Mastering paid growth | Jonathan Becker (Thrive Digital)

Jonathan Becker is the founder and president of Thrive Digital, where he and his team have deployed more than $3.5 billion in paid acquisition budgets for companies like Uber, Asana, Square, Tempur-Pedic, and MasterClass. He spent the first part of his career mastering SEO and is a world expert in DTC, lead generation, demand generation, and user acquisition. In today’s episode, we discuss: • Signs that your company is a good fit for paid growth • Strategies for optimizing ad creatives • The merits of different marketing channels: paid vs. organic search, TikTok and short-form • Insights on attribution and how to approach it effectively • How market conditions and AI impact paid growth • The crazy story of how Jonathan won Uber as a client — Brought to you by Braintrust—For when you needed talent, yesterday | AssemblyAI—Production-ready AI models to transcribe and understand speech | Miro—A collaborative visual platform where your best work comes to life Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/mastering-paid-growth-jonathan-becker Where to find Jonathan Becker: • Twitter: https://twitter.com/jzbecker • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanbecker123/ • Website: https://thrivedigital.com/ Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Jonathan’s background (07:25) The crazy story of how Jonathan won Uber as a client (11:56) Interchangeable terms for “paid growth” (12:31) Why you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket (16:48) What kind of companies should pursue paid growth (23:07) Is it possible to reach scale exclusively through paid growth? (27:07) The evolution of performance marketing (29:39) Advice for founders choosing between SEO and paid (32:18) Strategies for optimizing ad creatives (44:43) Paid vs. organic search, TikTok and short-form (49:56) Where to spend money in order to drive growth for B2B SaaS (55:06) Attribution in performance marketing  (1:04:18) The impact of AI on paid growth (1:12:52) Advice for early-stage startups on hiring in-house vs. hiring an agency  (1:17:09) Qualifications to look for in your hires (1:23:23) How Jonathan won Snapchat as a client (1:28:55) Lightning round Referenced: • Andrew Wilkinson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/awilkinson/ • Garrett Camp: https://www.forbes.com/profile/garrett-camp/ • TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/ • Grammarly: https://app.grammarly.com/ • Athletic Greens: https://athleticgreens.com/en • Supermetrics: https://supermetrics.com/ • Recast: https://getrecast.com/ • Midjourney: https://www.midjourney.com/ • DALL-E: https://openai.com/product/dall-e-2 • Storyworthy: https://www.amazon.com/Storyworthy-Engage-Persuade-through-Storytelling/dp/1608685489 • Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike: https://www.amazon.com/Shoe-Dog-Memoir-Creator-Nike-ebook/dp/B0176M1A44 • American Kingpin: https://www.amazon.com/American-Kingpin-Criminal-Mastermind-Behind/dp/1591848148 • The Big Short: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1596363/ • White Lotus on HBO: https://www.hbo.com/the-white-lotus Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.