Growth marketing playbook: visibility that drives demand

Growth marketing that actually moves the needle

You don’t need a giant budget to increase visibility and drive demand. You need a tight plan, consistent execution and a scorecard you’ll trust when things get noisy.

This playbook shows you how to build visibility that turns into revenue — across search, social, creators, PR and performance — without burning out your team or your budget.

The reality check: why visibility alone isn’t growth

Attention is plentiful; relevance isn’t. People now spend over four hours a day online in the UK, but most of that time isn’t spent thinking about your brand. Your job is to show up where decisions are shaped, not just where impressions are cheap.

Three facts to anchor your strategy:

• Search remains the demand capture engine. Google holds ~90% of global search share. If you’re not discoverable, you’re invisible at the moment of intent.
  
  
• Time online is rising. UK adults now average 4h20 online daily, which expands available reach — and raises the bar for cut‑through.
  
  
• Long-term effects matter. The IPA effectiveness evidence shows most advertising payback arrives months after campaigns finish, reinforcing the need for consistent brand building alongside activation.
  
  

Translation: split your budget to create future demand and capture existing demand, and make it absurdly simple for in‑market buyers to choose you.

No‑Fluff Framework: Demand Created, Demand Captured

Use this two‑engine model to plan campaigns that compound.

• Engine A — Create demand (brand & community). Objective: memory and meaning. Channels: video, PR, creators, events, top‑funnel social, CTV/online video, thought leadership, product education. Metrics: prompted/unprompted awareness, search demand for your brand, video completion, reach and frequency, brand lift, newsletter subs.
  
  
• Engine B — Capture demand (performance & product). Objective: conversion and revenue. Channels: SEO, search ads, product‑led pages, review sites/affiliates, remarketing, email, CRO tests. Metrics: qualified pipeline, ROAS, CAC payback, activation rate, checkout conversion, LTV/CAC.
  
  

Balance the two. For most SMEs, a 60/40 bias towards brand creation across the year supports durable growth, while monthly sprints flex activation up or down based on seasonality.

Implementation walkthrough: 30‑60‑90 days to build visible momentum

Inputs: current analytics, CRM pipeline, last 12 months of channel data, search console, creative assets, customer interviews (10–15), and three competitor teardowns.

Outputs: a single‑page strategy, a quarterly media plan, five evergreen assets, six landing pages that convert, and an operating scorecard.

Days 1–30: set foundations and unblock discovery

1. Clarify the job to be done.
   Pick one primary growth job (e.g., “increase trial starts in the UK by 30% in Q1”) and define target segments, triggers and anxieties. Write a plain‑English value proposition per segment.
2. Fix technical discoverability.
   Ship a search hygiene sprint: indexing, site speed, mobile UX, schema, clean page titles/meta, internal links from high‑authority pages, and an FAQ block on every key page.
3. Ship three demand‑capture pages.
   Create one high‑intent product page, one comparison (“You vs Alternative”), and one use‑case page. Add social proof, objection handling, pricing anchor and a clear CTA.
4. Stand up a simple ad spine.
   Run search ads on 10–20 bottom‑funnel terms, a branded term at 100% impression share, and a remarketing line with educational creative. Cap daily spend while data accrues.
5. Start brand signals.
   Publish a founder POV article and a 60‑second product explainer. Activate one creator partnership to demo value (gifted or paid), with content rights for amplification.

Days 31–60: scale reach and prove lift

1. Expand from keywords to categories.
   Build clusters around “problem–solution” terms and comparisons. Add internal links and a topical hub layout.
2. Launch video + CTV/online video tests.
   Use a 15‑second cut for reach and a 6‑second cut for reminders. Optimise for completed views and cost‑per‑incremental reach.
3. Creators and partners.
   Brief 3–5 creators across niches your audience trusts. Ask for a demo, a story and a “why I switched”. Secure usage rights for paid social.
4. Turn UGC into ads.
   Cut best creator moments into 9:16 and 1:1. Test hooks first lines and captions before scaling spend.
5. CRO and onboarding.
   Run one test per week: headline clarity, proof positioning, pricing presentation, friction removal (guest checkout, wallet pay), and an email “nudge” sequence.

Days 61–90: integrate, optimise, and lock the scorecard

1. Media mix rationalisation.
   Shift budget to the 3–4 units with best incremental lift — not just the lowest CPC. Protect brand‑building lines even if last‑click looks weaker.
2. Sales/CS alignment.
   Agree handover rules, SLAs and “lead readiness” with sales. Equip CS with education assets to reduce churn and increase expansion.
3. Measure properly.
   Combine platform data with analytics and a light MMM or lift tests. Attribute credit across journeys, not just last click.
4. Plan next quarter.
   Lock a rolling backlog of content and experiments. Keep 20% of budget fluid for winning tests and seasonal spikes.

Evidence pack: quick stats with takeaways

• ~90% search share sits with Google. Prioritise Google Search Console, high‑intent SEO pages and branded SERP control. If you win here, your capture engine hums.
  
  
• UK adults spend ~4h20 online daily. You can reach your audience, but attention is fragmented. Plan for frequency and creative variation, not one hero asset.
  
  
• Most payback is long‑term. IPA analysis shows 50%+ of advertising payback lands months after the campaign. Keep a brand line running to compound results.
  
  

Comparisons & decision matrix: where to place your next £10k

Use this if you’re choosing between search, paid social, creators, PR or CTV/online video for the next push.

• When speed to revenue matters: High‑intent search + CRO. Fastest path to incremental sales if you have product‑market fit and search volume.
  
  
• When category awareness is low: Video (YouTube/CTV/online video) + creators. You need reach and memory structures before performance scales.
  
  
• When trust is the blocker: PR + creators + reviews. Stack third‑party proof (press logos, testimonials, star ratings) onto your key pages and ads.
  
  
• When seasonality spikes: Search + remarketing + email. Capture demand efficiently and re‑engage past visitors and customers with timely offers.
  
  
• When expanding markets: Localised search + local creators + market‑specific PR. Adapt language, offers and social proof to local norms.
  
  

Toolkit & templates: copy‑paste building blocks

1) One‑page growth brief

• Goal: One measurable outcome for 90 days.
  
  
• Audience: Segment, triggers, anxieties.
  
  
• Proposition: Why you’re different and better.
  
  
• Channels: 2–3 for creation, 2–3 for capture.
  
  
• KPIs: Leading (reach, CTR, scroll) and lagging (revenue, CAC payback).
  
  
• Budget: % by engine, % held for tests.
  
  
• Risks & mitigations: What could derail momentum and how you’ll respond.
  
  

2) High‑intent landing page outline

• Headline: problem solved in plain English.
  
  
• Subhead: proof‑driven benefit in one line.
  
  
• Social proof bar: logos, ratings, usage stats.
  
  
• Demo section: 30–60s video or GIF walkthrough.
  
  
• Objections: pricing, integrations, migration, data, support — answered.
  
  
• CTA: one primary action; secondary “learn more”.
  
  
• FAQ block: six precise answers, collapsible on mobile.
  
  

3) Creator brief checklist

• Audience and role for your brand.
  
  
• Hook to test in first 3 seconds.
  
  
• Moments to capture: problem → use → outcome.
  
  
• Mandatories: claims, messages, disclosures, brand kit.
  
  
• Deliverables: formats (9:16, 1:1, 16:9), raw files, content rights and whitelisting.
  
  
• Success: watch‑time, saves, comments, assisted conversions, cost per incremental reach.
  
  

Pitfalls & fixes

• Chasing last‑click ROAS. Fix: judge channels by incremental lift, not platform‑reported ROAS alone. Protect brand lines even if they don’t “win” last‑click.
  
  
• Too many channels, shallowly run. Fix: cap to 3–5 channels this quarter. Depth beats breadth for learning and scale.
  
  
• Generic creative. Fix: test hooks, story order and subtitles. Ship new intros weekly, not just new edits.
  
  
• Page friction. Fix: simplify forms, show total price early, add guest checkout, enable wallets, and display delivery/returns near CTAs.
  
  
• No brand memory. Fix: use consistent distinctive assets — colours, sounds, characters, taglines — across every surface.
  
  

FAQ

How should I split budget between brand and performance?

As a starting rule, aim for a 60/40 brand/performance split across the year, flexing monthly based on seasonality and stock. In smaller markets or early stages, you might tilt towards 50/50 while you validate channels, then move towards 60/40 to compound growth.

What’s a sensible CAC target?

Work back from margin and payback. Many SMEs target payback inside 3–6 months and LTV/CAC above 3. Your exact thresholds depend on cash cycle and retention.

Which channels should I prioritise first?

Fix discoverability and conversion first (SEO, high‑intent search, core pages). Then layer reach drivers (video, creators, PR) to grow future demand. Add affiliates and partnerships once your offer and onboarding are tight.

How many creatives do I need?

For paid social, plan 4–6 concepts with 3–5 hooks each per month. Refresh hooks weekly; swap out winners to avoid fatigue. Keep one evergreen explainer running.

What’s the simplest way to measure incrementality?

Use geo or audience holdouts and on/off tests for major lines. Pair platform conversion data with analytics and a lightweight MMM directionally, rather than trusting any single source.

How do I lower CPCs without racing to the bottom?

Improve relevance: tighter audience/problem fit, stronger hooks, and faster pages. Quality scores rise when your content matches intent and pages load quickly.

What if my category has little search volume?

Lead with education and category creation. Use video, PR and creators to build mental availability. Make it easy to compare your solution against the status quo with simple calculators and demos.

How do I plan content for multiple markets?

Reuse strategy, localise execution: adapt examples, measurements, payment methods and social proof. Build country pages that mirror local language and expectations.

Your operating scorecard

Track these weekly:

• Demand creation: reach (unique + frequency), ad recall lift, brand search volume, video completions, new subscribers.
  
  
• Demand capture: non‑brand search clicks, conversion rate, qualified demos/trials, CAC payback, LTV/CAC.
  
  
• Experience: page speed, bounce on key pages, signup completion, NPS/CSAT, churn/return rate.
  
  

One‑line takeaway

Create demand consistently, capture it efficiently, and measure what truly moves revenue — not what flatters a dashboard.

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Global search market share: the latest StatCounter data
Ofcom Online Nation: time spent online in the UK
IPA effectiveness: why 60/40 and long‑term payback matter