Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth

Mastering paid growth | Jonathan Becker (Thrive Digital)

May 7, 2023

AI Summary

5 min read

Jonathan Becker, founder of Thrive Digital, shares principles for running performance marketing (paid growth) effectively, drawing from managing $500 million in annual ad spend for clients like Uber and Asana. He emphasizes diversification across channels, rigorous creative testing, accurate attribution modeling, and adapting to changes like privacy shifts and AI tools, while avoiding over-reliance on any single lever.

Core Principles and Fit

Performance marketing works best with product-market fit established and evidence from other channels like email or organic search. Diversify across paid search, social, programmatic, and offline tactics to avoid volatility, treating ad spend like a portfolio rather than a single stock. Early-stage companies risk over-dependence; later-stage ones need creative resources, in-house marketers, and technical capabilities for scaling. Quick payback aids e-commerce, but B2B or lead-gen models require LTV/CAC projections and lead scoring to justify slower returns. Examples like Grammarly and Athletic Greens show profitable scaling remains possible despite privacy changes and economic headwinds.

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What you'll learn

1 *(00:00:35) **Background and Thrive's Growth**
2 *(00:07:26) **Landing Uber as Client**
3 *(00:12:31) **Performance Marketing Philosophy**
4 *(00:17:06) **Fit for Companies and Rules of Thumb**
5 *(00:23:07) **Scaling Exclusively via Paid and Recent Shifts**
6 *(00:32:18) **Creative Optimization as Key Lever**
7 *(00:44:43) **Channel Strategy**

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

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Jonathan Becker is the founder and president of Thrive Digital, where he and his team have deployed more than $3.5 billion in paid acquisition budgets for companies like Uber, Asana, Square, Tempur-Pedic, and MasterClass. He spent the first part of his career mastering SEO and is a world expert in DTC, lead generation, demand generation, and user acquisition. In today’s episode, we discuss:

• Signs that your company is a good fit for paid growth

• Strategies for optimizing ad creatives

• The merits of different marketing channels: paid vs. organic search, TikTok and short-form

• Insights on attribution and how to approach it effectively

• How market conditions and AI impact paid growth

• The crazy story of how Jonathan won Uber as a client

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Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/mastering-paid-growth-jonathan-becker

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Where to find Jonathan Becker:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/jzbecker

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanbecker123/