Guiding B2B SaaS Companies to unlocking Revenue-Driven Success. Founder & Head of Growth @ Marked.

Over the past decade, I've dedicated my career to helping B2B SaaS companies focus on revenue-driven marketing operations that result in tangible growth. 

As the former founder of Marked, a respected agency in Belgium, I have worked with over 50 clients worldwide, providing sustainable growth solutions.

My mission is to empower B2B SaaS businesses by setting up revenue programs that generate consistent and sustainable growth. My approach is centered around practical strategies that drive real results. Nothing fluffy, real action.

What I Offer:
→ Coaching for CMOs & B2B Marketers: Tailored coaching to enhance skills and strategic thinking.
→ Fractional CMO Services: Providing leadership and expertise on a part-time basis to drive your growth.
→ Strategic Trajectories: Developing comprehensive plans that align with your business goals.
→ Building Revenue Systems: Crafting and implementing systems to ensure steady revenue growth.

Notable Clients:
I've had the privilege of working with leading B2B SaaS companies such as Mouseflow, Robovision, 6clicks, Sequesto, Froomle, and Accurat.

Key Achievements:
→ Assisted over 50 clients worldwide
→ Established Marked as a respected agency within Belgium
→ Advised startups through Belgian accelerators

If you're interested in learning more about how I can help your business grow, visit my personal site or subscribe to my newsletter for the latest insights and strategies.

Learn More:

Personal Site: xanmannekens.me
Newsletter: b2bmarketerscompass.com

Let's connect and explore how we can drive growth for your business together.

Xan Mannekens

I found my spark.

18 months ago, I left Marked to explore what's next.

Since then? 
→ Worked with amazing founders 
→ Helped scale some exciting businesses 
→ Built strategies that actually moved the needle

But something was missing.

That feeling when a project clicks. 
When you can't stop thinking about it. 
When work doesn't feel like work.

Then I saw Brent Luyckx's new project.

We met during a PEAK Coaching dinner ages ago.
When I saw what he was building, I reached out immediately.

It just clicked.

Health and sports aren't just hobbies for me, they're obsessions.
I genuinely want to understand every detail about how to optimize performance, recovery, and longevity.

So when we talked about Superhlth, everything aligned.

I'm excited (understatement) to announce I'm joining Superhlth as CMO & Go-to-Market Lead.

Finally found that project that gives me the spark.
The one where my personal passion meets professional purpose.

Let's build something incredible.
And I'm taking you guys along with me on the journey.

CMO & GTM Lead @ Superhlth | Helping you understand your body like never before.

A few weeks into Superhlth.

And boy, I have been loving it.

I've been: 
→ Learning the tech inside out 
→ Meeting the incredible team 
→ Working on everything from strategy to execution

One of those things? A new website.

Am I a web developer? Hell no.
Do we need an upgraded version while we wait for the final one? Yes sir.

So off we go.

That's exactly what I love about the startup journey.

You don't get to pick and choose what's "your job."

You see what needs to happen. 
And you make it happen.

Some days I'm building go-to-market strategy. 
Other days I'm fumbling through website builds.

Both are equally important when you're building something from scratch.

But every single thing I'm doing helps me learn more about the product, the tech, and the user experience and it makes me better at my actual role.

You can't build great marketing if you don't intimately understand what you're marketing.

This is startup life. 
And I'm here for it.

We just created & shipped our new Superhlth website in a matter of days 🚀

Speed over perfection. 
Execution over endless iterations.

We combined 4-5 Framer templates, pulled the best building blocks, and got it live. 

The goal wasn't to create something flawless, it was to move forward and unlock the next phase of our go-to-market strategy. Whilst building our fully custom website in the background.

So we're live and ready for feedback. 
If you spot anything that needs attention or have thoughts to share.
I'm all ears.

This is what building in public looks like. 
Let's go team.

Ship, learn, iterate.
Check it out and let me know what you think 👇

Last week I told you I found my spark with Superhlth.

But here's the full picture.

After leaving Marked 18 months ago, I spent a lot of time reflecting on what actually matters to me.

Two things kept coming back:
- Working on projects that cross paths with my passions.
- Helping and challenging people, giving back through coaching and guiding.

Superhlth checks box #1 perfectly.
Now I'm checking box #2.

I'm joining Better Growth to co-host the 12-week GTM Accelerator program.

Why?

Because I've seen too many talented founders struggle with the same growth challenges: 
→ No clear strategy 
→ Wasted budget on tactics that don't stick 
→ Flying blind without the right data

The Accelerator program gives teams the frameworks and systems to make growth predictable, controlled, and scalable.

And I get to work alongside some incredible co-trainers and hosts who push me to be better. Thierry, Tim, Peter 🚀 

We're kicking off 2026 with an event on February 26 in Gent about building future-proof growth organizations.

Link in the comments.

2026 is shaping up to be something special.
Let's go, team BG! 🚀

PS: AI generated picture due to lack of real ones. Thierry, I'm sorry our faces changed a bit if you zoom in.

Global Demand Generation at GetAccept | Paid Ads & Growth Advisor | Prove the impact of running LinkedIn Ads by identifying influenced deals and revenue with Fibbler 🦁

Hey! 

I’m Adam. Dad, marketer, and full-time founder.

Right now, I’m building Fibbler, the future of Paid Ads Attribution for SMBs. We’ve grown to 400+ paying customers in our first 20 months, fully bootstrapped.

If you’re into LinkedIn Ads, founder-led growth, brand building, or just want to see me try to build this company without external capital while competing with VC giants, follow along here on LinkedIn.

Adam Holmgren

Every time I go to an event like LinkedIn for Marketing's B2Believe, it hits me again. LinkedIn is the most powerful B2B platform in the world.

Nothing else even comes close.

And I don’t say that because I run an attribution tool for LinkedIn Ads.

I say it because every day I see how it works in real life.

The people here already know your brand.

They’ve seen your posts.
They’ve watched your ads.
They already trust you before any sales call even starts.

You can’t get that on any other platform in B2B.

The combination of targeting, mindset, intent and professional context is something you can’t recreate. 

That’s why I always tell companies to stop treating LinkedIn like a direct response channel and start treating it like the place where trust is built.

If you show up here consistently.
If you mix paid and organic.
If you focus on value instead of tricks.
…you will win.

Being here, meeting people who already knew Fibbler before we even talked… it reminded me why I love this platform so much.

Here’s a small clip from an interview I did.

#B2Believe #linkedin #linkedinads

Co-founder & CEO at Fibbler | Building the future of Paid Ads Attribution for SMBs | 10+ years in B2B marketing

I’ve been invited to LinkedIn’s HQ in San Francisco to come down and film some content. 🥹🥹🥹

Honestly, I don’t even know where to start with this one.

Over the last few years I’ve been fortunate enough to do some really cool things in the B2B world.

But the way 2026 has started… wtf?? 🤣

You all know how passionate I am about LinkedIn Ads, and that was the reason Fibbler was created in the first place.

But this isn’t about that.

This is about founder-led growth.

I’m there to share learnings from building a company on LinkedIn with other startup founders and marketers.

And honestly, this is something that came very naturally once I started building in public.

I was very fortunate to already have spent a few years building a relevant audience on LinkedIn, and that became the start for the founder-led playbook I’m running today.

What’s still crazy to me is how often I hear this during demos or support tickets:

“Wow, I didn’t realize I would get to speak directly with the founder.”

There’s real power in that.

Especially when, like me, you’re a marketer selling to marketers (so basically selling to someone just like yourself)

So yeah, as you might understand, I’m insanely excited about this trip taking place between February 23rd and 26th.

And yes, a dream I’ve had for years has been to visit the tech mecca that is the Bay Area.

Now I finally get to do it with a real purpose.

Ruby James & Emma Heiden, I won’t let you down!!

PINCH MY ARM.

2026 HERE WE GO.

We launched Fibbler in April 2024 with just $2,500 of our own money.

Our first paying customer came the same month, and I still remember it like it was yesterday.

By September 2024 we had reached 50 customers, and by December 2024 we hit 100 customers and $10,000 in MRR.

At that point we were still running everything on the side of our full-time jobs, squeezing in work during evenings, weekends, and whatever time we could find.

By the time July 2025 came around, we had reached 250 customers and $27,000 in MRR.

That’s when our CTO decided to go all in on Fibbler full time, and honestly, everything changed from there.

We were suddenly shipping features much faster, fixing issues quickly, and supporting our customers in minutes instead of hours.

And people noticed.

Customers started writing about Fibbler without us asking, and we somehow ended up right in the middle of this wave of signal-based tools that started to take off.

At some point even LinkedIn noticed us, and saw Fibbler as a great fit for their SMB customer base, which led to us becoming an official marketing partner in the attribution category.

At that point, it felt like things were just moving on their own.

Maybe this was the product-market fit we’d been looking for?

Around that time I began thinking seriously about going full time myself, and what could happen if we both focused fully on Fibbler.

Six months later, here we are.

Both co-founders are now working on Fibbler full time, we’re at 400+ paying customers, and we’ve just crossed $50,000 in MRR.

2024 was about proving that Fibbler solves a real problem.
2025 was about finding our first true product-market fit.
2026 will be about building a multi-channel product and scaling our GTM properly, with me now fully focused on this journey.

To say that I’m excited would be a massive understatement.

𝗙𝗜𝗕𝗕𝗟𝗘𝗥 𝗜𝗦 𝗚𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗢 𝗡𝗬𝗖 🇺🇸🗽

A bit surreal to even write this.

New York is actually the city where we have the most Fibbler customers in the world (!!)

Which still feels a bit crazy.

We’re heading over partly to join the Annual Summit for LinkedIn Marketing Partners, but also to meet customers and hang out with as many great marketers as possible.

𝗪𝗲’𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗡𝗬𝗖 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝟭𝟬𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝟭𝟯𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝗳 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵.

So a few questions to my network..

Who’s up for grabbing a coffee and talking marketing, LinkedIn Ads, and startup growth?

Who might want to host two slightly lost co-founders in their office for a day?

And the most important question of all…

Who wants a pink lion? 🦁

We’ll pack one for anyone that reaches out.

See you soon, NYC.

Last week was the biggest challenge I’ve had since becoming a full-time founder.

The kind of thing you dread the most.

𝐀𝐬 𝐚 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭.

Both my kids (1.5 and 4 years old) got the flu.

High fevers up to 40°C (104°F).

And it just kept going all week.

I started feeling symptoms myself, but we decided I’d stay home with the kids the first half of the week, and my partner would take the second.

Those first 2.5 days were the longest of my life. 😅

Trying to squeeze in support replies during naps.

Then I finally made it into the office.

And that’s when my partner started getting sick too.

Suddenly I felt extremely guilty for being away, even though I needed a few focused hours to keep the business moving. 

In the end, I stayed home on Friday as well to help out.

This is the reality of being a full-time founder and a parent to two small kids.

But we’re on the other side now.

The kids are back at daycare.

We’re both healthy again.

P.S. It’s usually not this messy at home… but we were in full survival mode. 😅

We’re FINALLY starting to show up in relevant AI overviews and LLM queries 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗱 𝗶𝘁.

As you probably know by now, I’ve never been super passionate about SEO. 

So towards the end of last year we brought in Sam Dunning and his team at Breaking B2B.

With everything going on as a solo marketer, and everything else I do 😅, I needed help with execution.

Luckily, we already had a really solid domain rating from the start. 

So there was a lot of potential in climbing rankings and showing up on the right queries quickly.

WHERE DID WE START

Pretty early on it was clear that we needed to show up more with the right context next to the bigger players in the attribution category.

The good thing is that over the last few years I’ve used most of these platforms myself. 

That makes it much easier to do an honest comparison.

That part matters a lot to me.

I want to talk about all these players in a respectful way. 

I admire them a lot (especially Dreamdata and how they carry themselves with so much grace).

But at the same time I wanted it to be very clear where Fibbler stands in relation to them, no matter when or where people are looking.

So I started by just dumping all my thoughts and knowledge into a Google Doc.

The team at Breaking B2B then did their own research and started writing the actual content.

After that, I spent a lot of time on each piece editing it. Making sure it matched my POV and actually sounded like me.

RESULTS SO FAR

We’ve pretty quickly started showing up in the AI queries we listed in the initial plan.

Not always as the first option. But always with the right narrative. That we’re a LinkedIn first attribution software for companies that believe that’s enough.

Our organic traffic has already 2x’d in the last two months, excluding brand.

But the most important part is this.

Now that I’ve started taking more demo calls, people have mentioned several times that they’ve read this narrative and they understand exactly where we stand compared to the others.

And that’s the whole point right now.

It’s time to announce our second influencer and this time it’s one of the brightest LinkedIn Ads voices in Europe.

Over the last 15 months, we’ve had incredible people openly sharing how they use Fibbler without ever getting anything in return.

At the same time, as we’ve grown, I’ve always known we wanted to create something more formal. 

A way to give back to those people while also helping their ideas and experiences reach a wider audience.

In other words, a small influencer program.

Last week, we announced our first US-focused influencer.

Now it’s time to announce our second influencer to get better coverage of the European market.

And without further ado…

🥁🥁🥁

Please welcome Philip Ilic to the Fibbler troops.

They’ve been using Fibbler at scale for his agency 𝐊𝐢𝐢𝐧 and have already shared some great content showing how it fits into their workflows and reporting.

But most importantly, the transparent way Philip shares LinkedIn Ads playbooks with the world, without making them overly complex, is something I really align with. 

That’s one of the main reasons I started following him in the first place.

Stay tuned for early results and additional roster introductions!

I lied to everyone.



I told you that I would never run brand ads on Google for Fibbler…

Because you’re basically paying for traffic that would find you anyway.

That was my belief.

Until last week…

For some random reason, I searched for Fibbler on Google.

And to my surprise, I saw two companies consistently appearing at the top of the results.

At this point, I was still determined to not run brand ads. It just felt like a waste of money.

Then I noticed something else.

They were using the Fibbler name all over the place. Sometimes even as a standalone.

If someone searches quickly and just scans the page, it would be very easy to click by mistake.

That is when my mindset shifted.

I spent some time setting up a simple brand campaign.

$25 daily budget.
$2 max CPC.

And I am already at more than 90% impression share. With a really solid top of page rate.

So I will keep it running for a bit.

At least until Google removes their ads for trademark reasons (they have already been disapproved in a few markets luckily 😬).

So yes. 

I lied.

I said I would never bid on my own brand.

Hopefully this is only temporary..

P.S. I’m really proud to say that we now have more than 2,000 branded searches for Fibbler every month, and it’s clear that others see that as valuable.

#googleads #brand

107 engagements.
2,886 impressions.
12 months of campaigns.

The deal?

Attributed to organic search.

Of course it was.

This is the most common journey in B2B:

Someone sees your ads on LinkedIn.
They don’t click.
They lurk.
They remember.

Weeks later they Google your brand.
Click a result.
Submit a form.

Boom.

“Original source: Organic search.”

Perfectly clean report.

Also completely wrong.

That deal didn’t start with Google.

It started way earlier.

With your paid campaigns.

And your organic LinkedIn presence reinforcing them.

Paid created awareness.

Organic search captured it.

They work together whether your attribution model likes it or not.

But most reports still force everything into one bucket.

That’s why we built Customer Journeys in Fibbler.

So you can see:
✅ Paid touches that created awareness
✅ Organic touches that reinforced trust
✅ How both combined to influence pipeline

Not paid vs organic.

Paid + organic.

Because people don’t buy in straight lines.

And attribution shouldn’t pretend they do.

P.S.

Fibbler helps you see which companies view or engage with your LI Ads, tie them to pipeline and revenue in your CRM, and alert sales when it’s time to reach out. Try it free for 30 days at https://www.fibbler.co/.

This is Fibbler’s MRR growth throughout 2025 and what we’re projecting for 2026:

January: $11k
February: $12.5k
March: $14k
April: $18k
May: $20k
June: $22k
July: $25.5k
August: $26k
September: $30k
October: $36.5k
November: $42k
December: $43k

As you can tell, it’s far from linear.

January, August and December were the slowest months for us.

A mix of fewer new paid customers and higher churn.

Then September to November happened.

Around 40% MRR growth in just a few months.

What’s interesting is that nothing major changed during 2025.

Same spend. 
Same channels. 
Same level of activity.

What did change was time.

Brand growth compounded over the year.

We started with below 1,000 brand searches per month. 

Now we’re at over 2000.

To me that’s a strong signal.

That our narrative is starting to resonate with the right people.

That we have a product people actually love using.

Yes, we probably could have grown much faster by raising money and spending more.

But we’re ending the year with around 25% profit margin.

Our fate is fully in our own hands.

There’s something very powerful about that.

𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗳 𝘄𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲:

At a minimum, I think we’ll grow at roughly the same rate.

Again, brand compounds over time.

On top of that, we’re going to add a few add-ons for other channels, like Google Ads and Meta Ads, which should increase ARPA slightly.

So my guess is that we’ll end the year at…

🥁🥁🥁

𝗔𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 $𝟭𝟮𝟬𝗸 𝗶𝗻 𝗠𝗥𝗥, 𝗼𝗿 𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝗹𝘆 $𝟭.𝟰𝗠 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗥𝗥.

With only two people on the team.

That’s about $720k ARR per employee (!!!)

Let’s see how right or wrong I am. 😬

Regardless, I’m just so excited about putting my full time into something I’m genuinely passionate about.

#saas #startup

It’s time to introduce our third influencer that I’m genuinely excited to work with.

One thing I didn’t fully appreciate when we started Fibbler was how many smart people would start sharing their experiences with the product, completely on their own.

As the company has grown, that’s something I’ve wanted to protect.

And also find a way to give something back.

That’s how this small influencer program came to life.

We’ve already started building coverage in the US and Europe.

Now it’s time to expand further. 

🥁🥁🥁🥁🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷

I’m very happy to welcome Sheila Coque to the Fibbler roster.

We actually first connected in the comments on LinkedIn.

Her replies always stood out to me. 

Thoughtful, authentic, and coming from real experience.

When I later started following her content more closely, it carried the exact same energy.

I’m really looking forward to building something together and starting to grow our presence in Latin America with her.

More soon. 🦁

THE FIBBLER FAMILY IS GROWING


And no, it’s not a baby...

Or another colleague...

I was simply sitting down one evening, thinking about how we could stand out a bit more.

As you do.

How to do something different.

How to do something fun.

Something that could represent Fibbler when we show up at events and meet-ups. 

And somehow we ended up with the biggest pink lions we could possibly find. 😅

They are huge.

Like… way bigger than we imagined when we ordered.

These lions aren’t just going to sit in a corner and collect dust though.

They’re coming with us.

To conferences.
To meet-ups.

To places where a giant pink lion probably shouldn’t be… but absolutely should be.

𝗡𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗲 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗻𝘆 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹.

Has anyone here actually tried bringing giant stuffed lions on a plane before? 

Because I’m pretty sure this will raise some questions at security.

Asking very seriously.

Most teams don’t struggle with LinkedIn Ads because of budgets or targeting. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗴𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲.

If the message and creative don’t connect, nothing works, no matter how much budget you put behind it.

What’s changed recently is how that content gets distributed.

Thought leader ads have made it easier than ever to distribute content through people instead of brands. 

And that matters, because people listen to people, not logos.

But the core question hasn’t changed. 

𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗺𝘆 𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲?

And this is why many companies still hesitate to run thought leader ads. 

Not because the format doesn’t work, but because it quickly reveals whether the message is strong enough or not.

At the same time, when teams do get this right, I haven’t seen any other format on LinkedIn that comes close in terms of attention and engagement. 

𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗴𝗮𝗽 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗜’𝗺 𝗱𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗯𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿 𝗼𝗻 𝗝𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝟮𝟴𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗼𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 Casper 𝗮𝗻𝗱 SparkForce.

We’ll walk through real examples, showing ads that clearly moved people and others that didn’t, and talk through what actually changed the outcome.

We’ll also cover why paid and organic can’t be treated as two separate things anymore, and how that disconnect is often the reason campaigns feel off.

This is a practical session for B2B marketers who feel like engaging their audience shouldn’t be this hard.

#linkedinads

thought leader ads that influenced €3.1M on LinkedIn

You’re spending $5K on paid ads and it works. You scale to $50K and it doesn’t. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝗱𝘀…

You know that feeling when some of your paid programs are finally working?

You’re spending around $5K per month.

Awareness is building.
Engagement looks solid.
Pipeline is starting to show up.

So you do the obvious thing.

You scale.

$10K.
$50K.

And that’s when it gets weird.

The numbers don’t follow the spend anymore.

Costs go up.
Quality feels off.

And suddenly you’re wondering if something broke, even though nothing really changed.

That’s the part most teams get stuck in.

At lower spend, you can focus on a few things that work really well and just double down on those.

When you start scaling, that simplicity disappears.

You add more formats.
More channels.
More experiments running in parallel.

And suddenly it’s not about one campaign working anymore, it’s about how all of it fits together.

𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗜’𝗺 𝗱𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗯𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿 𝗼𝗻 𝗙𝗲𝗯𝗿𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝟭𝟮𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗼𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 Matthis Janssen, Tim Rath 𝗮𝗻𝗱 YOYABA.

This is something you don’t want to miss if you’re scaling paid ads this year.

👉 Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/ehdwxUbK

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This is what my weekly calendar looks like when running a product-led startup. 𝗜𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲.

Most days aren’t packed with meetings.

That space is where the work happens.

Once you start finding some real fit in the market, something changes. 

The product starts doing the selling for you. 

You don’t have to explain every feature or convince people why it matters.

They already know the problem.

One thing I’ve really noticed over the last 15 months is how tech savvy marketers are. 

Most of them know exactly what they want. 

If the product is clear and works well, they’ll figure it out on their own.

I see a lot of startup content that makes a full calendar look like success. 

In reality, being busy and making progress aren’t always the same thing.

I don’t know if this is the right way forever.

But right now, it feels like the right way to build.

#saas #startup

𝗜’𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 $𝟳𝟬𝗸 𝗼𝗻 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻 𝗔𝗱𝘀 in the last 12 months, and it completely changed how I think about what actually works on LinkedIn.

For a long time, we treated paid and organic as two completely separate things.

We ran ads.

And then we posted organic content.

But it doesn’t work like that anymore… and there’s three major shifts I’m seeing right now:

1️⃣ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁 𝗵𝗶𝘁 𝗺𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗜 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗿𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗱𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗹 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗱𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁

Organic content is no longer a nice to have.

For me, organic is a testing ground. I post ideas, see what resonates, and then only put money behind the content that already works. 

2️⃣ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗜 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮

There is so much hype around third party intent tools, while some of the strongest signals are already sitting in your own data. 

When someone has seen your content multiple times and interacted with it, they are more likely to remember you when they are ready to buy.

3️⃣ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗱 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗯𝗹𝘆 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗲, 𝗖𝗥𝗠 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘆𝗲𝗿 𝗷𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘀𝘆

People see ads for months.
Talk to peers.
Google you multiple times.
Consume content across channels.
And only then convert into a demo.

And the CRM gives all the credit to whatever happened last (or first).

That pushes companies to over invest in capture and under invest in brand. And then a few months later they wonder why pipeline slowed down…

I go much deeper into all of this in the full video and explain how I think about LinkedIn Ads after spending $70k of my own money on them.

#linkedinads

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻 𝗮𝗹𝗴𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗺 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿. I made it my mission last year to figure out how to make it work anyway.

Before I get into what I changed, here’s some context.

Last year I reached more than 500k people, generated over 2.5M impressions, saw around 50,000 engagements, and grew my follower base by 12,000 people.

Those numbers look great now. 

But early 2025 was… not that good haha.

My posts slowly stopped getting the same traction. Reach went down, engagement was terrible, and at the same time LinkedIn started filling up with more and more AI content.

That was the moment I realised I couldn’t blame the algorithm anymore.

It was on me to start creating content people actually wanted to read.

So I did something I’ve never done before.

I sat down and defined how I wanted my writing to feel.

I went through my old posts that had actually worked and asked myself a few simple questions:

Why did this post resonate?
Are there any traits that show up over and over again?
Which parts sound like me, and which parts feel too polished?

That process led me to two words that now guides almost everything I post.

𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴.

I want people to feel like they’re coming along with me. Into a decision, a mistake, a realization, or something that actually happened. 

Not just scrolling past another tactic or success story.

After that, I rebuilt my content pillars.

LinkedIn Ads, brand building, and building a startup in public became the three big ones.

Those two changes are what made 2025 the best year I’ve ever had on LinkedIn. 

And a big reason why Fibbler even got off the ground in the first place.

To make it clear.

It’s easy to blame the algorithm.

But if you put in the work to actually find your voice, I’m almost certain you’ll see results.

#linkedin

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The Battle

Xan Mannekens

Adam Holmgren

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Performance ScoreXan Mannekens's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Xan Mannekens

Adam Holmgren

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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);}Xan Mannekens's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreXan Mannekens's LinkedIn Performance