The growth enginefor modern marketers.
We build growth systems for forward-thinking founders, leaders, and marketing teams. Strategy, execution, and AI tooling from one integrated team, designed to compound results every month.
Trusted by leading brands
Our Purpose
AI growth
marketing
consultancy.
ikigai (pronounced ee-kee-gai) is a Japanese concept for finding purpose in work. We chose the name because growth marketing, done well, sits at the intersection of skill, market need, and measurable commercial return.
We run marketing the way good teams run software. Strategies are versioned. Campaigns are tested against hypotheses. Every iteration is measured, adjusted, and redeployed. Nothing ships without a feedback loop.
Everything we deliver is measured against the numbers that determine whether a business grows or stalls: qualified pipeline, revenue, cost per acquisition, lifetime value.
Built on 18 years of agency leadership.
AI-driven growth marketing expertise.
Founder
Nathan Nicholls
Growth Marketing Consultant & Founder
18 years in agency leadership, from hands-on SEO and PPC to Digital Director, then Chief Digital Officer reshaping an agency's entire service offering around AI. Growth strategies delivered across financial services, legal, telecoms, tourism, government, and e-commerce.
ikigai is the result. A consultancy where every engagement runs on GrowthOS, the AI platform built to automate reporting, surface insights, and keep execution tight. Strategy and code from one consultancy.
The AI Growth Stack
Full-funnel services from strategy to execution.Architected as one integrated delivery pipeline.
GEO & SEO
We engineer organic visibility across traditional search engines and the new wave of AI-powered answer engines. From technical SEO audits and programmatic content at scale, to Generative Engine Optimisation that ensures your brand surfaces in ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity, we build compounding organic growth that does not depend on ad spend.
Performance Marketing
Data-driven paid media management across search, social, and display. We architect multi-channel campaigns with rigorous A/B testing, creative iteration, and conversion tracking that ties every pound of spend back to revenue. Our AI-enhanced bidding strategies and real-time optimisation consistently outperform industry benchmarks.
Web Design & Development
Full-stack web and application development built for performance, accessibility, and conversion. We build on modern frameworks including headless CMS, server-side rendering, and edge deployment, with performance and accessibility baked in as standard. Whether it is a marketing site, e-commerce store, or custom web application, we ship production-grade code.
Data & Analytics
We build the measurement infrastructure that makes growth predictable. From first-party data strategies and server-side tagging, to custom dashboards and conversion rate optimisation programmes, we turn raw data into actionable intelligence. Every decision backed by evidence, every experiment measured to statistical significance.
AI Consulting
Strategic AI adoption that moves beyond experimentation to production impact. We help teams and agencies identify high-value automation opportunities, build custom AI agents and workflows, and deploy AI-powered tools that genuinely reduce costs and accelerate output. From prompt engineering to multi-agent orchestration, we bridge the gap between AI hype and measurable ROI.
Retention Marketing
AI-powered retention marketing across email, SMS, and the entire customer lifecycle. We map customer journeys, build personalised nurture sequences, and connect your martech stack so sales and marketing operate from a single source of truth. From CRM implementation to loyalty programmes, we turn one-time buyers into lifetime customers.
Performance Creative
Neuroscience-backed creative that converts. We combine behavioural science, A/B testing frameworks, and data-driven creative iteration to produce ad assets that outperform. From scroll-stopping video to high-converting static, every creative decision is grounded in performance data and cognitive principles.
Score your ad creative against the human brain
Upload any ad and get an instant AI analysis backed by neuroscience research from 720 subjects and 1,115 hours of fMRI data. See exactly where your creative connects, and where it falls flat.
Process
The growth loop.
Repeatable, measurable, zero variance.
Every engagement follows the same disciplined loop. We diagnose, build, execute, measure, and compound, on repeat. The process is the product.
Step 1
Discovery
A full diagnostic across market position, competitors, and performance data. We instrument your current stack, baseline every metric, and identify the highest-impact interventions before writing a single brief.
Step 2
Strategy
We build a growth model: a hypothesis-driven roadmap with specific KPIs, channel allocations, and sprint-level milestones. Every recommendation maps to a measurable outcome. Every budget line has an expected return range.
Step 3
Execution
We deploy campaigns, content systems, technical integrations, and landing pages with full QA. Startup speed, because delays cost more than mistakes.
Step 4
Optimisation
We analyse results, run experiments, and adjust. Each cycle feeds the next. After 12 months, your growth engine has more training data than your competitors have campaigns.
Your AI Growth Partner
Human-directed strategy.
AI-augmented execution.
Senior specialists architect strategy and creative direction. GrowthOS agents handle data processing, anomaly detection, automated reporting, and bid optimisation. Tasks that would consume 40% of a traditional agency's billable hours go to machines. You fund strategy.
| Feature | Best Choiceikigai | AI Tools | Traditional Agency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full-stack marketing expertise | |||
| Data-driven strategy | |||
| Dedicated account lead | |||
| AI-enhanced workflows | |||
| Scalable without hiring | |||
| Transparent reporting | |||
| Flexible engagement | |||
| Cost-effective at scale |
Fit
Are we a good fit for your business?
You know what works. You need a team that can execute the full stack: SEO, paid, content, CRO, so you can focus on the product.
1 / 2
What our clients say:
“Working with Nathan was a pleasure from the start and we were extremely happy with our new website. He took our rough ideas and content, and turned them into a professional, high-performing website that looks great. He also gave us some great ideas for additional content. The process was smooth, communication was clear, and he delivered everything he said perfectly on schedule. ”
Louise Eden
Consultant, Signature Spaces
Latest Insights
From the blog
Frequently asked questions
with specific answers
The first 30 days focus on quick wins: fixing tracking, launching paid campaigns, and clearing technical SEO blockers. Paid media can show returns within weeks. SEO and content compound over 3 to 6 months. We set realistic timelines upfront and report fortnightly so you always know what is moving.
Every service starts with a one-off setup: audit, strategy, and tracking configuration. After that, ongoing retainers start from £1,000 per month for continued execution, optimisation, and reporting. Project-based pricing is available for website builds and strategy sprints. All prices are based on a £100/hr base rate.
Yes. We partner with experienced creative directors, animators, photographers, and videographers to deliver ad creative, landing pages, email templates, and brand assets. Our creative partners work within the same sprint cycles as media buying and development, so creative decisions stay informed by live performance data.
We work across financial services, e-commerce, SaaS, professional services, technology, and hospitality. Our methodology is channel and industry agnostic. What matters is your growth ambition, not your vertical. We bring deep platform expertise and adapt strategy to your market dynamics.
No. We operate as an embedded extension of your team. Many of our clients have internal marketing leads. We handle technical execution, AI tooling, and specialist channel work while your team focuses on brand, content direction, and stakeholder management. The goal is to make your team more effective.
AI is built into every engagement through our GrowthOS platform. We use LLM-powered agents for campaign monitoring, content generation, anomaly detection, and automated reporting. This is production infrastructure that reduces manual work and shortens optimisation cycles, rather than a bolt-on feature set.
GEO and SEO, performance marketing (Google, Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok), website design and development, data and analytics (GA4, CRO, dashboards), AI consulting (custom agents and workflow automation), and retention marketing (HubSpot, email, SMS, CRM). All delivered as one integrated service, with a single team.
Core metrics are CAC, LTV, ROAS, conversion rate, and revenue per visitor. We translate your business goals into target KPIs and build experiments that move those numbers while proving causal impact. Every deliverable maps to a measurable outcome.
Yes. Growth marketing sits at the intersection of product, pricing, and distribution. We advise on positioning, pricing architecture, and channel strategy as part of our discovery process. For deeper product strategy work, our AI consulting team can build custom tools and data models to support decision-making.
Expect a clear measurement framework from day one, fortnightly sprint reports with live dashboards, and quarterly strategy reviews. We tie experiments to revenue impact and maintain a prioritised roadmap of tests and scale plans. Only numbers that matter to your business, no vanity metrics.
Look for a team that measures everything, ships fast, and stays transparent about what is working and what is not. Ask to see real dashboards instead of slide decks. Check whether they own execution or outsource it. Check that their incentives align with yours. We charge flat retainers, not percentage of spend, because that is the only model where we both win when efficiency improves.
Book a free call. We would love to talk growth.
All engagements start with a free 30-minute discovery call before anything is proposed or priced. No pitch deck. No pressure.
