I want to learn
I am trying to understand the category, best practices and what is changing around me.
Best message: Educate
This is the logic behind how I actually run paid media. I look at where the buyer is, whether we are creating demand or capturing it, and then I build the channel strategy around that.
The journey is not linear, but buyers still move through recognisable stages. The message that works at one stage can be completely wrong at another.
A buyer can see an ad, search organically, check G2, come back direct, get pulled into a business trigger, disappear for weeks, then return through Search or another channel. That is why I do not judge every paid touchpoint only by whether it generated the final click.
I am trying to understand the category, best practices and what is changing around me.
The problem is now important enough that doing nothing has a cost.
The buyer understands the category and believes this type of solution could work.
The buyer is comparing vendors and building internal consensus.
The business case, timing, owners and risk all need to make sense.
That is why I do not build the entire paid strategy around demo requests. The 95% and the 5% need different jobs, messages and expectations.
I use paid to distribute useful ideas, problem education, product understanding and proof so the brand becomes familiar before the buying window opens.
I use paid to capture existing intent, make the path to conversion cleaner and stop wasting money on the wrong searches or the wrong people.
The goal is not “get a cheap lead.” The goal is to reach the right accounts, build enough familiarity and trust, and then watch whether that attention turns into real business outcomes.
Leading indicators tell me whether we are reaching and educating the right accounts. Lagging indicators tell me whether that attention becomes pipeline.
I start with the data closest to the business before I broaden into native platform targeting.
I want the campaign mix to educate buyers, explain the product and reduce risk, not just repeat the same demo message.
Industry POV, market trends and strategic narratives.
Pain points, problem awareness, how-to education, frameworks and playbooks.
Solution explainers, capabilities, use cases and before/after impact.
Customer stories, case studies, testimonials and industry validation.
I use LinkedIn when I need precision around accounts, personas and buying committees, especially when the market is not actively searching yet.
I use Meta when I want to scale good creative beyond LinkedIn pricing, especially for retargeting and broader awareness.
I use video when showing the product, the problem or the point of view is more persuasive than another image ad.
These buyers already know they have a problem. I am not trying to create demand here. I am trying to capture the right intent as efficiently as possible.
They are actively looking for tools or vendors to solve it.
I capture buyers who are already in the market.
The message gets simpler as intent gets stronger.
Right searches, less waste, better conversion and qualified leads to Sales.
Capture users already searching for the company, product, pricing or reviews.
Capture people actively evaluating alternatives, pricing and comparisons.
High-intent solution searches and more specific capability searches.
Broader problem searches where the buyer may not yet be looking for a specific tool.
This is where I expect the strongest active intent, so most of the work is about structure, query quality and efficiency.
I use Microsoft when there is enough relevant search volume, but I keep a close eye on network settings and placement quality.
Not every in-market buyer converts on the first visit. Retargeting is where I reinforce proof, differentiation and the reason to come back.
I do not expect everything to be obvious on day one. I look for the next useful signal, then move deeper into the funnel as the data gets stronger.
Conversion tracking, keyword lists, ad copy, landing pages and initial projections.
I look at CTR, ad relevance and initial CPC.
Keyword vs search term, irrelevant queries and negative keywords.
Search impression share, auction coverage, budget, bids and quality score.
Company size, industry, persona, CRM enrichment and lead quality.
Form submissions, demos, trials, SQLs and what Sales is accepting.
That means talking to Sales, checking CRM data, understanding lead quality and being comfortable when the answer is not obvious immediately.
I want to know what changed, why performance moved and what needs attention next.
If the lead quality is poor or attribution looks wrong, I want the real feedback instead of optimising from platform numbers alone.
I prefer one or two useful changes so we can actually learn what moved performance.
Sometimes the right answer is to test it, observe what happens and learn from it.
I use frameworks, but I adapt them to the product, buying motion, budget and what the business actually needs.
Paid media works better when it is connected to the rest of marketing and Sales, not managed in a separate box.
Trust matters because not every paid media decision can be explained perfectly before we test it.
I’ll look at the media, tracking, landing pages and what happens after the click, then walk you through where I would start and why.