CASE STUDY
Engineering a Full-Funnel B2B SaaS Overhaul for Lever
Discover how we restructured Lever’s Paid Media architecture to cut wasted spend, align bidding with real-time Salesforce CRM data and drive a 125% surge in SQLs.
Background
Facing an intense B2B SaaS market, Lever by Employ partnered with us to overhaul its paid media strategy and drive 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 3 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 creative strategy prioritised hyper-relevance and friction reduction. Abstract visuals were replaced with product-led proof, social proof, competitor comparisons and feature highlights tailored to specific 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 directly to an interactive meeting scheduler, eliminating email back-and-forth to convert submitters into live sales meetings instantly.
Impact
Optimizing 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%
SQL Volume (Google Ads)
+475%
MQLs
