Mastering paid growth | Jonathan Becker (Thrive Digital)

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

May 7, 2023

Duration

1h 34m

Channel

Lenny's Podcast

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

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.

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Jonathan Becker

  guest

• Lenny Rachitsky

  host

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Lenny's Podcast, featuring Jonathan Becker and Lenny Rachitsky, Mastering paid growth | Jonathan Becker (Thrive Digital) explores Jonathan Becker Reveals How To Scale Profitably With Paid Growth Performance marketing veteran Jonathan Becker walks through how to use paid acquisition as a disciplined, diversified growth engine rather than a dangerous dependency. He explains how automation and AI have shifted work from tactical knob‑turning to strategy, modeling, and especially creative testing, which he sees as today’s biggest lever. The conversation digs into when paid works best, how to think about attribution in a post‑IDFA world, and why channel diversification and profitability discipline matter more than ever. Becker also shares practical advice on channels (Google/Meta/TikTok/Amazon), B2B lead gen, hiring and using agencies, and how his own agency uses AI to radically speed up copy, mockups, and RFPs.

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