Type of SaaS
Climate & Sustainability
SERVICES PROVIDED
PPC and Retargeting: LinkedIn Demand Generation
Results Window
Q2–Q4 (7 months, LinkedIn Ads)
The Situation
This climate SaaS company launched in May at ground zero: no website traffic, no paid keywords, no LinkedIn presence, and no pipeline. The product was built for compliance and operations teams, but without a demand generation engine, qualified leads were not coming in through digital channels. The company needed a scalable path to fill the top of the pipeline from nothing.
Without historical performance data, every campaign decision would be made without benchmarks. No retargeting audiences existed to build from and the team had no proof points to validate messaging before spending. The company needed qualified leads fast enough to validate their go-to-market motion in a niche vertical where the buyer pool is small and difficult to reach through traditional channels.
Key Results
| METRIC | BEFORE | RESULT |
|---|---|---|
| Qualified leads generated (LinkedIn) | N/A | 176 |
| Cost per lead (TOFU campaign) | N/A | $27.52 |
| Lead form completion rate | N/A | 47.8% |
| Peak-month CPL (August 2025) | N/A | $19.23 |
What We Did
Mapped the campaign architecture before spending a dollar.
We designed a tiered LinkedIn campaign structure: brand awareness to warm decision makers and key influencers, and Top of the Funnel (TOFU) lead generation with gated content to capture contact information. This architecture ensured every impression served a purpose within a defined buyer journey, not scattered spend across disconnected tactics.
Ran brand awareness campaigns to prime the target audience.
Starting one month before the lead gen launch, we ran brand awareness ads in June 2025 to target both decision makers and key influencers. This pre-exposure meant prospects already recognized the brand when the lead gen ads appeared in their feed. The awareness layer generated over 72,000 impressions across the campaign window, building the familiarity that high-consideration B2B buyers require before engaging with a lead form.
Launched TOFU lead generation campaign targeting decision makers and key influencers with high-value content.
The primary lead generation campaign went live in July 2025, built around a gated guide designed to attract buyers across industry verticals. We initially targeted both decision makers and key influencers, then refined the audience to decision makers only as performance data revealed where the highest-quality leads originated. By August, the campaign hit its stride at a $19.23 CPL with 45 leads in a single month.
Tested creative variants aggressively and cut underperformers fast.
We launched multiple ad variants across square and vertical formats, pausing low-engagement creatives within the first two weeks. The top-performing TOFU ad, an industry-focused guide offer, generated 25 leads in its first month at an $18.16 CPL and continued to drive volume across the full campaign window. On the awareness side, creatives emphasizing operational efficiency and domain expertise consistently outperformed generic messaging, informing the next round of TOFU copy.
Maintained lead flow through Q4 seasonal headwinds.
As engagement rates softened in October and November, a pattern consistent with end-of-year budget cycles in B2B SaaS, we adjusted daily budgets and sustained the TOFU campaign rather than pausing it. The program delivered 69 leads across Q4 alone, representing 39% of total lead volume. That sustained output through a traditionally slow period demonstrated the durability of a well-built demand generation engine.
What The Data Tells Us
Put the $27.52 CPL in context: the 2025 LinkedIn benchmark for SaaS is $100 or more per lead. This program came in 72% below that floor. But cost efficiency alone does not tell the full story. The 47.8% lead form completion rate is the real signal. Industry benchmarks for LinkedIn Lead Gen Form conversion sit between 6% and 10%. This campaign delivered nearly 5x that rate, which means the targeting, the content offer, and the creative were all working in alignment. Not just one element carrying the others. When you pair that with a 1.02% CTR (more than double the SaaS benchmark of 0.40–0.45%), the data points to an audience that was clicking with intent and converting because the offer matched their professional reality.
The Q4 performance adds another layer. LinkedIn CPLs typically spike in Q4 as competition for B2B attention increases and procurement cycles stall. This program delivered 69 leads across October through December, 39% of total volume, with CPLs that, while higher than the August peak of $19.23, never exceeded $46. Even at the seasonal high point, cost per lead remained less than half the industry benchmark. That sustained output through a traditionally slow period is the difference between a campaign that runs hot for one quarter and a pipeline-generating system built to produce year-round.
Bay Leaf Digital on PPC and Retargeting
We build PPC and retargeting programs for B2B SaaS companies that need that distinction -qualified pipeline that holds up across quarters, not clicks that vanish when the budget cycle turns.