The Dave Gerhardt Show (from Exit Five)

#390 | Dasha sits down with Connor Lewis, founder of Studio Lewis, who's produced 800+ B2B video ads for ClickUp, Zapier, and Ahrefs. Connor gives away the formula he tells everyone to copy. Plus, the system he uses to turn customer research into a dozen testable scripts. He breaks down three real ads on the record (why Monday.com's Viking ad works, and where the classic motion-graphics launch video actually belongs). He also explains how he got 56 ads out of a single shoot day using hook alternates and the three proof points that get video budget approved, and why he won't put AI-generated video on the feed.

Timestamps

(00:00) - Intro

(07:51) - Good Ad, Bad Ad: Three Examples Broken Down

(18:03) - Why an Ad Doesn't Land

(23:08) - Script Blocks: Turning Customer Language Into Scripts

(29:54) - The Formula to Copy If You're Starting Out

(32:33) - Human Ads vs Motion Graphics

(34:49) - Structuring a 12 Hour Shoot Day

(38:01) - How Six Creatives Became 56 Ads

(40:37) - Where AI Belongs in Video Production

(45:00) - Getting Video Budget Approved and What It Costs

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Learn 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.

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#389 | Dasha sits down with Kristina Frunze, founder of WebView SEO, who's spent 10 years in SEO and the last 3 running experiments on AI visibility for B2B SaaS. Kristina gives away the framework she uses with every client – SEO is the foundation, AI search is the roof. Plus, the 60/20/20 content split that puts the bottom of funnel pages first. Kristina also talks through the 3-layer attribution model she uses to show leadership what the work is doing when organic clicks are down. She walks through a full client case study on the record (a construction tech company that tripled AI overview citations in six months and lifted bottom of funnel visibility 46%). She also explains the 5-step checklist that makes content worth citing, and why she scores every competitor against real criteria before publishing a comparison page. Also: the Reddit strategy that got her clients' comments wiped out and what replaced it, and why she now believes AI search depends more on off page than on page.

Timestamps
(00:00) - Intro

(03:05) - Decoding SEO, AEO, and GEO

(06:41) - Reframing a Traffic Drop Around Leads

(08:06) - The 60/20/20 Content Split

(14:20) - Three Layers of Visibility Attribution

(21:07) - Tracking AI Traffic Inside GA4

(26:46) - The Checklist for Content LLMs Will Cite

(31:08) - Case Study: Tripling AI Citations in Six Months

(44:26) - The Reddit Strategy That Got Wiped Out

(47:08) - Why Off Page Now Beats On Page

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Learn 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

#388 | Dave sits down with Melissa Rosenthal, co-founder of Outlever and former CCO at ClickUp, CRO at Cheddar, and VP of Creative at BuzzFeed, to talk about why most B2B content strategies fail because they're measured like ad campaigns instead of built like an actual media outlet. Melissa breaks down how she trains writers to think like journalists instead of bloggers, why third-party trade publications tend to outperform company blogs, and what it actually takes to run a media operation instead of just posting content. They also get into her wild LinkedIn distribution playbook - five posts a day, no rules followed - and whether AI can ever replace real editorial judgment.
Timestamps

(00:00) - - Today's guest: Melissa Rosenthal, co-founder of Outlever

(01:58) - - From Buzzfeed to Cheddar to ClickUp

(06:33) - - Why most B2B content strategies get abandoned too soon

(09:20) - - The B2B companies actually winning at content right now

(10:32) - - What building a real media company looks like from the inside

(12:22) - - Training writers to think like journalists, not bloggers

(16:48) - - Should your content live on your own site or somewhere else

(21:57) - - Why separating the newsroom from marketing makes content credible

(24:55) - - Her LinkedIn playbook: five posts a day and breaking every rule

(26:23) - - Why the biggest wins never show up in the analytics

(28:36) - - The obvious question nobody in B2B wants to answer

(32:18) - - Can AI ever replace real editorial judgment

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Learn 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

#387 | Six B2B marketers share tactical plays for using AI to make content that doesn't sound like AI. This Exit Five Live session breaks down a set of specialized agents that lifted blog traffic 700% in six months, a 23-step agent that researches and writes AEO content straight into WordPress, and the winning play: turning original survey data into an ownable narrative. Also on the agenda: a structured review process that replaces vibes-only QA, a Claude skill trained on stakeholder feedback so drafts land pre-aligned, and five rules for using AI to learn faster without outsourcing your thinking. One thing the full group agreed on: the human stays in the loop.

Timestamps
(00:00) - - Intro and the Exit Five Live Format

(03:47) - - Meet the Lineup

(07:38) - - Build a Digital Team of Specialized AI Agents

(14:33) - - Before the Prompt and After the Prompt

(21:42) - - A 23-Step Agent That Writes AEO Content for LLMs

(30:11) - - Turn Original Research Into a Content Differentiator

(33:20) - - Treat Your Edits as Training Data

(35:55) - - Faster to Content and Faster to Internal Buy-In

(43:19) - - Rules for Learning With AI

(49:16) - - The Winning Play

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Learn 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

#386 | When your ad budget is zero but your creative ambition isn't, three simple techniques can still make you scroll-stopping. Dasha Shakov sits down with Shlomo Genchin, founder of unbore.com, the "unofficial school for B2B ads," to break down what actually makes a B2B ad good. Shlomo walks through his two-part research process for beating the blank page, then unpacks three frameworks - A World Without, Visual Analogy, and Personification - behind some of his highest-performing client campaigns. They also get into hiring actors on a budget, winning over a nervous CEO, and why Shlomo believes advertising should follow culture instead of trying to lead it. Plus his honest take on where AI actually helps and where it still falls flat.
Tools & swipe files
reddit.com/answers
adfolio.design
blackcamel.agency/b2b-video-ads-library
Ads referenced (but not shown)
Fibbler’s AI ad

Timestamps

(00:00) - - Welcome: Shlomo Genchin

(01:51) - - How ad school and B2B's "Wild West" pulled Shlomo out of the agency world

(07:05) - - Beating the blank page: practical research vs. personal research

(13:15) - - The biggest myths about creativity, and how to "steal like an artist"

(16:29) - - The three pillars of a great B2B ad, and technique #1: World Without

(21:35) - - Technique #2: Visual analogy, and why a winning ad can run for years

(29:45) - - Technique #3: Personification, and how to hire actors on a budget

(38:05) - - Getting a nervous leadership team to say yes to a fun idea

(42:04) - - AI philosophy: why advertising should follow culture, not lead it

(46:11) - - The highest-leverage move for a team with zero ad budget

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Learn 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