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

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MicroStrategy

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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.

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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

If I were a VP of Marketing/Founder/CEO, and I were trying to get my first 100 users. I wouldn't use paid ads. 

I'd first focus on doing the following (in this order)

1.) Email/call/reach out to everyone you already know that could be a fit
2.) Email/call/reach out to everyone you know that might know your ICP
3.) Email/call/reach out to people that could be a fit that you don't know
4.) Post/engage thoughtfully on social media

Ideally, these all happen before you even build the production app, so you can validate that there is a problem and that demand already exists. (we know that doesn't happen sometimes...)
 
In this time, you'll learn:

- The messaging that resonates best
- The top use cases/problems for your product
- The positioning that worked best
- The specific segments that convert better
- And so on

Which will then derisk your investment in paid media and ultimately your product roadmap. 

It doesn't mean everything will be "figured out", but many of the fundamentals will be in place to allow channels to have a better ROI.

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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.

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. 🙏 🙏 🙏

People forget that buyers buy on their timeline. 

Not on yours. 

Just the other day, a vendor gave me a deadline to close a contract. 

They said, "We can offer the discount until the end of the month."

My first reaction was feeling pressure to sign the deal. (what they want)

Then I just felt like I was being rushed to buy something. 

It made me want to abandon the whole deal. 

This isn't the type of environment you want to create for buyers. 

During the sales process or before. 

However, we often spend so much energy trying to convert people who aren’t even close to making a decision yet.

Instead, we need to find ways to "eat up" more mental real estate so we are the first brand that pops into their minds. 

We can do that by: 

- Building deep relationships with them
- Helping them with something
- Being clear with what we do
- Creating memorable moments
- Sharing something they value

Stop trying to force the sale, be a helpful guide, and stay top of mind so when they are ready, they choose you on their timeline.

I'm a bit worried about you. 

We just launched the campaign, and you want to know how it's performing?

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.

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.

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

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.

Senior Demand Generation Manager at Cognism | Growth Marketing B2B SaaS | Paid Media Specialist

Cognism

"SQLs are up 57%" 

"No, I actually see that we are only up by 37%"

I've seen these conversations play out so many times internally between teams. 

And sometimes between us with the brands we support. 

When you aren't aligned or you have reporting discrepancies it makes impossible to understand what's working and what's not. 

So often, reports aren't using the same date property, the same filters, or the same attribution model, which creates frustrating moments when two teams report completely different results. 

Or worse, they aren't agreed on, or they change often, which then destroys historical funnel conversion rates. 

To avoid this, sales, marketing, product, and the exec team must agree on:

- Lead stage names and definitions
- How performance will be measured and with what KPIs
- Determine CRM properties  and filters for key reports
- The exit criteria used to move someone from one stage to the next

This is your internal data dictionary that everyone in the company can review to ensure reporting stays aligned. 

You then need to agree on the ONE attribution model you'll use for determining "source". 

Why one?

Because it adds way more complexity when you change models, and it's difficult to communicate results across multiple models. 

You can and should use different models to support a narrative you are trying to communicate and/or answer different questions, but the core reporting needs to be aligned on ONE. 

As you build up reporting consistency, it'll get a lot easier to do "accurate" funnel analysis and understand the impact of experiments you are running. 

Without this, you'll be stuck in endless arguments trying to benchmark results on data that isn't consistent.

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.

Why are the first 10 minutes of webinars wasted talking about "housekeeping items”? 

Why not instead jump straight into the content? 

If I listen to a recorded webinar, I’ll always skip ahead as the first 5-10min is usually just pre-webinar banter, intros talking about people's background, the agenda, and other "house keeping items". 

I've never been on a live webinar that does this.  

What if you skipped all of that and started with a compelling question to get people thinking? 

Or what if you simply dove right in to the content? 

That’d hook them in early.

Maybe something like this: 

1.) Open with a compelling hook (big insight, misconception, or story)
2.) Deliver the #1 takeaway immediately (buy trust in the first 60–90 seconds)
3.) Move straight into the content
4.) Keep intros to ~15 seconds
5.) Skip the housekeeping entirely (or put it in the chat)

Worth a thought.

Garnter found that buyers spend only 17% of their total buying time with sales.

The other 80–95% happens in channels marketing owns or influences, search, social, peers, review sites, your website, and product.

Surveys from Gartner, McKinsey, and 6sense all tell the same story:

– 60%+ of buyers would prefer a rep-free experience.
– 80% of sales interactions now happen through digital channels.
– In 4 out of 5 deals, the buyer has a preferred vendor in mind before they ever talk to a rep.  ￼

If marketing now influences roughly 80% of the buying journey, then marketing should receive a greater share of investment.

Sales isn’t going away, but its role continues to shift later in the process. By the time a buyer submits a “demo request,” they’ve nearly made their decision.

That puts a huge responsibility on marketing:

Be the brand they think of before they’re ready to buy.

Invest accordingly.

The Customer Journey Maestro

If you can't beat them, join them. I have resigned from my own career as a freelance writer because AI is replacing people like me, and there's no point in waiting around for the inevitable. Now I'm focused on learning how business people can leverage AI. I don't yet have a service to offer around this, but I'm happy to discuss the practical applications of AI anytime.

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I love to write and create content of all kinds. My broad and deep experience across sales, marketing, and customer success gives me a unique perspective and the ability to write compelling content for just about any industry. My approach is to get the inside truth from the people behind each story, and I don’t believe in taking shortcuts. I write and publish for your customers, to engage them, educate them, and compel them to take action. The SEO stuff comes along for the ride. Let’s talk about your freelance writing/content needs.

Freelance Writer

I help B2B companies build and execute modern marketing strategies focused on customers.

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Hire me on a full-time or part-time basis to up-level your go-to-market strategy. And it won’t cost you an arm and a leg.

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Customer Journey Guide

On-demand expertise in marketing strategy, demand generation, content marketing, social media marketing, product and customer marketing, sales and marketing alignment, and customer success.

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CMO for Hire

Are you in transition? Starting from scratch or making a pivot to a new revenue growth strategy? My Virtual CMO services provide proven expertise to help you jumpstart sales, marketing, and customer experience prior to hiring executives and staffing departments. It's a low-cost, low-risk way to get the strategic advice you need.

Virtual CMO

Riptide Business Press

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Author, Podcaster and Consultant

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Co-owned one of the first and most successful inbound marketing agencies, Kuno Creative. Grew the agency from a handful of talented marketers and designers to a 50+ person agency with clients ranging from national healthcare and technology companies to international consortiums and manufacturing giants. Specialized in marketing technology and sales enablement - helping companies fix leaky funnels and sales pipelines via strategy, marketing automation and optimized CRM utilization. Please visit Kuno's website, www.kunocreative.com for more information, or follow me on LinkedIn.

EVP and Co-Owner

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Developed corporate websites from scratch using HTML/CSS, then created a proprietary CMS for creating client sites backed by a SQL database using ASP.net and later, Ruby on Rails.

Web Developer

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Independent oil and gas exploration company in Houston, TX. No longer in business.

Executive Vice President and CTO

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Exploration Geophysicist

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Research professional working in electron microscopy for Shell Research and in geophysical interpretation research for Shell Exploration and Production.

Research Geoscientist

B2B Marketing Strategy Advisor With Company, Agency, and Freelance Chops

I retired in 2017 from a 40-year career, mostly in sales and marketing, for a variety of energy, manufacturing, and software companies. My penultimate position was co-owner of Kuno Creative, a digital marketing agency and one of HubSpot's first agency partners. My contributions continue as I seek to help other agency owners, professionals, and free-wheelers navigate their way through gnarly challenges in business and life.

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