Spending on demand before supply exists burns it
Buyers arriving into thin supply have a bad first experience you rarely get to correct. Sequencing the two sides is the whole job.
What's different here
Marketplace growth marketing is fundamentally a sequencing problem, not a channel problem. Both sides need acquisition, they need it in a specific order, and getting the order wrong is expensive in a way that's hard to undo, a buyer who searched and found nothing forms a judgment about your marketplace that a later campaign won't reverse. We start by identifying the constrained side, which is supply far more often than teams expect, and refuse to scale demand spend until liquidity supports it.
Trusted by teams at
What digital marketing looks like for marketplaces.
These are the plays that wouldn't appear on a generic digital marketing page. They only make sense in marketplaces & platforms.
Identify and fund the constrained side first
Usually supply. Targeted outreach and guaranteed-lead offers build inventory before buyer acquisition ramps, because demand into an empty marketplace is money spent creating bad first impressions.
Concentrate, not spread
One category funded properly reaches liquidity; eleven funded thinly reach none. Telling a client to switch off ten of their eleven categories is the hardest recommendation we make and it works.
Separate unit economics per side
Supplier CAC and buyer CAC are different numbers with different payback periods. A blended figure hides which side is actually expensive to acquire.
Guard the first-search experience
Zero-result and thin-result searches are the highest-leverage screens in a marketplace and the least designed. Waitlists, adjacent matches, and concierge fallbacks all beat an empty page.
What holds marketplaces back
The cold-start problem
Buyers leave because supply is thin; suppliers leave because there's no demand. Both sides churn and neither reaches critical mass.
You're spread across too many categories
Marketing eleven categories at once means none reaches liquidity. Concentration feels risky and is almost always the right call.
You're measuring GMV, not match rate
GMV can grow while the core experience gets worse. Match rate and time-to-first-match are the health metrics that actually predict retention.
Supply-side churn is invisible
Suppliers who receive no requests quietly stop responding. By the time it shows in your numbers, the damage is done.
Same rigor, applied here.
The full digital marketing scope and process are identical whoever the client is. What changes for marketplaces & platforms is the tactics above, not the delivery model.
What's included
How it runs
- 01Diagnose — Weeks 1–2
- 02Instrument — Weeks 2–3
- 03Unblock the constraint — Weeks 3–6
- 04Scale what works — Month 2+
- 05Compound — Month 4+
Marketplaces & Platforms results, in detail.
Full case studies with the numbers, the mistakes, and the recommendations clients didn't want to hear.
Scoped like the core service, no surcharge.
Every engagement is quoted from your actual brief. There's no vertical surcharge for this combination. Request a quote and we'll scope it properly.
Focus
One or two channels, executed exceptionally well.
Scoped to your brief
- 2 channels managed
- Conversion tracking setup
- Monthly strategy call
- Live revenue dashboard
- Up to $50k/mo ad spend
Engine
Companies ready to run the full funnel as one system.
Scoped to your brief
- Up to 5 channels managed
- Server-side tracking + CAPI
- Dedicated growth strategist
- In-house creative studio (12 assets/mo)
- CRO testing program
- Lifecycle email & SMS
- Weekly growth calls
- Up to $250k/mo ad spend
Scale
Multi-market brands spending $250k+ per month.
Scoped to your brief
- Unlimited channels & markets
- Incrementality & MMM testing
- Dedicated squad (5+ specialists)
- Custom data warehouse & modeling
- Creative volume: 40+ assets/mo
- Executive reporting & board decks
All engagements start with a free audit. Prices exclude media spend, which you pay directly to the platforms on accounts you own.
Marketplaces & Platforms questions, answered straight.
GMV can grow while the core experience degrades, and that's the pattern that kills marketplaces in year three. Concentration produces slower headline growth and a category that actually works. That then becomes a repeatable playbook. We'd rather help you make that argument to your board than optimize a number that hides the problem.
Other services for marketplaces
Let's talk about your growth constraint.
Buyers arriving into thin supply have a bad first experience you rarely get to correct. Sequencing the two sides is the whole job.
Our commitment: 90-day performance commitment: hit our agreed leading indicators or we work the next month at no charge.