Co-Founder of Mosaic Growth Solutions - Closing the Growth Gap - Reach your organization's growth potential
The Demand Gen Death Spiral We were recently brought in to do an assessment for a B2B SaaS company, when we looked at their data we quickly realized then were in what I call the "demand gen death spiral." Sounds ominous, doesn’t it? It should—this is a place no company wants to be, yet many end up there. When we recognize this spiral during an assessment, it’s like watching a horror movie where the characters make the choice to go down into the basement. You can see the disaster coming and wonder: why head in this direction? So, what exactly is the demand gen death spiral? The demand gen death spiral happens when companies divert resources from effective strategies to double down on ineffective demand generation tactics. This reallocation causes performance to decline even faster, while marketing teams and agencies cherry-pick positive data points to justify the increased spend. This selective view hides the bigger picture of overall performance decline. Warning Signs You’re in the Demand Gen Death Spiral: - Missing revenue targets - Decline in branded search impressions year over year - Drop in direct traffic year over year - A high percentage of paid search revenue tied to branded search terms - Rising cost per click and overreliance on PMax campaigns - Spending across multiple channels that generates high volumes of low-quality leads Unfortunately, many B2B SaaS companies are caught in this cycle. How to Escape the Demand Gen Death Spiral: Stop, reassess, and return to marketing fundamentals. Shift your focus to understanding core performance metrics and building a strategy grounded in your brand and true value creation.
Dale W. Harrison
1mo
Absolutely! I recently looked at company in exactly this situation where total category organic search had dropped by 50% over 4 years and organic brand-aware search had dropped by 70%. During that same period, their two closest competitors had seen both category search and brand-aware search DOUBLE. And revenue (always a lagging indicator) was also starting to decline significantly. That's not a fast or easy turnaround job! Once in that state, it can take a year or more to turn things around even AFTER you start doing the right thing. There's a significant market response lag even after you switch tactics.
David Hardarson
1mo
In my experience, a marketer will struggle to turn this situation around without the full commitment of the CEO to support the cause... The reality however is that the CEO/CCO will rarely be able/willing to adjust their fixed mindset of how growth happens, and instead will move to replace the marketing leader. And the same cycle keeps repeating itself.
Grace Siaton
1mo
"Returning to fundamentals" sounds reassuring. It may not however account for why those fundamentals failed in the first place. Sometimes leadership, not tactics, needs realignment.
Dean Lamb
1mo
I saw this coming for a previous employer and raised the red flag multiple times. Was told my thinking was old school. The results proved me right, but I’m no longer there to help fix it.
Marketing ➡️ Security & IT @ Beyond Products || B2B SaaS
1moIt's funny that you call it the "demand generation death spiral" without specifying what these demand gen tactics are. From what I see on LinkedIn, demand generation is just lead generation in a new jacket. What I most certainly do agree with, is that many companies are investing in the wrong channels monitoring vanity metrics - I'm a firm believer in being brutally honest with yourself and the data you're seeing. If all data is "up", but you're not seeing that in the actual interest in your product, something is going very, very wrong.