# G2 category creation before category education sprawl

> When buyers lack a clear category, help create the third-party category and seed it with reviews before publishing endless category-education content on your own site.

- Canonical HTML: https://growth.iangoh.com/growth-ideas/g2-category-creation-before-category-education-sprawl/
- Source: [sell.g2.com](https://sell.g2.com/case-studies/audiense-generates-60-customer-testimonials-with-g2)
- GrowthDex source hub: [G2 Case Study: Audiense](/sources/g2-case-study-audiense-sell-g2-com/)
- Last checked: 2026-06-07T06:26:26.000Z
- Rarity: epic
- Budget: medium
- Channels: Category Creation, Review Sites, SEO
- Stages: category creation, third-party proof, review generation, buyer education


## Why this can grow

Category creation is expensive when every page lives only on your own domain. Audiense had a sharper move: work with G2’s market research team to create the Audience Intelligence Platforms category, then collect reviews so buyers had a real comparison surface. That gives category education an external proof layer. Instead of telling the market that the category exists, the company helps build a place where buyers can benchmark vendors. This is useful for startups in fuzzy categories because third-party structure can make the market easier to explain and easier to search.

## Ian's take

From scaling consumer platforms across MENA and Southeast Asia, my default is to distrust growth work that only looks good in a slide. For SEO and AI search, I care less about clever keyword tricks and more about clarity. A buyer, crawler, or answer engine should quickly understand who this is for, why it works, what proof backs it, and what page deserves to be cited. I would run it small enough to learn quickly, then only scale the parts that real users repeat, save, reply to, or buy from. For this tactic, I would watch one clear growth signal before putting more time or budget behind it.

## Action plan

1. Define one narrow startup segment where g2 category creation before category education sprawl can create a measurable lift.
2. Turn the tactic into one offer, page, campaign, or workflow for the Category Creation and Review Sites channel.
3. Use the evidence from sell.g2.com to set the first version of the message, format, and audience.
4. Launch a small test for 7 to 14 days with one success metric: one measurable growth signal.
5. Review the result, keep the winning message, remove weak variants, and turn the learning into a repeatable growth playbook.

## Source-backed example

Audiense worked with G2’s market research team to create the Audience Intelligence Platforms category and then used review generation to seed the new category with customer feedback.

## Adjacent tactics in the same lane

- [HubSpot Website Grader before category education spend](/growth-ideas/hubspot-website-grader-before-category-education-spend/) - 2 shared channels
- [HubSpot factor score breakdown before category webinar drip](/growth-ideas/hubspot-factor-score-breakdown-before-category-webinar-drip/) - 2 shared channels
- [G2 single review platform focus before scattered proof](/growth-ideas/g2-single-review-platform-focus-before-scattered-proof/) - 2 shared channels
- [G2 backlink building to review profile](/growth-ideas/g2-backlink-building-to-review-profile/) - 2 shared channels

## Read GrowthDex essays

Browse the plain-English essay index at [GrowthDex Blog](/blog/).

## Related GrowthDex essays

- [Customer proof should have a page before it has a slogan](/blog/customer-proof-should-have-a-page-before-it-has-a-slogan/) - customer proof, review-led growth, B2B SEO

## Advisory

If you want help turning this into a working growth system, Ian Goh offers advisory at https://iangoh.com/advisory.