Specialist B2B paid media agency
B2B paid media that builds demand, not clicks
Performance marketing alone is no longer enough to win in B2B. Only 5% of buyers are in the market at any one time, and 86% of those buyers enter discovery with a day-one list of vendors they already prefer. Our paid media work earns your brand a place on that list, with full-funnel B2B campaigns that build consideration before the search begins and convert intent when it shows up.
Why B2B paid media is different
B2B paid media operates on a different logic to B2C. The buyer is different, the journey is longer and the metrics that matter sit further down the funnel.
The sales cycle is the first complication. Last-click conversion can’t see most of what paid media is doing for a B2B brand, because the click and the purchase are often six to eighteen months apart. Measurement has to follow the pipeline, not the session.
The buyer is also a committee. A single deal involves marketing leads, finance signing off the
budget, IT vetoing on security and procurement comparing terms. They all consume different content, on different channels, in a different order. A campaign that only reaches the champion will quietly stall in committee.
The audience itself is then unusually narrow. A B2B target list of two thousand named accounts isn’t a scaling problem, it’s a precision problem. Broad targeting wastes budget and trains the algorithm against you. Paid media in this market succeeds by getting smaller and smarter, not bigger.
We build all of this into the way we run B2B paid media from day one.
Our B2B paid media services
We run B2B paid media as four connected disciplines, each tuned to where your buyers actually spend their time.
B2B PPC and paid search
Google Ads and Microsoft Ads at the bottom of the funnel, where intent is highest and your competitors are bidding hardest. We run B2B PPC programmes built around Quality Score, conversion efficiency and ROAS, with bidding and creative tuned to the keywords that actually move the pipeline rather than the ones that drive cheap clicks.
B2B paid social
LinkedIn Ads as the primary channel, with Meta and TikTok layered in where the audience justifies it. We design firmographic targeting around company size, job title and industry, layered with intent and behavioural data from 6sense and Demandbase where clients use them. LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads and conversational ad formats sit alongside the standard targeting playbook for clients who want to build consideration as well as capture demand.
Programmatic and display
The awareness layer. Programmatic display, Connected TV and Digital Audio carry the brand into the channels your buyers consume outside the working day, where the bigger consideration shifts actually happen. This is where we earn share of voice ahead of the moments where pipeline converts.
Account-based marketing
Paid media is the activation layer for account-based marketing. We run precise account-list targeting on LinkedIn and across the open web, with personalised creative for the highest-value accounts and pipeline-level reporting that connects ad delivery to deal progression. ABM is where B2B paid media earns its highest return, and where generalist agencies struggle most.
Be chosen before the search begins
86% of B2B buyers enter the buying process with a day-one list of vendors they already prefer. 93% will eventually buy from a brand on that list. The average list contains just three names.
That list is built long before the RFP is issued. Industry analyst reports, podcast appearances, LinkedIn posts seen in passing, the brand that came up when a peer was asked for a recommendation. Most of it doesn’t show up in attribution, which is why most paid media programmes underfund it.
The brands that win in B2B are the ones investing in being chosen before the search begins, not just bidding for clicks once the search has started.
We run full-funnel B2B paid campaigns built around the day-one list. Brand-building activity on LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads, video, programmatic display and Connected TV runs against share of voice and awareness lift, working in concert with the demand-capture work happening at the bottom of the funnel.
Let’s take the first step. We’re ready.
Reaching the right B2B audiences
Precision is where B2B paid media is won or lost.
We build target audiences from ABM-style account lists, layered with intent signals from 6sense and Demandbase where they’re available. On LinkedIn we run firmographic targeting across company size, job title, industry and seniority, with lookalike modelling on your highest-value closed-won accounts. Contextual placements on programmatic and display extend reach into the publications and content categories your buyers actually read.
CRM integration then closes the measurement loop. Offline conversion tracking feeds closed-won data back to the ad platforms, so the algorithms optimise toward the accounts that actually convert, not just the ones that fill in a form.
Platform partnerships that earn results faster
We hold Google Premier Partner and LinkedIn Marketing Partner status, plus active integrations with the major B2B ABM platforms including 6sense and Demandbase. We’re also Global Search Awards 2025 winners for Best Use of Search B2B (PPC) for our work with Fora, and Silver winners for Best UK PPC Campaign for Workbooks.
In practice, partner status means early access to beta features before they hit general release, direct collaboration with platform teams on campaign architecture, and bidding and targeting capabilities that aren’t yet available to most agencies. For our clients, it translates into smarter automation, faster performance gains and a measurable advantage in markets where the platforms themselves are increasingly the deciding factor in campaign outcomes.
Proving commercial growth
B2B buyers are sceptical of vanity metrics. And they should be. We measure paid media against pipeline contribution and revenue, not impressions.
The work runs in four parts. Experimentation and incrementality testing isolates what paid media is actually causing versus what would have happened anyway. Offline conversion tracking through CRM integration ties form fills to closed-won revenue. Unified reporting across paid search, paid social, programmatic and ABM gives you a single commercial view of all paid activity, run by our analytics and reporting team. And continuous optimisation through automation, AI and proprietary scripts keeps performance compounding rather than plateauing.
This sits inside our broader digital strategy work, which is where the commercial case for paid investment gets made in the first place.
Balancing brand and demand
Sales activation drives the response you can measure this quarter. Brand building drives the preference, pricing power and share of voice you’ll need to keep winning next year.
The two work together. Demand capture without brand investment degrades over time, because every quarter you’re paying more to win the same intent against competitors who have built more recognition. Brand investment without demand capture leaves money on the table when intent does surface. The strongest B2B paid programmes run both, weighted to where the client actually sits in their market.
“Our first 6 months working together with Hallam exceeded our expectations, helping us produce a campaign that not only won Campaign of the Year, but also started numerous conversations with
relevant leads.”
Dan Roche, CMO, Workbooks
How we work, works.
We’re in the business of results. Take a look at some of our most recent work, or get in touch and we’ll show you what
great looks like.
Read about how we won Marketing Week’s ‘Best Campaign of 2024’
A unified SaaS search strategy that resulted in a 168% increase in won revenue
Using paid media to drive awareness and adoption of products across EMEA
Increasing US opportunity pipeline revenue with a 27% uplift through paid media strategy
Latest paid media articles
Read about industry trends, news and opinions from our experts.
Frequently asked questions
What is B2B paid media?
B2B paid media is the set of paid digital channels used to reach business buyers, including paid search, paid social, programmatic display, Connected TV and digital audio. In B2B it usually runs full-funnel, with brand-building campaigns at the top building consideration and demand-capture campaigns at the bottom converting intent, measured against pipeline and revenue rather than clicks.
What’s the difference between B2B PPC and B2B paid social?
B2B PPC, run primarily on Google Ads and Microsoft Ads, captures existing demand at the moment of intent. B2B paid social, run primarily on LinkedIn, reaches buyers earlier in the journey, before they’re actively searching. The strongest programmes use both, with paid social shaping demand and paid search converting it.
How much does B2B paid media cost?
It depends on the channel mix, the size of the target audience and the commercial goals. LinkedIn Ads typically carry higher CPMs than Google Ads but reach more precise audiences, and ABM-led campaigns concentrate spend on a smaller account list. We build budgets around the pipeline target rather than the channel allocation.
How do you measure B2B paid media ROI?
We measure paid media against pipeline contribution, offline conversion data from CRM integration, and incrementality testing that isolates the genuine commercial uplift from paid activity. The aim is to report paid media performance in the same language your board uses for every other channel, not in vanity metrics that don’t tie to commercial outcomes.
What platforms do you use?
Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Microsoft Ads, Meta and TikTok where the audience justifies it, alongside programmatic display, Connected TV and digital audio for the awareness layer. We also integrate with B2B-specific platforms including 6sense and Demandbase for clients running ABM programmes.
How is Hallam different from other B2B paid media agencies?
Three things. We’re Google Premier Partner and LinkedIn Marketing Partner, which gets us early access to features other agencies don’t have. We run paid media as part of an integrated offer alongside digital PR and content marketing, so brand-building and demand-capture work together. And we’re a B2B specialist agency, not a generalist with a few B2B clients, which means our B2B SaaS practice and ABM capability are built for this market rather than retrofitted to it.