Growth marketing has become one of those phrases that sounds exciting but often means everything and nothing at the same time. In reality, it’s not about hacking short-term wins or chasing every new tactic. It’s about finding the repeatable systems that connect your product, marketing, and users in a way that fuels long-term, compounding growth.

This article kicks off a 10-part series on growth marketing for B2B SaaS, where I’ll break down how to turn strategy into motion from positioning and activation to retention and expansion.

In this first piece, we’ll explore what growth marketing really means for B2B SaaS, how to identify sustainable growth loops, and how to use product-marketing alignment to accelerate results.

Table of contents

1. What growth marketing really means in SaaS
   1. The anatomy of growth loops
   2. Sustainable metrics that drive real growth
   3. The product-marketing connection
2. Hacking growth the right way
3. Sidebar: Key takeaways

What growth marketing really means in SaaS

Growth marketing is the process of turning insights about user behavior into scalable acquisition, retention, and revenue systems. It combines the curiosity of a scientist, the creativity of a storyteller, and the discipline of an operator.

Unlike traditional marketing that focuses only on acquisition, growth marketing looks at the entire customer journey from the first touchpoint to renewal or expansion. It asks:

• Where are we losing users?
• What can we learn from their behavior?
• How can we turn value moments into repeatable loops?

For SaaS companies, this means marketing does not end when someone signs up. Growth happens when those users get to value, stay active, and invite others.

The anatomy of growth loops

Every growing SaaS company has a system that feeds itself, known as a growth loop.

A growth loop is a closed system where the output of one stage feeds the next.

For example:

1. A user signs up and creates a campaign.
2. That campaign reaches new audiences or generates outcomes.
3. The results make the product visible to others or drive referrals.
4. Those new users enter the same loop.

The key here is compounding impact. A funnel pushes people down. A loop keeps pulling new people in because value creation and visibility are linked.

You can build loops around acquisition (referrals, viral content), activation (time to value), or expansion (usage-driven upsells). What matters is that your system does not depend solely on ads or outreach, but grows stronger with every user who succeeds.

Sustainable metrics that drive real growth

If you want to hack growth, start by measuring what actually reflects user success.
Traditional metrics like impressions or traffic are useful for diagnostics, but sustainable growth metrics focus on the quality of engagement and long-term outcomes.

Here are the three categories of metrics that matter most:

1. Acquisition efficiency: Cost per qualified signup or cost per activated account.
2. Activation depth: Percentage of users reaching the first value moment, such as a published project or completed setup.
3. Retention and expansion: Active user rate, expansion revenue, or average revenue per account over time.

When these metrics improve, your growth system strengthens naturally. You are not just buying users; you are creating advocates.

The product-marketing connection

The biggest mistake SaaS teams make is separating growth from product.
In truth, your product experience is your most powerful marketing channel.

Marketing can bring users in, but product is what turns them into promoters. The best growth marketers work closely with product and customer success to identify where friction happens and design experiments that reduce it.

For example:

• Marketing spots that trial users drop off after creating their first project.
• Product runs a test to guide users to a faster “aha moment.”
• The next campaign promotes that improved experience.

That is how growth loops evolve, through collaboration, not silos.

You can read more about how this system connects from acquisition to retention in Building a growth engine in B2B SaaS, the next article in this series.

Hacking growth the right way

The word hack in growth marketing has lost its meaning. The real hack is building clarity and feedback loops faster than your competitors.

Here is what it looks like in practice:

• Treat every campaign as an experiment that produces learnings, not just leads.
• Let data inform creative direction, not replace it.
• Build small systems that scale, like automated onboarding, referral triggers, or usage reports that drive reactivation.
• Share learnings between teams weekly, not quarterly.

Every hack you keep is just a test that proved repeatable enough to become a system.

Sidebar: Key takeaways

• Growth marketing connects product, marketing, and users
• Real growth comes from loops that feed themselves
• Measure activation and retention, not vanity metrics
• Collaboration turns experiments into repeatable systems

Need a second opinion on your GTM strategy, or support putting it into motion?Drop me a message.