INSIGHTS FROM EXPERTS ON LINKEDIN
Adam Holmgren argues that attribution and MQLs don’t reflect how people actually buy, since most of the journey happens across untrackable touchpoints. He suggests focusing more on brand signals like share of search and combining multiple data points instead of chasing perfect attribution. The goal is to look at patterns and trends rather than trying to assign credit to one channel.
Mats Georgson, Ph.D. shares that challenging misleading marketing takes on LinkedIn is starting to have an impact. He believes speaking up consistently can improve how marketing is understood and discussed. Over time, this pushes people to think more carefully about what they post and share.
Kirill Vdov highlights that LinkedIn is bringing back ad personalization macros, but not all of them are effective. Generic options like first name and industry don’t add much value, while job title and company name are more relevant for B2B targeting. The advantage will likely fade as more advertisers start using the same tactics.
Liam Moroney argues that brand awareness isn’t something you solve with short-term campaigns or a “top-of-funnel layer.” He explains that markets are constantly shifting, and staying known requires sustained presence and a strong share of voice over time. Treating awareness as a one-off effort limits growth and keeps smaller brands from breaking through.
Jonathan Sykes explains that holding back on marketing during uncertain times can cost you long-term growth and market share. He highlights that share of voice drives share of market, and downturns often create cheaper and overlooked opportunities. Brands that keep investing while others pull back are more likely to come out ahead.
Jonas Klit Nielsen argues that as top-of-funnel gets harder, growth is shifting toward retention and net revenue retention (NRR). He explains that NRR reflects decisions across the entire company, not just customer success. Companies winning right now are restructuring around the customer relationship, not just acquisition.
Peep Laja shares that CFOs are involved in much smaller B2B purchases than most teams assume, often under $10K. He highlights that finance leaders want to be part of the decision early and care deeply about pricing clarity and ROI. If you don’t make the business case clear upfront, you’re slowing down your own deals.
WHAT'S NEW IN THE INDUSTRY
Marketers have long focused on segmenting audiences into highly specific groups, but research shows most B2B buyers are more similar than different. This over-segmentation increases costs and limits growth without delivering a real competitive advantage. A better approach is to focus on shared buying situations, using Category Entry Points to reach broader audiences and build stronger brand associations over time.
Marketers have leaned heavily into first-party data, but owning data doesn’t mean it reflects reality. Customer records age quickly as people change emails, devices and behavior, which leads to outdated profiles and misleading insights. The shift now is toward validating identities with real-time activity signals, not just relying on stored data.
Google paid search ads are showing the same website statistics across competing advertisers, raising concerns about accuracy and trust. These stats are meant to act as credibility signals, but if they appear identical, they risk losing their impact. It’s unclear if this is a bug or a test, but it could affect how users perceive and click on ads.
OpenAI is expanding ads in ChatGPT, but early advertisers say the platform lacks basic targeting and performance tracking. Without reliable data, there’s no clear way to measure ROI or prove results to stakeholders. For now, ChatGPT ads should be treated as experimental, not a serious performance channel.
Google will start blocking duplicate Lookalike audience lists in the Ads API from April 30. If the same seed, expansion and targeting are used, the system will return an error instead of creating a new list. Advertisers using automation need to update workflows and reuse existing lists to avoid breaking campaigns.
Paid search algorithms are only as good as the signals they receive, and most issues come from poor or misaligned conversion data. Many advertisers optimize for volume instead of real business value, which leads to strong platform metrics but weak results. The biggest gains come from improving conversion quality and aligning signals with actual business outcomes.
Google is testing a feature that turns static images into animated video clips inside Performance Max. Advertisers can generate simple motion-based creatives without needing video production. This could be an easy win for accounts currently relying only on static assets.
Google is adding new features to Performance Max, including customer list exclusions, demographic insights and budget forecasting. These updates give advertisers more control over targeting and clearer visibility into performance. It’s a step toward making PMax less of a black box.
Google has rolled out its Veo model globally, allowing advertisers to turn images into short video ads directly inside Google Ads. This removes the need for traditional video production and makes video more accessible to smaller teams. As video continues to outperform static, this lowers the barrier to competing on platforms like YouTube.
That’s the scoop for this week! If you found this valuable and any useful insights caught your eye, feel free to share them with your network.
Until next week!
