Marketing for Startups: How to Build a Growth Engine from Scratch

The world of paid marketing can seem complex and intimidating for startups. There are many variables to get right, ranging from channel selection, data and audience targeting, creative readiness, campaign optimization, and measurement to perhaps the most critical: driving sustainable business impact. 

These pieces of the puzzle require a material investment in resources and capabilities - some of which can take time to pay off. This can pose a chicken-and-egg problem for startups with limited budgets, talent, or historical proof points. 

With this in mind, I’ve developed this ‘Crawl - Walk - Run’ framework as a pragmatic guide to setting priorities and making decisions as you scale over time. It balances focus between addressing short-term needs and investing in capabilities for longer-term growth.

We start silo-ed with an intentionally narrow scope with performance marketing but progress to an integrated approach that encompasses all of your marketing over time. 

‍Note: Before you start to ‘Crawl’, review these 5 pre-conditions. These are foundational and can make or break your chances of success in paid or performance marketing. ‍

‍A) CRAWL Stage ‍

1. <span class="richtext-line-highlight">Channel selection</span>:

• Start with one channel first, preferably one that is intent-based. In terms of budget, start with 8-10% of your target revenue for the year.
• Pick a channel that is the best fit for your target audience—both in terms of where they spend their time and how they research or make decisions about the category you operate in. 
• Paid search is a good place to start for businesses that are inherently need-based [financial products, lawyers]  or high-involvement in nature [e.g., travel, automotive]. These typically involve researching a problem, comparing available solutions, and reviewing peer feedback before making a decision. 
• On the other hand, social media platforms can be well-suited for categories like fashion that are want or desire-based [brand ‘push’ vs. user ‘pull’] or radically innovative products that have limited existing search queries to tap.

  2. <span class="richtext-line-highlight">Tracking & Measurement</span>:

  As you’re just starting, keep the measurement and tracking setup reasonably simple.

• Ensure you can track and measure conversions in your web/app experience (now known as ‘key events’ in GA4) and review how many came from your paid ads. 
• Install the ad platform pixel [e.g., Google Tag or Meta Pixel] on your site or app to ingest conversion data back to the ad platform in real time to target and bid more efficiently.
• Attribution: 
  • Start with last-click attribution if you are fairly early in your marketing journey and haven’t invested much in driving organic awareness. In this case, 100% of the conversion credit will go to the last channel the user engaged with (clicked) before the conversion. 
  • However, if you have material traffic coming in via organic channels (organic search, organic social), pick Multi-touch or Data-driven attribution instead in your measurement solution. While this isn’t a perfect representation of reality [no attribution model is], you can still get a directional read of how different channels contribute and influence the final conversion vs. assigning all credit to the last channel alone. 

  3. <span class="richtext-line-highlight">Primary Focus</span>: 

• The key questions you should ask yourself are: 
  • Can this channel generate a material volume of users/units/revenue? 
  • Is it predictable? Can it scale? 

Note: this is a step change from the pre-PMF mindset. In that stage, you may have tried many fragmented or organic routes to acquire the first cohort of users and gain traction; many of these tactics were not necessarily scalable or repeatable. With paid ads, focus on scaling 1 channel vs. spreading yourself too thin. 

• Only when you feel confident about channel volume should you think about becoming more efficient [e.g., improving ROAS or reducing CPA],  not the other way around. In the crawl stage, your energy must be devoted to a broader surface area vs. a cost-efficient niche with limited room to grow.

Ready to take the next step? Proceed to the 'Walk' stage to scale channels and invest in new capabilities.