Paid Acquisition
Acquire qualified demand at a target cost and payback, then compound through testing and budget governance.
Primary KPI: Cost per qualified demand. Payback in days.
Scope: Search, social, marketplaces, retargeting.
Method: Intent separation, strict negatives, audience layering, budget governance.
Proof: Weekly change-log with owner and expected impact.
Paid Acquisition exists to buy attention that converts into booked demand inside a defined payback window. We do not chase impressions or vanity CTR. We model unit economics first, set a working target for cost per qualified demand and payback in days, then allocate budget to channels that can meet those constraints. The operating goal is simple. Maintain or improve payback while increasing qualified volume.
The program begins with a diagnostic. We inventory current spend, auctions, queries, audiences, creatives, placements, and tracking. We reconstruct the revenue path from click to booked action and revenue recognition. We compute the regular rate of conversion events, the effective cost per qualified demand, and the observed payback. This baseline sets the first control limits.
Execution runs in two concurrent streams. Stream one is control creation. We build clean campaigns with strict intent separation, match types, negative matrices, audience layering, frequency caps, and geography rules. We implement conversion tracking that distinguishes qualified demand from noise. We ship channel-specific assets that respect buyer context. Stream two is controlled experimentation. Every test has a hypothesis, a minimum detectable effect, and a predeclared stop condition. We test bids, budgets, audiences, messages, offers, formats, and surfaces. We kill losing branches quickly. We scale winners only when the payback model holds.
Governance is mechanical. A weekly review inspects spend, qualified demand, cost per qualified demand, conversion rate, and payback. A change-log records every material action with owner, timestamp, and expected impact. A monthly portfolio review moves budget to the most productive combinations. If the payback model breaks, we cut and recompose. No sunk cost fallacy.
Instrumentation is non-negotiable. We standardize UTM discipline, server-side events where applicable, call or form qualification flags, and a channel pipeline view in the BI layer. We surface three numbers to the client weekly. Qualified demand, cost per qualified demand, payback. If those are green, scale is rational. If any are red, we reduce complexity and fix the bottleneck.