September 24, 2025

(more fun, more pipeline)

You’re in Q4, the calendar’s sprinting, Lead gen targets are huuuuuge, sales are nudging, and your to-do list is judging you. Breathe.

We’re going to make social do the heavy lifting. Good news: social can still be your highest-quality pipeline if you keep things native, human and very, very fast. AI summaries are nicking clicks from the open web, so we’re doubling down on in-app capture, people-led distribution and instant replies. It’s optimistic, it’s tidy, and it works.

The reality (and why it’s not doom)

Zero-click is fine if you capture in-app
When Google shows an AI summary, people click a regular result about 8% of the time, vs 15% when there’s no summary. So stop forcing detours. Run LinkedIn Document Ads with 3–4 fields (LinkedIn’s own best practice) and say thanks with a one-tap “book a call”. Pew Research Center

Reply in five minutes and watch meetings appear
The average B2B response time is still about 42 hours. Reply in under 5 minutes and your odds of connecting and converting jump dramatically. Set Click-to-WhatsApp/IG DM and use a tiny flow to pre-qualify, calendar, and send a recap. It’s nicer for the buyer and kinder on your CPA. chilipiper.com

People beat pages (again)
Your leaders and specialists carry more trust and more reach than the corporate handle. Employee advocacy programmes regularly see up to 200% higher CTR and 700% more engagement than brand posts. Spin up a four-week exec pod: two punchy POVs, one mini case, one soft “ask”, all linkless; Social Media Dashboard

LinkedIn is having a video moment
Two very handy toys: First Impression Ads (own the first ad your audience sees that day) and CTV to reach decision-makers on the big screen. Spark demand with video, then retarget viewers with Lead Gen Forms. LinkedIn News

Reddit is a cheerful wildcard for B2B intent
Real buyers research in public. Reddit’s new Community Intelligence and Conversation Summary add-ons turn that chatter into creative briefs and built-in social proof under your ads. Host a friendly AMA with your head of product, then turn the best Qs into a gated LinkedIn doc. More on Reddit

Q4, put the kettle on

What to actually focus on for leads (from one knackered marketer to another)

You’ve got six, maybe eight good weeks before mince pies take the pipeline hostage. So this is our IF opinion on where to point your energy if lead gen is your priority .

Start with the oil in the engine

Social isn’t a silo. It carries signals into search, sales, inboxes, and meetings. When the rest of the machine is grindy (hello short quarter) social is the oil. Your job now: create quality lead gen engines in-app that turn attention into booked calls without a detour to your website. Zero-click search is real; fewer people are reaching your site from Google anyway, so stop making them leave LinkedIn/Instagram to prove they care.

Give me proof, not poetry

If you want a sceptical buyer to sit forward, swap product claims for outcomes with numbers. Make it painfully concrete:

• “Cut time-to-deploy from 37 days to 9…”
• “Reduced XX by 46% across three regions in Q3.”
• “Eliminated £182k of duplicate SaaS spend in 60 days.”

If you don’t have the stats, get scrappy: run a 14-day pilot and agree success criteria before you start. Then post the outcomes as a LinkedIn Document, gated with a short in-app form. Bad thought leadership gets you quietly blacklisted; good thought leadership gets you shortlisted.

And alongside good content, consider the medium as well as the format. So you hit the buyer in the right stage of the funnel .

Make them laugh while they learn

You can use humour in B2B without feeling daft, and you probably should. The evidence says it lifts attention, recall and persuasion. Kantar’s AdReaction finds humour is the strongest creative booster of ad receptivity, making ads more expressive, involving and distinctive; Oracle’s global “Happiness Report” shows 90% of people are more likely to remember funny ads and 72% would choose a humorous brand; and IPA effectiveness work keeps showing emotional creative (which humour delivers) outperforms rational for long-term growth. In other words, a smart joke buys you permission to teach and to drive lead gen.

If you’re nervous, note the real problem in B2B isn’t being too funny,  it’s being forgettable. LinkedIn’s B2B Institute with System1 reports most B2B ads score at the bottom for creative effectiveness, while Kantar shows humour is edging back precisely because it cuts through when it’s clearly tied to the brand. So keep the gag in service of the point, land a clean proof or number straight after, and give a native next step in-app. That’s not frivolous; that’s effective.

If Google sent zero clicks tomorrow, where would your answer live?

The answer: Inside the platforms:

• LinkedIn Document Ads with 3–4 fields max; thank-you screen jumps to a calendar.
• Instagram/Meta instant forms or Click-to-WhatsApp; keep the journey native.
• YouTube video + pinned comment / end screen that nudges to an in-app Doc on LinkedIn (don’t bounce to a slow site).
  

This is not anti-search. It’s recognising the direction of travel and capturing demand where it actually shows up.

Please don’t starve brand for “performance panic.”

LinkedIn’s B2B Institute bangs the drum for a roughly 50/50 balance between brand building and activation in B2B. And they’re right. Use social video to create demand (brand), then in-app forms and messaging to catch it (activation). When budget’s twitchy, balance is how you defend growth.

You’re busy. Focus on quality content that proves lead gen outcomes, treat social as the oil in the engine, and give buyers a fast, human path when it counts. Keep the journey native, back your claims with numbers, and split your effort between making people care and making it easy to say yes. Do that, and Q4 will behave, and Q1 will arrive already warm.