Meet Our Heroes
Sleek Master isn’t your typical beauty tech brand. It’s a lean, ambitious one-product store with a singular mission: to make salon-quality hair removal accessible, affordable, and actually enjoyable. Founded by Pavel Gerassimov, Sleek Master entered a crowded IPL market dominated by giants like Philips, Braun, and Tria Beauty with nothing but a superior product, a $500 ad budget, and a vision to prove that smart marketing beats big budgets every time.
The Sleek Master IPL device isn’t just another hair removal gadget. It’s designed for real people with real lives: busy professionals, eco-conscious consumers, and anyone tired of the endless cycle of shaving, waxing, and salon appointments. The product promises smooth, irritation-free skin in just eight weeks, backed by a one-year warranty that screams confidence. It’s optimized for light to medium skin tones, economically superior to salon treatments, and kinder to skin than traditional razors.
But here’s the thing: having a great product means nothing if no one knows about it. And when Pavel came to Digital Time Savers, Sleek Master had zero paid advertising experience, no established customer base, and was going head-to-head with brands that had million-dollar marketing budgets.
Their Goals
Pavel’s goals were clear and ambitious. First, hit $5,000 in revenue from IPL sales to prove the business model worked. Second, turn a profit on his first-ever eCommerce venture. And third, use this success as a springboard to expand Sleek Master from a one-product store into a full electronics brand solving multiple customer pain points.
Behind these numbers was a deeper desire: to validate that a small, scrappy startup could compete in a saturated market by doing things smarter, not bigger. Pavel wasn’t interested in vanity metrics or brand awareness campaigns. He wanted real sales, real customers, and real proof that his business could stand on its own.
The Challenge
Sleek Master faced a perfect storm of obstacles. The IPL market is brutally competitive, with established players like Philips Lumea and Braun Silk-expert owning the search results, social feeds, and customer trust. These brands have years of reviews, influencer partnerships, and massive advertising budgets. Breaking through that noise with a brand-new product and a $500 monthly budget? That’s not just difficult. It’s borderline impossible.
Then there was the cold start problem. Sleek Master had no advertising history, no pixel data, no lookalike audiences, and no proven creative. Pavel had tested one Instagram post as an experiment, but it went nowhere. The site was live, the product was ready, but the funnel was untested. There was no baseline to optimize from, no customer feedback loop, and no social proof to lean on.
On top of that, the target audience is notoriously skeptical. IPL devices require an investment of both money and time, and consumers have been burned before by cheap knockoffs or overhyped gadgets. Convincing someone to choose an unknown brand over Philips or Braun meant building trust from scratch, which typically takes months of consistent messaging and reviews.
Finally, there was the founder’s own inexperience. Pavel was clear: this was his first profit attempt in eCommerce. He didn’t know what worked, what didn’t, or how to read the signals in paid advertising. He needed a partner who could take the lead, build the strategy, and guide him through the chaos of launch while staying within a shoestring budget.
Our Process
Digital Time Savers knew this wasn’t going to be a cookie-cutter campaign. Sleek Master needed a surgical, data-driven approach that maximized every dollar and built momentum from day one. We designed a three-phase strategy that would take them from zero to revenue-generating machine in 90 days.
Phase One: Foundation and Testing
Before spending a dime on ads, we needed to understand who would actually buy this product and why. We started by diving deep into the competitive landscape. Brands like Lux Skin and SmoothSkin weren’t just competitors, they were blueprints. We analyzed their messaging, creative strategies, customer reviews, and ad placements to identify what resonated and where the gaps were.
What we found was fascinating. The big brands were selling features: pulses, modes, clinical backing. But the real emotional trigger was freedom. Freedom from painful waxing. Freedom from expensive salon appointments. Freedom from razor burn and ingrown hairs. That became the core of our messaging strategy.
Next, we built a testing framework for Facebook and Instagram. With a small budget, we couldn’t afford to guess. We created four distinct ad sets, each targeting a different customer persona: the eco-conscious millennial, the busy professional, the beauty enthusiast, and the cost-conscious pragmatist. Each ad set had unique creative and copy tailored to their pain points and values.
We also set up Google Ads to capture high-intent search traffic, even though Pavel didn’t have an existing account. We knew people were searching for IPL devices, comparing brands, and reading reviews. If we could intercept them at that moment with a compelling offer and trust signals like the one-year warranty, we could convert them without needing months of brand-building.
The first two weeks were all about learning. We monitored click-through rates, cost per click, landing page behavior, and conversion rates obsessively. Some ad sets flopped immediately. Others showed promise. We killed the losers fast and doubled down on the winners.
Phase Two: Optimization and Scale
By week three, patterns started to emerge. The eco-conscious and busy professional personas were crushing it. These were women aged 25 to 40, living in urban areas, earning above-average incomes, and actively searching for sustainable, time-saving beauty solutions. They cared about the environmental impact of salon visits and disposable razors. They valued efficiency and quality over price.
We rewrote the creative to speak directly to them. Instead of generic before-and-after photos, we used lifestyle imagery: a woman reading a book with smooth legs visible, a morning routine that didn’t include shaving, a close-up of the device’s sleek design next to a coffee cup. The message shifted from “buy this device” to “reclaim your time and confidence.”
On Facebook and Instagram, we launched retargeting campaigns for anyone who visited the site but didn’t purchase. We created carousel ads showcasing customer testimonials (which we helped Pavel gather through early buyer outreach), a comparison chart showing Sleek Master’s cost advantage over salon treatments, and a limited-time offer to create urgency.
Google Ads became a conversion machine. We targeted high-intent keywords like “best IPL hair removal device,” “Philips Lumea alternative,” and “affordable at-home laser hair removal.” We also ran Shopping ads to capture visual searchers. The combination of search intent and strong product images drove consistent, low-cost conversions.
As results started rolling in, we optimized relentlessly. We tested different landing page headlines, adjusted bidding strategies, refined audience targeting, and A/B tested ad creative every single week. Every insight was fed back into the system to improve performance.
Phase Three: Momentum and Expansion
By month two, Sleek Master was profitable. The ads were working, the funnel was converting, and customer feedback was overwhelmingly positive. But we didn’t stop there. We shifted focus from testing to scaling.
We increased the ad budget strategically, pouring more money into the top-performing campaigns while continuing to test new angles. We launched a referral program to turn happy customers into brand advocates. We expanded geographic targeting within the U.S. to tap into underserved markets.
We also worked with Pavel to build out the brand’s content ecosystem. We helped him create an email nurture sequence for cart abandoners, a post-purchase follow-up to gather reviews, and a content calendar for organic Instagram posts that reinforced the paid campaigns. The goal was to turn one-time buyers into repeat customers and build a foundation for the eventual expansion into a multi-product electronics store.
By month three, Sleek Master wasn’t just hitting targets. It was exceeding them. The brand had gone from an unknown startup to a credible competitor in the IPL space, all while maintaining profitability and building a loyal customer base.
Results
In just 90 days, Sleek Master achieved what most eCommerce startups spend years chasing: profitability, validation, and momentum.
Revenue: Sleek Master generated over $8,200 in total sales, surpassing Pavel’s $5,000 goal by 64%. This wasn’t just revenue, it was profit-driven revenue with healthy margins that proved the business model worked.
ROAS: The campaign delivered an average ROAS of 5.2x across Facebook, Instagram, and Google Ads. For a brand-new product with zero advertising history, this was exceptional. It meant that for every dollar spent, Sleek Master earned $5.20 back, creating a sustainable growth loop.
Cost Per Acquisition: We brought the cost per customer down to $28, well below the industry average for beauty tech products. This allowed Pavel to reinvest profits into scaling without burning through cash.
Conversion Rate: The landing page conversion rate improved from 1.2% to 3.8% over the 90-day period thanks to iterative testing and optimization. This meant more visitors were turning into buyers without increasing ad spend.
Customer Lifetime Value: Early data showed that 18% of customers returned to browse other products or refer friends, laying the groundwork for Sleek Master’s future expansion into a multi-product store.
But the real win? Pavel made his first profit in eCommerce. He proved that with the right strategy, a small budget, and a partner who knows how to navigate the chaos, even a one-product store can compete with industry giants. Sleek Master didn’t just hit its goals. It built a foundation for long-term growth, customer loyalty, and brand expansion.
From zero to profitable in 90 days. That’s the Sleek Master story.
