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The growth flywheel to $20m ARR
GTM Channels, VidIQ's 200m/yr views, Why Reddit ads, 50 CFOs survey, ABM landing page template, and more...
Okerosi Davis
March 16, 2025 • Letter: 7 minutes
To Marketers,
Okerosi here with Product Weekly.
In this newsletter, I share proven insights I have gathered this week across; product marketing, B2B ad creatives & SaaS growth playbooks from the top 5% minds in the space.
In this week’s roundup:
- CFOs on brand marketing
- ABM landing page
- Why Reddit Ads
Weekly Letter
How to execute GTM channels for startups
The way to execute go-to-market has drastically changed in this age of AI. Experts like Chris Walker and Anthony Pierri share their takes on the best way to do it.
The traditional focus on lead generation, volume-based metrics, and “growth at all costs” is no longer sustainable.
Instead, companies must adopt a more strategic approach that prioritizes efficiency, data-driven decision-making, and collaboration between finance and GTM teams. By aligning their go-to-market strategies with key financial metrics, organizations can not only drive sustainable growth but also position themselves for long-term success.
This week, Anthony shared insights on how startups, both horizontal and vertical, should execute their GTM channels.
First, horizontal startups are anchored on a workflow that is shared by many different personas and company types, while the vertical startups are anchored on a specific persona, department, company type, or industry.
Example: Asana, which is anchored on the workflow’s recommended channels, includes SEO, Social, PR, and product-led internal and external virality.
Example: Webflow, which is anchored personas, industry, etc. - recommended channels include;
channel partnership,
thought leadership
content marketing,
Outbound sales
trade shows & conferences
Expert Webinar
The growth flywheel vs growth engine
Sophie Buonassisi, VP of Marketing at GTM Fund, delivered a deep dive into the strategy of building a growth flywheel versus a growth engine at a recent SaaSOpen event. Here are the insights I have extracted from the presentation.
A growth flywheel creates a competitive moat by uniquely blending product, community, and media, making it harder for competitors to replicate, especially for resource-limited startups.
Building a growth flywheel can reduce customer acquisition costs (CAC) in the long term by creating sustainable organic channels and leveraging distribution and messaging feedback.
A growth flywheel is more sustainable and predictable than a growth engine, with momentum-driven growth less dependent on continuous input, making it a superior strategy for building a strong, lasting business.
Proven Framework
50 CFOs surveyed on brand marketing
As we dug deeper, I came to the conclusion that CFOs don't oppose brand marketing - they oppose marketing without measurable returns.
My personal take on these things:
1. You have to educate the CFO on how brand marketing works, and how to think about it.
The key concepts here are 'mental availability', and breaking down how buying in B2B works (building an initial consideration set, narrowing the shortlist down to 3 -- all powered by brand, not performance marketing).
2. You need to measure the impact/effectiveness of brand marketing, and when asking for money you tell the CFO 'this is how we're gonna measure it'. They key goal of brand marketing is to build up mental availability:
- are we increasingly better known among our ICPs
- are we getting into more consideration sets among our ICPs
- are we increasingly the preferred brand for X among our ICPs
Why Reddit Ads
Ad spending on Reddit is steadily on the rise. If you are looking to reach a technical ICP, experimenting with Reddit Ads may be a worthwhile investment.
For a fact, Adam Holgram is currently experimenting with ads for his startup Fibbler. You can check the LinkedIn post here.
How to make Reddit Ads effective - Ali Yildrim
1. Hand-pick subreddits, don’t rely on broad categories
Reddit’s default interest targeting is too broad. Instead, focus on specific subreddits. Selling to DevOps? Skip “Technology” and go straight to r/devops, r/kubernetes, r/selfhosted.
2. Make your ads feel like organic posts
Redditors hate corporate, overly polished messaging. The best-performing Reddit ads look like something a real user would post - insightful, conversational, even a little self-aware.
3. Track engagement beyond just clicks
Reddit Ads often show high CTR but low conversions if you’re not measuring the right things. Use Google Analytics to track time on site, scroll depth, and comment engagement to see if people actually care.
4. Retarget Reddit traffic on LinkedIn & Google
Reddit is great for trust-building with technical buyers, but most won’t convert on the first touch. Use UTM tracking and retarget Reddit visitors on LinkedIn and Google to close the loop.
5. Use Supermetrics + Looker to see exactly where your spend is going
Reddit’s native reporting is weak. We pull spend, clicks, and engagement per subreddit into Looker to spot inefficiencies - just like checking LinkedIn’s demographic report to see who’s actually seeing your ads.
Reddit works for B2B when you treat it as a community, not just another ad platform.
B2B Creatives
Ad breakdown -credit; Boring Ads
Letter Examples
ABM landing page template
That is all for this week.
Reply to this email; questions & feedback.
Let’s connect via LinkedIn - Okerosi