign continues to run quietly at low spend with acceptable efficiency. One low-performing ad was paused on 3/23. Health: Maintain.

Section 4

Google campaign drill-down

Google campaign spend mix (7 days)

Spend lines (left axis) + % of total bars (right axis) — Shopping Classic paused (3/19) — no spend since

Google campaign CPA trend (7 days)

Campaign CPA — PMax Dynamic and Brand Search only (NB Search and AIO NCA excluded: at $170–$356/day spend, individual conversions swing CPA too much for a trend line to be useful). Dashed gray line marks the $150 clip threshold.

Campaign	Yesterday Spend	Yesterday CPA	7d Avg CPA	Health
PMax Dynamic	$6,877	$98.29	$62.08	Maintain
Brand Search	$1,221	$63.48	$51.34	Maintain
NB Search	$301	$36.70	$62.07	Maintain

PMax Dynamic — $6,877 spend, $98.29 CPA. This is the day's red flag. PMax CPA jumped 58% above its 7d average of $62.08, the highest reading since 3/14 ($127.03). Spend was also elevated at $6,877 vs the 7d average of ~$5,580 — PMax appears to have pushed toward its $6.8K budget ceiling while conversion volume didn't keep pace (70 conversions vs a 7d avg of ~90). No budget or bid changes were logged in #paid-change-log for PMax since the $6.8K increase on 3/10. This is a single-day spike, not a multi-day trend — PMax CPA was $55–67 for the prior 5 days. Worth monitoring but not yet actionable. Health: Maintain (watch).

Brand Search — $1,221 spend, $63.48 CPA. Above the 7d average of $51.34 but within normal variation for this campaign. Brand Search CPA has ranged from $33 to $84 over the past 7 days, reflecting the inherent volatility of a ~$1.2K/day campaign where individual conversions create large swings. Performance has been stable since the max-conversions experiment was reverted to TCPA on 3/15. Health: Maintain.

NB Search — $301 spend, $36.70 CPA. Low spend, strong efficiency. NB Search is a small contributor but yesterday's CPA was well below its 7d average of $62.07. Health: Maintain.

Section 5

Visitor funnel — How is the paid web prospect funnel converting?

Yesterday’s funnel (3/24)

Leads

12,089

23.9%

click rate

Clicked

2,892

53.8%

→ checkout

Checkout

1,557

27.0%

→ purchase

Purchasers

421

→

Overall CVR

3.48%

Yesterday's funnel processed 12,089 paid web prospect leads — slightly above the 7d average of 11,945. Lead CVR was 3.48%, below the 7d average of 3.64% but within normal range (the 14-day CVR has ranged from 2.74% to 4.12%). The click rate of 23.9% and checkout rate of 53.8% were both in line with recent norms. The funnel produced 421 purchasers from paid web traffic. No stage showed an unusual drop — the slightly lower CVR appears to be normal daily variation rather than a funnel-stage breakdown.

Leads and lead CVR trend (14 days)

Leads (teal bars, left axis) + Lead CVR % (dark line, right axis)

Section 6

Lead source & attribution

Facebook generated 9,666 leads (80.0% of paid total) at a 3.38% CVR, slightly below its 7d average of ~3.42%. Google contributed 1,847 leads (15.3%) at a 4.22% CVR — down from the 7d average of ~4.89% and the lowest Google CVR in the past 7 days. Affiliate leads were light at 94 (0.8%) with a 5.32% CVR, a bounce-back from the volatile low readings earlier in the week. The Facebook/Google lead volume split was typical for recent days.

Last-touch attribution: Meta drove 345 new customers (55.2%), Google 104 (16.6%), Unattributed 149 (23.8%), Email & SMS 10 (1.6%), Affiliate 6 (1.0%), and Other 9 (1.4%). The attribution mix was broadly in line with the 7-day pattern. Unattributed share at 23.8% is within the normal 20–26% range seen over the past two weeks.

Paid source leads mix (14 days)

Leads lines (left) + % of total bars (right, filled to 100%) — Facebook (coral), Google (teal), Affiliate (purple)

Paid source CVR (14 days)

Conversion rate by paid source

Last-touch attribution (14 days)

New customers by last-touch source — lines (count, left) + stacked % bars (right, filled to 100%)

Section 7

Landing pages

Landing Page	Promo	Leads	% Total	Click Rate	CVR	Purchasers
lp/minis-intro-offer	Minis 12for12	6,863	51.7%	25.2%	3.9%	266
lp/monthbooks-sc-intro-offer	SCMB 12for24	3,315	25.0%	21.8%	2.4%	79
Homepage	—	1,265	9.5%	24.5%	2.0%	25
lp/minis-specials	Minis FBfor5	989	7.5%	22.3%	4.0%	40
lp/monthbooks-sc-special	SCMB FBfor5	603	4.5%	23.7%	3.3%	20
lp/refer	Referral	111	0.8%	27.0%	6.3%	7
lp/minis-bundle-6-offer	Minis 6for6	100	0.8%	26.0%	5.0%	5
lp/minis		23	0.2%	4.3%	0.0%	0

LP leads mix (7 days)

Stacked daily leads by landing page

LP CVR trend (7 days)

Conversion rate by landing page — top pages only

The 12for12 LP (/lp/minis-intro-offer) captured 51.7% of leads (6,863) at a 3.88% CVR — slightly below its 7d average of ~4.20% but still the highest-volume, highest-converting primary LP. The 12for24 LP (/lp/monthbooks-sc-intro-offer) took 25.0% of leads (3,315) at a 2.38% CVR, consistent with its 7d range of 1.83–3.18%. Minis FBfor5 (/lp/minis-specials) posted a 4.04% CVR on 989 leads — the strongest CVR among high-volume pages yesterday. SCMB FBfor5 (/lp/monthbooks-sc-special) rebounded to 3.32% CVR after a weak 1.45% on 3/23. The referral LP continues to show the highest CVR (6.3%) on low volume (111 leads). No post-click conversion issues are visible — all primary LPs are converting within their normal ranges.

Section 8

Non-PPC acquisition

Non-PPC New Cust (Yesterday)

Amb 1 + Aff 7

MTD Non-PPC New Cust

387

Amb 26 + Aff 361

Non-PPC channels delivered 8 new customers yesterday (1 ambassador, 7 affiliate), bringing the MTD total to 387 (26 ambassador, 361 affiliate). Affiliate new customer volume has been steady at 6–22/day over the past week. Ambassador new customers remain minimal at 0–3/day — consistent with the channel's role as primarily a retention/repurchase driver (~93% of ambassador orders are existing customers). Combined Non-PPC represents ~3.2% of MTD new customers, a small but steady baseline contribution.

Non-PPC new customers (7 days)

Daily new customers by channel — Affiliate (purple), Ambassador (orange)

What Needs Attention

Discussion flags

Google PMax CPA spike to $98.29 — monitor for persistence. Yesterday's PMax CPA was 58% above its 7d average of $62.08 (z-score: +1.8). This is a single-day spike, not a multi-day trend — the prior 5 days were all in the $53–67 range. No logged platform changes explain the spike. If PMax CPA stays above $80 for 2+ more days, it warrants a deeper look at asset group performance and conversion lag. The $6.8K daily budget was nearly fully consumed ($6,877 actual), so spend wasn't the issue — conversion volume underperformed.

SCMB 12for24 absorbing $8K/day budget cleanly. Yesterday's $53.01 CPA was the campaign's best in the 7-day window, and spend share has grown to 31.4% of Meta. The campaign has now been live for 11 days and appears to have exited learning. With 2 new creatives uploaded on 3/23, watch for any learning-phase reset — but early signal is positive.

#lead-acquisition-hq Nate has highlighted the strategic importance of higher-priced SCMB subs in the mix. This campaign's scaling trajectory supports that goal.

Minis FBfor5 scaled to $2.4K/day — first budget increase since the 3/18 spike. Carly confirmed the 7-day trend is healthy before scaling. CPA has been below $100 for 5 of the last 6 days. Watch for any post-budget-increase volatility over the next 2–3 days — Meta documents 2–3× CPA swings after budget increases >20% (this was a 20% increase from $2K).

Google CVR dipped to 4.22% — lowest in 7 days. Google lead CVR has been trending down from 5.86% on 3/18 to 4.22% yesterday. This coincides with the PMax CPA spike and may reflect the same underlying issue (lower-quality traffic or audience expansion). Not yet at anomaly threshold but worth tracking alongside the PMax CPA flag.

Month-end positioning: 874 customers ahead of plan with 7 days remaining. The team needs only 342 customers/day to finish on plan vs a 7-day average of 637. This is a comfortable position. The strategic question shifts from "can we hit plan" to "how much surplus can we build while maintaining CAC discipline." MTD Direct CAC of $54.69 is 12.0% below plan — there's room to push spend if the team wants to maximize the month.

Anomaly detection compares yesterday's value to the 7-day trailing average (excluding the reporting day). Z-score = (yesterday − mean) / std_dev. Thresholds: |z| ≥ 2.0 = high severity, |z| ≥ 1.5 = watch. Flagged metrics: Google PMax CPA of $98.29 registered a z-score of +1.8 vs its 7d trailing average of $62.08 (watch severity, +58% above average). No high-severity anomalies were detected. Total new customers (625), total Direct CAC ($57.47), paid leads (12,089), and Meta spend ($26,664) were all within ±1.0 standard deviation of their trailing averages.