Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
Here's something that took me way too long to figure out: distribution is literally everything. I spent years building beautiful websites and optimizing conversion funnels, thinking that was the secret sauce. Meanwhile, my clients were still struggling to grow revenue because nobody could find their amazing products.
It hit me during a project with an e-commerce client who had over 1,000 SKUs and a decent 2.5 ROAS on Facebook Ads. The numbers looked good on paper, but they were completely dependent on Meta's algorithm. One policy change, one iOS update, and their entire revenue stream could disappear overnight.
That's when I realized: we were treating distribution like an afterthought when it should be the foundation. Most businesses obsess over product features and conversion optimization while completely ignoring how customers actually discover them. It's like building the world's best restaurant in the middle of nowhere with no signage.
In this playbook, I'll walk you through:
Why distribution channels matter more than product quality for revenue growth
The real reason Facebook Ads dependency kills businesses
My systematic approach to building multiple revenue-driving channels
How SEO became my client's most profitable distribution channel
The framework I use to prioritize distribution investments
This isn't about adding more marketing channels. This is about fundamentally rethinking how customers find and buy from you.
Industry Reality
What most businesses get wrong about revenue growth
Walk into any startup accelerator or business mastermind, and you'll hear the same advice repeated like gospel:
"Focus on product-market fit first" - Build the perfect product and customers will find you
"Optimize your conversion funnel" - Turn more visitors into buyers through better UX
"Content is king" - Create valuable content and traffic will follow
"Scale what works" - Double down on your best-performing channel
"Build it and they will come" - Great products naturally find their audience
This advice isn't wrong, but it's dangerously incomplete. The dirty secret nobody talks about? Distribution beats product quality every single time. I've seen mediocre products with amazing distribution completely dominate superior products with weak reach.
The conventional wisdom exists because it feels safer to focus on what you control - your product, your website, your funnel. Distribution feels chaotic and unpredictable. Plus, most business advice comes from people who already had distribution advantages (existing audiences, networks, or budgets) and forgot how they actually got customers in the first place.
Here's where it falls short: you can have a 10% conversion rate, but if only 100 people see your offer, you make 10 sales. Someone with a 2% conversion rate reaching 10,000 people makes 200 sales. The math is brutal but simple.
Most businesses end up in what I call the "optimization trap" - endlessly tweaking headlines and button colors while their competitors are building entirely new ways for customers to discover them.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
This revelation hit me hardest when working with an e-commerce client who seemed to have everything figured out. They had over 1,000 products, solid margins, and a Facebook Ads ROAS of 2.5. Most marketers would call that a success story.
But I saw a different picture. Their entire revenue engine depended on a single distribution channel - Meta's advertising platform. Every dollar of growth required more ad spend. When iOS 14.5 hit and attribution became messy, their confidence started cracking.
The real problem wasn't their ads or their products. It was a fundamental mismatch between their catalog complexity and Facebook's format. They had an incredible variety of SKUs - their strength was helping customers discover exactly what they needed through browsing and comparison. But Facebook Ads demand instant decisions on single products.
I watched them burn through budget trying to force a square peg into a round hole. They needed time-rich, intent-driven discovery - exactly what Facebook Ads can't provide.
That's when I realized: they weren't just advertising incorrectly, they were distributing incorrectly. Their products needed a completely different discovery mechanism. Instead of interrupting people scrolling through social feeds, they needed to intercept people actively searching for solutions.
This client became my testing ground for a distribution-first approach. Instead of optimizing their Facebook campaigns, we completely rebuilt how customers found them. The goal wasn't better ads - it was better distribution.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Once I stopped thinking about "marketing channels" and started thinking about "customer discovery systems," everything changed. Here's the exact framework I developed:
Step 1: Channel-Product Fit Audit
First, I mapped their products against different discovery behaviors:
Quick decision products → Social media ads
Research-heavy products → SEO and content
Comparison shopping → Organic search
Repeat purchases → Email and retention
For my e-commerce client, 80% of their catalog fell into categories 2 and 3. No wonder Facebook Ads felt like pushing water uphill.
Step 2: SEO as Primary Distribution
Instead of fighting Facebook's algorithm, we built a comprehensive SEO strategy:
Restructured their entire website around search intent, not company structure
Created category pages that ranked for "[product type] for [use case]" queries
Built comparison guides and buying recommendations
Optimized for long-tail, high-intent keywords
Step 3: Multi-Channel Revenue Architecture
We didn't abandon paid ads completely - we repositioned them:
Facebook Ads for retargeting and specific product promotions
Google Ads for high-intent, branded searches
SEO for discovery and research phases
Email for retention and repeat purchases
Step 4: Attribution Reality Check
Here's where it gets interesting. Within a month of implementing SEO, Facebook's reported ROAS jumped from 2.5 to 8-9. But I knew better - SEO was driving significant traffic and conversions that Facebook was claiming credit for through its attribution model.
Instead of celebrating "improved ad performance," we focused on total revenue growth. The real metric wasn't channel-specific ROAS - it was overall business growth from diversified distribution.
Channel Mapping
Map your products to discovery behaviors, not just demographics. Different products need different distribution strategies.
Multi-Touch Reality
Accept that customers touch multiple channels before buying. Attribution models lie - total growth matters more than channel credit.
Intent Matching
Match your distribution to customer intent. Research-heavy products need patient discovery channels like SEO, not interruption channels.
Revenue Diversification
Build multiple discovery pathways. Single-channel dependency is a business risk, not a growth strategy.
The results spoke for themselves, but not in the way most people track "marketing success." Total organic traffic increased by 400% within six months. More importantly, revenue from non-paid channels grew from 20% to 65% of total sales.
But here's what really mattered: customer acquisition cost dropped by 40% while customer lifetime value increased by 25%. Why? Because customers finding them through search were more qualified, had higher intent, and understood the value proposition before arriving.
The timeline was crucial. SEO results started showing in month 2, became significant by month 4, and reached full momentum by month 8. This wasn't a quick fix - it was a fundamental business transformation.
The unexpected outcome? Their Facebook Ads actually started performing better. With less pressure to drive all revenue through paid channels, we could be more selective with targeting and creative. Quality improved when we stopped treating ads as a fire hose.
Most importantly, the business became antifragile. When iOS updates hit, when ad costs spiked, when competitors entered their space - their revenue stayed stable because customers had multiple ways to find them.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
After implementing this distribution-first approach across multiple client projects, here are the lessons that matter most:
Distribution beats product every time - Focus 70% of your energy on how customers find you, 30% on what they find
Channel-product fit matters more than product-market fit - The wrong distribution channel makes even perfect products invisible
Attribution models are fairy tales - Customers touch multiple channels before buying. Track total growth, not channel credit
Single-channel dependency is business suicide - Algorithm changes, policy updates, and competition will eventually kill any single channel
Patient capital beats fast money - SEO takes 6-12 months but delivers sustainable growth. Ads give instant results but constant costs
Intent matching is everything - Research-heavy products need patient discovery channels. Impulse purchases need interruption channels
What I'd do differently: Start with distribution strategy before building features. Most businesses build first, distribute second. That's backwards.
This approach works best for businesses with complex products, longer sales cycles, or educational components. It doesn't work for simple impulse purchases or trend-driven products that need immediate market capture.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups implementing this distribution-first approach:
Build SEO into your product roadmap, not as an afterthought
Create use-case pages for every customer segment and integration
Focus on problem-aware content, not just solution-aware
Treat every page as a potential landing page
For your Ecommerce store
For e-commerce stores building revenue through distribution:
Map your catalog to search intent, not just categories
Build comparison and buying guide content
Optimize for long-tail, high-intent keywords
Use paid ads for retargeting, not cold acquisition