Building Your Minimum Viable Marketing Stack: Tools That Actually Move the Needle

Good morning. In this edition:

• ⚡ Your MVMTS (see, I told you marketers love acronyms)

• 🔥 Google announced its 2025 pMax roadmap

• 💥 WTF is CPA

Your MVMTS (minimum viable marketing tech stack)

You've nailed your messaging framework and found your ride-or-die customers (or you're working on it). Now let's talk about the tools you actually need to make this marketing thing work without draining your runway.

The marketing tech landscape is a dumpster fire of options – 9,000+ tools at last count. And every "growth guru" on LinkedIn will tell you that you absolutely need their favorite $499/month platform or you'll fail miserably.

It's all BS. You don't need 15 different subscriptions eating away at your cash flow. You need a focused stack that helps you execute efficiently without requiring a full-time person just to manage the tools.

The Only 5 Tools You Actually Need Right Now

Here's your minimum viable marketing stack – the stripped-down essentials that will cover 95% of your needs without the enterprise bloat:

1. Email Marketing Tool That Doesn't Suck. MailerLite or ConvertKit will do the job. Forget Mailchimp (too expensive as you scale) and HubSpot (overkill for where you are). You need something that lets you:

   • Build basic automations

   • Segment your audience

   • Track open/click rates

   • Create simple landing pages

   Start with the free plan of MailerLite and upgrade only when you hit 1,000 subscribers.

2. Analytics That You'll Actually Look At. Skip the Google Analytics complexity for now. Use Plausible or Simple Analytics instead. They're privacy-friendly, load faster, and show you the metrics that actually matter without 47 different reports you'll never open. Set up: 15 minutes Monthly cost: $9-$15 What to track: traffic sources, top pages, conversion events (not page views – who cares?)

3. CRM That Won't Make You Want to Die. If you have fewer than 100 customers, just use Airtable or Notion. Seriously. I've seen startups waste thousands on Salesforce when they had 12 customers. When you outgrow that, look at Pipedrive or HubSpot Starter. You need to track:

   • Contact info

   • Deal stages

   • Follow-up dates

   • Call/meeting notes

   Nothing more complicated than that.

4. Social Scheduling Tool (But Only If You Need It). If social is a key channel for you, get Buffer or Later. If not, skip this entirely. The best social media strategy for most startups is: pick ONE platform and do it well instead of posting mediocre content everywhere.

5. A Canva Pro Account. This is your secret weapon. For $150/year, you can create:

   • Decent landing page graphics

   • Social media posts

   • Presentation decks

   • Simple product mockups

   No designer needed for your early days. The templates are good enough.

What You DON'T Need Yet

• Enterprise SEO tools (Ahrefs/SEMrush) – Use free keyword tools instead

• Marketing automation platforms – Way too complicated for where you are

• Expensive webinar platforms – Zoom + Google Forms works fine

• Customer data platforms – You don't have enough data to make sense of yet

• AI copywriting tools – They're producing the same generic garbage for everyone

The Stack Setup Checklist

1. Set up your email marketing tool first

2. Connect basic analytics to your website

3. Create a simple CRM template in Airtable/Notion

4. Set up a free Buffer account if social is important

5. Get Canva Pro and save 5-10 basic templates

Total time investment: One afternoon

Total cost: $30-50/month

✅ DO THIS NOW:

Take a hard look at what you're already paying for. Cancel anything you haven't meaningfully used in the last 30 days. I bet you'll find at least $100/month in marketing tool fat you can trim.

Then set up these core tools properly. Don't just create accounts – actually configure them for your specific needs. The 80/20 rule applies: spend 80% of your time mastering 20% of the features that will drive results.

Google Announced its 2025 pMax Roadmap

After months of rumors swirling around the marketing community, Google has finally confirmed several highly-anticipated updates coming to Performance Max campaigns. Here's what's actually happening:

Launched in Q1 2025 (BETA):

• Demographic exclusions by age (finally some targeting control!)

• Reporting by distribution channel (know where your money's actually going)

• Search Terms Report for pMax (see what queries are triggering your ads)

Rolling out in Q2 2025:

• Expanded reporting by distribution channel moving from beta to general rollout

Coming in H2 2025:

• Full deployment of Channel Performance Reporting with diagnostics and insights

• Budget control features (BETA) - this could be game-changing for optimization

What this means for your startup: These updates address some of the biggest complaints about Performance Max's "black box" nature. If you've been hesitant to adopt pMax due to lack of transparency and control, these changes make Q2-Q3 2025 the perfect time to start testing. The ability to see which channels perform best and eventually control budget allocation will bring us closer to the granular optimization we had with legacy campaign types.

WTF is CPA (and why it really matters)

Alright, let's talk about CPA – Cost Per Acquisition. Not the accountant kind (though you probably need one of those too).

In plain English: CPA is how much cash you're burning to get one paying customer.

If you're spending $1,000 on ads and getting 10 customers, your CPA is $100. Basic math, but you'd be shocked how many founders I talk to who have no idea what their actual CPA is.

Why it's the only metric that really matters:

All those fancy marketing metrics – impressions, reach, engagement, clicks, CTR – are basically vanity metrics if they don't translate to actual customers. Your Instagram likes won't pay your AWS bill.

Here's why you need to obsess over CPA:

1. It tells you if your unit economics work If your CPA is higher than your customer lifetime value (LTV), you're literally losing money on every sale. Congratulations, you've built a charity, not a business.

2. It forces marketing accountability When your marketing team knows you're judging them on CPA (not "brand awareness"), watch how quickly their strategy changes.

3. It helps you allocate budget intelligently Channel A: $50 CPA Channel B: $200 CPA Guess where your next marketing dollar should go?

How to actually calculate your CPA:

CPA = Total Marketing Spend ÷ Number of New Customers

But wait – are you counting ALL marketing costs? Agency fees, tool subscriptions, and that "brand building" podcast you sponsor all count. And are you tracking ALL acquisition sources correctly?

The CPA Benchmarks You Should Know:

Industry averages vary wildly, but here's a quick reality check:

• SaaS: $40-$400

• E-commerce: $15-$75

• Fintech: $100-$500

• Consumer apps: $2-$40

If you're way above these ranges, something's broken in your funnel.

How to slash your CPA without working harder:

1. Fix your leaky funnel first Before spending more on ads, optimize your landing page, signup flow, and checkout process. 10% improvement at each step = massive CPA reduction.

2. Test smaller, targeted audiences Counter-intuitive but true: more specific targeting often lowers CPA even though you're reaching fewer people.

3. Retargeting > Cold traffic Your retargeting campaigns should have a CPA 40-60% lower than cold traffic. If not, you're doing it wrong.

4. Actually talk to your customers Ask how they found you and what made them buy. Then double down on those channels and messages.

Remember: a business that can't profitably acquire customers is just an expensive hobby. Know your CPA, obsess over it, and make every marketing decision with it in mind.

This newsletter is for you. What marketing challenges are you facing in your startup journey? Reply directly to this email with your questions or topics you'd like to see covered in future issues.

Until next week,

Adam

P.S. Found this helpful? Forward it to another founder who might benefit—we're all in this together.