Case Study: Canva’s growth strategy from an idea to 15 million users

Although few companies are able to experience growth at the same scale as Canva, there is no doubt that with the strong will to solve a real world problem and the right strategies in place, the ability to create a successful business is absolutely possible.

This post will not only take you through the entrepreneurial journey of Canva’s co-founders but will get into the nitty gritty of how the growth of the business was possible through the power of digital marketing.

Cliff Obrecht, Melanie Perkins and Cameron Adams

Company: Canva

The Canva journey began back in 2007 when Melanie Perkins was studying at the University of Western Australia. Melanie taught students how to use programs such as InDesign and Photoshop — software that people found hard to learn and even harder to use.

At the time, the only tools on the market for graphic design were far too ‘overpowered’ and complex for most people to use. Deciding that there had to be a better way for the average person to create beautiful designs, she realised there was a large potential market for an online, easy to use graphic design tool.

Melanie and Cliff first founded Fusion Books, which is now the largest school yearbook publisher in Australia and has expanded into France and New Zealand. However, they believed that their technology had applications beyond the yearbook market, hence bringing on board Cameron Adams, who previously worked at Google, to launch Canva as its own product.

Canva acquired 15 million users in less than 7 years

In less than 7 years, they have acquired over 15 MILLION users, 300,000 paying customers, and have been valued at $4.7 billion and raised $125 million in its last funding-round. In the first 2 years alone, they reached 2 million users — averaging 3,600 signups a day, or 111,111 signups per month.

So, what is Canva's secret to its hypergrowth?

Of course, their product and business model played a large role. They absolutely nailed the hammer on the head in terms of identifying an issue for their target market. They knew that there were people needing an easier and better way to create beautiful designs and this aligned with their company vision of helping people create beautiful designs without friction.

But like any product, they needed people to hear about them and know what they could provide.

That’s where their digital marketing strategy comes in.

Canva's Digital Marketing Strategy

1. Goal Campaigns through Paid Search

A big part of Canva’s targeting strategy is goal-related keywords — keywords that narrow in on the goals that the user wants to accomplish. This strategy is perfect for Canva because it positions the product as a means for the user to accomplish their goals, or a way to solve their problems — which is fundamental to any purchase decision.

Each of these keywords outlines a job that you can accomplish inside their product.

2. Offsite SEO

Canva gets more than 50% of their traffic from branded terms. This means that people who go to Canva’s website have heard of Canva from external sources such as friends or other blogs and are searching for the name directly.

From the early stages of Canva’s presence online, they published large amounts of guest posts which would have generated an influx of well-known websites speaking about Canva. Guest posting means writing and publishing an article on someone else's website or blog. This would have allowed their brand awareness, website traffic and domain authority to go through the roof

3. Social Media Advertising

One of Canva’s biggest channels is Facebook. This is a clever strategy as they are able to use their own tools as a way to create eye-catching visuals for their posts and ads on Facebook, such as their own templates for social media posts.

But what stands out is that most of their ads focus on a single, core message: You can easily design anything.

They use imagery that is attention grabbing and aesthetically pleasing coupled with a clear, snappy value proposition that narrows in on a singular job a user is trying to accomplish. Again, this is integrated communications at its finest as this translates well from their paid search ads.

Key Takeaway

Carefully and cleverly designed integrated marketing communications plans that can convey the message of the business in a simple way will open doors to endless opportunities!

We're avid users of Canva ourselves, what about you? What do you think about their digital marketing strategy? Let us know in the comments below or in our Discussion Forum.