- Test one channel at a time so you can tell what works
- Pick channels where your buyers already look for help
- Give every test a deadline, a budget and one success metric
- Add a second channel once the first is predictable
TLDR: Start with the one channel where your ideal customers already spend time and where you can test cheaply. For most early-stage startups that means direct outreach, communities, partnerships, or content. Run one focused experiment per channel for four to six weeks, measure cost and conversion, then double down on the winner.
You have a product, a website, and a bookmark folder of 14 marketing channels someone on LinkedIn swore by. You also have about six free hours a week, most of them after the kids (or the investors) go to bed.
Spread those hours across every channel and each one gets 25 minutes. None of them will work, and you won’t know why. We’ve watched plenty of smart founders burn a quarter this way, so this guide shows you how to compare channels, pick your first one, and test it properly.
What are the main customer acquisition channels?
In Traction, Gabriel Weinberg (founder of DuckDuckGo) and Justin Mares map out 19 channels a startup can use to win customers. For early-stage B2B founders, most of them fit into four groups.
Outbound: email, LinkedIn and calls
You pick the buyer and reach out first. It’s the quickest way to get feedback, because people reply (or ignore you) within days.
- Best for: B2B products, higher price points, a buyer list you can name
- Main cost: your time
- Time to first signal: days
Expect modest numbers at the start. In Hunter’s analysis of 11 million cold emails, the average campaign reply rate was 4.1%. Campaigns sent to 50 people or fewer averaged 5.8%, while campaigns sent to 1,000 or more averaged 2.1%.
Pro tip: Send in small, tightly matched batches. Twenty emails to ops leads who just posted a scheduler job will teach you more than 500 emails to a scraped list.
Inbound: SEO, content and social
Buyers find you while searching for answers. Inbound builds on itself over time, and it starts slowly.
- Best for: problems people actively search for
- Main cost: time to write, plus patience
- Time to first signal: months
How slowly? Ahrefs found that only 1.74% of newly published pages reached Google’s top 10 within a year.
Pro tip: Answer one buyer question per page, clearly and near the top. Those same pages give AI tools like ChatGPT something to quote when buyers ask for recommendations.
Partnerships and referrals
Someone your buyer already trusts introduces you. In B2B, peer trust carries a lot of weight. A Responsive survey reported by MarketingCharts found buyers’ top sources for discovering new vendors were web search (33%), peer recommendations (33%), and generative AI chatbots (32%). In Wynter’s research on how B2B SaaS marketing leaders buy software, 58% said they rely on their networks for tool recommendations.
- Best for: buyers who ask peers before they buy
- Main cost: time spent building relationships
- Time to first signal: weeks
Partner outreach template (copy and paste):
Hi [Name], I noticed [Partner Company] works with [shared customer type]. We help the same people with [problem you solve], and it doesn’t overlap with what you do. Would you be open to a 20-minute call to see if a referral swap or a co-hosted session makes sense for both of our clients?
Paid ads
You pay to put your message in front of buyers on Google, LinkedIn, or Meta. Results come fast, and so does the bill.
- Best for: a message you’ve already proven converts
- Main cost: ad spend on every click
- Time to first signal: days
Pro tip: Ads amplify whatever message you give them. Test your pitch in sales conversations first, then pay to put the winning version in front of more people.
How do you choose the right channel for your stage?
Our take: pick the channel your buyers already use, even if it’s the one you like least.
Match the channel to your price point
Your price decides how much effort each sale can carry.
- Low price, high volume: you need channels where one effort reaches many people, like content, communities and, later, ads.
- High price, fewer deals: a single sale can justify hours of founder time, so outbound, partnerships, and events make sense.
Match the channel to where buyers already look
Ask your last five customers (or your five best prospects) two questions:
- “When you look for a tool or service like ours, where do you start?”
- “Who do you ask for recommendations?”
Write down their exact answers. If three out of five say “I ask my peer group on Slack,” your shortlist just wrote itself.
Channel scorecard (copy and paste): Score each channel from 1 to 5 on four questions, then add them up. Your top three totals become your shortlist.
Channel: [name]
Do my buyers already spend time here? [1-5]
How cheap is a 6-week test? [1-5]
How fast will I see a signal? [1-5]
Do I (or my team) have the skills to run it? [1-5]
Total: [out of 20]
How do you run a channel experiment?
The Traction authors call their process the Bullseye Framework: brainstorm every channel, rank the three most promising, test them cheaply, then focus on the one that works. Here’s how to make each test useful.
- Write a one-line hypothesis. For example: “Outbound to clinic managers will book 4 discovery calls a month.”
- Set a budget and a deadline. Cap the hours and dollars, and give it four to six weeks.
- Pick one success metric. Use meetings booked or paid customers. Skip vanity metrics like likes and impressions.
- Log results every week. A simple spreadsheet works fine.
- Decide at the deadline. Double down, change one variable and rerun, or drop it.
Six weeks can feel like forever when cash is tight. Stick with it anyway. A test you cut short at week two usually gets rerun later, which costs you more time overall.
Experiment brief (copy and paste):
Channel: [e.g. LinkedIn outreach]
Target buyer: [role, company type, trigger]
Hypothesis: [this channel will produce X per month]
Budget: [hours per week] and [$ amount]
Dates: [start] to [end, 4-6 weeks later]
Success metric: [meetings booked or paid customers]
Pass line: [the number that earns more investment]
Result and decision: [fill in at the deadline]
Pro tip: Set your pass line before you start. If you decide what “good” looks like after the results come in, you’ll talk yourself into keeping whichever channel you enjoy most.
When should you add a second channel?
Add a second channel once the first one is predictable. Signs you’re there:
- You can roughly forecast next month’s meetings from this month’s effort
- More effort in the same channel is producing smaller gains
- You have the time, or the help, to run a second test without starving the first
Until then, keep tuning the channel that works. Yes, even if a podcast tour sounds more fun.
Pro tip: Before you start channel two, write a one-page playbook for channel one: who you target, what you send, and the numbers you expect. That way a contractor or first hire can keep it running while you test the next one.
Frequently asked questions
Should early-stage startups use paid ads?
Usually not as your first channel. Ads work best once you know your message converts, so test your messaging through outreach first and keep ad spend for what’s already proven.
How many acquisition channels should a startup use?
One or two at the start. Spreading effort across many channels makes it hard to tell what’s working.
What is the cheapest customer acquisition channel?
Referrals and founder-led outreach mainly cost founder time, which makes them common starting points for bootstrapped founders.
What is the Bullseye Framework?
A channel-testing process from the book Traction by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares. You brainstorm all channels, shortlist the most promising, test them cheaply, then focus on the one that works.
Pro tip: Add a required “How did you hear about us?” field to your demo or signup form today. It’s the cheapest attribution tool you’ll ever set up, and it tells you which channel to double down on.
Still chasing your first 10 customers? Start with our first customers playbook.
Every channel works better with a clear message. Aloola builds positioning and messaging for founder-led companies in fixed-scope sprints, so your outreach, content, and ads all land with the right buyers. Book a call.
