In marketing, timing isn't just important—it's everything. The difference between a successful campaign and a budget drain often comes down to one critical factor: knowing when to pull the plug versus when to accelerate spending. Zeeshan, CMO of Al Wathba National Insurance Company and host of the "Behind Marketing Lines" podcast, follows a disciplined 10-day evaluation approach that has helped drive marketing performance across 76 countries. This isn't about gut feelings or waiting for quarterly reviews—it's about making informed decisions based on the data, enabling marketers to spend less while generating more.
The First 10 Days: Your Campaign's Critical Window
The opening phase of any campaign reveals more than most marketers realize. Zeeshan's approach focuses on three core elements during this crucial period: creative performance, landing page friction, and the allocation of budget spending in relation to conversions. "For us, doing small experiments is really important," he explains. "So for the first 10 days of the campaign, we look at the creatives, and we look at the friction on the landing pages and other micro triggers, and then the direction of the budget being spent with the conversions it's doing."
This initial window serves as your campaign's diagnostic phase. Rather than committing large budgets upfront, small experiments generate the insights needed to make informed decisions. By examining how audiences respond to different creative variations, identifying where friction occurs on landing pages, and tracking how budget allocation correlates with conversions, marketers can make informed decisions with confidence.
"Three things people reward in brands: clarity, being human, and being consistent." These principles should be evident in your campaign's early performance. If your messaging isn't resonating with clarity, if the brand voice feels disconnected, or if the customer experience is inconsistent, these red flags will appear within the first ten days.
Reading the Signals: What Your Data Is Actually Telling You
Understanding campaign performance requires looking beyond surface-level metrics. Zeeshan emphasizes the importance of connecting marketing activities directly to revenue outcomes. "I spent $5 on X channel, and I brought in $50 of revenue, right? It's very clear," he notes. This clarity in attribution has transformed how marketing teams justify their spending and demonstrate the value they deliver.
The key is understanding what the conversions, budget direction, and revenue signals are telling you. Zeeshan learned this lesson early in his career when he witnessed a CEO tell his boss, "You have the deepest pockets in the company, and every time I see you asking for more budgets to spend, I don't see value in it." That moment shaped his approach: "That day, I decided that whatever I do in marketing, I'll make sure that it has a return on investment associated with it."
"A good campaign is the one that shows skills. A great or a transformative campaign is one that has some sort of tangible items attached to it in terms of an ROI." After ten days, you should have tangible data points that indicate whether your campaign has the potential to be merely good or truly transformative. The difference lies in connecting creative execution to business outcomes.
The Decision Point: Double Down or Cut Losses
After the first 10 days, you face a critical fork in the road. "Taking the right decision at the right time is really important," Zeeshan emphasizes, "the speed of decision making plays a very important role when you're trying to spend less and generate more." This is where many marketing teams falter—either by holding onto underperforming campaigns too long or by abandoning promising initiatives prematurely.
The decision itself is binary but requires discipline. As Zeeshan describes it: "After the first 10 days, we understand, okay, are we going to double down on it? Are we going to pull the plug and stop doing it?" The data from those initial experiments—the creative performance, landing page friction, and budget-to-conversion relationship—tells you everything you need to know.
If the signals are positive and conversions are trending in the right direction, double down. If costs are escalating without corresponding improvements in conversions, or if the fundamental friction points aren't resolving despite adjustments, pull the plug. This doesn't mean failure—it means intelligent resource allocation.
"Resourcefulness would be the key word for me - not having adequate resources to do things, but still being able to pull things off one way or another." The 10-day evaluation embodies this principle by maximizing learning while minimizing waste. It's about being smart with limited resources rather than throwing money at problems, hoping they'll resolve themselves.
Key Takeaways for Marketing Leaders
The 10-day evaluation approach transforms marketing from a guessing game into a strategic discipline. By examining creative performance, landing page friction, and budget-to-conversion relationships during the first ten days, marketers can make quick decisions that optimize their campaigns while protecting their budgets from underperforming initiatives. As Zeeshan demonstrates through his work across multiple markets and industries, success isn't about having unlimited resources—it's about using what you have intelligently and decisively. "Taking the right decision at the right time is really important," he reminds us. The question isn't whether you'll face underperforming campaigns; it's whether you'll have the discipline and speed to make the right call when that moment arrives. Ten days is all you need to know the answer.
Past Episodes
Resources for growing your product
