B2B Ads that Don't Suck (with Shlomo Genchin, Unbore.com) — The Dave Gerhardt Show (from Exit Five)

#386 | When your ad budget is zero but your creative ambition isn't, three simple techniques can still make you scroll-stopping. Dasha Shakov sits down with Shlomo Genchin, founder of unbore.com, the "unofficial school for B2B ads," to break down what actually makes a B2B ad good. Shlomo walks through his two-part research process for beating the blank page, then unpacks three frameworks - A World Without, Visual Analogy, and Personification - behind some of his highest-performing client campaigns. They also get into hiring actors on a budget, winning over a nervous CEO, and why Shlomo believes advertising should follow culture instead of trying to lead it. Plus his honest take on where AI actually helps and where it still falls flat.

Tools & swipe files

Ads referenced (but not shown)

Fibbler’s AI ad

Timestamps

(00:00) - - Welcome: Shlomo Genchin
(01:51) - - How ad school and B2B's "Wild West" pulled Shlomo out of the agency world
(07:05) - - Beating the blank page: practical research vs. personal research
(13:15) - - The biggest myths about creativity, and how to "steal like an artist"
(16:29) - - The three pillars of a great B2B ad, and technique #1: World Without
(21:35) - - Technique #2: Visual analogy, and why a winning ad can run for years
(29:45) - - Technique #3: Personification, and how to hire actors on a budget
(38:05) - - Getting a nervous leadership team to say yes to a fun idea
(42:04) - - AI philosophy: why advertising should follow culture, not lead it
(46:11) - - The highest-leverage move for a team with zero ad budget

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter

Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/

***

Brought to you by:

Zoom Webinars & Events – The virtual event platform built to help B2B marketers run webinars that actually drive pipeline, with branded registration pages, live engagement features, and built-in tools to repurpose sessions into clips and content. Learn more at zoom.com/exitfive.

Convertiv - A B2B marketing agency that helps enterprise teams build an AI-powered go-to-market strategy, specializing in AEO. Podcast listeners get a free AI search review showing how you stack up against competitors. Learn more at convertiv.com/exitfive.

Optimizely - the AI platform for marketers. Build your own AI agents or pull from a directory of 50+ pre-built ones for marketing use cases. Their new Virtual Teammates can join meetings, complete tasks, support campaigns, and keep your website optimized. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive.

Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand gen agency helping high-growth cybersecurity and enterprise software companies show up earlier in the buying journey, combining AEO, modern paid advertising, and a dedicated go-to-market engineering team. Podcast listeners get two free media planning sessions to find out what channels are driving the best ROI. Learn more at compoundgrowthmarketing.com/exitfive.

Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.

***

Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.

They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.
Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.

Visit hatch.fm to learn more