Marketing @ KlientBoost - The Performance Marketing Agency

Struggling to make your paid ads profitable? I can help.

I've generated $50M+ pipeline (& counting) for B2B Tech and SaaS companies through content marketing, paid search, and paid social demand generation and GTM strategies.

"We've never been able to make paid ads work for us." — common feedback from happy B2B clients.

Some of the leading minds in B2B follow my content for fresh LinkedIn and Google Ads growth recipes.

Right now, I'm leading marketing @ KlientBoost to add $250K MRR using the exact same strategies, principles, & processes we roll out for clients.

Here's how we can help you: 
- Done for you marketing—starts with a free marketing plan
- Fresh growth recipes to your inbox—klientboost.com/kitchen
- Follow me on LinkedIn to learn the latest winning B2B strategies

Got a burning question about B2B paid ads? My inbox is always open too.

LFGTM 🤘

Patrick Cumming

The best-performing B2B ad we ran last year was embarrassingly boring.

Overused hook. Basic copy. A link at the bottom.

It outsold all the pretty single image ads I spent hours tweaking 😭

Here's why that's not a surprise, and why most B2B marketers have this completely backwards.

There's a line going around right now: "𝘐𝘧 𝘪𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘉2𝘉 𝘢𝘥, 𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘯 𝘪𝘵."

The logic being: make it funny, narrative-driven, unconventional. Don't let it feel like an ad.

Sounds smart. Gets a lot of likes from other marketers.

It's also mostly wrong.

Because buyers don't care about your content.

They don't care if it's funny. They don't care if it's pretty. They don't care if there's a story arc.

They care about the problems keeping them up at night.

Our top closed/won ad last year did exactly three things:

1. Used a hook everyone says is "dead" 
2. Proved we could solve a painful, specific problem 
3. Gave readers a way to get help

That's it. 

Just proof that we understood their problem and could fix it.

I've watched this same format outperform "creative" ads across nearly every B2B client I've worked with.

The fun stuff marketers celebrate in Slack? It generates reach.

The boring stuff buyers actually need? It generates pipeline.

Funny is an amplifier. Creative is an amplifier. Narrative is an amplifier.

But none of it matters until you've nailed one thing first: making the buyer feel genuinely understood.

Everything else is decoration on top of that.

If it looks like a B2B ad, burn it.

Read that hook in an article recently and it's a classic example of marketers getting it totally wrong.

If it's not funny, unconventional, or "narrative-driven", then it won't work and you should ditch it.

It's a nice sound-bite for easy reach, but doesn't play out in reality.

Truth is buyers don't care about your content at all. 

Don't care if it's funny. 
Don't care if it's pretty. 
Don't care if there's a story.

They care about the problems they're trying to solve.

You could have the most boring ad in the world. 

If it convinces them you can solve a painful problem it will work.

I know this because the ad that generated the most closed/won deals for us last year:

1. Had a boring overused hook everybody "hates"
2. Provided proof we could solve a painful problem
3. Added a link to get in touch if readers wanted help

I've seen similar formats work for almost every B2B I've worked with.

Ditching the fun stuff marketers celebrate for "boring" ads generate more qualified inbound.

Go figure.

It's not about ads that don't look like ads. 
It's not about making it narrative-driven.
It's not even about making it funny. 

It's about showing users you understand their problems and proving you can solve them.

Everything else is just an amplifier once you've already nailed that.

I'm hearing a lot of prominent B2B marketers saying Google Ads doesn't generate pipeline anymore.

But we increased non-brand SQL volume 76% YoY without increasing spend. So the maths doesn't check out.

If Google Ads isn't generating enough pipeline for you, I can guarantee it's down to one of these 3 fixable setup problems:

1. Targeting too many keywords

Sounds counterintuitive, but it spreads your budget thin and forces the algorithm to waste spend on search terms that don't convert.

I audited an account last month targeting 100 keywords when only 10 actually generated pipeline.

We increased non-brand SQL volume 76% YoY with the same spend by targeting just 10 keywords on exact match.

2. Poor budget allocation

Too much budget goes to campaigns that don't generate net-new pipeline. Usually competitor and branded search.

I audited an account where 50% of budget went to competitor campaigns that generated 90% fewer qualified leads than non-brand (which only had 25% of budget).

We run just 2 high-intent campaigns for our core service areas and eliminated competitor and brand completely.

3. No offline conversion tracking

You can't prioritize keywords without sending CRM lifecycle data to Google Ads so you know what's actually generating new business.

Of 20 accounts I've audited recently, just 2 had this set up. The rest had zero pipeline visibility.

We prioritize spend on keywords with proven conversion rates to pipeline. That was key to our 76% SQL improvement.

Bottom line: You can increase pipeline drastically with the right foundations. Without them, you're guessing and driving up costs with nothing to show for it.

AI creative isn't ready for ad campaigns.

Text posts I wrote in under 15 minutes the "old fashioned" way still outperform everything else.

Here's what actually works:

Skip AI-generated images. Single image ads are the worst performing format in B2B right now. 

Total waste of time scaling an already declining ad format with AI. 

Use AI for the foundations instead:

• Analyze call transcripts in minutes
• Extract real customer insights
• Build content roadmaps from actual data
• Turn insights into text posts and video scripts
• Write them with soul, not with Claude

I still haven't seen an AI creative drive more pipeline than something written by a human who deeply understands their audience.

Use AI to think faster, not to replace executing.

If you've ever asked yourself whether or not you should be bidding on your own brand name, this is for you (spoiler: you probably don't need to)

KlientBoost Playbook: Cut Wasted Spend On Google Ads 

I talk a lot of s*** about the funnel.

But it's not like it just doesn't work.

If you run enough ads to the right people eventually some will generate pipeline.

My problem with the funnel is that it's not how B2B buyers buy.

And that leads marketers who believe in it to prioritise the wrong things:

- "Only show cold TOFU audiences blogs"
- "MOFU audiences need more case studies"
- "Need to tweak step 6 in the 12 step BOFU flow"

After auditing 100s of B2B ad accounts over the last 8 years, I can tell you none of those things are ever the problem.

And trying to fix them usually results in disappointment.

The fundamental root cause of the problem is this simple:

- Not enough category buyers are seeing ads
- The message they are seeing isn't resonating

That's not a funnel problem. It's a strategy problem.

Now your priorities shift:

- "How do we make messaging more relevant and memorable?"
- "How do we reduce CPM to reach more category buyers?"
- "Do we have enough budget to saturate our audience?"

Answering those questions means more in-market buyers see a relevant message to generate pipeline this quarter.

More out-market buyers see a memorable message so they think of you when they move in-market next quarter.

Prospects are either in-market or out-market. They choose the brands they trust and associate with the category.

Better to optimise for that than a mythical funnel nobody actually goes through.

You spent $200K on ads last quarter.

Now your CFO wants to know how much pipeline it generated.

Do you have an answer?

This is the question that separates marketing teams that win over skeptical execs from the ones still fighting to be taken seriously.

"We were building awareness" won't cut it.

Yes, attribution is hard. But after a full quarter of spend there should be enough signal to defend marketing investment with data.

If you can't do that, you likely have a data black hole preventing you from tying your work to real business growth.

Here's what it looks like when that black hole is closed:

Last month we narrowed our audience from 180K down to 65K to reach more ICP buyers with higher frequency.

3 weeks into cold ads against a brand new audience:

- 2 qualified inbound leads attributed
- 2 closed/won deals attributed
- 19% lift in qualified leads

That's a lot of signal that LinkedIn Ads is working. Enough that I pitched our CFO for a $20K/mo budget increase and he took it seriously. Not just because of those 3 weeks, but because of months of historic data we've built up that consistently proves our marketing works.

That's only possible because of three things most companies skip:

- Server-side and offline conversion tracking
- 365-day conversion windows
- Audience lift analysis

80% of the B2B companies I audit are missing at least one of these and it's costing them the ability to prove their value to the business.

If budget is the blocker, repurpose a small slice of your ad spend to get them in place first (max $1K).

Because without a solid tracking and attribution setup, you're not giving yourself a fair chance to show that your marketing is actually working.

And you deserve that chance.

Prospects buy on their own timeline, not on ours.

As soon as you realise that, your entire approach to marketing 180s.

You ditch "informational" keywords on paid search because "your funnel will nurture them."

Instead, you target high-intent category and capability keywords with known buying intent. 

You stop optimising your paid social campaigns for traffic and conversions. 

You realise it's only getting you 1% reach and 2 frequency. 

You're throwing money at ad platforms but still invisible where it matters.

Instead, you target ICP segments with the budget to hit 80% reach and 10+ frequency over 90 days. 

Now you're attracting in-market buyers who become pipeline today. 

And building recall with out-market buyers who become future pipeline.

You're no longer asking: "how do we improve TOFU, MOFU, BOFU conversion rates?"

And asking: "how do we get relevant content in front of more category buyers?"

It's a big shift and scary to implement.

Until you see ad platforms finally recording pipeline after 30 days.

And closed/won deals attributed after 90.

Winning at paid ads isn't about "right prospect, right message, right time."

It's about "right prospects, relevant message, all the time."

That's what optimising for how buyers buy looks like.

Your ad platform is lying to you.

Not intentionally, but it's missing 30-50% of your conversions.

Here's the reality most marketers ignore:

Ad blockers and cookie rejection are creating a massive data black-hole. The numbers you're using to measure platform success are incomplete at best.

Consider iOS alone:

95% of users have tracking disabled. That means 95% of clicks from apps potentially go unrecorded. You're flying blind on nearly all mobile traffic.

This isn't a small gap. It's a canyon.

The platforms can't track what users won't let them see. Privacy settings, browser extensions, and cookie banners have fundamentally broken in-platform attribution.

In-platform data is still useful for directional optimisations within the platform itself. If Campaign A shows better metrics than Campaign B, that signal matters.

But treat it as a compass, not a map.

Don't make budget decisions based solely on platform reporting. Don't kill campaigns because the dashboard says they're underperforming.

Your actual results are happening in a world the platforms can't fully see anymore.

Exit Five

The leading community for B2B marketing professionals. Join 5,000+ members at exitfive.com

Member

B2B PodPros

Lead content creation and brand positioning efforts to establish B2B PodPros as a leader in the b2b podcast advertising space.

Growth Marketing - B2B PodPros

Bonjoro

Oversee partner marketing and social efforts to impact demand generation and product adoption. Develop strategies across full customer lifecycle including sales enablement, content, video, partnerships, and webinars.

Demand Generation & Partnerships Marketing Manager

Sunnova Energy Corp.

Responsible for digital campaign operations including the development of an automated email personalization strategy at scale across touchpoints to increase active engagement, minimize churn, and re-engage lapsed and dormant customers.

Customer Experience and Digital Marketing Director

Kids Health Program I www.FlyMovement.org

Fly Movement is a one-of-a-kind kids’ health program that provides students an opportunity to reach a fitness goal through fun, rewarding team competition and fitness trackers. Responsible for overseeing the administration, fundraising, programs, and strategic plan of the organization.

Founder of Kids Health Program Fly Movement

Spark Energy

Managed a team responsible for growing residential sales (excluding D2D and OTM), customer communications, user experience, website for 4+ brands, and strategic online partnerships.

Digital Marketing Director

Frontier Utilities

Responsible for leading online retail expansion into 5 new markets, developing strategic business relationships with online retailers, building digital marketing programs, and managing digital marketing team.

Digital Marketing Manager

TL;DR – 2x founder, digital marketing background + love for building social connections.

Moved to Romania from Texas in 2020. Prior to the move, I held marketing leadership roles in publicly traded companies. When I moved to Europe, because I had an interest in tech, I’ve been mostly busy with growth and customer marketing roles at various startups like Bonjoro, OptiMonk and RoninSport.io.

Some notable accomplishments
--------------

Launched a one-of-a-kind kids fitness program in Houston, Fly Movement, that encouraged kids’ to increase their fitness activity through the use of fitness trackers.

Interviewed 130+ European startup founders on my podcast Innovators Can Laugh.

Helped grow a b2b podcaster community and network, B2B PodPros, that helps SaaS brands reach new audiences. Clients include Deel, Dealfront, Mouseflow and others.

What I am looking forward to in 2025
--------------

Being a part of an exciting and fun scale up where I can add value through my marketing experience.

Throwing a few cocktail parties with some of the most interesting people in Bucharest


Thank you for visiting my profile. Feel free to learn more at https://linktr.ee/ericmelchor

Eric Melchor

I just hosted my first paid event. Here are the lessons learned.

First, I had no idea anyone would actually show up.

They did and that alone meant a lot.

But I was nervous... would people actually connect?

Because that was the goal.

Not “networking.”
Not trying to meet someone to date.
Not a polished TED-style production.

Connection.

So I designed the night around one principle:

Make it easy for strangers to feel comfortable.

We started with light icebreakers: "What’s your favorite breakfast?”

It’s innocent. Low pressure. Surprisingly effective.

Then we tried something new: shared learning.

Two guests told short, unpolished stories about traveling to Cuba and Mexico. No slides. Just real experiences. The room leaned in. People asked questions. It felt human.

Another guest shared his advice for becoming an entrepreneur.

Later, we split into small groups by name tag color for deeper conversations.

▶️  That’s where I learned my first big lesson.

Most people stayed in those groups the rest of the night.
Which meant fewer cross-room connections.

Next time, I’ll run two structured group rotations instead of one.
Same depth. More mixing.

▶️ Lesson #2: test everything.

The QR code for live feedback?

It worked the day before the party but during the event it didn’t work.

I hadn’t tested it. 
So no real-time feedback. That’s on me.

▶️ Lesson #3: make the events longer.

The event was supposed to end at 8pm.
Many people stayed until 9.
Some stayed for karaoke.

One guy absolutely crushed three songs and got a full-room ovation. 🕺
 
What worked:

 – Light icebreakers
 – Short, human storytelling
 – A clear structure
 – A great venue with mics
 – Interesting people from LinkedIn, Facebook expat groups, Instagram and past connections.

What I’ll improve next month:

 – Two group rotations
 – Test everything the day of
 – Start the event a bit later and make it 3 hours instead of 2

Biggest takeaway?

You don’t need a master plan to build something meaningful.

You just need the courage to take action.

This was the first Third Space Bucharest cocktail party. 🍸 

And I'm excited about the next one on March 16th!

👉  If you'd like to learn more or join, get on the waitlist here: https://lnkd.in/dCDw78Z4

#3rdSpaceBucharest #Bucharestcommunity

Channel Marketing for UK, Nordics & Eastern Europe @ Honeywell | founder of 3rd Space Bucharest 🇷🇴

To help my daughter become the woman I know she can be, I have to become a better man.

Not louder.
Not stricter.
Better.

Because whether I like it or not, I’m her first example.

Her first model of what a man sounds like when he’s frustrated.
How he treats people when no one’s watching.
What love feels like.

No future boyfriend.
No husband.
No teacher.

They’ll influence her.
But I set the baseline.

When we’re eating dinner.
Reading a book.
Walking to school.
Missing tennis shots and laughing about it.

It doesn’t look like a big moment.
But it is.

Time with her isn’t a bonus.
It’s the foundation.

And the more present I am, the steadier both of our lives feel.

One of my jobs as her father is to help her aim higher than the world will ask her to.

To set goals.
To build competence.
To expect more of herself.  Not because she isn’t enough, but because she’s capable.

She’s growing up in a world that will show her everything, early.

Sexualized media.
Influencers selling confidence while quietly lacking it.

So my role isn’t control.
It’s clarity.

Remind her that character matters more than appearance.
That people who reduce others to looks usually struggle with their own worth.
That strength is emotional, intellectual, and physical.

And maybe the most confronting truth for me:

Be the man I hope she marries.

If I imagine the kind of partner I’d want for her..

Hardworking, steady, kind, courageous, committed.

Then I need to embody that now.

Not to control her future.

But to quietly shape what she believes is normal.

Happy Women’s Day to the most important girl in my life.

#womensday #Internationalwomensday

What happens when you remove networking, dating, and pitching from a social event?

You get something surprisingly rare.

I just hosted the first 3rd Space Bucharest event.

And here’s what makes it different.

This isn’t networking.
There are no pitches.
No panels.

It’s also not a singles night.
And it’s definitely not 40 people shouting over music in a crowded bar.

3rd Space is designed around one idea:

Make it unusually easy for strangers to feel comfortable - fast.

Here’s what that actually looks like:

We start simple.
An innocent icebreaker like: “What’s your favorite breakfast?”

It sounds trivial. It’s not.

Low pressure → shared laughter → relaxed nervous systems.

From there, after some mingling we move into short, unpolished storytelling.

No slides.
No rehearsed TED-style talks.
Just real people sharing real experiences.

At our first event:
– Two guests shared stories from Cuba and Mexico.
– Another talked honestly about becoming an entrepreneur.

The room leaned in.
People asked questions.
It felt human and not rehearsed.

Then we shifted into small, color-coded groups for deeper conversation.

Not random mingling.
Not awkward hovering.

Structured depth.

And here’s the key difference:

Most social events optimize for volume.
More people. More noise. More surface-level interactions.

3rd Space optimizes for quality of interaction per person.

20–25 people.
Intentional structure.
Designed friction removal.

The result?

Many people stayed long after the official end time.
Conversations didn’t feel rushed.
Some stayed for karaoke.

No one was trying to “get something.”

3rd Space Bucharest is a cocktail-style gathering built for real connection. Not performance, not pressure.

The next monthly social is on March 16th.

If you are in Bucharest and are curious to learn more, comment below or get on our waitlist for one of my monthly events at https://lnkd.in/dCDw78Z4

#Bucharest #3rdSpaceBucharest

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The Battle

Patrick Cumming

Eric Melchor

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The Battle

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Eric Melchor

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Patrick Cumming's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScorePatrick Cumming's LinkedIn Performance