If you think B2B marketing is about running a few sponsored posts and waiting for “Book a Demo” requests to roll in, Anthony Blatner has news for you. The founder of SpeedWorks Social has spent years inside LinkedIn’s ad platform — and he says the traditional B2B funnel is dead. In this conversation, Anthony breaks down why Thought Leader Ads are quietly rewriting the ROI rulebook, why enterprise deals actually take thousands of touchpoints, and what most B2B marketers are getting wrong about AI-generated content.
Key Takeaways
- LinkedIn outperforms Meta and Google for B2B targeting because no other platform lets you filter by industry, company size, and specific job titles simultaneously — critical for niche audiences like “HR managers at hospitals”
- Enterprise B2B deals require thousands of touchpoints, not the commonly cited 7–15 — the journey runs from posts to retargeting to webinars to newsletter to demo request over months
- Thought Leader Ads — LinkedIn’s newest format that boosts posts from individuals rather than company pages — generate double to triple the engagement of traditional company-page ads
- AI-generated content is detectable and underperforms; the winning formula is AI for first drafts, then human voice, personal stories, and removed em-dashes for the published version
- Video matters but B2B is still primarily text-based; one video per multi-post week is the right ratio for most B2B brands
From IBM Developer to LinkedIn Specialist
Anthony’s path into LinkedIn marketing wasn’t planned — it was demanded by his own clients. After starting in enterprise software at IBM and later founding a mobile app development firm in Austin during the early iPhone boom, he kept running into the same problem: building the product was only half the job. Every client wanted growth help once the app was live, and the channels that actually worked weren’t the ones everyone else was using.
"Back in the day, very few people were doing LinkedIn marketing. I found it was the best channel for enterprise tech because of the precision targeting data that Meta or Google just can't match."
Years of testing Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and SEO for B2B clients led to the same conclusion every time: for enterprise software and commercial tech, LinkedIn was the only platform with the targeting depth to make campaigns work. Eventually Anthony shut down the diversified agency and went all-in on LinkedIn — long before it was crowded.
The Specificity Trap and Why Vague Branding Kills Pipeline
The biggest mistake Anthony sees in B2B? Being too broad. Most B2B SaaS companies serve a very specific job title at a very specific type of company — yet their marketing reads like it’s written for everyone.
“In B2B, you’re usually targeting one job title at one type of company,” Anthony explains. “Your website and ads need to be abundantly clear about that.” If an HR manager at a 5,000-bed hospital lands on your page, they should know within seconds whether the tool is built for them — or they’re gone.
He also warns against leading every campaign with “Request a Demo” or “Contact Us.” Those CTAs are essential at the bottom of the funnel, but they’re not where the conversation should start. Lead with value: tips, case studies, strategies that help the prospect do their job better. Trust is built before the demo, not on it.
The Thousands of Touchpoints Reality
The most counterintuitive insight from the conversation is the actual scale of the enterprise buyer’s journey. Marketing literature talks about 7 to 15 touchpoints. Anthony cites data showing enterprise software deals require thousands.
"It's not just 10 or 15 — for enterprise software, it's thousands of touchpoints. You're not selling a product. You're building a relationship through constant, high-value visibility over months."
The journey looks something like this: a prospect reads a LinkedIn post, gets retargeted with more posts, joins a webinar, lands on the newsletter, attends a second webinar, browses the website, and — finally, sometimes six months later — requests a demo. Each touchpoint sounds expensive in isolation. Across an enterprise deal worth six or seven figures, the ROI math holds.
Thought Leader Ads and the AI Content Problem
LinkedIn’s most important recent feature is Thought Leader Ads — the ability to boost a post from a real person, not just a company page. The performance gap is significant: engagement rates double and triple when content runs in a human voice rather than a corporate one. People come to LinkedIn to learn from other people, not to read brochures.
The same principle explains why AI-generated content is underperforming on the platform. Most users can spot it instantly — the em-dashes, the “this, this, and this, but not this” cadence, the over-structured lists. The winning formula isn’t to avoid AI; it’s to use it for the first draft, then rewrite in your own voice with personal stories and lived experience. When Anthony’s clients do this, engagement rates double or triple compared to pure-AI posts.
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction — Anthony Blatner, founder of SpeedWorks Social
00:25 Anthony’s journey from IBM to LinkedIn specialist
02:29 The biggest challenges in B2B marketing
05:16 The role of content and thought leadership on LinkedIn
07:41 Why enterprise deals need thousands of touchpoints
09:14 AI in content creation and why it’s detectable
10:33 Video marketing trends on LinkedIn in 2025
12:32 Scaling SpeedWorks Social and the hiring challenge
14:01 Vision for the next three to five years
14:53 Advice for job seekers and B2B service providers on LinkedIn
18:11 The “follow the green lights” career philosophy
Follow the Green Lights
The most memorable advice from the conversation came near the end. Anthony’s career philosophy is simple: follow the green lights.
"Where are things flowing easily? Where are you seeing demand? That's the signal. Where you're seeing friction and pushback — that's probably the signal to go in a different direction."
For Anthony, the green lights kept pointing to LinkedIn — clients asking for help, results coming back faster than other channels, the Austin startup community moving in that direction. He tested other services and other platforms. They didn’t flow the same way. The path became clear in hindsight, but the lesson is to read the signals while you’re still in the middle of them.
About the Guest
Anthony Blatner is the founder of SpeedWorks Social, a B2B agency specialising exclusively in LinkedIn advertising. A former IBM software engineer, he transitioned from building enterprise software and mobile apps to running one of the few agencies focused entirely on LinkedIn marketing. He works with B2B SaaS, enterprise tech, and professional services companies on LinkedIn ads, Thought Leader campaigns, and full-funnel B2B strategy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Why does LinkedIn outperform Meta and Google for B2B marketing? A: According to Anthony Blatner, founder of SpeedWorks Social, LinkedIn is the only major platform that lets B2B marketers target by industry, company size, and specific job titles simultaneously. For niche audiences like “HR managers at hospitals” or “CFOs at SaaS companies with 50–200 employees,” there’s no equivalent targeting on Meta or Google. For most B2B companies, this targeting precision is what makes LinkedIn ads cost-efficient compared to broader-reach platforms.
Q: What are Thought Leader Ads on LinkedIn? A: Thought Leader Ads are a LinkedIn ad format that lets companies boost posts published from individual personal profiles rather than from a company page. Because users come to LinkedIn to learn from other professionals rather than read corporate content, person-led ads generate roughly double to triple the engagement of traditional company-page ads. Anthony Blatner identifies this as the most important recent shift in B2B LinkedIn advertising.
Q: How many touchpoints does a B2B enterprise sale actually take? A: Anthony Blatner says modern attribution data shows enterprise B2B deals require thousands of touchpoints, not the commonly cited 7 to 15. The journey runs from initial LinkedIn posts to retargeted content, webinars, newsletter sequences, repeated website visits, and finally a demo request — often spread over six months or more. The longer cycle is what makes content-led, value-first marketing essential rather than optional.
Q: Should B2B marketers use AI to write LinkedIn content? A: Anthony’s advice is to use AI for ideation and first drafts, but never publish AI-generated content unchanged. Users can detect AI-written posts and comments — the em-dashes, the over-structured lists, the “this, this, and this, but not this” cadence. Engagement rates roughly double or triple when content is rewritten in the author’s own voice with personal stories. AI is a productivity tool, not a publishing tool.
Q: Is video marketing still important on LinkedIn in 2026? A: Video viewing on LinkedIn has grown significantly, but the platform remains primarily text-based for B2B. Anthony recommends a mixed approach — most posts as text and image, with video used selectively for relationship-building or where it materially adds to the message. Don’t over-index on video unless you’re consistently seeing strong performance, because business audiences still read more than they watch.
