The consumer cybersecurity market has never been more competitive—or more complex. Rising customer acquisition costs, stricter privacy regulations, and increasing customer expectations are putting pressure on even the most established vendors. As margins tighten, cybersecurity companies are being forced to rethink how they grow revenue, retain customers, and differentiate their offerings without significantly increasing costs.
This blog explores how one global cybersecurity company navigated these challenges by expanding its product portfolio through a strategic partnership with RealDefense—unlocking new revenue, improving customer retention, and strengthening its market position in the process.
Over the past several years, customer acquisition costs (CAC) across consumer software have surged, driven by increased media costs and new privacy and tracking restrictions introduced by platforms like Apple. CAC has increased by more than 200% over a five-year period, putting significant pressure on subscriber ROI.
For consumer cybersecurity companies, this environment creates a difficult balancing act:
Increasing prices risks reducing demand in a highly price-sensitive market
Competition makes differentiation harder
Building new products internally requires time, capital, and specialized expertise
For this global cybersecurity company, these challenges were already impacting profitability.
While customers increasingly expect security software to deliver more than protection alone—such as performance optimization and productivity benefits—the company lacked a competitive PC optimization solution in its portfolio. Developing one internally would require significant engineering resources and slow time to market, limiting the company’s ability to respond quickly to evolving customer demand. At the same time, the company needed a way to:
Generate incremental revenue from its existing subscriber base
Improve retention without raising prices
Maintain profit margins despite rising acquisition costs
Rather than investing in a costly internal build, the company partnered with RealDefense to integrate a proven PC optimization solution directly into its consumer software products.
This approach delivered several immediate advantages:
Rapid expansion of the product portfolio
No upfront development costs or annual licensing fees
A revenue-sharing model that drove incremental ARR with minimal operational overhead
The integration allowed the cybersecurity company to enhance its core offering while staying focused on its primary mission: protecting users.
The partnership went beyond simply adding a new feature. RealDefense’s technology was embedded into the partner’s core product experience, supported by several key capabilities:
RealDefense’s Moment of Truth messaging engaged users at the right time with relevant, contextual prompts. These messages achieved click-through rates as high as 44% and converted approximately 2.4% of the customer base to paid subscriptions in a single quarter
By incorporating telemetry data capture, the partner gained deep visibility into customer behavior and product usage. These insights made it possible to identify high-lifetime-value users and implement targeted strategies to improve satisfaction and retention.
Dynamically timed license periods aligned trial experiences with billing cycles, significantly improving trial-to-paid conversion rates while reinforcing long-term customer value.
The impact of the RealDefense partnership was both immediate and substantial:
Tens of millions of dollars in new annual recurring revenue
50%+ trial-to-paid conversion rate
10% increase in quarterly profits across the division
Improved customer retention and engagement
Importantly, much of this revenue flowed directly to the bottom line, demonstrating the efficiency of the partnership model.
In today’s market, growth doesn’t always come from building more—it often comes from partnering smarter. By expanding its value proposition beyond security and delivering performance optimization alongside protection, this global cybersecurity company strengthened customer relationships, unlocked new revenue streams, and reinforced its leadership position.
For consumer cybersecurity vendors facing rising costs and margin pressure, this case illustrates a powerful lesson: strategic partnerships can accelerate growth, reduce risk, and create lasting value—without slowing innovation.