Hey, it's Braden.

I'm about to give you my honest take on paid ads versus organic YouTube, after working with businesses doing $8M+/year and seeing who gets the best results with us.

Here’s what we will go over:

And if you want to figure out exactly how YouTube fits into your current setup, [book a call here →]

If you do not have some top-of-funnel activity, do not start posting on YouTube.

Sounds crazy coming from the YouTube guy, right?

But I turn down clients all the time because I wanna see them crack cold traffic first and then use YouTube to make it 10x better.

So crack paid ads or cold outreach, and then double down on YouTube.

Disclaimer: You can/should post to YouTube still but I don’t think you need to go overboard. Keep it simple and use this guide to come up with ideas

Most B2B businesses default to paid ads because it's the fastest path to leads.

And that instinct isn't wrong.

Launch a campaign today and you can have calls on the calendar within 48 hours.

You control exactly who sees your message.

You can scale on demand by increasing budget.

But here's what they don't tell you about paid ads.

The moment you stop paying, everything stops.

So, you're renting visibility and the rent goes up every single year as CPMs rise across every platform.

Plus, the leads you get are completely cold.

All they've seen is a 30-second ad.

This means sales cycles are longer and close rates are lower because you're starting from zero trust every single time.

That's the paid ads hamster wheel.

Run fast enough and you stay visible.

Stop running and you're invisible.

YouTube compounds in a way no other platform does.

A video you post today can generate leads 3 years from now.

And unlike most marketing methods, it makes every other channel perform better.

Reply rates go up. Ad performance improves. Close rates increase across the board.

All because trust is pre-built before anyone ever gets on a call with you.

If I had to summarize YouTube in one word, it would be leverage.

But here's what I want to be honest about.

YouTube is not a fast channel.

You're not going to post your first video and have 10 calls booked the following week.

Realistically, you're looking at 3-6 months before you see significant results, and that's assuming you're posting consistently and doing it right.

So, depending on your situation, you could slow down your business significantly if you’re relying on it as your main lead-gen source.

The businesses winning right now aren't choosing between paid ads and YouTube.

They're running a fast mechanism alongside YouTube and letting the two work together.

A fast mechanism, in my mind, would be paid ads or cold outreach.

These drive immediate results while YouTube builds in the background.

Over time, YouTube takes more of the heavy lifting, like decreasing CAC, increasing close rates, and driving in its own leads on top of everything else.

You need a fast mechanism alongside YouTube.

It can be cold email, cold DMs on LinkedIn, or paid ads.

The only scenario where you can skip the fast mechanism is if you're already getting consistent inbound from somewhere.

If LinkedIn or Instagram is already producing leads, YouTube will amplify that and add a new channel on top.

But if you're relying on referrals and wanna get out of the referral cycle, get one fast channel producing first.

Then add YouTube.

→ [Book a free strategy call here » and we'll map out how YouTube fits into your current funnel]

→ [Access a free 50+ page guide on finding YouTube ideas that convert here»]

→ [Watch me build a B2B YouTube strategy for a random business here»]

Appreciate you,
Braden