Growth Marketing
Growth marketing vs demand generation
Demand generation fills the top of the funnel. Growth marketing owns the whole loop. Choosing wrong is why budget grows while revenue does not.
The terms are used interchangeably and they should not be. The difference decides who owns revenue when a quarter misses.
Demand generation
- Scope: creating and capturing interest — paid media, SEO, content, events.
- Primary metrics: MQLs, pipeline created, cost per lead.
- Ends when a qualified lead reaches sales.
Growth marketing
- Scope: the full loop — acquisition, activation, sales conversion, retention, expansion.
- Primary metrics: CAC, LTV, payback, net revenue retention.
- Owns the handoff into sales and what happens after the sale.
How to choose
If your close rate and retention are healthy and the only gap is volume, invest in demand generation. If leads arrive but stall, or customers churn faster than payback, more leads will only accelerate the loss — that is a growth marketing problem.
The practical test
Double your lead volume on paper. If revenue does not roughly follow, the bottleneck is not the top of the funnel.
Perguntas frequentes
Can one team do both?
Yes, and in companies under roughly 50 people it usually should — as long as the team is measured on revenue, not on lead count.
Which produces results faster?
Demand generation shows movement faster. Growth marketing produces the more durable curve because it also fixes conversion and retention.
