The Series A CMO Playbook: My Day One Strategy

I talk to marketers every day. To truly understand their world, I often play a mental game: “What would I do if I were the CMO of this company?”

It’s an exercise in empathy that forces me to feel the pressures, the dizzying array of demands, and the constant noise of sales pitches they have to filter through.

But I’ve never actually written down my blueprint.

If I were the marketing lead for a Series A D2C brand, past product-market fit and ready to scale, here is exactly how I would deploy my first month.

Phase 0: the plumbing

Before a single dollar is spent on media, I need to ensure the "leaky bucket" is fixed and the tracking is airtight. Scaling without a foundation is just expensive guessing.

• CRM & MAP integration: Our CRM and MAP must be perfectly synced to ensure leads are tagged by source and enter personalized nurture sequences immediately.
• Dynamic landing pages: I’d ensure we have landing page optimization tech in place. We don’t send traffic to a generic homepage; we send it to a tailored experience that matches the ad’s specific intent.
• The tracking layer: Full-funnel visibility is non-negotiable. This means pixels for every channel (Meta, TikTok, Google) and a robust analytics setup to capture first-party data from the start.

Until this is in place and in place well, every performance conversation is built on shaky ground. You have to have a control center.

Phase 1: the audit

Once the plumbing is set, I want a clear, unvarnished view of how the business actually works.

I’d start by grounding the team with a set of important questions:

• The budget: What is our true "burn-to-growth" ratio? How much are we willing to invest to drive incremental growth and over what period of time?
• The CAC guardrails: What is our allowable CAC based on 6-month and 12-month LTV? These numbers define where we can be aggressive and where we simply can’t.
• The persona: What does the CRM data actually say about who is buying today?

This phase is about establishing the boundaries that every channel, test, and spend decision has to operate within.

Phase 2: a customer advisory board

Before scaling narratives or channels, I’d set up a small, but formal customer advisory board made up of thoughtful leaders who reflect where we want the business to go.

Key components would include:

• Curated membership: Key leaders from strategic, targeted ICP segments.
• Formal cadence: Structured, formal meetings at a set rhythm to pressure-test messaging, roadmap priorities, and go-to-market assumptions.
• “Bat phone” access: Permission to pick up the phone when we need a live brainstorming session.
• Appropriate compensation: Respect people’s time and expertise for quality advisory work.

This board becomes an early warning system and a forcing function for clarity. It would help prevent internal echo chambers and keep marketing anchored in how customers think, buy, and evaluate value.

Phase 3: the 35/35/30 split

At this stage, the goal is to build a balanced mix of channels that capture existing intent, create demand, and generate learning fast enough to compound.

I believe in a balanced diet of high-intent and high-impact channels.

• 35% paid search: Our "Harvesting" layer. We must capture existing demand.
• 35% paid social (performance-first): Meta, TikTok, and Pinterest. This is our high-velocity creative testing lab.
• 30% Connected TV (CTV): The differentiator. I’d work with tvScientific (naturally) to adapt our best social assets for the big screen, using tvSci’s Creative Advisor to ensure the ad attributes are based on best practices from thousands of creative treatments (based on real feedback loop-based performance data).
• Potential expansion into linear TV: Based on the combination of factors that drive CTV performance (hyper-geo, program, frequency, audience demo, etc.), I’d place linear TV ads and measure with incrementality and spike lift. Once proven in more expensive geo tests, I’d roll out the template nationally (if appropriate for the brand) and scale at lower CPMs, using geo tests to validate incremental ROAS KPIs.

Together, this mix balances efficiency with impact and allows us to harvest what already exists, while generating insights that make every other channel work harder.

Phase 4: vital signs and incrementality

KPIs are only useful if they lead to action. In this phase, I’d move beyond vanity metrics to look at true contribution.

I’d focus on a small set of signals that tell me whether marketing is actually contributing incremental growth:

1. Direct response: Track CTR, conversion rate, and CAC for search and social.
2. CTV efficiency: Monitor CPV on CTV, starting with a 3-day attribution window and adjusting based on real ad exposure-to-outcome data analysis (data may guide us to shorten the attribution window or lengthen it).
3. The incrementality test: Run geo-lift tests or "blackout" periods to answer, “Would these sales have happened anyway? And what is the exact incremental ROAS?”
4. The halo effect: Measure how CTV lowers our blended CAC on search and social. When the big screen is on, does search volume go up? Does social CTR and STR improve?

Without this essential phase, performance looks busy but remains indistinguishable from coincidence.

Phase 5: the optimization loop

Scaling is essentially "tuning" the machine.

I’d use this tight set of levers to directly improve performance:

• SEM: Aggressive A/B testing on titles, descriptions, and bids. Small gains here compound quickly at scale.
• CRO: Constant iteration on landing pages to increase conversion efficiency. Moving a conversion rate from 1% to 2% effectively doubles revenue without spending an extra cent on ads. Headlines, social proof, and UX all get tested relentlessly to maximize every click.
• Creative feedback: Use performance data to inform the next flight of CTV creative. What works on social informs what runs on TV, and what works on TV feeds back into the system.
• New geos: Launch in new geos to see how it compares to the existing geos. Lots of learnings are available here.

This loop is where learning turns into leverage. Each round of optimization makes the machine sharper, faster, and more predictable.

Phase 6: layering in new channels

Only after the core system is working and its incremental value is proven would I introduce additional channels. The goal is controlled complexity.

I’d add new layers with clear roles and expectations:

• Email and SMS (retention): Strengthening relationships with customers we’ve already earned increases lifetime value, reinforces brand affinity, and improves efficiency across the entire funnel.
• Influencer and podcast (top-of-funnel reach): Extending reach into trusted environments where attention is earned supports discovery and brand credibility.

Where growth breaks

Even with a great product, most Series A brands still fail without a disciplined measurement framework.

Marketing stays reactive, spend decisions get justified after the fact, and results look fine until they don’t (and no one can say why).

At this stage, the CMO’s job is to turn marketing into a repeatable system that captures learning, compounds insight, and produces increasingly predictable outcomes over time.

Incrementality is the line in the sand. If you’re not testing for it by Phase 3, you’re shooting in the dark and not scaling behind real numbers.

You're just guessing.