Lowered B2B Cost per Lead by 69% In 90 Days

In B2B marketing, driving down cost per lead (CPL) often comes at a hidden cost: lead quality. But what if you could achieve both; lower costs and better leads? That’s exactly what we accomplished by optimizing a client’s paid acquisition funnel, resulting in a 69% reduction in CPL while improving both cost efficiency and lead quality.

Here’s how we did it.

Diagnosing the Real Problem: Volume vs. Value

The client was investing heavily in paid channels, but their leads were expensive and often unqualified. They faced the classic B2B dilemma: were they paying for clicks, or paying for actual business opportunities?

We began with a full-funnel audit:

  • Lead source mapping

  • Campaign-level performance segmentation

  • Sales feedback loop integration to evaluate post-lead quality

It was clear: the issue wasn’t just ad performance but a misalignment between targeting, messaging, and conversion paths.

Audience Refinement and Intent-Based Targeting

To reduce CPL without sacrificing quality, we moved from broad targeting to precise, intent-driven segments, including:

  • Job title and firmographic filters (company size, industry, tech stack)

  • In-market and custom intent audiences

  • High-converting lookalike segments based on closed-won data

This sharpened focus ensured we reached decision-makers ready to engage, not just users who clicked.

Campaign Restructuring: From Generic to High-Intent

We restructured the Google and LinkedIn Ads campaigns to align with funnel stages:

  • Top of Funnel: Focused on brand awareness with gated content for minimal spend

  • Middle of Funnel: Educational offers and webinars, using engagement-based retargeting

  • Bottom of Funnel: Product demos and case studies targeting high-intent behavior

This allowed us to allocate budget dynamically, prioritizing campaigns that drove the best cost-to-quality ratio.

Conversion Path Optimization

It wasn’t just about getting more leads, it was about streamlining how they convert. We optimized:

  • Form length 

  • Landing page relevance and speed

  • CRO testing (A/B on CTAs, headline messaging, and social proof)

This not only increased conversion rates but filtered out low-intent submissions.

Over a 90-day period, we delivered:

  • 69% decrease in cost per lead

  • Higher lead-to-opportunity conversion rate

  • Significantly improved sales team satisfaction with lead quality

  • Better budget efficiency across all paid channels

Want to unlock more value from your paid B2B campaigns? Get in touch today.

 

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