Case Study

Legal

If you’re trying to generate leads for a subscription-based software, we’ve got an important insight for you. LinkedIn ads may be 23X more efficient than Google search ads.

The Challenge:

Most software-as-a-service (SaaS) products require a conversation between buyer and seller before prospects become customers.

We tested two pay per click tactics for a multinational legal software provider and found how much more effective LinkedIn could be over Google.

The Strategy:

To generate leads for our multinational legal software client we tested two proven tactics. The goal was to learn if LinkedIn or Google would be more effective targeting an attorney-focused audience buying software for their legal firms.

Google Adwords Approach

In our Google experiment, the target audience were attorneys buying software for their firms.

With our Google paid search campaign, we started with a list of over 400 keywords across multiple match types. We launched the test with a standard list of negative keywords in place and multiple audience segments in observation mode, to help us gather behavioral data.

Throughout the test period, we optimized bids regularly and eventually funneled 80% of our ad spend to 35 keywords that saw the highest interaction rates.

Linkedin Approach

In our LinkedIn experiment, we used the direct sponsored content format with a lead generation form. This allowed us to serve ads in members’ newsfeeds and capture contact information when members clicked to learn more.

Since our target audience were attorneys, we used the professional targeting that is only available through LinkedIn. We segmented our audience using job titles, names of law firms, and sizes of law firms.

Throughout the test period with optimized bids regularly spending more against audience segments with the highest interaction rates.

The Results:

With a cost per lead that was 23X lower, LinkedIn was the clear winner. The LinkedIn cost per click was 2X more expensive than Google’s, but the higher conversion rate with LinkedIn made the pricier click worth it.

If you need to generate leads from a professional audience, you’d benefit from spending with LinkedIn over Google.

Contact us to learn more about our custom approach for each client.