296,237 prospects. 323,014 emails. 0 customers. And a clear answer.
ROAS AI hired Sales Automation Systems for a 90-day pilot to answer one question: could cold email be a primary channel for their ICP? We said upfront that we couldn't guarantee results. About two months in, the data answered it. Cold email wasn't a viable channel for their business. So we released them early and credited $5,000 back for deliverability that was our job to fix. They kept a documented playbook and a clear read on their GTM.
01Executive Snapshot
The numbers
"A lot of times when you don't get results with an agency, you feel like you got burned. This wasn't that. They did the work."
Ryan Tabb
Founder, ROAS AI
02Who ROAS AI Is
Traction elsewhere. A narrow ICP to reach.
ROAS AI plugs into your ad accounts and lifts return on ad spend: roughly a 50 percent uplift, pay on performance, free trial.
They already had traction through other channels. The acquisition problem was reach: getting in front of a narrow ICP.
Their ICP was narrow on purpose:
- 100+ active LinkedIn or Google ads (50+ at lower priority)
- $10,000–$15,000/month in ad spend
- A total market of ~13,000 companies
As Ryan put it: "We have a difficult ICP to reach."
03The Problem
Two agencies, nearly 10,000 emails, zero meetings
Ryan had tried cold email twice before he called us:
- A gray-hat agency that ghosted him with no results
- A well-known $7M ARR shop that sent nearly 10,000 emails and booked zero meetings
The zero wasn't even the worst part. After nearly 10,000 sends, Ryan still couldn't answer the only question that mattered: is cold email a viable channel for this business?
"I had such a negative experience with them. Not because they weren't polite or because they screwed me over, just because they couldn't execute."Ryan Tabb, on a previous agency
Where he was when we got on a call:
"I put a lot of my personal capital into this business and we have generated no meetings and we've sent, you know, coming up on 10,000 emails."Ryan Tabb, Founder, ROAS AI
He didn't need another promise. On the first sales call we told him what we tell everyone: we can't guarantee results, but we can guarantee that after 90 days he would know whether cold email was the right channel for ROAS AI.
He picked us because we'd already done this for marketing agencies:
"I specifically with the directive stuff and with Single Grain, I was like, all right, if you've helped marketing agencies, then you can help us."Ryan Tabb
04What We Ran
Six campaigns, 43 variants, 90 days
From October to late January we ran this as a structured experiment so the result would hold up either way. We recorded 15 Loom walkthroughs explaining what we tested and why.
Onboarding and setup
- Sales call + 50-minute onboarding with Taylor and James
- ICP refined: manager level and above, North America and Europe
- Qualification tied to active ad counts and spend
- Tracking wired into Ryan's Attio CRM via webhooks
- Ryan: "The onboarding process was super thorough."
"This is why I came to you guys. One, for the expertise on your end, but two, for the expertise on helping me deliver on my end."Ryan Tabb, Founder, ROAS AI
The test, by the numbers
We ran dedicated Google Ads and LinkedIn Ads campaigns, tried new angles, and Taylor rewrote all the copy for a final push. No variant reached the success bar we set at the start.
There were bright spots:
- ROAS AI's first-ever demo from cold email, in month one
- Ryan, one month in: "You are a message testing company that happens to be really good at sending emails."
But one meeting and a handful of positive replies out of 323,014 sends were not enough to call cold email a primary channel for this ICP.
05The Outcome
The data said no. So we said no.
About two months in, James put it to Taylor like this:
"I've never been more confident that cold email doesn't work for somebody."James Nolle, Sales Automation Systems
That left two options: let the campaigns limp along another month, collect the final retainer, and blame "timing," or say the obvious thing out loud.
We said it out loud.
We:
- Told Ryan exactly what the data said
- Released him early from the 90-day commitment
- Offered to keep campaigns running a couple extra days as a courtesy
- Documented a full post-mortem of everything we ran
Five days after the contract ended, Ryan messaged us unprompted:
"You delivered on that, as I now have much clearer perspective on how we should approach our GTM motion. A lot of times when you don't get great results working with an agency, it can feel like you got burned, but I definitely feel like you guys put in the work and delivered on your promises, so if I can offer a testimonial or anything useful, let me know."Ryan Tabb, Slack message
That's what you're buying from a pilot with us: an answer. Sometimes it's "this can be a core growth channel." Sometimes, like with ROAS AI, it's "not right now, here's why, and here's what to do next."
06Radical Transparency
What we did when things went wrong
Radical transparency is easy to claim when things go well. Here's what it looked like when they didn't.
1. We owned deliverability and paid for it
In early December, API bugs at a third-party sending platform suppressed our volume for roughly three weeks. Ryan flagged the decline. Our position doesn't move: "Deliverability is our job, not yours."
On December 19, Taylor credited back $5,000. Ryan never asked for it. "Wow thanks Taylor, that goes a long way for us."
2. We owned our own mistake
A LinkedIn automation bot we were testing alongside email went sideways. It kept sending "super AI-sounding" messages after being asked to stop, until Ryan finally said he "really need this to stop."
We shut it down and tightened our process around add-on channels. You should see the warts before you hire us.
3. We kept working after the "no"
- 60,000+ enriched leads delivered free ("wow thanks james this is amazing")
- A complete post-mortem document ("you know everything that we did in detail")
- Six warm introductions to agency clients so Ryan could pitch ROAS AI directly
Our internal standard for every pilot:
07Is This a Fit?
Who this is actually for
This story sits on the site next to the success stories where cold email became a core growth engine.
We're a fit if:
- You're a B2B founder or growth leader with a working product
- Your ICP is clear and reachable, even if it's small
- You've been burned by vendors who dragged you along
- You want a yes/no answer backed by real volume
We're not a fit if:
- You want low-volume, low-commitment "try some sequences"
- You need guaranteed customers, regardless of market reality
- You don't actually want to hear "no"
On a one-month feedback call, Ryan said:
"There is clearly so much value in the discovery process and this process of discovery is very active."Ryan Tabb, Founder, ROAS AI
If that's worth paying for even when the answer is "no," we're probably a good fit.
08Watch the Story
Taylor walks through the whole thing
Taylor recorded a full breakdown of this engagement and one other: "I failed with cold email... (here's what happened)".
The short version:
- Most agencies bury stories like this, and that's bad for buyers
- Sometimes the channel is wrong for the business model, the sales cycle, or the buyer
- We'd rather tell you after three months than take your money for a year and pretend
09In Ryan's Words
Ryan's full testimonial
"We'd worked with other cold email vendors before and it didn't go well. So I was a little burnt in the past. Taylor was upfront from the start. He said he couldn't guarantee results, but he could guarantee we'd know whether cold email was the right channel for us. That's exactly what happened.
We have a difficult ICP to reach, and now I actually understand how to approach our go-to-market differently because of what we learned. Taylor and James tested a ton of copy and subject line variations, handled deliverability issues I didn't even know we had, and helped me think through how to manage replies. They were responsive in Slack and clearly cared about making it work.
A lot of times when you don't get results with an agency, you feel like you got burned. This wasn't that. They did the work."
Ryan Tabb
Founder, ROAS AI
10Common Questions
Common questions about channel validation
11Channel Validation Call
Want a real answer on cold email?
We won't promise results. We will promise this:
- Map your TAM and build serious sending infrastructure
- Test offers, angles, and subject lines at real volume
- Tell you what the data actually says
- End the pilot with an answer, not a "keep paying and see"
Bring your ICP, TAM estimate, current acquisition channels, and customer value. We'll tell you whether a 90-day outbound test makes sense.