Your 2026 Demand Gen Isn’t a Funnel - It’s a Portfolio: How to Allocate Experiments Across Ads, Content, Outbound, and PLG

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Read time: 3 minutes.

Welcome to the 196th edition of The Growth Elements Newsletter. Every Monday and sometimes on Thursday, I write an essay on growth metrics & experiments and business case studies.

Today’s piece is for 8,000+ founders, operators, and leaders from businesses such as Shopify, Google, Hubspot, Zoho, Freshworks, Servcorp, Zomato, Postman, Razorpay and Zoom.

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[1] Start with the business problem​

• ARR growth stalled while you’re “doing everything” (Google, LinkedIn, content, outbound, PLG, partners).

• CAC payback > 18-24 months; NRR flat; sales hates lead quality.

• Core issue:

  • No explicit portfolio

  • Every motion fights for the budget

  • Nothing is clearly core vs experiment.

Define 3 motion buckets before channels​

• Create demand:

  • Brand, POV content, community, dark social, events.

• Capture demand:

  • Search (incl. AI/LLM surfaces), review sites, high‑intent outbound, partners.

• Convert/expand:

  • Landing pages, PLG flows, sales, onboarding, lifecycle.

• Rule:

  • Every program (ads, SDRs, webinars, PLG) maps to one bucket with 1-2 business KPIs.

[3] Build the portfolio view​

• For each bucket, classify:

  • Core: already at target CAC/payback or NRR.

  • Bets: promising, not yet consistent.

  • Experiments: time‑boxed tests with explicit hypotheses.

• Visual:

  • Simple 3×3 matrix (buckets × core/bets/experiments) you can show CEO/board.

[4] Allocate budget and experimentation​

• 60-70% goes to core, 20-30% to bets, 10-20% to experiments.

• Experiments must be:

  • Big enough to learn (no $200 vanity tests).

  • Attached to a bucket KPI (pipeline, CAC payback, NRR), not just “leads.”​​

[5] Final rules​

• Don’t argue “channel vs channel”; argue “bucket vs bucket.”

• Graduate or kill programs quarterly based on CAC/payback and NRR, not feelings.

• The job of growth is portfolio construction, not channel collection.​

That's it for today's article! I hope you found this essay insightful.

Wishing you a productive week ahead!

I always appreciate you reading.

Thanks,
Chintankumar Maisuria