CutCo’s Portfolio Diversification from Search-Reliance to Audience-Focus Drives 45% Lower CPA

CLIENT

CutCo

SERVICE

Integrated Marketing, Marketing Strategy & AI Consulting, Paid Media

INDUSTRY

Ecommerce / Retail, SaaS and Lead Gen

-45% YoY cost per lead

Background

CutCo, represented online by Vector, is a company that recruits and trains young adults, primarily ages 18–24, to sell high-quality CutCo knives. Their business model relies heavily on digital lead generation, with most prospects coming through paid channels. With a long-standing presence in online marketing, CutCo’s approach had historically focused almost exclusively on traditional paid search campaigns. They partnered with Cro Metrics to transform their paid media strategy to keep up with today’s competition and improve efficiency at scale.

Challenge

Facing Low Visibility, Limited Reach, & High CPLs

CutCo’s paid search performance was deteriorating as competition raised cost per click, available impressions shrank, and AI-driven placements reduced visibility. A heavy reliance on keyword-triggered queries limited audience reach, compounding the issue. These factors pushed cost per lead upward, threatening efficiency and growth.

Solution

Pivot to Performance Max Campaigns

To address these challenges, our team pivoted CutCo’s digital strategy by introducing Performance Max campaigns, Google’s AI-powered, multi-channel platform. This approach shifted CutCo from a keyword-dependent strategy to a modern, AI-driven, audience-focused marketing model.

Methodology

Leverage AI, Expand Reach, Test, & Scale

The team shifted CutCo from traditional, query-dependent search toward an audience-first model using Performance Max. Instead of waiting for prospects to type specific terms, machine learning identified qualified audiences across Google’s properties.

To expand reach, ads ran beyond Search—on YouTube, the Google App, and other network sites—improving exposure among likely prospects. This diversified portfolio reduced over-reliance on a shrinking pool of search impressions.

Testing began with a modest budget in March, then investment was increased as results proved out. As spend scaled, performance stayed efficient, reversing the negative cost trajectory and modernizing CutCo’s paid marketing approach.

Results

Year-Over-Year Gains

The Performance Max shift delivered immediate efficiency gains including lower acquisition costs in testing, sustained CPL improvements at scale, and 45% year-over-year cost improvements during key seasonal periods.