Is LinkedIn an underrated or overrated marketing channel?

Summary

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MarTech Podcast™: Is LinkedIn an Underrated or Overrated Marketing Channel?

Date: March 19, 2026
Host: Benjamin Shapiro
Guest: Chris Golick (Former Founder of Demandbase; CEO & Founder, Channel 99)

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Episode Overview

This episode of the MarTech Podcast explores whether LinkedIn is an underrated or overrated marketing channel, especially for B2B marketers. Benjamin Shapiro and Chris Golick delve into the ways marketers (particularly in B2B) leverage LinkedIn, the value of organic versus paid content on the platform, and the often-misunderstood impact LinkedIn has on pipeline generation and attribution.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Is LinkedIn Underrated or Overrated?

[03:10] Chris Golick:

• LinkedIn is generally underrated, but effectiveness depends on your target audience.
• It may not be relevant for all industries; marketers should assess whether their customers are active on LinkedIn.
• Quote: "It's underrated. But I would also caveat that it also depends on who is your customer because there might be certain industries that aren't active on LinkedIn and it may not make sense, but let the numbers speak for themselves."
  (Chris Golick, 03:10)

Attribution Gaps Hide LinkedIn's True Impact

[03:36] Chris Golick:

• Many marketers do not realize the true impact LinkedIn has because much of its engagement and traffic end up in the “direct” traffic bucket in analytics tools, making it hard to trace.
• Organic social (especially LinkedIn) often drives or influences more pipeline than marketers realize.
• Quote: "A lot of people don't consider all the engagement that's being driven from LinkedIn because it's all sitting in the direct bucket... They don't realize that their number one channel for driving or influencing pipeline is organic social, and they just don't know it."
  (Chris Golick, 03:36)

Organic Content vs. Paid Content (Sponsored Posts, Ads)

[03:57] Benjamin Shapiro & 04:23 Chris Golick:

• Organic posts on LinkedIn can gain significant reach, but the platform also offers robust promotional tools: thought leadership, sponsored posts, and ads.
• Success on LinkedIn comes from a combination of both organic and paid efforts.
• Executives (like CMOs) tend to focus less on vanity metrics (likes, comments) and more on how LinkedIn content influences pipeline at the account level.
• While you can't always tie LinkedIn activity directly to a named lead, its impact is clear at the account level, which is often more meaningful in B2B settings.
• Quote: "When you can show that, gosh, it really had a huge impact on Pipeline last quarter, you can't tie it to the member level, but you can tie it at the account level."
  (Chris Golick, 04:23)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "Let the numbers speak for themselves."
  (Chris Golick, 03:10)

• "They don't realize that their number one channel for driving or influencing pipeline is organic social, and they just don't know it."
  (Chris Golick, 03:36)

• "You can't tie it to the member level, but you can tie it at the account level."
  (Chris Golick, 04:23)

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Important Timestamps

• [03:10] — Chris Golick stakes the claim that LinkedIn is mostly underrated and explains when that may not apply.
• [03:36] — Discussion of misattribution and how LinkedIn's impact often appears as "direct" traffic in analytics, masking its true pipeline influence.
• [03:57] — Exploration of organic versus paid content; value of organic reach and how promotional tools can supplement it.
• [04:23] — Account-based measurement of LinkedIn's value over simple post engagement; focus on pipeline impact.

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Summary & Takeaways

• LinkedIn is often underrated as a marketing channel for B2B, primarily due to misattribution and a lack of clear analytics.
• Marketers should pay more attention to the hidden influence of organic and paid social, measuring success at the account level rather than focusing on vanity social metrics.
• The effectiveness of LinkedIn always depends on whether your target audience is active on the platform—it's not one-size-fits-all.

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Speaker Attribution

• Benjamin Shapiro: Host, guiding the discussion and probing for channel-specific insights.
• Chris Golick: Guest expert, providing hands-on experience and strategic perspective on LinkedIn’s underappreciated role in the B2B marketing mix.

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This episode is ideal for B2B marketers looking to reevaluate the role of LinkedIn in their channel mix, as well as marketing leaders seeking deeper analytics and attribution strategies for social engagement.

Transcript

[Podcast Announcer]

The Martech Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast, I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice? Then visit iheareverything.com.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

From advertising to software as a service to data across all of our programs and clients, we've seen a 55 to 65% open rate. Getting brands authentically integrated into content performs better than TV advertising. Typical lifespan of an article is about 24 to 36 hours. We're reaching out to the right person with the right message and a clear call to action. Then it's just a matter of timing.

[Podcast Announcer]

Welcome to the Martech Podcast, a member of the I Hear Everything Podcast Network. In this podcast you'll hear the stories of world class marketers that you technology to drive business results and achieve career success. Here's the host of the Martech Podcast, Benjamin Shapiro

[Benjamin Shapiro]

I'm Benjamin Shapiro and joining me today is Chris Golick, the former founder of Demand Base and the current founder and CEO of Channel 99, a company that is solving marketing attribution challenges by revealing the source of three times the website visitors compared to your industry standards. So and today Chris is going to explain how to illuminate the dark funnel problem that is costing you millions in misattributed revenue. Time for a short break to hear from our sponsor, Scrunch. When was the last time you actually visited a website to research something? For me, AI does all that work now. So if AI is doing the discovery research and deciding who or what is your brand's website really for the rise of AI bots becoming as important as new visitors is a massive change in user behavior. And that's what Scrunch is taking head on. Scrunch is the AI customer experience platform that helps marketing teams understand how AI agents experience their site. They tell you how your brand shows up in LLM results, where it doesn't, and what's preventing your content from being retrieved, trusted or recommended. It's not just visibility. Scrunch shows you the content gaps, citation gaps, and how to fix the technical blockers that matter so your brand is found and chosen in AI answers. Face it, your most important site visitor isn't human anymore. It's the AI deciding what gets surfaced. And for Martech podcast listeners, Scrunch is providing a free website diagnostic that uncovers how AI sees your site, where you have content gaps and where you're showing up versus your competition. To see how LLMs evaluate your site, go to scrunch.com martech that's scrunch. S C R U N C H.com Martech Underrated or overrated? Is LinkedIn an underrated or overrated marketing channel?

[Chris Golick]

It's underrated. But I would also caveat that it also depends on who is your customer because there might be certain industries that aren't active on LinkedIn and it may not make sense, but let the numbers speak for themselves.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

All right, so let's, let's pivot it down or Click in and B2B marketing LinkedIn. You're saying underrated? Why?

[Chris Golick]

Because a lot of people don't consider all the engagement that's being driven from LinkedIn because it's all sitting in the direct bucket. Back to the very first question. And they don't realize that their number one channel for driving or influencing Pipeline is organic social, and they just don't know it.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

I'm glad you said organic social, because when you post on LinkedIn, you tend to get some organic reach. There's also the tools where you can do thought leadership, ads and sponsored posts and all sorts of other fun tools to get your content there. Is LinkedIn primarily an organic growth channel or do you think that's what makes it effective? Or can you use the promotional tools to help get your content out there just as effectively?

[Chris Golick]

Well, I think, yeah, I think it's a combination of both. Right. One of the things that we kind of discovered was, you know, a lot of CMOs and executives will do thought leadership content and they care a lot more about pipeline influence than they do about comments and thumbs ups and likes. That's usually what they're getting. And when you can show that, gosh, it really had a huge impact on Pipeline last quarter, you can't tie it to the member level, but you can tie it at the account level.

[Benjamin Shapiro]

And a special thanks to Scrunch for sponsoring this interview. Scrunch is the AI customer experience platform that helps marketing teams understand how AI agents experience their site. They tell you how your brand shows up in LLM results, where it doesn't, and what's preventing your content from being retrieved, trusted or recommended. And for Martech podcast listeners, Scrunch is providing a free website diagnostic that uncovers how AI sees your site, where you have content gaps, and how you're showing up versus your competition. To see how LLMs evaluate your site, go to scrunch.com that's scrunch s C R U N C H. All right, that wraps up this episode of the Martech Podcast. Thanks to Chris Golick, the CEO and founder of Channel 99, for joining us. If you'd like to contact Chris, you can find a link to his LinkedIn profile in our show notes or on martechpod.com or you can visit his company's website at channel99.com and if you haven't subscribed yet and you want a daily stream of marketing and technology knowledge in your podcast feed, hit the subscribe button in your podcast app and we'll be back in your feed next week. Alright, that's it for today, but until next time, my advice is to just focus on keeping your customers happy.

[Podcast Announcer]

Thanks for listening to the Martech podcast and I hear everything. Production Looking to launch or scale a podcast like this one for your brand? Then visit iheareverything. Com.