How the Most Successful B2B Marketing Teams are Winning with Omar Akhtar, Founder of Benchmarker - Ep 72

How the Most Successful B2B Marketing Teams are Winning with Omar Akhtar, Founder of Benchmarker - Ep 72

From The Transaction by Craig Rosenberg & Matt Amundson | B2B Sales & Marketing Experts - Hosts of The Transaction

January 20, 2026 · 56 min · Season 2 · Episode 72

About this episode

Omar Akhtar discusses the importance of brand spending in B2B marketing and the shift towards paid channels for growth.

Surprise: Doing ‘more with less’, doesn’t actually work in B2B marketing, and today’s guest has the data to show it. Omar Akhtar is the Founder and Principal Analyst of Benchmarker and the Director of Content at UserTesting. Omar joins co-hosts Matt Amundson & Craig Rosenberg to dive into the B2B marketing data from Benchmarker’s latest survey, why the most successful companies are spending more on brand than demand, and how events have emerged as one of the top growth channels in go-to-market. Plus, Omar digs into when to prioritize paid versus organic channels in your marketing mix. Also, Craig outlines the plans for his kid’s booze-fueled birthday party, Matt laughs at an inopportune moment, and Producer Sam says ‘raccoon’. Critical Takeaways Doing more with less is dead. You can’t cut your way to growth. Marketing leaders need to choose between efficient growth or exponential growth and spend accordingly. The companies that are actually hitting or exceeding their targets are spending at least the same, if not more, on brand as they are on demand. The companies that are performing the worst are overspending on demand over brand marketing. When new account growth is the…

People in this episode

Hosts: Craig Rosenberg, Matt Amundson

Guest: Omar Akhtar

Topics covered

  • B2B marketing
  • brand vs demand
  • growth channels
  • paid vs organic marketing
  • marketing strategy

Keywords

  • B2B marketing
  • brand marketing
  • demand marketing
  • growth strategy
  • paid channels
  • organic channels
  • marketing data

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Benchmarker, UserTesting

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