Marketing Qualified

Mike Griffin & Chris Newton
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Marketing
  • Updated Weekly

Welcome to the Marketing Qualified Podcast, your home for discussion on all marketing things that are utterly f*****g absurd. Co-hosts Chris Newton and Mike Griffin have 20+ years of marketing experience between them. Said differently: They've seen some shit.Tune in every week(ish) for a new, less than 40 minute long episode, with discussions ranging from failed marketing tactics to marketing facts to campaign ideas to profanity laden rants about whatever may be top of mind. You may even learn something new.Visit us at www.marketingqualified.io or follow us on your favorite social network of choice, as long as that social network is Instagram, because we don't have anything else (and neither should you).

  1. 5d ago

    The ROI Odyssey

    Send us Fan Mail ROI used to feel like a straight line: run campaigns, collect leads, prove impact. Now it feels like a maze of multi-touch attribution, platform changes, and “helpful” AI tools that can ship work fast while quietly getting key details wrong. We dig into why that’s so risky, especially when the data you collect becomes the data you use to make budget decisions six, twelve, or twenty-four months later. We also take on the build vs buy debate for SaaS in the AI era. You’ve probably seen the hot takes claiming every company can just AI-code their own HubSpot or Salesforce replacement. We break down where building can make sense, where buying is the only sane move, and why critical systems like marketing attribution, CRM, and analytics dashboards punish you when you cut corners on expertise, maintenance, security, and adoption. To close, we run a tier list of marketing strategies based on real-world effectiveness: why killing top-of-funnel is a dead end, why SEO and organic content compound into an S-tier channel, where paid social fits depending on your ICP, and why email marketing still delivers some of the most measurable ROI in the channel mix. If you got value from this, subscribe, share it with a marketer who’s drowning in “AI slop,” and leave a quick review with the one channel you’d bet your pipeline on. Visit us at https://www.marketingqualified.io Follow us on Instagram Email us at pod@marketingqualified.io

  2. Sep 15

    Stop Calling People AI Native

    Send us Fan Mail “AI native” used to mean something specific: a product or company designed around AI from day one. Now we’re seeing it slapped onto job descriptions like a personality trait, and it’s making hiring worse, not better. We get into why the phrase falls apart when it’s aimed at humans, and why it often signals a company trying to sound modern instead of building real, reliable workflows. From there, we trade war stories from the job hunt: automated follow-ups that funnel candidates into AI recruiter phone screens, “fairness” claims that don’t hold up, and the simple reality that an interview is supposed to be a two-way conversation. When a company forces an AI screening step, it extracts time and attention from candidates while giving almost nothing back. That’s not innovation, it’s disrespect dressed up as efficiency. We also react to a wild demand gen tactic: a “free” marketing dinner that turns into a cancellation fee, a replacement guest requirement, or a make-up virtual sales pitch. It raises a bigger question about event marketing ROI and when dinners actually accelerate pipeline versus just burn budget and goodwill. Finally, we unload on Google AI Max and the pressure to give the algorithm the keys to your search campaigns, even when tests show wasted clicks and zero conversions, especially for B2B PPC. If you’ve been pitched AI as a shortcut for trust, hiring, or performance, you’ll have opinions after this one. Subscribe, share with a marketer who’s feeling the same pain, and leave a review with your take: where do you draw the line on AI automation? Visit us at https://www.marketingqualified.io Follow us on Instagram Email us at pod@marketingqualified.io

  3. Sep 8

    Are AI Tools Becoming The Next Walled Gardens

    Send us Fan Mail ChatGPT ads are rolling out, and we finally got hands-on access. The surprising part isn’t the hype, it’s how stripped-down the product feels compared to Google Ads and Meta Ads. We talk through why that “bare bones” interface might be a feature, not a bug, and how it forces you back to fundamentals like intent, positioning, keywords, and what you actually want a customer to do next. Then we get into the part marketers should care about most: who will even see ChatGPT ads. If ads mostly show on the free tier, B2B advertisers may be paying to reach the wrong audience while real buyers sit on paid plans through their companies. We debate where this channel might shine for D2C and B2C, why the “CPM is insane” conversation misses the point, and how the single-ad-per-response setup changes auction dynamics when you’re not competing with three other placements on the same screen. We also zoom out to the economics behind today’s AI tools: credits, tiered plans, and the moment when “productivity hack” turns into “why am I out of credits again?” From GenSpark decks to the creeping risk of ads inside paid plans, we connect pricing pressure to the incentives every AI platform has. Finally, we dig into the real switching cost no one budgets for: memory and context. When an assistant “knows you,” portability becomes power and platforms may fight to keep it. If you enjoy tactical marketing debates with a healthy dose of skepticism, subscribe, share this with a friend who runs ads, and leave us a quick review so more people can find the show. Visit us at https://www.marketingqualified.io Follow us on Instagram Email us at pod@marketingqualified.io

  4. Sep 1

    One-Star Reviews And Real Feelings

    Send us Fan Mail A one-star review is never just a one-star review. We kick off by reading some truly chaotic SaaS reviews from G2, Capterra, and beyond, then we do what marketers can’t resist: we diagnose the real problem. Was it the product, the onboarding, the expectations, or an unlucky run-in with a specific rep? From a CRM meltdown to GA4 reporting frustration to the legendary “Jessica from support did nothing wrong, but Kyle…” moment, we break down what angry customer feedback actually signals and how it can mislead teams that treat review sites like pure truth. Then we zoom out to the bigger thing sitting underneath all that frustration: marketing work right now. We react to a LinkedIn post that nails what many teams are feeling, marketing is being treated as disposable, with ROI pressure rising as headcount drops. We talk through why brand, SEO, and long-cycle demand gen keep getting judged on unrealistic timelines, why on-site mandates and relocation asks are pushing great marketers away, and why 90-day probation periods at startups feel like a rigged game. Finally, we get into AI in marketing and the sudden rise of titles like “marketing engineer” and “gen marketer.” We debate whether this is a real shift in how marketing teams operate or just marketing ops with a new label, and why AI agents and automations are a recipe for disaster if your workflows are already a mess. If you’ve ever felt disrupted and angry at a tool, a process, or the state of the job market, you’ll feel seen here. Subscribe, share with a marketer friend, and leave a review with what triggered you most. Visit us at https://www.marketingqualified.io Follow us on Instagram Email us at pod@marketingqualified.io

  5. Jul 14

    The B2B SaaS Homepage Mad Lib From Hell

    Send us Fan Mail $84 billion is a number so big it stops feeling real until you tie it to a decision: Meta’s metaverse bet, the full-company pivot, and the brutal reality that a product can still flop even with unlimited resources. We dig into why building something nobody asked for is the fastest way to burn money, trust, and time and why the fallout rarely lands where it should.  We also get into the part that makes marketers grit their teeth: accountability. When leadership makes a massive swing and misses, who actually pays the price? We talk incentives, ego, and the weird immunity that seems to follow public-company CEOs, plus a spicy thought experiment about whether AI could make better executive decisions if you feed it the right inputs and constraints.  Then we let the chaos loose and brainstorm other ways to “light $84B on fire,” from breaking the Google Ads auction to sending a personalized GIF cold email to every human on Earth, with side quests through GA4 frustration and marketing spend absurdity. The finale is an “ultimate B2B SaaS homepage Mad Lib” that skewers the same tired patterns we all see: vague outcomes, fake urgency, buzzword soup, and the dreaded question, “How’s the pipeline?”  If you care about B2B SaaS marketing, product market fit, conversion rate optimization, demand generation, and writing homepage copy that actually earns attention, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a marketer who needs the laugh, and leave a review with the worst buzzword you’ve seen this week. Visit us at https://www.marketingqualified.io Follow us on Instagram Email us at pod@marketingqualified.io

  6. Jul 7

    When Marketing Becomes Disposable Who Pays The Price

    Send us Fan Mail A lot of marketing advice sounds “scientific” right up until you try to run it with real-world constraints like low traffic, messy attribution, and bosses who want certainty on demand. We get back on Zoom and do what we do best: argue our way toward the truth, starting with why most A/B tests are too small to be statistically meaningful and why teams still declare winners anyway. If you’ve ever changed a CTA color, stared at a conversion rate graph, and felt deep doubt, you’ll feel seen.  Then we take on influencer marketing fraud, from bot followers to inflated click claims to sponsorships that look great in a deck and disappear in HubSpot. We talk about how to validate performance with UTMs, how vanity metrics distort spend decisions, and why “reach” is a risky north star in B2B SaaS marketing. After that, we dig into marketing dashboards and the unspoken reality that many reports exist to defend work, not to drive action, especially under intense ROI pressure and pipeline scrutiny.  We also debate freemium vs free trial, including bottom-up adoption, support load, and what a real upgrade path requires. To close, we play “Benchmark or B******t” with SaaS benchmarks like churn, CAC payback period, cold email reply rates, and SEO content timelines, then end with a hard-hitting LinkedIn quote about layoffs and why great marketers are quietly leaving the field. Subscribe for more, share this with a marketer who’s tired of fake certainty, and leave a review with the metric you trust the least. Visit us at https://www.marketingqualified.io Follow us on Instagram Email us at pod@marketingqualified.io

  7. Jun 30

    What If There’s No Such Thing As Free Marketing

    Send us Fan Mail Your homepage might be the page everyone argues about, but it’s rarely the page that closes the deal. We kick things off with a round of Marketing Mythbusters, using a mix of real-world experience and hard-earned opinions to separate “common marketing wisdom” from what actually drives conversions in B2B and SaaS. We get specific about the pages buyers care about most, why pricing and integrations can matter more than a glossy homepage, and why sending paid traffic to a generic home page is usually a waste. From there we hit the fantasy that marketing success happens overnight, including the classic leadership request to “just go viral,” and why that mindset leads to short-term thinking instead of sustainable demand generation. Then we dig into practical conversion rate optimization: shorter forms tend to win, progressive profiling and enrichment can replace redundant questions, and paid ads never guarantee sales without a strong post-click experience. We also talk channel strategy the simple way: you don’t need to be on every social platform, you need to be where your buyer persona is, and customer interviews are still one of the fastest ways to find the truth. We close with a real conversation about the current job market and the trade-offs between staying on the job hunt versus starting your own business, including a frustrating look at reference checks and roles that disappear mid-process. If this helped you rethink your go-to-market, subscribe, share the show with a marketer who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find us. What’s one marketing myth you want us to bust next? Visit us at https://www.marketingqualified.io Follow us on Instagram Email us at pod@marketingqualified.io

  8. Jun 9

    Marketing Isn’t Smarter Until It Stops Shouting

    Send us Fan Mail Your feed is full, your attention is not and that gap is where modern marketing gets messy. We get into the idea of “LinkedIn slop”: the wave of low-value, AI-generated, samey posts that turn professional social media into an echo chamber. We talk about why it’s happening, how content saturation rewards volume over originality, and why scrolling can leave you feeling worse even when you’re “learning.” We also pull back the curtain on ghostwriting and AI thought leadership. If a CEO’s post is crafted by someone else (or trained into an LLM), is it still authentic? We debate whether the value is in the ideas themselves or in the authority of the name attached to them, and why intent matters when the real goal is still marketing, demand generation, and sales. Then we shift to the job market and what it’s like to look for work right now. We unpack the Open to Work banner, recruiter perceptions, negotiation leverage, and why layoffs in tech need to be destigmatized. From there, we connect it to the rise of fractional work and 1099 consulting, where companies dodge benefits and employees spread risk across multiple clients. If you care about B2B marketing strategy, marketing automation, data-driven marketing, and building signal in a world that keeps turning up the volume, you’ll take a lot from this one. Subscribe, share it with a friend who’s doom-scrolling, and leave a review with your take: is marketing getting smarter or just louder? Visit us at https://www.marketingqualified.io Follow us on Instagram Email us at pod@marketingqualified.io

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About

Welcome to the Marketing Qualified Podcast, your home for discussion on all marketing things that are utterly f*****g absurd. Co-hosts Chris Newton and Mike Griffin have 20+ years of marketing experience between them. Said differently: They've seen some shit.Tune in every week(ish) for a new, less than 40 minute long episode, with discussions ranging from failed marketing tactics to marketing facts to campaign ideas to profanity laden rants about whatever may be top of mind. You may even learn something new.Visit us at www.marketingqualified.io or follow us on your favorite social network of choice, as long as that social network is Instagram, because we don't have anything else (and neither should you).

Information

  • Creator
    Mike Griffin & Chris Newton
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    29
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Marketing Qualified
  • Show Website
    Marketing Qualified