Marketing Demand & Acquisition

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

Table of Contents

• Role Coverage

• Core KPIs

• Demand Generation Framework

• Paid Media Channels

• SEO Strategy

• Partnerships

• Attribution

• Tools

• References

Role Coverage

Role Focus Areas

Demand Generation Manager Multi-channel campaigns, pipeline generation

Paid Media Marketer Paid search/social/display optimization

SEO Manager Organic acquisition, technical SEO

Partnerships Manager Co-marketing, channel partnerships

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 acquisition across 3+ channels.

• No lead scoring -- Not all leads are equal. Route to revenue-operations for scoring setup.

• CAC exceeding LTV -- Demand gen is unprofitable. Optimize or cut underperforming channels.

• No nurture for non-ready leads -- 80% of leads aren't ready to buy. Nurture sequences convert them later.

Related Skills

• campaign-analytics: For measuring demand gen effectiveness with attribution and ROI.

• marketing-strategy-pmm: For positioning and GTM strategy that feeds demand gen campaigns.

• social-media-analyzer: For analyzing social channel performance within demand gen mix.

• revenue-operations: For pipeline analysis and forecast accuracy downstream of demand gen.