Case 02 · LinkedIn Ads · B2B Finance · Lead generation

How we added $1.7M to a finance company's pipeline with LinkedIn Ads

After Meta delivered junk leads and Google priced them out, we used precise LinkedIn targeting to put their offer in front of the right finance decision-makers — generating 38 sales-qualified leads and $180K in closed revenue in a single quarter.

Goal

Generate qualified, sales-ready leads from senior finance decision-makers.

Approach

Fresh Campaign Manager + tracking, precision audience segmentation, native creative, Lead Gen Forms.

Timeline

One quarter · positive traction within the first month.

$0.0M
Qualified pipeline added · 38 SQLs at a ~$45K avg deal
$0K
New revenue closed · 4 deals won from LinkedIn
0×
Return on ad spend · on $18K of quarterly spend

The problem

A B2B finance company providing fast bridge loans and flexible funding to established lower-middle-market businesses. They target North American companies with $5M+ in annual revenue looking for a quicker, more flexible alternative to traditional lenders. Their deals are large and considered — which makes reaching the right decision-maker far more valuable than reaching volume.

Before working with Obrofy, they had tried both Meta and Google. Meta drove cheap clicks but the lead quality was poor — form fills from people who would never qualify for a six-figure loan. Google generated better-fit traffic but, in a fiercely competitive finance vertical, the cost per click was punishing and the economics didn't hold.

The real opportunity was LinkedIn, where you can target by exact job title, seniority, industry and company size. But finance is one of the most expensive environments on the platform — CPMs of $100–$200 are normal — so there's no room for sloppy targeting. Every wasted impression is expensive. Success depends entirely on getting in front of the right people, with creative that earns attention.

What we did

  1. 01
    Fresh Campaign Manager build and conversion tracking

    We set up a clean Campaign Manager account, configured billing and access, installed and tested the LinkedIn Insight Tag across the site, and verified every conversion event fired correctly — so performance was measurable from day one.

  2. 02
    Precision audience segmentation

    On LinkedIn, segmentation is the single biggest driver of success. We built dedicated audiences targeting only senior finance decision-makers — and deliberately excluded the irrelevant job functions, company sizes and competitors LinkedIn includes by default — so every expensive impression reached a genuine prospect.

  3. 03
    Native, scroll-stopping creative

    Instead of generic banner ads, we designed creative that looked like content people already engage with — case-study-style posts and familiar, recognisable formats that blend into the feed and earn a stop, a read, and a click rather than being scrolled past.

  4. 04
    Lead Gen Forms and weekly optimisation

    We ran LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms for fast, pre-filled submissions alongside website conversions, then optimised weekly against cost per qualified lead — shifting budget to the audiences and creative producing real, sales-ready prospects.

Full results

First quarter on LinkedIn, with qualified leads verified against the client's criteria:

Metric Value
Ad spend (quarter) $18,000
Impressions ~142,000
Click-through rate (CTR) 0.95%
Website conversions + Lead Gen Form leads 38
Sales-qualified leads (SQLs) 38
Cost per qualified lead ~$474

A 0.95% CTR sits comfortably above LinkedIn's finance benchmark, and at ~$474 per qualified lead the cost was high in absolute terms — but trivial against the size of the deals it produced.

The business value

In finance, lead cost is almost irrelevant next to deal size. What matters is how much pipeline and closed revenue those 38 leads created:

Business outcome Value
Ad spend (quarter) $18,000
Sales-qualified leads (SQLs) 38
Average deal size $45,000
Qualified pipeline added $1,710,000
Deals closed 4
New revenue closed $180,000
Cost to acquire a customer (CAC) $4,500
Return on ad spend 10×
The bottom line

$18,000 of LinkedIn spend produced $180,000 in closed revenue — a 10× return — and built a $1.7M pipeline the sales team is still working. Because finance deal sizes are large, even an expensive cost per lead turns profitable fast: a single closed deal more than paid for the entire quarter's ad spend.

The key shift

Meta chased cheap clicks and Google chased expensive ones. LinkedIn — done with precise targeting — reached the exact decision-makers who could actually sign a six-figure deal.

How it unfolded

  • Weeks 1–2

    Build Campaign Manager, install and test the Insight Tag, set conversion tracking.

  • Weeks 2–3

    Research and build precise senior-finance audiences; design native creative concepts.

  • Weeks 3–4

    Launch; first qualified leads arrive within the first month.

  • Months 2–3

    Optimise weekly to cost per qualified lead; settle at 38 SQLs and 4 closed deals for the quarter.

The leads finally match who we actually lend to. LinkedIn became our most reliable source of serious, ready-to-talk borrowers.
CMO

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