Case Study
$50M in Ad Spend as a Solo CEO
$50M+
Lifetime Spend
3.2x
Avg ROAS
100+
Clients
40%
Avg CPA Reduction
The Story
Steve Kaplan ran Click Then Convert as a solo founder and CEO for 10 years. No partners. No investors. No employees for most of the run. One person managing the entire client portfolio, from strategy to execution to reporting.
$50M+ in lifetime managed ad spend. Peak months over $2M. 100+ clients across D2C brands, B2B SaaS, and B2B services. 3.2x average ROAS and 40% average CPA reduction. Google Partner, Facebook Blueprint Certified, Klaviyo Partner.
What Made It Work
Solo operator model
No account managers. No junior staff learning on client budgets. Every client got Steve directly. This is the same model GTMVP runs today.
Attribution obsession
Every dollar of spend was connected to a revenue outcome. Not impressions. Not engagement. Revenue. This discipline at 100+ clients over 10 years built the instinct Steve brings to every audit.
CPA reduction first
Most agencies optimize for ROAS alone. Steve optimized for CPA reduction first, making ROAS improvements sustainable. The 40% average was the median, not a cherry-picked stat.
Platform diversity early
By 2020 most clients ran Meta + Google + Klaviyo as an integrated stack. When iOS 14.5 broke attribution, Steve's clients were less exposed because they had diversified spend and server-side tracking.
Why It Closed
Steve did not shut down because of failure. He shut down because the market changed. AI and automation became the higher-leverage play. Running ads manually for 100 clients was the old model. Building systems that run themselves is the new one. GTMVP Inc is the evolution.
The Evolution
| Click Then Convert | GTMVP |
|---|---|
| Run ads for clients | Build the systems that run ads |
| Optimize CPA manually | Automate optimization loops |
| Monthly reporting | Real-time executive dashboards |
| Solo operator, direct delivery | Solo operator, AI-augmented delivery |
| 100+ clients over 10 years | 10 retainers at $25K MRR |
Same instinct. New model.
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