Automated Bidding Lowers CPL and Boosts Lead Quality for Sage Intacct

Challenge

•   A provider of efficiency-building finance software, Sage Intacct deploys an always-on marketing strategy aimed to being available and accessible to customers whenever a need arises.

•   With its prospecting approach divvied up by different verticals, the marketing team sought a solution that would offer precise targeting along with positive ROI.

Solution

•   Looking to lower cost-per-lead (CPL) while continuing to reach the right people with the right message, Sage Intacct turned to the automated bidding capability for LinkedIn ads.

•   The team saw this as an opportunity to keep numbers on track for always-on campaigns without needing to constantly pay attention and tinker.

Results

•   Within the first month of using automated bidding for some of its major campaigns, Sage Intacct saw a 32% reduction in CPL.

•   “We’re very, very optimistic on what’s going on right now with our LinkedIn program,” says Ari Capogeannis, Director of Growth Marketing & Analytics.

Situation Analysis

•   The key for Sage was to identify audiences who were not most likely to click, but most likely to convert. This, in turn, would help improve collaboration between marketing and sales.

•   “We’ve got a pretty good feedback loop” with sales, says VP of Demand Generation Nick Ezzo. “So, if we’re delivering them good stuff, we hear about it. If we’re delivering them not-so-good stuff, then we also hear about it.”

How They Did It

•   Seeking to optimize for conversions over clicks, the marketing team activated automated bidding on some of its evergreen campaigns targeting cornerstone verticals.

•   As one example, Sage Intacct was able to be more hands-off with bidding optimizations of their Sponsored Content campaigns, allowing for more content testing and audience nurturing resulting in more sales-ready leads to be called upon.

Overall Impact

•   Implementing this approach led to a significant drop in CPL, providing their marketing team more time to focus on developing new content and programs to test out.

•   Improved cost and quality of leads has helped foster healthy alignment between marketing and sales.

•   “Since we focus on building pipeline for our sales teams, it’s always important that we can show positive ROI on programs,” Ezzo explains. “LinkedIn has allowed us to do that.”