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I would caution against making conclusions solely on Google Trends. Less people may be googling growth hacking because more and more people are becoming familar

I would caution against making conclusions solely on Google Trends. Less people may be googling growth hacking because more and more people are becoming familar with it. However that doesnt mean the demand for growth hackers is declining. People may already know what it is but the need for growth hacking may still be increasing. Or it might have different names that people call it by now.

louisswiss 8y ago
I think that's partly it. As 'technical' marketing becomes a more developed industry, it's splitting into more distinct job roles. The days of hiring a growth hacker to plaster over your CMO's shortcomings are disappearing rapidly.
nickm12 8y ago
I think this topic is an interesting one and I'd love to read about from someone who could speak authoritatively about industry trends. But trying to do the same by reading Google Trends tea leaves is just awful.
- uclacademix 8y ago
  Hi there. I wrote the article. You bring up a fair point but unfortunately there isn't any other public data of high quality that can be referenced. I hit LinkedIn's APIs to try and get data on historical job postings for new roles containing "growth hacker" in it but the data is really poor and not useable. I'm also writing from experience + anecdotes having worked on growth for 10+ years and advised a variety of consumer companies on growth. The anecdotes suggest to me it is falling out of favor. I wish there was more data to reference otherwise I would have.
  - AznHisoka 8y ago
    Hmm... why was the Linkedin data poor?
    - uclacademix 8y ago
      Not sure. Chatted with a few other devs and they shared similar experiences when working with their APIs. The biggest issue is that prior job postings data isn't expose on the API so you can only see current postings, which wouldn't be useful in terms of showing trends, which is what I hoped for.
pavbelshippable 8y ago
Yes, I agree. Most of the people/startup guys out there don't want to use the word growth hacking, as they think it seems to have a negative impact on their startup, so the shift is happening from growth hacking to growth marketing. I am from India and I work as a growth hacker, and I am surprised to see how many people actually want to shift their careers from marketing to growth hacking. Just go to Google trends and see the trend for the word 'Growth Marketing', it is going up.

louisswiss 8y ago

I think that's partly it. As 'technical' marketing becomes a more developed industry, it's splitting into more distinct job roles. The days of hiring a growth hacker to plaster over your CMO's shortcomings are disappearing rapidly.

nickm12 8y ago

I think this topic is an interesting one and I'd love to read about from someone who could speak authoritatively about industry trends. But trying to do the same by reading Google Trends tea leaves is just awful.

uclacademix 8y ago
Hi there. I wrote the article. You bring up a fair point but unfortunately there isn't any other public data of high quality that can be referenced. I hit LinkedIn's APIs to try and get data on historical job postings for new roles containing "growth hacker" in it but the data is really poor and not useable. I'm also writing from experience + anecdotes having worked on growth for 10+ years and advised a variety of consumer companies on growth. The anecdotes suggest to me it is falling out of favor. I wish there was more data to reference otherwise I would have.
- AznHisoka 8y ago
  Hmm... why was the Linkedin data poor?
  - uclacademix 8y ago
    Not sure. Chatted with a few other devs and they shared similar experiences when working with their APIs. The biggest issue is that prior job postings data isn't expose on the API so you can only see current postings, which wouldn't be useful in terms of showing trends, which is what I hoped for.

pavbelshippable 8y ago

Yes, I agree. Most of the people/startup guys out there don't want to use the word growth hacking, as they think it seems to have a negative impact on their startup, so the shift is happening from growth hacking to growth marketing. I am from India and I work as a growth hacker, and I am surprised to see how many people actually want to shift their careers from marketing to growth hacking. Just go to Google trends and see the trend for the word 'Growth Marketing', it is going up.