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

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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

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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]

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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.

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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)

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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%

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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.