Marketing Demand & Acquisition

Acquisition playbook for Series A+ startups scaling internationally (EU/US/Canada) with hybrid PLG/Sales-Led motion.

Table of Contents

• Core KPIs
• Demand Generation Framework
• Paid Media Channels
• SEO Strategy
• Partnerships
• Attribution
• Tools
• References

Core KPIs

Demand Gen: MQL/SQL volume, cost per opportunity, marketing-sourced pipeline $, MQL→SQL rate

Paid Media: CAC, ROAS, CPL, CPA, channel efficiency ratio

SEO: Organic sessions, non-brand traffic %, keyword rankings, technical health score

Partnerships: Partner-sourced pipeline $, partner CAC, co-marketing ROI

Demand Generation Framework

Funnel Stages

| Stage | Tactics | Target | |-------|---------|--------| | TOFU | Paid social, display, content syndication, SEO | Brand awareness, traffic | | MOFU | Paid search, retargeting, gated content, email nurture | MQLs, demo requests | | BOFU | Brand search, direct outreach, case studies, trials | SQLs, pipeline $ |

Campaign Planning Workflow

1. Define objective, budget, duration, audience
2. Select channels based on funnel stage
3. Create campaign in HubSpot with proper UTM structure
4. Configure lead scoring and assignment rules
5. Launch with test budget, validate tracking
6. Validation: UTM parameters appear in HubSpot contact records

UTM Structure

utm_source={channel}       // linkedin, google, meta
utm_medium={type}          // cpc, display, email
utm_campaign={campaign-id} // q1-2025-linkedin-enterprise
utm_content={variant}      // ad-a, email-1
utm_term={keyword}         // [paid search only]

Paid Media Channels

Channel Selection Matrix

| Channel | Best For | CAC Range | Series A Priority | |---------|----------|-----------|-------------------| | LinkedIn Ads | B2B, Enterprise, ABM | $150-400 | High | | Google Search | High-intent, BOFU | $80-250 | High | | Google Display | Retargeting | $50-150 | Medium | | Meta Ads | SMB, visual products | $60-200 | Medium |

LinkedIn Ads Setup

1. Create campaign group for initiative
2. Structure: Awareness → Consideration → Conversion campaigns
3. Target: Director+, 50-5000 employees, relevant industries
4. Start $50/day per campaign
5. Scale 20% weekly if CAC < target
6. Validation: LinkedIn Insight Tag firing on all pages

Google Ads Setup

1. Prioritize: Brand → Competitor → Solution → Category keywords
2. Structure ad groups with 5-10 tightly themed keywords
3. Create 3 responsive search ads per ad group (15 headlines, 4 descriptions)
4. Maintain negative keyword list (100+)
5. Start Manual CPC, switch to Target CPA after 50+ conversions
6. Validation: Conversion tracking firing, search terms reviewed weekly

Budget Allocation (Series A, $40k/month)

| Channel | Budget | Expected SQLs | |---------|--------|---------------| | LinkedIn | $15k | 10 | | Google Search | $12k | 20 | | Google Display | $5k | 5 | | Meta | $5k | 8 | | Partnerships | $3k | 5 |

See campaign-templates.md for detailed structures.

SEO Strategy

Technical Foundation Checklist

• ] XML sitemap submitted to Search Console
• ] Robots.txt configured correctly
• ] HTTPS enabled
• ] Page speed >90 mobile
• ] Core Web Vitals passing
• ] Structured data implemented
• ] Canonical tags on all pages
• ] Hreflang tags for international
• Validation: Run Screaming Frog crawl, zero critical errors

Keyword Strategy

| Tier | Type | Volume | Priority | |------|------|--------|----------| | 1 | High-intent BOFU | 100-1k | First | | 2 | Solution-aware MOFU | 500-5k | Second | | 3 | Problem-aware TOFU | 1k-10k | Third |

On-Page Optimization

1. URL: Include primary keyword, 3-5 words
2. Title tag: Primary keyword + brand (60 chars)
3. Meta description: CTA + value prop (155 chars)
4. H1: Match search intent (one per page)
5. Content: 2000-3000 words for comprehensive topics
6. Internal links: 3-5 relevant pages
7. Validation: Google Search Console shows page indexed, no errors

Link Building Priorities

1. Digital PR (original research, industry reports)
2. Guest posting (DA 40+ sites only)
3. Partner co-marketing (complementary SaaS)
4. Community engagement (Reddit, Quora)

Partnerships

Partnership Tiers

| Tier | Type | Effort | ROI | |------|------|--------|-----| | 1 | Strategic integrations | High | Very high | | 2 | Affiliate partners | Medium | Medium-high | | 3 | Customer referrals | Low | Medium | | 4 | Marketplace listings | Medium | Low-medium |

Partnership Workflow

1. Identify partners with overlapping ICP, no competition
2. Outreach with specific integration/co-marketing proposal
3. Define success metrics, revenue model, term
4. Create co-branded assets and partner tracking
5. Enable partner sales team with demo training
6. Validation: Partner UTM tracking functional, leads routing correctly

Affiliate Program Setup

1. Select platform (PartnerStack, Impact, Rewardful)
2. Configure commission structure (20-30% recurring)
3. Create affiliate enablement kit (assets, links, content)
4. Recruit through outbound, inbound, events
5. Validation: Test affiliate link tracks through to conversion

See international-playbooks.md for regional tactics.

Attribution

Model Selection

| Model | Use Case | |-------|----------| | First-Touch | Awareness campaigns | | Last-Touch | Direct response | | W-Shaped (40-20-40) | Hybrid PLG/Sales (recommended) |

HubSpot Attribution Setup

1. Navigate to Marketing → Reports → Attribution
2. Select W-Shaped model for hybrid motion
3. Define conversion event (deal created)
4. Set 90-day lookback window
5. Validation: Run report for past 90 days, all channels show data

Weekly Metrics Dashboard

| Metric | Target | |--------|--------| | MQLs | Weekly target | | SQLs | Weekly target | | MQL→SQL Rate | >15% | | Blended CAC | <$300 | | Pipeline Velocity | <60 days |

See attribution-guide.md for detailed setup.

Tools

scripts/

| Script | Purpose | Usage | |--------|---------|-------| | calculate_cac.py | Calculate blended and channel CAC | python scripts/calculate_cac.py --spend 40000 --customers 50 |

HubSpot Integration

• Campaign tracking with UTM parameters
• Lead scoring and MQL/SQL workflows
• Attribution reporting (multi-touch)
• Partner lead routing

See hubspot-workflows.md for workflow templates.

References

| File | Content | |------|---------| | hubspot-workflows.md | Lead scoring, nurture, assignment workflows | | campaign-templates.md | LinkedIn, Google, Meta campaign structures | | international-playbooks.md | EU, US, Canada market tactics | | attribution-guide.md | Multi-touch attribution, dashboards, A/B testing |

Channel Benchmarks (B2B SaaS Series A)

| Metric | LinkedIn | Google Search | SEO | Email | |--------|----------|---------------|-----|-------| | CTR | 0.4-0.9% | 2-5% | 1-3% | 15-25% | | CVR | 1-3% | 3-7% | 2-5% | 2-5% | | CAC | $150-400 | $80-250 | $50-150 | $20-80 | | MQL→SQL | 10-20% | 15-25% | 12-22% | 8-15% |

MQL→SQL Handoff

SQL Criteria

Required:
✅ Job title: Director+ or budget authority
✅ Company size: 50-5000 employees
✅ Budget: $10k+ annual
✅ Timeline: Buying within 90 days
✅ Engagement: Demo requested or high-intent action

SLA

| Handoff | Target | |---------|--------| | SDR responds to MQL | 4 hours | | AE books demo with SQL | 24 hours | | First demo scheduled | 3 business days |

Validation: Test lead through workflow, verify notifications and routing.

Proactive Triggers

• Over-relying on one channel → Single-channel dependency is a business risk. Diversify.
• No lead scoring → Not all leads are equal. Route to revenue-operations for scoring.
• CAC exceeding LTV → Demand gen is unprofitable. Optimize or cut channels.
• No nurture for non-ready leads → 80% of leads aren't ready to buy. Nurture converts them later.

Related Skills

• paid-ads: For executing paid acquisition campaigns.
• content-strategy: For content-driven demand generation.
• email-sequence: For nurture sequences in the demand funnel.
• campaign-analytics: For measuring demand gen effectiveness.