Lean Ads & Retargeting Driving 300% Growth

Problem

When I began working with Red Sentry as Growth Marketing Manager at Rule 1 Venture Studio, the company had no sustainable marketing channels consistently driving revenue.

They had a strong product offering — penetration testing services and a productized vulnerability scanner — but faced several challenges:

• No inbound channel ownership — no consistent, revenue-producing marketing campaigns.
• Unoptimized website & landing pages — low conversion rates from existing traffic.
• Limited brand visibility — few touchpoints with their ideal customer profile (ICP).

To hit aggressive growth goals, we needed to establish a repeatable, scalable digital marketing engine.

Solution

We developed a lean but scalable advertising strategy that prioritized high-intent search traffic first, then expanded into strategic retargeting across multiple platforms.

Phase 1 — Build the First Revenue Channel

1. Google & Bing Search Ads — Captured bottom-of-funnel intent for penetration testing and cybersecurity services.
2. Conversion Optimization — Redesigned landing pages and optimized forms to increase lead-to-opportunity rates.

Result: Scaled this initial channel to $30,000/month in new closed revenue from marketing.

Phase 2 — Expand to Multi-Touch Retargeting

1. Platform Diversification — Added targeted retargeting campaigns on Reddit, Meta, and LinkedIn to increase brand touchpoints with the ICP.
2. Message Refinement — Delivered ads addressing common buyer objections, using case studies, testimonials, and product-specific value propositions.

Phase 3 — Scale the Productized Service

1. Vulnerability Scanner Launch Flow — Built an end-to-end onboarding funnel for trial users, including signup, onboarding email automation, and feature adoption prompts.
2. Search Campaigns for Acquisition — Used dialed-in Google Ads campaigns to generate 100 trial users quickly.
3. Conversion-Focused Retargeting — Re-engaged trial users to drive paid upgrades by addressing the specific objections they had during trials.

Result: Scaled this second revenue stream to $60,000/month in new closed revenue from digital marketing.