Online marketing

von | Aug. 21, 2025 | e-Learning

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Smart Marketing for Startups: Maximizing Impact with Limited Resources 

‘If you stop advertising to save money, you might as well stop your watch to save time.’ – This famous quote is attributed to the entrepreneur Henry Ford and many experts agree with him: If you want to make money, you should definitely not cut back on advertising. Digital sales channels and platforms open up new opportunities for exciting and innovative marketing measures. Especially as a start-up, you don’t have a generous marketing budget at the beginning of your business, but have to look at how best to use your money to acquire new customers. We have brought some active support on board: Marcel Zirkel, founder of the online marketing agency OMmatic from Kaiserslautern, talks to us about the most important facts on the topics of search engine optimisation, search engine advertising and reporting and analysis.

Here you can find more information about Marcel’s start-up and the tasks that OMmatic takes on.

SEO – Search Enginge Optimisation

SEO, or search engine optimisation, is the process of improving the visibility and ranking of a website in the organic search results of search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo. The aim is to drive more qualified traffic to the website by improving its ranking for relevant search queries. You can find a video from our partner OMmatic on the following topics:

Video 1.1.: SEO - What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation and refers to the strategies and techniques used to improve the visibility and ranking of your website in the organic search results of search engines such as Google. Marcel explains the most important basics.

Video 1.2.: SEO - Keywords

Keywords play a central role in SEO and are the key to improving your website’s search engine rankings. But what exactly are keywords and how do you use them effectively?

Video 1.3.: SEO - Web optimisation and keywords

Website optimisation is a central component of SEO and helps to improve the visibility and ranking of your website in search results. But what exactly does this mean and how do you implement it effectively?

Video 1.4.: SEO - Offpage optimisation

Off-page optimisation refers to all measures outside your own website that help to improve the ranking of your website in search engine results. In contrast to on-page optimisation, which focuses on optimising the content and structure of your website, off-page optimisation is about strengthening the reputation and authority of your website across the entire internet.

Video 1.5.: SEO - Offpage optimisation - how to build up a homepage?

While many people limit the construction of a homepage to the design and structure of their own website, it is important to understand that off-page optimisation plays an equally important role.

Video 1.6.: What is indexing?

Indexing is an essential step in the process of search engine optimisation (SEO). It refers to whether and how search engines such as Google record and save your website in their search results. Successful indexing is the first step in ensuring that your website can be found by potential users.

Video 1.7.: SEO - Sitemapping

Site mapping is an important step in helping search engines like Google understand the structure of your website and crawl its content efficiently. It refers to the creation and provision of an XML sitemap that contains a list of all the pages on your website as well as important information about these pages.

Video 1.8.: SEO - Backlinks

Backlinks are a fundamentally important element of search engine optimisation (SEO) and play a decisive role in the ranking of a website in the search results.

Video 1.9.: SEO - Tips and tricks

Marcel talks about his experiences in the field of SEO and gives important tips.

SEA – Search Enginge Advertising

SEA, or Search Engine Advertising, refers to the paid advertising activities that companies carry out on search engines such as Google to place their adverts in the search results. These adverts are often displayed above or next to the organic search results and offer companies the opportunity to target users searching for relevant terms. The following topics are covered in the videos:

Video 2: SEA - Introduction

SEA refers to the paid advertising measures that companies carry out on search engines such as Google in order to place their adverts in the search results. These adverts are often displayed above or next to the organic search results and offer companies the opportunity to target users who are searching for relevant terms.

Video 2.1.: SEA - Frist steps

Marcel gives an introduction to the topic of SEA.

Video 2.2.: SEA - Display extension

Ad extensions are additional information or action options that can be added to an advert in the search results. They offer companies the opportunity to present relevant details and encourage users to take further action, making the advert more eye-catching and appealing.

Video 2.3.: SEA - Budgeting and playout rates

Budgeting in SEA refers to the determination of the financial framework that you make available for your advertising campaigns on search engine platforms such as Google Ads or Bing Ads. The display rates in SEA indicate how often your adverts are actually displayed on the search results pages in relation to the impressions or search queries.

Video 2.4.: SEA - Landingpage

A landing page is a specially designed website that users are taken to when they click on an advert in the search results or on other advertising platforms. It is used to inform and persuade visitors in a targeted manner and lead them to take a specific action, be it buying a product, filling out a form or signing up for a newsletter.

Video 2.5.: SEA - Personas and target groups

Personas are fictitious representations of your ideal customers based on extensive research and data analyses. They help you to better understand your target groups, identify their needs, interests and behaviour and develop more targeted marketing strategies.

Video 2.6.: SEA - Geographic marketing

Geographic marketing in SEA refers to the targeting of advertising campaigns to specific geographic areas or regions. This strategy allows companies to customise their ads to local customers based on their location, environment or other geographical parameters.

Video 2.7.: SEA - Display und re-marketing

Display marketing in SEA refers to the placement of graphic adverts in the form of banners, images or videos on websites in the Google Display Network or other advertising networks. Remarketing, also known as retargeting, is a strategy in SEA in which targeted adverts are delivered to users who have previously interacted with your website or products.

Video 2.8.: SEA - Conversion and conversion-rate

A conversion in marketing refers to the action that a user performs on your website that is of value to your company. This can include a variety of actions, such as completing a purchase, filling out a contact form, signing up for a newsletter or downloading an app. Conversion rate is an important metric that indicates how effective your marketing efforts are by measuring the ratio between the number of conversions and the total number of website visitors.

Reporting and analytics

Reporting und Analyse sind entscheidende Schritte, um den Erfolg Ihrer digitalen Marketingbemühungen zu messen, Fortschritte zu verfolgen und fundierte Entscheidungen zu treffen. Im Bereich SEA und SEO ermöglichen sie es Ihnen, die Leistung Ihrer Werbekampagnen zu bewerten, Schwachstellen zu identifizieren und Ihre Strategien kontinuierlich zu verbessern.

Video 3: Basics

Reporting and analysis in SEA and SEO are crucial steps to maximise the ROI of your marketing efforts, understand the performance of your campaigns and continuously optimise your strategies.

Video 3.1.: Tracking SEO & SEA

Tracking in SEO and SEA refers to the collection and analysis of data about the behaviour of users who arrive at your website via search engines. This data helps you to understand the performance of your marketing campaigns, identify weak points and optimise your strategies.

Video 3.2.: Interpretation of the data

Interpreting data in SEO and SEA allows you to gain deeper insights into the performance of your marketing campaigns, make informed decisions and continuously improve your strategies.

Video 3.3.: Evaluation of traffic sources

Evaluating traffic sources allows you to understand how users are reaching your website, which sources are most effective and where you should increase your marketing efforts. This helps you to optimise your strategies and maximise the efficiency of your campaigns.

Video 3.4.: Segmentation

Segmenting customer groups is a powerful strategy for tailoring your marketing measures precisely to the needs and interests of different user groups. Targeting allows you to increase the relevance of your content and adverts and improve conversion rates.

Video 3.5.: Looker studio and monitoring

Google Looker Studio, formerly known as Google Data Studio, is a powerful business intelligence and data visualisation tool. It offers a variety of functions that help users to analyse, visualise and present data. Marcel also tells you how else you can monitor your data.

Further informations

Here you can find more information, podcasts, videos, articles and books.

Videos

Top Growth Hacks, Storytelling Tips, Social Selling in B2B & More | 121STUNDEN live #12

In this video, marketing experts Tomas Herzberger, Sarah-Yasmin Hennessen and Patrick Klingberg discuss the topic of growth hacking.

Source: 121WATT School for Digital Marketing & Innovation (2021): Top Growth Hacks, Storytelling Tips, Social Selling in B2B & More | 121STUNDEN live #12. Published on Youtube.com. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR5XUbBtlg4

Why the Growth Hacking Process is So Valuable for You as a Sidepreneur!

In this video, Tomas Herzberger explains the growth hacking process and illustrates how sidepreneurs can use it for their success. Discover valuable tips and tricks on growth hacking!

Source: Sidepreneur – Simply Start a Business on the Side! (2019): Why the Growth Hacking Process is So Valuable for You as a Sidepreneur! (incl. book giveaway!!!). Published on Youtube.com. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBWCuLUab4g

What Is Growth Hacking, Anyway? – Das Digitale Sofa #10 with Tomas Herzberger || KEMWEB

Tomas Herzberger, author of the book „Growth Hacking“, discusses the current trend topic of growth hacking with Oliver Kemmann.

Source: robotspaceship (2018): What Is Growth Hacking, Anyway? – Das Digitale Sofa #10 with Tomas Herzberger || KEMWEB. Published on Youtube.com. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmtByNU6718

Tomas Herzberger | How Smart Companies Can Grow with Growth Hacking

Growth hacking is not traditional marketing. Traditional marketing is primarily used to increase brand awareness and has existed for over 100 years. In the past, this meant posters and banners; today, these have been replaced by digital ads. But the principle remains the same. The problem with traditional marketing is that it is relatively expensive, and especially for small businesses, it’s hard to measure whether it’s effective. John Wannamaker once said that half of the money spent on marketing is wasted, but we don’t know which half. This is an unacceptable state today, given the many tools we have to measure and make marketing efficient.

Source: OMT (2019): Tomas Herzberger | How Smart Companies Can Grow with Growth Hacking. Published on Youtube.com. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmAYlLR5C_Q

Tomas Herzberger – How to Successfully Launch Your Product in 8 Steps

Have you ever launched a new product? A website, a book, an e-commerce shop? It probably didn’t go entirely smoothly, and you were frustrated after investing so much time and energy, only to still have to make many changes after the launch. A product launch is exciting but also demanding, because every product only gets one chance for a successful start.

Source: OMT (2019): Tomas Herzberger – How to Successfully Launch Your Product in 8 Steps | OMT Webinar. Published on Youtube.com. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZqD5pNJKow

How to Get Your First Customer

Gustaf Alströmer, YC partner and former head of growth at Airbnb, shares tactical advice to answer the question: How do I get my first customers? Gustaf covers this topic for all kinds of businesses – whether B2B or B2C.

Source: Y Combinator (2022): How to Get Your First Customer | Startup School. Published on Youtube.com. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyYCn_kAngI&t=1s

Sean Ellis – Growth Hacking Success

Traditional marketing can only take you so far. Old marketing strategies are great, but when it comes to achieving long-term and successful business growth, growth hacking is the way to the top. Hear it from the pioneer of growth hacking himself – Sean Ellis.

Source: StartCon (2017): Sean Ellis – Growth Hacking Success. Published on Youtube.com. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsdLHXBScNc

Podcasts

BEST OF: Growth Hacking: 3 powerful tips to really get started // Hendrik Lennarz

OR2.30 – Growth Hacking – OnlineRadar Podcast

#60 – Personal Branding with LinkedIn – Interview with Tomas Herzberger

#121 Corporate Influencer at K+S – LinkedIn Lounge

Artikel und Bücher

Articles and Books on Marketing:

Title: Homepage: Description:
Why Marketing is eating the World by Elizabeth Yin https://elizabethyin.com/2020/06/30/why-marketing-is-eating-the-world/ Technical knowledge is no longer a bottleneck. Despite better alternatives, a few large companies dominate especially in tech markets. This is largely due to marketing. That’s why even technically innovative companies need a well-thought-out marketing strategy.
Three marketing terms you should know explained in simple terms by Elizabeth Yin https://elizabethyin.com/2020/06/15/three-marketing-terms-you-should-know-explained-in-simple-terms/ This article explains what the term marketing means and focuses on three specific marketing terms and their meaning.
#SaaS: Performance versus Brand Marketing at Early Stage by medium.com https://medium.com/point-nine-news/saas-performance-versus-brand-marketing-at-early-stage-2628654c273b The article outlines how marketing tactics such as content, social media, and events can be approached from two angles: performance and branding. Performance marketing focuses on tracking keywords, traffic growth, and conversion funnels, while branding is about brand awareness and perception.
Jessica Livingston: Why Startups Need to Focus on Sales, Not Marketing https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-232B-2715 Jessica Livingston argues that in the early stages of a startup, marketing knowledge can be counterproductive. Instead of broad marketing activities, startups should focus on a narrow and intense outreach – similar to sales. Successful startups often begin with a small but highly engaged user base because they lack the resources to address a wide audience early on.
Dude, you need a marketing plan! by Alex Iskold https://www.startuphacks.vc/blog/2015/10/12/dude-you-need-a-marketing-plan This article emphasizes the importance of a solid marketing plan for startup success and criticizes the traditional “launch and pray” method. While a successful launch may bring media attention and user feedback, the product can still fail if it doesn’t reach key influencers or gain sufficient market penetration.
How startups die from their addiction to paid marketing by Andrew Chew https://andrewchen.com/paid-marketing-addiction/ This post warns of the danger of startups becoming addicted to paid marketing and getting stuck in a local maximum. Often, marketing spend increases while cost per acquisition becomes unclear. This may bring short-term success but can lead to stagnation or failure in the long run.
Unusual Field Guide – Going to Market https://www.unusual.vc/topics/going-to-market#sales Essential toolkit for a successful go-to-market strategy.
10 Marketing lessons for every early-stage founder by Medium.com https://medium.com/cherryventures/10-marketing-lessons-for-every-early-stage-founder-7c9ab1a642e6 The article shares insights from two former founders turned investors. They previously helped scale Spotify and Zalando from zero to millions of users across global markets. Now they aim to help new founders achieve their growth goals through smart marketing strategies.
B2B SaaS Marketing Guide – 2021 by Kracov.co https://www.kracov.co/writing/b2b-saas-marketing-guide This guide is for founders and B2B marketers looking to build a B2B marketing program. The author shares personal experience and recommends online resources. The article covers various topics.
Growth Hacking by Tomas Herzberger & Sandro Jenny https://www.rheinwerk-verlag.de/growth-hacking-mehr-wachstum-mehr-kunden-mehr-erfolg/ In their current book, Tomas Herzberger and Sandro Jenny explore the concept of growth hacking – a mindset common in startups aiming to grow fast. Under the motto “What is a business without customers?”, they present proven methods to acquire new customers and offer hands-on implementation tips for businesses of any size.
Inbound! by Britta Schlömer https://www.rheinwerk-verlag.de/inbound-das-handbuch-fuer-modernes-marketing/ This book provides a systematic overview of all aspects of inbound marketing, including goals, methods, tools, and workflows. It is considered essential for anyone working in marketing.
Meine Marke by Hermann H. Wala https://www.dombuchhandlungmuenchen.de/meine-marke-9783868817454 This updated classic by Hermann H. Wala explores the success strategies of companies like Red Bull, Coca Cola, and Apple. His concept of “WE-brands” has helped many companies establish their products. Wala emphasizes that today, it’s not the big companies pushing out the small ones, but those who credibly communicate their values.
Hubspot Blog Hubspot: Inbound vs. Outbound The Hubspot blog offers guides, explanations, and support on a wide range of marketing topics.
Growclass Growclass: 10 Growth Marketing Channels + Examples Article from Growclass, an online marketing platform for entrepreneurs.
Abmatic.ai https://abmatic.ai/blog/most-effective-growth-marketing-channels-for-startups Blog post on the most effective marketing channels.