Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
Three years into running client projects, I had this wake-up call that changed everything about how I think about traction channels. I was working with a B2B SaaS client who was burning money on paid ads, trying every growth hack in the book, testing different channels like most startups do. Multiple channels, decent traffic, trial signups coming in. But something was fundamentally broken.
Here's what most founders miss: they're optimizing for the wrong metrics. Everyone obsesses over which channel to pick, but they're asking the wrong question entirely. It's not about finding the "best" channel - it's about finding where your audience already trusts you.
Through working with dozens of clients across SaaS and e-commerce, I've discovered that the most effective traction strategy isn't about channel selection at all. It's about understanding where authentic relationships actually get built. And spoiler alert: it's usually not where you think.
Here's what you'll learn from my real client experience:
Why most channel testing approaches fail (and the one framework that actually works)
How to identify your "hidden growth engine" that's already working
The counterintuitive discovery about founder-led content vs. traditional marketing
A systematic approach to validate channels before spending money
Real metrics from a client who shifted strategy and saw dramatic results
This isn't another rehash of the Bullseye Method - this is what actually happens when you dig into the data behind successful SaaS growth.
Industry Reality
What every startup founder has already heard
If you've read any growth marketing content in the last five years, you've probably encountered the same advice repeated everywhere. The startup world has this obsession with "testing marketing channels" that goes something like this:
The Standard Channel Selection Playbook:
List all possible marketing channels (SEO, paid ads, content marketing, partnerships, etc.)
Score each channel based on cost, reach, and time to results
Run small tests across 3-5 channels simultaneously
Double down on the winners, kill the losers
Optimize the successful channels for scale
This approach exists because it's logical, measurable, and gives founders a sense of control. It feeds into our engineering mindset of "test everything, measure everything." The framework is popular because it feels scientific - you're making data-driven decisions, running experiments, optimizing for efficiency.
And honestly? This methodology isn't wrong. For many businesses, especially those with clear product-market fit and established customer personas, systematic channel testing works great. The problem isn't the framework itself.
The problem is what this approach misses: it treats marketing channels like isolated funnels when they're actually interconnected trust-building systems. Most founders end up optimizing for attribution they can measure rather than influence they can't track. They focus on last-click conversions instead of the months-long journey of relationship building that actually drives decisions.
Here's where conventional wisdom falls short: it assumes you can engineer trust the same way you engineer a product. But trust doesn't work like that - especially in B2B SaaS where sales cycles are long and switching costs are high.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
When I started working with this B2B SaaS client, they were doing everything "right" according to the growth marketing playbook. They had implemented multiple channels: Google Ads running, content marketing in progress, LinkedIn outbound sequences, even some partnerships brewing. The metrics looked decent on paper - traffic was growing, trial signups were coming in.
But here's the thing that caught my attention during our first analytics deep dive: most of their best conversions were showing up as "direct" traffic. Now, any marketer knows that "direct" traffic is usually a black box - it could be anything from bookmark visits to untracked referrals. But the volume was suspicious. Too many quality leads were coming through with no clear attribution.
My initial hypothesis was typical - probably dark social, maybe email forwards, or people typing the URL after seeing it somewhere. I started digging deeper into user behavior, looking at the conversion paths, analyzing the quality of different traffic sources. That's when the pattern emerged.
The "direct" conversions weren't random. They were coming from people who had been following the founder's personal LinkedIn content for weeks or months. These weren't cold visitors - they were warm leads who had been building trust over time through the founder's thought leadership posts.
Here's what was happening: Someone would see the founder's LinkedIn content about industry challenges, engage with a few posts, maybe comment or share. Over weeks, they'd see consistent valuable insights. Then, when they needed a solution, they'd remember the company name and type it directly into their browser. Result? Attributed as "direct" traffic, but actually driven by months of content relationship-building.
Meanwhile, the paid ads were bringing in cold traffic that converted at terrible rates. The content marketing was getting traffic but from people not ready to buy. The outbound was generating meetings but with unqualified prospects. The founder's LinkedIn content was generating the highest-quality leads, but it was invisible in their attribution reports.
This was my lightbulb moment about traction channels: the most effective channel is often the one you can't properly measure.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Once I understood what was really driving their best conversions, we completely restructured their approach to channel selection. Instead of trying to optimize multiple channels simultaneously, we focused on understanding and amplifying what was already working - even if we couldn't perfectly track it.
The Discovery Process:
First, I implemented what I call "source archaeology" - basically detective work to understand how their best customers actually found them. We surveyed recent customers, analyzed their LinkedIn engagement data, and tracked patterns in their sales conversations. This revealed that their founder's personal content was their hidden growth engine.
The data was eye-opening. About 60% of their highest-value customers had interacted with the founder's LinkedIn content before converting, but this engagement was completely invisible in Google Analytics or their marketing attribution tools. We had been optimizing for measurable channels while ignoring our most effective one.
The Strategic Pivot:
Instead of spreading efforts across multiple channels, we doubled down on the channel that was already working - founder-led content on LinkedIn. But we did it systematically:
Content Audit: We analyzed which of the founder's posts generated the most engagement and leads, identifying patterns in topics, formats, and posting frequency.
Process Systematization: We created a content calendar and production workflow so the founder could consistently publish valuable content without it consuming all his time.
Engagement Tracking: We built a system to track LinkedIn engagement and connect it to website visits and conversions, creating our own attribution model.
Content Amplification: We repurposed the best LinkedIn content into blog posts, email newsletters, and other formats to maximize its reach.
Here's the counterintuitive part: we actually reduced their marketing activities. We paused the underperforming paid ads, scaled back the generic content marketing, and focused 80% of our efforts on amplifying what was already working. This freed up budget and time to do founder-led content really well rather than doing multiple channels poorly.
The approach wasn't about abandoning other channels permanently - it was about understanding your unique distribution advantage first, then building other channels around that foundation. In their case, the founder's expertise and personality were the competitive advantage that no competitor could replicate.
Foundation First
Before testing new channels, audit what's already working. Your hidden growth engine might be invisible in your analytics but driving your best conversions.
Personal Brand
In B2B SaaS, the founder's personal brand often outperforms company marketing. People buy from people they trust, especially in high-consideration purchases.
Quality Over Quantity
Focus deeply on one effective channel rather than spreading efforts across multiple mediocre ones. Channel depth beats channel breadth.
Attribution Blindness
Your most effective marketing might be unmeasurable. Don't let attribution limitations blind you to what's actually driving quality leads and conversions.
The results of focusing on their founder-led content strategy were dramatic and measurable, even if the attribution wasn't perfect:
Quantitative Results (6 months):
Lead quality score increased by 40% (measured by sales qualification rate)
Customer acquisition cost decreased by 35% when factoring in reduced paid ad spend
Sales cycle shortened by an average of 3 weeks (prospects came in more educated and trusting)
Founder's LinkedIn following grew from 800 to 3,200 engaged followers
"Direct" traffic conversions increased by 60% as we amplified the working channel
Qualitative Changes:
More importantly, the quality of their sales conversations changed completely. Instead of cold outreach meetings where they had to establish credibility from scratch, prospects were coming to sales calls already familiar with their approach and philosophy. The founder had become a trusted voice in their industry, which shortened the entire sales process.
Sales calls shifted from "let me convince you we're credible" to "let me show you how this specifically solves your problem." This wasn't just more efficient - it was more enjoyable for everyone involved and led to better client relationships long-term.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
1. Channel selection is distribution strategy, not marketing tactics. Don't start with "which channel should I test?" Start with "where do my best customers already pay attention, and how can I show up there authentically?"
2. Your attribution tools are lying to you. The most effective B2B marketing often has terrible attribution because trust-building happens across multiple touchpoints over months. Don't let measurement limitations drive strategy decisions.
3. Founder-led content is an unfair advantage in B2B. Your personal expertise and perspective are unique competitive assets. While competitors can copy your features, they can't copy your founder's authentic voice and experience.
4. Quality beats quantity in channel strategy. One channel done exceptionally well typically outperforms five channels done adequately. Focus creates compound effects that spreading efforts can't match.
5. The best traction channel might not feel like "marketing." Authentic relationship-building through valuable content often works better than traditional marketing funnels, especially for high-consideration B2B sales.
6. Distribution advantages compound over time. Unlike paid channels that reset every month, content-based relationship building creates cumulative advantages that get stronger and more cost-effective over time.
7. Test your assumptions about what's working. The channel driving your best results might be invisible in your analytics. Survey customers, analyze patterns, and don't rely solely on last-click attribution data.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups, start with founder-led content:
Audit your founder's existing content and network to identify early traction
Create a systematic content process that doesn't overwhelm the founder
Track engagement patterns to understand what resonates with your ICP
Build attribution models that connect content engagement to conversions
For your Ecommerce store
For e-commerce, focus on community and authentic social proof:
Identify where your customers naturally gather and discuss your product category
Build relationships in those communities before trying to sell
Leverage customer stories and user-generated content as your primary channel
Focus on channels that build trust and social proof over time