Your best-fit acquisition motions

By now you’ve seen the four motion types — Paid, Content, Virality, Sales — and their tradeoffs. The next step is to decide which motion best fits your company right now.

Your choice isn’t permanent. It’s a starting point. But picking one primary motion is critical because it focuses your system design and prevents you from spreading thin.

Here’s a quick guide:

Paid-led Motion

✅ Best fit when:

• Your ARPU is in the $100–$1k+ range
• You can afford higher CAC and still hit your payback guardrails
• You need results quickly (short runway, aggressive targets)

⚠️ Weak fit if:

• ARPU is very low (sub-$50–$100)
• You don’t have budget to test at meaningful scale

Content-led Motion

✅ Best fit when:

• You have longer runway and can play the compounding game
• Your market seeks education, trust, or inspiration before buying
• You can consistently produce or source high-quality content

⚠️ Weak fit if:

• You need growth in months, not years
• You don’t have the resources to sustain content output

Virality-led Motion

✅ Best fit when:

• Your product naturally lends itself to sharing or collaboration
• Network effects or user-generated artifacts are built into your value prop
• CAC efficiency is critical (e.g., consumer apps, low ARPU models)

⚠️ Weak fit if:

• Sharing feels forced or “tacked on”
• You don’t yet have a critical mass of users to fuel it

Sales-led Motion

✅ Best fit when:

• You have high ACV (often $5k+ / year)
• Your product is complex, novel, or requires handholding
• Your market expects a relationship (enterprise, regulated, high-risk categories)

⚠️ Weak fit if:

• Your ARPU is too low to cover sales costs
• Your buying process is simple enough that self-serve is feasible