Ahrefs Podcast

Clay's $3.1B Marketing Playbook | Bruno Estrella (Clay)

Clay went from zero revenue to a 3.1 billion dollar valuation in just 2 years. Was it luck, skill, or are they just riding the AI hype bubble? Meet Bruno Estrella, the Head of Marketing at Clay. He joined when the company was just 20 people and helped build one of the most effective partner and community-led marketing engines in SaaS. In this episode, Bruno reveals Clay’s full growth playbook, from the influencer strategy that popularized the “GTM Engineer” role to the strategy behind their 7-figure campaigns. Here’s what you’ll learn: 00:00 Intro 00:53 The GTM Engineer: How Clay created a new role through influencers 07:13 The story behind Clay’s iconic “Play-Doh” branding 09:55 How to split marketing for self-serve vs. enterprise 16:26 Clay’s programmatic SEO play generating 60 percent of their traffic 21:27 Why Clay uses Substack instead of a traditional blog 25:33 The playbook for scaling to hundreds of global events 31:09 How to get the right people to attend your events 38:20 Why adding a service arm accelerates enterprise revenue 40:57 How Clay uses its own product to grow 45:00 Clay’s social media and executive content strategy 51:31 The strategy behind Clay’s 7-figure billboard campaigns 55:41 Your brand is your advertising budget 01:00:28 The secret to hiring A-players 01:05:15 Clay’s single most effective growth tactic Where to find Bruno: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brunoestrella/ Where to find Tim: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/ X: https://x.com/timsoulo Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/ Referenced: Clay: https://www.clay.com/ OpenAI: https://openai.com/ HubSpot: https://www.hubspot.com/ Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com/ Webflow: https://webflow.com/ Substack: https://substack.com/ Miro: https://miro.com/ Gong: https://www.gong.io/ ClickUp: https://clickup.com/ Crypto.com: https://crypto.com/

Stop Wasting Money On Fake Influencers (Do This Instead) | Jeremy Boissinot (Favikon)

Influencer marketing might be the most hyped growth channel right now. But here’s the problem: most companies are burning money on it. How do you know which influencers are legit and which ones are just gaming the system before you waste your budget? Meet Jeremy Boissinot, founder of Favicon, an influencer marketing platform that has analyzed over 500,000 LinkedIn creators to understand the data signals behind real expertise vs algorithm hacks. In this episode, Jeremy breaks down the red flags that can save you from losing tens of thousands on a bad campaign. Here’s what you’ll learn: 00:00 Intro 01:17 The rise of fake influencers in B2B 03:18 How LinkedIn influencers fake follower counts 07:10 AI-generated comments and the Dead Internet Theory on LinkedIn 11:33 The real motivation behind spam commenting 17:27 How to measure an influencer’s true authenticity 23:58 Are influencer engagement pods still a thing? 31:16 Trust is the new currency: separating experts from algorithm hackers 36:22 Can you spot AI-generated content? 39:27 How to measure content originality 44:12 Why 95 percent of influencer campaigns fail (and why it’s usually the advertiser’s fault) 50:15 Why Reddit is the next big B2B marketing channel Where to find Jeremy: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyboissinot/ Website: https://www.favicon.com/ Where to find Tim: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/ X: https://x.com/timsoulo Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/ Referenced: Justin Welsh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinwelsh/ Substack: https://substack.com/ Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/ Skool: https://www.skool.com/

World's Top SEO Expert Busts AI Search Myths | Patrick Stox (Ahrefs)

If you want your brand to show up in ChatGPT, do you follow the same rules as ranking in Google—or is it a completely different game? To settle the debate, we brought in Patrick Stox, one of the most experienced SEO professionals in the industry. Patrick’s been tracking the rise of “Answer Engine Optimization” (AEO) and has strong opinions about the advice new experts are spreading. In this episode, we dive deep into how AI chatbots pull information, how to get your brand mentioned by them, and why AEO might not be as new as it sounds. Here’s what you’ll learn: (00:00) Intro (02:05) Do AI bots render JavaScript? The surprising answer (04:20) To get cited by AI, should your content be the same or different? (10:18) How Large Language Models (LLMs) actually work (15:10) The most important AEO tactic isn’t SEO—it’s this (20:00) Actionable tactics to control what AI says about you (26:20) Why a Korean search query might cite an English page (29:39) AEO is bringing desktop optimization back—here’s why (32:00) How to repurpose content for maximum AEO impact (36:20) Why YouTube is a bigger opportunity than ChatGPT today (41:20) Using communities, PR, and affiliates to shape your AI narrative (44:10) The big secret: Answer Engine Optimization is just good marketing Connect with Patrick: X: @patrickstox [https://twitter.com/patrickstox] LinkedIn: patrickstox [https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickstox/] Connect with Tim: X: @timsoulo [https://twitter.com/timsoulo] LinkedIn: timsoulo [https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/] Website: timsoulo.com [https://www.timsoulo.com/]

How to Win in AI Search (Real Data, No Hype) | Ryan Law (Ahrefs)

AI search is exploding — and everyone wants to teach you how to show up in ChatGPT. But in this new “Wild West,” who can you actually trust? Meet Ryan Law, Ahrefs’ Director of Content Marketing. Ryan and his team have carried out some of the largest studies on AI search, backed by millions of data points, to understand what actually works when it comes to Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). If you’ve been waiting for a credible, data-backed guide to getting your brand and content visible in AI search — this is it. What you’ll learn in this episode: 00:00 — Intro 01:06 — The Current State of AI Search 03:46 — 3 Ways to Influence Your AI Visibility 07:55 — The “Era of Off-Page SEO”: Why Mentions Are the New Backlinks 14:48 — Optimizing the Content Types AI Prefers to Cite 18:33 — How to Write for AI (and Humans) 25:51 — Finding and Fixing “Hallucinated URLs” from AI 27:18 — The Untapped Training Data Sources LLMs Love 28:37 — How to Perform a Content Gap Analysis for the AI Era 32:56 — The #1 Technical Mistake in Answer Engine Optimization 34:40 — Fan-Out Queries: How AI Actually Searches Google 39:50 — The Spam Strategy You Must Avoid 41:00 — A Simple 2-Category Framework for AEO 42:32 — AI Search vs. Google’s AI Overviews 44:50 — Outro Connect with Ryan: LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/thinkingslow/ X — @thinking_slow Connect with Tim: LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/ X — @timsoulo Website — https://www.timsoulo.com/ If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to follow the Ahrefs Podcast and share it with a friend. Referenced: Ahrefs Brand Radar — https://ahrefs.com/brand-radar Ahrefs Site Explorer — https://ahrefs.com/site-explorer Ahrefs Web Analytics — https://ahrefs.com/webmaster-tools Clearscope — https://www.clearscope.io G2 — https://www.g2.com Reddit — https://www.reddit.com Quora — https://www.quora.com

The 3 Types of EGC Every Brand Should Be Using | Melissa Laurie (Oysterly Media)

Employee-generated content isn’t just a trend — it’s the future of marketing. In this episode of the Ahrefs Podcast, we dive deep into the world of Employee Generated Content (EGC) and short-form social video with Melissa Laurie, founder and CEO of Oysterly Media. Discover why authentic, employee-created video content published on brand channels is quickly becoming essential for companies that want to stand out. Melissa explains how to do EGC right — and why audiences are craving genuine interactions over polished ads. She breaks down the powerful “Triple A Effect” of EGC: Attracting top talent, Retaining engaged staff, And accelerating sales with real product showcases. You’ll hear why Gen Z doesn’t magically know how to make great social content, how to structure a video that hooks attention in seconds, and why even the Singapore Police Force is jumping on the trend. Melissa shares real-world frameworks, production tips, and success stories from companies like Hilton and Microsoft. In this episode: (00:00) Intro (01:57) What is Employee-Generated Content (EGC)? (03:32) Posting from employee accounts vs company accounts (09:27) Using EGC to help with employee disengagement and recruiting (15:35) Examples of successful Day in the Life videos (21:00) Frameworks for EGC videos (31:59) Does trend-jumping work for companies? (35:36) Misconceptions about EGC (41:26) Hacks for making solid short-form videos (48:00) Consulting vs outsourcing for social media content (50:13) The ROI of short-form video for businesses (55:42) Making the shift from sales to social media (58:15) Outro We hope you enjoyed this episode of the Ahrefs Podcast! Be sure to like, subscribe — and tell a friend. Where to find Melissa: LinkedIn: Melissa Laurie Website: oysterlymedia.com Where to find Tim: LinkedIn: Tim Soulo X: @timsoulo Website: timsoulo.com