HighStrike Case Study · Nikola Ognjanovic
Email Marketing · Paid Acquisition · Finance
HighStrike
Trading Education
Top 10% Finance Tier

Email list grew 50x.
$1.09
Per Lead.

HighStrike had a real community and a real product. What they needed was a system. I built the entire growth engine from scratch: paid acquisition, a newsletter that ranked in the top 10% of finance globally, and two high-ticket funnels that returned 39x on every dollar spent.

50x
Email list growth
$1.09
Cost per lead
3,993%
Trading Room ROI
$95k+
Monthly ad spend scaled
01

The Challenge

HighStrike had built something real: a loyal Discord-based trading community, credible instructors, and products people actually wanted. But their revenue was largely tied to one channel, their email list was small, and there was no predictable acquisition machine feeding the funnel.

My job was to build one from zero. That meant creating paid campaigns, a newsletter infrastructure, and a lifecycle email system that could handle a growing list without losing quality. All of it had to be connected and profitable from the start.

  • Build full Meta and Google paid acquisition across multiple products simultaneously
  • Grow the Bull Whisper newsletter from 545 subscribers into a top-10% finance publication
  • Create high-ticket VSL funnels for Trading Room ($1,499 LTV) and Alpha Program ($7,388 ACV)
  • Architect the full ActiveCampaign automation stack with lead tagging and segmentation
02

How I Built It

1
Top Funnel
Multi-Product Paid Acquisition

Scaled combined monthly budget to $95k+ across Meta and Google. Built two parallel entry points: low-friction email acquisition at $1.09 CPL for newsletter growth, and high-ticket VSL qualification at $58 per qualified lead for premium products. Every lead was auto-tagged in ActiveCampaign on entry based on the exact product they came from.

2
Mid Funnel
The Bull Whisper Newsletter Engine

Grew the list from 545 to 27,321 subscribers — a 50x increase. Transformed the newsletter from a content piece into a revenue-generating machine with high-converting CTA blocks driving trials and VSL clicks. Maintained 35 to 55% open rates throughout, hitting 65%+ during major market events. Ranked in the top 10% of finance newsletters globally.

3
Bottom Funnel
High-Ticket Conversion Engines

Two separate funnels, both built to convert at elite rates. Trading Room: $37.54 CPA against a $1,499 LTV, delivering a 3,993% ROI. Alpha Program: $58 CPL with a 22% close rate and $7,388 first-year value, producing a 2,802% ROI. Discord community reactivation campaigns ran in parallel, pulling dormant users back into active sequences.

03

The Numbers

Email CPL
$1.09
Industry range is $5 to $15. We hit it at a tenth of that.
List Growth
50x
545 subscribers to 27,321 highly engaged finance readers.
Trading Room ROI
3,993%
$37.54 CPA against $1,499 LTV. Every dollar returned 39x.
Alpha Program ROI
2,802%
$58 CPL, 22% close rate, $7,388 first-year value per customer.
Monthly Ad Spend at Peak
$95,000+
Scaled across Meta and Google across multiple product lines. Profitable throughout.
04

vs. The Industry

Standard finance email and acquisition benchmarks versus what Bull Whisper and the HighStrike funnels actually delivered.

Metric Industry Result
Newsletter Open Rate 15 to 25% 35 to 55% 2-3x
Peak Open Rate ~30% 65%+ 2x+
Click Rate (of opens) 10 to 15% 23% 1.5-2x
Email CPL $5 to $15 $1.09 10x better
Trading Room CPA $100 to $300+ $37.54 8x better
Industry Ranking Average Top 10% Finance Elite
05

The Stack

📧
Newsletter Scale
27,321
Subscribers built from 545. Top 10% finance tier globally.
Email Platform
ActiveCampaign
Full automation stack. Auto-tagging on lead entry by product source.
💰
Ad Budget
$95k+/mo
Meta and Google, scaled across Trading Room, Alpha, and newsletter funnels.
🎯
Close Rate
22%
Alpha Program VSL. $7,388 first-year value per closed deal.
🔗
Full Ecosystem
Ads → Email → Discord → Revenue
Meta and Google fed into ActiveCampaign. Newsletter drove VSL clicks and trial sign-ups. Discord reactivation campaigns pushed dormant users back into active sequences. All four channels running simultaneously and feeding each other.
06

Work Together

If you need a full growth ecosystem built from zero — paid acquisition, email infrastructure, and high-ticket funnels that actually convert — let's talk.

Get in touch