The Client
Sphere, a global technology consulting company, helps mid-sized companies and enterprises solve real-life business challenges through innovative technology solutions. By streamlining operations, eliminating inefficiencies and improving customer engagement channels, Sphere has consistently delivered transformative results for its clients. Operating across the globe, the company has established itself as a trusted partner for businesses seeking to drive growth and efficiency through tailored technology solutions.
The Objective
Sphere aimed to capture demand for their services through performance marketing. The primary objective was to improve lead generation and conversion rates for the USA market.
The company also sought to refine its existing performance marketing practices to ensure:
Higher ROI from service-specific campaigns.
Better alignment with its target audience’s search behavior.
Increased engagement from businesses actively seeking technology consulting solutions.
The Target Audience
Being a technology consulting company that also offers development services, Sphere wanted to target decision-makers in mid-sized companies and enterprises. The ideal customer profile from within these companies consisted of:
C-suite executives (CIO, CTO, CEO, COO)
Department Heads/Directors
IT Managers
Project teams.
Struggling with the following concerns:
Maximize ROI from technology investments
Find the right technology solutions and partners
Keep up with the pace of technological change
The Challenge
Despite having a strong service offering, Sphere could not crack the full potential of performance marketing. Their main challenges in turning marketing-generated leads into customers were:
Their ads were not reaching the right audience effectively, leading to missed opportunities.
Content on the website was not optimised for the user journey.
Campaigns were not optimized for maximum returns.
The USA and European regions required different approaches to lead generation, due to differences in audience behavior.
Sphere needed a focused strategy to capitalize on the vast demand within their target markets.
The Solution
To address these challenges, Sphere implemented a multi-pronged performance marketing strategy. As a first step, the team conducted detailed research to identify the market trends in the USA and European markets. The research was done to better understand the following:
High-intent audiences most likely to require technology consulting services.
Relevant industries and sectors where Sphere’s solutions could deliver maximum impact.
Following the study, here’s what we did:
In-depth keyword research to target the right audience. As we collected the data, we ran multiple keyword tests to make sure our ads showed to the target audience at the right time.
Since services like mobile app development were highly competitive, we narrowed down the campaign offering based on our market understanding. This approach, combined with rigorous ad copy testing was taken to reach specific audiences.
To engage with users in the service consideration stage, we ran campaigns focused on promoting authoritative white papers. This helped users find the information they were looking for and thereby, build trust.
Our team spent a significant amount of time drawing insights from analytics and session recordings to understand user behaviour on the landing page. These insights were then used to coax the user to enquire about the services.
Expanded proven campaigns from the US region to the UK/EU and the Middle East.
This helped us achieve the lead pipeline growth the client was looking for.
The performance data was meticulously tracked and analysed to drive continuous improvement. The team used metrics such as:
Cost-per-lead (CPL).
Conversion rates.
Engagement rates across campaigns
What didn’t work?
The website content was not sufficiently tailored to guide visitors through the user journey. Without clear, conversion-focused messaging and optimised landing pages, we observed that potential leads were not being effectively nurtured into inquiry stages.
We initially targeted broad, highly competitive keywords in an attempt to capture demand. This approach not only inflated our costs but also diluted our focus, resulting in lower-quality leads and higher cost-per-lead (CPL).
Initially, our ad copy was too generic and didn’t clearly differentiate Sphere Partners’ unique consulting solutions. This led to inconsistencies between the ads and landing pages, causing confusion and lower engagement among our target audience.
The Results
The new performance marketing strategy delivered impressive results for Sphere:
Raised the lead-to-MQL ratio by up to 90%.
Improved MQL-to-SQL ratio by 30%
Reduction in CPL by 45-50%
Working with Penguin Eye, Sphere was able to:
Reduce their cost of reaching their target audience
Successfully establish a better foothold in the USA and European markets
Expand the playbook across to MEA markets.
Position themselves as the technology consulting partner for mid-sized companies and enterprises.
