Start right, work left through the awareness stages

Most companies start demand generation with cold traffic. They run LinkedIn ads to people who've never heard of them, or launch cold email campaigns to strangers. This is backwards.

The smarter approach is to start at the end of the customer journey (the right side of the awareness stages) where people are hottest, then work backwards to colder traffic as you hit limits. People comparing you to competitors are 90% ready to buy. People who've never heard of your category are 10% ready.

This chapter explains the snakes and ladders analogy for customer journeys, shows you how to identify which channels reach which awareness stages, and demonstrates why starting with bottom-of-funnel traffic (even though it's expensive) is the fastest path to profitable growth.

Imagine the customer journey as a snakes and ladders board. Everyone has to cross the board eventually, moving from unaware (start) to most aware (finish). But there are shortcuts.

A ladder is a channel that lets people skip stages. Google search for "Guardey vs Knowbe4" is a ladder. Anyone searching that is already solution-aware (believes security training works), product-aware (considering specific vendors), and comparing options. They've skipped the entire problem awareness and solution education phase. You can reach them directly at 90% readiness.

Cold outbound is not a ladder. When you email someone cold, they're probably problem-aware at best (maybe they know employees are a security risk) or even unaware (haven't thought about it). You need to move them through multiple stages: convince them the problem matters, convince them training is the solution, convince them your training is best, convince them to buy now. That's a long journey.

The insight: ladders are expensive (high CPM, high CPC) but short journeys (fewer touches to close). Long paths are cheap (low CPM, easy to reach) but long journeys (many touches to close). Start with ladders because even though cost per click is high, cost per customer can be low if conversion rates are high.

Ladders in B2B demand generation: competitor comparison searches ("X vs Y"), high-intent searches ("buy security training"), remarketing to website visitors (they've shown intent), referrals from customers (warm intro, skip awareness building).

Long paths in B2B demand generation: cold LinkedIn ads to people who've never heard of you, cold email to scraped lists, content marketing to problem-aware audience, broad industry conference sponsorships.

Start with ladders. Dominate them. Then add long paths as you hit ladder limits. Don't start with long paths because they're cheaper.

Different channels reach people at different awareness stages. Your job is to map which channels reach which stages, so you can start right (most aware) and work left (less aware) systematically.

Most aware channels (product-aware to most aware): Google search for your brand name or competitor names ("Guardey pricing", "Guardey vs Knowbe4"). Remarketing to people who visited pricing or demo pages. Referrals from existing customers. G2 or Capterra profiles where they're actively comparing. These people are 80-90% ready to buy.

Solution-aware channels (solution-aware to product-aware): Google search for solution categories ("security awareness training", "phishing simulation"). LinkedIn ads targeting job titles who need this solution. Industry publication advertising where they're researching solutions. Content marketing (guides, webinars) for people actively researching. These people are 50-70% ready, need vendor comparison and proof.

Problem-aware channels (problem-aware to solution-aware): Content marketing explaining why the problem matters. Organic search for problem-related terms ("why do employees click phishing emails"). Cold outbound to people whose role implies they have the problem. LinkedIn thought leadership raising awareness. These people are 20-40% ready, need solution education.

Unaware channels (unaware to problem-aware): Broad LinkedIn campaigns. Conference sponsorships. PR and media coverage. Cold outbound to people who might have the problem but don't know it. These people are 0-20% ready, need problem education before anything else.

Start at the top of this list (most aware) and work down as you hit limits. Don't start at the bottom because it's cheaper to reach people.

Bottom-of-funnel traffic (competitor searches, high-intent keywords) has high cost per click but high conversion rates. Top-of-funnel traffic (cold outbound, broad LinkedIn ads) has low cost per click but low conversion rates. The question is: which has better cost per customer?

Example: Google search for "Guardey vs Knowbe4" costs £5 per click (expensive). But 30% of clickers book a demo because they're actively comparing and ready to buy. 30% demo rate × 50% close rate = 15% of clicks become customers. So £5 CPC ÷ 0.15 = £33 per customer in ad spend. Add demo cost (sales rep time) and total CAC might be £500.

Example: Cold LinkedIn ad to security directors costs £2 per click (cheap). But 2% book a demo because most aren't in buying mode. 2% demo rate × 30% close rate (lower because they're less ready) = 0.6% of clicks become customers. So £2 CPC ÷ 0.006 = £333 per customer in ad spend. Add longer sales cycle (more touches needed) and total CAC might be £2,000.

The expensive traffic (£5 CPC) delivered lower CAC (£500) than the cheap traffic (£2 CPC and £2,000 CAC). This is why you start right and work left. Expensive clicks from ready buyers beat cheap clicks from cold prospects.

The limit: bottom-of-funnel traffic is small. Only so many people search "Guardey vs Knowbe4" each month. Once you've dominated that, you must work left to warmer and eventually colder traffic. But starting right gives you profitable revenue fast, which funds the longer-term cold traffic plays.

You'll know you've maxed out a channel when: volume flatlines despite increased budget (you're reaching everyone already), cost per click rises significantly (you're bidding against yourself or competition increased), conversion rates drop (you've creamed the hottest prospects, now reaching less ready people), or you've reached 80%+ impression share (limited room to grow).

When you hit these limits on bottom-funnel channels, shift left to the next awareness stage. You've dominated competitor comparison searches, now expand to solution category searches. You've maxed remarketing to demo page visitors, now add remarketing to blog visitors. You've captured all high-intent keywords, now test medium-intent keywords.

Each step left increases volume but decreases conversion rates and increases cost per customer. This is expected and acceptable. You're not trying to find another channel as efficient as competitor searches. You're trying to find the next most efficient channel after you've maxed the best one.

The working left process: start with competitor searches and brand terms (most aware), expand to solution category searches (solution-aware), add remarketing to website visitors (product-aware), launch LinkedIn ads to target job titles (solution-aware), test content marketing and organic search (problem-aware), only then consider cold outbound (problem-aware). Each step increases volume and increases CAC, but stays within your maximum affordable CAC from the previous chapter.

Don't skip steps. Don't jump from competitor searches directly to cold outbound. Work systematically left through awareness stages, adding the next-hottest traffic source as you max out the current one.

Start demand generation at the end of the customer journey where people are hottest. Bottom-of-funnel traffic (competitor searches, high-intent keywords, remarketing) is expensive per click but cheap per customer because conversion rates are high.

Use the snakes and ladders analogy: ladders (shortcuts like competitor searches) are expensive but short journeys. Long paths (cold outreach) are cheap but long journeys. Start with ladders even though they cost more per click.

Map channels to awareness stages. Most aware channels (brand searches, remarketing) reach ready buyers. Solution-aware channels (category searches, LinkedIn ads) reach people comparing options. Problem-aware channels (content marketing, cold outbound) reach people just learning about solutions.

Work left as you hit limits. When a channel flatlines or costs rise, shift to the next awareness stage. Each step left increases volume and CAC but stays within your affordable maximum.

In the next chapter, you'll learn how to dominate one channel completely before adding the next, using the more, better, new framework.