How we achieved a 16x improvement in paid media ROI using Micro Profiling

Generating measurable impact from paid media is one of the biggest challenges facing B2B marketers – using the right agency model and new targeting techniques is critical to success.

Trust in media agencies is at an all-time low, eroded by a constant stream of exposés highlighting the pervasiveness of ad fraud, the opaque buying practices that waste client budgets, and the fact that most agencies have little incentive to clean up their act.

ID Comms’ annual Global Media Transparency Report highlighted that 40% of marketers distrust their media agency. I’m surprised that figure isn’t higher after the FBI launched an investigation into how media agencies operate.

Against this backdrop, driving measurable outcomes through media is a big challenge. Particularly so for B2B marketers whose audiences are typically more focused and nuanced than those of their counterparts in B2C.

Big media agencies aren’t designed for B2B
The traditional media agencies struggle with B2B. They tend to lack knowledge of complex B2B audiences, products, and buyer journeys, and they lack the appetite required to interpret and act on data.

Most of our B2B clients use media to generate leads for their sales teams. A program’s success will be measured not on impressions and clicks, but by the impact it has on pipeline and revenue. For a campaign to succeed, it is essential that ads drive action from individuals with commercial value to the business.

Your choice of agency partner is pivotal to ensuring this happens. This is a challenge we meet head on. Day in, day out.

Our specialized solution is Micro Profiling
Using a unique Micro Profiling methodology, we analyze each client’s existing customers to surface common attributes and behaviors that define them – isolating the digital ‘DNA’ of the audience.

From this analysis we develop highly focused targeting profiles that go beyond the simple role-based or firmographic targeting that is typical in B2B.

Instead, we isolate individuals based on the precise attributes that make them desirable to our client’s sales organizations. This ensures media investments are focused on the people that matter, allowing marketers to better engage and convert their audiences through more direct and resonant content.

Undertaking a controlled test via LinkedIn
We know Micro Profiling works, but one of our Fortune 500 clients was able to test it for themselves. They pitted our techniques against targeting developed by one of the ‘Big Four’ agency groups.

The target audience for the campaign were technical decision makers within financial services. We used the Micro Profiling methodology to develop targeting profiles.

These profiles were deployed within a LinkedIn advertising campaign, which routed users to a lead capture form on our client’s website – where they could exchange their contact details for a piece of thought leadership content. The client ran our targeting against the ‘Big Four’ agency’s own targeting to act as a control.

47% lower cost, x16 more MQLs
The Metia targeting generated leads at a 47% lower cost, because our focus on the people that mattered led to a significantly higher conversion rate for the content download.

The performance improvement didn’t stop at initial lead capture. The leads Metia generated were then nine times more likely to become Marketing Qualified (MQLs).

The result: Micro Profiling targeting generated sixteen times more MQLs for each dollar spent on media.

Is it time we had a talk?
If your media investments are failing to deliver the impact you need, then best get in touch.

We love to talk about conversions, CPL and business outcomes. We like to share and compare, what’s working, and what’s not.

You may, or may not, choose to work with us. But we’d certainly both enjoy the conversation.