INDUSTRY INSIGHT
now, I’ ve seen this transition occur in real-time. Operators, advertisers and app marketers are looking to solve completely different problems than before. It’ s evident in the kind of questions asked today:
• Not‘ How quickly can we scale?’, but‘ Which channels are actually profitable?’
• Not‘ How can we acquire users the quickest?’, but‘ Which users are going to offer the highest long-term value?’
You can call it a sign of maturity. I think it signals something tied directly to growth.
Growth is no longer enough to signal success
Previously visibility was worth more than durability. Companies optimised for:
• aggressive acquisition
• inflated valuation narratives
• rapid geographic expansion.
But without considering operational discipline what organisations were doing was adding:
• bloated SaaS stacks
• rising customer acquisition costs
• fragmented attribution systems
• overlapping teams
• growth strategies heavily dependent on paid performance.
Capital was abundant before. But as time has gone on, there has been a squeeze and we’ re now at a point where any inefficiency is simply too hard to hide.
The modern SaaS buyers are built differently: more cautious, analytical and more ROI-focused even from Day 1. CFOs are scrutinising software budgets. CMOs( including me) are being asked to justify every growth channel. Procurement cycles are longer. Retention matters more than top-line vanity metrics.
I’ m seeing clients from Trackier looking at the longterm picture today. Now a quarter after onboarding, but even before making the decision. The market is rewarding companies that can demonstrate efficiency at scale – not just scale alone.
Revenue efficiency is a key growth metric today
The process of decision-making in terms of how growth needs to be conceptualised has been transformed. It is critical now to evaluate parameters such as:
• how effectively marketing spend converts into retained revenue
• which partnerships drive high-LTV customers
• where operational leakage exists
• how quickly organisations can turn data into profitable decisions.
At Trackier, this is especially visible in performance marketing and attribution ecosystems. It affects the entire manner in which all those contributing to strengthening the marketing ecosystem react.
Think about it like this: if your entire process of building a venture is focused on vanity signs, rather than achieving break-even at the earliest, your balance sheet and the trajectory of your venture is doomed from the very beginning. Considering what is profitable is a clear responsibility of all members within the organisation, not just those steering the wheel.
Udit Verma, CMO & Co-founder at Trackier
Of course, such considerations also require members within the organisation to feel like taking this responsibility is crucial to fulfilling their role, no matter which department they belong to or which level they’ re at. As a culture, it should be in the ethos of the company.
Spending intelligently beats spending for the most any day.
36 www. intelligentcxo. com