Semgrep / Paid strategy, agency leadership & creative
Costs were falling. I chose to invest.
I lead Semgrep’s paid acquisition strategy and the Revenu partnership, setting budget, audience, offer and campaign priorities. I use performance reviews to decide what to scale, refine or pause. Revenu contributes channel expertise and executes media buying, optimization and landing-page tests.
My role spans lifecycle programs and paid acquisition. Search is one measured example within that broader remit.
Strategy behind the spend.
In campaign reviews, I argued for optimization and learning before deciding whether to pause an expensive early initiative, pressing on messaging and audience intent. I also challenged signup reporting and asked for visibility into product use after acquisition.
More signups. A lower unit cost.
The comparison tracks the same Search population across two three-month windows.
The comparison behind the case
Portfolio presentation of retained historical results. Not a native dashboard screenshot.
Falling costs prompted the investment decision. The 33.2% cost-per-signup reduction compares the two complete windows. The first period includes time before I took on paid acquisition. Completed signups are distinct from activation, qualified pipeline and revenue.
Make the benefit visible.
In a separate September project, I designed and wrote the Guardian Reddit ad with AI-assisted production in Claude Design. Product critique sharpened the benefit: show useful action in the coding workflow. Revenu was responsible for subsequent adaptation and media execution.
Make the useful response visible in the illustration, while distinguishing Guardian’s checking from the coding agent’s response.
A persuasive page needs an accurate promise.
I turned Product feedback into copy, proof and CTA instructions for Revenu, preserving the free-signup path while narrowing unsupported safety and compatibility promises. Revenu owned layout and implementation. The agency acknowledged the September revisions; a page-specific conversion lift is not established.