“Sandy, what is the ideal growth strategy for my company?”
I’ve heard this question at least three times in the past two weeks alone. Founders think all growth best practices have changed because of AI: everything is broken, channels don’t work anymore, and they need a new perfect playbook to follow.
But there is no one-size-fits-all growth playbook anymore. Not because AI has broken it, but because growth playbooks were always built to break. Every channel that has ever delivered outsized results followed the same cycle:
Early mover advantage creates massive returns > everyone notices and copies it > saturation happens > performance drops > costs rise > the playbook dies.
- In the early 2010s, tiny keyword tweaks would shoot you to the top of search results on the App Store. Then tools like Sensor Tower made this playbook visible to everyone, turning it from a growth hack into table stakes.
- Between 2014 and 2020, the average CPM for Facebook ads rose from $2.50 to over $14. What started as a goldmine became another overpriced channel.
- The same goes for influencer marketing, onboarding flows, email drips, push notifications… you name it.
From 2010 to 2020, growth was about finding the next hidden gem and going all in on it. Now, that cycle moves faster than ever. Here’s what has changed, and how companies can still win today.
To read the full post, visit Growth Notes
@sandydiao 