<aside> 📑 Table of contents
</aside>
Acquisition channels are how people hear about you.
There are tons of acquisition channels you could test. Here’s an incomplete list — skim it to get a feel. (Don’t worry about the columns on the right, we’ll cover them in a bit.)
Note: We mentor you in the nuts-and-bolts of how to run channels properly if you work with us.
We used to have strong opinions about how to pick acquisition channels, but we’ve seen too many startups grow from weird channels we didn’t expect. Growing is not as straightforward as saying, “Let’s find the channel from this list that works.”
We can give you a few guidelines about how to think about channels, but the most important things are to keep an open mind and build on what you’re learning from users.
Why? There are hidden acquisition channels you only uncover by talking with users and learning how they buy things.
For example, if you’re targeting people looking for housing in San Francisco, you might discover that there are really two main private facebook groups people post in, and you need to get in those groups.
If you’re selling to enterprise (i.e., big companies), you may find that your customers only buy software when one of their consultants recommends it, and you have to meet these consultants at conferences.
What does this mean for you? Talk with users, don’t write off a channel just because it feels small, and be disciplined about which channels you try first.
That said, there are still some concepts to keep in the back of your head:
CAC stands for customer acquisition cost: how much you pay to get a customer. For example, if you spend $100 on TikTok ads and get 5 customers, your CAC is $20. ($100 divided by 5.)
At the end of the day, there’s a certain amount you can spend. If you run TikTok ads and it costs $20 per customer…but your customers only pay you $10…you’re going to go out of business.