What is growth hacking?

Growth hacking is a set of rapid, low-cost experiments designed to generate quick spikes in key metrics.

Can I combine growth marketing and growth hacking?

Yes—use growth hacks for early traction, then apply growth-marketing rigour to retain and monetise users.

What data do I need to predict churn?

You need billing status, last activity date, feature-use counts, plan tier and support ticket counts.

Which no-code AI tools work best for churn prediction?

Obviously.ai, Akkio and Google Vertex AI's GUI let you upload a CSV and create a churn model without coding.

How accurate are these models?

With six or more months of data and at least 200 churned users, expect 75–90% ROC-AUC accuracy.

Why include a stat in every LinkedIn post?

Numbers anchor credibility and increase reshares by approximately 25%.

How long should a viral LinkedIn post be?

Aim for 180–220 words; it's short enough to read but long enough to include story and CTA.

Which AI model works best for copy?

GPT-4o and Claude Opus consistently produce the highest-engagement B2B hooks in benchmark testing.

What is growth marketing and how does it differ from growth hacking?

Youssef Moutik
Jun 1
2 min read

Growth marketing is a long-term, data-driven system that compounds results through continuous testing, user insights, and full-funnel optimisation, whereas growth hacking is a set of fast, low-cost experiments designed to spark short-term spikes in sign-ups, traffic, or revenue. Both aim for growth, but they differ in scope, time horizon, and process.

Growth marketing = marathon with metrics. Growth hacking = sprint with clever shortcuts. Used together, they turn quick wins into durable growth loops.

Why the confusion?

Shared goal: both chase rapid growth.
Overlap in tactics: e-mail triggers, A/B tests, referral programs.
Media buzz: “growth hacker” became a catch-all headline.

Yet the difference matters: pick the wrong approach and you’ll misallocate budget or stall momentum.

Growth marketing – the marathon

North-star metric first (e.g., retained monthly active users).
Full funnel ownership: acquisition → activation → retention → revenue → referral.
Evergreen channels like SEO, lifecycle e-mail, content hubs.
Iterative testing cadence (weekly or monthly).
Compound effects: each win stacks on top of the last, steadily lowering CAC.

Real example: Grammarly’s blog + e-mail nurture lifted paid conversions for years without viral tricks.

Growth hacking – the sprint

Single metric focus (usually new sign-ups).
One-off experiments: invite-only waitlists, Product Hunt launches, Reddit AMAs.
Little engineering required—often no-code.
High risk / high reward: 9 failed hacks, 1 breakout hit.
Decay factor: most hacks plateau once the audience is saturated.

Classic example: Dropbox’s “get 500 MB free for each friend” referral doubled users in 15 months.

When to use each one:

Stage	Go heavy on hacking	Layer in marketing
Pre-launch	✅ Build waitlist momentum	–
PMF found	✅ Spike user base for data	✅ Start retention loops
Scaling	⚠️ Selective stunts only	✅✅ Iterate & compound

How AI supercharges both

Growth hacking: use ChatGPT to generate 20 headline variations or scrape LinkedIn comments for viral hooks.
Growth marketing: feed BigQuery to an AutoML model to predict churn and trigger win-back e-mails.