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

• Define objective, budget, duration, audience
• Select channels based on funnel stage
• Create campaign in HubSpot with proper UTM structure
• Configure lead scoring and assignment rules
• Launch with test budget, validate tracking
• 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

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

Google Ads Setup

• Prioritize: Brand → Competitor → Solution → Category keywords
• Structure ad groups with 5-10 tightly themed keywords
• Create 3 responsive search ads per ad group (15 headlines, 4 descriptions)
• Maintain negative keyword list (100+)
• Start Manual CPC, switch to Target CPA after 50+ conversions
• 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

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

Link Building Priorities

• Digital PR (original research, industry reports)
• Guest posting (DA 40+ sites only)
• Partner co-marketing (complementary SaaS)
• 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

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

Affiliate Program Setup

• Select platform (PartnerStack, Impact, Rewardful)
• Configure commission structure (20-30% recurring)
• Create affiliate enablement kit (assets, links, content)
• Recruit through outbound, inbound, events
• 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

• Navigate to Marketing → Reports → Attribution
• Select W-Shaped model for hybrid motion
• Define conversion event (deal created)
• Set 90-day lookback window
• 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.