

Marketing Dilemmas
Cognism
It’s like therapy—for B2B marketers. On Marketing Dilemmas, host Liam Bartholomew unpacks one big marketing headache at a time—with help from leaders who’ve been there, failed, and figured out what works.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Dec 2, 2025 • 42min
The LinkedIn vs Google ads dilemma: Proving what actually drives B2B pipeline with Srikrishna Swaminathan, with Co-Founder and CEO of Factor.ai
In this episode of Marketing Dilemmas, Liam sits down with Srikrishna Swaminathan, Co-founder & CEO of Factors.ai, to tackle a question most B2B teams are quietly wrestling with: are LinkedIn ads really working, or is Google doing all the heavy lifting? They dig into why LinkedIn so often looks “bad” in spreadsheets, how to use buyer-journey visualisation, view-throughs and incrementality testing to prove its impact, and where organic content fits into the whole system. Sri also breaks down who should own this problem (demand gen vs marketing ops), what good measurement actually looks like, and how emerging LLM/AI discovery will change the way we think about paid, organic and attribution altogether.

Nov 18, 2025 • 38min
The Paid vs Organic Reporting Dilemma, with Fran Langham, Director of Demand Generation at Cognism
When reporting makes paid channels look like the clear winner and organic impact is harder to prove, how do you split your time, budget, and focus? In this episode, Fran Langham, Director of Demand Gen at Cog, joins Liam to tackle the paid vs organic dilemma, exploring why marketers over-index on what’s measurable, how to prove the value of long-term plays, and what it takes to rebalance your strategy without losing short-term wins.

Nov 4, 2025 • 44min
The chat-based search dilemma: Is Keyword Research Obsolete? With Zak Ali, Finder
Chat-based search and LLMs are blowing up the old keyword-first playbook. Zach Ali (GM, US at Finder) makes the case for “anti-SEO”: persona-led content, utility over templates, and measuring revenue and LLM visibility - not vanity traffic. We dig into query fan-out (why many focused pages beat one pillar), how first-party data and calculators earn citations, and why today’s SEO must be a full-stack marketer across paid, video, and newsletters. Plus: a quick take on making CRO wins stick beyond the initial spike.

Oct 21, 2025 • 40min
The Post-Test Drop-Off Dilemma: Why Wins Fade with Estelle Marasigan, Website and Creative Services Lead at Cognism
Liam sits down with Estelle, Cognism’s Website & Creative Services Lead, to unpack a common dilemma: why “winning” A/B tests sometimes fade after rollout. They dig into a post-launch performance framework (7/30/60/90-day checks), how to control for seasonality and site changes, the role of sales/MarOps in attribution, and turning test insights into durable pipeline impact.

Oct 7, 2025 • 49min
Beyond the ICP: Rethinking Reach in B2B Marketing with Deivis Rupslaukis
In this episode, Liam sits down with Deivis, Founder of DERU Digital, to explore a dilemma every B2B marketer faces: how narrow should your targeting really be? Deivis shares his experience of discovering a vendor before he worked at an ICP company - and how that shaped his belief that brand reach needs to extend beyond account lists. They dive into the risks of over-segmentation, why reach is often undervalued in B2B, and how to balance short-term pipeline pressure with long-term influence.

Sep 23, 2025 • 50min
When Performance Drops: A Marketer’s Playbook for Diagnosing Problems with Jonathan Bland, Co-founder of Omni Lab
Jonathan Bland, Co-Founder of Omni Lab, joins the Marketing Dilemmas podcast to tackle one of the toughest questions marketers face: “Why is performance down?” He shares how to avoid knee-jerk optimisations, build a systematic process for diagnosing issues across channels, and communicate findings in a way that earns trust, even when the answer isn’t simple.

Sep 9, 2025 • 49min
The differentiation dilemma: How do you really stand out? With Sarah Breathnach, VP of Marketing at Hunters
In this episode of Marketing Dilemmas, Liam sits down with Sarah Breathnach, VP of Marketing at Hunters and Founder of the Demand Gen London community. Together they unpack one of the toughest challenges in B2B right now: how to stand out in a crowded, copycat market without falling into the trap of gimmicks or feature wars. Sarah shares lessons from the cybersecurity industry, her “small teams, big impact” positioning, and why true differentiation comes from clarity, consistency, and customer experience - not monster trucks or marketing hype.

Aug 26, 2025 • 49min
The Comfort Trap Dilemma with Michael Maximoff
Too many marketing teams fall into the comfort trap - sticking with what’s “always worked” and avoiding change until results dip.In this episode, Michael challenges that mindset head-on. He shares why waiting for a downturn before testing new channels or formats is a risky move, how to run small experiments alongside BAU, and the mindset shift needed to keep performance growing in a fast-changing market.

Aug 12, 2025 • 49min
The zero-click search dilemma, with Tom Mansell, VP of Organic Performance at Croud
What happens when your SEO strategy stops delivering clicks? Tom Mansell, VP of Organic Performance at Croud, joins Marketing Dilemmas to unpack the radical shift in search behavior. From AI-powered search engines to plummeting click-through rates, Tom explains why traditional SEO metrics no longer tell the full story - and what forward-thinking marketers should do instead.

Jul 29, 2025 • 53min
The new market penetration dilemma with Adina Apachitei, Global Director of Best Practices Programme
Adina, Global Director of Best Practice Programs at AVEVA, joins Marketing Dilemmas to unpack one of the hardest challenges in enterprise marketing: how do you effectively penetrate new markets when you’re juggling long sales cycles, complex portfolios, and competing internal priorities? From thought leadership to funnel strategy and outbound alignment - this episode breaks down the real blockers to driving growth in new segments.


