Inside Smokeball's Growth Engine: Influencers, GEO and Exec Ads with Christopher Chow

Christopher Chow, Head of Growth Marketing at Smokeball, joins the show to unpack how the legal software company drives growth through video, customer-led influencer marketing, and early GEO experiments. He breaks down the mechanics behind Smokeball’s best campaigns, including how changing only the “messenger” on an ad, same budget and creative, delivered an 8.7x lift in video completion rate and a 186% increase in ROAS.

Expect real numbers, real campaigns, and honest lessons on what worked and what didn’t.

Guest Introduction

Christopher Chow is an Australian B2B marketing leader, speaker and content creator, and a LinkedIn Top Voice. He is Head of Growth Marketing at Smokeball, with past roles at Apple, Microsoft and Dovetail, and creates content on B2B growth, LinkedIn, and AI.

Key Topics

• Smokeball’s core channel mix (Google, Bing, LinkedIn, SEO, GEO, display, YouTube) and why video leads for pipeline and deal acceleration
• Boosting employee and customer LinkedIn posts with thought leadership ads to cut cost per view
• The Empire Legal case study, where the same video, budget, and audience with the customer as “messenger” instead of the brand produced a 2x view rate, 8.7x completion increase, and 186% ROAS lift
• Why Smokeball lets customers write their own post copy instead of scripting it, to keep content authentic
• Turning execs and employees into influencers, including the “Hey Hunter” series with CEO Hunter Steele, later tested as connected TV ads in the US
• Smokeball’s GEO and AEO approach, a “wild west” of auditing brand consistency, building competitor pages, and testing LinkedIn articles as an AI citation source
• Reusing video across markets, including an Australian case study ad that outperformed after being run in the UK
• Chris’s advice to talk to customers regularly, start with low-fi video before scaling up, and pilot GEO tactics on a smaller property first

Resources & Links

People

• Hunter Steele - CEO of Smokeball, featured in the “Hey Hunter” video series
• Abi Wright - Co-Founder and Director of Empire Legal, in the case study video
• George Sourris - Co-Founder and Legal Practice Director of Empire Legal, also in the video
• Lily Ray - SEO and AI search consultant Chris follows for her E-E-A-T work
• Ethan Smith - CEO of Graphite, a trusted voice on GEO

Companies & Tools

• Smokeball - Legal practice management software, where Chris leads growth marketing
• Empire Legal - Queensland property law firm featured in the case study
• LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads - The format used to boost customer and executive posts
• Customer advocacy, captured on camera - LinkedIn’s case study on Smokeball’s campaign
• Graphite - SEO and AEO growth agency led by Ethan Smith
• Stratechery - Ben Thompson’s tech blog and podcast, a big influence on Chris
• Ramp and Brex - Aggressive competitor pages worth studying for GEO
• Clay - Executives worth following on LinkedIn

Contact & Credits

Host: Shahin Hoda

Guest: Christopher Chow

Produced by: Shahin Hoda and Alexander Hipwell

Edited by: Alexander Hipwell & Dave Somido

Music by: Breakmaster Cylinder

Podcast Co-ordinator: Jonah Igsie

APAC's B2B Growth Podcast is Presented by xGrowth