CEO @ Conversion House 🏠 | On-demand design for small SaaS marketing teams so they can launch faster, position better and convert more.

Learn more about outbound intelligence:
→ Connect / follow
→ Visit our website: https://www.demandhouse.agency/
→ Subscribe to our newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7307333213792665600
→ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@demand-house

Joe Wheatley

After 2.5 years, I've closed the agency down.

In August 2023 I was completely new to business. Came from the defence industry. Didn't know what SaaS was, didn't even know the difference between marketing and sales.

Knew how to make websites and write, so started freelancing - blog posts and websites for marketing agencies.

Then started landing my own clients. Re-invested everything back into the business - courses, paid ads, tools.

A few courses said "pick a niche", so after some research and zero prior experience, niched down to SaaS.

Started posting about SaaS design on LinkedIn (around November 2024). One month later, landed my first major SaaS gig. Built a website for Summize.

A few more websites, then pivoted to content for SaaS companies. Started a podcast around this time. 

FYI, podcasts are one of the biggest growth hacks - you learn from people you wouldn't otherwise get in a room, they get free marketing.

Summer 2025, flew to San Francisco and filmed videos for a few names you'd recognize.

Came back, jumped on some disco calls. The demand was for outbound not content. Followed the demand. Learned outbound, picked up some new clients. Someone even offered equity for Demand House.

As of today: 30+ B2B companies, multi 10k+ projects, 27 five-star reviews. Not every project was a success - but when we failed, we reflected and learned from our mistakes.

At the beginning of Feb 2026, started thinking longer term. Two things kept coming to mind:

1. GTM agencies are fighting over lower market and small budgets - a race to the bottom with automation and AI.

2. The market rewards those with a top 1% skill, not a jack of all trades.

That pointed to one thing: build a career in tech sales, selling to mid-market and enterprise. Big budgets, opportunity, high-touch, human-led. Skill still matters.

Started applying for roles. Found Vertice - 13x growth in 2 years (one of the fastest growing tech companies in Europe).

Went to their office for the final interview and the floorplate was pure hustle energy. Perfect

Starting on monday as a BDR. Team look great. Very excited. All-in.

Reflections:

99% of this 2.5 year journey was raw action in the face of intense confusion & ambiguity

But push through and on the other side is clarity. Then you must repeat.

That's growth.

Everyone has been through this process, but most stop. The process defeats them. You see it all over their faces. This is what you must avoid.

Instead, you must learn to love the journey. The good, the bad. Every single part of it. Amor Fati

Like Yin and Yang, there is no light without dark.

Everything is connected.

So if you take away one thing away from this post it’s this:

- The journey is the point.
- There is no finish line.
- NEVER stop chasing growth.

GTM @ Vertice | Intelligent Procurement Platform | #1 fastest growing scale-up in UK (Sifted) | #2 in Sunday Times 100 Tech

Master these 5 areas of deliverability so you avoid the spam folder and book more qualified meetings

1️⃣ Infrastructure & Settings
→ Purchase domains with reputable providers like Porkbun
→ Use .com domains
→ Age domains for 30 days before sending
→ Buy backup domains for rotation
→ Use 2 inboxes per domain
→ For inboxes, use trusted re-sellers like Zapmail.ai
→ Diversity your sending infra (mix of Google, Outlook and 3rd party)
→ Ensure proper authentication and DNS (SPF, DKIM, DMARC, URL re-directs)
→ Warm-up inboxes (start at 5 per day, increase by 1 per day up to 15-20)
→ Set warm-up reply rate to 70%
→ When warm-up is complete, send maximum of 25 emails per day per inbox
→ Ensure warm-up stays on at 10-15, 70% reply rate
→ When starting cold email campaigns, begin with 5 emails per day in week 1
→ Then gradually increase to 25 emails per day by the end of week 2
→ Match ESPs for better deliverability (outlook to outlook, Google to Google)
→ Keep bounce rates < 2% and spam complaints < 0.1%
→ Check domains aren't blacklisted using MXtoolbox

2️⃣ Lead Lists
→ Ensure company is within your TAM or ICP
→ Ensure contact is a buyer persona
→ Use enrichment waterfalls like BetterContact to maximize both quality and quantity of contact data
→ Ensure proper enrichment, scoring, tiering, filtering and lead routing using Freckle.io or Clay

3️⃣ Offer
→ Must be compelling
→ And relevant

4️⃣ Sequence
→ Good sequence length e.g. for Tier 3 email-only outreach, max 3 emails
→ Optimize time between steps (depends on ICP and tier)

5️⃣ Copy
→ Write in plain-text (no links, no HTML)
→ Add unsubscribe option
→ Remove any spam trigger words (use spam checkers like Mail Meteor)
→ Use Spintax, messaging frameworks and AI-generated copy
→ Ask questions and personalize
→ A/B test
→ Follow copywriting best practices

Anything to add? Drop below

Increase demos without extra ad spend | Positioning for AI products running underperforming ads

Your AI product ads get clicks but garbage demos? It's not your traffic. It's your positioning.

I've helped +30 B2B AI products (Seed-Series A) increase demo bookings 3x in 90 days without touching ad budgets.

90 Day Demand Sprint:
→ Fix your ICP
→ Fix your positioning 
→ Fix your landing pages and ads

You keep the same budget. You get more demos.

Recent client: 47% demo increase, 31% CAC drop in 8 weeks.

Running $5K+/month on ads with stalled conversions?

Get your ads roasted for free at koganmarina.com

Marina Kogan 🌊

Here's how to fix 3 months of flat conversions without touching your ad budget:

Month 1: Find what's broken

- Score your ad/LP combos across 8 dimensions.
- Map the patterns killing conversions.
- Baseline your funnel before changing anything.

Not guessing. Diagnosing.

Month 2: Rebuild the message

- Create messaging pillars tied to real pain.
- Rewrite ads and landing pages from positioning up.
- Build rules your team can follow without you.

Not more content. Better positioning.

Month 3: Prove it works

- A/B test against your Month 1 baseline.
- Same budget. Same audience. Different message.
- Lock what works into a playbook your team owns.

Not theory. Revenue.

That's 90 days.
After that, scaling your budget makes sense.

Increasing spend before fixing positioning
is like turning up a broken speaker.
Louder doesn't help if the message is wrong.

That's what my 90-Day Demand Sprint delivers.
DM me 'SPRINT' and I'll send you
exactly what the first week looks like for your ads.
_____________________________
Marina Kogan​
LinkedIn Top 1%
Positioning for AI products running underperforming ads

Marina Kogan

Increase demos without more Ad spend | B2B AI products Ads | LinkedIn Top 1% | #1 SaaS Marketer on Favikon

Most  B2B AI founders think their Ads fail cause of budget or targeting. But  I found the real problem after auditing 50+ campaigns:

Your positioning speaks to everyone and connects with no one.

Here's what I see in every underperforming ad:

1. Generic value propositions

• "Transform your business"
• "Save time and money"
• "Increase productivity"

Nobody clicks that.
Because nobody believes it.

2. Feature-first messaging

• Lists what the product does
• Misses their real decision criteria
• Ignores what the buyer actually needs

3. Weak differentiation

• No clear reason to choose you
• Sounds like every competitor
• Leaves buyers confused

The pattern is clear:
→ Messaging without clear differentiation gets scrolled past
→ Ads that don't speak to specific pain points get ignored
→ Positioning that tries to appeal to everyone converts nobody

Here's what changed everything for my clients:

I started diagnosing ads like a doctor diagnoses symptoms.
Not guessing what's wrong.
Actually analyzing the disconnect between message and market.

The result?
→ Messaging that speaks directly to buyer needs
→ Clear understanding of positioning gaps
→ Ads that actually stop the scroll

Remember:

Your LinkedIn ads don't need more budget.
They need better positioning.
The conversion problem you're facing?
It's hiding in your messaging.

P.S.:  Stop guessing what's wrong with your LinkedIn ads.
Get them diagnosed at http://koganmarina.com/
Discover exactly where your messaging loses prospects.
_________________________
Marina Kogan​
LinkedIn Top 1%
Positioning for AI products running underperforming ads

It's Monday morning. Your CTR is up 12%. Demos booked? Flat. For the 4th month running. You blame the agency. They blamed the algorithm. The real reason:

I see this dashboard every week with founders:
Ads are crushing it.
Landing page traffic is solid.
Click-through rates keep climbing.
But demo requests stay frozen.

The panic sets in:
• Your board asks why CAC jumped 40%
• Sales says leads are "low quality"
• Marketing blames the algorithm
• Budget keeps burning
• Nothing moves

Here's the real problem:

Your ads promise one thing.
Your landing page delivers another.

Prospects click because the ad speaks to their pain.
Then they land on a page full of features and tech specs.
The gap kills urgency instantly.

I discovered this pattern everywhere:
The ad-to-page disconnect is what inflates CAC
and keeps demos flat - not the algorithm.

When your ad says "Stop wasting hours on manual reports"
but your page leads with "AI-powered analytics platform,"
you've lost them.

They came for relief from their pain.
You gave them a product tour.

Here's what changes everything:
Match your landing page message to the exact pain your ad triggered.
Word for word. Benefit for benefit.

When I help founders fix this:
• Sales gets warmer leads
• Board meetings get easier
• Demo requests jump within days
• CAC drops without touching ad spend
• "Just browsing" turns into "Let's talk this week"

This is what I do:
1. Audit your ad-to-page messaging gaps
2. Align every touchpoint to buyer pain
3. Turn clicks into actual pipeline

The result?
Your traffic finally converts
because prospects see the same promise everywhere.

Because when your message stays consistent from ad to demo booking,
that's when CTR and demos both climb.

P.S.: If this has been your Monday for months,
it's not going to fix itself with another creative refresh.

My Ad Positioning Audit scores 5 ad/LP combos and
shows you exactly where your messaging loses buyers
between the click and the demo.

DM me 'AUDIT' to see if it's a fit.
___________________________
Marina Kogan​
LinkedIn Top 1%
Positioning for AI products running underperforming ads

Increase demos without more ad spend | LinkedIn Top 1% | Positioning for B2B AI products running ads

Worse AI products sometimes get funded first.
Frustrating, but there's a pattern you can copy.
Here's the breakdown:


I've seen this pattern repeat:

A competitor raises Series B.
The founder panics: "How? Our product is objectively better."

But here's what actually happened:

Their competitor's ad positioned the product in one sentence.
Prospects understood the value in 3 seconds.
Your product took 3 meetings to explain.

The gap isn't product quality.
It's speed to understanding.

Their ad: "We cut invoice processing from 3 days to 3 minutes for logistics companies."

Your ad: "AI-powered platform that streamlines workflows and drives operational efficiency."

Same category. Different results.

Their prospect gets it immediately.
Books a demo already convinced.
Closes in 15-20 days.

Your prospect clicks, gets confused.
Needs multiple meetings to decode what you do.
Takes 60-90 days to close - if they close at all.

Here's the painful truth:

Investors don't fund better products.
They fund traction.

Traction comes from closing deals fast.
Fast closes come from prospects understanding your value before the demo.
That understanding starts in your ad.

Your competitor didn't raise because they built something superior.
They raised because their positioning made it easier to buy.

Without clarity, your product is invisible.
With clarity, it becomes irresistible.

Wondering if your ads explain it fast enough?
Free ad positioning roast at koganmarina.com
You'll know in 2 minutes.
_______________________
Marina Kogan​
LinkedIn Top 1%
Positioning for AI products running underperforming ads

What to do when your ads book demos but your demos don't close (hint: more budget won't fix it):

Your ad spend books demos.
Your ad positioning decides if those demos close.

Most founders confuse the two.

They see demos not closing.
So they increase the budget.
More demos. Same close rate.

Here's what's actually happening:

Your ad is doing Job 1.
Getting clicks. Booking demos.
The math works.

But it's failing Job 2.
Pre-selling the value
before the prospect shows up.

So every demo starts the same way:

"Can you walk me through what you do?"
"I thought this was more of a..."
"How is this different from [competitor]?"

That's not a demo problem.
That's your ad talking to everyone
and preparing no one.

Here's what vague ad positioning costs you:

First 15 minutes of every demo?
Re-explaining what the ad should have said.
That's not selling. That's catching up.

The prospect leaves uncertain.
"Let me think about it."
The deal takes 60+ days or dies.

Now here's what happens
when the ad does both jobs:

Prospect arrives already getting it.
Demo starts at "show me how this works."
Objections are specific, not vague.
Decision happens in 15-25 days.

Same product.
Same founder on the demo.
Same prospect.

Only difference?
What the ad told them before they showed up.

The worst part?

When positioning is broken,
more spend = more confused prospects.
You're scaling the leak.

Every extra dollar books another demo
that won't close at the same rate.

The fix isn't more budget.
It's fixing your ad positioning
to do both jobs: book the demo
AND prepare the prospect.

That means rewriting ads
around buyer pain,
not product features.

Check if yours is doing both jobs: 
Free ad positioning roast at koganmarina.com
_________________________
Marina Kogan​
LinkedIn Top 1%
Positioning for AI products running underperforming ads

This founder spent $60K on AI-generated ads. Their conversion rate stayed at 2%. Here's what actually happened to their budget:

I see this pattern constantly with B2B SaaS founders.
They feed ChatGPT their product details.
Get 50 polished headlines back.
Launch campaigns with $10K/month behind them.

But here's the problem:

The ads look professional. The targeting is sharp.
But the message is about what your product does, not what your buyer needs.

You're paying LinkedIn to show the wrong message to the right people.

Here's how the waste compounds:

Layer 1: $10K/month on ads built on broken positioning.
Three months in, you've spent $30K on polished irrelevance.

Layer 2: Clicks that cost $8-25 each but never convert.
Your landing page converts at 2% instead of 8% because both were built on vague positioning.
That's 4x more clicks needed per demo.

Layer 3: Unqualified demos filling your calendar.
Your sales team burns 50+ hours across six months on prospects who can't sign.

Layer 4: Your competitor spent the same budget with clear positioning.
They're converting at 3x your rate while you're testing headline #47.

The math:
$60K in ad spend over six months.
$45K wasted on clicks that were never going to convert.
Six months of lost pipeline.

That ChatGPT subscription cost you $200.
The ads it wrote cost you $45K.

The $3-5K for positioning isn't extra expense.
It's what stops your ad budget from leaking.

Without it, every dollar you spend is confirming your positioning is broken.

Slowly. Expensively.

Sound familiar?

DM me 'AUDIT' - I'll diagnose the positioning
underneath your ads and show you where it breaks.
_________________________
Marina Kogan​
LinkedIn Top 1%
Positioning for AI products running underperforming ads

"Positioning sounds abstract."
Here's how abstract looks when it adds $200K to your pipeline in 90 days (with actual numbers to prove it):


I used to hear this objection constantly.
Founders would say positioning felt too theoretical to justify the investment.

Then I started tracking the numbers.
Turns out, positioning isn't abstract at all when you measure what matters.

Here's what happened with one client:

Before repositioning:
- Cost per qualified lead: $340
- Demo booking rate: 12%
- LinkedIn ad CTR: 0.8%

After repositioning (same audience, same budget):
- LinkedIn ad CTR: 2.4%
- Demo booking rate: 31%
- Cost per qualified lead: $95

Same product. Same market. Different message.

The shift?

We stopped talking about what the product did.
We started talking about what the buyer actually cared about.

- Then we positioned the solution around that specific problem.
- First, we identified their real pain point (not what we assumed it was).
- Finally, we made the benefit impossible to miss in every touchpoint.

Result: $200K in qualified pipeline within 90 days.

That's not abstract. That's revenue.

Here's what I learned:

Positioning isn't theoretical when you tie it to metrics.
Every positioning decision should move a number that matters.

Better click-through rates mean your message resonates.
Lower cost per lead means you're speaking to the right pain.
Higher demo rates mean buyers finally understand your value.

The founders who see positioning as abstract?
They're the ones not measuring its impact.

So remember:

1. Track your metrics before repositioning.
2. Measure what changes in your funnel.
3. Make one clear positioning shift.

Positioning stops feeling abstract the moment you connect it to pipeline.


P.S.: Want to know what repositioning could do for your metrics?
Get your campaigns roasted at http://koganmarina.com/
_____________________
Marina Kogan​
LinkedIn Top 1%
Positioning for AI products running underperforming ads

The red flag the marketing agency you hired won't mention about AI product Ads. It's costing 50% of your leads:

You hired a marketing agency.
They launched your ads.

Calendar filled up.
Leads started flowing.
You were thrilled.

Until the demos started.

50% of leads were unqualified.
No budget. No authority. No real need.

The agency's fix:
Add qualification quizzes.
Tighten targeting.
Adjust audience filters.

All valid moves.
None of them fixed it.

Because none of them were the problem.

The problem was what you handed them
before they started:

"AI-powered platform that automates [process]
for [industry]."

That sentence describes
200 products on LinkedIn right now.

Your agency took it.
Built campaigns around it.
Optimized beautifully.

And delivered a message that lets everyone in.

Here's what agencies are great at:

Getting your message in front of the right people.
Optimizing cost per click.
Testing formats and placements.
Building funnels that convert.

Here's what was never their job:

Answering the one question
your buyer is asking:

"How is this different from the other 15 AI tools
I saw this week?"

That's ad positioning.
And it needs to exist
before your agency touches anything.

When you hand them clear positioning:

Their targeting pre-qualifies.
Their creative tests show real differences.
Their funnel converts higher.
That 50% unqualified rate drops -
not from better quizzes,
but because the ad filtered them out
before the click.

Your agency isn't the problem.
What you handed them to work with is.

Fix the positioning first.
Then let them do what they're great at.

Every month without fixing this,
you burn more budget
on leads that were never going to close.
DM me 'AUDIT' - I'll diagnose your ad positioning
before next month's spend starts.
_____________________________
Marina Kogan​
LinkedIn Top 1%
Positioning for AI products running underperforming ads

If you're not clear on who your ICP is, you need to know this before your next Ad spend:


A founder came to me last week ready to scale paid ads across LinkedIn, Meta, and Google.
I asked one question: who's your main ICP?
"That's the problem  -  it's pretty much everyone."

They weren't launching a marketing strategy.
They were launching six half-strategies because they were afraid to commit.

Here's what staying broad actually costs you:

The agency you hired can't write specific ads without a specific ICP.
You give them "service providers."
They write "the platform for modern service providers."
Nobody reads that and thinks "they're talking to me."

Your landing page can't convert without a specific problem.
Broad ICP means broad pain points.
"Save time and grow your business."
The prospect lands, skims, and thinks "maybe, but I'm not sure this is for me."
They leave unconvinced.

Your pipeline fills with the wrong people.
When the ad speaks to everyone, everyone clicks.
Operators who can't buy.
Companies outside your sweet spot.
People who are curious but not in pain.

Your calendar fills with demos that go nowhere.

You blame the channel.
The channel delivered exactly what you asked for  -  everyone.

The shift that changes everything:
Pick one ICP.
Speak directly to their specific situation.
Watch qualified prospects start raising their hands.

P.S: This is exactly what my 90-Day Demand Sprint fixes.
Month 1: I find who feels the pain enough to buy now.
Month 2: Your ads and LP get rebuilt around that one ICP.
Month 3: Watch close rates climb while spend stays flat.

DM me 'SPRINT' to find out who's ready to buy
and build your ads around them.
_______________
Marina Kogan​
LinkedIn Top 1%
Positioning for AI products running underperforming ads

Here's how to break through in an AI-saturated market:



Everyone's talking about AI features.
Most sound identical to their competitors.
Prospects click but don't convert.

This is where tight positioning becomes your competitive advantage:

Stop talking about AI features.
Start showing what makes you different.


Here's exactly how I do it:

1️⃣ Align your message everywhere

Your Ad, landing page, and pitch need to say the same thing.
One clear message that cuts through the noise.
No confusion, no disconnect.

2️⃣ Position against the crowd

Everyone talks about AI capabilities.
You need to own a specific problem or outcome.
Make it impossible to confuse you with competitors.

3️⃣ Make it scientific, not guesswork

Tight positioning isn't about creative taglines.
It's about understanding what your buyers actually care about.
Then speaking directly to that.


Don't take my word for it:

"Marina is an absolute B2B SaaS guru when it comes to positioning and messaging.

In a world where every startup is talking about AI features, it's more imperative than ever to ensure paid ads and landing pages work in sync with tightly articulated positioning.

Marina's work is extremely thorough and scientific in its approach."

I apply this exact process to AI product Ads in my 90-Day Demand Sprint.

DM me 'SPRINT' to get the plan for increasing demos from your current Ad spend.
____________
Marina Kogan​
LinkedIn Top 1%
Positioning for AI products running underperforming ads

taplio

The Battle

Joe Wheatley

Marina Kogan 🌊

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreJoe Wheatley's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreMarina Kogan 🌊's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Joe Wheatley

Marina Kogan 🌊

Followers

Posts

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);}Joe Wheatley's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreMarina Kogan 🌊's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreJoe Wheatley's LinkedIn Performance