4 revenue plays that can unlock millions in your business

What if you could unlock millions in revenue using data you already have?

We recently helped a major airline do exactly that: transform its suboptimal pricing model into $3 million per week in additional revenue using data it already had.

In today’s newsletter, we’ll share the 4 revenue plays we used, and how you can apply them to your business.

(👉 If you think your business might have hidden revenue opportunities in your data, we’d love to help you find them. Book a call here and we’ll identify where your untapped revenue might be hiding.)

Play #1 is turning vague problems into clear metrics

Most revenue problems start as complaints, rather than actionable insights.

“Our pricing is bad.” “Customers aren’t buying enough.” “We’re leaving money on the table.”

Here’s how to transform vague concerns into concrete problems you can solve:

Step 1: Ask probing questions with a growth mindset. Why specifically is it bad? What outcomes aren’t you seeing? Where exactly are you losing money?

Step 2: Let your data reveal the real issue. Don’t rely on assumptions. Dig into the numbers to find the root cause.

Step 3: Agree on a single success metric. Pick one measurable outcome that captures what you want to improve.

The airline example: “Bad pricing” became “We’re selling too many low-profit seats too early.” Their single metric: revenue per flight.

For play #2, focus on starting simple and moving fast

The biggest mistake companies make is jumping straight to complex solutions.

Instead, start with the simplest possible solution, then iterate based on results.

For the airline, we started with basic if-then logic: “If flight is more than X% full and departure is Y+ days away, increase price by Z%."

The result was $1 million in additional revenue in 25 days.

Simple solutions win because they’re easy to understand, quick to test, and low-risk ways to prove concepts work. You can add complexity later.

Play #3 is making sure every test is profitable

Most companies treat optimization as an expense, spending months without generating any revenue.

Don’t do this. Flip the approach, and make every test pay for itself.

Design experiments that either generate immediate revenue or provide valuable customer insights.

The airline implemented small 1-2% price increases. If demand held up, they kept the increase, and if bookings dropped, they rolled it back.

Every test either made money or taught them something valuable.

Doing this creates a self-funding cycle where successful tests fund more experiments.

And finally for play #4, create real-time visibility

The fastest way to kill a revenue optimization project is to make results invisible to stakeholders.

You need to push results directly to decision-makers in real-time so they can see the impact immediately

For the airline, we sent weekly updates straight to leadership Slack, saying “Model generated +$1M this week,” then “+$2M this week,” then “+$3M this week.”

There are two practices to amplify organizational support:

1. Celebrate every win, not just major milestones, and your team morale will skyrocket.

2. Maintain daily visibility, so stakeholders can see ROI in real-time.

Your hidden revenue opportunity

You don't need a 300-person data science team to generate millions in additional revenue.

You need clear, measurable problems, simple solutions you can test immediately, experiments that pay for themselves, and real-time visibility.

Most companies already have the data they need.

The airline had the same pricing data they’d always had. The difference was applying these 4 plays to unlock its potential.

Think your business has similar opportunities waiting to be discovered?

👉 Schedule a free strategy session here, and we’ll help you find the quickest path to measurable revenue growth (just like we did for this airline).

See you in the next issue of AE Studio Bytes!

— The AE Studio Team

P.S. Want to see more case studies like this? Check out our previous client successes here.