Brand vs. Performance? Stop Choosing Sides

Discover how to align your marketing, sales, and product data post-GA4 rollout.

Author

Tyler Morian
June 12, 2025

This week: untangling the post-GA4 data maze, why brand vs. performance is a false choice, and AI's impact on SaaS operations. And why your weird, authentic personal brand might be your best marketing asset. Giddyup!

Navigating the Post-GA4 Analytics Maze

Is your team struggling to extract reliable answers from your marketing data? Since GA4's rollout, many leaders feel like they're flying with a foggy instrument panel, unable to connect marketing spend to actual results.

The challenge runs deeper than learning a new tool. B2B customer journeys are complex, but our analytics often remain siloed. This leads to what Dev Basu calls a massive overestimation of data accuracy. As Alexandra Smith points out, running demand programs without clear data visibility wastes budget and misses opportunities.

BIG IDEA: The problem isn't GA4; it's the absence of a cohesive data strategy connecting marketing, sales, and product data.

WHY IT MATTERS: Inaccurate data leads to poor decisions — over-investing in low-performing channels while neglecting what actually drives revenue.

Comment insights:

  • AnalyticsNerd notes major discrepancies between GA4 UI and BigQuery exports are eroding trust.

  • Acceligize suggests focusing on revenue operations instead of vanity metrics like MQLs.

  • Audrey recommends using GA4 alongside tools like Microsoft Clarity for a complete view.

Brand vs. Performance: A False Choice

With marketing budgets flatlining according to Gartner's latest CMO Spend Survey, the brand vs. performance tug-of-war has intensified. Every dollar faces scrutiny, pushing many toward performance channels with easily tracked metrics.

Performance marketing delivers short-term, measurable results. Brand marketing builds long-term value through differentiation—a fuzzier objective to quantify. But treating this as an either/or choice is a strategic error. As Liam Moroney argues, brand investment is tough but necessary. Ultimately, strong brand work, which includes emotional connection as detailed in a new book endorsed by Rand Fishkin, makes your performance marketing cheaper and more effective.

BIG IDEA: Effective B2B marketing treats brand as the foundation that makes performance marketing possible, not as a competing budget item.

WHY IT MATTERS: Focusing solely on performance leads to rising acquisition costs and weak competitive positioning. A strong brand creates demand and lowers your cost of growth over time.

Comment insights:

  • B. Heath puts it perfectly: "Brand builds demand. Performance captures it."

  • Wynter reminds us B2B buyers are "enormously driven by emotion and gut feeling."

  • GetResponse notes the debate should be about synergy—using both for a holistic strategy.

High-Conversion B2B Websites & Content

Is your website acting as a dynamic salesperson or just a digital brochure? Too many B2B tech sites fail to convert high-intent buyers because they focus on features instead of customer problems.

The most effective B2B websites lead with clear solutions to specific pain points. After reviewing 50 SaaS sites, Dev Basu found the best ones obsessively focus on customer problems. This requires disciplined product positioning that puts the customer's world first, as Rob Krecak champions. According to Jenny Thai, blogs aren't dead—they've evolved into strategic hubs addressing customer questions throughout the buying journey.

BIG IDEA: Your website must be your best salesperson, architected around solving specific customer problems, not just listing product features.

WHY IT MATTERS: High-intent buyers seek answers, not feature charts. If your website can't quickly signal that you understand their problem, you've already lost them to a competitor who can.

Comment insights:

  • Amer Grozdanic observes many B2B sites follow internal logic rather than the customer's journey.

  • Matthew Lesiuk recommends a "Content > Blog > Landing Page" funnel to build authority before asking for conversion.

  • Stryde has seen conversion rates double or triple when landing pages "sell, not just inform."

Authentic Engagement: Personal Branding & Trust

In a B2B world drowning in generic corporate content, authentic individuals and trusted experts cut through the noise and build genuine trust.

The focus is shifting from polished corporate messaging to real human engagement. This can be as simple as hosting a "not-a-pitch" dinner as Alexandra Smith recently found powerful. It also means encouraging leaders to build personal brands, which Adam Goyette calls a critical differentiator for early-stage companies. B2B influencer marketing extends this approach. As Christopher Peters notes, it's not just about paying for posts; it's about strategic distribution and building real relationships with credible voices.

BIG IDEA: Trust is modern B2B marketing's most valuable currency, built through authentic human-to-human interactions and credible third-party voices.

WHY IT MATTERS: Your buyers trust peers and independent experts far more than your ads. Fostering genuine relationships builds credibility no ad spend can replicate.

Comment insights:

  • Daniel Priestley states investing in leaders' personal brands directly reduces acquisition costs.

  • Peep Laja compares B2B influencer marketing to traditional PR, noting its power to build brand memory.

  • The Social Media Peep breaks influencers into paid, owned, and earned categories—with earned being most valuable.

SaaS Growth Blueprint: Scaling & Leadership

Scaling a SaaS business is getting tougher. Overall SaaS growth rates are slowing, and the old playbook isn't working anymore.

Modern growth demands a multi-faceted strategy beyond simple tactics. Leaders must build competitive moats to defend market position, a topic Brian Balfour is actively exploring. It also requires looking beyond saturated markets; a Zoho executive highlights immense opportunities in developing regions. This strategic vision must pair with strong execution and a culture of resilience. Leaders who publicly defend their team foster the psychological safety needed to perform at the highest levels.

BIG IDEA: Sustainable SaaS growth now hinges on sophisticated market strategy, defensible moats, and empowering a strong culture through decisive leadership.

WHY IT MATTERS: The "growth at all costs" era is over. To scale profitably, think like a portfolio manager: diversify into new markets, defend your assets, and nurture the team driving it all.

Comment insights:

  • Ankit Shah simplifies the SaaS growth equation: "ARR = A (Acquisition) R (Retention) R (Revenue Expansion)."

  • Bob Little points to the difficulty of maintaining growth momentum post-IPO.

  • Ankit Jain highlights product-led growth (PLG) as a key lever, noting the best products often win.

AI's Impact: Reshaping B2B & SaaS Operations

CMO confidence in AI is soaring, with a recent BCG report showing unprecedented investment readiness. But true ROI isn't coming from one-off content generation.

Winning with AI means moving beyond tactical experiments to embedding it into your company's DNA. This includes optimizing for AI-driven search, as Lashay Lewis advises, and integrating AI directly into products. For SaaS businesses, Ramp's vendor data shows a clear rise in AI tool adoption. However, as Jason Lemkin suggests, customers don't want "AI" for its own sake—they want problems solved more effectively.

BIG IDEA: AI's B2B future isn't about features on websites—it's about rethinking workflows and product value to create undeniable competitive advantages.

WHY IT MATTERS: Your competitors are already using AI to become more efficient and strategic. Focusing only on tactical applications means you're not just falling behind; you're risking obsolescence.

Comment insights:

  • AIPreneur argues AI's real power lies in building proprietary systems, not just using off-the-shelf tools.

  • Stratagest highlights using AI to document processes, turning team expertise into scalable assets.

  • Kishan S D L C warns that without clear strategy, companies will just be "dancing to the tune of AI hype."

Until next week!