Case Study
Seed corn revenue growth case study
From $116K to $202K in March paid-media revenue.
Four15 helped an independent seed corn business grow reported paid-media revenue by 73% year over year during March, a key buying month. Advertising spend increased 19%, while reported return on ad spend improved from 9.55× to 13.95×.
The business also sold more seed: March bag sales rose from 5,223 in 2023 to 6,952 in 2024, a 33% increase. That provides a separate business-level measure of growth alongside advertising attribution.
|
March performance
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2023
|
2024
|
|---|---|---|
|
Reported paid-media revenue
|
$116.284
|
$201,692
|
|
Paid-media spend
|
$12,180
|
$14,463
|
|
Return on ad spend
|
9.55 x
|
13.95 x
|
|
Business bags sold
|
5,223
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6,952
|
Sources: 2023 QBR and April 4, 2024 weekly report. Revenue is reported advertising attribution, not reconciled company-wide sales or profit. Bag sales are business totals and are not attributed solely to ads.
The engagement began in December 2022 with a business that already sold seed and had run Google and Facebook ads. The client described a November-to-May selling season, with most sales concentrated in March and April. Budgets and campaign priorities needed to reflect when farmers researched varieties, planned financing and placed orders.
The offer required more than generic ecommerce promotion. Customers weighed seed price, variety, shipping costs and payment timing. Four15 tested messages around those decisions and managed prospecting, remarketing and existing-customer campaigns separately.
Google captured search demand, while Facebook promoted offers and brought interested buyers back. We also tested Microsoft Ads and other channels, keeping the main investment focused on the channels producing meaningful sales.
Early-order promotions, shipping discounts and clear per-bag pricing became recurring creative themes. The Q4 review found that offers and deadline messaging performed well, especially as promotions approached their end dates. Four15 coordinated promotional search ads and Facebook creative with those deadlines, then updated or paused the offers when they ended.
Q4 2023 produced $238,605 in reported Google and Facebook revenue on $25,891 in spend, a 9.22× reported return. December contributed $140,651 on $6,357 in spend in the later QBR. The results supported continued testing of specific offers and purchasetiming messages.
Facebook campaigns separated new audiences, remarketing and retention. We reviewed creative and audience performance, rotated stronger ads back into service and moved investment away from weaker tests. Google brand campaigns captured substantial demand from people already familiar with the business.
Those returning audiences were an important part of the result. In Q4, Facebook acquisition campaigns reported 2.55× ROAS, compared with 15.77× for non-prospecting activity. Google brand revenue also dominated its channel total. This made coordinated prospecting and follow-up valuable, while keeping customer acquisition performance distinct from the overall return.
In March 2024, Four15 tested target ROAS against target CPA on Google nonbrand campaigns. The March 28 report showed four purchases and $5,488.83 in revenue in the target ROAS arm, with 66% lower spend and 80% lower cost per purchase than the comparison arm. We applied target ROAS to nonbrand and subsequently tested it on brand.
We also tested search copy, product imagery and geographic bidding based on purchase history. Financing creative addressed cash-flow timing, including paying after harvest. The team evaluated those offers alongside discounts and price-led ads rather than assuming one message would work throughout the season.
By the April 25 meeting, the business reported 6,744 bags sold in April, already 24% above the full April 2023 total of 5,423. Paid-media reporting through April 24 showed $98,645 in revenue on $11,606 in spend, or 8.50× ROAS. April was still in progress.
The strongest outcome was the March year-over-year increase: substantially more attributed revenue and more bags sold, with revenue growing faster than ad spend. The work combined seasonal budget decisions with offers, returning-customer campaigns and purchase-value optimization.