Grow & market

Why did my marketing channel stop working after a few months?

The short answer

This is Andrew Chen's Law of Shitty Clickthroughs: every channel decays as novelty fades and competitors pile in. Nothing's broken with you; the channel is just maturing. Constantly refresh creative and keep discovering the next under-priced channel before it saturates.

Go deeper, your way

2 hand-picked resources, 2 link-checked. Pick how you want to dig in.

📄 Article
✓ Link checked Free Intermediate

Why we picked it The definitive explanation of why every marketing channel decays over time, from an a16z general partner who wrote 650+ essays on growth.

The Law of Shitty Clickthroughs

From andrewchen.com by Andrew Chen ~8 min read

  • Over time, all marketing channels drift toward terrible click-through rates.
  • Banner CTR fell ~1500x from 1994 to 2011 as novelty and arbitrage disappeared.
  • Win by refreshing creative and finding the next under-priced channel early.
Open andrewchen.com →
📄 Article
✓ Link checked Freemium Intermediate

Why we picked it Based on studying 100+ consumer companies, Lenny shows that lasting growth comes from becoming world-class at one growth engine, viral, SEO, or paid, rather than dabbling in all three.

The Growth Engine: Kickstarting & Scaling a Consumer Business (Step 6)

From Lenny's Newsletter by Lenny Rachitsky ~20 min read

  • Most successful startups run on a single dominant growth engine.
  • The three engines are viral/word-of-mouth, content/SEO, and paid.
  • Pick one and become world-class before layering on a second.
Open lennysnewsletter.com →

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