Diego Oquendo

SaaS Academy

Performance Marketing Manager

Catalyst Consulting

Built and overseen paid media strategies for over a dozen fast-growing B2B companies:

- Responsible for managing over +$1M in Ad Spend across key paid channels like Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads and Meta Ads while maximizing performance / pipeline generation.

- Leading the marketing department, responsible for the training and results of our performance marketers, to maximize the return on ad spend for our clients, while ensuring projects get delivered on time and with the highest quality.

- Building training materials, templates and SOPs to deploy across our entire company to delegate, improve the time delivery and quality of the projects.

Head of Marketing

Sr. Performance Marketing Manager

We partner with B2B SaaS companies on the strategy, execution, and reporting of switching from lead gen to demand gen.

Vulkan Marketing 

Attract more inbound opportunities and dominate your category with customized marketing focused on your customers and revenue, not tactics or one-size-fits-all strategies.

What we do:

Our 4-step playbook is focused on the things that will drive long-term, sustainable growth for your business:

- Setting the right objectives, we don't focus on vanity metrics or ''leads''. We understand the activities that drive real growth are hard to measure. But our north star for success is always revenue.

- Deep Customer & Market Research, we help you nail down your Ideal Customer Profile, identify what are the problems and pain points they are facing and find holes in the market that aren't being met.

- Develop, execute & optimize your paid marketing strategy, know what activities to execute to stay in front of your ideal customers, build trust for your company and DEMAND for your solution.

- Run consistent growth experiments across social channels, finding new successful levers to add to the strategy mix to scale long-term.

Founder & CEO

Generating New Demand For B2B SaaS & Tech Companies To Achieve Sustainable Growth | Founder @ Vulkan Marketing | LinkedIn Top Voice Marketing & Advertising

I've built and overseen paid media strategies for over a dozen fast-growing B2B companies, where I was:

- Responsible for managing over +$1M in Ad Spend across key paid channels like Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads and Meta Ads while maximizing performance / pipeline generation.

- Leading marketing teams, responsible for the results of our performance marketers, to maximize the return on investment for our clients, while ensuring projects get delivered on time and with the highest quality.

- Building training materials, templates and SOPs to deploy across the entire company to delegate, improve the time delivery and quality of the projects.

Want me to help you accomplish the same for your company?

Send me a DM or email me at:
vulkansmedia@gmail.com

At Vulkan we are changing the way B2B SaaS companies go to market and grow. 

Attract more inbound opportunities and dominate your category with customized marketing focused on your customers and revenue, not tactics or one-size-fits-all strategies.

What we do:

Our 5-step playbook is focused on the things that will drive long-term, sustainable growth for your business:

- Setting the right objectives, we don't focus on vanity metrics or ''leads''. We understand the activities that drive real growth are hard to measure. But our north star for success is always revenue.

- Deep Customer & Market Research, we help you nail down your Ideal Customer Profile, identify what are the problems and pain points they are facing and find holes in the market that aren't being met.

- Nail down your winning messaging, find the best way to communicate your brand narrative, highlight the problems your customers are facing, and position your company as the ideal solution.

- Develop, execute & optimize your growth strategy, know what activities to execute to stay in front of your ideal customers, build trust for your company and DEMAND for your solution.

- Run consistent growth experiments across social channels, finding new successful levers to add to the strategy mix to scale long-term.

Learn more here:
https://vulkanmarketing.com

Omni Lab Consulting

Omni Lab is a demand gen agency for Series A to Series D B2B SaaS companies. We help you create, manage, and optimize paid advertising campaigns across most major ad channels like LinkedIn, Google Ads, YouTube, Display, Reddit, TikTok, and more.

We focus on optimizing for leading and lagging indicators to ensure your paid efforts are driving qualified leads and opportunities that meet your ICP.

Co-Founder

Exit Five

Member

RevGenius

Jellyfish

Sr. Director of Sales & Partnerships

Stitch Labs

Regional Director of Sales

Teralytics

Head of Sales, East

XeoMatrix

Head of Sales & Marketing

MicroStrategy

Sr. Account Executive

Sr. Business Development Manager

Carahsoft Technology Corp.

Account Representative

Smashwizard

Founder, CEO

Co-Founder @ Omni Lab | Paid Media for B2B SaaS brands

Over the last 15+ years, I've worked for 4 VC backed SaaS companies, consulted with more than 100+, helped 1 get acquired, 1 reach unicorn status, and many more generate millions in net new revenue.

I've also seen a handful of those startups go out of business...including my own SaaS business so I know many of the mistakes. 

Over that time I've noticed that the buyer's journey has evolved. 

Today buyers have the power.

Yet, many SaaS businesses still continue to run the same programs that worked a decade ago. 

They continue to over-rely on lead gen and create friction in the buying process. 

This is pushing customer acquisition costs sky high and causing many to miss their targets. 

The way forward is to take a buyer-centric approach to creating and capturing demand. 

Buyer-centric demand gen is when your funnel aligns with how the buyer wants to learn about your company. 

It means you write in the language your buyer understands, you consider how they consume information, and when and how they want to buy. 

When you take a buyer-centric approach you generate more pipeline and revenue and an enduring brand. 

This is why we started Omni Lab.

------------------------------------------------------------

What we do for Series A to Series C SaaS startups:

→ Manage and optimize paid media across any digital channel
→ Distribute content/messaging via paid to grow pipeline and revenue
→ Build out engaging ad creative
→ Focus on optimizing the funnel based on pipeline and revenue. 

Results from SaaS companies we have worked with: 

→ Unicorn Status in 10 months
→ Grew pipeline 372% and lead > opp rate 266%
→ 1,300% increase in revenue Q3 > Q4
→ 20% increase in revenue Q over Q

If you are looking to create and capture demand via paid media, let's chat :) 

email: jonathan@omnilabconsulting.com or DM me

Jonathan Bland

"Ads are too expensive, and the ROI is terrible."

If you've said this before, this is for you. 

First off, there is no question that it's become more expensive to reach many of the same audiences. 

- There is more money being spent on Google, LinkedIn, and even Reddit. (Q3 ad revenue and a 74% YOY growth rate)

- CTR is down for many; you're getting less traffic (paid and organic) than you were before with AI overviews (mostly related to informational searches) 

- CAC in some cases is increasing. 

- And I don't go a week without hearing someone say "LinkedIn Ads are expensive."

There's good reason to be frustrated. 

However, you can do something about it. 

The “ad channel” may not call up no-shows or close the deal for you, but there are practical you have control over that can help determine if your dollars are being spent well. 

For example: 

- Consider a B2B SaaS brand that we audited that's spending $3,250 on mobile conversion when desktop costs $464
- Consider another B2B SaaS brand that spent 43% of the budget on titles that have NEVER historically come in inbound
 - Or consider another B2B SaaS brand that spent 125k on one campaign that drove 70 MQLs, but only 2 SQLs for a cost per SQL of $62,714. 

These are real stories, from authentic brands, that have a real opportunity to make paid media cheaper and more efficient. 

There are no doubt hurdles like attribution, increasing privacy regulations, more SaaS apps being vibe coded, and AI stealing away precious TOFU searches. 

But I'm telling you that you can make your program more efficient. 

You just have to start systematically breaking apart your strategy. 

This is what we are going to talk about with the Factors.ai team tomorrow @ 12:00pm EST. 

Register with the link below (even for the recording); I've put a lot of work into this to ensure it's worth it. 

AI slop excluded. ;)

Co-Founder @ Omni Lab | Paid Media for B2B SaaS brands (HIRING)

"You can have the best product in the world. But if no one knows about it, you have NOTHING."

Arnold wasn’t wrong.

In categories where every product starts to look the same, mental availability becomes the real advantage.

If you’re not top of mind when they’re ready to buy, you’re invisible.

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li_at

It looks like we are forecasted to close out 2025 at a 34% YoY growth rate. 

And I couldn't be happier with what the entire Omni Team has accomplished; this can't be achieved without all of you!

And most importantly, to all the SaaS brands that trusted us with their paid media strategy. 

And to the many more that helped provide feedback and advice along the way, especially my Pops ;) 

We are by no means perfect, but with every mistake we have made along the way, we have done our best to take in that feedback to get better. 

I can tell you with complete conviction that we will continue to push ourselves harder to do everything in our control to put any brand we work with in the best position to increase brand awareness and drive pipeline through paid media. 

And with that growth, we are starting up conversations in search of the following roles:

- Sr. Paid Search Manager
- Sr. Paid Social Manager
- Sr. Demand Gen Manager (paid focus)

If you are in the U.S. and have strong in-house experience at a SaaS brand or support SaaS brands at an agency, I'd love to chat. 

Even if you aren't quite ready to move, I'd like to meet, as it could be a fit down the road. :)

We look for people who are:

- Curious, like to go deep
- Focus on pipeline accountability
- Deeply technical with paid media
- Deep experience working with CRMs 
- Good at communicating and setting expectations
- Stay up to date with the latest things happening in SaaS

Drop me a DM and we'll find some time over the next couple of weeks to chat. 

Once again, thanks to all who have supported and trusted us. 🙏 🙏 🙏

Coming from a sales background, I used to think marketing’s job was simple: deliver more inbound leads so I could hit quota with fewer cold calls. 

Over time, I realized most of the real impact marketing generates isn’t visible in the short term and doesn’t look like a “lead.”

Yet, marketing is under more pressure than ever to deliver "leads". 

A recent survey by MarketingWeek found that 37.7% are under pressure to deliver leads, regardless of quality (unacceptable in my book). 

And 52% claim senior leadership fails to understand the importance of marketing beyond lead generation. (yep, we all know this and feel this)

Marketing can be a short-term lead generator and needs to connect back to business outcomes; however, you'd be incredibly short-sighted if you think that's all marketing "does". 

Marketing is:

- Positioning the product so sales can increase win rates
- Building mental availability so cold outbound reply rates increase
- Building content engines that engage and build trust with buyers before they are in-market
- Making the website clear so buyers understand what the hell you do
- Feeding marketing insights to the product team to guide the product roadmap
- And more

Many of those things don't show up as “leads" in the CRM, yet they make selling dramatically easier in the long term.

So from the sales perspective, it’s easy to conclude that if marketing isn't driving leads, it isn't doing anything because the impact isn’t always immediate or visible.

And from marketing’s perspective, it’s exhausting to constantly defend long-term work to short-term pressures.

The reality?

1.) Marketing needs to help the whole org understand what it's doing to drive both short and long-term goals. 

2.) And ensure proper expectations are set, as everything marketing does can't be measured with the same brush. 

3.) In addition, focus on reframing the way you talk about other initiatives that aren't directly related to promotion. 

Instead of saying “we are redoing messaging and positioning this quarter to better position the company in the category.”

You say, “We are reworking how we position ourselves in the category to help buyers better understand why we are a better choice against alternative solutions, which will help improve lead-to-opportunity conversion rates."

Like everything, it's about balance, setting the proper expectations, and helping educate senior leadership on how to measure different initiatives.

Easier said than done.

Why is it getting more expensive to acquire customers?

There is no question that 2025 has been the year of "how do we get more efficient with our marketing spend".

The Emerging Cloud Index shows public software companies down 6.3% YTD. 

Pavilion did a survey back in May of 2025 showing the new CAC Ratio for new customers continues to rise, 14% higher in 2024.

And many CMOs I talk to still don't have enough pipeline coverage.

Meanwhile, every channel is dead or dying (according to {insert name} thought leader).

The reality is that it's much more complex than asking "what's the best channel or tactic?"

Your product, positioning, brand, pricing, and sales motion all impact CAC. 

You can have the BEST marketing in the world with the best content, but if your product isn't solving a big problem at an affordable cost, then it doesn't matter how many ads you run. 

There are, however, ALWAYS things in your control as a marketer that can help improve efficiency, and those are the variables you need to focus on. 

Take a look at the deck below from a recent Factors.ai webinar I hosted with ✌🏻Jason S., to hear four practical things you can do. 

TL;DR Focus first on what you can control, then use other macro-level data points to support the narrative of what's going on in the market.

Pavilion

↳ Co-Founder @ Omni Lab | B2B Paid Media | AI Architect

How to Decrease CAC

In case you missed it, last month LinkedIn rolled out an update to its Campaign Manager hierarchy and naming structure to better align with other ad platforms (like Meta and Google). 

Here's what changed and what you need to do 👇 

Current Name:
- Campaign Group
- Campaign
- Ad

New Name (Starting Oct 2025)
- Campaign
- Ad Set
- Ad

What it means for advertisers:

- Functionality remains the same; this is a naming update, not a workflow change.

- Dynamic URL tracking parameters will also update automatically to match the new structure (e.g., CAMPAIGN_GROUP_ID becomes CAMPAIGN_ID, and so on).

- When creating or editing new ad sets, you’ll need to use the new dynamic parameter values moving forward.

TL:DR Make sure you update your dynamic tracking template at the campaign level so your CRM can properly associate campaign, ad, etc.

For all the B2B SaaS brands we work with, we’ve already taken this into consideration to ensure tracking is in tact.

At Omni Lab, we've seen a 667.34% increase in traffic from ChatGPT YoY. 

And just the other day,  Lee Gannon from Cognism sent me this Slack below. 

More and more people who come to us inbound are mentioning LLMs as one of the ways they found us; ChatGPT is the first, followed by Perplexity, and then Google AI. 

It's somewhat clear that these could be some of the reasons we are being recommended:

- We are listed in some top 10 demand gen/paid media agency comparison lists
- We have been producing organic content on LinkedIn for years
- We've done content collaborations (e.g. guest podcast, webinars, events)
- We've implemented a number of technical changes on our website to optimize for LLMs
- We've added a structured list-based page dedicated just for LLMs to read called "Hey AI Read this"
- We're also being recommended in some "agency recommendation" threads on Reddit

While all this is generally good, I have noticed that some brands are:

- Often a bit smaller, less qualified
- The calls are often colder; less familiar with us

Regardless, it's clearly a good thing to see more activity with LLMs trending up, and I'd expect not just us but other categories to see the same thing. 

I'm also sure some people will ask an LLM for recommendations, then simply go to your website directly, which creates holes in this analysis.

The buyer journey starts LONG before a buyer decides to talk to sales. 

This is why marketing exists. 

Be known, be different, and align with key buying triggers. 

So when they come in-market. 

They think of you.

If your friend just bought a new Ferrari, would you buy one?

Probably not. 

Then why are you so concerned with what keywords your competitors are bidding on. 

You have to fight the social conformity.

Just because they decided to spend a bunch of money (or go into debt) doesn’t mean it’s the right financial decision for you.

The same thing is true for doing competitor keyword research. 

If Monday.com can help with workflow automation and is the number one recommended by Google in its Workflow Automation tools recommendation list...

Should they bid on "workflow automation" just because similar products to theirs are bidding on it?

Not necessarily. 

Here’s why:

1.) You’re copying an unknowable strategy

You have no clue whether their campaigns are profitable, whether they’re targeting the same ICP, or whether their agency is just dumping budget to show activity.

2.) You inherit their mistakes

Just because they can bid on something doesn’t mean you should. Most companies run mediocre PPC programs with bad tracking and outdated keyword lists.

3.) You become reactive instead of buyer-focused

The moment you optimize based on what competitors do, you stop optimizing for what your customer actually searches for.

Sure, use tools like Spyfu, Ahrefs, and others to see what keywords they are bidding on for research, but don't chase competitors. 

Chase your customers.

How would you feel if you told your CEO that you saved the company $100k?

And that you reallocated that budget to better-performing campaigns, which should drive an estimated x number of high-intent conversions. 

I can't think of any VP of Marketing who wouldn't want to share that story. 

And this is exactly the story for this SaaS brand that's raised more than $100M.

Over the past 3 months, they have spent $99,849k on keywords with zero conversions. 

Here’s how to see if you have the same opportunity:

1.) Export or build a report in Google Ads and pull metrics/attributes that include: keywords, clicks, impressions, CPC, cost, conversions, conversion rate, and search impression share. 

2.) Take the average cost per conversion for a similar campaign (e.g., non-brand)

3.) Apply a filter to your report to be set at 1.5-2x (or an amount you are comfortable with) the average cost per conversion

4.) Apply a filter to the conversion column to look for keywords that have spent 1.5-2x your average cost per conversion with zero conversions. 

That’s it. Or you can automate this with rules; albeit, I still think some human oversight is important. 

Generally, I’d start with reviewing the brands CRM or offline conversions; however, if conversion tracking is set up correctly, that should be sufficient to guide you on what to cut keywords that have produced zero conversions. 

Many of these keywords for this SaaS brand generally aligned with the brand; however, 20 other keywords in the account aren't close to being maxed out. 

So while you could argue you should review:

- search terms report
- match types
- ad copy
- landing page,
- Etc.  

...You already have clear proof that these other 20 keywords are driving high-intent conversions right now. 

You can always come back to keywords that have been cut to work on all those things I mentioned, but if you are looking for something that can help improve performance in the short-term, that is where you should start.

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Diego Oquendo

Jonathan Bland

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