Performance Ads & Marketing Agency for Startups

Your runway is finite. Your ad account treats it like it isn't.

We turn a fixed amount of runway into a profitable, repeatable acquisition engine — run against CAC payback and contribution margin your board recognises, not the ROAS your ad dashboard flatters you with.

Startups rarely burn a round loudly. They leak it quietly.

The dashboard stays green while the bank balance drains. It happens as a chain: a fuzzy ideal customer inflates cost from the start; browser and privacy restrictions destroy a chunk of your conversion signal, so you optimise against a distorted picture; platform-reported ROAS flatters spend that is actually unprofitable once real, fully-loaded costs are counted; and when growth stalls, board pressure triggers the instinct to spend more — pouring fuel into a broken engine. None of it announces itself. By the time it shows up as a runway problem, the round that was raised to fund growth has been funding losses for months. Almost every link in that chain is fixable, but only if the partner is built to fix it rather than to produce reports that hide it.

Platform-reported conversions versus booked revenue. Four advertising channels each report a share of the same conversions — Meta, Google, LinkedIn and YouTube. Because each measures inside its own attribution window with no visibility of the others, their combined claimed total is larger than the revenue actually recorded in the ledger.

Illustrative. Each platform reports the conversions it believes it influenced, inside its own attribution window, with no visibility of the others — so the same order gets claimed more than once and the totals exceed what finance booked. The gap widens with every channel you add.

Symptoms, causes and what they cost

I don't actually know if my marketing is working

Why it happens: Your measurement is broken. Browser privacy restrictions and blockers remove a large share of client-side conversion signal, so you are optimising against a picture that does not reconcile to reality.

What it costs: Every budget decision is a guess dressed up as data, and you cannot tell your board which spend built the business.

My CAC is too high and I can't work out why

Why it happens: High CAC is a symptom, not a disease. It almost always traces to a fuzzy ICP, broken measurement reacquiring the wrong people, or a funnel that leaks the traffic you paid for.

What it costs: You respond by demanding cheaper clicks or spending more, which treats the wrong cause and usually makes it worse.

I'm burning runway faster than I'm building pipeline

Why it happens: You are scaling channels whose CAC payback period your runway cannot survive, because payback was never modelled against the months of cash you actually have.

What it costs: You are flying blind toward the ground, and the raise that was meant to buy growth is buying time you are already spending.

My board wants growth and I don't want to waste the round

Why it happens: Those two goals only conflict when growth is chased through vanity metrics and panic scaling instead of proven, profitable unit economics.

What it costs: You either under-invest and miss the plan, or over-invest into losses — both of which shorten the runway to the next raise.

Where growth is normally stuck

Conversion signal loss between the browser and the ad platform. Conversions fall at each stage of browser-side collection: tracking prevention and consent choices remove roughly a third, and further loss occurs before the event reaches the ad platform. A final bar shows the larger share that survives when events are also sent server-side.

Illustrative. Browser-side collection loses signal to tracking prevention, consent choices and blockers before it ever reaches the ad platform. Server-side events recover much of that gap — not all of it, and never the part a visitor declined.

Our solutions — matched to the problem you have

Our services

Measurement first

For a startup this is not optional — scaling on broken data is how rounds are wasted. We start here on almost every engagement, and everything we build stays in your accounts.

Acquisition

Paid media run against CAC payback and contribution margin rather than platform ROAS, with a creative-testing engine at its heart because creative is the biggest performance lever a startup has.

Conversion & retention

Startup funnels leak worst in the middle. Where the funnel rather than the ad is the constraint, more traffic makes the problem more expensive, not smaller.

What we actually do for a startup

We build an accountable acquisition engine and hand you the keys — the media, the measurement underneath it, and the unit economics that decide whether any of it was worth running. We refuse to scale spend before the measurement is trustworthy, because scaling on broken data is the single most common way a startup wastes a round.

How it runs

The engagement sequence, phase by phase. Four sequential phases, beginning with diagnosis and measurement before any campaign changes are made.

The order is deliberate. Acquisition work built on unreconciled measurement compounds the error, so the measurement layer is corrected before any campaign changes.

Days 1–10 — Diagnose before we touch spend

Read-only access to your ad accounts, analytics and CRM. We change nothing. You get a ranked, evidence-based view of what is actually limiting growth — ICP, unit economics, funnel leaks, measurement gaps — with the arithmetic shown, in a form you can forward to your board without translating it. You keep it whether or not you hire us.

Weeks 2–4 — Fix and own the measurement layer

Server-side events under your domain, first-party identifiers, values on conversions, and reconciliation against what you actually booked — before a single campaign is scaled. Scaling on numbers that do not reconcile just reaches the wrong destination faster, and burns your runway to get there.

Weeks 4–8 — Build acquisition against payback

Budget allocated on reconciled numbers, bidding optimised toward qualified revenue rather than form fills, creative volume matched to spend, and the post-click funnel fixed where it is the binding constraint. Every decision judged on CAC payback against your runway, not platform ROAS.

Ongoing — Scale only what is proven profitable

Weekly against contribution margin and payback, not impressions. We pour budget only into what the numbers prove works, and when a channel stops working we tell you early — including when the honest answer is to spend less, or that the constraint is the product, not the marketing.

Why we work this way with startups

Most agencies are paid a percentage of ad spend, which pays them more when your budget grows whether or not the growth was profitable. For an established brand that is merely inefficient. For a startup, it is dangerous, because the incentive points at spending your runway rather than protecting it. We price on scope so our interest is your engine performing, not your burn increasing — which means we will occasionally tell you to spend less, or not to scale yet, which a percentage-based agency structurally cannot.

What you get out of it

You can finally trust your numbers

First-party measurement you own replaces 'I hope this is working' with 'I can see exactly what is working, in my own data' — the shift from faith to evidence that a runway-accountable founder values most.

You can defend growth to your board

CAC, contribution margin and payback baselined and tracked against runway. Board-pleasing growth and responsible spending become the same thing, because you are scaling an engine you know is profitable.

Your runway lasts longer

Reallocating toward what is genuinely profitable and cutting what only looked profitable typically pulls CAC payback down, turning a burning ad account into one that builds the business.

You own the engine, not rent it

Tracking, models, dashboards and accounts live under your credentials. You keep the asset you paid to build whether or not you keep us — no lock-in, no hostage data.

Cumulative contribution against customer acquisition cost over twelve months. Contribution accumulates month by month as a rising line, while acquisition cost is a flat line paid up front. The two cross once cumulative contribution overtakes acquisition cost. The shaded area before that crossing is the payback period, during which capital is committed.

Illustrative. Contribution accumulates monthly while the acquisition cost is paid up front. The shaded area is the period your capital is committed — the real constraint on how fast you can scale, regardless of how strong the LTV:CAC ratio looks.

Published engagements

What this proof does and does not show: Our published engagements are real and delivered by our own operators; client names are withheld under NDA. These are drawn from growth-stage and scaling companies across SaaS, EdTech and e-commerce — representative of the constraints startups face — rather than staged testimonials. We will walk you through relevant, verifiable examples for a business like yours on a call.

Client names are withheld under NDA. Every figure comes from the engagement it is attached to.

This is for you if

Do not hire us if

Industries we serve

B2B SaaS startups

Long sales cycles, product-led motions, and down-funnel signal fed back so bidding optimises on opportunities rather than form fills.

D2C & e-commerce startups

Contribution-margin-aware acquisition, creative testing as the engine, and repeat-purchase economics that decide profitability.

EdTech startups

High enquiry volume, long consideration, and enrolment — not installs or leads — as the number that funds the business.

Fintech & regulated startups

Acquisition where consent, PII handling and what may be transmitted shape the measurement architecture from day one.

Marketplaces & consumer apps

Activation as the binding constraint — users who never reach first value churn regardless of how cheaply they were acquired.

Early-stage across India & beyond

Bengaluru-based, working with startups across India and internationally, remotely, on the same accountable model.

Check your own runway math before you talk to anyone

A working spreadsheet with live formulas: spend through to net contribution, blended CAC including the fees your ad platform excludes, and payback computed on contribution rather than revenue — so you can see how many months of runway a channel really costs before you scale it. No email required. You should be able to check our thinking before you hear our pitch.

Download the runway worksheet

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best performance marketing agency for startups?
The best performance marketing agency for a startup is not the one with the biggest logos or awards, but the one built around a startup's real constraint: turning finite runway into a profitable, repeatable acquisition engine. Practically that means an agency that deploys first-party, server-side measurement you own, manages spend to CAC and payback against your runway rather than platform ROAS, fixes the whole funnel rather than just the ad account, scales only what is proven profitable, and is honest enough to tell you to spend less when that is the right call. Judge any agency against those criteria rather than a ranking list, most of which are pay-to-play.
Which performance marketing agency is best in India for startups?
There is no single 'best', because the right choice depends on your stage, model and economics — a Bengaluru SaaS startup and a D2C brand need different partners. Rather than trusting ranking lists, judge Indian agencies on the fundamentals that predict results for a startup: first-party measurement you own, unit-economics accountability (CAC payback, contribution margin) instead of vanity ROAS, full-funnel ownership, and honesty about your runway. Fluxsy is built around exactly that standard for startups in India, Bengaluru and beyond, but apply the framework to every option, including us.
How much should a startup spend on performance marketing?
Work backwards from unit economics and runway rather than picking a budget arbitrarily. First establish trustworthy measurement and your true CAC and payback; then scale spend only into channels whose payback your runway can survive, keeping enough buffer for the payback to actually land. Never scale a channel faster than you can prove it is profitable. The mistake founders make is choosing a spend figure first; the discipline is letting proven, profitable economics dictate how fast you scale.
Do you charge a percentage of ad spend?
No. That model pays the agency more when your budget grows whether or not the growth was profitable, and it makes recommending a spend reduction structurally irrational — the opposite of what a runway-constrained startup needs. We price on the scope of the work: roughly $2,500 for a diagnostic audit, $4,500–$5,500 for a build sprint to stand up owned measurement and acquisition, and $6,500–$8,500 per month for a retainer to run and scale it. We size it to your stage on the call, and startup-stage scopes sit at the lighter end.
What does the first month look like?
Read-only access to your ad accounts, analytics and CRM — we change nothing without your sign-off. The first phase is diagnosis: reconciling platform-reported revenue against what you actually booked, rebuilding CAC and payback on contribution, and delivering a one-page ranked view of the constraints with the working shown, which you keep whether or not you engage us. Only after measurement is trustworthy do we touch scaling.
How quickly will a startup see results?
Measurement fixes usually show within two to four weeks because they correct data you are already collecting — often the single biggest overnight change, because you finally see what actually works. Acquisition and funnel changes need one to two full buying cycles to read reliably, longer if your sales cycle is long. Anyone promising a specific lift on a specific date has not seen your numbers.
Who owns the tracking and models when we stop working together?
You do, entirely. Everything is built in your accounts under your credentials — server-side tracking configuration, unit-economics models, dashboards, playbooks. There is no lock-in, we do not withhold access, and our goal is to make ourselves unnecessary. For a startup betting scarce runway on a partner, owning the asset you paid to build is non-negotiable.
Do you only work with startups in Bangalore or India?
No. We are based in Bengaluru and work with startups across India and internationally — the US, UK, UAE, Singapore, Australia, Canada and beyond — remotely, with hours overlapping your timezone. The physics of startup growth travel: a finite runway, a board, and the need to build an engine before the fuel runs out.

How we work

Bring your actual numbers and your hardest growth question

Forty-five minutes against your real accounts. You leave with a ranked view of what is limiting growth, the arithmetic behind it, and what it would take to turn your runway into an engine — whether or not you work with us.