Paid Media
Driving Qualified Lead Growth Through Paid Media for an Industrial Equipment Company
An industrial equipment company partnered with Marcel Digital to generate more qualified leads from businesses looking to sell used equipment. While the company purchases a wide range of equipment, a key priority was increasing inventory acquisition in high-value categories like industrial tanks. Marcel Digital developed a paid media strategy combining high-intent search campaigns, a dedicated conversion-focused landing page, and offline conversion tracking to improve lead quality and help the company acquire more valuable inventory.
The Challenge
The company operates in a niche market where search demand from businesses looking to sell industrial equipment is naturally limited. That meant every lead, and every advertising dollar, needed to count.
They wanted to generate more qualified seller leads while increasing inventory acquisition in priority equipment categories, particularly tanks. The challenge was balancing limited search demand with lead quality and efficiently allocating budget across equipment categories with different levels of opportunity.
Key challenges included:
Limited search demand within a specialized industrial market
Increasing inventory acquisition for high-value equipment, particularly tanks
Improving lead quality while maintaining lead volume
Allocating budget efficiently across multiple equipment categories
The Solution
Marcel Digital built a paid media strategy focused on generating qualified seller leads rather than simply increasing traffic or form submissions. Campaign performance was evaluated alongside feedback from the company's buying team, allowing optimization decisions to reflect actual business opportunities.
Finding and Converting the Right Sellers
Google Search campaigns were structured by equipment category so keywords, messaging, and budgets could align with inventory priorities. This allowed investment to be directed toward the highest-performing categories, with additional focus placed on high-value opportunities like industrial tanks as they emerged.
To improve conversion rates, Marcel also designed and built a dedicated Unbounce landing page that streamlined the landing page experience and made it easier for sellers to submit their equipment information.
Optimizing Based on Real Sales Outcomes
Marcel connected paid media performance with feedback from the company's buying team by importing marketing-qualified lead data back into Google Ads through offline conversion tracking. This allowed campaigns to optimize toward leads that represented real inventory opportunities rather than all form submissions.
Expanding and Refining Performance
As performance data accumulated, Marcel expanded into Microsoft Ads to capture additional qualified search demand. Ongoing analysis of campaign performance, lead quality, and cost efficiency informed continuous adjustments to keywords, bidding strategies, and budget allocation across equipment categories.
The Results
Since launch, the company has increased marketing-qualified leads by 169% while creating a more efficient approach to generating qualified inventory acquisition opportunities.
Within the program, tank-focused campaigns consistently generated qualified leads at a lower cost than broader equipment campaigns, while Microsoft Ads created an additional source of MQLs at a lower cost per qualified lead than comparable Google campaigns.
Key outcomes included:
Increased marketing-qualified leads by 169% since launch
Generated qualified tank leads at a lower cost than broader equipment campaigns
Expanded into Microsoft Ads, generating incremental MQLs at a lower cost per qualified lead than comparable Google campaigns
Improved campaign optimization by incorporating MQL feedback through offline conversion tracking
Improved marketing efficiency by prioritizing lead quality over lead volume
The program continues to improve as new performance and MQL data becomes available, helping the company generate stronger seller opportunities and support long-term inventory growth.
