Performance Marketing for 'UNC Finance': 5700+ Leads in 3 Months
Yuri
Marketing Analyst
Mariya
Senior Project Manager
Artem
Chief Commercial Officer, Strategy unit Leader
What did the client come with?
The company specializes in providing consulting services to small and medium-sized businesses on financial matters. In simple terms, it offers outsourced financial director services.
We have been operating in two main directions: contextual advertising and targeted advertising on social media platforms.
The data provided covers the period from June 1st to September 16th, 2022.
Project Challenges
Service Specifics:
The “Outsourced Financial Director” service is rather complex, and not every company comprehends its value until a certain point in time. Therefore, it was imperative to find the right approach that would allow us not only to generate hot leads but also to attract a new and less warm audience.
Technical Challenges:
Twice during the entire campaign management period, we encountered technical issues that were beyond our control:
1. Incorrect conversion tracking.
2. A conversion form on one of the landing pages ceased to function.
Both problems were promptly identified and resolved, and they did not have a chance to impact the campaigns.
Expert Comment:
Artem
Chief Commercial Officer, Strategy unit Leader
“Technical issues can arise at any moment, and it’s crucial to be prepared—carefully monitoring metrics, verifying the functionality of all components, and promptly signaling if anything goes awry.
We operate with a 24/7 project management approach and respond immediately to ensure seamless performance.”
Results
5751
A lead in the cold funnel
151
A lead in the hot funnel
175
Qualified leads
16 859
The cost per qualified lead
How We Did It
Development of a performance marketing strategy
The three key elements we relied upon when developing the strategy were:
1. Target Audience – B2B companies.
2. Complex Service – As previously discussed, we needed to build a more intricate funnel to warm up new users and generate a need for the service.
3. Strict Budget Control – It was crucial to test as many hypotheses as possible, promptly identify the effective ones, and focus on them.
As a result, we have two lead generation scenarios:
1. Single-stage funnel – In this scenario, we run campaigns targeting branded queries. We direct warm traffic, which is already familiar with us, to a landing page offering a free consultation with a financial director. We also lead them to pages with other useful information that guides the user toward requesting the service. This option is designed for hotter traffic, which is more likely to convert into inquiries.
2. Two-stage funnel – We drive traffic initially to a lead magnet page. Then, we redirect those who have downloaded the file to a page offering the service – a free consultation.
Hypothesis testing
For the first 2 months of operation, we conducted hypothesis testing to identify effective combinations that bring in cold and hot leads.
1. Single-stage funnel
Within this funnel, we directed traffic not only to landing pages with services but also to pages with valuable content:
Long-form articles: On the website, we selected pages featuring persuasive articles authored by specialists. Examples of such articles include:
– ‘How to Scale Your Business in 90 Days’
– ‘Entrepreneur, Hold On! A Step-by-Step Plan to Get Out of Trouble in 90 Days’
We directed users to pages featuring case studies – real stories of clients who solved their problems thanks to our services. Here are some headlines to convey the essence:
– “Identified a Purchasing Thief Who Profited from Companies”
– “Identified Inefficient Products Sitting Idle in the Warehouse”
– “Identified the Most Effective Products for Sales”
Testing of cases and long-form articles did not yield the desired results.
Other landing pages included client-prepared sales-focused landing pages designed to lead visitors to the key free service – a consultation with a financial director. The plan was to upsell the core services during further interactions with each lead. Here are their themes:
– “Implementation Roadmap for Accounting”
– “Meeting with a Financial Director”
– “Growth Strategy”
– “Exiting Operational Roles”
– “Building Your Team”
The “Implementation Roadmap for Accounting” page yielded the best results. We obtained over 100 hot leads from it, with a conversion rate of approximately 50%.
Expert Comment:
Artem
Chief Commercial Officer, Strategy unit Leader
“All the mechanics described above are suitable for a warmer audience. However, if you concentrate only on this audience, you risk hitting a ceiling quickly. It is essential to attract a new audience and work with them, warming them up and building a need for the service. The colder, albeit interested, audience may not be ready to make a purchase ‘here and now,’ but it represents a significant opportunity for future engagement and conversion.”
2. Two-stage funnel
We utilized this mechanism to attract colder traffic. It’s evident that direct sales could only increase the rejection rate, so with this audience, it was necessary to work gradually, warming them up.
The first stage involved offering valuable materials for download. We used two primary lead magnets:
1. “Compilation of 15 Templates for Managerial Accounting in Business.”
2. The book which teaches proper managerial accounting.
Additionally, we provided supplementary valuable materials:
– “Financial Model Template.”
– “27 Tips – What Businesses Should Do in the Summer of 2022.”
– “Cash Flow Statement.”
The “Compilation of 15 Templates for Managerial Accounting in Business” performed the best. We received 25,500 clicks and 2,707 conversions with a CPA of 480 dollars.
In second place was the book. It generated 11,600 clicks and 2,480 conversions with a CPA of 285 dollars. However, despite the lower cost per conversion, the leads were colder and less likely to proceed to the next stage.
The second stage involved redirecting users to a “Thank You” page where they were presented with the offer to sign up for a free consultation.
As a result, the “Compilation of 15 Templates” brought in a total of 67 qualified leads at a cost of 17,000 dollars.
Generated 30 qualified leads at a cost of 17,569 dollars.
Contextual advertising
Here are the campaigns we launched:
As part of hypothesis testing to attract a colder audience, we ran interest-based targeting campaigns. These campaigns directed traffic to a page with the “Compilation of 15 Templates for Managerial Accounting in Business” and generated 4,300 clicks, 1,196 cold leads, and 46 hot leads.
Campaigns targeting visitors of competitor websites and similar users did not yield the desired results.
Brand-specific search campaigns are still active. The most effective one directs users to a landing page with an “Implementation Roadmap for Accounting.” Over 12 weeks of campaign activity, it brought in 94 hot leads and demonstrated a high conversion rate into qualified leads.
The best-performing campaigns were those targeting brand-specific queries, leading users to a landing page with the relevant service. These campaigns had minimal bounce rates, and they allowed us to capture traffic even when competitors were bidding for the same keywords. This strategy resulted in 2,121 clicks and 81 highly qualified leads with a conversion rate of 70-80%. The cost per lead was 2,160 dollars.
We also attempted to reach a colder audience through campaigns Advertising Network (YAN) directing users to service landing pages. While this didn’t yield significant results, it did help expand our audience through look-alike technology
Expert Comment:
Artem
Chief Commercial Officer, Strategy unit Leader
”Campaigns aimed at attracting hot traffic performed better. However, we intentionally continue to target new audiences. This strategy is highly scalable and generates more leads. Yes, these leads may not convert immediately, and their qualification rate may be significantly lower.
However, in the future, you can nurture this traffic. Additionally, you gain new contacts for retargeting, email marketing, and follow-up calls. Therefore, it is not advisable to draw hasty conclusions and abandon this strategy.”
Results
Contextual advertising:
– Advertising budget: $18,097.
– Number of cold leads: 5,661 users downloaded the lead magnet and provided their contact information.
– Number of hot inquiries: 488.
– Average number of qualified leads: 167.
– Cost per hot lead: From Search – $21; from Yandex Advertising Network (RSYA) – $40.
Targeted advertising on VKontakte (VK):
– Total advertising budget: $5,121.
– Number of cold leads: 1,164 users downloaded the lead magnet and provided their contact information.
– Number of hot inquiries: 80 people ready to engage with a manager.
– Average number of qualified leads: 13.
– Cost per cold lead: $2.
– Cost per hot lead: $64.
Conclusions:
Utilize two-stage funnels. This approach is suitable for promoting complex products or services. Our funnel consists of a lead magnet followed by the main offer. An important condition is that the materials offered to users must be well-researched, expert-level, and valuable.
Test ad combinations and creatives within the context. Through this process, you can identify what works and aligns with your budget. In terms of creatives, addressing the target audience directly in the ad proved to be effective for us. This helps attract the right traffic and generate more high-quality inquiries.
Segment your audience not only by the type of Lead Persona (LPR) but also by their awareness level about your product or service. This allows for precise interaction with those who are already familiar with you and for nurturing and sparking interest in those who haven’t heard of you yet.
Scale results in social media. To successfully launch advertising campaigns and scale the outcome on VKontakte (VK), it’s essential to conduct numerous tests both within the advertising account (targeting, creatives, ad formats) and beyond (offer, website).
Synergy of channels. Targeted and contextual advertising work separately with the audience at each stage of the sales funnel mentioned earlier. However, contextual advertising drives more warm and hot traffic to the website. Despite their readiness to make a purchase, not all users take the desired action. At this point, VK retargeting comes into play, allowing us to convert the customer using a different offer and message upon re-engagement.
Choose an effective channel. Initially, VK showed better results, prompting us to scale. However, after numerous tests and increased budgets, the cost per lead from this channel started to rise, and the qualification rate of leads decreased. Therefore, the decision was made to redirect the budget to – a more automated channel in terms of ad management, with a stable cost per lead.
Creative-level segmentation. One of the effective hypotheses in our case was segmenting the audience not only through settings but also through text on banners and in ads. The creative explicitly stated that the offer was relevant only for business owners with a monthly turnover of over 2 million dollars. While clicks decreased, the cost per lead increased, the qualification rate improved.
Implement comprehensive analytics to see the big picture and make informed decisions, allocating the budget to channels and campaigns that bring in more qualified leads.
Special thanks to the team, which actively participated throughout the entire process, provided all necessary information, and assisted in generating new hypotheses.
Customer Feedback:
Nikita
Marketing Specialist at the client's company
“We have been working with XBRIDER Digital for over 4 months now and have already achieved excellent results. We were looking for specialists in the B2B market who could establish a steady flow of leads. Work in this direction was already underway, but we needed to scale the campaigns and reduce the cost per lead.
We were able to find the right working format right away. Every week, we have calls to discuss the progress of the weekly plan and set new tasks. The XBRIDER Digital team always comes up with new ideas for project development. Thanks to this, we were able to improve the current metrics from the very first weeks. We see real effectiveness of performance marketing for our project.”