How to Do Measurable Guerrilla Marketing

An early-stage heavy-tech B2B startup founder reached out and asked me:

“If LinkedIn ads are so expensive, and the cold outreach success rate is so low, why don’t we do a guerrilla campaign? Just hire some guy to wave a sign from an airplane or something.”

Well...

Yes, you can go wild. But you can also put all your budget on one poker table. The odds of significantly growing your ARR are about the same. Like in Texas Hold'em, what matters is long-term expectation, not one lucky hand.

But if you want to do guerrilla marketing right, you need a method. And you can learn from the G.O.A.T.s of business. As Reed Hastings put it:

"Frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out."

Guerrilla Marketing Done Right

Guerrilla marketing is all about working within constraints: low budget, unconventional tactics, and a WOW effect. But without clear boundaries and structure, it can easily become a waste of time and money.

Instead, I propose a disciplined approach that ensures your campaign is targeted, measurable, and actually moves the needle.

Some founders call it an experiment, which helps frame it as a structured initiative. If it works, you add it to the budget as an ongoing activity.

The Formula for Measurable Guerrilla Marketing

1. Set Strict Definitions

• Focus on a specific goal and clear audience
• Stay low-budget
• Ensure your campaign aligns with your brand and provides real value
• A value could be:
  • Solving a pain point (Hunger is a pain. So is dehydration. So is inefficiency.)
  • Educating or inspiring
  • Creating positive emotions that make them remember you (happiness, laughter, surprise)

2. Make It Measurable

The biggest mistake in guerrilla marketing is executing a flashy stunt without tracking the impact. Here’s how to ensure your campaign has measurable results:

• Start with the audience. Define who they are and where they are.
• Benchmark against a traditional campaign.
• Example: Let’s say your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) is VPs of R&D at companies with 200-500 employees. You want to engage 100 key decision-makers.

3. Find a Creative Way to Reach Them

• Cold emails? Ineffective—they get 100s of them daily.
• LinkedIn ads? Too expensive.
• Local ads? Useless since your audience is scattered globally.

So you decide to send them a gift. A tangible, physical object that resonates with your brand and provides them with value—maybe even a moment of happiness.

But how do you measure its impact?

4. Track and Validate Engagement

• Validate addresses before sending. The office manager is your best friend—be nice, they might share valuable insights.
• Confirm delivery through email or a friendly follow-up call. You’re "just checking" if they received it, but in reality, you’re creating engagement.

5. Narrow Website Tracking

• Create a dashboard to monitor visits from locations where you sent the gifts.
• Use reverse IP tracking (RB2B) to match visits to LinkedIn profiles.

Final Thoughts

Guerrilla marketing isn't about randomness; it's about strategic creativity. If you define clear goals, leverage constraints, and track your impact, you can create low-cost, high-impact campaigns that punch above their weight.

Your move.