Paid Media
Transforming Paid Media Performance for a Sales Training Organization
Our client is a globally recognized sales and marketing training organization known for reshaping how companies engage their customers. With a range of services including sales training, hiring assessments, and customer service development, the organization empowers companies to rethink traditional sales models and foster growth through innovative strategies. By helping sales teams become trusted advisors, the client has become a leader in transforming how businesses connect with and grow their client base.
The Challenge
The organization struggled to measure the effectiveness of its digital marketing campaigns. Although they were running multiple initiatives, they lacked accurate performance tracking, resulting in inefficient reporting and limited ability to make data-driven decisions. At the same time, they needed a more strategic, proactive digital partner to bring cohesion to their keywords, creative, and landing page execution. To move forward, the client required expert analysis of their existing efforts and clear recommendations grounded in historical data and their ideal customer profile.
Inability to Accurately Measure Campaign Performance
Without reliable tracking, the organization could not understand which efforts were working or where to optimize.
Lack of Strategic Direction Across Digital Channels
Keywords, creative assets, and landing pages operated in silos, leading to inconsistent messaging and poor campaign alignment.
Need for a Data-Driven, Proactive Marketing Partner
The client required a partner who could audit current efforts, uncover opportunities, and build a cohesive strategy informed by performance history and ICP insights.
The Analysis
Through our evaluation, it became clear that the client’s core challenge stemmed from an incomplete and unreliable data infrastructure. Without accurate reporting, the marketing team lacked visibility into what was driving results, preventing them from optimizing campaigns or aligning efforts with broader business goals.
Identifying Data & Tracking Gaps
Our team uncovered significant inconsistencies in data collection and tracking. These gaps made it impossible to measure campaign effectiveness, evaluate lead quality, or understand true return on investment. The absence of reliable data prevented meaningful optimization.
Assessing Misalignment With the ICP
A deeper analysis showed that existing keywords, creative assets, and landing pages were not strategically aligned with the client’s ICP. This misalignment meant campaigns were attracting the wrong audiences or failing to resonate with high-value prospects.
Evaluating Prior Agency Focus & KPI Limitations
We also found that previous marketing partners emphasized surface-level metrics like form submissions rather than more impactful indicators such as opportunity creation and deal value. This limited view masked true performance and hindered long-term growth.
The Solution
To resolve the client’s visibility and performance challenges, Marcel Digital executed a strategic overhaul of their digital marketing operations. The focus was on building a reliable data foundation, aligning campaigns with revenue goals, and ensuring every marketing action was backed by measurable insights.
Creating a Reliable Data & Attribution Foundation
We built a scalable tracking and attribution system that gave the marketing team real-time visibility into performance. With accurate data in place, they could finally measure success, evaluate lead quality, and optimize campaigns with confidence.
Refining Targeting & Reshaping Paid Media Strategy
Using first-party data and ICP insights, we improved keyword targeting and shifted paid media from lead volume to revenue impact. Conversion value rules and updated creative and landing pages helped attract high-intent decision-makers and drive more meaningful conversions.
Enhancing Efficiency With Smarter Optimization
AI-driven bid strategies ensured budget was directed toward prospects most likely to close, improving spend efficiency and boosting overall campaign performance.
The Results
Within just one month, our data-driven approach transformed the client’s paid media performance:
$3M in opportunity value generated from paid search in the first month - the highest single-month performance in company history.
$12.7M in deal value driven over the past year, surpassing annual goals.
$3.5M in non-brand opportunity value, expanding reach beyond brand-focused campaigns and attracting net-new customers.
By prioritizing accurate data, strategic targeting, and a revenue-centric approach, we helped the client transform their digital marketing into a high-performing, sales-aligned growth engine.
This success reinforced trust in our strategic approach, leading to an increase in paid media budget and confidence in future growth. By focusing on accurate data, strategic targeting, and collaboration across teams, we transformed their digital marketing efforts into a powerful driver of business results.
