CASE STUDY
How we Developed a Full-Funnel B2B SaaS Overhaul for Lever
Tug overhauled Lever’s B2B SaaS media strategy by shifting spend from passive brand traffic to dynamic, CRM-connected demand capture. The result: a streamlined multi-channel engine that doubled down-funnel sales pipeline velocity.
Background
Facing an intense B2B SaaS market, Lever by Employ partnered with Tug to overhaul its paid media strategy and drive a qualified pipeline. Lever’s existing setup was overly complex and inefficient: high-intent demand capture was underfunded, branded search consumed 40% of the budget and CPMQL reached unsustainable levels. We launched a multi-channel pipeline overhaul with three goals: (1) scale sales pipeline velocity, (2) lower CPMQL to boost closed-won value and ROAS, and (3) tie real-time media spend directly to CRM outcomes like validated pipeline progression.
Objectives & Strategy
We implemented a precise full-funnel TAM and ABM framework. On LinkedIn, campaigns were segmented by funnel stage, seniority, job title and explicit pain points – using upper-funnel video/static ads for brand recall, mid-funnel document ads (e.g., JSN industry report) for warm leads and bottom-of-funnel conversation ads for demo bookings. Across Google and Microsoft Ads, we reduced brand search spend to fund non-brand search and competitor conquesting, tightened keyword matching, added negative brand exclusions and overhauled landing page CRO. Finally, we integrated media bidding loops with real-time Salesforce CRM data to optimise for verified pipeline stages.
Creative Implementation
The strategy prioritised hyper-relevance and friction reduction. Abstract visuals were replaced with product-led proof, social proof, competitor comparisons and feature highlights tailored to buying groups. Generic CTAs shifted to high-intent prompts like “Book a Personalized Demo,” while redesigned landing pages put case metrics above the fold. To streamline conversion, native LinkedIn Document and Conversation Ads captured leads in-platform, feeding into nurture sequences or immediate demo requests. Native and site post-form paths routed to an interactive meeting scheduler, eliminating email back-and-forth to convert submitters into live sales meetings instantly.
Impact
Optimising strictly for Salesforce CRM outcomes drove immediate down-funnel growth. Period-over-period, account-wide SQLs surged 125%, led by a 200% increase in Google Ads-attributed SQL volume. Restructuring non-brand campaigns and adding negative brand exclusions powered competitor conquesting to a 475% MQL increase while slashing cost-per-MQL by 69%. On LinkedIn, audience pruning and JSN document ads increased lead volume by 79% and reduced CPL by 65%, with native Document Ads driving a 143% jump in leads alone. Ultimately, real-time CRM bidding eliminated wasteful spend and established a high-velocity pipeline engine.Results
+125%
SQLs
+200%
Google Ads SQLs
+475%
MQLs
