Show notes
Dave is joined by Davang Shah, VP of Marketing at LinkedIn, for a conversation about what actually works with LinkedIn ads right now. They cover why brand and performance aren't two separate strategies, how to think about measurement beyond last-click attribution, and why 95% of your buyers aren't in market at any given time. Davang also shares the data behind thought leader ads, what most marketers get wrong about the buyer journey, and how he's leading his own team through the AI shift.Timestamps(00:00) - The stat that explains why B2B marketing is so hard
(01:56) - Davang's background: 17 years at Google, now VP Marketing at LinkedIn
(02:23) - The state of B2B marketing in 2026 and what CMOs actually care about
(05:04) - How AI search is changing buyer behavior (94% of B2B buyers use LLMs)
(07:43) - Why LinkedIn became a real social network, not just a professional one
(09:07) - Thought leader ads: what they are and why they outperform single image ads
(12:11) - Why brand and performance aren't two separate things
(15:22) - How to build a full-funnel LinkedIn ads strategy
(20:08) - The measurement problem: 211-day deal cycles and 22 decision-makers
(22:02) - CRM sync, Conversions API, and Company Intelligence explained
(26:17) - How AI will change the way marketers run ads (and what LinkedIn is building)
(32:28) - Making the case for keeping marketers: creativity, human connection, and trustJoin 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Optimizely - the AI platform for marketers. Build your own AI agents or pull from a directory of 50+ pre-built ones for marketing use cases. Their new Virtual Teammates can join meetings, complete tasks, support campaigns, and keep your website optimized. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive.Webflow - A website platform built for the agentic web, letting modern marketing teams build fully custom sites that perform in AI search with no developer needed. Learn more at webflow.com/for/exitfive.Zoom Webinars & Events – The virtual event platform built to help B2B marketers run webinars that actually drive pipeline, with branded registration pages, live engagement features, and built-in tools to repurpose sessions into clips and content. Learn more at zoom.com/exitfive.Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand gen agency helping high-growth cybersecurity and enterprise software companies show up earlier in the buying journey, combining AEO, modern paid advertising, and a dedicated go-to-market engineering team. Podcast listeners get two free media planning sessions to find out what channels are driving the best ROI. Learn more at compoundgrowthmarketing.com/exitfive. ***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more