How to Identify the Right Acquisition Channel

Now that we've introduced the primary lanes that startups can use to scale their customer acquisition, it's time to help you narrow your focus to a single acquisition channel.

You might already have a specific channel in mind based on previous efforts or the descriptions earlier. Even so, we recommend completing this section using the prioritization framework we'll show you. This will ensure that you've considered all aspects of the decision before committing.

We'll walk you through an active exercise, so make sure you have a way to record your responses.

Acquisition channel prioritization framework

Step 1: Define your goals

Every startup has a different goal. Maybe you want to build a product that's used by millions of people each day. Or maybe you want to create a lifestyle business that's modestly profitable. It's a choice that all startup founders must make.

Since we're going to start with one primary acquisition channel, write down what you're trying to achieve through that channel. Imagine it's the only channel your customers come through.

Be specific:

• How many customers do you want to acquire per day/week/month/year?
• Do you need to acquire customers in a set amount of time? How long? How many customers?

Step 2: Define your constraints

Every startup will have a different set of constraints to work within. We'll help you identify all your constraints so you can write them down.

The most important constraint that you'll need to address is which acquisition lanes are most likely to work for your startup.

As we demonstrated in the Major Acquisition Lanes section, certain lanes work only when paired with specific business types. Go ahead and review each lane description to decide whether or not the lane is "open" to your startup. Be honest with yourself as you select lanes based on your product, target market, and business model.

Once you've identified which lanes might work for you, define all other constraints, such as:

• What kind of budget do you have to spend on acquiring customers? Can it be increased? Will it be refilled once spent? Who's in charge of that budget?
• What results are required? Is there a time limit?
• Who's available to work on growth projects? Do they have dedicated time and resources?
• What resources are available? Can more resources be acquired over time?

Now that you've defined both your goals and constraints, most of the prioritization has already been done for you. That's because most channels have a very specific set of requirements in order to be effective. For example, a small acquisition budget will rule out most paid channels with high customer acquisition costs.

As we've mentioned before, channels are not in your control. Only your startup is in your control. That's why we need to align you with a channel that will give your startup the greatest chance of predictably acquiring new customers—even with your constraints.

Step 3: Use the evaluation framework

With your goals and constraints well documented, we can evaluate each individual channel. There are seven criteria that we assess for each channel:

• Scale: How much of your target audience is on the channel. A channel may offer amazing targeting, but if few people in your target market are on it, it won't be useful.
• Targetability: How easy it is to reach your target audience. Your target market might use a specific platform, but if there's no way to specifically target them, then it's not that useful.
• Effort: How difficult it is to launch and maintain the channel. When assessing effort, we'll factor in both the amount of time and level of expertise needed.
• Time to results: How quickly you can expect to see results from the channel. Remember, the purpose of the channel is to acquire customers. That's what we mean by "results." Metrics like impressions and engagement don't matter unless you're acquiring paying customers through your channel.
• Intent: How likely it is that people on the channel will buy from you. Is your target in a buying mindset on this channel? How close is this channel to your conversion event? For example, a lawyer scrolling Reddit is going to have low buying intent if shown an ad for legal software.
• Context: What your target audience expects from a channel, and whether that aligns with your product. This describes how a user interacts with a specific channel, e.g., the type of device they use, as well as what kind of content they expect to consume on it.
• Cost: How much the channel costs to launch and maintain, and the average cost of acquiring a customer

Using the seven channel criteria, we'll walk you through each of the scalable and unscalable customer acquisition channels. Be sure to focus on the acquisition lanes that are available to your startup. As you go through each channel, compare the channel criteria with your constraints and goals. If you see a channel that seems promising, write it down. If a channel doesn't align with your constraints and goals, move on to the next one.