Paid search & social campaigns

Paid acquisition through search and social advertising platforms.

Campaigns on Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Meta Ads and similar platforms, targeting keywords or audiences that match the ICP.

Why this ring

CPLs rise with competition and it's easy to lose money without a strong landing page and offer. Mature paid teams with tight CAC:LTV discipline can move this toward trial/adopt.

SaaS fit

Works across B2B and B2C, but the economics (CAC vs LTV) have to be validated per product, not assumed from industry benchmarks.

How to apply it

When to apply: You have a landing page with a clear offer and at least a rough LTV estimate, so you know how much you can afford to pay per lead/signup.

First steps: Start with a small daily budget on 1–2 campaigns targeting the narrowest high-intent segment, measure CAC weekly, and only scale what holds an acceptable LTV:CAC ratio.

Pitfalls: Scaling a campaign before the landing page converts just burns budget; without tracking conversions through to paying customers, you optimize for the wrong metric.

Metrics to watch: CAC, CTR, landing page conversion rate, LTV:CAC ratio at 90 days.

Resources

• CAC Benchmarks by Channel — Channel-by-channel CAC figures to sanity-check paid spend against.
• CAC in SaaS: A guide for businesses — Stripe's framing of CAC payback periods and what counts as healthy.

Who does it well

• Databox — Publishes its own granular CAC/LTV benchmarking, which doubles as a public playbook for tracking paid channel economics.