Introduction

digital marketing strategists are the bridge between business goals and measurable online growth. In the first 100 words you need a clear view of what to expect: this guide explains how to plan, execute, and measure digital marketing programs that move revenue and improve customer acquisition efficiency.

This article covers core channels (search engine optimization, social media, online advertising), a practical build-and-execute process, recommended tools with pricing, common pitfalls, and a tactical 90-day timeline you can start this week. It matters because most small and mid-size companies waste ad spend or miss organic opportunities by treating channels in isolation. You will get specific checklists, sample budgets, vendor pricing ranges, and weekly tasks tied to measurable outcomes.

Use these steps to prioritize work, justify budgets, and decide when to hire or outsource. Examples include realistic timelines such as 90 days to see initial SEO ranking movement, 14 days to test paid channels, and a 30-day social content cadence tied to engagement metrics.

Digital Marketing Strategists Roles and Responsibilities

What digital marketing strategists do, and why that structure produces consistent results.

A digital marketing strategist defines target customers, channel mix, messaging, and measurement to meet business goals. Responsibilities typically include audience research, channel selection, campaign design, budget allocation, KPI (key performance indicator) definition, reporting cadence, and optimization loops.

Why businesses need this role: one person who coordinates avoids fragmentation. Example: a B2B software company that ran independent SEO, content, and paid campaigns without a consistent offer saw a 40 percent higher cost per lead than when a strategist aligned messaging and landing pages.

Core tasks with example time allocation for a small-to-midsize business:

Audience research and buyer personas: 10 percent of time.
Channel testing and campaigns: 40 percent of time.
Measurement and optimization: 30 percent of time.
Team coordination and vendor management: 20 percent of time.

When to hire a strategist versus freelance specialists:

Hire in-house strategist when monthly marketing activity is steady and budgets exceed $5,000 per month across channels.
Use freelancers for short-term needs like a 90-day SEO sprint or specific paid ads setup.
Use an agency when you need end-to-end execution quickly, budgeted retainer typically $2,000 to $10,000 per month.

KPIs to track in the first 90 days:

Paid channels: cost per lead (CPL) and conversion rate.
SEO: organic impressions, clicks, and rankings for 5-10 priority keywords.
Social: engagement rate and traffic to product pages.
Revenue: marketing-sourced pipeline and close rate.

Example: Test a $3,000 monthly Google Ads budget targeting a single product. Expect 7-30 conversions in month one depending on CPL. If CPL is $150, that is 20 leads and a raw cost of $3,000.

If average deal size is $4,000 and close rate is 10 percent, expect one closed deal per month. Use these back-of-envelope calculations to decide if you scale budget.

Core Channels and When to Use Them

Overview of SEO, social media, and online advertising with specific use cases, budgets, and timelines.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is for sustained, compounding organic traffic and high-intent discovery. Use SEO when you target keywords with commercial intent and have content or product pages that answer queries.

Technical and on-page fixes: 2 to 6 weeks to implement.
Content creation and initial ranking movement: 60 to 90 days.
Strong organic traction: 6 to 12 months depending on competition.

Actionable tip: Prioritize 10 high-opportunity keywords with monthly search volume 500-5,000 and low-to-medium difficulty. Create a content calendar for 12 articles targeting those keywords, with 1-2 pillar pages. Expect 20 to 100 additional organic sessions per targeted keyword over 3 months if content and internal linking are consistent.

Social media

Social channels (LinkedIn, Facebook/Meta, Instagram, TikTok, X) build awareness, nurture audiences, and support direct response.

B2B: LinkedIn and Twitter/X for thought leadership; use Sponsored Content when CPL is acceptable.
B2C: Instagram, Facebook/Meta, and TikTok for product discovery and direct response.

Timeline and budgets:

Organic testing and learning: 30 days.
Paid social test campaigns: 14 to 30 days to measure CPC (cost per click) and CPA (cost per acquisition).
Suggested entry budgets: $500 to $2,000 per platform for initial tests.

Example: A DTC (direct-to-consumer) brand starts with $1,500/month on Meta with a $20 CPL target. If actual CPL is $25, optimize creative and landing pages before scaling.

Online advertising (search, display, programmatic, retargeting)

Paid channels deliver fast, measurable results and are essential for product launches and lead generation. Use Google Ads for intent-driven search traffic, Meta for interest-based audience scaling, and LinkedIn for high-value B2B leads.

Budget rules of thumb:

Minimum effective test budget: $500 to $1,500 per channel per month.
Recommended scalable threshold: $2,000 to $10,000 per channel per month.
CPC expectations: Google Search $1 to $5 for low-competition keywords, $10+ for competitive B2B terms. Meta CPCs often range $0.20 to $3 depending on targeting.

Measurement and attribution

Determine attribution windows and models early. If sales are quick (<30 days), use last-click or data-driven attribution in Google Ads and Meta. For longer B2B cycles, track leads and their progression in CRM (customer relationship management) software and use multi-touch attribution models.

Example: For a B2B SaaS selling at $25,000 average deal size, a LinkedIn Sponsored Content campaign generating 40 leads per month at $100 CPL might be affordable because even a 5 percent conversion to closed deals yields 2 deals worth $50,000 revenue.

How to Build and Execute a Strategy

Step-by-step process, a 90-day timeline, and a tactical checklist for execution.

Overview: Start with goals, move to audiences, select channels, set budgets, run tests, and optimize.

Step 1: Define goals and KPIs (Day 1 to Day 7)

Set 90-day goals: e.g., increase marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) by 30 percent or reduce CPL from $200 to $120.
Map revenue targets to lead goals using conversion rates and average deal size.

Example calculation: If average deal size is $6,000 and close rate from MQL to closed deal is 8 percent, to generate $60,000 in revenue you need 125 MQLs (125 * 0.08 * $6,000 = $60,000).

Step 2: Audience and messaging (Day 7 to Day 14)

Build 1-2 buyer personas with job titles, pain points, and buying triggers.
Create 3 value propositions: primary for search ads, secondary for social, and a trust element for landing pages.

Step 3: Channel selection and budget allocation (Day 14 to Day 21)

Split test budgets across 2-3 channels. Example allocation for a $6,000 monthly marketing budget:
Google Ads search: $2,400 (40 percent)
Meta Ads: $1,200 (20 percent)
SEO and content: $1,200 (20 percent)
Email and remarketing: $600 (10 percent)
Tools and reporting: $600 (10 percent)

Step 4: Campaign setup and creative (Day 21 to Day 35)

Create landing pages with clear CTAs (calls to action), single offer, and analytics tags.
Develop 3 ad creative variations per audience per channel. Run A/B tests on headlines and images for at least 14 days.

Step 5: Measurement and initial optimization (Day 35 to Day 60)

Track conversions in Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and sync with Google Ads and Meta.
Evaluate early KPIs: CPC, CTR (click-through rate), conversion rate, CPL.
Kill or pivot underperforming creatives or audiences after 14 days if conversion rate below target (for example, <1 percent for search traffic landing pages).

Step 6: Scale and refine (Day 60 to Day 90)

Scale top-performing ad sets by 20 to 50 percent weekly while keeping CPA stable.
Produce 4 to 8 SEO-optimized content pieces and build internal linking to pillar pages.
Implement remarketing across channels for 30-90 day windows.

90-day tactical checklist

Week 1: Goals, personas, analytics baseline.
Week 2: Keyword list, content plan, ad messaging.
Week 3-4: Landing pages, tracking tags, initial campaigns go live.
Week 5-8: Test creatives, adjust targeting, begin content publishing.
Week 9-12: Scale winners, refine SEO, report ROI to stakeholders.

Example measurable outcome

A small B2B company follows this plan with a $4,000 monthly ad budget and achieves:

Month 1: 40 leads at $100 CPL.
Month 2: 60 leads at $67 CPL after creative and landing page optimization.
Month 3: 90 leads at $44 CPL after scaling and adding SEO traffic.

This demonstrates how testing, landing page work, and scaling combine to lower CPL while increasing volume.

Measurement, Reporting, and Optimization

Principles to ensure your work produces repeatable gains and clear ROI.

Measurement principles

Define a single source of truth: unify analytics in GA4 and CRM. Use manual UTM parameters for campaigns and ensure lead forms pass lead-source fields to CRM.
Measure both leading indicators (traffic, CTR, conversion rate) and lagging indicators (revenue, customer acquisition cost).
Use short test windows but enough data: 14 to 21 days for paid, 60 to 90 days for SEO.

Reporting cadence and dashboard

Weekly: top-line ad performance metrics and immediate actions.
Monthly: channel-level ROI, conversion volume, CPL, and optimization plan.
Quarterly: full attribution analysis and budget re-allocation.

Optimization tactics with examples

Creative rotation: replace worst-performing ad creative each week. Example: swap image A with image D if CTR drops below median by 20 percent.
Landing page experiments: test headline, form length, and CTA color. Example: reducing form fields from 6 to 3 can boost conversion rate by 20-40 percent.
Bid and budget rules: increase daily budgets by no more than 20 to 30 percent per day to avoid performance volatility.

Example A/B test plan

Hypothesis: Shortening the form from 6 fields to 3 increases lead volume by 30 percent.
Test: Run both versions 50/50 for 2 weeks.
Success threshold: 95 percent statistical confidence or a minimum 20 percent lift in conversion rate with similar lead quality.

When to change course

Paid campaigns: if after 30 days the CPA is 50 percent above target with no quality improvement, pause and rework creative or audience.
SEO: if after six months you have no ranking improvement for target keywords, audit backlinks, content relevance, and technical issues.

Tools and Resources

Specific tools, what they do, and pricing as reference. Pricing is approximate and may change.

Analytics and tracking

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) - Free to use; premium Google Analytics 360 available for enterprise pricing.
Google Search Console - Free; essential for SEO performance and indexing issues.

SEO tools

Ahrefs - Keyword research, backlink analysis. Pricing: Lite $99/month, Standard $199/month, advanced plans higher.
SEMrush - Keyword research, site audits, competitive analysis. Pricing: Pro $119.95/month, Guru $229.95/month.
Moz Pro - Keyword research and site audits. Pricing: from $99/month.
Screaming Frog - Website crawler for technical SEO. Pricing: Free for small sites, licensed version ~ 149 GBP/year.

Paid media and creative

Google Ads - Search and display advertising. Start budgets often $500/month; platform fees are pay-per-click.
Meta Ads Manager (Facebook/Meta) - Paid social for Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. Start budgets $100+/month.
LinkedIn Ads - B2B targeting. CPC and CPMs are higher; expect CPCs $5 to $12+ in many B2B verticals.
Canva - Creative assets and social templates. Free tier; Pro $12.99/month per user.

Social scheduling and management

Hootsuite - Social scheduling and reporting. Plans from $99/month.
Buffer - Simpler scheduling. Plans from $15/month.
Sprout Social - Enterprise social management with analytics; plans from $99/month per user.

Email and marketing automation

Mailchimp - Email campaigns and some automation. Plans free to start; paid from $13/month.
HubSpot Marketing Hub - CRM + automation. Free CRM; Marketing Starter from ~$20 to $50+/month; Professional plans $800+/month.

Reporting and dashboards

Google Data Studio (Looker Studio) - Free dashboards with connectors.
Supermetrics - Pulls data into sheets or BI tools. Pricing from $39/month per connector.

SEO content tools

Surfer SEO - Content optimization to match top-ranking pages. Pricing from $59/month.
Clearscope - Content optimization for keyword intent and readability. Pricing from $350/month.

Freelancers and agencies pricing guide (ranges)

Freelance digital marketing strategist: $50 to $200/hour depending on expertise and location.
Small agency monthly retainer: $2,000 to $5,000 for basic scope (ads + content).
Full-service agency: $5,000 to $20,000+ monthly for integrated strategy including creative and development.
Ad management fees: 10 to 20 percent of ad spend or flat fee $500 to $2,000/month.

Example stack for a small business on a $5,000/month budget

Google Ads: $2,000 (ad spend)
Meta Ads: $1,000 (ad spend)
SEO content and freelance writer: $800/month
Tools: Ahrefs Lite $99 + Canva Pro $12.99 = $112/month
Agency or strategist retainer: $1,000/month (or freelance hours)

This stack balances immediate paid performance with ongoing organic growth.

Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Frequent pitfalls and practical fixes.

Mistake 1: Not tying marketing metrics to revenue

Fix: Map metrics to revenue from day one. Track leads to closed deals in CRM. Require a revenue model that links leads to ARR (annual recurring revenue) or monthly revenue within 30, 60, or 90 days.

Mistake 2: Testing too many variables at once

Fix: Use structured A/B tests and change one variable at a time. For paid ads, test one creative change while holding targeting constant.

Mistake 3: Ignoring landing page experience

Fix: Always pair ads with tailored landing pages that match ad messaging, reduce form friction, and load in under 3 seconds. Use a heatmap tool like Hotjar for qualitative insights.

Mistake 4: Relying on vanity metrics

Fix: Focus on conversion rate, CPL, and LTV:CAC (lifetime value to customer acquisition cost) ratios instead of impressions and follower counts.

Mistake 5: Not investing in attribution and data hygiene

Fix: Implement UTMs, ensure server- or client-side tracking works with GA4, and reconcile ad platform data with CRM records weekly.

FAQ

What is the Difference Between a Digital Marketing Strategist and a Digital Marketer?

A digital marketing strategist focuses on planning, channel selection, and measurement frameworks to meet business goals. A digital marketer executes tactics such as ad creation, SEO writing, and social posting under that strategy.

How Much Should I Budget for Digital Marketing per Month?

Budget depends on goals and industry. Small businesses often start with $1,000 to $5,000 per month across channels. For scalable growth, plan $5,000 to $20,000 per month including ad spend and retainers.

How Long Before I See Results From SEO and Paid Ads?

Paid ads can show measurable results in 14 to 30 days for initial tests. SEO typically requires 60 to 90 days for initial ranking movement and 6 to 12 months for significant organic traffic gains.

When Should I Hire a Strategist Versus an Agency or Freelancer?

Hire an in-house strategist when you have consistent marketing activity and budgets above about $5,000/month. Use freelancers for targeted short-term work and agencies for end-to-end rapid execution when you need scale.

What Metrics Should I Prioritize First?

Prioritize conversion rate, cost per lead (CPL), and marketing-sourced revenue. Also track leading indicators like CTR and session quality to diagnose issues before they impact revenue.

Can Small Businesses Compete Using Organic Strategies Alone?

Yes, small businesses can gain traction through targeted local SEO, niche long-tail content, and email marketing. However, combining organic with paid channels accelerates results and scales faster.

Next Steps

Specific actions to start implementing this plan in the coming 30, 60, and 90 days.

Week 1 to 2

Define your 90-day revenue and lead goals with conversion math.
Set up GA4, Google Search Console, and ensure CRM captures UTM parameters.

Week 3 to 6

Launch one search campaign (Google Ads) and one social campaign (Meta or LinkedIn) with $500 to $2,000 test budgets.
Publish 4 SEO-focused articles targeting your top 10 keywords and set internal linking to a pillar page.

Week 7 to 12

Run A/B tests on landing pages and ads, implement winning variants, and scale budgets by 20-30 percent weekly.
Review results, calculate CPL and LTV:CAC, and decide whether to hire a strategist or expand budget based on ROI.

Checklist to keep on your desk

Goals mapped to revenue and KPIs set.
Tracking implemented (GA4, CRM, UTMs).
One paid channel and one organic channel live and being tested.
Weekly optimization meeting scheduled with clear owners.

By following this playbook, you create a repeatable process for testing, measuring, and scaling marketing that connects spend to outcomes and reduces waste.

Digital Marketing Strategists Playbook