214. Re-acquire 🍭
Re-defining acquisition in the age of Product-Led Growth
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Hi there 👋
I’ve been in Metrics Mode the past few days at work, so this week’s newsletter has a rather data-focused lean. Coming into marketing from journalism, SaaS metrics were something I had to learn on the job, and I’ve come to like them quite a bit. There’s an order and balance to them. Kind of like a KenKen puzzle (“hard” difficulty). Anyway, hope you enjoy the content, and please feel free to reach out with any data advice for me!
Wishing you a great week,
Kevan
Acquire → Re-acquire
If a tree falls in the forest but no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
If a user signs up for your product but never understands the value of your product, does it really count as acquisition?
My answer to that second question, historically, has been always been yes.
(I don’t have an answer to the first question.)
This week, I read a post from Openview’s Kyle Poyar about ditching the old SaaS metrics like LTV:CAC, average ACV, and the magic number. A key reason why: Product-Led Growth.
Traditional SaaS metrics playbook can be extremely misleading when it comes to managing a PLG or consumption-based SaaS company.
I agree. A lot of this resonates with what we experienced at Buffer and what I’ve seen at Polly so far. If you acquire users through organic, product-led motions, users who expand with you over time, what’s the point of measuring LTV: CAC when LTV is infinite and CAC is zero?
Good timing to talk about re-thinking SaaS metrics because this week we also turned a few traditional SaaS ideas on their heads at Polly, specifically around user acquisition.
“What is user acquisition?” you ask.
I think my problem is that I never really questioned it. (So, good for you for asking.)
User acquisition means …
gaining new users for an app, platform, or other service.
Depending on the business, acquisition may mean installs or signups or trial starts.
It’s one of the stages in the pirate metrics funnel: the first A in AARRR (“arr” like a pirate).
In so many cases, acquisition is just about as cut-and-dry, as obvious, as ironclad and immutable as you can get with SaaS metrics. You didn’t have a user before, and now you do. Acquisition. Simple.
Except, is it really?
There’s a ton of nuance to the customer journey for any SaaS product, especially one that is built on Product-Led Growth. Customers find SaaS products through a circuitous series of stops and starts and loop-de-loops, yet we often imagine the journey as a straight line.
So perhaps it’s time to rethink the way we define acquisition.
When reflecting back on what I’ve experienced with acquisition, I see three main problems that arise if we stick to the standard, obvious definition.
Problem #1: There are multiple different ways you could define acquisition.
At Polly, we have at least three:
When someone installs Polly into a Slack or Microsoft Teams workspace
When someone creates their first question and shares it with their team
When someone on the team responds to a created question
It’s further complicated by trial starts, activation, product-qualified lead scoring, etc.
As a marketing leader, how am I supposed to talk about the impact we’re having on acquisition when it’s not 100% clear what acquisition actually looks like?
Problem #2: Acquisition and activation were made to be together ❤️ not apart 💔.
The pirate metrics funnel draws a line between acquisition and activation, which makes for some sticky situations. At the very least, it requires careful coordination between teams to make sure that you’re acquiring users who activate. At its worst, it can lead to silos where acquisition gets “thrown over the wall” to activation, and everyone keeps their fingers crossed.
Problem #3: We acquire users who come to us with a different understanding of our product.
If you acquire someone who thinks your product is X, when really your product does Y, did you truly acquire them?
If someone has been exposed to your product and technically counts as acquired — but they never used it in the way it’s intended, never reached the moment of true value — were they acquired?
By the literal definitions, yes, these people would count as acquisition.
But they need to be re-acquired.
And this brings us to a new definition for acquisition.
Qualify acquisition with real product value
Quantify acquisition with a timeframe
If you take both of these steps, you will end up acquiring users you’ve already acquired.
And that’s great!
If they weren’t acquired-to-stick the first time around, then you should be dancing in your remote workspace at the chance of acquiring them for real the second time.
What this looks like in practice will vary from team to team. Here is how it’s shaping up at Polly:
Acquisition =
Users who create a poll after not having done so for at least the past 90 days
You can see the two additional acquisition factors here:
Qualify with value = Rather than just claiming any new user as “acquired,” we are tying acquisition closely to a core product action: creating a poll
Quantify with timeframe = If a user has not done this key action at any point in the past 90 days, then we treat them as new acquisition
Why not just call this re-activation?
When you’re reactivating users, you’re typically driving toward a repeat, positive behavior that the user has exhibited in the past. When you’re re-acquiring users, you’re acknowledging that a whole bunch of previously acquired folks either
Never reached a moment of value with your product
Came to your product with a wrong understanding of what it is you do
Weren’t at the point of being ready for your solution
Tried you when you were one thing, but now you’ve repositioned to a new thing
So when you’re putting together acquisition plans for next quarter, next month, or now, think outside the box with acquisition.
Question your definitions.
Understand your true value.
Expand your acquisition bubble.
And don’t be afraid to come up with a brand new metric of your own.
About this newsletter …
Each week, I share playbooks, case studies, stories, and links from inside the startup marketing world. If you enjoy what’s in this newsletter, you can share some love by hitting the heart button at the top or bottom.💙
About Kevan
I’m a marketing exec who specializes in startup marketing and brand-building. I currently lead the marketing team at Polly (we’re hiring!). I previously built brands at Buffer and Vox.
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