How to choose the right marketing channel strategy

There are more marketing channels than ever—paid, organic, digital, traditional, niche, broad, you name it. Every platform promises reach, targeting, or ROI. And before you know it, you’ve spread your budget thin and missed your goals.

A marketing channel strategy helps you show up where it actually counts instead of trying to be everywhere. 

What is marketing channel strategy?

A marketing channel strategy is your plan for how and where to reach your audience across different platforms. It maps your goals to specific channels, like paid search, email, or webinars, and defines the role each one plays in driving results.

A channel strategy connects your message, audience, and budget to the right points in the buyer journey. It makes sure each channel supports your business objectives and every dollar is used effectively. 

Why is a marketing channel strategy important?

A channel strategy gives structure to how you execute your annual marketing plan. It’s important to:

• Connect each campaign to the right marketing channel mix: Without a channel strategy, teams default to what they know, like overusing paid social for all stages of the funnel.
• Prevent overinvestment in low-impact or redundant channels: If you’re running paid search, display, and retargeting to the same audience with no coordination, you’re burning your marketing budget. A channel strategy helps avoid duplication and forces prioritization.
• Ensure you’re not missing high-return opportunities: A clear strategy surfaces underused but high-performing channels, such as organic webinars or nurture campaigns, that might be left out in a purely budget-based plan.
• Align your sequencing and timing: Some marketing channels (like SEO or brand campaigns) take longer to ramp up. Others (like paid search) can be turned on quickly. A strategy helps you roll out channels in the right order to support the buyer journey.
• Give you a framework for scenario-based planning: When budget shifts or new campaigns come up mid-year, you have a strategy to guide trade-offs, instead of scrambling to guess what to pause or fund.

Marketing channel strategy vs. marketing strategy: What you need to know

Marketing strategy and marketing channel strategy work together, but with different focuses. If you don’t separate the two, you’ll have a strong message with no clear plan to distribute it, or a well-funded media mix that isn’t aligned with your business goals. 

	Marketing strategy	Marketing channel strategy
Purpose	Defines your marketing goals and objectives	Decides how and where you’ll execute the marketing plan
Focus	Goals, audience, positioning, and messaging	Platforms, targeting, sequencing, and marketing budget allocation
Typical components	ICP, brand messaging, marketing goals, and KPIs	Channel mix, funnel mapping, timing, budget split, marketing measurement
When it’s created	Early in annual marketing planning	After goals and KPIs are defined

Read more: Understand the difference between marketing mix and marketing strategy

Types of marketing channels

There are different types of marketing channels that you can choose from depending on your goals, timeline, and budget. The most important ones to focus on are:

Paid marketing channels

Paid marketing channels are as they sound—you pay for placement, reach, or clicks. They’re fast to launch, highly targetable, and often tied directly to the pipeline.

Paid marketing channels examples:

• Google Ads (search and display)
• LinkedIn and Meta ads
• Programmatic advertising
• Sponsored newsletters or podcasts
• Direct mail

Best for: Driving traffic, generating leads, reaching specific segments quickly

What to consider when choosing paid marketing channels

• Budget control: Costs can scale quickly without strong media buying, bidding, targeting, or pacing strategies
• Marketing performance measurement: Clear metrics like CTR, conversion rate, and cost per lead help in tracking
• Channel fatigue: Audiences can tune out if creative or targeting isn’t refreshed regularly

Organic (free) marketing channels

These are channels you don’t pay for directly, but they still require time, consistency, and resources to perform. Results are slower to build, but often more sustainable over time.

Examples of free marketing channels:

• SEO (organic search)
• Blog content
• Social media platforms
• Community engagement
• Employee advocacy

Best for: Building long-term visibility, improving search rankings, and earning trust

What to consider when choosing free marketing channels

• Content volume and quality: Success depends on regular publishing and value-driven messaging
• Media attribution challenges: Results can be harder to track and tie to revenue in the short term
• Team resources: Requires strong SEO, writing, and community management capabilities

Digital marketing channels

Digital channels are any online platforms that support both paid and organic campaigns. They’re mostly used for engagement and lead capture, with strong tracking and automation capabilities.

Examples of digital marketing channels:

• Email marketing
• Online video platforms (example: YouTube)
• Paid social and programmatic
• Affiliate marketing

Best for: Measurable engagement, lead capture, automation, and funnel tracking

What to consider when choosing digital marketing channels

• Platform integration: Success depends on how well your MarTech tools (CRM, MAP, CMS) connect and sync
• Content readiness: Performance needs landing pages, nurture flows, webinars, or gated assets
• Marketing measurement solution requirement: Attribution can get messy if you’re not deduplicating across touchpoints or using a tool to help you with

Traditional marketing channels

These are offline channels that typically reach broader audiences but are harder to measure precisely.

Examples of traditional marketing channels:

• TV and radio
• Print ads
• Out-of-home (billboards, transit)
• Trade shows
• Direct mail (physical)

Best for: Broad reach, geographic targeting, or reinforcing brand presence

What to consider when choosing traditional marketing channels

• Tracking limitations: Performance is difficult to measure without paired digital tactics
• Production requirements: The creative and printing costs, along with the lead time, can exceed budget
• Geographic impact: Best suited for regional reach or when targeting local markets for household penetration
  

Multichannel vs. omnichannel marketing strategy: What’s the difference?

When planning your channel mix, start by understanding the difference between multichannel and omnichannel execution. 

What is a multichannel marketing strategy?

A multichannel marketing strategy means you’re using more than one channel to reach your audience. 

What a multichannel marketing strategy looks like:

• Running a paid search campaign to capture demand
• Launching a LinkedIn campaign with separate targeting
• Creating nurture email campaigns without coordination across platforms

The risk: Without a proper integration of your multichannel marketing campaigns, you create siloed experiences and miss opportunities to reinforce your message across touchpoints.

Read more: The ultimate guide to cross-channel optimization

What is an omnichannel marketing strategy?

An omnichannel marketing strategy connects your channels so they work together across the customer journey.

What an omnichannel marketing strategy looks like:

• Aligning ad messaging with email nurture flows and landing page content
• Retargeting webinar attendees with personalized LinkedIn ads
• Using CRM data to sync targeting across paid and owned channels

The benefit: You create a seamless experience for your audience and improve performance by reinforcing key messages across multiple touchpoints.

Feature	Multichannel strategy	Omnichannel strategy
Channel coordination	Low: channels run independently	High: channels are connected and work together
Message consistency	Varies by channel	Unified across all touchpoints
Data integration	Often siloed	Centralized (CRM, MAP, CDP integration)
User experience	Fragmented journey	Seamless, personalized journey
Measurement and attribution	Tracked per channel	Tracked across the full customer journey
Example	LinkedIn ads and separate nurture emails	LinkedIn ads triggered based on email or website activity

How to create your marketing channel plan (step-by-step)

Here’s a step-by-step approach to building your marketing channel strategy:

1. Map each marketing goal to the funnel stage it supports

Before choosing channels, identify where each goal fits in the buyer journey: awareness, consideration, or conversion. Having a view of the full-funnel marketing strategy gives you a clear sense of what types of channels you need.

For example:

• A goal like “increase brand visibility” belongs at the top of the funnel and may call for strategies like display ads or organic social media marketing
• A goal like “drive demo requests” sits at the bottom of the funnel and needs high-intent channels like paid search or retargeting

If your goals are concentrated in one part of the funnel, flag that. It could signal a gap in your strategy or a need to rebalance your campaigns.

2. Break down your audience by how you plan to target them

To choose effective marketing channels, start by grouping your audience by attributes like:

• Firmographics: Company size, industry, job title
• Behavioral signals: Content engagement, product usage
• Buying stage: Net-new leads, active evaluators, closed-lost
• Intent level: Cold audiences vs. high-fit accounts showing purchase signals

Then ask: Which channels let you reach this segment effectively? For example, LinkedIn is useful for firmographic targeting, while paid search is best for high-intent behavior.

The goal is to avoid a one-size-fits-all channel plan. Each audience segment may need a different approach.

3. Match each goal and audience segment to the right channels

Once you’ve mapped your goals and segmented your audience, it’s time to assign channels that are actually built to deliver results for each combination.

Think in terms of goal, audience, and funnel stage. For example:

• To engage mid-funnel decision-makers at target accounts, you might use LinkedIn ads and email nurture flows
• To capture bottom-funnel intent from in-market buyers, paid search or retargeting would be more effective
• For early-stage brand awareness among new industries, SEO and webinars might be a better fit

Avoid defaulting to familiar platforms just because they’ve worked before. Tie channel selection to performance fit, not past habits or internal preferences.

This is where most plans start to diverge: high-performing marketing teams tailor their channel mix to the job each one needs to do.

4. Factor in ramp time, seasonality, and timing dependencies

Not all channels deliver results on the same timeline. Some take weeks or months to show impact. Others can be activated and optimized quickly. So, account for marketing seasonality to hit key milestones.

Break it down in:

• Long ramp time: SEO, brand campaigns, webinars, influencer marketing
• Medium ramp time: Paid social (needs learning period), content syndication
• Short ramp time: Paid search, retargeting, email blasts

5. Estimate cost and projected ROI for each marketing channel

Once you’ve mapped goals and timing, evaluate the cost-efficiency of each channel in your plan. Factor in your budget and look at:

• Baseline metrics: CPC, CPM, CVR, cost per opportunity
• Platform benchmarks: Use historical performance or industry averages
• Marginal return (mROI) curves: How much more pipeline each additional dollar generates
• Expected ROI or iROAS: Model this using your funnel assumptions or a platform like Keen

Channels with a high cost per lead may still be worth it if they convert at a higher rate, but only if you’ve modeled the impact. And if a channel performs well but is nearing saturation, you may see diminishing returns.

Prioritize based on where each dollar can do the most work, not just what’s cheapest.

6. Prioritize your channels based on impact

You don’t need to be everywhere, but you do need to be effective. After evaluating fit, timing, and marketing ROI, rank your channels by strategic value.

Ask:

• Which channels are most critical for hitting your core marketing KPIs?
• Which ones support the highest-priority audiences or goals?
• Which will have the biggest performance lift relative to budget?

Group your channels into tiers:

• Primary: Channels that drive the bulk of your pipeline or conversions
• Secondary: Channels that support brand, engagement, or expansion
• Tentative or test: Channels you’re experimenting with or plan to revisit later

7. Build a centralized marketing channel plan

Document your final plan in one place instead of scattering it across campaign briefs or team decks. Include the following aspects:

• Channels in use
• Funnel stage
• Budget allocation (as percentage or actual spend)
• Target audience or segment
• Primary KPI or outcome

Example format:

Channel	Funnel stage	Budget	Audience segment	Primary KPI
Paid search	Bottom	30%	In-market buyers	Demo conversions
LinkedIn ads	Middle	20%	Key accounts by industry	CTR, pipeline influence
SEO	Top	15%	Broad audience	Organic traffic
Retargeting	Bottom	10%	Known visitors	Conversion rate

Share this plan across demand gen, content, media, and analytics teams. Everyone should know which channels are in play, who owns them, and how performance will be measured.

It’s easier if you’re using an annual planning platform like Keen.

8. Validate your mix with performance modeling before launch

Before you lock in your plan, pressure-test it. Use scenario modeling to see how different channel allocations could impact pipeline, revenue, or other key outcomes.

Tools like Keen can help you:

• Forecast expected ROI or iROAS by channel based on historical data
• Spot overspending or saturation in specific channels
• Test reallocation scenarios (moving 10% from paid social to paid search)
• Project performance by quarter to align with revenue targets

Instead of relying on last year’s plan or marketing instincts, you’re using data to back your mix before it goes live.

The result: a marketing channel plan that’s not just documented, but defensible, optimized, and tied to real business outcomes.

Start building your channel strategy with Keen

Marketing channel management takes more than instinct or past results. You need data to validate your assumptions and model the impact of each channel before you launch.

The Keen platform helps marketers plan smarter by modeling expected ROI, marginal return, and pipeline impact across every channel—before you commit budget. With tools for channel planning, elasticity analysis, and performance forecasting, you get a clear view of what will actually move the needle.Want to see how Keen can help you build and defend your marketing channel strategy? Request a demo.