Optimize Event Spend to Drive High-Quality Trials
GTM Strategy

Optimize Event Spend to Drive High-Quality Trials

Turn IRL event investment into activated PLG adoption—by removing onboarding friction and measuring real usage.

Events are our most controlled GTM environment—ideal for clean early-product signals.

Why Events Are the Right Place to Drive PLG Activation

Events are our largest discretionary GTM investment—and the one place where we control the environment. Instead of asking "How do we get more leads?", this play asks a better question: How do we turn event spend into activated product usage and high-quality PLG insight?

Events aren't one-off spend. They're GTM anchors.

Events Function as a Controlled Environment

Known participants

Identified companies and attendees give clear context.

Predictable timing

Task timing is controlled and measurable.

High motivation

Intrinsic intent reduces signal noise.

Reduced variance

Lower noise equals higher quality signals.

Control vs. Learning Quality (Why Events Win)

Compared to paid/web and sales-led motions, events give us the highest control and cleanest learning quality. Paid/web is noisy and hard to control. Sales-led is biased by human process. Events are where we can measure adoption with less noise.

Paid/Web
Low control, noisy signals
Sales Led
Medium control, biased data
Events
High control, clean insights

IRL-Assisted PLG Activation

Objective

Establish clean, early-stage PLG signals by isolating onboarding friction from product value.

Research question

Once Ava is trained and contextualized, how quickly and how often do users adopt Ava for real sales work?

Hypothesis: Pre-Configured First Use Drives Better Activation

Users who experience a trained, ready-to-use Ava instance at first interaction will show stronger engagement than users who encounter an untrained, self-serve onboarding experience.

  • Faster first output — Reach meaningful results more quickly.
  • Reliable activation — Complete key actions consistently.
  • Higher engagement — Stronger week-one usage.

Experiment Design

Independent variable: First-Use Context

Treatment group

Pre-configured Ava instance activated at an IRL event.

Control group

Standard untrained, self-serve onboarding (future baseline).

Control variables

Hold these constant to keep results clean:

User role

Seller or vendor representative

Time-bound task

Post-event lead follow-up activity

Interaction window

0–72 hours post-event

Product version

Consistent Ava release across groups

What We'll Measure

Time-to-activation

Minutes to active setup

Time-to-first-output

Minutes to initial result

Unprompted reuse

Spontaneous user return rate

Week-one actions

Key tasks completed in week one

These metrics tell us whether pre-configured Ava drives faster adoption and sustained engagement versus self-serve onboarding.

Why Events Create an Ideal First-Use Moment

The User

Vendor reps responsible for pipeline. Early- to mid-career sellers. High urgency and low tolerance for friction.

The Moment

0–72 hours post-event. Leads are assigned quickly. Attention is high and follow-up is expected immediately.

The Task

Follow up on event leads. High volume, low context. Personalization required—and historically delayed or skipped.

This is a predictable window where motivated sellers have urgent, real work that Ava can support immediately.

How We Reduce Noise and Get Higher-Quality Signals

Conditions that reduce noise

  • Known user cohort
  • Fixed timing window
  • Defined task with clear completion
  • Intrinsic motivation (pipeline pressure)
  • Reduced variance → higher signal

What we control

  • Ava is pre-configured with company context
  • No blank-slate onboarding
  • Immediate access via QR
  • First task is prescribed and relevant

By controlling first-use conditions, we can observe true adoption behavior without onboarding friction distorting results.

What This Play Requires (Scoped, Intentional, Time-Bound)

Engineering

Instrument early-cycle usage distinctly from core deal usage. Track time-to-first-output and follow-on usage into post-call moments.

Marketing & Field

Provide vendor lists and timing for event follow-ups. Coordinate in-person handoff to direct users into the early-cycle entry point.

Executive alignment

Endorse this as a deliberate, time-boxed extension of Ava's entry point. Align that early-cycle assistance is a credibility bridge—not a repositioning.

This play does not redefine Ava's long-term value.

AVA

AI Sales Agent