Demand Gen in 2026: What's Working & What Isn't

Demand gen didn't stop working. It got optimized until there was nothing left to optimize.

Paid ads keep getting more expensive, AI search is absorbing the clicks that used to land on your site, and a decade of everyone optimizing the same channels left every company running the same plays. The channels B2B built its entire playbook on are the ones that got crowded first.

We sat down with Michael McEuen, Senior Director of Demand Gen at Mainsail Partners, where he advises a portfolio of vertical software companies on exactly this problem, to unpack why the precision marketing era is evolving and what he's telling those companies to do instead. Before Mainsail, Michael also worked at Gong and Dooly.

In this episode, they get into:

• The marketing barbell, brand on one end and demand on the other, and why B2B loaded the demand side for a decade until every channel started to look the same
• Why 68% of Google searches now end without a click on anything, and what that does to the inbound model most B2B teams were built around
• The first question he asks a portfolio company: when did you last secret shop your own buying experience?
• The value of buying four hours with someone in a room versus $8 to $10 a click for ten seconds of their attention
• Why MQLs are the most overhyped metric in marketing, and what to anchor the team on instead
• Why an agent is really just a scheduled task, and the documenting habit that builds one for you while you do the work

Trying to figure out how to optimize your demand gen marketing this year? Michael has spent his whole career on the performance side, so this one's packed with takeaways. Stream now!

Connect with Michael McEuen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelmceuen/ 

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00:00 - Intro Trailer
00:38 - Welcome to the show
00:48 - Guest introduction: Michael McEuen, Mainsail Partners
01:27 - Ding and Michael go back to the Dooly days
02:20 - What is the current state of demand gen in marketing right now?
03:57 - What actually happened to digital
04:24 - 68% of Google searches end without a click
04:44 - Cost per click is up 29% year over year for B2B SaaS
05:40 - The shift from an unsavvy buyer market to a savvy one
08:00 - How does performance marketing evolve in an age of agents or usage based pricing?
08:28 - Caviar, diamonds, and AI credits
09:21 - Seat based pricing breaks when AI shrinks the team
10:02 - Why Mainsail built a pricing and packaging team
10:42 - What he's advising the companies he's working with to do
11:13 - All companies: Go revisit your ICP
13:32 - When did you last secret shopper your own buying experience?
14:25 - Mainsail, and Michael's journey up until now
16:22 - Mainsail's thesis and vertical companies
17:32 - When your entire market is 6,000 companies and thinking about precision marketing
18:00 - What's something marketing related that works really well in horizontal, that doesn't work in a vertical business?
19:33 - Run your own roadshow
20:08 - We are in a trust recession because of AI
21:52 - Connected TV is the pattern disrupt nobody expected
22:15 - Quick and dirty iPhone testimonials can beat polished ads
24:23 - Rapid Fire: Creative or targeting?
25:08 - Rapid Fire: What is the marketing barbell?
26:12 - Brand is making a reemergence
26:44 - Earned media came back
28:16 - Rapid Fire: Next marketing trend?
31:00 - In-person experiences vs. $8 to $10 a click for ten seconds of attention
33:42 - Rapid Fire: A stunt you wish you pulled off, but didn't?
34:49 - Rapid Fire: Is the marketing funnel dead?
35:48 - Rapid Fire: The most overhyped metric in marketing right now?
36:13 - What is actually bad about MQLs: 135% to goal on MQLs, 78% on bookings
36:58 - You don't need the most expensive model for marketing work
38:18 - Everyone is in their own little chat environment
39:51 - This is a coaching problem, not a tooling problem
42:05 - An agent is really just a scheduled task
42:22 - The biggest unlock: Document alongside the work and the agent builds itself
43:38 - The two things to do if you're starting from zero with AI
45:00 - How to use Claude to read your CRM objects
46:13 - Are you nice to your AI?
49:09 - Coding models score better when you're mean to them
49:40 - What Mainsail looks for before investing in companies
51:45 - Founder prestige has died in the last two years
55:39 - Eleven Madison Park: When the meal costs $1,000 every touchpoint has to land, and the cognac trick
1:00:00 - Ding's 'Slim Shady' closing freestyle
1:01:49 - Michael's final thoughts: Get back to your roots
1:02:12 - Outro and where to find Michael