# Balfour 6-Factor Channel Scoring Rubric

Detailed 1–10 scoring anchors for each factor in the acquisition channel selection
matrix. Use these anchors when running Step 6 of the `acquisition-channel-selection-scorer`
skill to calibrate scores across the team.

Higher score = more favorable for your situation. All scores are product- and
business-context-specific — the same channel can score differently for different teams.

---

## Factor 1: Cost

What you expect to spend to run the experiment in question.

- **10 (near-zero cost):** Organic SEO optimization of existing pages, referral program
  built on existing product infrastructure, email to an existing opted-in list, writing a
  guest post, posting in a community you already participate in
- **5 (moderate cost):** Facebook or LinkedIn ads at $2,000–$5,000 test budget; content
  blog post commissioned from a contractor ($300–$800); basic affiliate setup with a
  small partner; PR outreach with a freelance publicist
- **1 (high cost):** TV or radio campaign production + media buy, trade show booth
  sponsorship ($10,000–$50,000+), large influencer partnership (>$5,000 per post),
  highly competitive SEM keywords ($20–$100+ CPC where you must outbid entrenched
  competitors)

**Key calibration note:** Cost is relative to your budget and to the LTV of the
customers you're acquiring. A $50,000 trade show investment may score 7 if your average
customer LTV is $100,000 and the show reaches 200 highly qualified prospects.

---

## Factor 2: Targeting

How precisely you can reach your intended audience and how specific you can be about
who the experiment reaches.

- **10 (surgical precision):** LinkedIn ads filtered by exact job title + company size +
  industry + seniority level; personalized email outreach to a curated named-account
  list; a niche community (Slack group, subreddit, Discord server) where your ICP hangs
  out and you can post directly to them; retargeting a warm list of known prospects
- **5 (moderate precision):** Facebook or Instagram interest targeting (reaches
  approximate audience but with noise); Google Search on moderately specific keywords;
  topical newsletter sponsorship (good audience alignment but not individual-level
  precision); conference sponsorship in your vertical
- **1 (near-zero precision):** Display ad network programmatic buys, billboards,
  national TV, national radio — reaches large audiences, most of whom are not your
  target customer; broad keyword SEM on head terms ("project management software")

**Key calibration note:** Targeting score increases with audience specificity. A product
with a very narrow ICP (e.g., "CFOs at healthcare companies with >500 employees") will
score targeting differently than a mass consumer app where almost anyone is a potential
user.

---

## Factor 3: Control

How much control you have over the experiment once it is live. Can you make changes?
Can you pause or stop it? Can you adjust targeting, creative, or budget mid-flight?

- **10 (full real-time control):** Paid social (Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Ads) — budget
  cap, creative swap, audience adjustment, and pausing are all possible in real time;
  A/B test with a holdout group where you can call the test at any time; email campaign
  where you can halt sending
- **5 (partial control):** Email campaign being sent in batches (can pause between
  batches); content marketing with republication or update option; referral program where
  you can adjust the incentive structure; pre-roll video ads where creative is fixed but
  targeting and budget can adjust
- **1 (no control after launch):** Print advertisement in a magazine (cannot change once
  printed), TV spot after the buy is placed, trade show sponsorship once the event has
  begun, PR pitch once the journalist has the story — all are committed and irreversible

**Key calibration note:** Control is directly correlated with learning speed. High-
control channels let you make mid-experiment corrections, increasing the expected value
of each experiment dollar spent.

---

## Factor 4: Input Time

How much time it will take the team to launch the experiment — from the decision to run
it until it is live and generating data.

- **10 (launch within 1 day):** Email to an existing opted-in list using an existing
  template; paid search ad pointing to an existing landing page; organic social post;
  LinkedIn direct outreach message using a prepared template; DM campaign to known
  prospects
- **5 (launch within 1–2 weeks):** New landing page A/B test requiring design and
  development; Facebook ad campaign requiring new creative production; basic referral
  program using an off-the-shelf tool (e.g., ReferralHero, Viral Loops); podcast
  sponsorship with an available slot
- **1 (launch requires 4+ weeks):** SEO content series requiring research, writing,
  editing, and indexing; trade show preparation (booth design, staff scheduling,
  materials printing, travel logistics); TV or radio ad production cycle; conference
  talk submission reviewed by a committee; partnership negotiation and legal review

**Key calibration note:** Input Time is consistently underestimated. A channel that
requires 6 weeks of engineering to instrument means 6 weeks of delay before you learn
anything. Score Input Time honestly based on your actual team bandwidth, not in theory.

---

## Factor 5: Output Time

How long it will take to get actionable results out of the experiment once it is live.

- **10 (results within 1–3 days):** Paid search or paid social ads — conversion data
  is near-immediate; statistical significance can be reached within a week at modest
  budgets ($1,000–$3,000); email campaign open and click-through rates visible within
  hours; A/B test on a high-traffic landing page
- **5 (results within 2–4 weeks):** Referral program — need enough cycles to observe
  meaningful K-factor signal; landing page A/B test at moderate traffic volume (5,000–
  10,000 unique visitors/week); outbound sales sequence (need to complete the sequence
  to measure response rate through the full funnel)
- **1 (results take 2–6 months):** SEO content (organic indexing + ranking time before
  traffic materializes); PR campaign (earned media impact is diffuse and hard to
  attribute); community building (time to build audience density that generates traffic);
  brand advertising without direct response tracking

**Key calibration note:** Output Time affects your experiment learning rate. Short output
time channels allow you to run 4–6 discovery experiments in a quarter. Long output time
channels may allow only 1–2. When budget is constrained, prefer faster feedback loops.

---

## Factor 6: Scale

The maximum size of the audience you can reach with the experiment, assuming the channel
performs well.

- **10 (massive addressable scale):** Google Search ads on high-volume keywords (millions
  of queries/day); Facebook or Instagram ads (3+ billion users, many addressable
  segments); viral mechanism with K-factor > 0.5 and a growing base (exponential
  growth); TV national broadcast
- **5 (medium scale):** LinkedIn (targeted professional audience — large in total but
  targeting reduces effective reach to tens of thousands per campaign); email newsletter
  sponsorship in a niche vertical (10,000–100,000 readers); mid-tier influencer with
  100,000 engaged followers; regional radio
- **1 (small scale):** Targeted sales outreach (capped by rep capacity at 50–200
  high-quality touches per rep per week); local community meetup or Meetup.com group;
  niche trade publication with 2,000 subscribers; small subreddit or Slack community

**Key calibration note:** High scale is a double-edged sword. Channels with very high
scale often have lower targeting precision. Do not chase scale before confirming that
the channel can convert at acceptable CAC — scaling a leaky channel amplifies waste.

---

## Summary Table (Rubric at a Glance)

| Factor | Score 10 | Score 5 | Score 1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Cost** | Near-zero (email, organic SEO) | Moderate ($2K–$5K paid test) | High (TV, trade show, competitive SEM) |
| **Targeting** | Surgical (named account list, exact LinkedIn filters) | Moderate (interest targeting, keyword SEM) | Broad (display, national TV/radio) |
| **Control** | Full real-time (paid ads, A/B test) | Partial (batched email, adjustable referral) | None (print, TV spot, live events) |
| **Input Time** | Same day (email, paid search with existing page) | 1–2 weeks (new creative, basic referral) | 4+ weeks (SEO series, trade show, TV production) |
| **Output Time** | 1–3 days (paid search, email open rates) | 2–4 weeks (referral K-factor, moderate traffic A/B) | 2–6 months (SEO, community building, PR) |
| **Scale** | Massive (Google Search, Facebook, viral K>0.5) | Medium (LinkedIn campaign, niche newsletter) | Small (outbound sales, local community, niche pub) |

---

*Source: Balfour's original framework from "5 Steps to Choose Your Customer Acquisition
Channel" (Coelevate, 2013), as cited in Hacking Growth Chapter 5. The 1–10 numeric
scale and rubric anchors are BookForge extensions for operationalizing the original
High/Medium/Low scheme.*