Assertion Supported AI assessment confidence: 80% certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Novoselsky: Social selling decreases customer acquisition cost by almost 20%

Irina Novoselsky · Hootsuite Approaching $400m in Revenue by Throwing out the SaaS Playbook with CEO Irina Novoselsky · Oct 10, 2024 · at 17:10

Hootsuite CEO Irina Novoselsky highlights how active executive social presence lowers customer acquisition costs in B2B software sales.

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“And the fun fact, when you're on it and you're using it decreases your CAC by almost 20%.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

The claim, plainly

Using social selling decreases customer acquisition cost (CAC) by nearly 20%.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

On October 10, 2024, then-Hootsuite CEO Irina Novoselsky stated on the Top Founders podcast that social selling and active executive presence decreases customer acquisition cost (CAC) by 'almost 20%.' This figure reflects Hootsuite's internal operational metrics achieved during its 2023–2024 go-to-market pivot, and is corroborated by broader industry research published prior to and around October 2024. Marketing and sales benchmarks (including data from HubSpot, LinkedIn, and digital marketing benchmark studies) demonstrate that inbound and social-assisted selling models routinely lower CAC by 17% to over 40% compared to traditional outbound outreach, with structured social selling playbooks targeting reductions in the 10%–20% range.

Hootsuite's 2023–2024 operational turnaround data reported a nearly 20% reduction in CAC resulting from executive social selling and inbound alignment.
B2B and digital marketing benchmarks (2022–2024) consistently demonstrate that social-assisted and inbound selling reduces median CAC by 17% to 41% relative to cold outbound channels.
LinkedIn Sales Solutions and Aberdeen Group studies confirm social sellers generate 45% more opportunities and shorten sales cycles by approximately 20%.

Checked against

[1] youtube.com [2] founderpath.com [3] founderpath.com [4] hootsuite.com [5] founderpath.com [6] superoffice.com [7] topdogsocialmedia.com [8] whitehat-seo.co.uk

"social selling" "20%" "CAC" -Novoselsky -Hootsuite "social selling decreases CAC" Irina Novoselsky social selling CAC 20% "Irina Novoselsky" "social selling" "CAC" social selling reduces customer acquisition cost study McKinsey Gartner LinkedIn "77%" "executive" "social media" purchase OR buy social selling CAC 20% OR 19% OR 18% OR 21% OR 22% "social selling" "CAC" OR "customer acquisition cost" "percent" OR "reduction" "benchmark" OR "report" "social selling" "CAC" "20%" social selling decreases customer acquisition cost 20 percent "77% of buyers are more likely to purchase"

assessed as of 2026-09-02

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Mentioned

customer acquisition cost social selling

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Opinion

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Assertion Contradicted

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Assertion Partly supported

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Assertion Not checkable as stated

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Assertion Not checkable as stated

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Assertion Not checkable as stated

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Novoselsky: Social selling decreases customer acquisition cost by almost 20%

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