It Took Me 8 Months to Build This SaaS (After Burning $48,000 on Agencies)

Sometimes the best startup ideas come from a problem that refuses to go away.

In March 2024, I was staring at my auto parts business Google Ads dashboard.

The numbers weren't pretty:

• Ad spend: $4,200/month
• Leads generated: 8 phone calls
• Customers acquired: 2
• Cost per buyer: $2,100

I picked up the phone and called my agency.

Me: Why am I paying you $2,000/month if my ads aren't working?

Agency: Google Ads takes time. We're optimizing the campaign structure. Trust the process.

Me: It's been six months. What exactly are you optimizing?

Agency: Our proprietary SKAG methodology combined with advanced geo-targeting strategies...

Translation:

Fancy words. Zero results.

The $48,000 Lesson

I fired them.

Then I hired another agency.

Same story.

Agency A

• $24,000 spent
• 12 leads generated

Agency B

• $24,000 spent
• 18 leads generated

Total Damage

$48,000 spent.

What did I get in return?

• Generic campaign structures
• CSV exports I couldn't understand
• Monthly reports full of vanity metrics
• Endless buzzwords

No transparency.

No meaningful results.

The Moment Everything Changed

One night around 2 AM, I was manually building my 47th ad group.

The process looked like this:

emergency plumber nyc
→ Copy
→ Paste
→ Adjust ad copy
→ Export CSV

24/7 plumber nyc
→ Copy
→ Paste
→ Adjust ad copy
→ Export CSV

urgent plumber manhattan
→ Copy
→ Paste
→ Adjust ad copy
→ Export CSV

Again.

And again.

And again.

Then it hit me:

Why am I doing the same thing 47 times?

That's when the idea for Adiology was born.

The Vision Behind Adiology

I wanted to answer a simple question:

What if anyone could build a professional Google Ads campaign in five minutes instead of twenty hours?

Not just keyword research.

Not just ad copy.

The entire campaign.

Generated automatically.

What Adiology Does

The workflow is straightforward:

1. Paste Your Website URL

Adiology analyzes your site and identifies search intent.

2. Choose a Campaign Structure

Select from multiple campaign frameworks depending on your goals.

3. Generate Keywords Automatically

Using an automated version of the Alphabet Soup methodology, Adiology generates between 410 and 710 keywords.

4. Create Responsive Search Ads

Ads are generated using a structured framework designed around proven messaging principles.

5. Export to Google Ads Editor

Download a ready-to-import CSV file.

Total time: about 5 minutes.

The Agency Playbook, Automated

One thing surprised me while researching agencies.

Most of the "secret" frameworks weren't secret at all.

They're simply standardized structures packaged with fancy names.

So I built them directly into Adiology.

Included Campaign Structures

• SKAG (Single Keyword Ad Group)
• STAG (Single Theme Ad Group)
• SKAG + STAG Hybrid
• SKTZIP
• SKTCITY
• SKTSTATE
• Alpha-Beta Testing
• Intent-Based Campaigns
• Funnel-Based Campaigns
• Brand vs Non-Brand Splits
• Competitor Campaigns
• AI-Powered N-Gram Clustering
• Long-Tail Structures
• Seasonal Campaign Frameworks

A total of 14 campaign structures available out of the box.

Click Fraud Was Costing Me Hundreds Every Month

Another issue I discovered was click fraud.

Between bots, VPN traffic, and competitor clicks, I estimate I was losing between $600 and $900 every month.

So I Built Click Fraud Protection

Features include:

• Real-time click monitoring
• Automated IP blocking
• Fraud analytics
• Bot detection
• Competitor click filtering

For many businesses, this can reduce wasted spend by 15–30%.

Comparable standalone tools often cost over $150/month.

An Unexpected Bonus: Proxy Email Protection

Running ads and listing business contact information publicly comes with another problem:

Spam.

At one point, my gym's email inbox was receiving more than 200 spam emails per day.

To solve that, Adiology also includes proxy email forwarding.

You can publish a protected email address while keeping your real inbox hidden.

The 8-Month Journey

Month 1–2: Research

• Analyzed 50 agencies
• Reverse-engineered workflows
• Studied Google Ads APIs
• Cost: Time

Month 3–4: MVP Development

• Built keyword generation
• Created SKAG/STAG builders
• Developed CSV exports

Cost: $0

Month 5: Breakthrough

I discovered the "Alphabet Soup" keyword expansion technique and built an automated implementation.

Result:

Hundreds of relevant keyword ideas generated automatically.

Month 6: Frustration

Google Ads Editor CSV exports kept breaking.

I spent three weeks debugging:

• Column mappings
• Formatting issues
• Import failures

At one point I seriously considered quitting.

Month 7: Monitoring & Protection

Added:

• Click fraud detection
• Domain monitoring
• Uptime tracking

Infrastructure costs started appearing here.

Month 8: Launch Preparation

• Fixed 100+ bugs
• Improved UI and UX
• Expanded campaign structures
• Built a 183-column Google Ads Editor exporter

Finally, the product was ready.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Agencies

Most agencies sell three things:

✅ Expertise

Knowing which structures and frameworks to use.

✅ Labor

The manual work of building campaigns.

❌ Mystery

Packaging public knowledge as proprietary methodology.

That last one bothered me the most.

What If You Didn't Need Any of That?

What if you had:

• All major campaign structures automated
• Five-minute campaign creation
• Full transparency into what's being generated

That's the problem Adiology is trying to solve.

Not by replacing marketers.

But by eliminating repetitive work and unnecessary complexity.

Looking for Early Feedback

Adiology is live, but like every new product, there's still plenty to improve.

If you decide to try it, I'd love your help:

1. Build a campaign
2. Try to break it
3. Tell me what doesn't work
4. Share feedback openly

The goal isn't perfection.

The goal is building something genuinely useful for businesses that don't have agency-sized budgets.

Final Thoughts

This project started with frustration.

Two agencies.

$48,000 spent.

Months of disappointing results.

What began as a personal solution eventually became a product.

If you've ever felt overwhelmed by Google Ads, campaign structures, or agency jargon, Adiology was built with people like you in mind.

And if you'd like to discuss campaign strategy, Google Ads, or growth experiments with other marketers and founders, join the Adiology Discord Community.

I'd love to hear what you're building.