Growth Marketing Manager Resume Keywords (2026): 60+ ATS Skills to Land Interviews
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TL;DR: Essential growth marketing manager resume keywords for 2026 include CAC, LTV, A/B Testing, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), Lifecycle Marketing, Product-Led Growth (PLG), Mixpanel/Amplitude, and Growth Experimentation. Include 15-25 keywords matching the job description, especially metrics and analytics tools.
🚨 Not getting growth marketing interviews? Your resume is speaking the wrong marketing language.
In 2026, over 97% of tech companies use ATS to filter marketing resumes. Missing terms like "CAC," "Growth Loops," or "Experimentation Velocity" can instantly disqualify you—even with years of marketing experience.
This guide gives you 60+ ATS-approved growth marketing manager keywords, organized by category, with real examples and optimization strategies.
👉 Scan Your Growth Marketing Resume for Missing Keywords — Free
What Are Growth Marketing Manager Resume Keywords?
Growth marketing manager resume keywords are the specific metrics, tools, methodologies, and strategies that ATS systems and recruiters search for when screening resumes for growth roles. These keywords typically include:
- Core metrics: CAC, LTV, MRR, ARR, Conversion Rate, Retention Rate, Churn
- Methodologies: A/B Testing, Growth Experimentation, Lifecycle Marketing, PLG
- Analytics tools: Mixpanel, Amplitude, Segment, Google Analytics 4, Looker
- Execution tools: Braze, Iterable, HubSpot, Customer.io, Marketo
When your resume includes these keywords naturally and with measurable results, ATS systems rank it higher—getting you past the digital filter and into the interview pipeline.
Why Growth Marketing Keywords Matter in 2026
Growth Marketing Manager is one of LinkedIn's "Jobs on the Rise" for 2026, with particularly high demand in tech hubs like New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area. The role sits at the intersection of marketing, data, and product—requiring a keyword profile that traditional marketing resumes don't cover.
The problem: Most marketing resumes are optimized for brand marketing or campaign management. Growth marketing roles use a fundamentally different vocabulary. If your resume says "brand awareness" and "content calendar" but the job description says "CAC reduction" and "experimentation velocity," ATS filters you out immediately.
Growth marketing managers own the full funnel—acquisition, activation, retention, revenue, and referral. Your resume keywords need to reflect this end-to-end ownership, not just top-of-funnel campaign execution.
The keyword gap is real: A resume optimized for "social media management" and "brand strategy" will score near zero for a growth role looking for "cohort analysis" and "lifecycle automation."
Table of Contents
- Growth Metrics & KPIs
- Experimentation & Optimization
- Lifecycle & Retention Marketing
- Acquisition Channels & Tactics
- Analytics & Data Tools
- Marketing Automation & Engagement
- Growth by Company Stage
- Strong vs Weak Resume Examples
- Keyword Integration Strategy
60+ Essential Growth Marketing Manager Resume Keywords (2026)
📊 Growth Metrics & KPIs
| Category | Keywords |
|---|---|
| Acquisition Metrics | Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), Cost Per Acquisition (CPA), Cost Per Lead (CPL), Cost Per Click (CPC), CAC Payback Period, Blended CAC |
| Revenue Metrics | Lifetime Value (LTV), Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR), Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR), Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), Net Revenue Retention (NRR) |
| Engagement Metrics | Conversion Rate, Activation Rate, Retention Rate, Churn Rate, Daily Active Users (DAU), Monthly Active Users (MAU), DAU/MAU Ratio |
| Efficiency Metrics | LTV:CAC Ratio, Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER), Payback Period, Contribution Margin |
🧪 Experimentation & Optimization
| Category | Keywords |
|---|---|
| Testing | A/B Testing, Multivariate Testing, Experimentation Framework, Statistical Significance, Test Velocity, Experiment Prioritization (ICE/PIE/RICE) |
| Optimization | Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), Landing Page Optimization, Funnel Optimization, Onboarding Optimization, Checkout Optimization |
| Growth Frameworks | Growth Loops, Flywheel Model, AARRR (Pirate Metrics), North Star Metric, OKRs, Growth Sprints, Rapid Experimentation |
| Personalization | Dynamic Content, Behavioral Targeting, Audience Segmentation, Predictive Personalization, User Segmentation |
🔄 Lifecycle & Retention Marketing
| Category | Keywords |
|---|---|
| Lifecycle Stages | Lifecycle Marketing, User Onboarding, Activation, Retention, Re-Engagement, Winback Campaigns, Churn Prevention |
| Engagement | Drip Campaigns, Trigger-Based Messaging, Push Notifications, In-App Messaging, Email Sequences, Multi-Channel Orchestration |
| Retention | Cohort Analysis, Retention Curves, Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Health Score, Engagement Scoring, Habit Loop Design |
| Referral & Virality | Referral Programs, Viral Loops, Word-of-Mouth, Incentive Optimization, K-Factor, Viral Coefficient |
🚀 Acquisition Channels & Tactics
| Category | Keywords |
|---|---|
| Paid Acquisition | Paid Social (Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads, TikTok Ads), Google Ads, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Programmatic Advertising, Retargeting |
| Organic Acquisition | SEO, Content Marketing, Organic Social, Community-Led Growth, Influencer Marketing, Content-Led Growth |
| Product-Led Growth | Product-Led Growth (PLG), Freemium Model, Free Trial Optimization, Self-Serve Funnel, Product Qualified Leads (PQLs), Reverse Trial |
| Partnerships | Co-Marketing, Partner Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Integration Partnerships, Channel Partnerships |
📈 Analytics & Data Tools
| Tool Category | Keywords |
|---|---|
| Product Analytics | Mixpanel, Amplitude, Heap, PostHog, FullStory, Hotjar, Pendo |
| Web Analytics | Google Analytics 4 (GA4), Google Tag Manager (GTM), Looker, Mode Analytics, Tableau |
| Data Infrastructure | Segment, Rudderstack, Fivetran, dbt, Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift |
| Attribution | Multi-Touch Attribution, UTM Tracking, Incrementality Testing, Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM), AppsFlyer, Branch |
| BI & Reporting | Looker, Tableau, Mode, Metabase, Google Data Studio (Looker Studio), SQL |
⚙ Marketing Automation & Engagement
| Tool Category | Keywords |
|---|---|
| Lifecycle Platforms | Braze, Iterable, Customer.io, Klaviyo, OneSignal, Leanplum |
| Marketing Automation | HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot (Salesforce), ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp |
| CRM & Sales | Salesforce, HubSpot CRM, Intercom, Drift, Outreach |
| Landing Pages & CRO | Unbounce, Webflow, Optimizely, VWO, LaunchDarkly (Feature Flags) |
| Project Management | Asana, Notion, Jira, Monday.com, Airtable |
Growth Keywords by Company Stage
Different company stages prioritize different growth keywords:
| Stage | Focus Keywords | Metric Emphasis |
|---|---|---|
| Early Stage / Startup | Product-Market Fit, PLG, Scrappy Growth, Zero-to-One, Founding Team, Growth Hacking, Viral Loops, Community Building | Activation Rate, Time-to-Value, Viral Coefficient |
| Series A-B / Scale-Up | Scalable Acquisition, Channel Diversification, Growth Experimentation, Lifecycle Automation, Unit Economics | CAC, LTV:CAC Ratio, MRR Growth, Retention Curves |
| Growth Stage / Series C+ | Growth Team Leadership, Cross-Functional Collaboration, Growth Operations, International Expansion, Localization | Revenue Growth Rate, Net Revenue Retention, Contribution Margin |
| Enterprise / Public | Enterprise Growth, Demand Generation, Account-Based Marketing (ABM), Revenue Operations (RevOps), Marketing Analytics | Pipeline Velocity, Qualified Lead Volume, Marketing Efficiency Ratio |
👉 Want to instantly check which growth marketing keywords your resume is missing? Upload your resume + job description and get your gap analysis in seconds.
✅ Strong Example: Keyword-Optimized Growth Marketing Resume
Experience Section:
Senior Growth Marketing Manager | SaaS Startup (Series B) | 2023 – Present
- Own full-funnel growth across acquisition, activation, retention, and referral for a B2B SaaS product with $8M ARR, reporting directly to the VP of Marketing
- Reduced CAC by 35% through systematic A/B testing (200+ experiments/year) and channel mix optimization, improving LTV:CAC ratio from 2.8x to 4.1x
- Built and managed lifecycle marketing program using Braze, driving activation rate from 22% to 41% through targeted onboarding email sequences and in-app messaging
- Scaled paid acquisition across Meta Ads, Google Ads, and LinkedIn Ads from $50K to $300K monthly spend while maintaining ROAS > 3.5x
- Implemented PLG (Product-Led Growth) strategy including freemium model optimization, increasing free-to-paid conversion by 60% through reverse trial and PQL scoring
- Led cohort analysis and retention modeling using Amplitude and Snowflake, identifying key activation milestones that improved 30-day retention by 18%
- Designed referral program achieving K-factor of 0.3, generating 15% of new signups through viral loops and incentive optimization
- Built growth experimentation framework using ICE prioritization, running 4+ experiments weekly with statistical significance requirements and documented learnings
Skills Section:
Growth Strategy: Full-Funnel Growth, PLG, Lifecycle Marketing, Growth Loops, Experimentation Framework, AARRR Metrics Metrics: CAC, LTV, MRR/ARR, Conversion Rate, Activation Rate, Retention, Churn, LTV:CAC Ratio, ROAS Analytics: Amplitude, Mixpanel, GA4, Looker, SQL, Snowflake, Segment Automation: Braze, HubSpot, Customer.io, Iterable Channels: Meta Ads, Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, SEO, Content Marketing, Referral Programs CRO: A/B Testing, Optimizely, Unbounce, Landing Page Optimization, Onboarding Optimization
❌ Weak Example: Missing Keywords
Experience Section:
Marketing Manager | Tech Company | 2023 – Present
- Managed marketing campaigns and social media
- Worked on increasing brand awareness
- Created content for the company blog and newsletters
- Collaborated with the sales team on leads
Skills Section:
Marketing, Social Media, Content Creation, Communication
Why it fails:
- No growth-specific metrics (no CAC, LTV, conversion rate)
- Missing experimentation language (no A/B testing, no growth loops)
- No analytics tools named (no Mixpanel, Amplitude, GA4)
- No lifecycle or retention keywords
- Brand/content language that ATS categorizes as "brand marketing" not "growth marketing"
- No quantifiable business impact
Keyword Integration Strategy
1. Lead with Metrics, Not Activities
Growth marketing resumes must be numbers-first. Every bullet should include a metric:
Instead of: "Ran email marketing campaigns"
Write: "Built lifecycle marketing program using Braze with 15 automated trigger-based sequences, improving activation rate by 45% and reducing churn by 22%"
2. Name Your Exact Tools
ATS systems match exact tool names. Don't write "analytics tools"—write "Amplitude, Segment, and Looker Studio." The more specific you are, the higher your ATS match rate.
3. Show Full-Funnel Ownership
Growth roles own the entire funnel. Your resume should include keywords from every stage:
- Acquisition: CAC, Paid Social, SEO, PLG
- Activation: Onboarding, Time-to-Value, Activation Rate
- Retention: Cohort Analysis, Churn Prevention, Engagement Scoring
- Revenue: LTV, ARPU, Expansion Revenue, Upsell
- Referral: Viral Loops, K-Factor, Referral Programs
4. Match the Company Stage
Read the job description carefully. A Series A startup wants "scrappy, zero-to-one, PLG." An enterprise company wants "RevOps, ABM, pipeline velocity." Use the vocabulary that matches their stage.
5. Quantify Experimentation Velocity
Growth hiring managers look for experiment volume. Include:
- Number of experiments per week/month/quarter
- Test velocity and statistical rigor
- Framework used (ICE, RICE, PIE)
- Win rate and impact of successful experiments
Related Articles
Internal Guides
- Resume Keywords by Industry (2026): The Ultimate List — Browse all 50+ role-specific keyword guides
- Marketing Resume Keywords (2026) — General marketing, brand, and campaign management keywords
- Product Marketing Resume Keywords (2026) — Positioning, GTM, and product launch keywords
- Digital Marketing Resume Keywords (2026) — SEO, PPC, and digital campaign keywords
- Data Analyst Resume Keywords (2026) — Analytics, SQL, and data visualization keywords
- Product Manager Resume Keywords (2026) — Product strategy and roadmap keywords
- How to Pass ATS in 2025 — Complete ATS compatibility guide
- Free ATS Resume Scanner — Test your resume compatibility instantly
Growth Marketing Resources
- Reforge Growth Programs — Growth marketing courses and frameworks
- LinkedIn Growth Marketing Jobs — Find growth roles and analyze job descriptions
- Lenny's Newsletter — Product and growth strategy insights
- GrowthHackers Community — Growth experimentation case studies
- First Round Review — Startup growth and marketing insights
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