Why Your SEO Budget Is Bleeding You Dry (Build for Audiences, Not for Clicks)

We help B2B brands launch shows that turn their point of view into pipeline. If you're launching a podcast (or have one already) and are not sure how it can hit your bottom line, book a meeting with Jason: https://meetings-eu1.hubspot.com/jason-bradwell/youtube-meeting-link

Most B2B marketing budgets are chasing 5% of buyers whilst the other 95% quietly form opinions about who they'll call when they're ready to buy.

This is a reaction episode unpacking a critical shift happening right now in B2B marketing: the rising cost of rented attention and why owned media is no longer a "nice to have" but a structural necessity. With the cost of paid search rising sharply and algorithm updates continuing to reshape organic visibility, the businesses that will win are those building audiences they actually own.

The episode draws on a landmark study from the LinkedIn B2B Institute showing that at any given moment, 95% of your target customers are out of market. They are not looking for your solution today, but they could be tomorrow. Yet the vast majority of marketing and sales spend, from you and your competitors alike, is directed at the 5% actively in-market. Owned media, whether that is a podcast, newsletter, or community, is the only scalable strategy to remain present and build trust with the 95% between now and when they are ready to buy.

The episode stems from an Ahrefs study showing the cost of paid search has risen 58%, prompting the central question: if Google disappeared tomorrow, would you still have an audience?

Timestamps

00:00 Intro

01:15 Owned vs rented media: the structural difference

03:40 Why podcast subscribers are different from search traffic

05:10 The LinkedIn B2B Institute 95% study explained

07:30 Where marketing and sales budgets are actually going

09:45 The Ahrefs data: paid search costs up 58%

11:20 The honest question every B2B marketer needs to answer

Key Takeaways

◼️ Why renting attention from platforms is structurally riskier than building an owned audience that persists through algorithm changes

◼️ How the 95/5 rule should reshape where you direct your marketing budget and content strategy

◼️ Why a podcast subscriber represents a fundamentally different relationship to a search visitor: they are seeking a perspective, not just an answer

◼️ How owned media compounds over time as an asset, whilst paid channels reset the moment spend stops

◼️ Why the rising cost of paid search makes the case for owned audience building more urgent than ever

Relevant Links and Resources

LinkedIn B2B Institute 95% study: https://www.linkedin.com/business/marketing/b2b-institute

Ahrefs paid search cost data: https://ahrefs.com/blog/ai-overviews-reduce-clicks-update/

Connect with Jason Bradwell on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonbradwell/

What's Next

If this episode sparked a question about whether your current marketing mix is building something durable or just renting visibility, let us know in the comments and we will keep making more reaction episodes like this one.

Useful Links

Connect with Jason Bradwell on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonbradwell/

Learn more about B2B Better: https://www.b2b-better.com