marketing-demand-acquisition

SKILL.md

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.