Playbooks from the field
Growth Guides and Playbooks That Move Revenue, not vanity metrics
Here is the problem these growth guides and playbooks solve. A founder buys traffic, the traffic shows up, and almost none of it converts to paying customers. The dashboard looks busy. Sessions are up. Sign-ups tick along. Then the revenue line stays flat, and nobody can say which channel actually paid for itself. I have lived inside that gap on real accounts. I took Elementor to 100x ARR by treating that gap as the only number that matters, and I drove Riverside +337% MRR using the same discipline. The guides on this page are the operating manuals from that work, stripped of the fluff.
The spine every playbook follows
A guide that only describes the happy path is a brochure. Each one runs the same five-step spine — so most of the value sits in the second attempt, not the first.
The real question
The question the business needs answered — not the one that is fun to answer.
The metric
Revenue, or a leading indicator that maps cleanly to it. No vanity numbers.
Ordered steps
Exact steps in order, with the tools, queries, and decision rules baked in.
Recovery path
What to do when the result is bad — because the second attempt is where the value is.
A stop rule
A clear signal for when a play has failed and it is time to move on.
“Every playbook here is an operating manual from real work, stripped of the fluff. A guide that only describes the happy path is a brochure.”
The topics map to the points where money leaks. Each set lives in its own guide so you can go straight to your leak. Click a stage to see what each one fixes.
How these are built differently
Built to work small first
I write these growth guides and playbooks from inside live accounts, so the examples are real constraints, not lab conditions. You will see how I handle a thin budget, a tracking setup that lies to you, and a team that has 90 minutes a week for growth and nothing more. Having managed $100M+ in budgets, I have also learned the opposite lesson: more money hides bad systems instead of fixing them. So the playbooks are built to work small first. If a play does not earn its keep on a modest spend, it does not deserve a bigger one.
They never dodge the math
What separates these from the average growth article is the refusal to dodge the math. When I tell you to test a price change, I show you how to size the sample, how long to wait, and what result kills the test. When I tell you to cut a channel, I show you the break-even cost per acquisition that justifies the call. The point of growth guides and playbooks is to remove the guessing, not to add a new vocabulary on top of it. I want you making the same decision twice and getting a result you can trust both times.
Discipline beats inspiration
These guides assume you are practical. You do not need a growth title to use them. Founders run them. Solo marketers run them. Heads of growth steal the parts they like. The structure stays the same: one problem, one metric, ordered steps, a recovery path, and a clear stop rule so you know when a play has failed and it is time to move on. Discipline beats inspiration here every time. The teams that win are the ones that run the same playbook on schedule and read the numbers honestly, not the ones chasing the next tactic on a podcast.
The research backs it
If you want the reasoning behind why I weight revenue over traffic, the research backs it: most acquired users never reach the value moment, and the gap between sign-up and paid is where growth is won or lost. For a grounded view of how product and growth teams measure that journey, the Harvard Business Review work on turning data into decisions lines up with how these playbooks are built. Read the guides below, pick the one that matches your biggest leak, and run it this week. If you want a second set of eyes once you have run a playbook and the numbers are in, that is exactly the kind of work I take on as a Fractional CMO/CGO.
The playbook library
Growth guides and playbooks, by where your money leaks
Operating playbooks on growth, GTM, content, and attribution — written from running the work, not theorizing about it. Pick the one that matches your biggest leak and run it this week.
Growth & scaling
5 guidesThe 90-Day Growth Plan
What a fractional Head of Growth actually does in the first 90 days.
Series A Growth Playbook
The growth motion that gets a B2B SaaS from Series A to scale.
Scale SaaS $1M to $10M
The levers that move a B2B SaaS from $1M to $10M ARR.
Growth for Bootstrapped SaaS
Running growth with no outside capital and a small team.
Israel-to-US Expansion
Taking an Israeli SaaS into the US market.
AI startups
4 guidesGTM for AI Startups (Israel)
Go-to-market for Israeli AI startups in a crowded category.
How to Market an AI Startup
Positioning and demand when the category is still forming.
Positioning for AI Startups
Carving a defensible position when everyone claims AI.
Content Strategy for AI Startups
Content that builds authority and pipeline for AI products.
Content, CRO & attribution
4 guidesContent Strategy for B2B SaaS
A content engine that compounds into pipeline.
CAC Payback Diagnostic
Why your acquisition cost is too high — and how to find the leak.
Server-Side GTM
Rebuilding tracking with server-side Google Tag Manager.
Post-iOS 14.5 Attribution
Measuring paid acquisition after the privacy changes.
Keep exploring
The full playbook library & related hubs
Every guide in one place, plus the related reading and hubs that go deeper.
Why work with me
The same operator who scaled Elementor from $200K to $20M ARR (100x in 3 years), tripled Riverside.fm MRR (+337%), and ran growth at cnvrg.io through its acquisition by Intel. You get the person who did the work — not a junior account manager.
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Frequently asked questions
How these guides differ, which to start with, and whether I can run them for you — answered straight.
What makes these growth guides and playbooks different from typical growth blog posts?
Most posts describe ideas. My growth guides and playbooks give you ordered steps, the exact metric that proves the result, and a stop rule for when a play fails. They come from live accounts, not theory. You read one, run the steps this week, and measure revenue impact. If a play cannot earn its keep, the guide tells you to drop it and move on.
Do I need a growth team to use the playbooks?
No. Founders, solo marketers, and small teams run these every week. Each playbook assumes limited time and a modest budget, often 90 minutes a week and a thin spend. The steps are written so one person can execute them without a designer, a developer, or a big tool stack. Where a tool is required, I name it and show the exact query or setting.
Which playbook should I start with?
Start where your money leaks. If you buy traffic that does not convert, start with acquisition. If users sign up and vanish, start with activation. If conversion is flat, start with the offer and pricing guide. If customers leave fast, start with retention. Each guide is scoped to one leak so you go straight to your problem instead of reading everything first.
How do the guides connect traffic to actual revenue?
Every playbook ignores vanity metrics and ties each step to revenue or a leading indicator that maps to it. I show how to read channels by contribution, not clicks, how to size and time a pricing test, and the break-even cost per acquisition that justifies scaling or cutting a channel. The goal is one decision you can make twice and trust both times.
Can you run these growth guides and playbooks for my business directly?
Yes. I work as a Fractional CMO/CGO, so I run these systems inside accounts, not just publish them. I have taken Elementor to 100x ARR and driven Riverside +337% MRR using this exact discipline. The common path: run a playbook yourself, get the numbers, then bring me in for a second set of eyes or to operate the system week to week.
