Full-funnel ABM for B2B brands with 5+ figure deals | Co-Founder @ FullFunnel.io

You need more pipeline that turns into revenue. But:
- Most marketing leads never convert to deals
- ⁠Outbound is in continuous decline 
- All the investments in trendy programs, agencies or tech didn’t move the needle. 

It’s time to try implementing full-funnel sales and marketing programs. 

Why? 

So you can:
- Accelerate this quarter’s revenue while building the future pipeline
- ⁠Convert 5-15% accounts to pipeline
- ⁠Bring marketing and sales teams together to drive the KPI that matters the most: sales velocity. 

We helped dozens of B2B tech companies implement full-funnel marketing and sales programs with 10%+ account-to-pipeline ratio. 

We will take your team by the hand and together, implement a scoped pilot program with clear milestones to prove the key KPIs, before investing in operationalization and scaling. 

To learn more or ask me anything, connect with me here or visit our website at fullfunnel.io



Vladimir Blagojević

Most marketing plans:

- Start with channels and tactics (syndication, events, SEO, ads, outbound, newsletter...)
- Layer in content and copywriting to "match the audience"
- Run campaigns 
- Measure results based on CPL, MQL

Then wonder why the leads aren’t converting. 

Marketing built the full-funnel way: 

1. FOUNDATION

- Ideal Customer Profile: Priority use-cases and clusters, firmographics and technographics, (dis)qualification criteria, account segmentation & prioritization and buying committee structure
- Buyer journey: where and how they learn, discover and buy a solution like yours
- Messaging, value proposition, content strategy
- Alignment of GTM teams (on KPIs, ICP, buyer journey, messaging and content strategy)

2. FULL-FUNNEL ARCHITECTURE 

Evergreen, consistent programs across the full-funnel to: 
- Drive brand awarnes with out-of-market buyers on places where they hang out and learn 
- Sow the seeds and generate demand by providing solutions to their priority challenges
- Capture the demand (both inbound on high-intent channels, and allbound in collaboration with sales)
- Accelerate demand capture and pipeline for high-value accounts 
- Drive customer success and expansion
- Never stop nurturing 

If you ignore one of them, you either: 
a) Squeeze out maximum of in-market accounts and sacrifice future pipeline
b) Create "engagement" that isn't converting to revenue
c) Deal with a huge churn and the need to re-compensate revenue with new customers

3. INFRASTRUCTURE 

- Dedicated, aligned, cross-functional teams with clear responsibilites
- Documented, repeatable playbooks 
- Lean tech stack with clear owners
- Key metrics and reports 
- Revenue and marketing ops 

4. TACTICS AND DELIVERY 

- Tactics (social, podcast, ads, outbound, events...)
- Content, copywriting, creatives

--- 

How and where you deliver your marketing message matters. 

But if that message isn’t landing — or converting?

The issue is usually deeper:
- Shaky foundations
- Misaligned teams
- Missing programs

If you notice cracks, check the foundation and structure first.

Full-Funnel ABM and Demand Gen For B2B Companies w/ High ACV | Co-Founder @ FullFunnel.io

Here's why so many good CMOs get fired. 

Leadership wants:
- faster results
- bigger numbers
- cheaper acquisition 

...all of that at once. 

This short-term ROI pressure pushes CMOs to do what gets measured: 

When forced to choose under pressure, CMOs are 5X likely to pick demand over brand. 
(recent study by Jon Miller, Ray Rike /Benchmarkit, Bill Macaitis and Carilu Dietrich). 

But this creates a structural problem.

- We put all our effort into meeting this quarter's number
- We don't invest in long term programs that build awareness and trust 

A few quarters later, the pipeline dries up. 

The numbers back this up: we're spending $2.00 to acquire $1.00 of net-new ARR. And the CAC payback time has been constantly increasing by 12.5% at median since 2022 (Pavilion).

Why is this happening? 

Leadership still believes that marketing is like a gumball machine: you put in $ and get $$ out (credit: Jon Miller). 

We know that reality is different: 
- Non-linear, complex buying journeys
- Early influence matters: more than 80% of buyers short list products they discovered before the buying process

But our attribution hides the early influence, and the "credit" goes to the last touch was before the deal, which reinforces the gumball machine thinking. 

So, without clear attribution to early and middle-funnel activities, leadership doubles down on short-term ROI.

And when the pressure doesn't bring results, CMOs get fired. 

The cycle repeats. 

--- 

As long as we stay in this loop, things won't change. 

But ripping out the entire infrastructure and starting from scratch is not an option either. No leadership will support it. 

The solution is an evolution, not a revolution. 

It all starts with a small-scoped pilot: 
- No new hires, a small cross-functional team 
- No extra budget, scoped down to a small set of accounts we have 'the right to win'
- Attribution: the team gets the credits for the pipeline created 
- The main goal is not volume, but effectiveness. By working together, from awareness to pipeline, that we can turn a higher % of high-value accounts into deals

If you want to dive into the weeds, join Andrei Zinkevich and me during our Full-Funnel Summit.

Get your free ticket here: 
https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c

Here is how full-funnel marketing balances short-term ROI pressure with long-term brand programs:

Pre-conditions:

-Setting up a cross-functional team
-Repurposing what's been created
-Joint planning and accountability
-Agreement with leadership on allbound attribution

Short-term solutions:

-Developing account prioritization model with sales: account engagement level, signals, account sourcing, revenue potential, relationship with buying committee group, product need evidence
-Working on deal acceleration (1:1 account plans) and buyer enablement for early-stage pipeline
-Prepare personalized content hubs and content
-Set up account retargeting ads using demand capture budget

Balancing short-term ROI with long-term brand programs:

-Repurposing existing content for thought leadership / Enabling sales rep to share content
-Boosting top-performing content with thought leadership ads to target account list
-Define and capture engagement signals
-Co-create webinar narrative together with sales
-Promote webinar via partners, communities and ads
-Set up weekly meetings inviting RevOps and CS to discuss:

* Captured signals and account insights
* Planning next steps with the engaged accounts
* Planning content

-Set up post-webinar content hub, tracking content engagement, and planning next activation steps

Track:

-Engaged strategic accounts (highlight strategic accounts sales tried to engage, but never got a reply)
-Brand metrics
-Accelerated deals
-New pipeline opportunities
-Total ALLBOUND pipeline value/revenue

This "bare minimum" model enables you to show real pipeline influence while setting up fundamentals for long-term brand programs:

✅ Creating awareness of the invisible 95%
✅ Nurturing the buying committees early 
✅ Building credibility in peer networks (where real decisions happen)
✅ Co-creating account prioritization and engagement with sales
---
Most marketing teams are trapped in a brutal false choice: hit quarterly numbers or build long-term brand value.

Leadership screams for pipeline NOW. Brand programs take months to show impact. 

The "default" marketing function:

❌ Receive pipeline targets from leadership
❌ Spread budget across "demand gen" and "demand capture"
❌ Publish generic blog articles for SEO
❌ Host product-pitching webinars
❌ Hand over "leads" to sales

This playbook optimizes for the 5% of accounts actively buying TODAY while completely ignoring:

- What gets you into the consideration set of that 5%
- What creates the pre-conditions for deals to happen
- What actually influences buying decisions

But the result is always the same: being blamed for lack of revenue contribution and not enough pipeline.

The only way to get out: balancing real short-term pipeline results with long-term brand programs.

But it requires you connecting the dots between different activities across the buyer journey through cross-functional collaboration.

---
We'll share a deep dive at our Full-Funnel Summit: 
https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c

How to survive as a B2B CMO, and drive revenue in 2026 
- a year of AI and long sales cycles? 

(14 masterclasses by 17 B2B leaders)

1. Use AI to drive real results, not "do more with less"

Learn how to:

- Use AI workflows at every stage of the ABM funnel with Steve Armenti (who built the program generating $2B+ in pipeline at Google)

- Redesign your marketing operating model as an AI-native CMO with Tim Rutten

- Turn AI-powered account scoring and hyper-personalized messaging into actual pipeline with Leanne Chescoe

2. Win long and complex sales cycles 

Leadership wants faster results, bigger numbers, and cheaper acquisition—all of that at once. But buying cycles have lengthened, budgets are tighter, and market noise is deafening. 

Learn how to:

- Build a B2B marketing playbook purpose-built for long sales cycles with Andrei Zinkevich and yours truly 

- Create GTM Focus Cycles that translate ambitious revenue plans into clear, executable priorities with Ashley Lewin

- Drive predictable pipeline in a chaotic market through orchestration and culture with Matt Heinz

3. Create content that stands out in AI noise and builds trust before the sale 

Buyers evaluate your credibility before they ever talk to sales. Most content teams are still producing for clicks, not trust.

Learn how to:

- Build a content flywheel that compounds over time instead of burning out your team with Sara Stella Lattanzio and Diandra Escobar

- Become famous in your niche and attract business through LinkedIn video and organic distribution with Tycho Luijten

- Create ads for boring products that actually stand out, with Shlomo Genchin

4. Sell like a human in a world of automation 

AI has made it easier to scale outreach. It's also made it easier to be ignored.

Learn how to:

- Practice human-first social selling when AI is accelerating faster than any previous technology shift, with Lauren Goodell

- Use human-centered marketing in the age of AI to evolve the buyer's journey from a funnel into a playground with Ashley Faus

5. Prove the ROI and get budget for long-term programs 

The pressure to show attribution has never been higher. The tools to do it honestly have never been better.

Learn how to:

- Crush LinkedIn Ads in 2026 and prove it to leadership with Justin Rowe

- Run account-based revenue programs that tie directly to bookings with Davis Potter

--- 

B2B teams have a choice in 2026.

Keep running volume plays in a market where buyers are already overwhelmed, skeptical, and using AI to filter out noise faster than you can produce it.

Or learn from practitioners who have figured out what actually works.

All sessions are live.  Don't miss it: 

https://lnkd.in/eD7JZXxT

Here is how AI is ACTUALLY being used by 44 enterprise marketing leaders: 8 new use-cases. 

1. REPLICATE SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGNS

Proven patterns + target market insights = replicating success. 

“We’ve been building AI-based tools to duplicate ABM campaigns, and they seem to be working well so far” — Kayleigh Duggan.

2. EMBED IN WORKFLOWS 
“The real play is embedding AI into workflows that already solve real problems. 

Start with: what’s slowing us down today? 

Some of the strongest use cases are unsexy but powerful: keeping CRMs up to date, hygiene no one wants to do, layering in insights from calls, lead qualification, personalization, and research.” 

- Sara Stella Lattanzio (biweekly expert-tested AI workflows at The Workflow).

3. SALES COACHING

“I built ‘MarkGPT’ to analyze transcripts from won vs lost deals. It confirms patterns, surfaces new insights, and provides live coaching on active deals — flagging risks like missing an economic buyer or suggesting objection handling.” — Sam Kuehnle, Loxo

4. MARKETING OPERATIONS

“Our ‘secret’ AI MarOps tool that not many people know about is Jigso.ai, which I think more companies should try.” — Ruth Favela, Tomorrow.io

5. EVENT FOLLOW UP

“We added an AI SDR that is booking meetings and running pre- and post-event follow-up.” — Carrina Ekvall, Recurly

6. ADAPTIVE NURTURING

“We use dynamic sequences: depending on engagement, the next step changes.” — Lujan Quintero, PSignite

7. QUALIFY & PROGRESS LEADS FASTER

“One of the most meaningful uses of AI we’ve found is in lead qualification and funnel progression. AI assistants engage earlier, ask smart questions, and route prospects faster. The result is higher-quality pipeline, improved conversion rates, and shorter sales cycles.” — Nicole Gates, Varonis

8. CONVERSION OPTIMIZATION

“Where I’ve seen AI make a real impact is in conversion, not just production. For example, improving outreach using decision triggers.” — Sheri Otto, Redwood Software

The most common use-case: ENRICH ACCOUNTS, PRIORITIZE & PERSONALIZE AT SCALE

For example, “Research accounts & create messaging tied to their needs for 1:1 messaging at scale.” — Matt Dowis, OPEX Corporation

Other notable patterns:
- CREATE ACCOUNT CLUSTERS BY PAIN POINTS
- USE SALES & CUSTOMER CALLS TO TUNE STRATEGY & MESSAGING
- OPTIMIZE FOR THE NEW SEARCH FRONTIER (SEO → AEO)
- AUTOMATE BUYING SIGNALS CAPTURE
- ACCELERATE MARKET RESEARCH

Special thanks to the Dealfront team, especially Jamie Pagan and Simone Schiavo - for such a rich contribution. 

---

Without a clear strategy, AI just helps you produce more of the wrong thing faster.

Sara said it best: “If your ‘AI strategy’ is tossing lazy prompts into an LLM, congrats you’ve just scaled mediocrity.”

But more and more teams successfully embed AI into a GTM. 


During our Full-Funnel Summit, we have a complete track on how to use AI to drive revenue, not just do more with less. 

Get your free ticket here: 
https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c

AI in real B2B Companies

Here's the pattern every CMO recognizes.

You're pressured to pour everything into hitting this quarter's number. You squeeze every last drop from the existing pipeline and demand. 

By meeting this quarter's number, you've depleted next quarter's pipeline. You didn't get to invest in the activities that build awareness and trust six to nine months out.

And leadership happily raises the bar. 

We're trapped in a system that punishes long-term thinking but demands long-term results.

"I'll survive this quarter, show ROI, and next quarter will be better."

No, it won't. That's rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. The cost of non-strategic decisions compounds: 

1. ATTRIBUTION

65% of CMOs struggle proving marketing's revenue and pipeline contribution. This is the reality of last touch-attribution. 

Deals take months, sometimes years. Buyers might read your content, attend an event, see you on LinkedIn, talk to a partner, and only then reach out to sales.

But in the CRM, all that early influence disappears. The "credit" goes to the last touch before the deal.

Instead, consider a blend of self-attribution, account-based attribution, and customer interviews. Look for qualitative signals, not just quantitative ones.

2. PROGRAMS

Jon Miller's research: "when faced with budget cuts, marketing leaders are 5X more likely to protect demand gen budget than brand.

Odd, given 73% of companies agree that brand investment is a long-term investment that makes demand generation more efficient."

Instead, we need programs that balance long-term brand awareness, future pipeline development, and this quarter's goals

3. TEAMS

In most B2B orgs, there's a lack of cross-functional collaboration with sales.

Even with best intentions to work together, misaligned incentives get in the way. 

But without an orchestrated effort across GTM teams, it becomes impossible to influence the complete buyer journey. 

4. TECH/AI

Leadership hears "AI" and imagines instant pipeline at lower cost.

Yes, we can create more content than ever. Pull public data points and "personalize" at scale.

But all we're doing is scaling tactics that didn't work in the first place. 

Instead, AI should scale processes we have proven and refined through many iterations:
- Pilot → document & refine → train AI 
- Show AI what 'good looks like' with examples of high-quality output (quality benchmarks)
- Use deep insights and research about the target ICP segment as input for AI

---

The way out? 

1. Strong fundamentals (brand narrative, differentiation, positioning, ICP, buyer journey...)⠀
2. Full-funnel programs: awareness → demand capture → pipeline → Buyer enablement→ CS & expansion
3. Balanced time horizons 

Understand customers. Shape the journey. Build brands buyers choose.


If you want to dive deeper, join Andrei and me, and 14 B2B leaders during our Full-Funnel Summit.

Get your free ticket here: 
https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c

"I have $20k budget. How many leads do you guarantee?"
Sorry, what is called "demand gen" today is a rotten, broken marketing playbook that costs CMOs their jobs.

Old school demand gen aka waterfall marketing indoctrinated B2B companies that there is a predictable revenue model:

-Design gated content
-Run ads and send cold marketing emails aka "nurturing"
-Capture MQLs
-Handover to sales
-Analyze MQL to SQL conversion rate
-Figure out which channel generates more MQLs at lower CAC
-Calculate how many MQLs do you need to hit revenue targets based on the current conversion rate
-Request budget

B2B companies and VCs loved the idea of predictable revenue so much, so they completely recreated GTM around the new broken model.

The core of the new model:

Marketing & sales control the buyer journey and can push buyers.

This immediately widened the definition of target addressable market (TAM) and made companies forget about ICP.

Faster. Predictable. Scalable.

And within this nonsense we started seeing how B2B CMOs tenure is plummeting to 16 months in 2025.

I once attended a meeting where Head of ABM at a well-known (63k+ employees) B2B company presented to head of demand gen of one vertical team the idea of a cross-functional program.

The first thing she heard:

I don't have time for this. I can give you $20k for air cover. How many leads do you guarantee?

We must stop it.

The only way to generate B2B revenue for enterprise products is shifting to revenue marketing.
---

We invited Matt Heinz, who has been advocating for it for a long time, to join us, and other 15 B2B marketing leaders on our Full-Funnel Summit.

Get your free ticket here: 
https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c

What is ABM?
How out industry completely messed it up.

It all started with ABM platforms selling the enterprise pipeline miracle:

-Buy an ABM platform
-Get a list of dream accounts from sales
-Launch programmatic display ads
-Build dynamic landing pages where the account name and logo will be automatically changed based on the domain or IP
-Create personalized outbound cadences

Easy to launch. 100% measurable. 0 work from sales.

The hype was picked up by many marketing agencies with junior marketers who NEVER had an experience of working, selling, or even talking to Enterprise B2B buyers.

They saw a new "predictable revenue model" that could be labeled as a high-ticket service. You just need to sound smart.

Technically, what I described above can be defined as ABM, because the accounts and the personalization is there.

The problem?

It's very different from how enterprise B2B buyers buy.

The facilitation of that model created a false expectation that ABM is 100% marketing initiative where sales, product, CS, and subject-matter experts should do nothing.

It 100% matched executive expectations because it is just a small upgrade of a lead gen program their company ran for the last decade.

It doesn't require any change management, while in reality it does!

ABM is a cross-functional program that requires significant change management:

- Having an engaged marketing leader who is willing to drive change.

- Incorporating ABM in your Go-To-Market strategy, not creating a new, siloed function

- Structuring teams from horizontal silos to cross-functional operations: marketing, content, client success, sales (SDRs and AEs), subject-matter experts & product

- Changing KPIs from MQls and SQLs to account engagement, penetration, progression, pipeline value, velocity, and revenue, and ask both teams to track them regularly

- Adjusting sales processes to run account research, full buying committee mapping and regular engagement, leveraging marketing initiatives and content for nurturing, using 1st party and 3rd party signals to add value to the conversations and facilitate opportunity creation

- Readjusting content strategy from "SEO-first" to "buyer needs first"

- Investing A LOT in brand awareness by engaging industry thought leaders, communities and partners via educational thought leadership programs

- Creating account plans based on 1st party research insights, not generic GPT research

- Having regular planning and review meetings

The success of ABM lies not in your stack or budget, but in making necessary changes, setting up cross-functional teams, adjusting their KPIs, and enabling them to focus on meaningful account engagements.



If you want to dive deeper, join Andrei and me, and 14 B2B leaders during our Full-Funnel Summit.

Get your free ticket here: 
https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c

How seasoned B2B leaders deploy AI to scale revenue instead of broken playbooks. 
Problems + solutions + the underlying framework. 

PROBLEMS

1. Tragedy of the commons

We can create more content than ever. Pull public data points and “personalize” at scale.

The result? 

Jon Miller said it best: "every prospect now receives content specifically IRRELEVANT to them" 

We're just teaching buyers to ignore us faster.

"Marketers will use and then abuse any tactic until it becomes ineffective", said Jon.

2. The expectation gap

Leadership hears “AI” and imagines instant pipeline at lower cost.

But reality's different: 

“AI still requires quality data, strategic direction, and human judgment. Without alignment to pipeline metrics, it becomes just another shiny object” - Hanna Kvamme.

3. Hidden taxes

Review Tax: “AI made content faster, but shifted the bottleneck to senior reviewers. Reviewing takes twice as long” - Giorgia Guantario. 

Learning Tax: "On top of everything marketing is responsible for, we are now also responsible for figuring out AI" - Briana (Manrique) Casey.

Raised Bar Tax: "I thought it would free up time for strategic, creative work. Instead, it's increased the pressure to deliver more, faster" (Tarek Fayed)

4. Strategy vacuum → more work, not less

Many companies are deploying AI without a clear strategy.

"If your ‘AI strategy’ is tossing prompts into an LLM, congrats you’ve just scaled mediocrity" (Sara Stella Lattanzio)

And this creates more work, not less: "Without a clear strategy, AI can feel like another demand instead of a time-saver" (Mindy Johnson)

SOLUTIONS

1. Tie AI to GTM outcomes, not output volume

"AI works best when tied to GTM outcomes like conversion rates, sales velocity, or deal size" (Kathleen Booth)

2. Scale what’s proven

Prompt AI with detailed playbooks based on processes you've proven: Pilot → refine → document → prompt.

Real processes augmented by AI: 
- Cluster accounts by pain points (Stuart Coulton)
- Research account insights & signals (Tim Rutten)
- Qualify & progress leads faster (Nicole Gates)
- Sales live coaching on active deals (Sam Kuehnle)
…

3. Use deep ICP research & transcripts as input

Request quotes to prevent hallucination and preserve buyer language. 

4. Show AI what good looks like with examples of high-quality output

5. Build detailed quality checklists

It's always fun to see AI evaluate its own results, back-paddle & fix its own work. 

--- 

Most B2B leaders aren’t struggling with AI.

They're asked for faster results and bigger numbers... with growing cycles, lower budgets, higher CACs & a deafening noise. 

During our Full-Funnel Summit, we have a complete track on how to use AI to drive revenue, not just do more with less. 

Get your free ticket here: 
https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c

AI That Scales Revenue (not broken playbooks)

Not all types of intent are created equal: 

𝟏. 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓 
"I want to be better at my job"

Buying intent: -/low.

Example journey:

1. I'm interested in up-skilling myself, learn the best practices and industry trends
2. I discover good content from a brand, and start following them 
3. I read something very relevant for our situation, and start binging on the related content
4. I get curious about your solution, and check it out
5. I may even reach out to you for a demo in order to understand how it works, and the potential benefits for our brand 
6. I might even try to sell it internally, but quickly realise this is not a priority 
7. I ignore your follow ups 

𝟐. 𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓 
"We need a solution to a high priority problem"

Buying intent: +-/medium.

Example journey:

1. Something happens in our business that shifts our priorities to solving a specific challenge
2. I start exploring solutions, by searching, asking my network, in niche Sclak groups 
3. I discover your content our your brand (e.g. someone recommends it)
4. I explore your solution multiple times, and have internal discussions with my team 
5. Since it seems like it might be the right type of solution, I may reach out to you for a demo, so that I can uderstand it better
6. Meanwhile, we're exploring alternatives 
7. We decide we can solve it intenally, or to go for a different solution category 
8. I ignore your follow ups 

𝟑. 𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐑 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐓 
"We want a solution like yours"

Buying intent: +/high.

Example journey: 

1-6: same as for (2.)

7. I evaluate you as a vendor 

8.a) Bad fit: I remove you from a consideration set and start ghosting you
8.b) Good fit: you end up on the short list 

9. I try to build an internal consensus 
10. We review our needs and purchase criteria, and the available alternatives 
11. I introduce you to my colleagues and we dive deeper 

12.a) We decide a competitor is a good fit
12.b) We agree that we: 
- Understand the total cost , and we believe this investment would yield a significant return
- Expect impact Y within Z time 
- Have a clear plan, right people and infrastructure to implement the solution
- Understand the change management required and feel confident we will be able to do it
- Understand the main risks, and have a plan for a proof of concept to de-risk our decision. 

13. You are vetted by our procurement department 

--- 

Not every intent signal is the same. Not even all the hand raisers are ready to buy from you. 

Study previous deals, identify the red flags and the real buying signals. 

Translate those into criteria and questions you need to ask during the buying process. 

But, the fact that someone was not ready to buy right now, doesn't mean they won't become ready in the coming quarters. 

Never. Stop. Nurturing.

If you want to dive deeper, join Andrei Zinkevich and me, and 14 B2B leaders during our Full-Funnel Summit.

Get your free ticket here: 
https://lnkd.in/dec4k53c

An AI question we got from the CMO of a $300 mil SaaS company: 
"Which parts of ABM will get automated, and which parts are the real human IP?"

Great question. Here's what Andrei Zinkevich and me told him.

What AI can do well:

1. Account research - once you know what information matters and what's noise, where to find it, how to use it - and have a benchmark of what good looks like
2. Account love letters and personalized outreach — once you have a good format, examples and insights
3. Content creation — if you feed it proprietary frameworks and real knowledge, it can generate solid drafts.
4. Signal detection - once you know which signals matters, and how to act on them

None of that is where the value is anymore.

Where the real IP lives: 

senior profiles with in-depth knowledge, relationships and planning. 

1. Senior profiles 

The quality and seniority of people becomes even more important with AI, not less.
- Subject matter expertise 
- Customer knowledge - especially being in contact with customers regularly and knowing what lives in the industry NOW 
- Knowing what good looks like - including empathy for what customers will consider superficial dribble vs real insight
- Deep understanding of the complete (ABM) process

For example, we could only generate useful AI drafts after we had 
- Clearly defined the ICP through dwon & loss deal analysis and in-depth workshops with SMEs and AEs who talk to customers daily 
- Understood the specific challenges of a narrow segment (e.g. $1B+ industrial manufacturers with export dominant business)
- Integrated deep subject matter expertise their head of strategy, founder and their CMO have built over the last 20+ years

Without that work, we'd end up with b.s. buyers would ignore. 

2. Relationships

You can use AI to write tons of LinkedIn comments and connect to people 'personally', but that would be fake and negatively impact everyone. 

Multi-threading, genuine engagement (not standard automated emails) and relationship building (people-to-people) are the key.

3. Strategic planning

The cross-functional workshops are where the magic happens. Bringing together people from product, sales, and marketing means everyone looks at buyer personas and jobs-to-be-done from different angles. 

This produces an unbiased, multi-angle narrative that no AI can replicate on its own.

For example, when a team member suggested specific outomated outreach for DACH, the AE pushed back saying certain approaches wouldn't resonate culturally. That kind of nuance only comes from human judgment in a collaborative setting.

--- 

You'll probably need fewer people. But more senior ones.

The job changes, but critical thinking, discernment, and deep market knowledge become THE differentiators. 

Those are precisely the qualities hardest to find in people.

And they're what matters most in an AI-augmented world.

Account score is the new MQL. A metric that gives your team false confidence that the account is sales-ready. But by the time sales reach out, you already lost. Here's the fundamental problem:

The account score tracks 1st party interactions and 3rd party signals (hiring, funding, exec interviews, etc.). But it completely ignores:

- Relationship
- Vendor awareness
- Product need evidence

Marketing and sales wait until the account hits an engagement threshold to act on it, ignoring that:

- It might be too late. You're evaluated as vendor #5 and as a backup if the first 4 options won't be a fit.
- The score could be driven by irrelevant contact or signals (I've seen this a couple of times)
- The engagement behind the signals doesn't mean the buying intent.

The utopian idea behind the account scoring is that when an account reaches a certain score:

- Marketing did their job of creating awareness
- Sales should start outreach

There is no system. Sales just do the standard outbound, maybe, a bit more personalized. But the problem is: buyers don’t know them, and there is a completely different level of intent (e.g. just to learn, not to select the vendor).

It's very similar to the ugly and broken MQL handover playbook we all are fed up with.

We've replaced account scoring with account prioritization framework that groups accounts into three buckets by likelihood of creating a sales opportunity with them this quarter:

1) Cluster ICP: <5%. Cold accounts that don't know us and we don't know if they are in the market. 

Goal: Engage Champions and create internal awareness.

2) Future pipeline: <30%. Accounts with early engagement but unknown product need evidence. 

Goal: build a relationship with the buying committee, validate buyer journey stage and product need evidence. 

3) Active focus: > 30%. Accounts with the relationship and known need. 

Goal: Create a personalized solution and generate an opportunity.

Each bucket requires a different engagement strategy where both marketing and sales:

- Define the level of intent behind the signal
- Create marketing and sales playbooks aligned with the level of intent
- Run personalized engagement with Future Pipeline and Active Focus accounts to boost internal awareness and facilitate nurturing

I just finished reading Influ2 research about contact-level ABM. Two fascinating facts:

1) Group decision carries the most weight when selecting a vendor. But if you look at who raises most objections, you immediately see IT and finance. 

The takeaway: if you are not doing multithreading, you drastically decrease your chances to win the deal.

2) Even a simple personalized marketing air cover to the contacts sales are targeting uplifts pipeline conversion by 118%:

2.44% meetings booked rate with 1 click and 15+ impressions compared to 1.40% without ad exposure.

The report + how to orchestrate ABM at the contact level is here: https://lnkd.in/edT9kdWX

Most CMOs know the short-term B2B playbook is broken - but it’s the only type of program the leadership accepts. 

Here's how to get buy-in for long-term full-funnel programs.

PROBLEM BUY-IN

1. Map and engage internal buyers
- Identify and interview key stakeholders about their challenges and priorities, and their experience as B2B buyers
- Start creating problem awareness and nurturing stakeholders by sharing best practices, anecdotes and asking questions
- Identify change agents across client-facing teams, they will help you co-create the pilot and are candidates for your future a cross-functional pilot team

2. Collect evidence that the current playbook is broken
- Analyze where the revenue is coming from and the characteristics of top revenue-generating, strategic accounts 
- Analyze performance of the current programs both in terms of pipeline and revenue generation, but also in how effective they are in generating deals with strategic accounts 

3. Show that the problem is worth solving now
- Connect the problem to leadership's top business priority
- Show the cost of doing nothing

SOLUTION BUY-IN

1. Diagnose root causes and define measurable requirements
- Run a full-funnel GTM audit across 12 key areas to identify what's working, what's not, and how challenges connect to each other
- Bring your change agents into the process — share your findings, get their input, and co-create requirements: what needs to improve, why, and how you'll measure it
- Define a small-scope pilot program to try a new program (without budget increase or additional resources, using the current marketing and sales mix)

2. Align on the approach. Prepare to defend four core requirements for high ACV and long sales cycles:
- Efficiency over volume: show that strategic accounts drive most revenue, calculate the current account-to-pipeline ratio and present the comparison between the current playbook and the more efficient approach you're proposing
- Document the actual buyer journey for your best deals to show the multi-touch journey across different channels that’s required (and the mismatch with the current approach)
- Run the CFO quiz to get agreement that last-click attribution doesn't reflect the reality of complex, multi-touch deals
- Make the case for a cross-functional pilot team with allbound attribution and aligned incentives

3. Get the approval
- Create a pilot project memo: challenges, cost of inaction, high-level pilot plan, expected results, team structure, risks, and a clear ask
- Present it to leadership and formally ask to approve the pilot

---

It might feel that the only path forward requires ripping out the entire infrastructure and starting from scratch. New systems, new metrics, new team structures.

But no leadership will support it. Revolutions get marketing leaders fired. 

The solution is an evolution, not a revolution of your marketing mix and how your team works.

And it starts with these two buy-ins.

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

Guess which channel is the 2nd-most referenced by LLMs like ChatGPT?

Reddit?

Google?

Nope, it was LinkedIn. 

Semrush analyzed 230,000 prompts across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Perplexity over a 13-week period and found a sharp shift in AI citation patterns.

In mid-September, ChatGPT dramatically reduced citations to Reddit and Wikipedia. But one domain moved in the opposite direction: LinkedIn.

LinkedIn showed a steady rise across all three platforms. Google’s AI Mode cited LinkedIn in nearly 15% of responses throughout the quarter, and both ChatGPT and Perplexity trended upward after the Reddit/Wikipedia drop. 

In some cases, LinkedIn appears to have absorbed the citation share that those domains lost.

What does that mean for you?

If LinkedIn is becoming a more trusted source across AI systems, that has strategic implications:

- Executive thought leadership may carry more distribution weight
- Expert-driven content could influence AI answers
- Authority on LinkedIn extends beyond the feed into AI-generated responses

The brands and individuals shaping conversations on LinkedIn may also be shaping how AI systems answer category-level questions.

So, for you, that means thinking about some of the big questions people ask LLMs as they relate to your product category, and creating content around them. 

Pretttyyyyy interestingggg. 

I'll drop the link below.

undefined undefined

Omni Lab 

Snapdata, in the business of waste and recycling analytics, was selected to participate in NUMA's Smart City Program in Paris to connect with corporate leaders like Cisco, Suez, and City of Paris Government to discuss innovative solutions for cities. Out of 200 startups, we were one of 4 selected to participate. 

Google Exchange Program Finalist - NUMA; Paris

Ogilvy partnered with IE Business School to invite IE based startups to pitch their ideas to Ogilvy to compete in getting the chance to have Ogilvy support their branding & marketing needs as well as partnering with some of their clients to bring about new innovation. 

Ogilvy Competition, Top 3 Startups

Achieving outstanding performance during the IE Business School Startup Lab. Voted best Startup to invest in. 

Investors' Award

Small team of marketing professionals at IE Business School were tasked to develop a new marketing strategy for a SMB company called DriveGum. DriveGum distributes and manufactures CPG goods like gum, granola bars, and others in Europe. We:

•	Repositioned the key value proposition.
•	Created three new strategies to grow brand recognition and improve sales.
•	Made improvements and updates to current marketing material. 




IE Business School - Marketing Case Competition, Finalists

James Madison University Austin Alumni Chapter

Managing Director

Snapdata designs and develops a range of sensors and data analytics platforms for the Internet of Things.

Primarily responsible for European operations developing a go to market strategy and doing business development in the waste and recycling sector.

Confirmed 3 letter of intents with governments and corporate size clients to test our product. 

Developed pricing matrixes for products and services, ROI for our clients, and detailed process for proof of concepts. 

Managed Google AdWords campaigns and analyzed Google Analytics to improve our messaging and positioning. 

Won four separate competitions for leading innovative technology and startup in Spain:

Venture Day Finalist, IE Business School
Investors Award, IE Business School
Google Exchange Program Finalist, NUMA 
Top 3 Startups, Ogilvy


Snapdata

Learn how Omni Lab helps 100+ B2B SaaS brands create and capture demand with paid ads.

Book a Call

Semrush

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

7 Hard Truths for B2B Marketers

1.) PEOPLE DON'T BUY IN LINEAR PATHS
Gartner, Google, MTA tools and many others have already shown how many touches make up the buyers journey. People don’t experience your brand in channels.

2.) YOUR GOOGLE ADS DEPENDENCY IS HURTING YOUR BOTTOM-LINE
CTR is down, CPC is up, and people are short-listing brands before they go to Google. You need to build brand preference to capture demand more efficiently. 

3.) GATING CONTENT RESTRICTS CONSUMPTION 
People consume short-form content before they invest time in-long form content. 

4.) FOCUS ON PERSONAL PROFILES, NOT BUSINESS PROFILES
People want to make a connection with someone (Founder/SME) at the company, not build a relationship with the company. 

5.) ATTRIBUTION IS A GUIDE, NOT A DECISION MANUAL
If a UTM parameter has to be appended, you are very limited in the tactics/strategies you can use. 

6.) BETTER TO REACH 1,000 ACCOUNTS ONCE vs. 10 ACCOUNTS 10 TIMES
Data from EBB and LI B2B Institute show reach is more important than high frequency against narrow audiences. 

7.) BUYERS HAVE WAY MORE CONTROL AND ACCESS TO INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR BRAND
They can find your pricing, see your product off your website, read reviews whether you want them to or not. Control the narrative and get that information in rented channels where they spend time.

Anything missing?

I thought this post from Sam Kuehnle was pretty spot on...

This is what stood out.

"Somewhere in this process, our intuitive understanding of how buyers (and ourselves) actually behave when making purchase decisions (AKA non-linear, messy, multiple people involved) got buried under the accumulated weight of common practice (AKA linear funnels, sequenced campaigns, decision-maker is also the end user)"

I'm sure most Heads of Marketing would nod and agree to what he said, but then find themselves in the same difficult conversations with their CEO or board, trying to help them understand the impact of their investment. 

Often, we want to show data, present a logical path, and share information to convince someone that our way is the best. 

However, as Sam points out, an additional path might be to ask some really good qualitative questions to get them thinking and to come to their own conclusions. 

For example:

"Tell me about the last purchase you made for the business. What brought it to your attention? How did you go about the path to purchase?"

Or I'd even add a few more: 

- "How long did it take our best customers to decide to buy?"
- "Do we expect finance, product, or hiring decisions to show clean cause-and-effect within 30-60 days?"
- "If we only invested in activities we could perfectly measure short-term, what would we stop doing?"
- "When a prospect converts, how confident are we that the last click was the real driver? 
- "If someone hears about us on a podcast, sees a LinkedIn post, then Googles us and converts, what deserves credit?"

You don't need to ask these questions in a defensive way to prove your point. 

It's more about getting a good conversation going so that both sides understand how to make the best decision.

👏 again on this post!

Most B2B brands promote content on paid social in the same way.

- A clean 1200×1200 ad
- A headline.
- A link to download the guide.

Technically fine. Strategically limited.

I saw an example from Datadog promoting an AWS Lambda cheat sheet. 

Nothing wrong with the ad itself. But it highlights a much bigger missed opportunity.

Today, buyers rarely click ads the way they used to.

Feeds are where content is consumed.

So when a brand promotes a guide, a blog, or a cheat sheet purely as a link to click, they are asking the buyer to take on all the risk:

“Is this worth my time?”

A better approach is to bring the content into the feed itself.

Instead of just promoting the asset with a single-image ad, try: 

1.) Recording a short video via Loom, walking through it.
2.) Scroll through the guide on screen (no audio, just expose the content).
3.) Post the content organically, then promote via thought leader ads

Now the ad is the content.

The buyer can start consuming it immediately without leaving the platform.

This matters because most B2B buyers are not in-market at any given moment. Their job isn’t to download whitepapers all day. They’re skimming, learning, and forming impressions long before they ever raise their hand. 

When the content lives inside the feed:

• It reduces the friction of clicking
• It builds familiarity earlier in the buying journey
• It earns attention instead of demanding it

You can still run the traditional single-image ads.

But pair them with formats that expose the content directly in-channel.

In crowded B2B categories, the goal isn’t just to capture demand.

It’s to make sure buyers already recognize your POV by the time they start looking.

P.S. All ❤️ for the Datadog team, just some thoughts on other ways to promote this piece. :)

This may be hard to hear, but lots of B2B content could have been answered in less than 5 seconds with a simple chat with Claude. 

Whether you gate content or not, we still see the highest engagement and form fill rates when content:

- Partners with other SME influencers in the space 
- Has proprietary data and/or unique survey data
- Contains real examples with real stories
- Is practical/specific/& tactical with POV
- Uses a different approach to promote (not just a single image ad with a picture of a book)

A few brands that are top of mind that are doing exactly that: 

1.) Dreamdata's recent report on LinkedIn Ads

What did they do:

- Partnered with other SMEs
- Put up a billboard to promote it
- Put an ad in the newspaper
- Organic posts (exposing content)
- Pull real data from all their clients

2.) Ahrefs released a report detailing a decrease in traffic and CTR 

What did they do:

- Partnered with other SMEs
- Organic posts (exposing ALL content)
- Then later promoted via TL ads
- Additional posts that break it down in short-form
- Pulled real data from all their clients

3.) Omni Lab released a LinkedIn Ads guide

What did we do:

- Partnered with other SMEs
- Organic posts (scrolled through guide in a video)
- Then later promoted via TL ads
- Additional text-based posts that break it down in short-form
- Real examples from more than 10+ B2B SaaS brands

Next time you hit publish, you should ask yourself if your content has some of these elements. 

It takes more time, but the result is worth it.

Marketing isn’t an expense.

And most teams don’t defund marketing because they think it’s useless.

They defund it because it isn’t producing an immediate return.

- Pipeline feels thin
- Cash feels tight
- Leadership wants efficiency

So budgets get pulled back to the only thing that feels safe:

Demand capture.

- Branded search
- High-intent keywords
- Retargeting
- 3rd party in-market signals
- Bottom-of-funnel offers

Which is absolutely necessary, but inefficient on its own. 

But here’s the structural issue I continue to see across all the SaaS brands we talk to and in our portfolio. 

Most of your buyers are not in-market (no news there), and by the time they are, preferences are already forming.

When you go quiet upstream (aka out-of-market audiences), you don’t just “save money.”

You shrink future efficiency.

A few realities worth confronting:

1.) Familiarity drives conversion efficiency:

Buyers rarely choose a vendor they’ve never seen before (TrustRadius data backs this up). If your paid program only activates at the moment of intent, you’re competing late and paying more to win.

2.)  Short-term efficiency can create long-term fragility: 

Optimizing only for CPL or demo volume often narrows reach and over-indexes on a small in-market audience pools. CAC rises not because platforms are broken, but because you’re fishing in the same shrinking pond as everyone else.

3.) Silence compounds negatively:

When competitors reduce spending, attention becomes more available. Brands that maintain presence build brand preference that pays off quarters later, often when no one ties it back to the earlier investment.

4.) Momentum improves capture channels:

Broad reach and distinctive creative make search, retargeting, and direct traffic perform better. Capture becomes cheaper when a preference already exists.

The answer isn’t “never cut budget.”

It’s this:

If performance isn’t working, redesign the system.

Paid media should do three things simultaneously:

✅ Build reach across your ICP, not just signal-based audiences 
✅ Earn attention with a creative that aligns with key buying triggers and distinctive brand assets
✅ Optimize against CRM progression and revenue quality, not just platform conversions (P.S. that doesn't mean everything needs a UTM parameter)

When structured this way, marketing stops behaving like a volatile expense line.

It becomes a coherent growth system.

And in today’s market, that distinction determines whether efficiency improves over time or continues to erode quarter after quarter.

Most B2B SaaS paid programs aren’t underperforming because the team is bad at execution.

They’re underperforming because they’re built on an outdated assumption.

For years, it was rational to optimize around leads, CPL, and short-term conversion volume. 

- Channels were cheaper. 
- Categories were less crowded. 
- Intent data actually created an edge.

That environment no longer exists.

Categories are saturated. Buyers are risk-averse. Most of them are not in market. And by the time someone fills out a demo form, they’ve often already formed a preference.

If your entire paid strategy is built around capturing declared intent, you are competing late and paying a premium for it.

The issue is not that we need more tools, more data, or better optimization. 

It’s a mismatch between how programs are designed and how modern B2B buyers behave.

The shift that needs to happen is that paid media can’t just activate demand; it has to build its brand preference. 

That means:

- REACH: Optimize for comprehensive audience reach, not narrowing down the audience more and more
- ATTENTION: Earning attention through diversity of content themes that can be consumed in-feed (like this post)
- EFFICIENCY: Optimizing against CRM outcomes, not just platform-reported conversions

And a measurement approach that doesn't just measure paid media based on a UTM parameter appended to a contact, but also considers the overall efficiency of your inbound motion holistically. 

When you do this, what we continue to see from the brand we work with is: 

- Your capture channels get more efficient
- Pipeline quality improves
- Sales cycles shorten

Not because you forced more people into a funnel,  but because more buyers already knew, trusted, and remembered you when the moment arrived.

This is the difference between running campaigns and designing a growth system.

And in this competitive and noisy market, the latter is no longer optional.

This B2B SaaS brand saw a spike in cost per SQL from June to August, followed by stabilization in September of 2025. Let's analyze what happened and why. 👇

The graph below shows that the cost per SQL spiked mid-year (May-Aug), which would set off alarm bells for anyone (even me).

Often, the immediate reaction most teams have in that moment is to start pulling levers, cutting budgets, restructuring campaigns, swapping targeting, and overhauling bidding.

Or worse, they have AI automations that pause keywords/campaigns based on arbitrary cost-per-SQL thresholds (seems smart, but can cause more damage than you think)

We instead took a more pragmatic and slow approach to figuring out what might be happening. 

"slow and incremental" are very important here. 

Here's the systematic approach our team took: 

- Reviewed if we are appearing for the right search terms
- Reviewed budget allocation across best/worst performing keywords in SQL
- Reviewed CTR and text ad copy to ensure benchmarks are met
- Reviewed landing pages to ensure strong alignment with ad group
- And a few other technical settings

After completing that analysis, we found literally no event change (channel-wise) that would've led to the spike. 

Zero. 

Then we reviewed historical data from the year prior (albeit campaign mix/budget was very different) and found that a similar spike occurred. 

We determined that it was a demand fluctuation, with the lull primarily driven by a lower conversion rate in the summer months. 

We spent time talking with the VP of Demand Gen, step by step, about what we were seeing, so we could communicate it to her CEO and set expectations.

Fast forward to August, and we started to see a huge decrease in cost per SQL. 

While regular maintenance was happening on the account during June-August, NO big changes were made. 

It wasn't until September that we started broadening targeting on phrase match (a match type in paid search) that we saw even more improvement in conversion rate (to SQL creation).

What's the lesson?

Demand isn't a straight line, and it isn't always a 'we need to optimize better' issue. 

It is correct for you to question results, evaluate your channel mix, and reconsider what you are doing. 

It would be irresponsible not to. 

But, if you can take away one thing from this post, it's 

- Be systematic in how you evaluate a problem
- Be slow and incremental
- Don't pull too many levers at once to avoid shocking performance

Cheers :)

Here's my experience working with Clay for the first time. 

1.) I build a table gathering data based on website visitors, then narrowed it by ICP

2.) Wow, this is freakin cool and easier than I thought

3.) I then discover "Chat with Sculptor."

4.) Wait, I can just type in what I want you to do, and you build it. Wow.

5.) Then, I want to integrate an email sequence tool that needs HTTP API access

6.) Clay says I need to upgrade, so I upgrade to Explorer

7.) Everything is working well, pushing data over, but then I realize I need to exclude leads and customers from my CRM, etc. 

8.) I went to integrate HubSpot with Clay, and it took two seconds

9.) Then I ask the Clay Sculptor to build it

10.) Then it says you need to upgrade again to Pro, $149 to $800.

There is no doubt that Clay is capable of way more than my small use case, but at this point, I was really just interested in doing this, and $800/month is a lot if you aren't using its full capability. 

It made me think about the future of pricing models being more use-case-specific or outcome-focused. 

For example, what if they simply charged you for credits used, so you only pay for what you use in the use cases you implement? 

I have no clue about the limitations of doing this, but my experience above was a bit of sticker shock for the use case. 

There was actually an interesting article about the future of SaaS pricing models that I'll comment on below. 

I'm still l learning, but maybe someone has some thoughts on the above.

If you are still running paid social like the left side of this graph, take 3 minutes and read this post. 👇

First off, I'd bet most marketers want to run paid social like the right side, but they run into internal problems justifying the budget. 

Paid media has been ingrained in every executive's mind as a "spend $1, get $3" for years. 

If it doesn't convert, doesn't show direct ROI, and doesn't append a UTM parameter to a contact, then it must not be working. 

It's the reason why you spend more of your budget on Google Ads. 

However, social channels operate very differently from search channels, as I'm sure you would agree. 

People come to search channels to:
- Compare products
- Expand the list of vendors for an evaluation
- Do research on new tools to solve x problem
- Learn something new or answer a question

People come to social channels to: 
- Look for a job
- Waste time between meetings
- Learn something new
- Network with peers

If you agree with that, then the question you should be asking your CEO/Exec team is: if those are the reasons people go to a social channel, shouldn't we align our strategy with that? 

Or ask them, "Why do you spend time on LinkedIn, Meta, Reddit, etc.?"

I'd be surprised if they say, "I come to click on ads for high-ticket SaaS products."

For years and still today, paid social continues to be run as a capture-only channel with:

- Narrow targeting
- In-market audiences
- One-off ads
- Platform-reported conversions
- Gated assets

It worked when categories were less crowded, and buyers were easier to convert.

That environment no longer exists.

Today’s buyers are risk-averse, spend most of their time out of market, and form preferences before they ever click a demo ad. 

....take a breath and think for 10 seconds about the last product you bought.....

And there is even more free/ungated content on the web, thanks to 3 big LLMs to do research before ever contacting sales. 

The shift is not about abandoning performance. It is about redesigning the system.

Many of the SaaS brands we are working with are changing the way they run paid social by: 

- Building brand preference across your ICP before the buying moment
- Broadening reach so your brand is familiar with when intent appears
- Developing distinct content themes, not random tests
- Blending CRM data with blended efficiency gains from organic, direct, and brand search traffic. 
- Optimizing for in-channel consumption to earn attention first

Paid social is your "brand megaphone," not just your click on my ad and book a demo channel. 

When paid social is structured around attention, reach, and efficiency, capture becomes cheaper because preference already exists.

You should start to see the share of search increase, brand traffic/conversion increase, and your overall funnel become more efficient. 

It doesn't happen overnight, and it doesn't mean abandoning your entire strategy; it means slowly adapting it to how buyers consume and build trust.

If Google/Bing Ads shut down tomorrow, where would you reallocate that budget and why?

Events? 
Paid social?
Community?
New program you have never had budget for? 

I know it’s a big line item for any serious mid-market SaaS brand.

I thought this post from Peep Laja was really interesting and reminded me why we win as a TEAM, not as a department or channel. 

In this survey, the sales presentation and demo were the second-most important factors for CFOs evaluating new products. 

This is exactly why April Dunford wrote Sales Pitch, and why it’s so important that ALL teams work together to close a deal.

For example, teams often want to know the ROI of a specific channel:
“Is Google Ads profitable for us?”

That question is reasonable, but it often overstates the amount of control a channel actually has.

Google Ads is simply a mechanism for directing quality traffic to your website, either indirectly (view-through) or directly (click-through).

That's it, nothing more. 

It doesn’t position the product, run the demo, handle objections, or ultimately close the deal.

The success of your investment in Google (or any channel, paid or not) means all other teams need to work together to bring a deal to a close. 

Focus on what you can control at each stage of the buyer journey, make tweaks, and then evaluate performance holistically.

Short-termism is killing good marketing. 

But it doesn't change the reality of what execs want: 

- Fast results
- Predictable returns
- Easy to measure channels

It then forces all product category competitors to optimize for:

- The same in-market keywords
- The same intent/signal audiences
- The same platforms
- At the same moment

That means: 

- Higher CPCs & CPMs
- Rising CAC
- Declining marginal returns

Even with “best-in-class” execution, you'll see prices increase and volume decline as you narrow down audiences. 

Meanwhile, 71% of buyers reported purchasing their first-choice product according to TrustRadius. 

And 9 out of 10 consumers name trust as a primary purchasing criterion, driving buyers to rely on familiar, trusted brands.

Keyword = "famiilar"

If you aren't a familiar, and have established brand preference BEFORE someone comes in-market, it will make it even harder to compete. 

And let's not forget how competitive product categories have become. Here's what the call recording space looks like: 

1.) Fireflies.ai
2.) Otter.ai
3.) Grain
4.) Avoma
5.) MeetGeek
6.) Read.ai
7.) Fathom
8.) Krisp
9.) Sembly AI
10.) Jamie
11.) Tactiq
12.) Supernormal
13.) Notta
14.) Fellow
15.) Nyota
16.) Airgram
17.) Gong
18.) Chorus
19.) Clari Wingman
20.) ExecVision
21.) Jiminny
22.) Modjo
23.) Observe.AI
24.) Dialpad
25.) RingCentral
26.) Aircall

Now let's go after the most obvious target, high-intent keyword "call recording software" = 880 monthly searches at $51/click (top bid)

The top three vendors will likely capture most of the demand, leaving the rest to fight over the scraps. 

And that's just one category. 

- This isn’t a tooling problem.
- It’s not a tactic problem.

It’s a misunderstanding of how B2B buyers actually make decisions.

Short-term optimization is necessary, but insufficient on its own.

Real leverage comes from shaping preferences before buyers ever show in-market signals. 

That means adjusting channel mix, objectives, budget allocation, and CTAs to focus on your narrative, what you do, your POV, proof of work, etc., before they come in-market. 

That will make your capture channels more efficient.

Imagine if the first thing humans asked the aliens in Arrival was:

“Want a demo?”

It would feel absurd.

But that’s how a lot of B2B marketing behaves.

The moment someone discovers a company, the message is immediate:

Book a demo.
Talk to sales.
Start a trial.

The problem is that most buyers aren’t ready for that conversation yet.

- They’re still learning about the problem.
- Still trying to understand the different approaches.
- Still deciding which companies even deserve a spot on their shortlist.

or 

- They simply don't have a budget, yet
- They already want to work with you, but they are in a long-term contract
- There are other competing priorities, you're not top on the list

Yet many marketing programs treat every interaction like a buying moment.

So instead of building familiarity and trust, the experience jumps straight to a sales ask.

And when you skip that step, you’re asking buyers to commit before they’ve had a chance to form an opinion.

The companies that consistently win rarely rush the demo.

They focus first on becoming known, understood, and credible.

So that when a buying moment does arrive…

The conversation doesn’t start from zero.

And the best part is, sometimes the best content that doesn't explicitly ask someone for a demo is the content that converts best.

🚨 PSA: CEOs, stop hiding behind your brand logo. 

Your brand needs a face, and it isn't your beautiful brand logo. 

This was one of the topics that Val, VP of Marketing at Unbounce, and I discussed. 

She asked me, "What types of ad creatives do you think will continue to perform well in 2026?"

I told her....

"If we are talking LinkedIn Ads, then clearly thought leader ads will continue to dominate from an engagement perspective. 

They are still the number one ad format for us, not only as an agency, but for all the brands we work with. 

The engagement rates are 5-6x those of any other ad format. And often, the conversion rate is even higher than in other formats.

And so we have a strong pull for any brand we work with that needs at least a handful of thought-leader ad campaigns running. 

It's what people expect to see when they open the feed. And so when they start scrolling and looking through things, it's natural to engage with a person rather than a company.

That's why they get such great engagement: they put a face to the brand. And I think often brands want to hide behind the logo and not get someone out there into the world. 

That actually represents the brand. It doesn't have to be the founder. It could be an SME or someone external."

What I didn't say is....

Thought leader ads ONE format and are unique to LinkedIn Ads. 

The real takeaway is broader. 

The creative that performs best is the creative that matches how people already consume content in that environment.

That principle applies everywhere, not just LinkedIn. Because ads don’t fail when targeting or bidding is wrong. They fail when they interrupt rather than integrate.

And that ties back to the bigger point we see over and over again:

If brand preference is formed before it’s captured, paid media shouldn’t focus solely on converting buyers at the end of their buying journey. 

It should reinforce familiarity and trust. 

When your ads look and feel like native content, you’re not forcing attention.

You're aligning with what people are used to. 

And that’s when paid stops feeling fragile and starts working with how buyers actually behave. 

P.S Not sure why my audio got garbled a bit...

I talked to Tim Salikhov, CFA, (previous 4x VP of Finance) about the biggest issues of alignment between marketing and finance...here are 5 takeaways: 

1.)  All finance cares about is CAC and runway. How much does it cost to acquire a new customer? How long until we run out of cash? Everything else is marketing's job to figure out.

My take: This means marketing has to speak the language of finance (know your audience)

2.)  Finance's role isn't to micromanage channels or tactics. It's to ensure marketing understands the financial constraints and milestones needed for the next fundraising round. Then trust them to execute.

My take: Again, speak the language of finance and show you have a plan to meet those goals (it's not about attribution...no one cares if you meet the goal)

3.)  Set expectations upfront on time AND dollars. The magic happens when marketing says, "In 6 months, we'll know if this works. Here's the cost." Now, finance can model it, explain it to the board, and avoid surprises.

My take: Planning can and should happen with finance (and sales)... when everyone is aligned from the get-go, reporting/interpretation becomes easier. 

4.)  Surprises are the enemy. The worst conversations? When a roadmap shifts three months in without explanation. "We pivoted" isn't a plan; it's a red flag that burn rate just increased, and nobody communicated it.

My take: Pivoting is sometimes necessary...however, it's better to set expectations early on how we will interpret performance from a given channel.

5.) Compensation structures drive behavior. So structure incentives accordingly, SDRs on volume, sales on closing, and marketing on "impact".

My take: Compensation structures should be shared between marketing and sales; we win together, not in silos.

TL;DR Know your audience, align and set expectations early, and make sure you speak finance.

I know I own an agency. 
I know I post about paid media for SaaS brands. 
But that doesn't mean I just want to see posts about paid media in my feed.

I'd like to hear about all sorts of things happening in marketing, as they relate, directly or indirectly, to the topic I write most about. 

An interest-based algorithm is great in theory (it shows you more of the stuff you like to engage with), but it can really narrow down your view. 

Does anyone else feel this way?

Maybe I need to force it to go broader by directly searching for topics outside of my primary focus area.

taplio

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