I’ve been asking myself: what makes a really strong LinkedIn lead magnet, especially the classic “comment for X / comment for content” style?
To answer that, I broke down three standout examples and looked for the shared patterns and practical lessons.

The Three Posts I Analyzed

• Niels Klement: A post reverse-engineering Alex Hermosi’s launch funnel, claiming it likely netted 105 million in a single launch and opening with: “I spent the last three days reverse engineering…”

• Philipp Ilic: “Most LinkedIn Ads fail not because of bad targeting, not because of weak offers, but because of something almost nobody talks about.”

• Ivan Falco: “Creator-led ABM is here and it’s the biggest B2B shift since demand gen came to LinkedIn.”

What They All Nail

1. Powerful hooks in the first 1–2 lines
   “105 million in a single launch.” “Most LinkedIn Ads fail…” “Creator-led ABM is here…”
   These are true pattern interrupts that spark curiosity immediately.

2. Concrete, tangible proof
   Big, specific outcomes build trust and authority. For example: “over eight million in pipeline in six months + one million in closed revenue.”

3. A clear “What’s inside” block
   Each post spells out exactly what you’ll get—often in 4 concise bullets. This sets expectations and reduces friction to request the asset.

4. Authority, timing, and social proof

   • Nils already has strong authority through consistently valuable, insight-rich posts and seized the timing around Alex Hermosi’s new book/funnel by breaking it down immediately.

   • Philipp shows he’s done this repeatedly and draws from real ad spend and client projects.

   • Ivan backs claims with pipeline and revenue numbers.
     Bottom line: it’s not just talk—there’s evidence and experience on display.

5. One unmistakable call-to-action
   All three use a direct CTA like: “Comment [keyword] and I’ll send it to you.”
   When used as ads, that CTA can be swapped for a clean link (Philipp did this; Nils did similarly by removing the comment CTA at the end).

6. Readable, scannable formatting

   • Nils’s post is especially clean and easy to consume.

   • Philipp’s formatting is less ideal but still works thanks to sensible chunking (short paragraphs, emojis, labeled parts).

   • Ivan uses dashes to create space and clarity.
     The common thread: short sections, clear structure, quick to digest.

Copy Principles You Can Reuse

• Value-first: Pack in real, specific value.

• Outcome > features: Lead with results, not just benefits.

• Narrative framing: “I reverse-engineered…,” “I saw X, so I did Y…”

• Implicit exclusivity: It feels like you’re getting something special.

• Tactical clarity: The reader instantly knows what they’ll get.

• Simple language: Easy to read—no fluff.

Results and Takeaway

Nils’s post alone generated 2,200+ comments, which says a lot about how well the structure, proof, and timing came together.

If you’re ready to build a similar lead magnet, orient around these points: sharp hook, tangible outcomes, a crisp “what’s inside,” strong proof/authority, one clear CTA, and scannable formatting—with value leading the way.

P.S. One thing that Niels and Philip do that I don’t see very often, but which is very powerful → They reinforce their offer (video/OS) with additional add-ons (funnel/Canva templates) that match the main offer.

P. P. S. I’ve put together a list of 190+ hooks - it’s super helpful if you want to get started with LinkedIn or if you want to level up your content creation game. You can get it for free here.

Cheers!

Can you explain why some LinkedIn posts reach 10,000+ impressions while my stall at 500–2,000?

6 months ago, my answer would have been “no, sorry, I can’t.”
I was able to explain to them how to ‘hack’ impressions by posting ‘comment-for-x’ kinda posts, but that’s it.
(And btw, you really shouldn’t do this too often. If you do such posts, make sure to overdeliver on value. Otherwise it hurts your reputation more than you get out of it.)

But today, after investing a lot of time into LinkedIn, doing ghostwriting for my clients and exchanging with marketing & LinkedIn experts, I think I got closer to having an answer. And I’ll share it with you today.
Plus how to break through each step, or impression band.

Let’s start with what content you should post.

New here? Hey, I am Valentin.

Each week, I share practical marketing strategies, tactics and learnings designed to help you scale your B2B business to €1 million ARR and beyond 🚀

Make sure to subscribe to not miss out on any episode!

Subscribe now

Want to become a thought leader? Do this:

When I work with clients I usually tell them that the fist step is not to write lots of post and publish them, but instead establish a framework. A systematical approach to content creation on LinkedIn. (others would call it a content strategy lol)

I use this framework (feel free to steal it):

📆 DAY 1: Broad contrarian takes or opinions / Challenge industry assumptions / Hot news to cover (with a take)

• Challenge industry assumptions. "Everyone thinks you need X, but actually..." These grab attention because they make people question what they believe.

• Hot news to cover (with a take)

📆 DAY 2: Specific client wins / recent experience

Real case studies with real numbers. "My client went from 200 to 20K followers doing this..." Social proof builds trust faster than any sales pitch.

📆 DAY 3: Tactical how-to content / recent experience / competency

• Tools, systems, and actionable strategies. "5 XXX most professionals ignore..." This positions you as the go-to expert in your field.

• Educational content is shown as a process

📆 DAY 4: Mindset and psychology / emotional connection

• Address the fears holding your audience back. "Why most XXX never start/do/… XXX" Creates emotional connection.

• Create posts that target a visceral pain (e.g., “Marketers, I’ll make you cry in seven words,” followed by a single punchline line).

📆 DAY 5: Personal transformation stories

• Your vulnerable moments and breakthroughs. "I used to be terrified of posting on LinkedIn..." This is where followers really start to engage with your content.

• Personal (founder) story to inspire others to be different.

Aman, who runs an allbound LinkedIn agency and also does ghostwriting for his clients, said this in one of his recent posts:

Some examples of thought leaders in the B2B SaaS space:

• Anthony Pierri - link to post - often combining opinions with experience and competency

• Maja Voi - link to post - mostly combining experience with competency

• Nils Klement - link to post - mostly talking about experience

Understanding your current situation

Now that you know what content to use in general to become a thought leader and build reach and visibility, it’s time to analyse where you are, why you don’t grow and what you would need to do in order to reach the next step.

(credits to Aman who broke it down very nicely)

0-500 impressions — People don’t care yet

Problem

• With new or inactive accounts, “no one gives a shit what you have to say,” especially if the content is commodity advice (e.g., “10 ways to run better ads”). Audiences don’t know or trust the poster. You’re assuming you’re famous; assume you’re not.

What to do

• Add competency/status to your post: e.g., “I spend $1M/month on ads - here are 10 ways to do it better.”

• Or use story/status hooks: e.g., “Yesterday I spoke to a CEO making $5M a year / a $100M CEO - here’s what he told me.” These cues make people care.

1,000–2,000 impressions — Not optimized for the platform

Observation

• It’s easy to hit ~1,000 impressions with personal posts (“I did this…” - “This is what I feel when..” - “How my morning routine looks like..”), supported by your network. Beyond that, many get stuck because they’re not optimizing for LinkedIn.

What to do

• Improve your copy writing! Use LinkedIn-native formatting: strong hooks, scannable paragraphs/listicles, and familiar copy patterns. This is a beginner skill you can learn by studying effective posts; if you’ve never done social copywriting, you need to adopt these patterns.

• If you’re just getting started, follow some copy writers, ghostwriters and other profiles with lots of reach on LinkedIn to learn how they write hooks and how they structure their posts.

2,000–5,000 impressions — Ideas aren’t relevant enough

Problem

• Even with platform-optimized writing and some credibility, posts stall if the idea doesn’t hit real emotional triggers or inner desires/pains.

Signals & examples

• Posts that target a visceral pain (e.g., “Marketers, I’ll make you cry in seven words,” followed by a single punchline line) tend to perform.

• Example: A post about a client getting lots of booked calls without gaming the algorithm, using hacks, images, or selfies resonated because many don’t want to post selfies. These speak to what people feel but don’t say aloud.

Takeaway

• Watch posts that reach 2k–5k closely. Something in the hook/body made people feel something. That’s the first point where you’re truly impacting how they think/feel and start to connect with them.

5,000–10,000 impressions — Ideas aren’t broad enough

Problem

• At this level, reach correlates with breadth. Narrow targeting caps distribution.

Examples

• A post aimed at “$10M CMOs in B2B SaaS” only fits those near that number; one aimed at “$500M businesses’ CMOs” is even narrower, especially if the body is very tactical. Fewer people find it relevant, so impressions don’t climb.

What to do

• Make the idea widely relevant so more of the feed can engage, pushing LinkedIn to distribute further.

• Easy path: ride trends - e.g., the recent GPT-5 wave, or discussion that PayPal is hiring a head of CEO content/a ghostwriter. Many can form an opinion on broad, timely topics, so impressions rise.

10,000+ impressions — Clarity limits virality

Problem

• Even broad ideas stall short of “stupidly viral” if they’re not stupidly clear and simple to read.

What to do

• Strip to the core emotion or core story.

• Remove fluff/nuance, make it broader/more generic, and simplify the read. That’s when impressions “go off.”

How to use the ladder

Identify your current impression range, diagnose the one bottleneck typical of that level, fix it, and post again next week/the week after.

Over time you feel more in control of the algorithm. While posts don’t always follow this exact order, the pattern is generally true across accounts the speaker works on. Some accounts now have good control for certain posts.

Let me know your thoughts about this.
And if you manage to climb up the ladder, feel free to share it with me 🫶

Cheers

Valentin

Want to learn more about B2B Growth?
Subscribe to the newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.

They want to sell directly – through cold lead-gen campaigns.

The problem?

As an early-stage startup, you’re completely unknown.
Nobody trusts you. You have no brand, no recognizable face.
And far too few touchpoints in the buying journey.

Why should anyone book a demo on the very first encounter?

LinkedIn Ads work differently for startups than for established companies.

You need a structured trust-building process.

This is my LinkedIn Ads Framework for Early-Stage Startups:

Step 0: Activate Internal Experts

The CEO and 1–3 other executives (e.g. Head of Sales, Head of Marketing, Partner Lead, CS Lead, etc.) should post on LinkedIn at least 3 times per week.

CEO/Leader = Company = Brand

• Deep, authentic content

• Analyses, stories, concrete learnings

• Industry insights with compelling numbers

• Occasionally personal stories to build empathy

• No “Well done XY” posts or simply resharing other posts

👉 In B2B, people buy from people. Your target audience needs to regularly see the key faces of your company in their feed.

Step 1: Capture Attention

Regular content creation? ✅

Now it’s time to make the most out of it, by giving your Thought Leaders more visibility. The goal is to share your story and your strategic narrative / core message as well as general value for your audience.

What ads to run:

• Text Ads with your core message / messaging and narrative

• Thought Leader Ads with value and narrative (for this the founder must actively create content – if that’s already an issue, DM me and I’ll show you how to do it)

• Optional – depending on company identity: Image Ads that make people laugh, nod, and remember you.

Another example of how to use Thought Leader Ads is to promote posts from your brand ambassadors about your product or company:

Step 2: Build Relationships

If your ACV is above 20k €, you should consider uploading your list of top target accounts and distribute posts directly to your ICP.

What ads to run:

• Retargeting with consistent branding

• Repeating your messaging, story and narrative

• Connecting your brand to specific problems

• Creating urgency around the problem

Stage 3: Drive Conversions

👉 Turning interest into sign-ups/demos

Reach out via Conversation Ads to everyone who engaged with your Cold and Retargeting-Layer Thought Leader Ads. In addition, use Image Ads to showcase Success Stories and to create FOMO.

What ads to run:

• High-intent retargeting with conversion ads

• “FOMO” messaging

• Customer success stories

• Optional – depending on company identity: Image Ads that make people laugh

The difference compared to other approaches?

You’re not penetrating a cold audience with pushy CTAs and content.
Instead, you’re systematically building a brand in the minds of your target group and creating trust, familiarity, and interest.

When these people actually have a need, they’ll think of you first.

Fibbler shows how well this works:

With €4–5k monthly ad budget (according to Adam Holmgren, Co-Founder of Fibbler) – and exactly this system, they continuously build brand awareness and win new customers.

👉 Qualified inbound requests come in on their own, at the right time
👉 A company no B2B performance marketer can ignore
👉 A sustainable growth engine, because it also builds brand

Step 4: Combine Inbound (LinkedIn Ads) with Outbound = Allbound

Especially when your Go-To-Market motion is account-based, I recommend to combine LinkedIn Ads with strategic outbound activities.

(Warm) Outbound via DM

Connect with your target audience (people from target account) when:

👉 They engaged with posts
👉 Visited your website
👉 Downloaded freebies

LinkedIn limits you to about 40 requests per person per day.
So use them wisely.

Automate Outreach

Use tools like Clay, Lemlist, Instantly.ai, HeyReach.io, etc. to automate outbound sequences.

Combine LinkedIn + Email: build multi-channel nurturing.

Tracking Setup

Use LinkedIn’s CAPI (Conversion API) integration to send CRM data back into LinkedIn.

Use tools like Fibbler to or Dreamdata to attribute pipeline to these plays, matching LinkedIn Ads data in your CRM to your target accounts and to show ROI.

You’ll need this when you pitch your Founder, the CMO or CFO why this isn’t just “brand stuff”, but moves revenue.

👉 Organic + Paid + Warm Outbound + Tracking = More Demos & Sales Calls 🚀

New here? Hey, I am Valentin. B2B SaaS Marketing Expert & Advisor.

Each week, I share practical marketing strategies, tactics and learnings designed to help you scale your B2B business to €1 million ARR and beyond 🚀

Make sure to subscribe to not miss out on any episode!

Subscribe now

1. Your profile needs to sell, not your posts.

One of the biggest misconceptions among founders: content should sell directly.
That’s not how LinkedIn works.
The real job of content is to trigger emotion, spark interest, and drive traffic to your profile.

Think about it like a web funnel.
If you run ads, in most cases (e.g. paid social) you don’t want sell directly. Your goal is to spark interest, make people visit your landing page and convert there.

For organic LinkedIn your profile is your landing page, that’s where the real conversion happens.

2. Deep audience understanding is non-negotiable

Effective content starts with understanding your target audience inside and out:

• What words do they use?

• What problems are they struggling with?

• What aspirations drive them?

Example:
If you're talking to agency owners or SaaS founders, terms like “conversion rate,” “ICP,” or “lead funnel” make sense.
But if your target audience is traditional SMB owners, you’ll lose them with jargon.

Here’s a practical framework that Michelle is using:
List 10 problems, 10 desires, 10 goals, 10 aspirations, and 10 fears of your audience.
Those 50 triggers will give you a steady stream of content ideas for months.

3. Turn traffic into leads with simple lead magnets

As already mentioned, your LinkedIn profile is a landing page – treat it like one.
Add lead magnets in your Featured section: downloadable templates, checklists, guides.

Goal: capture email addresses and build relationships off-platform.

Tips:

• Rotate your lead magnets regularly

• Mention them directly in your content

• Don’t be afraid to gate content – as long as it solves a real problem, it’s a fair ask

4. How much time LinkedIn really takes

If someone says “you can do LinkedIn in 1 hour per week,” they’re either lying or not getting results.

What it actually takes:

• 1 to 1.5 hours per day, if you do everything yourself

• 3–4 posts per week

• Community management (comments, DMs) right after posting

If your time is limited, consider outsourcing content creation (research, writing, strategy).
Then focus your energy on engagement and relationship-building.

5. Don’t just post. Build a system.

Don’t start with: “I’ll just post something.”
Start with:

• Who exactly am I talking to?

• What emotion do I want to trigger?

• What action should follow (profile visit, DM, lead magnet signup)?

LinkedIn isn’t a sales channel – it’s a trust- and relationship-building channel.
Build trust, and sales will follow.

Conclusion:
LinkedIn works – but only if you approach it strategically.
Speak your audience’s language, create content that taps into real emotions, use lead magnets wisely, and build a simple system you can stick to.
That’s how you turn visibility into real revenue.

→ Michelle’s LinkedIn

That’s it for today, hope you like this short episode. Please leave your feedback in the comments, if this article was of any help. 🫶

Until next week!

Cheers

Valentin

Want to learn more about B2B Marketing & Growth?
Subscribe to the newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.

New here? Hey, I am Valentin. B2B SaaS Marketing Expert & Advisor.

Each week, I share practical marketing strategies, tactics and learnings designed to help you scale your B2B business to €1 million ARR and beyond 🚀

Make sure to subscribe to not miss out on any episode!

Subscribe now

1. First Steps: Your Account Setup – Structure and Targeting

Setting up the account properly from the start is the key to run google ads successfully.

My key recommendations:

A) Segment Campaigns by Region and Language:

Create separate campaigns for each geo-target (e.g. one for DACH, one for US) so you can tailor language, ad copy, and budgets per region. Ensure your location and language settings match the target audience in each region.

B) Use SKAG/STAG for Relevance:

Organize ad groups by very tightly themed keywords (down to single keyword if feasible). This approach aligns ads and landing pages exactly to the query, boosting Quality Score and relevance.
For each SKAG/STAG, use highly specific ad copy containing the keyword and send clicks to the dedicated landing page for that term.
This “laser-focused” relevance can yield higher ad relevance and lower CPCs. (Be mindful that SKAGs can be harder to manage at scale, but with a small budget and keyword set, it’s manageable and often beneficial.)

Note: Even with a SKAG structure, avoid creating too many separate campaigns with tiny budgets. Google’s machine learning needs a certain amount of data (“signal liquidity”) to optimize effectively. It’s okay to have many ad groups, but try to consolidate them within a few campaigns so that each campaign can accumulate at least ~30 conversions per month in total. This ensures any automated bidding or optimization has enough data to learn from.

C) Focus on High-Intent Keywords:

With a limited budget, prioritize bottom-of-funnel keywords that indicate strong intent to buy or request a demo (e.g. “<product> software pricing”, “<industry> tool demo” “<use case> tool”).
Avoid broad informational terms that may drive traffic with low conversion intent. Mapping keywords to their intent and funnel stage is crucial, make sure each keyword’s ad and landing page address the searcher’s intent (informational vs. commercial). This maximizes the chance that clicks turn into sign-ups.

I usually start with two campaigns, each with multiple Ad Groups:

• In-Market → In-Market, high-intent keywords, grouped into themes (ad groups)

• Competitors → Most relevant, close competitors, grouped into use cases (e.g. “campaign attribution”, “campaign analytics”, etc.)

D) Dedicated Landing Pages Per Ad Group:

I usually advice to plan in one landing page per SKAG/STAG.
Ensure each landing page delivers on the ad’s promise and mirrors the keyword’s theme. This consistency (headline, offer, messaging) from keyword → ad → landing page improves conversion rates and sends quality signals back to Google.

⚠️ Avoid sending ad traffic to a generic home or pricing page that isn’t tailored to the query.

Instead, use focused pages with a clear CTA (sign-up or demo form) and relevant content. Include essential elements on each page (headline, value prop, brief benefits, social proof, and a form/CTA) to encourage conversions.
This is how I structure my landing pages:

• Hero Section

• Trust Elements (customer logos)

• USPs / objections

• Customer Statement

• Problem

• Solution

• Implementation

E) Conversion Tracking Setup:

Implement Google Ads conversion tracking (with Google Tag Manager - short GTM) for your primary goal – the sign-up or demo request form submission. Verify that each conversion (e.g. form fill or “Thank You” page view) is tracked correctly. This data is vital for optimization and smart bidding.

💡 If you want to track signup conversion, you need to install the GTM in your app as well. Make sure you are using the same GTM container for your website & app.

Also, enable data-driven attribution in GA4/Google Ads since B2B SaaS often has a longer sales cycle with multiple touchpoints. A data-driven attribution model will better credit your ads for influencing conversions throughout the journey, rather than last-click only, giving you a clearer picture of what’s working.

F) Utilize Negative Keywords:

As you use SKAGs (especially if using phrase match variants), add negatives to prevent irrelevant searches from triggering your ads. This conserves budget for qualified clicks.

G) Remarketing:

It can make sense to plan in a remarketing campaign to re-engage visitors who clicked the ads but didn’t convert. For example, search remarketing ads offering an incentive or reminding them to finish signing up. Given that SaaS leads might research and compare before converting, remarketing is key to nurture those initial clicks into demos/sign-ups.

⚠️ If you haven’t run any Google Ads before, I recommend to not set up remarking from the beginning on, but first get a better feeling on what’s happening and if you can convert people after all.

2. Starting like a Pro: Conversion Tracking Strategy - Page Views vs. Sign-Up Conversions

Your main conversion (macro-conversion) is a sign-up or demo request.
However, especially with small budgets, it can take a long time until someone signs up or requests a demo for the first time.
Which in general is totally fine - as long as the cost per conversion is okay - but this usually causes some troubles, because:
🦖 The algorithms need to feed.

In other words, Google needs data in order to optimize.
No conversions, not optimisation. Therefore higher costs, bad results.

Back then, when I set up my first campaigns I asked myself:
Should I start by optimizing for a lighter “page view” conversion first and switch to sign-ups later?

This question touches on using micro-conversions vs. macro-conversions:

A) Micro vs. Macro Conversions:

A macro-conversion is your primary goal (sign-ups/demos).
Micro-conversions are smaller steps that indicate user interest (e.g. a page view, button click, time on site).
In Google Ads/Analytics, you can set these up as conversion actions too. For a new campaign with very few expected sign-ups, micro-conversions can feed the algorithm more data early on.

B) Starting with a Page View (Micro-Conversion):

If you expect sign-ups to trickle in slowly (say only a few per month initially), consider tracking a high-intent micro-conversion as a primary conversion temporarily.
For example, you might use a specific landing page view or button click as a conversion signal in the early phase. This can help Smart Bidding gather faster, more frequent signals to optimize your campaigns, which is useful for low-volume accounts.
In B2B with long sales cycles, relying solely on sparse final conversions can stall the algorithm’s learning, so micro-conversions act as proxy indicators of progress.

C) Ensure Micro-Conversions Reflect Intent:

Be selective – only count micro-actions that strongly correlate with lead intent. For example, a generic page view of the landing page (which every ad click will trigger) is usually too low-intent to use as a conversion for bidding – it doesn’t distinguish quality of traffic (it’s almost equivalent to clicks).
💡 Instead, use a step like “started sign-up form” or “scrolled 50% down the page” as the micro-conversion signal.
These show the visitor engaged and moved closer to converting.
As a rule, include high-intent micro conversions in the “Conversions” column only if you lack sufficient volume of real conversions.
Low-value actions (e.g. 10-second page view or video play) should remain Secondary (not used for bidding) unless you absolutely need them to meet conversion volume thresholds.

D) When (and How) to Switch to Macro Conversions: Plan to shift focus to actual sign-ups/demos as soon as data allows.

Once your campaign is getting a stable number of sign-up conversions – a commonly cited ballpark is ~15–30 conversions per month or more – you should remove or down-weight the micro-conversions and let the algorithm optimize for the true goal. At that point, the account has “sufficient macro conversion volume” for Smart Bidding to learn from real outcomes. For example, you might start Month 1 counting both “Demo Form Started” and “Demo Form Submitted” as conversions, then by Month 2 or 3, once you’ve logged ~20+ actual submissions, switch to counting only “Submitted” as the conversion. This ensures Google now optimizes strictly for sign-ups.

⚠️ Caution:

Avoid keeping an easy micro-conversion as a primary goal for too long. If both a page view and a sign-up are counted equally, the algorithm might favor the easier action (lots of page views) and not push for the harder sign-ups – essentially “learning” from potentially unqualified leads. To prevent this, either assign lower value to micro conversions or turn them to secondary once you have enough real conversion data. Always communicate with stakeholders about what constitutes a “conversion” in reports to avoid confusion, since mixing micro and macro can inflate conversion counts misleadingly.

3. Bidding Strategy – Manual CPC vs. Target CPA to Start

For a new account with no past data and a limited budget, choosing the right bidding strategy is crucial:

A) Start with Maximize Conversions Bidding:

It is generally recommended not to begin with Target cost per action (CPA) in a brand-new campaign that has zero conversion history. Google’s own guidance and PPC best practices suggest that automated bidding (like Target CPA) works best once the campaign has accumulated at least ~15 conversions in the past 30 days.
Without that data, Target CPA might struggle to find the right audience and could either limit your impressions (if the target seems hard to achieve) or spend erratically.
Instead, start with Maximize Conversions.
This gives the algorithms enough options to ensure you get enough clicks and some conversions initially.
Change to Target CPA after your campaign has accumulated at least ~15 conversions in the past 30 days, as mentioned before.

B) Monitor and Gather Conversion Data:

In the first few weeks, optimize manually: pause poor-performing keywords, ensure your €1,500/month is spent efficiently. Aim to get at least 15-20 conversions under your belt across a few weeks of data.

C) Transition to Target CPA:

Once you have sufficient conversion volume and some baseline CPA data, you can switch the campaign’s bidding to Target CPA.
You tell Google the desired cost per action (conversion) and it will auto-adjust bids to achieve that CPA. When switching to Target CPA, use your observed average CPA as a guide.

Google Ads might even recommend a Target CPA value based on past data; setting a target near that recommendation (maybe slightly higher initially) can help the algorithm succeed.

Expect a learning period of 1-2 weeks where performance may fluctuate as the system optimizes. Keep an eye on it but avoid making frequent changes during this phase. Over 30 days you can judge if Target CPA is outperforming your previous manual approach.

D) Don’t Forget Ongoing Optimizations:

Even with smart bidding, continue the usual optimizations – reviewing search terms, adding negatives, refining ad copy, and improving landing pages. Automated bidding handles bids, but feed it “good ingredients” like relevant keywords and ads. Particularly with SKAGs, maintain that tight relevance and quality scores; the combination of high relevance and smart bidding can yield excellent results.

Conclusion and Recommended Plan

In summary: Begin with a well-structured account, segmented by region and tightly themed ad groups, to ensure every click is as relevant as possible.
Implement robust conversion tracking from day one – track your true goal (signups/demos) and if needed a meaningful micro-conversion to help Google's algorithm learn faster in the early stage.

Run the campaign on Maximize Conversions bidding initially to gather at least 2–4 weeks of data and a baseline conversion volume. As conversions accumulate (on the order of 15+ per month), transition to a bidding strategy like Target CPA to let Google optimize bids toward your cost-per-conversion goals.

Throughout this process, continue refining keywords, ads, and landing pages, and leverage remarketing to improve your overall funnel performance. Ramp up once the campaign has learned what a good conversion looks like. With a €1,500/month budget, every click counts – the above strategy will help maximize the chance that each click turns into a valuable sign-up or demo. Good luck!

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1️⃣ 1-on-1 Marketing Advisory - For B2B founders who need strategic guidance (starting at €500/month)

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🔗 Interested? Book a call

In order to build a successful Go-To-Market motion, it’s important to choose the right marketing (and sales) channels.
In this episode of b2b_growth.exe I’ll give you some tipps, angles and frameworks to:

• Evaluate marketing channels through different strategic lenses

• Understand how and when to use each lens

• Build smarter, stage-appropriate marketing playbooks

Let’s jump in :)

Not all marketing channels work the same way.

Some bring nearly instant leads. Others take months to compound.
Some are scalable but expensive. Others are cheap but high-effort.
The trick is understanding each channel’s characteristics, and how to mix them based on your goals, stage and resources.

The 3 Useful Angles to Evaluate and Prioritize B2B Marketing Channels

1. Time Invest vs. Impact

This lens answers: How much time do I need to invest before seeing results? And how big will those results be?

Quick examples:

• High Impact, High Time: SEO, Community Building, Organic YouTube

• Mid Time, High Impact: Meta Ads, Google Ads

• High Time, Low Impact: Organic Instagram, Organic TikTok

• Low Time, Low Impact: Flyer, on-off Cooperations

When to use this lens:

• When mapping out your marketing roadmap or quarterly plan

• When deciding where to invest your limited bandwidth as a small team

2. (Ramp-Up) Time vs. ROI

This lens answers: What’s the ROI of that effort over time? And what’s the ramp-up?

Paid channels (e.g., Google or LinkedIn Ads) can deliver fast results but rarely improves in ROI over time. Sometimes the ROI even decreases over time, especially when hitting the point of diminishing returns.

Organic channels (e.g., SEO, blog, product loops, community) start slow but compound, becoming more efficient with time and every iteration.

Why this matters:

• Paid works well for early traction or testing messaging

• Organic works well for building leverage and scalability

When to use this lens:

• When marketing budget is available

• When planning channel mix by growth phase

• When deciding where to build in-house vs. outsource

3. Budget vs. Impact Horizon

This matrix maps marketing channels based on how budget-intensive they are and whether their results are short- or long-term.

Quadrants:

• Paid Growth (High Budget, Short-Term Impact): e.g. Meta, LinkedIn, Google Ads

• Brand Building (High Budget, Long-Term Impact): e.g. Sponsorings, OOH, Podcasting

• Content Creation (Low Budget, Long-Term Impact): Blog, LinkedIn Organic, YouTube

• Growth Hacking (Low Budget, Short-Term Impact): Community hacks, product (growth) loops, Special Offers

When to use this lens:

• When creating or refining your Marketing Playbook

• When adjusting spend vs. time tradeoffs

Why This Matters: Strategic Planning for Early-Stage Startups

In early-stage startups, your biggest constraints are time, money, and strategic clarity. That’s why understanding the nature of each channel is critical:

• It prevents waste. Misusing a high-effort channel at the wrong time burns your runway.

• It enables clarity. You know what to expect and how long things take to work.

• It drives better decisions. You can test fast, double down on what works, and plan for scale.

When to Use Each Angle in Practice

Building a Marketing Playbook

• Use the Budget vs. Impact Horizon matrix to map initial channel bets

• Layer on (Ramp-Up) Time vs. ROI to balance long-term and short-term bets

• Use Time Invest vs. Impact for weekly/monthly priorities & project planning

Evaluating New Ideas

• Ask: Is this a short-term initiative or a long-term project?

• What’s the real time/effort tradeoff?

• Is this scalable if it works?

Scaling Your Motion

• Don’t just chase more channels. Instead, ask:

  • Can I make this channel more efficient over time?

  • Can I connect this with other efforts (e.g. SEO + YouTube + newsletter)?

Building your GTM Motion

In order to reach your revenue goal, Sales and Marketing must work together.
When it comes to building your GTM strategy and motion it’s crucial that you’re able to prioritize marketing channels, based on the different angles, to match them with your sales activities.

To quote Alex Estner, who is a GTM Advisor for early-stage startups:

But keep in mind that:

1️⃣ You can NOT run more than 3 (better 1-2) in parallel as an early-stage startup

2️⃣ Not all channels are equally relevant for you (depends on your ICP, ACV, own skills)

Final Thoughts: Less is more

Founders often ask: "What are the best channels?"

The right question is: "Which channel matches my current goals, stage, and constraints?"

Understanding the trade-offs and strengths of each marketing channel is what separates chaotic execution from a focused, compounding marketing system.

Pick 1-2 marketing channels wisely, snyc them with your sales efforts and keep evaluating as you grow.

I’ve you need a second opinion, or feedback on your current marketing playbook, pls reach out at any time and book a free call with me.

Leave your feedback in the comments, if this article was of any help. 🫶

Cheers

Valentin

Want to learn more about B2B Growth?
Subscribe to the newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.

Customer interviews are the most underrated growth lever for founders. Whether you’re trying to shape your product, refine messaging, or just figure out where your audience hangs out, talking to real people is your unfair advantage.

In this guide you will learn:

• Why interviews are your secrete sauce to success

• How to run interviews that clarify your ICP, messaging, and GTM strategy

• What questions to ask to uncover pain, triggers, and buying behavior

• How to find and approach the right people, even if you don’t have customers yet

• How to analyze interviews and spot patterns that inform your next move
  

Why Customer Interviews Matter

Customer interviews don’t just help you build better products and messaging, they also give you the raw material for faster, cheaper growth. Every interview is a source of real language, stories, and objections you can turn into content:
LinkedIn posts, landing pages, case studies, and cold email copy.

“Your job isn’t to guess what your audience wants and thinks. Your job is to listen until they tell you.”

Forget assumptions and abstract personas. The best founders talk to their market regularly, especially if you’re early-stage and haven’t found product-market fit yet.

Use this guide as:

• A starting point for customer discovery

• A bridge between your ICP work and your GTM motion

• A scalable research process to repeat at every growth stage

This guide gives you a simple structure to:

• Define and refine your ICP & Persona

• Learn where your ideal buyers spend attention

• Capture real language and decision triggers for messaging

• Fuel your channel strategy from actual buyer behavior

Btw, in one of my recent expert interviews I talked with Gabriel Böker about How to Use and Conduct Interviews to Improve Marketing & Sales - highly recommend you check it out as well.

How Many Interviews Should You Run, When and How Long?

Here’s a simple breakdown depending on your stage and goal:

🟢 Early-stage (no users yet)

• Number: 8–12 interviews

• Length: 30–45 minutes each

• Who: Potential buyers who match your ideal persona

• Also check out this article about how to find Problem-Solution Fit (Fast)

🔵 Post-launch (some users)

• Number: 6–10 interviews

• Length: 30–45 minutes

• Who: A mix of actual users and non-users in your ICP

🟣 Refining messaging or GTM strategy

• Number: 4–6 interviews

• Length: ~30 minutes

• Who: Ideal customers or high-fit leads

🔁 Ongoing insight loop (maintenance)

• Number: 2 interviews per month

• Length: 20–30 minutes

• Who: Recent customers, churned users, or ICP-aligned leads

Keep in mind:

• Patterns emerge fast, often by interview 4 or 5

• It’s not about having huge sample sizes, it’s about signal consistency

• If you’re hearing the same stories repeatedly, that’s a good sign

• If every interview sounds wildly different, you probably need to tighten your ICP

• It’s better to go deep with 5 interviews than rush 20 surface-level calls

Part 0: Finding the Right People & Booking Interviews

Before you ask great questions, you need someone to talk to.

Most founders don’t run enough interviews, not because they’re lazy, but because they’re not sure how to approach people without it feeling awkward or salesy.

Here’s how to do it simply and effectively:

Who Should You Interview?

Start with people who:

• Match your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

• Recently solved the problem you’re focused on

• Said “no” to your product or a competitor

• Follow relevant influencers or join industry Slack groups

You don’t need customers to start, you need signal from people with the pain you’re solving.

How to Ask for an Interview

Keep it simple, direct, and non-transactional. Here’s a high-converting message you can use on LinkedIn, email, or Slack.

Sample cold DM or email:

Hey [First name], I’m doing a few short interviews with [job title]s to better understand how they deal with [problem].

You’re not being sold anything, I’m just trying to learn from smart people in the space.

Would you be open to a 20–30 minute call? Happy to share notes afterwards if helpful.

Thanks either way!

Pro Tips for Getting More Yeses

• Mention how you found them (“saw your comment in X Slack group” or “followed your post on Y”)

• If you have mutual connections, ask for an intro

• Be clear that it’s not a sales call

Where to Find Interviewees (Especially if You’re Early-Stage)

• Slack communities (e.g. PLG, RevGenius)

• LinkedIn keyword + job title search

• Existing email list (even if small)

• Competitor case studies & clients → find similar people

• Reddit, Discord, niche forums

• Substack comments or industry newsletters

Part 1: Interviewing to Define Your ICP & Persona

Defining your Ideal Customer Profile (+ Personas) is one of the most crucial parts in every Go-To-Market motion.
It’s foundational to everything that comes after, from GTM strategy to your sales-deck and your homepage copy.
In this article you learn more about how to this + how you can use it to increase your website conversion rate.

When it comes to defining your ICP, interviews help you understand:

• Who you’re trying to help & selling to

• What your audience cares about

• Why they might buy a solution like yours

A) Ask About Their Job & Context

• What does your day-to-day look like?

• What are you responsible for?

• What KPIs or outcomes are you measured on?

• What does success look like in your role?

Goal: Get clear on function, level, and what “value” means to them.

B) Ask About Pain & Priorities

• What are the biggest challenges you're facing in your job right now?

• When was the last time you encountered [problem/challenge]?

• What’s most frustrating about that problem?

• What happened? How did you try to solve it?

• What workarounds did you create?

• What didn’t work and why?

• How often does this problem arise? What does it cost you, in time, money, effort, or stress?

• What other solutions have you tried? Why did they fail?

Goal: Validate if the problem is real, painful, and urgent.

C) Ask About Their Buying Process

• When was the last time you bought something for this team or this problem?

• What did that process look like? Who else was involved?

• What made you trust one vendor over another?

• Who decides on the budgets?

Goal: Understand how decisions are made (especially in B2B or team settings).

D) Ask About Language & Positioning

• How would you describe this kind of tool or solution to a colleague?

• What other tools or solutions do you know?

• How do they differ?

Goal: Collect real phrases you can reuse in messaging and content.

Part 2: Interviewing to Find Out Where Your Audience Hangs Out

(Ideal once you know your ICP)

Now it’s time to ask:

• Where can we reach them?

• Who do they trust?

• What do they already pay attention to?

These insights fuel your GTM channel strategy and prevent wasted marketing spend.

A) Ask About Attention & Discovery

• Where do you go when you want to stay up to date in your field?

• Are there any newsletters, podcasts, or blogs you actually read or listen to regularly?

• Who do you follow on LinkedIn or Twitter?

• Are you active in any Slack groups, Discords, or communities?

• What tools do you use daily and how did you find them?

Goal: Build a shortlist of channels and watering holes.

B) Ask About Decision Triggers

• What made you finally take action on [pain/problem]?

• Was there a moment that pushed you to start looking for solutions?

• What kind of content helped you make your decision?

Goal: Spot buying signals and moments of high intent.

C) Ask About Messaging Hooks

• What kind of messaging resonates with you?

• Have you seen a campaign or ad recently that really stood out? Why?

• What’s the most annoying thing vendors say?

Goal: Know what to avoid and what connects.

Part 3: Evaluating & Interpreting Interviews

Now it’s time to turn the raw conversation data into GTM clarity.

Once you’ve done a few interviews, your head might be full of quotes, anecdotes, and scribbled notes. The question becomes:

“So… what do I do with all this?”

This is where evaluation and interpretation comes into play.
Recognizing patterns and making strategic decisions.

Step 1: Organize What You Heard

Use a simple structure to summarize every interview:

• Pain — What are they trying to solve?

• Triggers — What made them start looking?

• Channels — Where do they spend time?

• Tools — What do they already use?

• Phrases — What exact words did they use?

This structure makes it easier to spot recurring themes across interviews.

Step 2: Score Channel Fit Based on Mentions

As patterns emerge, plug them into your Channel Fit Scorecard. For each channel (e.g. LinkedIn, SEO, Slack), ask:

• Did this channel get mentioned?

• How frequently (in how many interviews)?

• What was the context? (Trusted source? Decision point?)

Use your total number of interviews to calculate what % mentioned each channel. Then categorize them:

• Mentioned in ≥ 70% → ✅ High Relevance

• Mentioned in 30–69% → ⚠️ Medium Relevance

• Mentioned in < 30% → ❌ Low Relevance

This helps you prioritize your GTM experiments: start where signal is strongest.

→ The Channel Fit Scorecard Template

After 5–10 interviews, you’ll start to see patterns. Use this Channel Fit Scorecard Template to turn answers into insights for your GTM strategy.

It automatically shows you the relevancy of each channel for your GTM motion, based on the total number of interviews conducted and how often the channel was mentioned.

Free Channel Fit Scorecard Template

→ Use ChatGPT to Summarize and Score Your Interviews

After each interview, paste the transcript into ChatGPT and use this prompt to extract insights based on Pain, Triggers, Channels, Tools, and Language - plus automatically extract channel mentions and real buyer language/quotes.

How to Use It:

1. Upload your transcript (as TXT) in ChatGPT

2. Copy/paste the prompt

3. Copy/paste the results into your scorecard template

You're acting as a Go-to-Market strategist helping a B2B founder analyze a customer interview.

Below is the transcript of an interview with someone in their ICP. Please extract the following insights:

1. PAIN: What problems or frustrations did they mention?

2. TRIGGERS: What events, milestones, or changes pushed them to start looking for a solution?

3. CHANNELS MENTIONED:

   - List all the places (platforms, communities, media, tools, search engines, etc.) the interviewee said they use to:

     a) stay informed

     b) research solutions

     c) discover new tools

   - For each channel mentioned, include the **exact quote or best paraphrased sentence** that supports it.

4. TOOLS: What software or services did they say they use regularly?

5. LANGUAGE: What specific words, phrases, or mental models did they use to describe the problem or solution?

Please format your response like this:

---

### Interview Summary

**Pain:**  

...

**Triggers:**  

...

**Tools They Use:**  

...

**Notable Phrases / Messaging Hooks:**  

- "..."  

- "..."  

### Channels Mentioned (with Quotes)

| Channel / Source     | Quote or Supporting Sentence |

|----------------------|------------------------------|

| LinkedIn             | “I usually check LinkedIn to see what others in my role are doing.” |

| Google Search        | “I just Googled something like 'best CRM for agencies’.” |

| Slack Community      | “I posted the question in RevOps Co-op.” |

| G2                   | “I read a couple of reviews on G2.” |

| Podcasts             | “I listen to [X podcast] to keep up with trends.” |

Step 3: Look for Alignment + Gaps

Ask:

• Are the most trusted channels also where we have presence today?

• Are we spending time/money in places nobody mentioned?

• Where are we under-invested, but buyers hang out?

Use insights not just to validate what you're doing, but to reallocate effort toward what works.

Common Interview Mistakes

1. Talking too much
   Ask short, open-ended questions. Then shut up. If there’s silence, let it sit.
   That’s often when the best stuff comes out.

2. Asking leading questions
   Leading questions are questions that subtly suggest or assume a certain answer. They bias the respondent, often without you realizing it.

   Instead of uncovering truth, they push people toward confirming your idea.
   Example:
   “How frustrating was it when you couldn’t get that feature to work?”
   ➡️ Assumes the experience was frustrating. The person might’ve been fine with it.

3. Not digging deep enough (“why” only once)
   When someone gives you an answer, ask “Why?” - then do it again.
   Often by the 3rd “why,” you’ll uncover something strategic.
   → Check out the 5 Whys Framework

4. Skipping non- & ex-customers
   Talking only to active users or fans creates a warped view of your market. You miss friction, confusion, and the perspectives of people who didn’t convert or left.

5. Trying to pitch during the interview
   The moment you start selling, the interview turns into a demo call.
   f they ask about your product, politely say:

   “Happy to share at the end if there’s time, but for now I just want to understand how you see things.”

Final Tips for Founders

• Have fun! Interviews are exciting and you get to learn a lot, try to enjoy it.

• Always record (with permission), then use AI to summarize, structure and extract quotes.

• Document learnings in themes: Pain | Triggers | Channels | Tools | Phrases

• Interviews aren’t one-off. Make them a monthly habit.

“The earlier you talk to your customers, the fewer pivots you’ll need later.”

Leave your feedback in the comments, if this article was of any help. 🫶

Cheers

Valentin

Want to learn more about B2B Growth?
Subscribe to the newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.

Product-market fit (PMF) is one of the most cited yet least understood concepts in early-stage B2B growth. Every founder wants it. Investors expect it. But few can clearly define or measure it - especially beacuse there are multiple definitions out there.

So I sat down with Björn W. Schäfer to dig into what PMF actually looks like, what signals matter, why so many teams fail to reach it, and how to track progress with structure instead of gut feel.

About Björn:
Björn supports B2B SaaS & AI founders with scaling beyond founder sales from 1 to 5M ARR with a proven system and unfair insights.
He is the author of the bestselling GTM book “Funky Flywheels”, a field guide to modern GTM thinking.
In the past 10+ years, he helped 150+ B2B SaaS startups across Europe scale from early traction to real revenue engines – as a founder, sales leader, advisor, and operator.
He also runs the “Funky Flywheels Show” where he interviews founders and explores the secrets behind the scenes.
Last but not least he is an active angel investor.

But enough said about my guest for this episode.
Let’s jump right into the question:
”How can founders tell if they’ve achieved product-market fit?”

How to Recognize Product-Market Fit

Björn doesn't define PMF in abstract terms.
For him, it means two things:

1. Repeatability on the new customer side:

You're winning similar customers with comparable use cases and challenges. That helps both product and commercial teams scale.

2. Proof of value post-sale:

Customers are using what they bought. Churn is low, and ideally, you're seeing leading indicators of expansion.

He’s blunt:

"If you're not delivering what you promised, I don't care if the contract is 12 or 36 months, you don't have product-market fit."

These two sides matter equally. Without a repeatable acquisition engine, you're relying on luck. Without delivery and retention, you're building a leaky bucket.

This is why founders should treat PMF not as a finish line, but as an ongoing validation loop across the buyer and customer journey.

Why Segment-Level PMF Matters More Than Total Revenue

A common trap: celebrating milestones like "1M ARR" without analyzing where it comes from.

You might have sold into 10 different segments to get there. If each segment has different use cases, personas, and onboarding outcomes, there’s no foundation for repeatability.

Björn emphasizes Product-Segment Fit as a precursor to full Go-To-Market Fit.
It’s when one specific segment shows:

• Consistent problems

• Consistent buyer personas

• Clear impact from your product

That segment is your wedge. That’s where you double down.

The Three Most Common Reasons Founders Fail to Achieve PMF

Björn sees these patterns again and again:

1. Lack of strategic focus

Founders try to serve everyone. In reality, they’re doing too many things in parallel, with no depth in any.

2. Misreading early traction

Early adopters may buy on goodwill, not repeatable value. Their success doesn’t scale across a broader market.

3. Chasing revenue instead of outcomes

Investors reward revenue growth. But without healthy usage and retention, that growth is fragile.

He calls this

"doing everything and nothing"

Some companies hit 2M or 3M ARR, but if there’s no segment-level focus or delivery, the whole thing is unstable.

How to Build a Structured Way to Track PMF

Structure matters. Repeatable processes that help you measure what's working.

Björn breaks this into two sides:

1. Sales Side – Are you winning the right deals?

• Track how prospects move from discovery to demo to proposal.

• Build structured discovery frameworks like SPICED or MEDDIC.

• Watch for customer pull. Do they proactively want the next meeting?

2. Post-Sales Side – Are you delivering value?

• Define what onboarding success looks like

• Monitor product usage

• Track time to first value and time to impact

Use these as parallel lenses. Winning deals is half the game. Proving value post-sale is the other.

When to Start Building Structure

From my work with early-stage founders I know how much they have on their plat.
So I asked Björn: When to Start Building Structure? Isn’t it overkill at 10k MRR?

He said: Not if you want to avoid chaos.

Björn recommends adding light structure from the first real deals:

• Framework for discovery calls

• Standardized demo outline

• Clear offer presentation

This helps you:

• Spot patterns early

• Disqualify bad fits faster

• Save time and energy

You don’t need a RevOps team. You need consistency. You need signal.

Key Metrics That Actually Indicate PMF

Beyond ARR, track these leading indicators:

• Consistency in ICP across deals

• Shorter sales cycles over time

• Increased demo-to-close conversion

• High onboarding completion rates

• Engagement in product within 7 to 14 days

• Expansion signals within 30 to 60 days

Metrics like these show whether your business is becoming predictable – and scalable.

A Note on Founder-Led Sales

In early stages, founders are doing the selling. That’s how it should be.

But without structure, it becomes chaotic:

• Every sales call is custom

• You forget to ask key discovery questions

• You spend hours on deals that don’t convert

Björn’s advice: use structure to protect your time.

• Have a clear qualification checklist

• Know when to walk away

• Treat early sales as a learning lab

Final Advice to Founders

"Please don’t reinvent the wheel," Björn says. "There are proven methods to run a discovery call, to deliver a demo, to structure your offer. Use them. Then tweak."

PMF is not a single moment. It’s a path.

If you build a system that lets you see and respond to those patterns, you’ll find PMF sooner, and with less chaos.

Big shoutout to Björn for taking the time to share his thoughts about PMF.

Feel free to leave your feedback in the comments, if this article was of any help. 🫶

Cheers

Valentin

Want to learn more about B2B?
Subscribe to the newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.

In a recent conversation with Gabriel Böker, founder of 'SaaS Growth' where he offers startups an 8-weeks growth bootcamp, we explored how founders can use qualitative interviews to build this clarity and turn it into sharper positioning, messaging, and acquisition strategies.

Why founders need to talk to their market , and what most get wrong

Gabriel highlighted that many founders, especially in tech, build first and assume users will follow. But markets don’t work that way. “Solving a product really demands deep market insights,” he explains. Without those, even the most elegant solution can miss the mark. Founders need to move beyond assumptions and get close to the lived experience of their target audience.

Importantly, Gabriel cautions against asking prospects what solution they want. “People are really bad at predicting the future,” he says. Instead, the gold is in the past, what people have actually done, not what they say they would do.

How to structure interviews that reveal the truth

Skip hypotheticals and future-gazing. Focus on uncovering the real, painful problems people have already faced. Gabriel suggests questions like:

• When was the last time you encountered [problem space]?

• What happened? How did you try to solve it?

• What workarounds did you create?

• How did those workarounds fall short?

• How often does this problem arise? What does it cost you, in time, money, effort, or stress?

• What other solutions have you tried? Why did they fail?

Then, layer in follow-ups. A simple but powerful tool: keep asking why. Gabriel puts it plainly: “When you ask why and dig deeper, you help people reflect on the real burdens they face, the emotional, economic, and operational costs.”

I recommend you check out the 5 Whys Framework, if you want to dig a bit deeper.

Because this is where the magic happens: where surface-level complaints give way to the root causes and unmet needs that can shape your positioning and product roadmap.

What founders can learn if they really listen

When you approach interviews this way, you uncover:

• The true severity and frequency of different pain points

• The gaps in existing alternatives (and why those gaps matter)

• The exact language your ICP uses to describe their struggles

• The emotional drivers (frustration, fear, hope) that influence buying behavior

These aren’t just insights, they’re raw materials for positioning that resonates, messaging that cuts through the noise, and features that solve problems people will pay to eliminate.

How many interviews are enough?

Gabriel’s take: aim for 10, 20 high-quality interviews. You’re not trying to hit statistical significance; you’re trying to spot patterns. “Better 10 deep conversations than 50 shallow ones,” he emphasizes.

Crucially, these interviews should be with people who genuinely fit your ICP. That’s where depth and relevance come from. And remember: even as your startup grows, this work doesn’t stop. As Gabriel points out, target audiences evolve. The companies that keep listening avoid the trap of irrelevance.

From raw insights to better marketing & sales

After you’ve run your interviews, the job is to synthesize:

• What themes came up repeatedly?

• Which problems feel most painful and urgent?

• Where do existing solutions fall short, and why?

Gabriel recommends creating a simple mapping: problems, existing workarounds, costs of those workarounds, and gaps in alternatives. From here, craft your positioning and messaging to speak directly to these high-pain, high-frequency problems, using the exact words your customers used. “That’s how you build something that fits,” he says.

A practical resource to deepen this skill: The Mom Test.
It is essential reading for founders who want to get customer conversations right.

Getting people to say yes to an interview

Founders often assume they need to offer incentives to get interviews. While that can help, Gabriel notes that many people will talk simply because they want to help or are excited by the chance to influence a new solution.

His advice:

• First, know where your ICP spends time (events, communities, podcasts, industry forums).

• Understand what motivates them. Some respond to charity donations. Others like being early adopters or having their voice heard.

• Tailor your outreach to reflect this.

The result? More yeses, and more meaningful conversations.

Final thoughts: Interviews as part of an iterative growth engine

Gabriel’s last piece of advice: treat interviews as an ongoing practice, not a one-time task. “Marketing, positioning, user research, sales, it’s all iterative. Just like product development.”

Founders who build this muscle, who stay close to their market, create startups that stay relevant, solve real problems, and grow faster because they truly understand what their customers value.

If you’re an early-stage founder, consider this your unfair advantage: put down the growth hacks for a moment, and go talk to your market.

Want to learn more? Subscribe to the newsletter and follow Valentin (me) on LinkedIn.

Organizing an executive dinner is a highly effective way to build relationships, position your brand, and create valuable networking opportunities. But success comes from solid preparation and attention to detail. Here is a hands-on guide to help you set up a memorable, professional event.

1 - Event and Budget Planning

Start by defining a realistic budget.

For 30 people, plan between €3,500 and €6,000.
Your budget should cover food, beverages, venue, decoration, and a buffer for unforeseen costs.

⚠️ Keep in mind that even with confirmed RSVPs, typically only 50 to 80 percent of invitees will actually attend!
This helps avoid overcommitting on venue size and catering.

2 - Find Partners

Identify one or two co-hosting partners to share costs, for example €2,000 each. Partners should align with the dinner’s theme and target audience. This not only helps manage expenses but also adds credibility and reach when inviting guests.

3 - Set Date and Location

Choose a date that either connects with a larger industry event or allows for strong participation from senior leaders.
⚠️ Planning dinners around the time of a fair or bigger event can also come with risks. For example there might be other events at the same time, that compete against yours. Therefore it can make sense to unlink the dinner from events and plan it for a time when nothing else is up.

When selecting a restaurant, prioritize venues that:

• Offer private or semi-private dining rooms

• Are well-reviewed for business events

• Provide professional service and a suitable ambiance for networking

4 - Event Preparation

Your goal as an event planner is to leave nothing to chance. The more you can prepare for your own company and for your partners, the better.

I can say from experience that the less people have to think, the fewer things can go wrong. 😉

Here is a checklist of things you should prepare:

• Write a clear, concise event description for internal use and partner communications.

• Build a guest list including full names, job titles, and emails.

• Prepare a email invitation template that co-hosts can use (one for each partner).

• Adding a visual banner to the email makes it more unique.

• Create a meeting and share the calendar event with the invitation email

• Share a google drive folder, including all assets with your partners

Event Description Template

Share this with your partner via Notion or any other Tool

Executive Dinner – powered by >>Your Company<<, >>Partner<< and >>Partner<<

📅 >>Date<<
🕕 >>Time<<
📍 >>Restaurant Name<<, >>City<<

On this special evening, 30 senior leaders from across the >>Your Industry<< sectors will come together for an engaging dinner with fresh perspectives and valuable networking opportunities.

Highlights of the evening:
🍽️ A private dinner with 30 hand-picked attendees
🎤 Three short talks from industry leaders — sharing practical experiences (5 min, insight-focused)
🍷 Lively discussions, excellent food, and new connections

Agenda:
1️⃣ >>Time<<: Arrival and welcome drinks
2️⃣ >>Time<<: Three quick talks offering actionable insights
3️⃣ >>Time<<: Dinner (starter, main, dessert) with changing seating and open dialogue
4️⃣ >>Time<<: End

Quick details:
📍 Venue: >>Restaurant Adress<<
📆 Date & Time: >>Date<< | Start: >>Time<< | Duration: ~4 hours
👥 Attendance: By invitation only | Up to 2 people per company

Email Invitation Template:

Subject: Invitation: Exclusive >>Your Industry<< Dinner on >>Date<< in >>City<<

Hi [FirstName],

I’'d like to invite you to our exclusive Executive Dinner on >>Date<< in >>City<< — an evening designed for meaningful networking and shared insights among >>Your Industry<< leaders.

What’s in store:
🍽️ A private dinner with 30 hand-picked attendees
🎤 Three short talks from industry leaders — sharing practical experiences (5 min, insight-focused)
🍷 Lively discussions, excellent food, and new connections

We’ll gather at >>Restaurant Name<<, offering a private dining experience in the heart of >>City<<.

📆 Date: >>Date<<
🕕 Time: >>Start Time<< (wrap-up by >>End Time<<)
📍 Location: >>Restaurant Name<<, >>Restaurant Adress<<

Could you let me know by >>Deadline<< if you’d like to join?

Looking forward to your reply!


Best regards,
[Your Name]

5 - Project Management and Day-of Agenda

At this stage, good project management is key.

Set up a WhatsApp group or similar chat for partners to keep communication fast, streamlined, and transparent.

The event planner should follow up regularly with internal teams like sales and customer success to ensure enough invitations have gone out and that guest confirmations are on track.

⚠️ As mentioned before, plan in that up to 50% of people won’t come, so I recommend you try to invite 10-20% more than your actual capacity.

Also check in with partners to align on guest lists and responsibilities.

Two to three days before the event, send out a reminder email to all confirmed guests.

6 - Follow Up

After the event, collect feedback from partners to understand what worked and how to improve for next time. This helps refine the format and strengthen future collaborations.

One more thing I would like to share:

Things don't always run smoothly. Sometimes a lot of unforeseen things come together and the event might not go as planned.

That's okay!

Planning a dinner always involves a certain amount of risk, as with any other event. Use such moments to learn for future events.

Translation of the screenshot:

Short feedback on the evening:
Location (food & staff) were really nice 10/10!
Very well chosen 👍:

Learned a lot, especially about the invites etc.
None of the people we invited actually came 💀
Not all of the others came either. There were 15 people in total, 10 people from brands, 5 from the partners.
But it was still a very nice evening 😅

Feel free to leave your feedback in the comments, if this article was helpful. 🫶

Cheers

Valentin

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I sat down with Thomas Weinberger, a performance marketer specialized in B2B and co-founder of webwings (an online marketing agency for Google Ads, Facebook Ads and SEO) to unpack exactly that.

Here’s his advice:

New here? Each week, I share practical marketing strategies, tactics and learnings designed to help you scale your B2B business to €1 million ARR and beyond 🚀

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1. Start with the Right Expectations

• If your goal is LEADS (e.g. newsletter signups, lead magnet downloads), expect a cost of €50–€150 per lead.
  ⚠️ Those leads are not sales-ready and need to be nurtured first.

• If your goal is SQLs (sales-qualified leads - ready for demos or sales calls), expect €400–€1,400 per lead, depending on ticket size and complexity of your product or service.

👉 Plan a realistic 3–6 month test phase and get clear on what stage of the funnel you're optimizing for.

2. Google Ads: Best Fit if You Have Search Demand

Google Ads is your best starting point, if people are actively searching for what you offer.

Benefits:

• You catch users late in the funnel, with existing intent

• Conversion rates tend to be higher and costs lower

🔍 Use Google’s Keyword Planner to check search volume. Aim for at least 500–1,000 monthly searches across your relevant terms.

🔢 Plan that you can capture around 1/3 of that search volume with your ads.

👉 Also, plan with about 100 clicks for one sales conversion (demo / free trial / freemium)

Example:

Let’s pretend your goal is to get 20 demo requests per month with Google Ads.
This means you need about 2000 clicks per month.
To generate 2000 clicks per month, the search volume for your relevant keywords/terms should be three times 2000, therefore 6000.

⚠️ No or very low search volume?
Consider competitor brand keywords as a workaround, but be careful not to mention competitors in your copy or pages.

3. LinkedIn Ads: The Go-To Channel for Niche B2B Targeting

If the search volume is too low or zero on Google, LinkedIn is your best shot at targeting your ICP.

Yes, it’s expensive, but it allows you to:

• Precisely target decision-makers

• Launch pipeline-building activities while SEO and other channels mature

💡 How to get started:

• Test direct sales first
  (⚠️ in many cases it doesn’t work, but for some b2b niches & offers it does, so it’s worth to run a small experiment)

• If direct sales isn’t working, use lead magnets: Checklists, comparisons, PDF guides

• Thought Leader Ads: Promote posts from founders or execs to boost awareness, visibility and to create trust for your brand

Founders are a great choice for Thought Leader Ads, their faces build trust, and they’re not likely to leave the company (unlike regular employees).

👉 Pro tip: If the founder doesn’t have time to create content, support them with ghostwriting and a content ops setup.

4. Don’t Launch Ads Without Great Content Pieces — Especially on LinkedIn

Paid acquisition doesn't work without strong content. Especially on LinkedIn.

Before launching LinkedIn ads, make sure you’ve got:

1–3 high-value downloadable assets (e.g. eBook with at least 10-pages) like:

• Educational content answering key objections and questions

• Unique insights, using your own data and/or industry knowledge

• Guides or comparison of providers, suppliers or technologies

⚠️ Don’t just use your pitch or sales deck - maximise the value for the reader.

👉 In contrast, Google Ads needs less content. You can launch fast if your landing page and ad copy are solid.

Not sure if your website is ready for Google Ads?
Read this Step-by-Step Guide on How to Optimize Your B2B SaaS Website for Conversions (incl. free templates)

Conclusion: How to Invest €3k–€5k Ad Budget per Month the Best Way

If you want paid ads to contribute to growth at an early stage:

✅ Align on your funnel goal: Leads, MQLs or SQLs
✅ Start with Google Ads if there’s enough (search) demand, otherwise use LinkedIn Ads
✅ Build 1–3 strong pieces of content before spending on LinkedIn
✅ Use founders as the face and support them with content creation, if you start using LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads
✅ Run tests for 3–6 months and plan results realistically

Paid acquisition isn’t magic. But if you match expectations with execution, it can become a powerful lever, even at €3k/month.

Leave a like, if you found this episode helpful.

Cheers

Valentin

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What does it really mean to have ‘problem–solution fit’ (PSF) and how do you know you’ve reached it?

In my latest conversation with Dr. Judit Klein, Head of Startups at ZOLLHOF Tech Incubator, we unpacked this critical early-stage milestone. With deep experience supporting B2B SaaS founders, Judit shared a clear, practical view of how to approach, define, and validate problem–solution fit.

Here’s a structured summary of what she shared:

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1. Problem–Solution Fit Is a Learning Process

Judit emphasizes that problem–solution fit is not a binary yes/no moment. Instead, it’s a process of continuous learning about your users, their context, and your product's role in their workflow.

She often sees teams approaching this with the right mindset, but lacking structured feedback loops or data to guide their decisions.

"You don’t need to over-engineer it. But you need a clear sense of what you’re validating, and how your product fits into the user’s world."

2. Focus on the Problem First — Not the Product

Judit emphasized that many founders come in with a strong product idea or even an MVP, but they haven’t deeply validated the actual problem it solves.

"You need to fall in love with the problem, not your product."

She advises:

• Spend time understanding the day-to-day of your target audience

• Get specific about the problem context: when, why, and how it shows up

• Don’t just ask “Is this a problem?” — dig into how painful or frequent it really is

3. Talk to the Right People

A common mistake: getting feedback from people who are not the real users.

"We often talk to people we have easy access to, but they might not be the decision-makers or even the actual users."

Instead:

• Make sure you're speaking to the right roles (end-users and decision-makers).

• Creating assumption maps: What do you believe about the problem, the user, their goals?

• Defining clear questions that test those assumptions

• Keeping interviews problem-focused (not pitching your solution)

• Watch how they work. Ask: "Can you show me how you solve this today?"

4. Use AI to Test Assumptions Early and Speed Up The Process — but Don’t Skip Real Conversations

One standout point Judit shared: AI can be a powerful early tool for lean teams.

“You can basically have your own team just based on AI... It allows you to test assumptions and gather directional feedback before you even talk to the first human being.”

Use tools like ChatGPT to:

• Draft ideal customer profiles and test messaging angles

• Simulate early objections or pain point articulation

• Generate interview scripts or refine your hypothesis

Important: This is not a replacement for real interviews. But it helps you prepare smarter and move faster.

Placeholder for graphic: “A side-by-side chart comparing Early Validation With vs. Without AI — showing reduced time, clearer hypotheses, better prep for user interviews.”

5. Don't Skip the Fundamentals

Founders often move too quickly into product development without having nailed the user problem.

"The real work is understanding user workflows, pain points, and priorities. That takes time, but it’s the foundation for everything else."

Problem–solution fit is fuzzy, but Judit sees clear signals in the teams who are approaching it.

Signals that you are getting closer to PMF:

• Conversations get easier and more predictable

• Prospects bring their own use cases to the table

• You’re no longer begging for meetings — you’re getting inbound interest

• Your message resonates consistently across different calls

6. Bonus: How Incubators Like ZOLLHOF Help

Judit also shared how ZOLLHOF supports early-stage teams:

• Coaching on customer discovery and assumption mapping

• Structured sprints to test and validate ideas

• Access to mentors and early customers for real-world feedback

Their goal: help founders reduce time to validation and avoid building in the wrong direction.

👉 I highly recommend any aspiring tech founder to apply to Zollhof. I went through the incubator program myself with my B2B SaaS startup back in 2020 and gained invaluable support along the way.

Final Thoughts

Problem–solution fit is a process of discovery, testing, and iteration.

Judit’s advice to founders:

“Move fast, but don’t skip steps. The time you invest in understanding the problem will save you 10x later.”

If you're early in your journey, start here:

• Map your assumptions

• Talk to real users

• Use AI to accelerate, not replace, real validation

Leave a like or share this episode with others, if you found it helpful.

Cheers

Valentin

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They add a freemium plan or trial, set up some tool tips, and assume that’s enough to drive scalable growth.

It’s not.

In this episode of b2b_grwoth.exe I am interviewing Roelof Otten. He helps B2B SaaS startups to make PLG work, making their product sell itself 24/7.
We unpacked 7 common mistakes B2B SaaS companies make when adopting a product-led motion, and how to actually build a system that works.

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Mistake 1: Thinking PLG = Free Trial + Onboarding

Roelof’s biggest observation: many teams treat PLG like a checklist.

• Add free trial or freemium? ✅

• Implement tool tips? ✅

• Offer self-serve onboarding? ✅

Done? Not even close.

Why it’s a mistake:
PLG isn’t just a feature, it’s a growth engine. The product becomes the sales motion. That only works if the product is built to drive adoption, engagement, and expansion on its own.

“You can’t just slap on a free trial and expect the product to sell itself. It has to be part of the whole system.”

Mistake 2: Giving Too Much Away in Freemium

Many founders launch freemium to “let users experience the value.” But often, they end up giving away so much that users never upgrade.

What to do instead:

• Be strategic: your free plan should drive toward upgrade triggers, not replace the need for them.

• Consider a time-boxed free trial if you want to offer access without losing control over monetization.

“Freemium should serve your business. If the free version is too good, users won’t pay.”

Mistake 3: Treating PLG and SLG as Either/Or

Early-stage founders often ask: Should we go product-led or sales-led?

Roelof’s advice: Don’t make it binary.

• Use hybrid models — sales-assisted PLG works especially well for complex or high-ticket products.

• Segment by deal size: C- and B-tier customers can go through self-serve, while A-tier gets sales support.

“The higher the ticket, the more likely they’ll want to talk to sales. But that doesn’t mean the product can’t support parts of the journey.”

Mistake 4: Building Onboarding Without a Clear Goal

Most onboarding flows show features. But they don’t drive users toward outcomes.

Roelof’s rule: Start with the Ultimate Win - the key value or result your user is trying to achieve.

Then reverse-engineer:

• What’s the smallest possible “aha” moment that proves value?

• What steps are needed to get there?

• How can we personalize that journey?

“Great onboarding starts with a goal. Without that, it’s just a tour of features.”

Mistake 5: Ignoring Onboarding Outside the Product

Many SaaS teams focus all their onboarding effort inside the app and forget everything outside it.

That’s a big miss.

• Email sequences, WhatsApp nudges, and re-engagement flows are part of onboarding.

• They help form habits and bring users back into the product.

“User onboarding is habit-building. That doesn’t stop when the user closes the tab.”

Mistake 6: Focusing Only on Churn Instead of Inactivity

Churn is obvious. It shows up on your revenue dashboard.
But inactivity is the real leak.

What to track instead:

• Inactive users during trials or freemium plans

• Drop-offs before value milestones

• Segments that never convert to paid or engaged usage

“In almost every SaaS product I audit, 40–50% of users are inactive. That’s wasted CAC and effort.”

Mistake 7: Messaging and Pricing Not Ready for Self-Serve

Roelof learned this the hard way: if your pricing and messaging aren’t clear, PLG won’t work.

In his own startup, he skipped the free trial, had no onboarding, and only had a vague welcome screen. Support demand exploded. Sales slowed. And the business couldn’t scale.

“You need to explain your product clearly. If you can’t do that on your homepage, self-serve won’t work.”

When to Bring in a PLG Expert

According to Roelof, the ideal time is when:

• You have early signs of product-market fit

• You’re around €500k ARR

• You’ve validated the core product and need to systematize growth

Final Takeaway

Product-led growth isn’t a checklist. It’s a strategy and shift in how you drive adoption, revenue, and scale.

To do it well:

• Be strategic with freemium and trials

• Build onboarding around outcomes, not features

• Support the journey inside and outside the product

• Treat PLG and SLG as levers, not labels

• Track the quiet churn (inactivity), not just cancellations

And most importantly:

• Don’t launch PLG until your messaging, pricing, and product are ready to convert.

Big thanks to Roelof for sharing his experience.

Leave a like, if you found this episode helpful.

Cheers

Valentin

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In this guide, I walk you through the exact process I use with clients every week to sharpen their messaging, clarify their positioning, and turn their website into a high-converting asset.

New here? Hey, I am Valentin. Early-Stage B2B SaaS & Tech Marketing Expert & Advisor.

Each week, I share practical marketing strategies, tactics and learnings designed to help you scale your B2B business to €1 million ARR and beyond 🚀

Make sure to subscribe to not miss out on any episode!

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2 ways I can help scale your B2B SaaS from 0 to €1M ARR 🤝

1️⃣ 1-on-1 Marketing Advisory - For B2B founders who need strategic guidance (starting at €500/month)

2️⃣ Advisory + Execution - For B2B founders who also need hands-on support with content creation, design and execution (starting at €1500/month - includes Advisory)

🔗 Book a call via valentineiber.com

Step 1: (Re)Define Your Early Customer Profile (ECP)

Most people know this as an ICP (Ideal Customer Profile), but for early-stage startups, I call it the ECP — because it’s an evolving, early version of the ICP.

I always start by analyzing the CRM data for existing customers.
I look for the segment that:

• Drives the most revenue

• Has the highest upsell potential

• Converts the fastest (shortest sales cycle)

Once identified, I define this customer segment using a table with the following criteria:

• Customer / CRM status → Should not be in CRM yet

• Industry / vertical → Which industries are you focusing on?

• Minimum number of employees

• Maximum number of employees

• Minimum annual revenue

• Location → Where is your ECP based?

• Tech stack → What tech is your ECP using?

• Buying intent / use cases → Why is your ECP buying? What are the use cases?

• Buying center → How is the buying center looking like? Who is involved? (see also step 2- Personas)

• Nice-to-haves → Anything else that identifies an ECP

Another thing I do from time to time with clients, in order to make it even more clear:
I create the ANTI-ECP.
It’s basically all criteria that an ideal customer should not have.

Grab my ICP template G-Sheet and start filling it:

ICP Template

Step 2: (Re)Define Personas

Based on the ECP, I build out the key buyer personas.

For B2B SaaS and tech, there are typically three personas that matter:

1. Project Driver / Influencer

2. Decision Maker / Buyer

3. User / Beneficiary

For each, I fill out the following criteria:

• Job title / role

• Education

• Jobs to be done (JTBD)

• Key challenges & pain points

• Success criteria

• Buying triggers

• Role in the buying process

• Current solution(s)

• Skills and decision power

• Information gathering behavior

Grab my ICP template G-Sheet and start filling it:

Get the Persona Template

Step 3: (Re)Define Messaging & Positioning

I use a simple but effective messaging framework built on these components:

1. Persona

2. Company Type (ECP)

3. Use case — What is the customer trying to achieve?

4. Current tool — How do they do it today without your solution?

5. Problem — What’s broken or inefficient in their current approach?

6. Capability — What can they do better with your product?

7. Category — How would the customer categorize your product?

8. Features — Which features are most valuable to them?

9. Desired outcome — What result are they ultimately after?

👉 Then, I pull relevant insights from sales calls, CRM notes, and customer conversations to populate each point.

I start left with ‘Persona’ and add my content underneath it.
Than I got to ‘Company Type’, and so on.

It should look something like this when you’re done:

Next, I determine the right positioning approach:

• A) Competitive positioning against the status quo

• B) Contextual positioning anchored on the use case

Good to know: In most early-stage cases, use-case positioning works better.

Step 4: Rework the Website Structure (Wireframes)

Next, I rework the website structure visually.

I start by pasting screenshots of the current site into FigJam.

Then I sketch out new wireframes based on proven B2B SaaS website templates — structured to convert and reflect the messaging work we’ve done.

I recommend you check out this free FigJam Template for B2B SaaS Websites, by Alex & Tarik:

Website Template

Step 5: Website Copy Writing

Once the messaging, positioning and wireframes are ready, I move on to writing initial website copy — starting with the Hero section.

I use this prompt to generate first copy drafts:

Help me design a suitable headline for my B2B SaaS website.
Try to include as many aspects of the target group, use cases, problems, capabilities of the solution and the outcome as possible.

Write a headline and a sub-headline in English.

Here's an example from another company of what a good headline and paragraph might look like:
Headline: The prospecting tool to automate multichannel outreach & actually get replies
Paragraph: Find leads with valid contact info and reach them across email, LinkedIn, or calls - personalized, and out of spam.

Use this information to write the copy:

Target group (ECP & Persona):
→ Description of ECP & Persona.

Use Cases:
→ Use Case 1
→ Use Case 2
etc.

Problems:
→ Problem 1
→ Problem 2
etc.

Capabilities:
→ Capability 1
→ Capability 2
etc.

Desired Outcomes:
→ Outcome 1
→ Outcome 2
etc.

👉 As soon as I got some first results I iterate the copy until I nail it.

How to know when you’ve nailed it?

A website visitor should be able to answer all those questions in 10-seconds:

• Who is this for?

• What problem does it solve?

• What’s the core use case?

• What can I do better/faster than before — or better than competitors?

• What pain or effort does it eliminate?

Step 5: Update Your Website & Content and Strengthen Social Proof

Finally, I implement the new messaging across the website — and double down on social proof, according to my wireframes.

Because, one additional key question the site should answer within the first 10 seconds is:

→ Who else has already benefited from this solution?

This builds trust fast and helps early-stage companies punch above their weight.

Here are three examples of homepages with strong social proof elements in the hero section:

Step 6: Launch & Measure Impact

Before I launch the website updates, I make sure my client captures all relevant metrics.

Web reporting should be at least:

• Traffic

• Unique Visitors

• Conversion Rates (e.g. CVR Traffic to Demo)

As soon as the updates are live we track how the metrics change and make adjustments, if necessary.

Bonus: Avoid Those 5 Website Messaging & Positioning Mistakes

Check out this episode where I interviewed Thomas on how to avoid typical mistakes when it comes to website messaging.

Read the article

2 ways I can help scale your B2B SaaS from 0 to €1M ARR 🤝

1️⃣ 1-on-1 Marketing Advisory - For B2B founders who need strategic guidance (starting at €500/month)

2️⃣ Advisory + Execution - For B2B founders who also need hands-on support with content creation, design and execution (starting at €1500/month - includes Advisory)

🔗 Book a call via valentineiber.com

Leave a like, if you found this episode helpful.

Cheers

Valentin

Want more hands-on tipps like this? Subscribe to the newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.

He’s worked on over 300+ B2B websites with his Clarity Sprints, helping Startups nail their website messaging and positioning.

This is what he shared:

New here? Each week, I share practical marketing strategies, tactics and learnings designed to help you scale your B2B business to €1 million ARR and beyond 🚀

Make sure to subscribe to not miss out on any episode!

Subscribe now

1. Too Much Strategy, Not Enough Execution

Some startups think they’ve nailed their positioning. ICP, USP, competitive edge - check.

But then you land on their website… and none of it shows up.

Why it happens:
Strategy lives in Miro, Notion, or slide decks — but it never makes it into the actual messaging.

Why it’s a problem:
Your visitors don’t care what your internal docs say. They care what your homepage tells them in the first 5 seconds.

How to fix it:

Check your website. Can a visitor answer these questions in 10 seconds?

• Who is this for? (Ideal customer)

• What problem does it solve?

• What’s the core use case?

• What can I do better or faster than before - or better than competitors?

• What pain or effort does it eliminate?

• Who else has already benefited from this?

All these questions can be answered in 2-3 sentences and with visual elements so that a clear picture emerges in the reader's mind.

2. Messaging That’s Too Broad or Generic

Trying to speak to everyone? You end up resonating with no one.

Common signs:

• Messaging like “We help teams work better” or “All-in-one platform”

• No mention of the actual ICP or real-world use cases

Why founders avoid focus:
They’re afraid of “leaving money on the table.”
But that’s wrong.
Broad messaging kills conversions.

How to fix it:

• Narrow down to your best-fit audience. Your ICP isn’t everyone! In this episode I explain how to define your ICP.

• Tailor sections of your site to specific ICPs or use cases (e.g. startups vs. enterprises)

3. Internal Misalignment = External Confusion

One team says “data platform,” another says “BI tool,” and the product team says “analytics layer.”

What prospects see: Confusion. Inconsistency. Lack of clarity.

Why it matters:
Even if you think your messaging is clear, mixed signals across your homepage, sales deck, and outbound copy erode trust.

How to fix it:

• Get sales, marketing, and product aligned on the core message

• Treat your homepage like a “source of truth” for positioning

• Workshop your messaging across teams - co-create, don’t dictate. Sync about it regularly.

4. Wrong Level of Abstraction

Many sites fall into one of two traps:

• Too high-level: Generic terms like “efficiency,” “transformation,” or “optimize operations”

• Too low-level: Feature dumps that overwhelm or confuse

Why it matters:
Your prospects aren’t looking for buzzwords or product specs. They want to see how their world gets better.

How to fix it:

• Start from use cases and user goals, not features or tech

• Show what changes in the customer’s day-to-day

• Use clear before/after examples, like “from spreadsheets to in-depth insights in 5 minutes”

5. Using AI Wrong Or Too Soon

Tools like ChatGPT can help. But they’re not a shortcut to clarity.

What founders get wrong:

• Asking AI to write website copy without feeding it real context

• Using AI outputs without editing for tone, depth, and relevance

How to use AI right:

• Feed it your positioning doc, key use cases, and customer quotes

• Use it to generate variations, not final copy

• Treat it as a creative partner — not a writer

Bonus: The Sign You’re Getting It Right

You get more conversions from the same amount of visitors.

If investors, prospects, and team members all explain what you do the same way.

“Your website is the most visible expression of your positioning. It should speak for you — before you do.”

Final Thoughts

Your website is one of the most important assets, especially in early stages.

Invest in it. Iterate. Optimize.

Messaging and positioning will change over time, so you need to adapt frequently.

If you’re struggling, reach out to Thomas.

Leave a like, if you found this episode helpful.

Cheers

Valentin

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They’re the ones who move — and improve — fast.

This deep dive breaks down what I’ve seen work in the field: how to speed up execution, break through discomfort, and actually translate ideas into revenue. If you're a founder stuck between €0–€10k MRR, this is especially for you.

1. Speed of Execution = Speed of Growth

You refined your ICP. You rewrote your positioning. You even documented it neatly in Notion.

But did you update your website? Your sales deck? Your cold email copy? Your LinkedIn profile?

That’s where most founders stall — the execution gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it. And that delay kills momentum.

Why Execution Lags (and What to Do About It)

Most execution bottlenecks come from three issues:

• Perfectionism: Waiting until everything is polished.

• Tool paralysis: Not knowing how to get something live.

• Lack of capacity: Being spread too thin to act quickly.

Here’s how to fix it:

A. Use Tools That Shrink the Gap

You don’t need a full marketing team to execute at speed:

• ChatGPT: Draft website copy, cold emails, subject lines, or landing pages from bullet points, based on your ICP, Persona and messaging inputs. Think about building your own GPT - this will help you save time when prompting.

• Canva + Tella: Use these to quickly build or update sales decks, visual explainers, or product demos.
  With Canva Pro you can also create templates and save your company’s font & colors, which will help you to accelerate your content creatio neven more.

• Notion: Build repeatable systems for onboarding, outreach, or growth experiments.

B. When (and Who) to Bring In

If you keep getting stuck, it’s likely a capacity, clarity and or structure issue. You need focused help. Here are your best bets:

• Executional Advisors: Founders often need someone who combines strategic guidance and hands-on help. Someone who not only tells you what to do — but actually helps do it.

  New here? Each week, I share practical marketing strategies and tactics designed to help you scale your B2B business beyond €1 million in ARR 🚀
  

  2 ways I can help you scale your B2B company to €500k ARR 🤝

  1️⃣ 1-on-1 Marketing Advisory - For B2B founders who need strategic guidance (starting at €500/month)

  2️⃣ Advisory + Execution - For B2B founders who also need hands-on support with content creation, design and execution (starting at €1500/month - includes Advisory)
  
  Why me?

  • Strategic guidance and hands-on execution for rapid results

  • Seamless integration with your team

  • Backed by 7+ years of B2B marketing & growth expertise

  🔗 Book a call via valentineiber.com

• Freelancers & Agencies: Great when you know the exact gap and topic (e.g. need a landing page, ad creatives or outbound email setup). Not so great if you have quite a couple of different topics, gaps, tasks. Make sure they’re used to early-stage pace.

• Hiring a Generalist Marketer: Can work, but be careful. Senior hires are often quite expensive and Junior hires may need more guidance than you can give. It rarely works out unless you already have strong GTM leadership.

2. Growth Lives Outside Your Comfort Zone

The biggest unlocks I’ve seen came from founders doing stuff that felt uncomfortable — and doing it weekly.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

A. Face-to-Face Client Calls

• Don’t hide behind email. Set up 1:1 calls with power users or churned customers.

• Your goal is to generate qualitative data and insights about your customers and those who might be or have been.

• Ask:

  • "What’s the biggest win you’ve gotten since using us?"

  • "What nearly made you not sign up?"

  • "How do you consume media?"

  • "How do you learn new things or stay informed?"

  • "Where are you active (besides of LinkedIn)?"

  • "Who do you trust and why?"

• Use those insights to fuel outreach, content creation, positioning, and onboarding tweaks.

• It’s also a great conversation starter for creating testimonials.

B. Cold Calling & Outreach

• Start with a narrow, hand-picked list. Write custom first lines. Create a telephone guide for your calls.

• Handle objections smart and fast by writing down common objections, prioritizing them and finding answers to it.

  Here is a free Google Sheet template for objection handling I created.

• Start actually calling people, even though it feels super weird at the beginning. But trust me, it will get better! 💙

• Use Loom or Tella to record product use cases, walkthroughs, explainer and send them out afterwards.

• Use tools like Clay, Apollo, Lemlist.

C. Speaking or Hosting Events

• Speak at niche events, webinars, or meetups where your ICP hangs out.

• No invite? Host your own. Invite your ICP for dinners or small thought-leader exchanges.

• Use it to build trust and capture leads.

• Also, it could make sense speaking in podcasts that your ICP is listening to.

D. Creating and Publishing Content

• You don’t need to be a thought leader. Just document what you’re learning.

• 3x week on LinkedIn: Use Chat GPT to help you structure your content creation and let it develop a content plan. Mix insights, your expert knowledge and personal topics to create visibility and connections.

• Turn call learnings into mini-posts.

• Share video testimonials of clients.

E. Recording Videos

• Start with a 1-minute explainer. No need for editing.

• Use Loom or Tella. Drop them into your onboarding flow or cold emails.

• As soon as you feel more comfy start recording longer videos, explaining your product, use cases or give tips.

• Videos add trust and lower sales resistance, by making you more approachable as a human.

Struggling to get outside of your comfort zone?

Using the SEEN Framework to Break Through

When founders avoid action, it’s rarely because they don’t care.
It’s because they’re hitting internal resistance.

The SEEN Framework helps surface and work through it. It’s rooted in emotional awareness — and helps cut through surface excuses.

S – Scared
What am I afraid will happen if I take this step? (E.g. rejection, looking stupid, wasting time)

E – Embarrassed
What part of this makes me feel exposed or foolish? (E.g. public speaking, looking unprepared, having low views)

E – Expect
What outcome am I expecting — and is that helping or hurting? (E.g. expecting perfection, expecting rejection, expecting silence)

N – Need
What do I need to feel confident taking action? (E.g. better messaging, support from someone, a clearer process)

The cool thing about the SEEN framework is, that you can use it in multiple contexts:

• Self-reflection: To unblock yourself from avoiding key moves

• Team discussions: To understand why your co-founder or employee may be slowing things down

• Customer conversations: To get to the emotional truth behind buying hesitations

Final Takeaway

If you're not growing, it’s probably not because your idea sucks. It’s because execution is stuck in a bottleneck.

Break that down by:

• Moving fast with tools that shrink the gap

• Getting help that doesn’t just strategize, but ships

• Leaning into the discomfort that’s hiding your next 10 demos

Growth lives in momentum.
And momentum starts with action.

I help early-stage B2B SaaS & tech founders grow with clarity and speed — combining strategic advisory with hands-on execution.

Want to move faster?
Subscribe here, follow me on LinkedIn, or work with me:

2 ways I can help you scale your B2B company to €500k ARR 🤝

1️⃣ 1-on-1 Marketing Advisory - For B2B founders who need strategic guidance (starting at €500/month)

2️⃣ Fractional Full-Stack Marketer - For B2B founders who also need hands-on support with content creation, design and execution (starting at €1500/month - includes Advisory)

Why me?

• Strategic guidance and hands-on execution for rapid results

• Seamless integration with your team

• Backed by 7+ years of B2B marketing & growth expertise

🔗 Book a call via valentineiber.com

In a recent conversation with Julian Kirfel (founder at Linkbroker.de - an AI based marketplace for purchasing high quality backlinks), we broke down what link building actually takes to work — and how early-stage companies can approach it strategically, without wasting budget.

Here are the key learnings.

New here? Each week, I share practical marketing strategies, tactics and learnings designed to help you scale your B2B business to €1 million ARR and beyond 🚀

Make sure to subscribe to not miss out on any episode!

Subscribe now

What are the most common mistakes B2B startups make when they start link building — and how can they avoid them?

1. Mistake #1: No clear strategy or keyword focus

Many companies start link building without knowing:

• What URL they want to rank

• What keyword(s) they want that page to rank for

• Whether those keywords actually map to revenue

Julian's advice:

• Focus first on the pages that drive revenue — your "money pages"

• Rank for terms that reflect your business goals, not vanity metrics

• Only build links when you have clarity on keywords, URLs, and competitive gaps

2. Mistake #2: Buying too many cheap links

Julian sees it all the time: companies trying to "scale" link building by buying 100+ cheap backlinks.

Why that fails:

• Cheap links often come from AI-content farms or irrelevant sites

• Google recognizes unnatural link profiles and ignores (or penalizes) them

Instead:

• Go for quality over quantity

• A few strong, relevant backlinks have much more impact than dozens of low-grade ones

• Make sure your link sources are legitimate and align with your niche

3. Mistake #3: Measuring the wrong things

Many agencies report on total traffic or blog post visits — even if none of that traffic converts.

Instead, track:

• How your money pages perform (rankings + conversions)

• Which keywords drive revenue, not just visits

• Link building impact in the context of sales performance

Pro tip from Julian: Use Ahrefs, Sistrix or other tools to isolate performance for specific pages.

How to know if you're ready for link building?

Not every SaaS or tech company should start with link building right away.

You need to have:

• A technically clean site (page speed, crawlability, indexation)

• Core content in place (your offer, your value props, your product & use case pages)

• Keyword rankings that are close to page 1 → link building helps you move from position 8 to 3, not from 100 to 10

2 ways I can help you get ready for link building 🤝

1️⃣ 1-on-1 Marketing Advisory - For B2B founders who need strategic guidance (starting at €500/month)

2️⃣ Advisory + Execution - For B2B founders who also need hands-on support with content creation, design and execution (starting at €1500/month - includes Advisory)

🔗 Book a call via valentineiber.com

When to start link building — and how much to spend?

As always in marketing the answer is: it depends.

Julian’s advice:

• Start once you see rankings plateau for your main key keywords

• Benchmark your competitors’ backlink profiles (e.g. via Ahrefs)

• Begin with your homepage and core product/feature or use case pages

Think of link building like a house: strengthen the foundation before adding floors and fancy designs

Budget: Even 5–10% of your paid media budget can be a strong start.
Test, measure, and scale.

Link building for the AI era

Julian emphasized: Brands win.

Why?

• AI-generated content is everywhere. Trust signals matter more than ever.

• Backlinks are not just SEO tricks — they’re brand signals.

• Link building = building authority and visibility across the web

Also:

• Tools like ChatGPT and Bing are increasingly influenced by brand and backlink presence

• To show up in AI results, answer real user questions clearly (e.g. "What’s the best restaurant software for small teams?")

Final takeaway: Link building = trust building

If you want to:

• Be seen as credible

• Rank for competitive B2B terms

• Get long-term organic traffic that converts

Then link building should be part of your growth plan — not as a growth hack, but as a trust-building, authority-building process.

Start small. Start focused. But start with the fundamentals right.

Big thanks again to Julian for these insights.

Feeling stuck with link building for Google + AI search engines?

Julian from Linkbroker.de can help you out.
They also offer local SEO and support with PR articles.
Highly recommend you check them out, if you want to take your SEO efforts to the next level.

Want more hands-on tipps like this? Subscribe to the newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.

Subscribe now

Cheers
Valentin

So I asked Adelina Bikeneeva, a SEA expert & freelancer who managed over €1M in Google Ads, how B2B SaaS startups can set up campaigns that actually drive qualified traffic and avoid B2C, bots, and low-quality clicks that just waste sales time.

Here’s what she shared — structured, practical, and straight from the trenches.

New here? Each week, I share practical marketing strategies, tactics and learnings designed to help you scale your B2B business to €1 million ARR and beyond 🚀

Make sure to subscribe to not miss out on any episode!

Subscribe now

The 3-Pillar Framework for B2B Google Ads

Adelina structures every campaign around three core pillars:

1. Deep Research

2. Tight Campaign Structure

3. Quality Control + Conversion Feedback Loops

Let’s break each down.

1. Research: Understand Intent and Language (Then Kill the Noise)

Before you run a single ad, you need to:

• Understand buyer intent (what high-intent keywords actually signal readiness to buy)

• Identify language mismatches (especially across geographies)

• Spot and kill B2C traps early

Tools Adelina uses:

• Google Keyword Planner

• Semrush

Real example: Adelina once worked with a coffee brand targeting offices in Germany and the UK. In Germany, people search for “coffee capsules.” In the UK, they search “coffee pods.” Missing this nuance would’ve killed performance — and wasted budget.

Pro tip: Add keywords like "free", "cheap", "student", "how to", "DIY", and "jobs" to your negative keyword list up front. These are B2C red flags.

2. Structure: Build Clean, Intent-Led Campaigns

Key principles:

• Segment campaigns by intent (e.g. consideration vs. direct conversion)

• Segment by product (don’t mix offerings in one ad group)

• Use exact and phrase match for control — avoid broad match unless you know what you're doing

Also:

• Set separate budgets by country — cost-per-click varies massively (e.g., Italy vs. Sweden)

• Match your ad copy and landing page exactly to each other to reinforce your targeting intent

Bonus tip: Include B2B signals directly in your copy:

• "Enterprise CRM platform"

• "Custom pricing for B2B buyers" This helps pre-qualify traffic before they even click.

3. Control Quality with Conversion Feedback Loops

The best campaigns evolve fast — based on real conversion data.

Don’t skip:

• Review your search term reports weekly. Kill irrelevant traffic.

• Set up offline conversions using your CRM (e.g. HubSpot)

Why offline conversions matter: They tell Google which leads actually turned into pipeline. That makes your bidding smarter — especially with Target CPA strategies.

But here’s the catch: you need volume. If you’re only getting a handful of leads/month, the algorithm won’t learn.

Adelina recommends:

• 5–10 conversions per week minimum (ideally ~30/month)

• Prioritize connecting CRM early, once conversion volume is steady

Extra tips for high-quality conversions:

• Use lead scoring in your CRM (e.g. assign values based on job title, company size, ICP match)

• Feed only high-scoring conversions back to Google to improve signal quality

• Use conversion value rules to tell Google which leads are worth more

Pro tip: When uploading offline conversions, label and segment them (e.g. "Sales Qualified Lead", "Closed Won") so Google learns what really matters.

This level of granularity helps you:

• Cut spend on low-value clicks

• Focus bidding on high-LTV prospects

• Train the algorithm faster with stronger signals

Also worth noting:

• Watch for bot traffic or irrelevant spikes, especially if running display or PMAX campaigns — set up filters and tracking to keep quality clean.

• Attribution still matters. Use UTM tracking, CRM integration, and Google Ads conversion actions properly tagged to get full-funnel visibility.

Most Overlooked: The Middle of the Funnel

Many founders either:

• Run top-of-funnel awareness campaigns (video, brand)

• Or jump straight into bottom-of-funnel search ads

But they skip the consideration phase — where buyers are still exploring options.

Fix it with:

• Case studies and competitor comparisons

• Industry-specific landing pages

• YouTube or PMAX campaigns with warm audience signals

Use PMAX the smart way:

• Feed it competitor brand names

• Add site visitors of similar tools

• Use demo watchers or webinar attendees as custom segments

This “warm middle” converts much better than cold outreach — but it’s often ignored.

Example PMAX workflow:

1. Create a custom segment of users who visited competitor websites

2. Upload your video testimonials or explainer ads

3. Point to a landing page that compares you to the competition

4. Optimize toward micro-conversions (e.g. scroll depth, demo interest)

TL;DR — How to Win at B2B Google Ads (Without Wasting Budget)

• Start with deep keyword + intent research — kill B2C terms early

• Build lean, segmented campaigns — by intent, product, and country

• Use exact/phrase match, never broad unless you're advanced

• Feed conversion data back into Google — through your CRM

• Don’t skip the middle of the funnel — it’s a goldmine

• Use smart copy signals — like "Enterprise" and "Custom pricing" to pre-qualify clicks

• Clean your traffic regularly — search terms, negative keywords, attribution paths

If you’re an early-stage B2B founder running Google Ads — or planning to — this is the level of structure and focus that keeps you from burning through budget.

Big thanks again to Adelina for these insights.

Feeling stuck with Google Ads?

Adelina can help you out.
She is a PPC / Performance Marketing Expert and Fractional CMO, helping companies grow and generate leads profitably with her ROI-based method.

Want more hands-on interviews like this? Subscribe to the newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn.

Cheers
Valentin

In a recent podcast with Hubspot CRM and marketing automation expert Timo Ferlein, we unpacked how to fix this — and what an aligned Paid Growth + CRM setup actually looks like in practice.

The Podcast is in German, but I summarised it in this article for everyone in Englisch.

Listen to the episode on Spotify:

New here? Each week, I share practical marketing strategies and tactics designed to help you scale your B2B business beyond €1 million in ARR 🚀

2 ways I can help you scale your B2B company beyond €1 Million ARR 🤝

1️⃣ 1-on-1 Marketing Advisory — For B2B founders growing from €0 to €1M ARR (starting at €500/month)

• Weekly sessions via video call

• Actionable insights, frameworks & guidance

• Ongoing support via Slack or WhatsApp

1️⃣ Advisory + Execution — For B2B founders growing from €0 to €1M ARR (starting at €1500/month)

• Everything that's included in the Marketing Advisory

• Hands-on marketing support and execution (content, web, data, etc.)

• Senior marketing expert for the price of a half-time junior

3️⃣ Paid Media / Growth Support - For later stage startups (> €1M ARR) (pricing on request)

• Weekly 60-min video call sync and check-in

• Paid Acquisition Strategy & Execution for LinkedIn, Meta, Google, Paid Email

• Campaign-Management, Tracking & Analytics and Reporting

• Seamless integration with your team

• Backed by 7+ years of B2B marketing & growth expertise

🔗 Visit valentineiber.com

Here’s a breakdown of the most important takeaways from the podcast episode:

1. Why CRM + Paid Growth must work together

Growth doesn't stop at the form fill. If leads generated through paid channels don’t move cleanly through your CRM into sales — with context, scoring, and proper handoff — you’re setting money on fire.

We discussed:

• Why clean CRM data is non-negotiable for scaling paid efforts

• How misalignment leads to low lead quality, frustration, and lost pipeline

• What happens when marketing and sales KPIs conflict — and how to fix it

Key takeaway: Efficient growth is only possible when CRM, lead management, and paid acquisition talk to each other — technically and strategically.

2. Most common breakdowns (and how to fix them)

We mapped three types of problems that show up repeatedly:

1. Strategic misalignment

• Outdated ICPs and personas

• Vague or generic messaging

• Campaigns launched without clear intent

2. Operational waste

• Poor creative testing process

• Too many channels, not enough focus

• Campaigns optimized for the wrong goals (e.g. traffic instead of pipeline)

3. Technical gaps

• CRM treated like a static database instead of a strategic tool

• No lead scoring or segmentation

• Zero feedback loop between sales and marketing

Fixes:

• Revisit ICP and messaging monthly, not quarterly

• Test fewer things, but iterate faster

• Create shared definitions of a "qualified lead"

• Make campaign data visible and actionable for sales

3. Data + Feedback = Efficient Budget Use

If you’re not measuring what turns into pipeline, you’re not really in control of your budget.

We explored:

• Why marketing should own more than MQLs — and track pipeline impact

• How to combine quantitative data (attribution, CRM metrics) with qualitative signals (sales call feedback)

• How aligning marketing and sales goals unlocks better spend decisions

Pro tip: Record sales calls. Transcribe them. Let marketing analyze them for objections, positioning gaps, and value drivers.

4. Best case vs. Worst case scenarios

Worst case:

• CRM is a dumping ground for contacts & leads - no clear scoring or segmentation in place

• Sales and marketing don’t talk

• Reporting is siloed or non-existent

Best case:

• Shared goals between teams

• Feedback loops built into weekly workflows

• CRM used to inform campaigns, not just store data. Data is collected in a unified way and data quality is great for analysis and insights

• Teams aligned on which accounts to target — and how to close them

5. Where to start if you're overwhelmed

If you’re a founder, Head of Marketing, or RevOps lead and don’t know where to start:

Step 1: Align on (campaign) goals and metrics across marketing + sales
Step 2: Audit your CRM setup — what data is missing or messy? Work backwards. Ask yourself: What outcome do I want to have? How to measure it?
And then work backwards, defining KPIs and processes
Step 3: Prioritize campaigns that drive revenue, not vanity metrics. Sync regularly with Sales on the campaign performance.
Step 4: Clean up your lead handoff process + build feedback loops. Automise simple processes fast.
Step 5: Simplify. Focus on 1–2 channels for your paid campaigns that you can actually manage well am improve fast

6. Final thoughts + what’s next

Growth isn’t just about running ads or generating leads.
It’s about building a system that turns attention into revenue — reliably and repeatedly.

And that system only works when your paid channels, your CRM, and your internal processes are aligned.

I’ll be sharing more practical deep dives like this in future issues of b2b_growth.exe.

If this sounds like something you need — subscribe, share with a teammate, or drop me a comment. I’m always happy to jam on growth strategy.

Cheers
Valentin

Here’s how I’d approach the first 12 weeks as Head of Growth, structured in three focused phases:

New here? Each week, I share practical marketing strategies and tactics designed to help you scale your B2B business beyond €1 million in ARR 🚀

2 ways I can help you scale your B2B company beyond €1 Million ARR 🤝

1️⃣ 1-on-1 Marketing Advisory — For B2B founders growing from €0 to €1M ARR (starting at €500/month)

• Weekly strategy sessions via video call

• Actionable insights, frameworks & guidance

• Ongoing support via Slack or WhatsApp

2️⃣ Growth & Paid Media Freelancer / Fractional Head of Growth (pricing on request)

• Strategic guidance and hands-on execution for rapid results

• Seamless integration with your team

• Backed by 7+ years of B2B marketing & growth expertise

🔗 Visit valentineiber.com

🚦 Weeks 1–2: Growth Audit — Get the Full Picture

Before touching growth levers, you need to understand the real story. Why did growth slow? What’s actually working? What isn’t? This is your diagnostic phase.

1. Customer Deep Dives: Talk to Your Audience

This is your fastest path to insight. Forget analytics dashboards for a moment — pick up the phone.

• Talk to top 10 active customers: Why did they buy? What alternatives did they consider? What feature or outcome makes them stay?

• Interview churned customers: What was the tipping point that led to leaving? Were expectations unmet?

• Extract their language: Use exact phrases customers use to describe their pains and wins — this language will later fuel positioning, website copy, sales scripts, and ads.

Pro tip: Group responses into pain clusters — you'll start seeing themes emerge.

2. Data Audit: Find the Leaks

You can’t optimize what you don’t measure. Here’s what I’d break down:

• Funnel Performance:

  • Analyse your CRM Data.

  • Traffic → Demo Booked → Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) → Closed-Won.

  • Calculate conversion rates between each step.

  • Identify where the biggest drop-offs are.

  • Do this for each traffic source if possible.

  • Is there already a lead scoring in place? If yes, can you find any correlation between lead sources and high scores?

• Additional Key Metrics:

  • LTV by customer segment — who brings long-term value?

  • Churn by segment — is retention a problem with a specific ICP?

  • Sales Cycle — how long from first touch to close?

  • CAC & Cost per Demo per channel — how much are you paying for certain leads? (if you already started with paid channels)

• Attribution & Tracking:

  • Is your current setup giving clarity on what channels drive pipeline and revenue?

  • Are you tracking all your funnels appropriately? (e.g. are you using and tracking UTMs)

  • What’s your attribution model and what does it show? (first-touch, multi-touch, and/or self-reported attribution).

3. Team & Process Review: Are We Aligned?

Growth gets blocked when marketing, sales, and customer success aren’t rowing in the same direction.

• Who owns each part of the funnel and customer lifecycle?

• Is there a clear definition for each lifecycle phase (Lead, MQL, SQL, Opportunity, Customer)?

• Is sales working leads that marketing brings and how?

• Are leads properly nurtured after the first interaction?

• How are insights being communicated in the team?

If you see misalignment, flag it now — this is the time to fix structural issues.

🛠️ Weeks 3–6: Fix the Foundation & Start Shipping Experiments

You’ve done the homework. Now it’s time to act.

4. Sharpen Positioning & Messaging

Without clear positioning, everything else breaks — sales gets harder, marketing doesn't convert, churn increases.

• Define (or refine) the ICP & Persona:

  • Who is your best-fit customer right now? → Which customer profile brings in the most revenue / has the highest revenue potential?

  • Use a proven template to map your ICP. Here is an example:

    

  • Map out the personas for each ICP:

    

• Work on Your Messaging:

  • It’s important to fix your confusing positioning. I am using a messaging framework inspired by fletchpmm to map out and develop a super sharp messaging:

    

5. Quick Wins & Low-Hanging Fruits

While the foundation sets in, you can drive immediate pipeline.

• Retarget Past Leads: Run reactivation campaigns with the updated value prop. Focus on deals that went cold or were “not now.”

• Churned Users Campaign: “We heard you — and we fixed it.” Address their core complaint and invite them back with a demo or discount.

• Website Refresh: Apply new messaging, optimize CTA clarity, highlight customer proof, and simplify navigation.

• SEO Content: Focus on bottom-of-funnel keywords (e.g., “alternatives to X,” “best [tool] for [role]”).

• Conversion Optimization (if running paid ads): A/B test landing pages, creatives and copy.

6. Sales & Marketing Alignment

At this stage, misalignment is one of the biggest growth blockers. Fix it now:

• Lifecycle Stages: Agree on what a marketing & sales-ready lead looks like and who is taking care of contacts in each lifecycle.

• Lead Scoring: Collaborate on scoring model based on behavior and your ICP/Persona definitions.

• Handoff Process: Who follows up, how fast, and with what messaging?

• Syncs: How often do marketing & sales exchange their knowledge and insights? Make sure to have at least monthly meetings.

🔁 Weeks 7–12: Scale What Works & Build Repeatable Motions

By now, you’ve gathered early signals and some test results. Time to go from testing to scaling.

7. Double Down on Working Channels

Some channels will start showing traction. Time to commit.

• Outbound: If (cold) outreach is converting, try to scale it with more automation, specific and valuable content + personalization.

• SEO: If content is driving demos, ramp up with a content calendar targeting mid and bottom funnel.

• Partnerships: If partner programs, integrations or co-marketing bring leads, deepen those relationships.

• Community: If you generate leads and sign contracts directly out of your community, strengthen it. Here is a guide on how to leverage community for B2B companies.

Don’t try to do everything. Go deep on 1–2 channels that show the most promise.

8. Build a Content Engine

Content is your long-term asset. But it needs to be strategic.

• Middle & Bottom Funnel First:

  • Case studies, ROI calculators, objection-busting content, comparison pages (e.g. “Your product vs Competitor A”).

  • FAQ-style blog posts addressing decision-stage questions.

  • Share deep industry insights and opinions.

• Founder-Led Marketing:

  • Ghostwrite LinkedIn posts or newsletter from the founder’s voice.

  • Use storytelling + insight, not product pushes.

  • Reuse content pieces like blog posts, videos or case studies.

📈 Week 12: Wrap-Up & Roadmap

Your 90-day deliverable: clarity, traction, and a playbook for what’s next.

Analyse the Last Weeks and Present Your Growth Roadmap:

• What did we learn about our ICP and messaging?

• What growth experiments succeeded or failed?

• What foundational changes were made?

• What channels or strategies are we doubling down on?

• What is the plan for the next 6–12 months?

Final Thoughts

This playbook isn’t about hacks — it’s about focus, fast learning, and building a growth engine that compounds. A company at €500k ARR has proven some value. Your job as Head of Growth is to figure out where the real momentum is hiding and unlock it.

Speed, clarity, and alignment win.

Feel like you need support?
2 ways I can help you scale your B2B company beyond €1 Million ARR 🤝

1️⃣ 1-on-1 Marketing Advisory — For B2B founders growing from €0 to €1M ARR (starting at €500/month)

• Weekly strategy sessions via video call

• Actionable insights, frameworks & guidance

• Ongoing support via Slack or WhatsApp

2️⃣ Growth & Paid Media Freelancer / Fractional Head of Growth (pricing on request)

• Strategic guidance and hands-on execution for rapid results

• Seamless integration with your team

• Backed by 7+ years of B2B marketing & growth expertise

🔗 Visit valentineiber.com