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.