Scrappy ABM hands the mic to another show and lets the numbers speak. Mason Cosby opens this episode of Scrappy ABM by sharing a re-release from Is Anything Real in Paid Advertising?, “the show where we unpack what’s real and what’s just noise” in a chaotic world of marketing and media. Host Adam W. Barney sits down with Mason, who “lives the phrase market like you mean it” and runs a content first growth engine built on daily LinkedIn posts, weekly podcasts, cold ads, and speaking gigs at manufacturing conferences.

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Together they break down how a two-year-old business scaled through podcasts, 2,000+ target accounts with a five year conversion runway, and a four-show guest system that turns one great conversation into long-term relationships. They walk through thought leadership ads on LinkedIn focused on awareness, website de-anonymization and direct outreach, barter deals for PR and speaking, and a very real look at seasonality, CPL, CAC, and knowing your numbers when you’re an agency founder staring at your pipeline and wondering if this is even worth building anymore.

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📌 What We Cover

• How Mason scaled a two-year-old, content first growth engine by hiring a team that’s “better at doing the work,” creating time and margin for training, education, team leadership, and running the business.
• Why podcasting is outperforming expectations, including a 70–80% podcast booking rate and how roughly 40% of guests turn into opportunities or referrals within 90 days.
• The 2,000+ account target list with a five year conversion runway, and how a four-show guest “swap” system keeps ideal buyers creating content with Scrappy ABM 4–6 times over a year to year and a half.
• How Mason thinks about LinkedIn thought leadership ads as pure awareness for 2025, focusing on followers, newsletter subscribers, and engaged fans instead of forcing “book a meeting” conversions.
• Why the team didn’t rush into retargeting, how website de-anonymization plus direct outreach became a lower cost starting point, and why upcoming case studies, ROI calculators, and marketing-specific landing pages will change the retargeting play.
• The disconnect Mason sees between content creators and ad buyers: running similar ads to all audiences, letting algorithms decide, and missing programs mapped to where the buyer is in their journey and their past engagement.
• How barter arrangements came together, including implementing HubSpot and training a sales team in exchange for PR and introductions to conferences and events that expanded speaking opportunities beyond the LinkedIn bubble.
• A practical playbook for building a speaking portfolio: podcast circuits as “reps,” becoming the backup speaker for local events, traveling cheap, and “build your own stage” so you can capture footage and prove you can hold a room.
• Fractional CRO lessons on seasonality, offering annual commitments with delayed payments instead of discounts, and selling based on reasonable CAC and CPL—like a virtual conference that drives 24,000 engaged leads at about $2.08 per lead.
• Real talk for agency founders burned out on cold ads and not seeing ROI from content yet: know your numbers, know your actual close rate, break down why you’re sad or anxious, go from “I need 10,000 people” to “I need four customers,” and move from anxiety to conviction so you can act.

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

• LinkedIn – Mason’s primary channel for connecting and sharing content.
• Scrappy ABM – “If you Google scrappy a BM, there’s a newsletter, there’s a podcast, there’s a website” with an “ungodly number of webinars.”
• HubSpot – Used in a barter arrangement for a HubSpot implementation and sales process training in exchange for PR and conference introductions.
• Website de-anonymization tools – Used to identify who is on the Scrappy ABM site so Mason can screenshot activity and directly ask, “Hey, something on our website that’s gonna be helpful?”
• BW MX – A conference where Mason has spoken for multiple years, including keynotes and three hour breakouts, and where he’s now considered a standing speaker.
• So guru conferences – The virtual conference business where Mason serves as a fractional CRO and sells sponsorships based on CPL and engaged leads.
• Scrappy ABM: Visit for more ABM tips and strategies
• Connect with Mason on LinkedIn for a conversation about ABM

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