Ryan DeissCo-Founder & CEO, The Scalable Company

The best marketing channel at $2 million in annual revenue

1 Sept 2026 · 1 min

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In this brief dialogue, two speakers evaluate several marketing channels for a company generating $2 million in annual recurring revenue. They compare short‑form content, podcasts, events, paid social, cold outreach, referrals, YouTube, and SEO. The consensus is that paid social should be the primary focus because at the $2 M revenue level there isn’t time to wait for organic channels to mature. Events are valued for customer feedback, and referrals become relevant later, while organic YouTube is highlighted as a future growth asset. SEO is deprioritized in favor of paid social. The overall message is that without a well‑dialed‑in paid media strategy, growth will stall.

Chapters

Short form or partnerships? Short form. Short form or podcasting? Short form. Short form or events? I'm going to give the nod to events, not just because you can generate new customers there, but you can talk to other customers and get so much critical feedback.
Events or paid social?
Dang it. Paid social. Yeah, paid social is the one you got to be leaning into at this point.
Paid social or cold outreach?
Paid social.
Paid social or referrals?
Referrals start to matter, but paid social is the one you should optimize.
Paid social or YouTube?
Boy, that's painful. I'm still going to give the nod to paid social, but now is when you really need to be building out that organic YouTube. Paid social or SEO? Paid social.
So is paid social the best marketing channel at $2 mil?
At $2 million, if you don't have your paid channels dialed in, you just aren't going to have the time to wait for the organic ones to get figured out.