What is growth marketing
Also known as: growth hacking, growth
Growth marketing is the approach that treats growth as a process of continuous experiments across the whole funnel: acquisition, activation, retention, referral and revenue. Instead of only generating traffic, the team tests hypotheses at whatever point limits growth, including inside the product. The term derives from growth hacker, coined by Sean Ellis in 2010.
A financial management app for small businesses gets many signups but few subscriptions. Funnel analysis shows the bottleneck: most people create an account and never connect their bank account, the step where the product starts showing value.
Instead of buying more ads, the team tests a three step guide right after signup and a reminder the next day. Activation rises, and subscriptions with it, without spending a cent more on acquisition.
Where it came from
In July 2010, Sean Ellis wrote that startups ready to scale should hire someone whose true north was growth, and defined the growth hacker as a person whose every action is judged by its potential impact on scalable growth. Andrew Chen took the term to a wider audience and used as an example Airbnb's Craigslist integration, which let hosts post their listing there as well.
Over time, hacking gave way to growth marketing: fewer tricks, more method.
The whole funnel
The model is known as AARRR, or pirate metrics, for the way the acronym sounds. The idea is to look at the whole funnel and attack the stage that most limits growth, which is not always acquisition.
| Question it answers | |
|---|---|
| Acquisition | How do people arrive? |
| Activation | Do they have a good first experience? |
| Retention | Do they come back? |
| Referral | Do they bring others? |
| Revenue | Do they pay, and how much? |
The method
- Pick one main metric, the one that best represents value delivered to customers.
- Find the bottleneck: the funnel stage with the biggest loss.
- Come up with improvement hypotheses for that stage.
- Prioritize by expected impact, confidence and ease.
- Test with well designed experiments.
- Record what you learned and scale what worked.
Growth after product market fit
In the original post, Ellis places the growth hacker after product market fit and an efficient conversion and monetization process have been proven. Accelerating acquisition for a product people do not want only makes a company lose money faster.
The limits
Not all growth is healthy. Tactics that trick users, forced signups, mass messaging and confusing buttons can produce short term numbers and destroy brand and retention. Growth that lasts rests on a product that solves a problem and an experience people want to repeat.
Frequently asked questions
What is growth marketing?
The approach that seeks growth through continuous experiments across the whole funnel, from acquisition to retention and revenue, not just through traffic generation.
What is the difference between growth marketing and growth hacking?
Growth hacking is the original 2010 term, associated with quick, creative tactics. Growth marketing is the broader, more methodical use of the same idea.
Who coined the term growth hacker?
Sean Ellis, in a July 2010 post about how startups should hire for growth.
What is the AARRR funnel?
A five stage model: acquisition, activation, retention, referral and revenue. It helps find where growth gets stuck.
Does growth marketing work for small businesses?
Yes, as a method: measure the funnel, find the bottleneck and test improvements. It does not need a big team, but it needs data and discipline to test.
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Rodrigo Fávaro
Founder of ROO3, a marketing and technology agency in São José do Rio Preto, Brazil. Builds AI products running in production (Tobia, gerar.app, Pense Mercado) and maintains the AI Benchmark, a public ranking of AI models.
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