How a Gen AI flashcard platform got 5x ROI from Google Ads within 1 month and hit record revenue
Jungle AI is a platform that helps students automatically generate flashcards, multiple-choice questions, and other study materials from any document using generative AI.
When I connected with them through a VC at their incubator, they were a pre-seed startup with impressive organic growth and just started testing out paid acquisition last month.
Project Highlights
Before
Jungle AI had already built a solid user base through organic growth with a steady monthly revenue, but they were eager to scale faster.
- To attract seed funding, they needed to demonstrate consistent, profitable growth.
- They knew there was significant search volume for their type of product with searches like “flashcard makers” and “multiple choice generators,” especially during back-to-school season.
- But they faced competition from established players like Quizlet and Anki, who dominated the Google Ads landscape.
Jungle AI had experimented a bit with Google Ads, but they were still figuring out what worked best. That’s why they decided to work with an expert.
During
Working with JungleAI was great. Both co-founders were young, ambitious entrepreneurs, dedicated to making this startup successful.
- The first big piece was getting their conversion tracking set up properly through Google Analytics 4.
- From there, it was all about optimizing their campaigns to drive profitable growth.
- We met weekly to review performance and discuss strategy, plus communicated on Slack.
Julian, one of the co-founders, was really hands-on with the whole process and was overall very interested in anything sales and marketing.
After
Once we had proper tracking in place and could actually see the revenue generated from ads, the results were pretty spectacular.
- Right out of the gate, they hit about a 5X return on ad spend.
- The second month settled into a 3.5X ROI when factoring in customer lifetime value.
- Google Ads ended up driving 20% of their total revenue.
But here's the really exciting part: they hit their first profitable month as a company and broke their revenue record. This wasn't just because of the ads – they'd been improving their product, and the timing with back-to-school season definitely helped.
This early success with Google Ads has been a great starting point. Now we're looking at even more ways to grow:
- Targeting new countries and localizing ads for different language speakers, starting with Spanish and German
- Showing up for middle and upper-funnel searches related to studying techniques, learning models, and test preparation
- Testing out visual ads with Demand Gen and Performance Max campaigns to see if those grab people's attention even more
- Using what we learn from the search terms to make their website even better and write even stronger ads
- Exploring opportunities beyond Google Ads to reach new audiences and maximize growth potential
With a more effective Google Ads strategy in place, Jungle AI is building a stronger case for securing funding and continuing their growth trajectory.
