LinkedIn Ads success story · Cloud data software startup

How a software startup got 6X more qualified sales meetings from LinkedIn by spending on brand, not just leads.

Name: Overtop Media Digital Marketing
Address: 933 Louise Ave Suite 101-18, Charlotte, NC, 28204, US
Telephone: (704) 237-0707
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Firebolt was buying leads on LinkedIn, but only 2% became real sales meetings. It moved part of the budget into brand content that showed who the company was. Fewer leads came in, and 12% of them turned into meetings within four months.

Business: Firebolt
Market: San Francisco, California, selling in the US and UK
Goal: More qualified sales meetings on a modest budget

Developer workstation with several monitors showing code in a dim office

The results.

Compared with its earlier lead-generation-only LinkedIn campaigns, where 2% of leads became qualified sales meetings.

6Xmore qualified sales meetings from marketing
2% to 12%of leads becoming qualified meetings
4 monthsto see the change

Lead-to-meeting conversion rate before and after the switch to a brand-to-demand strategy, over four months. Lead volume fell during the same period. Self-reported by the advertiser and published by LinkedIn; results for other businesses will differ.

The challenge.

Firebolt makes a cloud data warehouse for engineering teams, in a market dominated by the biggest names in technology. As a young challenger it had little brand awareness in its key markets, the US and the UK, and its product was not easy to explain.

Its LinkedIn campaigns were built purely to collect leads on a modest budget. They did collect leads, but only 2% of them turned into qualified sales meetings. People were filling out forms for a company they did not yet understand.

What they did.

Brand-to-demand strategy · Sponsored Content · Always-on organic and paid

Moved budget up the funnel: Firebolt shifted part of its spend from lead capture to Sponsored Content that built awareness and explained the product, a strategy LinkedIn calls brand-to-demand.
Showed real people: With a small team, it leaned on what it had: its startup culture, its engaged employees and a lot of creativity, so the brand had a personality buyers would remember.
Stayed on all the time: Campaigns ran continuously instead of in bursts, with organic posts and paid ads working together to build familiarity week after week.
Asked buyers how they found it: A simple question on the demo form showed that many prospects credited social media, even when the CRM recorded them as direct visits. That gave leadership the confidence to keep investing.

Why it worked.

Our read on the decisions behind the numbers, and what any business can take from them.

Most buyers are not ready yet: LinkedIn’s own research suggests 95% of business buyers are not in the market today. Brand content reaches them before they are, so when they are ready, the name is already on the list.
Quality over volume: Fewer leads, but far more meetings. The team agreed in advance to judge the change on meetings, not lead counts, which kept the test alive long enough to work.
Personality is a moat: A challenger cannot outspend the giants, but it can be more memorable. Real people and real culture did that at low cost.
Attribution beyond the last click: Software records the last touch; buyers remember the most meaningful one. Asking them closed the gap.

How we would run this play for your business.

You do not need a national budget to use the same ideas. This is how Overtop Media Digital Marketing puts them to work in our linkedin ads management.

Split brand and demand budgets: We plan a share of spend for awareness and a share for lead capture, and adjust the mix based on what reaches the sales team.
Measure meetings, not forms: We track leads through to qualified meetings and opportunities, so the campaign is judged on what sales actually gets.
Add a self-reported source field: One question on your forms, "How did you hear about us?", reveals influence your analytics miss.
Catch the demand you create: As awareness grows, more people search for you by name. Our Google Ads and Microsoft Ads teams make sure you are there when they do.