Week 1 Experiment Report: Social-First Content Distribution

Experiment Overview

This is the first weekly experiment report in our build-in-public series. Each week, we run a structured growth experiment, measure results, and share findings openly -- including failures.

Hypothesis: Social channels (Reddit, X, LinkedIn) can validate content topic resonance within 7 days, providing signal for which topics to invest in for long-form SEO content. Topics that achieve above-baseline engagement on social will also perform above-average in organic search.

Experiment duration: 7 days (March 3-9, 2026)

Primary metric: Engagement rate per platform (comments + clicks / impressions)

Secondary metrics: Click-through rate to landing page, time on page from social referral, email signups from social traffic

Setup

We selected 3 content topics from GenGrowth's discovery pipeline, each representing a different content pillar:

1. Topic A: "The 80/20 of Growth Automation" (pillar: growth_automation)
2. Topic B: "Why Most A/B Tests Are Statistically Invalid" (pillar: experiment_driven)
3. Topic C: "Attribution Is Broken -- Here Is What to Do Instead" (pillar: attribution)

Each topic was adapted for three platforms with platform-specific formatting:

• Reddit: Long-form text post with actionable takeaways. Posted in r/SaaS, r/startups, and r/GrowthHacking.
• X: Thread format (8-10 tweets) with a hook tweet and a CTA in the final tweet.
• LinkedIn: Professional narrative post (1,200 characters) with a document carousel.

Every post included a unique UTM fingerprint for attribution tracking: utm_campaign=social_first_w1&utm_content=[topic]_[platform]

Results by Platform

Reddit

Topic	Subreddit	Impressions	Engagement Rate	Clicks
A: Growth Automation	r/SaaS	3,200	7.1%	85
B: A/B Testing	r/startups	2,100	4.3%	42
C: Attribution	r/GrowthHacking	1,800	3.1%	28

Reddit baseline: 1.5% engagement rate for text posts in these subreddits.

Analysis: All three topics exceeded the baseline. Topic A significantly outperformed, likely because r/SaaS has a high concentration of founders actively looking for growth solutions. The engagement was genuine -- 12 substantive comments on Topic A, with several asking for more detail on automation workflows.

X (Twitter)

Topic	Impressions	Engagement Rate	Link Clicks
A: Growth Automation	4,800	2.1%	34
B: A/B Testing	6,200	3.4%	62
C: Attribution	3,100	1.8%	18

X baseline: 2.0% engagement rate for thread posts in the SaaS/growth niche.

Analysis: Interesting divergence from Reddit. Topic B performed strongest on X, while Topic A dominated Reddit. The thread format for Topic B ("Why Most A/B Tests Are Statistically Invalid") resonated because it was contrarian and educational -- two attributes that X's algorithm rewards. Topic C underperformed on both platforms, suggesting attribution as a topic may be too niche for broad social audiences.

LinkedIn

Topic	Impressions	Engagement Rate	Link Clicks
A: Growth Automation	1,400	4.2%	22
B: A/B Testing	1,100	3.8%	16
C: Attribution	980	5.1%	24

LinkedIn baseline: 3.0% engagement rate for organic posts in the marketing/growth niche.

Analysis: Surprising result: Topic C (Attribution) performed best on LinkedIn, despite underperforming on Reddit and X. LinkedIn's audience skews toward marketing professionals who deal with attribution challenges daily. This suggests that attribution content should be distributed primarily through LinkedIn and SEO, not Reddit or X.

Cross-Platform Attribution

Using GenGrowth's UTM fingerprint tracking, we traced social visitors through to on-site behavior:

• Reddit visitors: Average time on page 3:42, bounce rate 38%, email signup rate 2.8%
• X visitors: Average time on page 1:54, bounce rate 62%, email signup rate 0.9%
• LinkedIn visitors: Average time on page 4:15, bounce rate 31%, email signup rate 3.4%

Despite having the lowest raw traffic volume, LinkedIn delivered the highest quality visitors by every on-site metric. Reddit was second. X drove the most impressions but the lowest quality traffic -- consistent with the platform's scroll-heavy, low-attention usage pattern.

Decisions

Based on Week 1 data, we are making the following strategic decisions for Week 2:

1. Double down on Reddit for growth automation content. Topic A's 7.1% engagement rate is 4.7x baseline. We will publish 3 more posts on related growth automation subtopics.
2. Use X for contrarian/educational content only. Topic B's strong performance suggests X rewards provocative, myth-busting content. We will format future X threads around "Why [common belief] is wrong" angles.
3. Shift attribution content to LinkedIn. Topic C found its audience on LinkedIn. We will invest in LinkedIn document carousels for attribution-related content.
4. Deprioritize Topic C for SEO. Despite LinkedIn success, the overall cross-platform engagement for attribution content was mixed. We will write the long-form SEO article but defer it behind Topics A and B in the content calendar.
5. Invest in long-form content for Topic A first. Validated across Reddit and LinkedIn, growth automation has the clearest demand signal. The pillar article will be published in Week 2.

Next Steps

Week 2 experiment will test content repurposing: taking the Topic A pillar article and distributing excerpts across social channels to measure whether long-form-first or social-first generates more total engagement.

Follow our build-in-public journey in the weekly review archive. For the methodology behind our experiment design, see our growth experiment playbook.