Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
Here's what most growth advisors won't tell you: distribution beats product quality every single time. Yet 90% of founders I work with are still obsessing over building the perfect product while their competitors capture market share through superior distribution strategies.
I learned this the hard way when working with an e-commerce client who had built an incredible product catalog but was completely dependent on Facebook Ads for revenue. Their 2.5 ROAS looked decent on paper, but they were one algorithm change away from disaster. That's when I realized something fundamental: the best product in the world is worthless if nobody can find it.
But here's where it gets interesting - not all industries benefit equally from distribution-led growth. After working across SaaS startups, e-commerce stores, and service businesses, I've discovered specific patterns that determine which industries can leverage distribution as their primary growth engine versus those that should focus elsewhere.
In this playbook, you'll discover:
The 5 industry characteristics that make distribution-led growth incredibly effective
Real examples from my client work showing which businesses thrived (and which struggled) with this approach
My framework for building an omnichannel distribution system that reduced one client's Facebook dependency by 80%
Specific tactics that work for SaaS vs e-commerce vs service-based businesses
Industry Reality
What the growth gurus actually tell you
Walk into any startup accelerator or read any growth blog, and you'll hear the same tired advice about distribution-led growth. The industry loves to throw around buzzwords like "product-market fit" and "viral coefficients" without acknowledging the fundamental reality: most businesses are terrible at distribution.
Here's what the conventional wisdom says:
Build first, distribute later - Focus on product development until you have something "perfect," then figure out how to get it in front of people
One channel mastery - Pick a single distribution channel and become really good at it before expanding
Universal applicability - Distribution-led growth works for everyone if you just follow the right framework
Organic is always better - Paid channels are expensive and unsustainable; focus on content and SEO
Scale linearly - More channels automatically mean more growth
This advice exists because it sounds logical and sells courses. The problem? It ignores the fundamental economics and characteristics of different industries. What works for a SaaS company with high lifetime value and low marginal costs doesn't work for a service business with limited capacity. What works for a digital product doesn't work for physical goods.
The biggest lie in growth marketing is that distribution strategies are universally applicable. They're not. Some industries are perfectly suited for distribution-led growth, while others should focus their limited resources elsewhere. The key is knowing which category you're in before you waste months building the wrong growth engine.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
This lesson hit me hard when I was working with an e-commerce client who was generating solid revenue through Facebook Ads - about 2.5 ROAS with a €50 average order value. On the surface, everything looked fine. But I knew we had a problem that most marketers ignore: single-channel dependency is a ticking time bomb.
The client had over 1,000 SKUs across multiple product categories, which should have been a strength. Instead, it became a weakness when trying to scale Facebook Ads. Here's what I discovered: Facebook Ads work best with 1-3 flagship products, but this client's strength was variety and discovery. Customers needed time to browse, compare, and find the right product for them.
This mismatch between their business model and their primary distribution channel was killing their growth potential. Facebook's quick-decision environment was fundamentally incompatible with their customers' shopping behavior. While their competitors with simpler product lines were scaling Facebook Ads, my client was stuck optimizing for the wrong channel.
That's when I realized something crucial: the channel has to match the customer journey, not the other way around. Instead of forcing their complex catalog through Facebook's instant-gratification funnel, we needed to build distribution channels that rewarded patient discovery.
This experience taught me that successful distribution-led growth isn't about following a universal playbook - it's about understanding your industry's unique characteristics and building the right distribution mix accordingly.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Instead of continuing to fight Facebook's algorithm with products that didn't fit the platform, I led a complete SEO and content overhaul. The goal wasn't to abandon paid channels entirely, but to build a distribution foundation that matched their business model.
Step 1: Industry Analysis
I analyzed their industry characteristics against what I call the "Distribution-Friendly Framework." Industries that benefit most from distribution-led growth share these traits:
High lifetime value or repeat purchase potential
Complex buying decisions that benefit from multiple touchpoints
Diverse customer segments with different discovery preferences
Products/services that can be explained through content
Digital or hybrid distribution possibilities
Step 2: Omnichannel Foundation
Instead of putting all effort into Facebook optimization, we built multiple discovery paths:
SEO-optimized product discovery - Created category and comparison pages that ranked for browsing-intent keywords
Content hub strategy - Developed buying guides and educational content that attracted patients shoppers
Email segmentation - Built nurture sequences for different customer segments and purchase timelines
Retargeting optimization - Used Facebook for retargeting browsing traffic rather than cold acquisition
Step 3: Channel-Specific Optimization
Each channel was optimized for its unique strengths rather than trying to make everything work like Facebook Ads. SEO captured discovery traffic, email nurtured consideration, and paid channels handled conversion acceleration.
The key insight: distribution-led growth works when you align channels with natural customer behavior rather than forcing behavior to fit your preferred channels.
Complex Catalogs
Industries with 100+ SKUs or service variations benefit from SEO and content over paid ads due to discovery-based customer journeys.
B2B Services
Professional services can't scale paid ads effectively due to capacity constraints, making content and referral distribution essential.
High-LTV SaaS
Subscription businesses can afford longer acquisition cycles, making omnichannel distribution profitable where it wouldn't be for low-value products.
Local Markets
Geographic constraints make some distribution channels irrelevant, requiring industry-specific approaches to reach concentrated customer bases.
The results spoke for themselves. Within three months of implementing the omnichannel approach, we saw significant improvements across multiple metrics:
Organic traffic increased dramatically, giving customers the browsing time they needed to discover the right products. More importantly, these organic visitors converted at higher rates because they arrived with stronger purchase intent.
The most interesting result was what happened to Facebook's attribution. The reported ROAS jumped from 2.5 to 8-9, but I knew the real story: SEO was driving significant traffic and conversions, while Facebook's attribution model was claiming credit for organic wins.
This taught me something crucial about modern customer journeys: they're messy. A typical path looked like Google search → social media browsing → retargeting ad → email nurture → multiple touchpoints across channels. Trying to attribute success to a single channel misses the point entirely.
The business became significantly more resilient. Instead of being vulnerable to Facebook algorithm changes or iOS updates, they had multiple traffic sources generating consistent results. When Facebook costs increased during competitive seasons, organic traffic continued growing steadily.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
Here are the key insights I learned about which industries actually benefit from distribution-led growth:
Channel physics matter more than best practices - Facebook demands instant decisions, SEO rewards patient discovery, LinkedIn favors B2B thought leadership. You can't change these rules.
Product-channel fit is everything - A complex product catalog won't succeed on channels built for simple decision-making, regardless of how well you optimize.
Customer journey complexity determines strategy - Simple purchases can thrive on single-channel approaches, but complex decisions need omnichannel support.
Distribution multiplies existing strengths - It won't fix fundamental product-market fit issues, but it can dramatically amplify products that already work.
Attribution is misleading - Focus on overall business growth rather than trying to credit specific channels in the modern dark funnel.
Industry characteristics trump individual preferences - What you want to work and what actually works for your industry are often different things.
Build coverage, not control - Instead of trying to track every interaction, focus on being visible wherever customers naturally discover solutions.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups, focus on industries with these characteristics:
High lifetime value - Can support longer acquisition cycles
Complex buying processes - Multiple stakeholders need nurturing
Educational content opportunities - Can build thought leadership
Network effects potential - Users can drive organic distribution
For your Ecommerce store
For e-commerce stores, distribution-led growth works best with:
Large catalogs - Benefit from SEO and content discovery
Research-heavy purchases - Customers need multiple touchpoints
Repeat purchase potential - Email and loyalty programs drive LTV
Seasonal or trending products - Content captures search intent