Product-Led Growth (PLG)
A go-to-market strategy where the product itself drives customer acquisition, conversion, and expansion.
Definition
Product-led growth relies on product experience rather than sales teams to convert users. Free trials, freemium tiers, and self-service onboarding let prospects experience value before purchasing.
PLG companies invest heavily in user experience, activation flows, and in-product guidance. The product must demonstrate value quickly enough that users convert organically.
Why It Matters
PLG reduces customer acquisition costs by letting the product do the selling. It scales efficiently—adding users doesn't proportionally increase sales headcount.
For marketing, PLG shifts focus from lead generation to product adoption metrics. Success requires close collaboration with product teams.
Examples in Practice
Slack's freemium model let teams experience value before enterprise purchasing decisions. Zoom's easy meeting joining created viral growth as users invited non-users.
PLG metrics focus on activation rates, time-to-value, and product-qualified leads rather than traditional marketing-qualified leads.