“I look at who is actually searching for what you sell before I decide anything. If your buyers are not searching, content and SEO will grow a dashboard, not a pipeline, and your money should go to ads or partnerships first.”
“I don't choose between them. I sequence them. Paid first to test the message and find the buyer with a funded pain, then owned channels to compound once the unit economics hold.”
“I spent years watching brands pour money into content calendars that grew traffic but never pipeline, because nobody checked whether the searchers were actually buyers. Ads can buy speed, partnerships can borrow trust, but SEO only compounds when content, technical work, and authority are aimed at the same revenue pages.”
“At Cash App we started with paid because we could prove LTV to CAC fast, then built attribution and a media mix model before betting on podcasts, TV, or influencers. My rule now: pick the channel where you can measure incrementality quickly, and only diversify once the marginal dollar there is getting worse, not because you feel like you should.”
“I start with ads if I need results within 60 days, because SEO won't deliver fast enough when cash flow is tight. Once ads are running, I use that keyword data to decide which content and SEO pages to build, then let organic traffic slowly pull weight off the paid spend.”
“I start with organic social posts to learn what actually resonates, then turn the proven pieces into SEO pages and paid ads; partnerships come later, once I can offer something real instead of asking for a slot.”
“I spent too many years at Airbnb and Brex trying to do all four at once and the result was always the same: four underpowered tests that told me nothing. Now I pick the channel where I can actually run a clean incrementality test with my current budget and team, prove it moves the needle, then scale it before adding the next one.”