Self-serve, sales-led, or the awkward hybrid most companies actually are. The vertical with the best data and the worst discipline about using it — where the reported CAC is frequently a story about last-touch attribution rather than a fact about the business.
Most SaaS acquisition reporting credits the last click before signup. That systematically over-credits branded search and retargeting — which capture demand that already existed — and under-credits whatever actually created it. Budget then flows toward the channels that look efficient precisely because they are harvesting.
The second problem is that signup is not the outcome. A trial that never activates is a cost, not a win. Optimising the ad account toward signups will reliably buy you more of the cheapest, least serious ones.
We rebuild the measurement around activation and paid conversion first, then argue about channel mix. Usually the argument settles itself once the numbers are honest.
Where evaluation actually happens: comparison queries, alternatives pages, review marketplaces, communities and the specific integrations people search for. Ranked by how much of the decision each one influences.
Digital DiscoveryThe strongest buying signal in SaaS is not a form fill — it is a team hitting a usage limit or inviting three colleagues. Agents watch product events and open the right conversation at the right moment, instead of waiting for a demo request that may never come.
AI AgentsBudgets set against CAC payback and cohort retention rather than monthly signup targets. Channels that acquire fast-churning users get cut even when their cost per signup looks excellent.
Digital DiscoverySequences triggered by what someone did or failed to do in the product — stalled setup, unused core feature, expiring trial — with a human brought in only where the value justifies it.
AI AgentsGeo holdouts and matched-market tests that answer the question attribution cannot: what would have happened anyway. Branded search is the usual first casualty.
Channel DevelopmentMarketplaces, integration directories, creator partnerships, communities and co-marketing — the channels that are cheap right now because your competitors have not modelled them yet.
Channel DevelopmentIn a self-serve business the agent's job is activation: get the user to the moment the product proves itself, and remove every obstacle between signup and that point. Nobody wants to talk to sales, and forcing it costs you conversions.
In a sales-led business the agent's job is triage and speed: qualify hard, book the right rep fast, and stop your team spending discovery calls on accounts that were never going to buy.
Most companies run both motions at once and pretend they run one. The first useful thing discovery does is separate them and measure each honestly.
Partly. Discovery is genuinely valuable early — knowing which demand pools exist and what they cost should inform positioning. Scaling spend before retention holds is not, and we will say so. Channel Development in particular is wasted money before you know what a good customer looks like.
Yes — Segment, Amplitude, Mixpanel, PostHog, or a warehouse-first setup. Warehouse-first is easiest to work with, because product events, CRM records and spend data can be reconciled in one place instead of three tools disagreeing.
We design and build the pages that carry acquisition traffic — landing pages, comparison and alternatives pages, pricing. Full marketing-site redesigns are not our core work, and we would rather point you to someone better at them than pretend otherwise.
Sceptical until a holdout proves it. Sometimes it is genuinely defensive against competitor bidding and worth every dollar. Sometimes it is paying for traffic that would have arrived anyway. The test costs almost nothing and settles it in a few weeks.
Give us read access to your ad accounts and analytics and we will rebuild the number the way your board should be seeing it.
