Solved: Finding Growth Marketing Experts to Scale in Milan

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out!

You mentioned you are looking for specialized growth marketing services in Milan to help you scale rapidly. It’s a pretty common situation—you feel like you need someone "on the ground" who gets the local nuance, the culture, and the specific consumer behaviour in Lombardy or Italy in general. And fair play, local knowledge is valuable. But I’m going to be honest with you right off the bat: making "location" your primary filter for finding talent is probably the biggest mistake you can make when trying to scale.

I’m happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance on this. The reality is, if you restrict your search to just Milan, you are fishing in a very small pond. The best growth experts usually work remotely or globally because the platforms—Meta, Google, LinkedIn—are global. The strategies that work to scale a business rapidly are fundamentally human strategies, not Italian ones. Sure, the copy needs to be culturally resonant (and a good translator or native copywriter can handle that), but the mechanics of scaling? That requires deep technical expertise that you shouldn't compromise on just to have someone within driving distance.

Below, I'm going to walk you through exactly how I'd approach this problem if I were in your shoes. I'll cover how to actually vet these agencies (so you don't get burned), but more importantly, I want to talk about the strategy you need to have in place before you even hire them. Because frankly, no agency can save a business that hasn't done its homework on unit economics and offer design.

The "Local Expert" Fallacy vs. Platform Expertise

You mentioned you're struggling to find services that understand the "unique dynamics" of the local market. I get that. But here's the thing. In paid advertising, specific platform expertise usually beats local generalist knowledge every time.

Take a good look at their case studies. This is where you catch them out. Do they have experience with a similar niche? Have they driven results for clients in your industry, even if they were based in London, Berlin, or New York? If they’ve got good case studies and it sounds like they truly have the expertise, that's a great sign.

Get on a call with them. Book in an intro meeting or consultation and ask away. See what advice they have for you. For example, we offer a free initial consultation where we review their strategy and account together. This is usually super helpful and gives potential clients a taste of the expertise they'll see going into their project. You want that feeling—that they know what they are doing and aren't just promising you results. Tbh in paid advertising, you can't really promise anything as it's impossible to predict how exactly the ads will perform. If a local Milan agency promises you "guaranteed leads" because they "know the market," run a mile.

Look at their reviews, see what other clients have been saying. If they have strong reviews that's definitely a good sign. We have detailed case studies walking through the full strategies and results we've implemented for clients. But if it feels like they don't have the expertise you need, after you've done your research and looked through their case studies, then it's probably not a good fit. (Tbh if someone asks us for references or to call one of our clients after they've already reviewed our case studies and gotten a free account review, it's an instant red flag for us. It signals they really don't trust us and that'll probably continue.)

Where they are based won't matter as much as whether they have the right expertise. I remember one campaign we worked on for a B2B software company where we generated 4,622 registrations at a cost of $2.38 per registration. We managed to scale them effectively because the pain points of their customers were universal. We just needed to get the targeting right on Meta Ads.

Scaling Requires Knowing Your Numbers (The Boring Truth)

You want to scale "rapidly". Everyone says that. But if you scale a broken funnel, you just lose money faster. Before you hire anyone, you need to understand your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV). The real question isn't "How low can my CPL go?" but "How high a CPL can I afford to acquire a truly great customer?"

The answer lies in its counterpart: Lifetime Value (LTV).

Let's break it down simply:

• Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA): What do you make per customer, per month? Let's say it's £500 (or Euros in your case, but the math is the same).
• Gross Margin %: What's your profit margin on that revenue? Let's say it's 80%.
• Monthly Churn Rate: What percentage of customers do you lose each month? Let's say it's 4%.

Now, the calculation:
LTV = (ARPA * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate
LTV = (£500 * 0.80) / 0.04
LTV = £400 / 0.04 = £10,000

In this example, each customer is worth £10,000 in gross margin to your business over their lifetime. With a £10,000 LTV, a healthy 3:1 LTV:CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) ratio means you can afford to spend up to £3,333 to acquire a single customer. If your sales process converts 1 in 10 qualified leads into a customer, you can afford to pay up to £333 per qualified lead.

Suddenly, that expensive lead from a LinkedIn ad doesn't seem so bad, does it? It looks like a bargain. This is the math that unlocks aggressive, intelligent growth and frees you from the tyranny of cheap leads. If you don't know these numbers, an agency can't help you scale.

Your ICP is a Nightmare, Not a Demographic

One of the biggest reasons I see businesses fail to scale in a specific market (like Milan) is that they treat their audience as a demographic. "Women aged 25-45 in Lombardy" is not a target audience. It's a waste of money.

Forget the sterile, demographic-based profile your last marketing hire made. "Companies in the finance sector with 50-200 employees" tells you nothing of value and leads to generic ads that speak to no one. To stop burning cash, you must define your customer by their pain.

You need to become an expert in their specific, urgent, expensive, career-threatening nightmare. Your Head of Engineering client isn't just a job title; she's a leader terrified of her best developers quitting out of frustration with a broken workflow. For a legal tech SaaS, the nightmare isn't 'needing document management'; it's 'a partner missing a critical filing deadline and exposing the firm to a malpractice suit.' Your ICP isn't a person; it's a problem state.

Once you've isolated that nightmare, find the niche podcasts they listen to on their commute, the industry newsletters they actually open, the SaaS tools they already pay for. This intelligence isn't just data; it's the blueprint for your entire targeting strategy. Do this work first, or you have no business spending a single pound (or Euro) on ads.

Prioritising Your Audiences for Meta Ads

If you decide to run Meta (Facebook/Instagram) ads to scale—which works for both B2C and many B2B cases—you need a rigorous structure. As a consultant, specialising in paid ads, when I audit Meta client accounts, it seems that a lot of people are testing audiences that don't align with their target audience and conversion objectives.

So here's a list of audiences I would usually prioritize in order, depending on what's available and getting enough traffic. The further along in the funnel an audience (or lookalike thereof) is, the better it will usually perform.

For new accounts, start by testing detailed targeting, interests and behaviours. Then dive into retargeting and lookalikes as soon as you have enough data. You need at least 100 people in a custom audience for this. But you really want more than that and you can combine multiple retargeting audiences in the beginning if you're running on a small ad spend. So start with detailed targeting first to get enough data.

The "Offer" Problem

If you're finding it hard to scale, it might not be the market. It might be your offer. The number 1 reason why campaigns fail is the offer. An offer that's not offering enough value or that's lacking an audience with a need for that value. Meaning: a lack of demand.

I see founders chasing great ideas, building loads of features, spending years on developing the perfect product, only to eventually struggle to gain traction because of a lack of demand. So how do you avoid that?

The #1 thing you should do before you even think about advertising is to develop a high value offer with a clear demand. What do successful offers look like?
1. They focus on a specific audience which makes the offer and ads highly relevant to this persona.
2. They then identify an urgent problem this audience has. E.g. they don't just sell a "brand film" but they can now sell a solution to a deep frustration: being a talented firm that struggles to build a customers base.
3. They've then developed a really clear offer (a product, a service, a productised service, a SaaS product, etc.) to solve this exact frustration for this specific audience. E.g. They've turned their service into a "1-Day Filming Process."

Tactical Advice for Milan / Italy

Now, purely on the tactical side, if you are targeting Italy specifically, remember that costs can vary.

In developed countries (which Italy falls into), the cost per click (CPC) often falls in the £0.5-£1.5 range (approx €0.60 - €1.80). Then, you'd usually see a conversion rate of 10-30% on the landing page for simple lead gen. So, if we do the math, your cost per result might be between £1.6 to £15. These are rough estimates, but they give you a ballpark figure.

If you are in B2B, however, and you need decision makers, expect to pay more. B2B leads that go through a long lead form with many qualifying questions, you're going to see much lower conversion rates. And this means your costs will be much higher.

If you are struggling with high costs, here is how we reduce them:
1. Test Different Targeting: Usually, we would start with the same locations (Milan/Italy) and test different targeting. This could already significantly reduce your costs.
2. Focus on Quality Over Quantity: It might be tempting to run a worldwide campaign or a broad "whole of Italy" campaign to reach as many people as possible, but this could lead to lower quality signups. It's better to pay a bit more for signups who are more likely to engage with your content.
3. Improve Your Ads: Professional ads can make quite a difference and also get your costs per conversion down. If you're in the higher range of the CPCs, better targeting and creatives will get you closer to the lower ranges.

Final Recommendations

So, to wrap this up, stop looking for a "Milanese growth hacker" and start looking for a solid strategy and a competent partner, regardless of their postcode. I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

I know this is a lot to digest, but scaling rapidly is rarely simple. It requires discipline in your numbers and creativity in your offer.

If you're still feeling stuck or want a second pair of eyes on your current setup to see why it's not working, you might want to consider expert help. We offer a free initial consultation where we can look at your ad account and strategy together—no strings attached. It might just give you the clarity you need to move forward.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh