Running a 7-Digit Monthly Ad Spend in B2B Marketing
Managing a seven-figure monthly B2B marketing ad spend requires more than slapping a budget on some Google ads and calling it a day.
According to Alex Venus, Head of Digital and Web Marketing at Personio, it’s about understanding the psychology of your audience, mastering the art of creative storytelling, and using data to predict the future—or at least next quarter’s ROI.
From integrating teams to leveraging data and creative strategies, Alex’s approach offers invaluable insights for anyone looking to learn how a marketer scales with a 7-figure monthly ad budget.
Let’s get into the highlights of our recent conversation with him:
Laying the Foundation: Building a Marketing Machine that Works
The Creative Evolution: Moving Beyond Traditional Tactics
Data-Driven Insights: The Future of B2B Targeting
Avoiding the Common Pitfalls of B2B Marketing
Check out the full conversation here
Laying the foundation: building a marketing machine that works
Before you can run, you’ve got to walk. In B2B marketing terms, that means building a solid foundation. For Personio, this means going further than ads, to create a seamless, end-to-end experience that guides potential customers from the first click to closing the deal.
Here’s how they do it.
Clear messaging for a seamless customer journey
Imagine seeing an ad for a company that promises to solve all your problems. You click the link and are hit with a landing page that looks like it’s from 1999. This is the kind of experience Personio works hard to avoid.
For Alex, a great user-owned experience means making user-centric decisions in everything the team does. And he means it.
At Personio, the digital marketing machine is powered by three interconnected teams: Paid Advertising, Website and Web Touchpoints, and Product Growth Experimentation. This setup ensures that no matter where a prospect lands in their journey, the experience and messaging are consistent, seamless, and most importantly, compelling.
Alex stresses the importance of having a few key messages that are clearly defined and consistently communicated across all marketing channels. He advises marketers to develop "high-altitude" messages that convey the overall brand or product value and then embed these core messages in every piece of communication.
If your marketing teams are still operating in silos, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Integrated teams are the only way to ensure your message doesn’t get lost in translation.
Aligning with sales
What’s the point of all those slick ads and polished landing pages if they don’t translate into sales?
At Personio, the marketing team isn’t just about generating leads—they’re about generating the right leads. And that’s where their “Northstar metric”, accepted pipeline, comes into the forefront.
The most important thing is having a metric where there is complete alignment between sales and marketing.
By focusing on accepted pipeline—qualified leads that sales can actually close— using Dreamdata, Personio ensures that every dollar spent on marketing contributes to the bottom line.
If your marketing team is still patting themselves on the back for hitting poorly defined MQL targets, it might be time to rethink your KPIs. Align your metrics with sales for a strategy that actually drives revenue.
Use your budget to upgrade your traditional marketing tactics
With the foundation in place, the next step is evolving your marketing tactics to stay ahead of the competition.
Let’s face it—B2B marketing has a bit of a reputation problem. It’s often seen as the boring cousin of B2C. But for Alex, creativity isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s an essential investment that can set you apart in a crowded market.
Moving from demand capture to demand creation
When Alex first joined Personio, the company’s ad spend was heavily focused on capturing existing demand through lower-funnel activities like paid search. It made sense for a growing SaaS company, but Alex quickly realized that this strategy had a ceiling.
By investing in demand creation, Personio is playing the long game, building brand awareness and nurturing potential customers long before they’re ready to buy.
Don’t get stuck in the trap of only capturing existing demand. Invest in channels that allow you to create demand, so you’re not just competing for scraps at the bottom of the funnel.
Creative-driven channels
Alex bets big on video content, using YouTube not just as a place to host ads, but as a platform for creative experimentation.
We’re doing a lot of experimentation now with things like YouTube … I want us to move towards channels which are more geared towards creative versus just being present.
Personio is focused on metrics like “hook rate”, which measures how many people stay engaged during the first few seconds of a video. This kind of creative experimentation allows them to refine their messaging and improve overall campaign performance.
If you’re going to dip your toes into video, don’t just throw something together and hope for the best. Invest in quality creative and pay attention to the details—like whether your audience is even sticking around past the opening scene.
To learn more tips for YouTube channel growth, check out this conversation with Tim Soulo.
Refine your measurement and targeting with data
As marketing tactics evolve, so too must the way we measure and target our efforts.
For Alex, understanding how channels work together—and leveraging data to refine targeting—is what separates the good campaigns from the great ones.
Why asking “what’s your best channel?” is the wrong question
One of the most significant mistakes in B2B marketing is focusing too narrowly on individual channel performance. Alex advocates for a more holistic approach, where the emphasis is on understanding how channels work together.
To do this, Personio uses Dreamdata to analyze the entire customer journey and uncover the relationships between channels.
The question is you know what's the relationship between these channels… with you know great platforms obviously Dreamdata is one of those where you can look at different journeys if you want to understand those synergies.
By focusing on how channels influence each other, Personio avoids the trap of over-relying on any single platform.
It’s about seeing the bigger picture—understanding that a Facebook ad might not directly lead to a conversion, but it could plant the seed that later drives someone to search for your brand on Google.
So stop obsessing over last-click attribution, it’s time to think bigger and look at how your channels work together to drive overall growth.
Advanced targeting and the role of data science
When it comes to targeting, most marketers stick to the basics—demographics, interests, maybe a few behavioral triggers. But Alex sees a future where data science plays a much bigger role in refining audience segments.
Advanced targeting is something that is going to be a constant theme not just for my team but in general… people are going to go hey how can we find that 1% best fit within that spend so we don't need to spend the other 90% or 99%
Personio is investing in proprietary targeting models that go beyond what’s available on standard platforms. For example, Dreamdata’s Audience Hub creates the most relevent audiences from your go-to-market data and syncs them directly with your ad platforms.
By working closely with data scientists and Dreamdata’s data models, they’re able to identify and target the segments most likely to convert, making their ad spend more efficient and effective.
If you’ve got the resources, start thinking about how you can leverage data science to create custom targeting models. It’s not just about reaching more people—it’s about reaching the right people.
Avoiding the common pitfalls of B2B marketing
With experience comes the wisdom of knowing what not to do. Alex warns against over-relying on what’s working right now, without thinking about the long-term strategy:
be aware of the limitations of certain channels, I hate cookie cutter tactics… just by turning the taps on and chucking spend at the situation, it can achieve some results but also it makes it increasingly difficult for you to understand what is working and isn't working
Personio’s approach is all about nuance. Instead of just doubling down on what’s delivering immediate results, they dig deeper to understand why it’s working—and how they can replicate that success in other areas.
Don’t get complacent. Just because something’s working now doesn’t mean it will forever. Keep testing, keep experimenting, and always be looking for the next big thing.
A final word
Running a seven-figure ad budget in B2B marketing isn’t so much about the quantity you spend, but rather how smart you spend it. As Alex Venus’s experience at Personio shows, the key to success is a balanced approach that combines creativity, data, and a deep understanding of your audience.
So, whether you’re a startup trying to make a name for yourself or an established brand looking to scale, take a page out of Personio’s playbook. Build a solid foundation with integrated teams, invest in demand creation, leverage data to refine your targeting, and most importantly, never stop experimenting.
About the Speaker
Alex Venus, the head of digital and web at Personio, is a Growth Marketer, specializing in acquisition marketing for B2B SaaS businesses. With a passion for creating innovative online solutions, Alex leads a dynamic team responsible for enhancing Personio's digital presence and ensuring a seamless web experience for users. Combining a deep understanding of technology with a creative approach to problem-solving, Alex is dedicated to driving digital transformation and delivering impactful results that align with Personio's mission of simplifying HR processes for businesses.
