David Walsh, Founder & CEO of Limelight, is one of the few people who actually knows how B2B influencer marketing actually works.

His marketplace powers creator campaigns for Clay, Webflow, HubSpot, ZoomInfo, Bill.com, and dozens of high-growth B2B companies.

In this episode, we break down exactly how to collaborate with creators as a repeatable growth channel and not a one-off experiment.

What You’ll Learn

- The stage where influencer marketing actually works

- Creator-Market Fit: the only metric that matters

- The campaign structure Limelight recommends to every brand

- What a good budget looks like

- How to measure influencer marketing without guessing

- Why organic posts are step one and paid ads are step two

- How Clay built the best creator program in B2B

- Why employee advocacy and creators is the real cheat code

- The flywheel effect that happens when executives, employees, and influencers amplify each other

- Why now is the moment to start creating content

- David shares how his own content now drives 90% of Limelight’s revenue

Perfect For

- Founders who want real distribution, not just paid impressions

- Marketing leaders tired of rising CAC and declining ad performance

- Teams considering influencer marketing but unsure where to start

- Anyone curious how B2B creators actually drive pipeline

Connect with David:

- David’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dw1232/

- Limelight: https://www.limelighthq.com/

Connect with me:

- Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFH

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/

- Website: https://www.project33.io/

Chapters

00:00 — The 2012-Instagram moment for LinkedIn

02:05 — When a company is actually ready for influencer marketing

03:44 — Does ACV matter?

05:33 — Why LinkedIn creators are the hardest to find

06:59 — Solving the creator cold-start problem

09:13 — Employees vs full-time creators

11:21 — Why creator partnerships are suddenly normalized

13:19 — How often creators should post

15:07 — The ideal campaign structure and why going wide wins

17:30 — Why niche creators outperform big ones

19:01 — Budget ranges for 60-post campaigns

20:32 — How to measure success the honest version

22:55 — The 80/20 of engagement quality

25:14 — Turning creator posts into paid ads

27:30 — Why creator budgets will explode over the next 5 years

31:06 — Creator-Market Fit

33:10 — The campaigns David points companies to

35:02 — How Clay built the new standard

37:10 — How brands should think about creative control

40:38 — Why over-controlling the creator kills performance

42:22 — How to think about creator fatigue + competitive overlap

44:28 — The transparency rules creators follow

46:12 — Employee advocacy + creators = distribution

48:33 — How creators help employees grow, and vice versa

50:48 — Why every company will have “personality-led marketing”

52:54 — Why employee content must become measurable

54:34 — David’s closing message: start creating now

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