Episode #216: Matt Putra — Cracking paid lead gen for a services business

How to lower lead costs by teaching instead of pitching.
For service founders stuck with expensive, inconsistent lead flow.

Matt Putra of EightX explains how he finally cracked lead generation for his fractional CFO business after spending $150,000 over 18 months on cold email, outbound, hiring, and agency support that did not work. The breakthrough came when he stopped trying to force a funnel and started running simple paid ads built around genuinely useful tools for e-commerce operators. He shares how a CAC spreadsheet offer dropped his cost per lead from $11,000 to $20, what his five-minute ads actually look like, and how he thinks about payback periods, inventory risk, and marketing spend across the brands he advises. The conversation also covers the operating cadence he uses to align demand, supply, and finance and why inventory strategy is often the biggest growth leak in e-commerce.

What you’ll hear

• Why lead gen for services often fails when the offer is not clear enough
• How Matt structures five-minute paid ads around spreadsheets, tools, and AI workflows
• Why cold email, outbound, and agency-led efforts underperformed for his business
• How to use CAC, LTV, payback periods, and inventory analysis to make better growth decisions

Chapters

• 00:00 — The ad that dropped CPL from $11,000 to $20
• 02:41 — The failed experiments: cold email, outbound, hiring, and agencies
• 05:56 — What the ads look like and why they convert
• 08:50 — The biggest financial mistake e-commerce founders make
• 12:23 — Diagnosing growth problems and missed ROI
• 14:15 — When to spend more on marketing and when to pull back

Links & resources

Guest
Matt Putra — EightX
Website
LinkedIn
Work with Winston Francois

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