Why Paid Search Keeps Failing B2B (impression-share traps, demand capture vs. creation, when to pull the plug)

<p>In this episode, Carolyn sits down with Liam MacCormack, a fractional head of growth who&#39;s spent years in the weeds of B2B paid search, to unpack why the channel keeps burning B2B budgets and what to do about it.</p><p>They get into the market forces making paid search harder than ever: rising CPCs, zero-click search, and agencies still optimizing like it&#39;s 2015. Then they go tactical on a real client scenario — a high-ACV company that&#39;s switched agencies multiple times and still can&#39;t make it work — and what that reveals about when a channel is worth fixing versus when it&#39;s just draining spend.</p><p>Topics covered:</p><ul><li>Why &quot;you need to spend more on impression share&quot; is the most seductive upsell in paid search, and the one metric that actually tells you if it&#39;s true</li><li>The profile of a company paid search works for, and the profile where it&#39;s a waste of money</li><li>Why paid search is a demand-capture channel, and what that means for how you budget it</li><li>How to know when to cut the channel, cut the budget in half, or let it run as a tertiary source</li><li>Why branded search is propping up most agency reporting, and the one question to ask to find out</li></ul><p><br></p><p>If your paid search has been underperforming for quarters and the answer is always &quot;give it more time,&quot; this one&#39;s worth your attention.</p><p>-----------------------------------------------------</p><p>🔗 LINKS + RESOURCES</p><p><strong>📹 How to Survive B2B Marketing in 2026: </strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlEqVWVuwdo" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer"><strong>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlEqVWVuwdo</strong></a></p><p><strong>📹 How to Build a Killer GTM Strategy for B2B SaaS: </strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFK9LvMslOc" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer"><strong>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFK9LvMslOc</strong></a></p><p><strong>📹 Ultimate Guide to Marketing Measurement in 2026: </strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9yfdYi0X4I" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer"><strong>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9yfdYi0X4I</strong></a></p><p>-----------------------------------------------------</p><p>Marketing has evolved. Measurement hasn&#39;t. You&#39;re still running on a 20-year-old methodology that can&#39;t see most of the value you create.</p><p>Passetto’s 14-day Sprint fixes that — showing you where you&#39;re creating real value, where you&#39;re wasting effort, and which levers will actually drive your next stage of growth.</p><p>Your best work shouldn&#39;t die in data darkness.</p><p>Get your full pipeline &amp; revenue breakdown in 2 weeks: <a href="https://www.passetto.com/book-a-call" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">https://www.passetto.com/book-a-call</a></p><p>-----------------------------------------------------</p>