OUTCOME 01 /01
A paid system wired into your CRM
Campaign architecture, tracking, and declared-intent capture connected to HubSpot lifecycle stages, so paid activity shows up as pipeline your sales team recognises, not a separate spreadsheet.
B2B paid media that earns its place.
Most B2B paid budgets buy MQLs nobody follows up and impressions nobody remembers. We run LinkedIn-led paid that's wired into your content and your CRM, judged on qualified pipeline, and honest about when paid is the wrong place for your money.
FIG.0 / DEMAND-LED PAID · WIRED INTO CONTENT + CRM
01ANSWER
What does good B2B paid media look like in 2026?
ANSWER
Good B2B paid media is LinkedIn-led, built on the reality that about 95% of your buyers are not in-market at any moment, and split accordingly: memorable creative for the 95%, capture for the 5%. It amplifies content worth remembering, feeds signal into your CRM, and is measured on qualified pipeline, not lead volume.
SOURCE · LinkedIn B2B Institute / Ehrenberg-BassSOURCELinkedIn B2B Institute / Ehrenberg-Bass InstituteThe 95/5 rule: at any given time roughly 5% of B2B buyers are in-market; 95% are future buyers.
02METHOD
How we run paid.
- 01
Foundations before spend
Conversion tracking that works, CRM integration, declared-intent capture on every form, and a clear read on what a qualified opportunity is worth. If the plumbing is broken, paid reporting is fiction. We fix it first.
- 02
Audience architecture on the 95/5 split
Two jobs, deliberately separated: building memory with the 95% who aren't buying yet, and capturing the 5% who are. Most accounts spend everything chasing the 5% with lead-gen forms, then wonder why CPLs climb and quality falls.
- 03
Creative from your content estate
Thought-leader ads, document and carousel formats, and the proof points your content has already earned. Paid is distribution for things worth distributing. If there's nothing worth amplifying yet, we'll tell you to fix that before spending.
- 04
LinkedIn-led, Google where it captures
LinkedIn carries the strategy in B2B. Google earns its slot on brand terms and genuine high-intent queries, and nowhere else. We don't spread budget across channels to look busy.
- 05
Measurement that survives the dark funnel
Self-reported attribution on every conversion, CRM-closed reporting on opportunities rather than form fills, and honest scenario modelling instead of guaranteed numbers. We track what the dashboard can't see by asking buyers directly.
03COMPARISON
Lead-gen paid vs demand-led paid.
The default B2B playbook optimises what's easy to count. We optimise what counts.
LEAD-GEN PAID
DEMAND-LED PAID
Objective
MQL volume at a target CPL.
Qualified pipeline and salience with future buyers.
Audience
The 5% in-market, retargeted to exhaustion.
The 95/5 split: memory for most, capture for the few.
Creative
Gated PDF plus a lead form.
Thought-leader, document and carousel formats that work in the feed.
Measurement
Cost per lead.
Cost per qualified opportunity, self-reported attribution, CRM-closed.
Relationship to content
Runs separately from it.
Amplifies the estate and feeds signal back into it.
04OUTCOMES
What you actually get.
OUTCOME 02 /02
A creative engine, not a creative backlog
Ad formats built from your existing content estate and refreshed on a cadence, with the testing discipline to retire what stops working.
OUTCOME 03 /03
Reporting you can defend to a board
Cost per qualified opportunity, self-reported attribution, and scenario-based forecasting. Indicative modelling, openly framed; never guaranteed numbers.
05FIT
Is paid right for you yet?
Good fit
- +B2B companies with proof points and content worth amplifying
- +A working CRM and someone who follows up qualified leads
- +Sales cycles where salience with the 95% pays back over quarters
- +Teams who want pipeline quality, not an MQL count
Not a fit
- ×Media budgets smaller than the management fee; that money belongs in content or RevOps first
- ×No content estate to amplify yet
- ×Teams who need a guaranteed CPL in month one
- ×Anyone wanting set-and-forget lead-gen forms
If your monthly media budget is smaller than our management fee, paid is the wrong place for your money, and we'll say so on the first call.
Who actually does the work
A senior paid specialist who has run B2B accounts with us for years, hands-on on every account. Robin shapes strategy and CRM integration. Katie connects paid to the content estate it amplifies. No juniors, no handoff layer.
06CASE STUDY
SMART TECHNOLOGIES
Paid that proved the channel without wasting the budget.
SMART needed to prove digital marketing could generate demand cost-effectively. We built content, landing pages, HubSpot workflows, nurture emails and paid social campaigns around one campaign system. The project generated more than 670 leads for about £10,000 of media spend, with an overall £15 cost per lead.
Read the case study07HOW TO START
How does an engagement actually start?
Paid Media Audit
From £4,000
2 to 3 weeks
A diagnostic of your accounts, tracking, creative, and audience architecture, plus a costed plan: what to fix, what to spend, and what to expect, framed as scenarios rather than promises. Yours to execute with any team.
Start with an auditOngoing Management
From £2,000/month
Hands-on management of LinkedIn and Google: audience architecture, creative production from your estate, testing, budget stewardship, and CRM-closed reporting. Scales with media budget and scope.
Book a callNot sure which? Book a call. We'll tell you honestly which one is right, or that paid isn't your next move at all.
08FAQ
Frequently asked questions.
What's the minimum media budget?
There's no hard floor, but if your media budget is smaller than the management fee, the maths doesn't work and we'll tell you. The audit includes a costed recommendation for your category and goals.
Do you run Meta or TikTok?
Rarely, and only where there's a genuine case. LinkedIn carries B2B; Google captures intent. We'd rather decline a channel than spend your money proving a point.
Can you guarantee a cost per lead?
No, and be wary of anyone who does. We model scenarios openly: what we could see under stated assumptions. Then we report against opportunities, not form fills.
We already have an in-house person or agency. Can you work alongside them?
Yes. The audit shape exists partly for this: we diagnose, hand over a plan, and either execute it or support whoever does.
Why is paid under Be Connected and not Be Found?
Because paid only pays back when it's connected: to the content it amplifies and the CRM that proves it worked. Run in isolation, it's the most expensive way to be ignored.
→ LAST WORD
Paid that earns its place, or honest advice that it doesn't.
30-minute call. We'll tell you whether paid is your next move, or what to fix first.