90 B2B leads from a first-ever ad campaign, with cost per lead down to $10.90

About the client

A professional training and development organisation that had never run paid advertising before.

The challenge

Starting from zero: no ad history, no audience data and no proof of which professional segments would respond. Week 1 produced no leads.

The goal

Generate high-quality B2B leads through LinkedIn Lead Generation forms.

Launched with Lead Gen Forms

LinkedIn's native lead forms as the main conversion point, supported by a website traffic campaign.
Used week 1 for data

Treated the first week as a learning period instead of judging the campaign too early.
Refined targeting and creatives

Adjusted audiences and ad creatives after week 1, and raised the budget to collect data faster.
Ran a weekly optimisation loop

Each week: review the data, find the stronger professional segments, pause weak audiences, refine creatives and move budget to what worked.
Scaled only what was efficient

Put more budget behind segments once cost and lead quality showed a repeatable pattern.

Cost per click dropped from $2.73 in week 1 to $0.32 in week 5, and week 5 was the most efficient week at $10.90 per lead.

Week by week
Week	Dates	Spend	Leads	Cost per lead	Avg CPC
1	Dec 4 to 11	$270.38	0	N/A	$2.73
2	Dec 12 to 18	$1,063.98	56	$19.00	$0.57
3	Dec 19 to 25 (holidays)	$214.62	8	$26.83	$0.61
4	Dec 26 to Jan 1	$125.49	9	$13.94	Not shown
5	Jan 2 to 10	$185.26	17	$10.90	$0.32

Give a new account a week to collect data before judging it.
Moving budget to the professional segments that respond is what lowers cost per lead.
Test creatives and targeting together, every week.
Scale only once cost and lead quality are repeatable.

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