Episode Details

#259 Paid Ads | In this episode, Dave is joined by Pranav Piyush, founder and CEO of Paramark, a platform helping B2B marketers run real experiments to measure ad performance. Pranav brings a sharp point of view on attribution, channel performance, and how to actually prove what’s working across your paid media mix.

Dave and Pranav cover:

• Real-world results from 7 B2B ad campaigns, including branded search, YouTube, billboards, and Performance Max
• Why most marketers are misusing the word “test” and how to run true experiments with lift, control, and causality
• How even small teams can apply experiment design (on a $10K budget or less) to make smarter spend decisions

Whether you're managing a big budget or just getting started with paid campaigns, this episode will help you think more critically, and confidently, about where and how to invest in B2B marketing.

Timestamps

• (00:00) - – Intro
• (02:00) - – Why Paramark pulled real data from 7 B2B ad campaigns
• (04:30) - – Attribution vs. experimentation: what most marketers get wrong
• (08:00) - – Correlation vs. causation explained (with a LinkedIn example)
• (10:45) - – How to run a real test (hint: you need a control)
• (12:00) - – Branded search test results: $1M+ saved, no performance loss
• (17:00) - – Why strong SEO makes or breaks branded search tests
• (18:00) - – Billboard test: how one brand proved real lift with out-of-home
• (21:30) - – What “digital out-of-home” looks like in B2B
• (23:00) - – YouTube ad tests: one big win, one big flop
• (26:00) - – How to run tests with small budgets ($500–$10K)
• (30:30) - – Connected TV (CTV) test results from a Series F SaaS brand
• (32:30) - – What happens when a multichannel test works—but isn’t efficient
• (34:30) - – Paramark’s Exit Five sponsorship test (real numbers shared)
• (38:00) - – Why content needs to drive short-term lift, not just long-term “brand”
• (41:00) - – How Pranav used LinkedIn to drive inbound from day one
• (43:00) - – Your attribution model is lying, give your audience more credit
• (44:30) - – When 7 ad tests fail in a row…and the 8th one works
• (46:00) - – Performance Max test: why it worked for one brand
• (48:00) - – How long to run a test? Use data, not gut
• (50:00) - – Bonus: Pranav’s hiring playbook for his first marketing leader
• (54:00) - – Wrap up and final takeaways

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter

Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/

***

Brought to you by:

Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Join the next cohort of Opal U, a live 5-day course designed for senior marketing leaders who are ready to ship more with AI, at optimizely.com/exitfive. 

Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn more at vector.co, and get their new MCP server by clicking here. 

Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn