Paid Media
Driving Qualified Pipeline Growth Through Paid Media for a B2B SaaS Company
A B2B SaaS company partnered with Marcel Digital to increase the impact of its paid media program across Google Ads and Bing Ads. The focus was clear: generate stronger pipeline and make smarter investment decisions based on which campaigns were producing real business opportunities.
By connecting media performance with deeper funnel data, Marcel identified an opportunity to scale Bing, strengthened the company's branded search presence, and refined how campaigns were optimized across platforms. The result was a 533% year-over-year increase in PPC performance in Q2, along with a $512,928 ACV deal sourced through Bing PPC.
The Challenge
The company wanted paid media to contribute more qualified opportunities to its sales pipeline while improving how budget was allocated across channels.
At the same time, AI-powered search experiences were taking up more space in search results, reducing organic visibility for important queries. Combined with competitors bidding on the company's branded terms, this created a new visibility challenge and increased the importance of paid media in maintaining the company's presence when prospects searched for the brand.
The opportunity was to connect advertising decisions more closely with what happened after a lead converted. By looking further into the sales funnel, Marcel could identify which channels were producing the strongest opportunities and use those insights to improve performance.
Key challenges included:
Growing qualified pipeline from paid media
Identifying which platforms produced the strongest sales opportunities
Using deeper funnel data to improve budget allocation and campaign decisions
Maintaining branded search visibility amid AI-driven changes and increased competition
The Solution
Marcel connected campaign performance with lead progression and sales data to better understand where paid media was contributing to pipeline. These insights gave the team a stronger basis for deciding where to invest, how to optimize campaigns, and where new opportunities could be scaled.
Finding an Opportunity in Bing
When Marcel analyzed lead progression by platform, Bing stood out. Leads from the platform were moving further through the funnel at a strong rate, signaling an opportunity to increase investment.
Marcel shifted additional budget into Bing and continued evaluating performance as the program scaled. That decision paid off with a $512,928 ACV deal sourced through Bing PPC, turning an emerging channel opportunity into measurable revenue.
Optimizing Toward Business Outcomes
Marcel incorporated deeper funnel signals into paid media decision-making, looking beyond initial conversions to understand which campaigns were generating qualified opportunities.
Lead progression and sales outcomes helped inform bidding, targeting, and budget decisions across the program, keeping paid media focused on the company's broader pipeline goals.
Protecting the Organization's Brand Presence
Marcel's Paid Media, SEO/AEO, and Analytics teams worked together to understand how changes in organic visibility were affecting the organization’s presence in search. Based on those insights, the team increased branded search investment to maintain strong placement and protect visibility when competitors bid on their terms.
Marcel also launched AI Max in Google Ads to test additional targeting and campaign capabilities as the program continued to evolve.
The Results
The refined strategy drove significant year-over-year growth while showing the value of connecting paid media decisions to deeper sales outcomes.
Key outcomes included:
Increased PPC performance by 533% year over year in Q2
Generated a $512,928 ACV closed deal through Bing PPC
Scaled Bing investment based on stronger lead progression
Used pipeline and sales data to guide campaign and budget decisions
Strengthened branded search coverage as organic visibility changed
By looking beyond initial conversions and following performance further through the funnel, Marcel uncovered an opportunity that may have been overlooked using platform-level metrics alone. The result was stronger paid media performance, a more informed approach to channel investment, and measurable revenue generated through Bing PPC.
