Glossary entry
Demand gen
Also known as Demand Generation
The marketing function that drives top-of-funnel leads through paid channels (ads, content syndication), owned channels (SEO, blog, webinars), and earned channels (PR, partnerships). The function most likely to be measured wrong: pipeline-sourced metrics conflate channel attribution with funnel attribution. Best-run demand gen teams measure on contribution-margin attribution, not last-touch.
01Definition
TLDR
The marketing function that drives top-of-funnel leads through paid channels (ads, content syndication), owned channels (SEO, blog, webinars), and earned channels (PR, partnerships). The function most likely to be measured wrong: pipeline-sourced metrics conflate channel attribution with funnel attribution. Best-run demand gen teams measure on contribution-margin attribution, not last-touch.
02Why it matters
The team that feeds the AE pipeline. Friction between demand gen and sales is the #1 cross-functional conflict in B2B.
03Example
Worked example
Demand gen at a $50M ARR SaaS spends $4M/year and is measured on 'pipeline sourced' ($25M target) — 6x return.
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