Title: [Client A]

What was expected to happen?

• Acquire more customers through paid media while maintaining contribution margin
• No explicit goals were set for repeat purchase rate, product lifecycle, or retention ownership

What actually happened?

• ROAS remained stable and first-order margin was solid
• But thousands of customers were never re-engaged
• The marketing team kept iterating on paid acquisition because that’s what they were being asked (and incentivized) to do

What Went Well?

• The product itself performed well with strong pricing and margin structure
• The business was technically profitable from the first order, which is rare
• Ads were doing their job

What Will We Do Better Next Time?

• Clarify ownership of retention
• Set specific expectations for post-purchase engagement and repeat purchase rates
• Align incentives so the team isn’t just optimizing for CAC and ROAS
• Build a real plan to increase contribution margin by extending LTV

References

Guide-to-the-after_action_review.pdf