How to Get Real ROI from Paid Media (with Megan Bowen)

This week on GTM Live, Carolyn sits down with Megan Bowen, CEO of Refine Labs, to unpack why so many B2B companies are pouring budget into paid media, and still missing revenue targets.

They break down what’s really going wrong: not too much paid media, but too much spend on a strategy that doesn’t convert. Pipeline is down. Revenue is down. And yet, the response is often to spend more, not better.

You’ll hear why performance marketing often fails to deliver real outcomes, how misaligned KPIs drive bad decisions, and what separates newer, agile companies from legacy players still running outdated GTM playbooks.

Megan shares insights from working with dozens of growth-stage companies and how leadership mindset, speed of iteration, and willingness to challenge old assumptions can make or break your demand strategy.

If you’ve been trying to defend paid spend, or wondering why results are flat despite doing “all the right things”, this episode is for you.

Key topics in this episode:

• Why paid media often fails to convert to pipeline or revenue

• The difference between new-school and old-school GTM teams

• Why optimizing for MQLs leads to the wrong outcomes

• How to rethink measurement for real demand capture

• What high-performing growth teams do differently

This episode is powered by ⁠⁠Passetto⁠⁠. We help high-growth and equity-backed companies turn GTM data into better decisions, faster. We unify your GTM and financial data, identify your growth levers, and help you scale. Part SaaS, part advisory. Visit ⁠⁠passetto.com⁠.