Turn marketing into an EBITDA engine: The 2X playbook for PE value creation

Growth is harder to come by in today’s private equity environment. Macroeconomic headwinds are constraining budgets, delaying buying decisions, and pausing headcount expansion. Yet limited partners and boards continue to expect accelerated growth and faster GTM execution. 

Marketing should be a key lever but most portfolio companies fail to pull it effectively due to: 

• Outdated orgs and skill gaps: Many teams lack capabilities in analytics, MarTech, AI, and ROI measurement. 
• Shifting buyer behavior: B2B buyers complete 70% of their journey before talking to sales, inflating customer acquisition cost (CAC) and elongating cycles.
• Operational drag: Siloed systems and bloated marketing teams dilute impact and suppress margins. 

Without intervention, marketing remains a fixed-cost liability, not a scalable growth driver.

What PE portcos must solve for 

To protect and grow enterprise value, portcos must modernize marketing as a performance-driven function. This means:

• Controlling SG&A: Reduce fixed marketing overhead via variable execution models. 
• Revenue acceleration: Leverage modern marketing strategies to accelerate pipeline generation, shorten sales cycles, and improve CAC efficiency.
• Leveraging MarTech: Deploy and integrate tools to unlock data and automation value.
• Flexing with market shifts: Build flexible marketing systems that can adapt to dynamic buyer behavior and rapidly changing tech trends.

The 2X model: Marketing as a service (MaaS), built to support PE needs

2X replaces fragmented in-house marketing with a high-efficiency execution engine tailored for PE-backed businesses. Our subscription-based model drives measurable outcomes without expanding internal headcount.

What 2X delivers:

• Marketing efficiency gains: Through integrated capabilities spanning marketing operations, tech enablement, content creation, demand generation, and analytics, 2X helps reduce costs while preserving or enhancing marketing impact. 
• Reduced OpEx through scalability: Clients leverage standardized, tech-enabled best practices that streamline execution and create a leaner, more efficient operating model. 
• Immediate cost optimization: By shifting in-house roles into the 2X MaaS structure, companies can convert fixed labor costs into more flexible, performance-aligned expenses. 
• Revenue growth acceleration: 2X supports faster pipeline development and stronger conversion rates through highly targeted, scalable marketing programs.

The financial impact

Adopting the 2X MaaS model drives direct financial outcomes:

• Lower operating costs: Marketing labor and overhead down by 40–50% in many cases 
• Improved EBITDA: Lean execution models reduce SG&A drag 
• Faster top-line growth: More efficient pipeline creation shortens time-to-revenue 
• Exit readiness: Operational improvements support higher exit multiples

Non-run-rate expenses (“addbacks”) can be adjusted out, increasing EBITDA and boosting valuation. Savvy CMOs help maximize enterprise value and fund transformation by strategically leveraging these addbacks. Under 2X’s guidance, portcos convert transition-year marketing spend into sustained efficiency gains and long-term savings.

Marketing as a source of value creation

In a capital-constrained environment, marketing leaders in PE-backed businesses are under pressure to deliver more with less. Meeting board expectations for growth while preserving margin requires an operational shift in how marketing is resourced and executed.

2X supports this shift by enabling companies to increase marketing output and impact without expanding headcount. Through more efficient execution models and targeted strategies, 2X helps improve the cost-effectiveness of pipeline generation and reduce SG&A pressure.

For PE sponsors, that translates into better performance metrics at the portfolio level: more efficient spend, stronger EBITDA, and improved exit readiness grounded in durable, repeatable marketing execution.

It’s time to future-proof your portcos and scale impact with precision.

Author

Rick DeMare

Rick DeMare is Executive Director of Strategic Partnerships for Private Equity at 2X. With over two decades of experience in data analytics and enterprise software, he specializes in building strategic partnerships and developing high-performing sales teams that drive growth. Prior to 2X, Rick held leadership roles at Starburst, ThoughtSpot, and Okta, where he led go-to-market strategy and OEM partnerships with global impact.