All case studies

Case studies: marketing agencies

Your strategists shouldn't be doing intake, invoicing and status emails.

We build n8n/AI workflows that handle client intake, CRM updates, invoicing, reporting and follow-ups, starting with your most painful one. A 4-person agency got 40 hours a week back this way.
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  • 40 hrs/wk

    Freed across a 4-person agency

    Small agency case

  • 40% faster

    Proposal creation

    TRY

  • 500%

    ROI on automated email campaigns

    US agency

  • 6-12 wks

    Typical first deployment

    ATI Lab delivery

Case studies

Agencies (and in-house teams) that automated the ops work

Agency cases first, then in-house marketing teams for comparison. Each shows the bottleneck, the fix and the published number.

Third-party results from other companies, linked to source. They are not ATI Lab clients. How we would build it for you is below. See ATI Lab's own client builds.

Hours back per week, as published

  • Deel prospecting (in-house)60 hrs/wk
  • 4-person agency (whole team)40 hrs/wk
  • Deel talent researcher (per person)15 hrs/wk
  • Average marketer (survey)13 hrs/wk
Published figures, different team sizes. SBT's 14 hrs/day is not converted to a weekly figure, because the source doesn't say how many days it covers. Third-party published result.

Agencies

4-person marketing agency - n8n workflow automation

Small agencyThird-party result

The bottleneck

Four people running client work and the back office: intake forms, invoices, follow-up emails, handoffs. No budget to hire.

What fixed it

n8n workflows: an intake form creates the CRM record and project, invoices go out on milestones, and follow-ups send themselves. They started with one painful workflow and expanded.

Published result

  • 40 hrs/wk

    freed up across the 4-person team

  • 10 hrs/person

    weekly time reclaimed

Source: MEWR Creative (opens source in a new tab) - "5 AI Automation Case Studies: Real Businesses, Real Results" (Mar 2026)

Digital marketing agency - Email campaign automation

Agency - USAThird-party result

The bottleneck

Manual email campaign management consuming $10,000+ in operational costs. Campaigns couldn't scale without adding headcount.

What fixed it

AI segments the list, picks send times, personalises copy and writes the performance summary.

Published result

  • 500%

    return on investment

  • $10K

    saved in operational costs

  • $50K

    revenue generated from automated campaigns

The published numbers

  • $10K

    Operational cost saved

  • $50K

    Revenue from automated campaigns

  • 500%

    Return on investment

Third-party published result.

Source: Lucid (opens source in a new tab) - "AI ROI Metrics for Small Businesses" (Jul 2025)

TRY - Norway's largest communications group

Creative agency - NorwayThird-party result

The bottleneck

Creative staff buried in planning, proposal writing, and admin work. Tedious tasks reducing time for strategy and storytelling.

What fixed it

Adopted Claude for Enterprise and embedded AI across 50+ use cases: creative strategy, project management, proposal development, and knowledge management.

Published result

  • −30%(decrease)

    time spent on repetitive tasks

  • 40% faster

    proposal creation

  • Better first drafts

    and higher job satisfaction

  • 50+

    AI use cases in use

Source: Globy (opens source in a new tab) - "AI in Marketing: 20+ Use Cases, Examples & ROI" (Oct 2025), vendor case study

SBT - AI social media content automation

Media companyThird-party result

The bottleneck

Decentralized social media management across multiple people and platforms. Manual posting was time-consuming and inconsistent. No data-driven optimization.

What fixed it

AI-powered content automation (Echobox) recommending best content, optimal posting times using real-time platform trends and audience data. Unified management across multiple people.

Published result

  • 40,000

    posts shared in first 4 months

  • 14 hrs/day

    saved through AI automation

  • More traffic

    and impressions via optimized timing

Source: MarketingSherpa (opens source in a new tab) - "Artificial Intelligence Case Studies: Two companies that boosted brand awareness with AI"

In-house teams

Deel - AI sales prospecting with Bardeen.ai

In-house team - GTM / Sales opsThird-party result

The bottleneck

Sales team spending bulk of working hours on manual lead list building and prospecting. Unscalable and tedious. Revenue operations bottlenecked.

What fixed it

Browser-based AI automation (Bardeen.ai) deployed for prospecting workflows - lead list building, data enrichment, CRM sync. Co-founder called it "Deel's most critical GTM tool in 2025."

Published result

  • 75%

    efficiency gain in lead list building

  • 60 hrs/wk

    saved on prospecting

  • −98%(decrease)

    expense cut (CEO reported)

  • 15 hrs/wk

    saved per talent researcher

Source: God of Prompt / AI Tools (opens source in a new tab) - "AI Workflow Automation Tools: Pricing Comparison 2026", citing Bardeen.ai/Deel testimonials

Klarna - AI-powered marketing operations

In-house team - fintechEnterprise referenceThird-party result

The bottleneck

Marketing operations expensive and slow. High spend on marketing suppliers and content production. Manual campaign management consuming bandwidth.

What fixed it

AI took over first-draft content, campaign variants and supplier work, which cut S&M spend 11% while campaign volume grew.

Published result

  • $10M/yr

    savings from AI in marketing alone

  • $2.6M

    saved on marketing suppliers in Q1 2024

  • −11%(decrease)

    S&M spend while scaling volume

Share of Klarna's marketing savings attributed to AI

  • 37%From AI ($10M/yr)
  • 63%Other savings
Third-party published result.

Sources: Master of Code / AI Index Report 2025 (opens source in a new tab), The Finanser (opens source in a new tab) - Klarna IPO filing data

United Fashion Group - AI conversion optimization

In-house team - e-commerce / DTCThird-party result

The bottleneck

Generic on-site experience for all visitors. No personalization at scale. Conversion rates and order values underperforming.

What fixed it

AI-powered contextual personalization deployed across the entire on-site experience - product recommendations, content, and promotions tailored per visitor.

Published result

  • +43.75%(increase)

    conversion rate

  • +57.31%(increase)

    average order value

Vendor-published case study.

Indexed, baseline = 100

  • Conversion rate+43.75%
    BeforeBefore: 100
    AfterAfter: 143.75
  • Average order value+57.31%
    BeforeBefore: 100
    AfterAfter: 157.31
Relative change only; the source publishes percentages, not absolute values. Third-party published result.

Source: Bloomreach (opens source in a new tab) - "How AI Is Transforming Marketing Workflows" (Feb 2026)

How we'd build it for you

What we build for agencies

  • The pain: New client = hours of setup admin

    What we build: Intake form → CRM record → project + folders → kickoff email (n8n)

    Published proof: Part of 40 hrs/wk freed (4-person agency)

  • The pain: Proposals take days

    What we build: AI proposal drafter on your past proposals and pricing

    Published proof: 40% faster proposals (TRY)

  • The pain: Email campaigns need a person per client

    What we build: Segmentation, send-time and personalisation pipeline with approval

    Published proof: 500% ROI, $50K revenue (US agency)

The agency ops chain we automate

  1. Intake form

  2. CRM record

    Automated

  3. Project + folders

    Automated

  4. Invoice on milestone

    Automated

  5. Follow-up email

    Automated

  6. Client report

    AI drafts, team reviews

    Human approval

Industry benchmarks

What AI saves marketers, on average

Martech leaders and AI agents

of martech leaders are piloting or have deployed AI agents

Source: Gartner 2025. Third-party published result.

Average effect of AI marketing automation, indexed (before = 100)

  • Customer acquisition cost30% lower
    BeforeBefore: 100
    AfterAfter: 70
  • Conversion20% higher
    BeforeBefore: 100
    AfterAfter: 120
Sources: Salesforce / SuperAGI research (CAC); HubSpot study (conversion). Third-party published result.

  • −30%

    CAC reduction with AI-powered marketing automation

    Salesforce / SuperAGI research

  • +20%

    conversion increase from AI campaign optimization

    HubSpot study

  • 13 hrs/wk

    saved per marketer using AI tools

    2025 survey of 1,000 marketers

  • 81%

    of martech leaders piloting or deployed AI agents

    Gartner 2025

Next step

Tell us which ops task eats your week. We'll automate it first.

We map your intake → CRM → reporting → client update chain, build it in n8n with AI steps where judgment is needed, and hand it over documented. Typical first deployment: 6-12 weeks.

Automate my agency opsMarketing agency tasks we automate