“Don’t just count the people you reach. Reach the people who count.”
— David Ogilvy

The question "Should we do lead generation or growth marketing?" comes up frequently in strategy sessions, LinkedIn status updates, and startup war rooms. It sounds clever, strategic, even obligatory. But here's the thing — it's the wrong question.

It's not a contest between two schools of marketing thought. It's not a choose-one. And if you're pitting lead gen against growth marketing, you might be constructing a stunning funnel that's leaking at every level — and not even realize it.

Let's dissect it.

What Is Lead Generation, Really?

One of the better-known and poorly defined terms used by marketers, lead generation, can be put in simple language this way: capture interest. Gated content: attracting buyers with eBooks, deals, demos or "opt for our newsletter" pop-ins are all processes leading to an application for sharing personal information such as an e-mail address, telephone number, a form or filling out information so something free might be handed to them.

It's a top-of-the-funnel (TOFU) strategy focused on driving awareness and interest. Executed well, it creates a pipeline of prospects your sales team can pursue. Executed badly, it overloads your CRM with unqualified leads who never buy.

Here's what lead generation has a tendency to focus on:

Traffic and visibility

Form submits, sign-ups, webinar registrations

Campaign-driven spikes of activity

Short-term metrics (cost per lead, click-throughs)

Lead gen is about quantity, and to some degree, that's not wrong. You do require reach to create revenue. However, it's typically extremely focused on acquisition — and forgetting the experience once the lead is received.

Enter Growth Marketing

Growth marketing is the macro view. It's not only acquisition — it's repeatable, measurable, sustainable growth throughout the whole customer life cycle. It takes data, creativity, and experimentation to drive not only users, but activated, retained, and paying users.

Where conventional marketing may only go so far as "we acquired the lead," growth marketing keeps going: Did they convert? Did they utilize the product? Did they retain? Did they refer friends?

Growth marketers depend a lot on the AARRR framework:

Acquisition: How do people find you?

Activation: What's their first moment of value?

Retention: Are they returning?

Revenue: Are they paying?

Referral: Are they bringing others?

It's a full-funnel, data-driven approach that doesn't only care about numbers — it cares about what the numbers actually mean.

And most importantly, it's cross-functional. Growth marketing is not isolated to the marketing department. It works with product, sales, customer success, and even engineering. It's strategic, iterative, and experiment-heavy.

The Real Problem: The Either/Or Mindset

The title "Lead Gen vs Growth Marketing" primes you for a false dilemma. Lead generation is a component of growth marketing — not its competitor.

That is, inquiring whether to prioritize lead gen or growth marketing is akin to inquiring whether to construct a front door or a whole house. One is included within the other. One is a feeder to the other.

Here's the trap: Most companies become stuck prioritizing solely top-of-the-funnel lead generation — because it's easy to track. Cost per lead, number of sign-ups, clicks. It's wonderful to see on a dashboard.

But what if:

Those leads don't convert?

Your churn rate is higher than your acquisition rate?

Your CAC (customer acquisition cost) continues to rise?

Then you don't have a lead gen issue — you have a growth issue.

Lead Gen Without Growth Is Just Noise

Suppose you're generating 10,000 leads from a great ad campaign.

Sounds great, huh?

But if only 2% convert, and even fewer remain, what have you actually accomplished? More importantly, what did you learn about your audience, your product, or your value proposition?

The answer: not much.

Growth marketing is passionately concerned with what comes next after the lead. It's not merely a matter of gathering emails — it's about behavior, eliminating friction in onboarding, enhancing product experience, and ultimately converting users into loyal advocates.

This is where the underlying value is — not in leads, but in learning.

Why Growth Marketing Needs to Be the Central Strategy

In today's digital economy — where attention is fleeting and switching costs are low — retention is as important, if not more so, than acquisition. A company that spends on just lead gen is always in pursuit mode. A company that spends on growth marketing creates compounding value.

Some advantages of making growth the center:

Lower CAC in the long run: Since you have more users and raise LTV (lifetime value).

Quicker feedback loops: You know what works and improve faster.

Improved cross-functional alignment: Marketing is not an island; it collaborates with product and sales.

Increased brand advocacy: Satisfied users bring more users.

Data-driven decision-making: You're optimizing on real behavior, not assumptions.

Growth marketing is slow. It's time-consuming to establish systems that collaborate — from acquisition through onboarding to monetization. However, once it gets going, it scales in ways that lead gen by itself never can.

When You Do Need Targeted Lead Gen

To be transparent, lead gen isn't dead. It's still essential — particularly for SaaS, B2B, and services. You do have to fill the funnel. No one purchases something they've never heard of.

Lead generation comes in handy:

In low-visibility early-stage product launches

For campaign surges (special offers, events, new product features)

For targeting very targeted customer segments

But never in isolation. Every lead gen campaign should have a greater growth strategy tied back to it — with plans laid out for engaging, cultivating, and keeping users.

So What Should You Actually Ask?

Instead of "Lead gen vs growth marketing," ask:

Are we simply bringing in users or indeed keeping them around?

Do we have an activation metric we are aware of?

Are we monitoring what's post-lead?

Is our CAC viable?

Where are people falling off in the funnel?

Are we optimizing for revenue or merely impressions?

These are the questions that drive more effective strategy, more effective results, and actual business growth.

Final Thoughts: Don't Chase Metrics — Build Systems

Marketing has come a long way from yelling into the void and hoping for sign-ups. The future is for businesses that know how to convert attention into engagement, and engagement into loyalty.

Lead generation is a spark that needs to happen. But growth marketing is the fuel, the engine, and the whole system.

It's not a choice between one or the other. It's how they work together — and why to ignore the rest of the funnel is the most expensive error you can make.

So next time someone says, "Lead gen or growth marketing?", you'll be ready to say:

"That's the wrong question. Let's talk about the whole journey."