Overview
Jimdo is a Hamburg-based DIY website builder and online-presence platform for small businesses and solopreneurs, backed by Spectrum Equity. It became the largest and longest engagement in Winston Francois history, a 7-figure relationship spanning roughly 18 months. Jimdo did not need an advisor. It needed someone to run marketing. Winston Francois embedded a full department and put its principal on the executive team as interim CMO through a leadership transition and a company-wide budget reduction.
The mandate:
- Deliver new-sales growth while cutting marketing spend
- Stand up lifecycle, churn, and product-marketing functions the company did not yet have
- Lead the marketing org through a CMO transition and hand off to permanent in-house leadership
The challenge
- A company-wide budget reduction meant hitting sales targets with materially less money. At one point 725,000 EUR was cut from a single half-year plan.
- Paid spend was spread thin across more than 20 countries and two ad platforms, much of it running below efficiency thresholds.
- There was no permanent CMO. Marketing leadership, lifecycle, churn, and product marketing all had to be run and built at the same time.
- The company was navigating real turbulence, including leadership changes and security incidents, which demanded steady operational leadership rather than slideware.
The approach
1. Restructure paid media for efficiency
- Ran a full DACH Google Ads deep-dive, categorized every campaign by health, and adjusted 94% of them: paused 19, lowered bids on 41, reallocated budget to 54, and reactivated 4.
- Paused inefficient non-DACH geographies and mobile non-brand traffic, where cost per new sale ran more than twice as high as desktop, freeing roughly 20,000 EUR per month to redeploy into efficient markets.
- Rebuilt the YouTube brand-to-intent funnel. In a one-month test against the prior campaign, consideration CPC fell from 3.56 EUR to 2.43 EUR, about 32% cheaper clicks.
2. Embed fractional leadership on the executive team
- Jason Shafton served as interim CMO on Jimdo's executive team for more than a year, owning board-meeting preparation, H2 strategy, and hiring.
- Made and executed the hard budget calls from inside the business rather than recommending them from outside.
- Led the CMO transition and handed the function to a permanent in-house CMO in mid-2023, then continued supporting the team.
3. Build lifecycle, churn, and product-marketing muscle
- Stood up a cross-functional churn pod covering active and passive churn, dunning, and net revenue retention.
- Built out lifecycle marketing in HubSpot and product marketing and copywriting for the One-Stop product launch, plus more than 100 AI-generated, human-edited SEO articles.
- Ran the Thrive Grant brand campaign, which won a Platinum DotComm Award for brand-awareness marketing.
The results
| Metric | Change | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Paid new sales vs. target (July 2023) | +209 over plan | Beat the monthly paid new-sales goal during a budget cut |
| DACH Google Ads restructure | 94% of campaigns adjusted | Spend concentrated on efficient geographies and devices |
| YouTube consideration CPC (one-month test) | 3.56 → 2.43 EUR | About 32% cheaper clicks vs. the prior campaign |
| Non-DACH and mobile non-brand spend | ~20,000 EUR/mo paused | Reallocated to efficient DACH performance |
| Engagement | 18 months, 7-figure | Largest and longest client in Winston Francois history |
The team consistently beat paid new-sales targets under a tight efficiency mandate, built the lifecycle, churn, and product-marketing functions Jimdo lacked, and led the org through a CMO handoff.
The engagement wound down in early 2024 as Jimdo restructured, brought marketing fully in-house under its new CMO, and shifted budget toward brand and SEO. It ended on good terms, and the referral relationship with Spectrum Equity stayed warm well beyond it.
“Jason and the Winston Francois Team stepped in swiftly to run and uplevel our marketing practice. They additionally helped us to setup our own capabilities so that we could take back over. I'm very thankful to Jason and his team!”Matthias HenzeCo-Founder & CEO, Jimdo
What we learned
- Embedded leadership beats advisory in a crisis. A seat on the executive team let us make and execute tough budget calls, not just suggest them.
- Efficiency is won campaign by campaign. Auditing and restructuring 94% of campaigns beat any across-the-board cut.
- Build the client's own capability. Standing up lifecycle, churn, and product marketing and handing them to a permanent CMO is the goal, not lock-in.
- Know when a channel hits its ceiling. As paid cost per new subscription climbed, the honest recommendation was to shift budget toward brand and SEO.