The first 90 days of a marketer in a startup: operational plan by day 2026

Most marketers who join a startup make the same mistake in the first week - they sit down to write a strategy. Below I discuss not “how to do it right,” but specifically: what to do on days 1-10, 11-30, 31-60 and 61-90, so that by the end of the quarter you have one working channel with a predictable CAC.

At EZ KATKA, I led the marketing of a network that reached 19 arenas and a base of 120 thousand customers; The turnover of the entire network for 2024 amounted to 124 million rubles. The summary noted a 15% reduction in CAC through tests and geotargeting. Neither the scale of the network nor the resulting CAC by themselves describe the first 30 days of work, so what follows is an action plan for a new project, not a reconstruction of that period.

Not “launch marketing,” but finding one channel with a predictable CAC is the task of the first 90 days. Everything else will wait.

1. Days 1-10: audit without rose-colored glasses

The first thing I do on any new project is go through the client’s journey manually. I don’t read presentations, I don’t watch strategy slides, I don’t conduct brainstorms. I open the site as a stranger, look for a product, and try to buy it. It takes an hour. Most often, already at this stage something is discovered that the team has stopped noticing: a form with 8 fields, the “buy” button leads to a 404 page, or the mobile version does not work.

In parallel, a conversation with 5–10 people from the target audience. Not a survey, but a live conversation: what you tried before this product, why you chose it, what irritates you. From these conversations, a working hypothesis about ICP is pulled out, which then needs to be tested on applications and sales. For example, custom PC manufacturer NEMIFIST has an audience related to gaming and technology; a portrait cannot be transferred from a neighboring project.

What to record in days 1-10: conversion at each stage of the funnel (click → website → lead → qualification → sale), current CPL by channel if there is analytics, and - most importantly - where existing customers came from. This is your first signal about which channel is worth developing.

A detailed checklist for funnel audit is in the article about marketing audit 2026. Here I will focus on the specifics of a startup where there is little or no data.

2. Days 11-30: first clients manually

At 8 out of 10 startups that I visited or saw from the inside, the marketer tries to “launch advertising” in the first month. This is a mistake. Advertising scales what already works. If the offer is not tested on a warm audience, paid traffic will only show that the offer is weak, and will show this for money.

The task of days 11-30 is to find 3-5 paying customers manually. Outreach in Telegram: 100-150 personalized messages, response rate 8-12% with a good ICP, 5-10 calls, 2-3 transactions. At the same time, networking through 2-3 niche communities where the audience hangs out. Don't sell - answer questions, share specific observations.

In NEMIFIST, a separate Senler funnel collected 1,022 leads at 12.56 rubles. This is not an example of the first manual sales of a startup: the number refers to the work of an already running funnel. Early on, it's more important to figure out which leads turn into purchases and how much it costs to process them.

The equation I keep in mind during this period is: 150 messages → 15 replies → 7 calls → 3 clients. CAC = 40 hours of work by a marketer = 60,000 rubles. at a rate of 1,500 rubles/hour / 3 clients = 20,000 rubles. for the client. Expensive? Depends on LTV. But the main thing is that this is not advertising, this is data about ICP and offers that cannot be purchased.

More details about the strategy of the first 100 clients can be found in a separate article: how to find your first 100 clients without an advertising budget.

3. Transition point: how to understand that it’s time to launch advertising

Three criteria that I check before touching the advertising budget.

First: you have 5-7 paying clients from one ICP segment. Not just “someone bought”, but people from the same profile with a similar purchase trigger. If the clients are different, then the ICP is not yet understood, and it’s too early to launch advertising.

Second: at least one of these clients did not come through the founder’s personal connections. This is important - if a product is sold only “by acquaintance,” advertising to a cold audience will give a different result.

Third: you know what exactly hooked you in the offer. “Fast”, “cheap”, “convenient” are not the answer. “A specific result for a specific period without technical knowledge” is the answer. You can make an announcement out of it.

If all three criteria are present, proceed to phase 31-60. If not, another two weeks of outreach and conversations with clients.

4. Days 31-60: first advertising experiments

A rule that I broke once and never break again: no more than two or three channels at a time. The total budget for the test is 30-50K rubles. The goal is not to “attract customers,” but to understand the CPL and approximate CAC for each channel in 2-3 weeks.

The standard set for a startup in the Russian Federation in 2026: Yandex Direct (usually gives quick search results if there is demand), VK Ads (good for B2C with a visual product), Telegram Ads (if there is an audience in thematic channels). On Eighteeth Russia - medical equipment for dentists - I only took Direct and Telegram Ads. VK didn’t test it because the audience didn’t sit there. Result: +25% leads, CPC -20%, landing conversion +30% due to offer processing.

What to measure every week: CPL for each channel, conversion from lead to qualification, CAC on the horizon for 2 weeks. If the CPL is higher than permissible in unit economics, you stop the channel. No sentimentality. “We’ll wait a little more” is a way to drain the budget.

About calculating ROAS and CAC by channel - in the article about unit economics 2026. There are also formulas for calculating the allowable CAC based on LTV.

5. Days 61-90: Single Channel Scaling

By day 60 you should have one channel with an acceptable CPL and at least 20-30 clients. Next, increase the budget on this channel by 2-3 times. Not 10 times - CPL with a sharp scale usually grows by 30-60%, because the “light” audience has already been selected.

In parallel with the scale, you build an operating system: a UTM scheme for all channels, a funnel in CRM with the correct stages, rules for processing leads and a weekly report on metrics. Without this, growth becomes difficult to measure. At COLIZEUM, the total coverage of VK community publications for 01/01–12/14/2023 was 82.4 million with an ER of 2.6%; This is the reach of publications, not 82 million unique people.

On day 90, you should have four things: a working channel with a predictable CAC, basic analytics (Metrics + UTM + CRM), an operating system that does not require your constant presence, and an understanding of the next channel to test. If this is not the case, something in the first two phases went wrong.

About building a funnel from scratch - in a separate article: how to build a sales funnel 2026.

6. Metrics by phase: what to measure, what to ignore

Most startups are looking at the wrong metrics. Reaches, subscribers, CTR - these are vanity metrics. In the early stage they don't say anything about the business. Below I provide a specific list for each phase.

Time to first contact with a lead is a metric that 9 out of 10 startups ignore. On one project with CPL 1400 rubles. the first call occurred after 6-8 hours. Sales conversion - 4%. After the “first contact in 15 minutes” rule, the conversion increased to 9% without changes in advertising. CAC fell by half - only due to speed.

7. Typical mistakes of a marketer in a startup

Mistake 1: Advertising before day 30. The most common. The offer is not verified, the ICP is not understood, the funnel is not tested - and paid traffic pours on top of this. Result: CPL 5000-8000 rub. with a conversion of 0.5%, everyone is upset, marketing “doesn’t work.” It works - it's just not the right thing and not for those.

Mistake 2: “Comprehensive strategy” instead of one channel. Launch SEO, content marketing, targeting, context, email and TG channel at the same time - with a budget of 100K rubles. and a team of one. Each channel receives 15-20K rubles. and 20% attention. None of them achieve normal results. Three months later - “marketing is not working.”

Mistake 3: Ignoring the post-click funnel. A marketer optimizes advertising, reduces CPC, but conversion does not grow. Because the bottleneck is not in advertising, but in landing or in the speed of processing leads. Advertising = traffic. But traffic → client is the entire funnel, not just the first stage.

Mistake 4: Not fixing CAC from the beginning. “We don’t have enough data yet” is a typical explanation. But CAC is needed from the first sale, even if it is outreach without a budget. Otherwise, by month 4-5 it is not clear whether it is growing or falling, and why.

Mistake 5: Scale the second channel before the first one is established. “Direct gives leads, let’s also launch VK.” But the first channel has not yet been stabilized: the CPL is fluctuating, the analytics is dirty, the operating system is not built. The second channel at this moment is additional chaos, not growth.

8. Conclusion

The first 90 days are not about “marketing strategy.” It's about three things: finding an ICP, finding a channel with a predictable CAC, building an operating system. Everything else comes later.

The main mistake I've seen in startups is rushing into the second phase without finishing the first. Advertising to the first clients, scale to a stable channel. The result is always the same: the money is spent, there is no data, the team is upset.

Related articles: first 100 clients without budget, marketing audit in one day, how to build a sales funnel, unit economics for marketers, AI transformation of the marketing team.

If you want to analyze your specific situation, write to Telegram or through form. Starting consultation - 0 ₽.