State of Paid Search and Channels

In this episode of Mostly Growth, CJ Gustafson and Kyle Poyar break down one of the most overlooked levers in SaaS: free-to-paid conversion. With the average product converting just 8% of users, they unpack the tactics that actually move the needle—from attracting higher-intent users and improving onboarding to rethinking pricing, packaging, and sales-assist models.

—

SPONSORS:

Tropic is an intelligent spend management solution that consolidates your spend data and processes into one unified offering, enabling insights and decisive action. From spotting hidden optimization opportunities to automating painful procurement workflows and giving you the best market data to turn vendor negotiations in your favor, Tropic combines smart insights with real human expertise to keep you ahead of the curve. Visit https://www.tropicapp.io/mostlymetrics to learn how.

HockeyStack is an AI platform for modern go-to-market teams that unifies sales, marketing, and customer data into a single system of action. With AI agents that prospect accounts, support reps, improve forecasting, and automate what’s already working, HockeyStack helps teams move faster without guessing. Trusted by companies like RingCentral, Outreach, ActiveCampaign, and Fortune 100 teams—learn more at https://www.hockeystack.com

RightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform built for modern pricing models like usage-based pricing, bundles, and mid-cycle upgrades. RightRev lets companies scale monetization without slowing down close or compliance. For RevRec that keeps growth moving,

visit https://www.rightrev.com

—

LINKS: 

Mostly Metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

CJ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

Growth Unhinged: https://www.growthunhinged.com/

Kyle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/

Slacker Stuff: https://www.slackerstuff.com/

Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slackerstuff/

—

RELATED EPISODES:

AI Is Breaking SaaS Pricing

https://youtu.be/ujkZWqeHpQY

—

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 Preview and Intro

2:33 What percent of apps do you pay for?

3:43 The 8% conversion benchmark

4:48 Start with marketing, not the product

6:50 Organic vs. paid channel conversion

8:39 Mid-funnel SEO explained

9:54 Sponsors — Tropic | Hockey Stack | RightRev

13:30 Finding mid-funnel SEO topics

14:42 State of paid search

17:26 Onboarding friction vs. motivation

21:10 Who owns conversion?

22:53 Free to paid as a compound metric

25:10 Pricing and plans as the fastest lever

26:08 Who owns pricing decisions?

27:08 Sales teams and conversion

30:23 AI agents as buyers

32:56 Agentic onboarding and future funnels

33:50 Business blunders — Cluey revenue scandal

35:41 Credits

#MostlyGrowthPodcast #FreeToPaid #SaaS #ProductGrowth #ProductMonetization