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We sat down with Madhav Bhandari, Head of Marketing at Storylane, to break down how to turn product demos into a powerful SEO engine. From their bold move to replace text with interactive demos, to scaling traffic from 20K to 225K monthly and tripling PLG revenue, Madhav shares how “demo SEO” is changing the game. We also talk about the evolving search landscape, the role of brand in discoverability, and the marketing voices that inspire him most. If you’re thinking about product-led growth or reimagining SEO, this one’s packed with insights.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT:
Michael: Hi everyone! Today I’m talking to Madhav Bhandari, Head of Marketing at Storylane. Madhav, thank you so much for joining us. To start things off, can you tell us a bit about Storylane and your role there?
Madhav: Absolutely. I lead marketing at Storylane, which is the first agentic demo automation platform. Essentially, we help companies create interactive product demos that buyers can explore on their own. Think of it as a front-end replica of your product-without the backend-so users can engage with it directly. And the best part is, you can create these demos in just two minutes. We’re really proud of that.
Michael: You’ve had several marketing leadership roles, but let’s focus on your current work at Storylane. What have been your biggest wins or challenges in driving growth?
Madhav: One major win has been our investment in brand. We spent about three quarters heavily focused on brand-building, and eventually, that started to yield really strong results. Another big one is our SEO strategy—it’s quite unique. We developed what we call “demo SEO,” which has helped grow our search traffic to about 225,000 visits per month. That channel alone is bringing in a lot of quality signups and deals.
Beyond that, we run a mix of innovative campaigns. Our ads perform well, and we’re very active on LinkedIn—both organically and through paid strategies. We also collaborate with influencers. These have been the primary channels that have really worked for us.
Michael: Let’s dig into the brand-building efforts. What exactly did that look like? And how did you measure success?
Madhav: It started with a conversation between me and our CEO. The interactive demo category is still new, so there’s a lot of greenfield opportunity. Many companies haven’t adopted demos yet, which gave us the chance to reach an untapped market.
But we noticed we weren’t often the first vendor buyers spoke to—they’d go to one or two competitors first. We wanted to change that. We knew that being the first brand discovered gave us a major advantage in winning deals.
We saw brand as a channel with no ceiling—unlike SEO or paid, which tend to cap out. So we began by trying to enter the “elite circle” of marketers on LinkedIn. I launched a podcast, invested heavily in thought leadership, and posted regularly. We paid for podcast placements and began activating at events.
We measured brand impact using Google Search Console—specifically by tracking brand keyword searches like “Storylane.” After events or campaigns, we’d see massive spikes, sometimes 4x more brand searches. After two quarters, those investments started driving pipeline and revenue.
Michael: Let’s transition to your search playbook, because it’s one of the most innovative I’ve seen. Where did that idea come from?
Madhav: When I joined, our PLG product relied on traffic for conversions. We had about 20K monthly traffic at the time—after three years of work. My CEO asked, “What can we do differently?”
Everyone online says you need text content to rank. But we wondered... what if we removed all the text and just embedded an interactive demo? Especially now, when everyone can create good content, we needed a differentiator.
We looked at the tools our personas use - like Canva, Salesforce, Notion - and identified tutorial-style keywords they searched for. Then we built 200 pages, each focused on a single interactive demo (with zero blog content), like “how to create a GIF in Canva.”
The results were immediate: 50% of pages ranked in the top 10, 1 in 5 pages ranked #1, We beat competitors like HubSpot and Canva.
So we scaled it. We hired contractors and now produce 300 new demo pages per month. We’re at over 5,000 live pages.
Madhav: On March 1, 2024, we had zero traffic from demo SEO. Now it’s over 220K/month. Our PLG revenue tripled. Enterprise leads started coming in too: people saw the demo, were intrigued, and booked a call.
Michael: When you say “interactive demo,” do you mean video?
Madhav: Not at all. Think of it like an iframe that shows a walkthrough: screens stitched together, with interactive beacons guiding users. You can’t move forward without engaging. It’s highly interactive.
Michael: And these demos are made using Storylane?
Madhav: Exactly. It’s both helpful content and a live product demo at once.
Michael: How are you maintaining your rankings—especially with AI search trends emerging?
Madhav: Everyone said our traffic would peak and drop, but it hasn’t. It’s still climbing, though more slowly. Consultants told us the initial nine-month growth was extraordinary—now it’s just stabilizing.
I believe it’s about page experience and time-to-value. Traditional pages have 10-minute reads. Ours deliver value in under a minute.
Our metrics say it all: Average time on page: 15 seconds (vs. 1 minute), Bounce rate: 23% (vs. 70%), Engagement rate: 80% (vs. 20–23%).
You can’t just scroll through. You have to interact. And users love that—because it’s fast, useful, and frictionless.
Michael: How do you measure conversions from those demo pages?
Madhav: Each page includes a subtle shoutout—“This page was created in 5 minutes using Storylane.” About 1.2% of visitors sign up from those pages (vs. 0.8% from blogs), and the traffic is 10x higher.
Some users upgrade directly to a paid plan. Others book demos. We use HubSpot for attribution, and we can see everything—from signups to enterprise leads. We’re also seeing 5–6x growth in brand search over the last year.
Michael: What do you see as the future of search, especially in an AI-led world?
Madhav: We’re already seeing 5–10% of leads come via ChatGPT. I believe two things will matter most:
We’re betting big on both.
Michael: Who do you follow for insight or inspiration?
Madhav: A few people stand out:
Michael: Fantastic. Thank you so much, Madhav. This has been incredibly insightful and valuable for our audience.
This conversation with Madhav offered a deep dive into the future of product-led content and how interactive demos can reshape both discovery and conversion. Stay tuned for more interviews in the Conifr SaaS Interview Series, where we continue to unpack the strategies redefining modern SaaS growth.
Michael is a Partner at Conifr and oversees operations. Michael has been in web development, digital marketing, and analytics for nearly two decades, with experience running agencies and leading in-house marketing teams. He has led integrated digital marketing teams for both paid search and SEO across household name brands, such as Norwegian Cruise Line and 1-800-Pack-Rat. Michael specializes in strategy, business development, and analytics. Before Conifr, Michael was the Chief Marketing Officer at a sustainability focused online gaming startup.
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