International biopharma leader

Our pharmaceuticals client approached us to review and manage their paid marketing. We already had a great relationship working with them on their SEO activities, but paid media was experiencing inconsistent results and an increasingly expensive cost per lead. 

Across their four LinkedIn ad accounts, campaigns were suffering from:

• High volatile cost per lead (CPL),
• Rising acquisition costs,
• Inefficient campaign structure,
• Inadequate optimisation,
• Performance spikes that made forecasting impossible.

After taking over paid media management in April 2025, we implemented a number of actions in order to recover performance.

1. Account restructure: Aligning with the client’s business unit restructure, we rebuilt campaigns around commercial intent with thorough audience research, and we removed wasted spend whilst improving Quality Scores to positively impact efficiency.
2. Smarter budget allocation: We worked closely with stakeholders around budget allocation, redirecting towards the better-performing campaigns, whilst diagnosing what we could test on those that were underperforming.
3. Conversion-focused optimisation: We shifted the conversation from solely focusing on leads and sales to the sales journey, factoring in that not everybody is ready to be sold to. We introduced a number of awareness-focused campaigns in order to generate visibility and interest at the top of the funnel.
4. Regular touchpoints: We maintained regular communication with all stakeholders through weekly business unit-specific meetings as well as a monthly all-team catch-up to discuss campaign performance, what was working, what could be improved, as well as to discuss the competitive landscape and any upcoming opportunities. 

Our focus was based on long-term stability, not short-term wins.

Since taking over paid media management until now, we have managed to:

1. Restore efficiency: Before our work on the account, CPL fluctuated massively, with some months regularly exceeding sustainable levels. We reduced the cost per lead by 32.7% on average across all accounts, with volatility reducing significantly throughout 2025. 
2. Turnaround from peak inefficiencies: Before optimisation, one of our campaigns generated a cost per lead of $1000+. This has since dropped to $183 in early 2026, representing an 82.9% improvement and restoring the account to commercial viability.
3. Generate performance stability: Where performance once fluctuated uncontrollably, CPL now sits within a more stable and predictable range, which has allowed us to better forecast and give confident performance predictions.
4. Become a strategic partner, not a supplier: Beyond performance improvements, regular touchpoints with the client’s team have enabled us to challenge assumptions, recommend changes, guide spending decisions, and focus on performance data. 

Paid ads on LinkedIn moved from chaotic to predictable, as well as a scalable source of lead generation for our client. 

Now that acquisition is more stable, our focus is on continuous optimisation across all accounts.