Paid Marketing

SEM (Search Engine Marketing) typically refers specifically to paid search advertising, such as Google Ads and Bing Ads. Our paid media practice is broader: it covers paid search, paid social (Meta and LinkedIn), and programmatic advertising across the open web. For most B2B businesses, a full-funnel paid media program that combines intent capture through search with awareness-building through social and programmatic produces significantly better results than search advertising alone.

It depends on your buyers, your budget, and your funnel stage needs. Search advertising (Google) is always a priority if buyers are actively searching for your solution because it captures the highest-intent demand. LinkedIn is essential if your buyers are senior decision-makers in specific industries or roles because the targeting precision justifies the premium CPM. Meta is effective for top-of-funnel awareness at a lower cost. Programmatic is most valuable for ABM and retargeting. We recommend the right channel mix during discovery, based on your specific situation.

There is no universal minimum; effectiveness depends on your target cost per lead, your competitive landscape, and the channels you are using. LinkedIn is significantly pricier per click than Google or Meta, which affects the minimum viable budget on that platform. As a general guideline, we recommend a minimum monthly budget that allows for statistically meaningful data accumulation within 4 to 6 weeks which varies significantly by industry and geography. We will give you a specific budget recommendation during discovery.

We measure paid media performance through the metrics that connect to commercial outcomes: cost per qualified lead, cost per opportunity, revenue attributed to paid channels, and ROAS (Return on Ad Spend). We build the conversion tracking and attribution infrastructure required to make these connections accurately because paid media measured only by clicks and impressions is not really being measured at all.

Yes, and this is one of the most common scenarios we work in. We conduct a thorough audit of your existing campaigns before taking over management, identifying the structural, targeting, and creative issues that are limiting performance, and prioritizing the improvements that will have the most immediate commercial impact.

Paid search can begin generating leads within days of launch for well-structured campaigns targeting actively searching buyers. Social advertising typically takes 2 to 4 weeks to optimize delivery and produce consistent lead volume. Programmatic display builds frequency and recognition over 4 to 8 weeks before its impact on the pipeline becomes measurable. We will give you realistic timeline expectations for each channel during the strategy development phase.