97% Lower Cost Per Lead Over About 11 Months, $110K+ Managed
Global Technology Platform (Anonymised) · November 2024 to September 2025 (about 11 months)
Paid media Jakub ran as a freelance consultant from Q4 2024 to Q3 2025, almost entirely before he founded AfM in August 2025.
Lower Cost Per Lead
Total Ad Spend Managed
Total Leads Generated
Quarters, Q4 2024 to Q3 2025
Result proof path
Outcome
97% lower cost per lead: $270+ in the first quarter to $8.86 blended in the last.
Mechanism
LinkedIn first, then Meta as the main channel from Q3 2025, with creative testing and audience segmentation across DACH.
Proof
$110K+ spend managed and 1,700+ leads over four quarters, from the self-prepared case deck.
The Situation
A global technology platform's DACH division (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) needed to recruit agencies, entrepreneurs, and digital professionals into a creator network programme across German-speaking markets. There was nothing to inherit: no paid media infrastructure, no proven creative, and no historical performance data. The engagement started from scratch in Q4 2024 on LinkedIn only, and that first quarter produced leads at about $270 each, too expensive for the programme to scale. The market added its own complexity: German-language creative needed native-level copy, professional advertising norms differ from English-speaking markets, and European privacy rules demanded careful pixel and tracking setup. The job was to bring the cost per lead down, test a second platform, and scale volume across all three countries.
The Challenge
An Uneconomic First Quarter
The first quarter, on LinkedIn only, produced leads at $270+ each. At that cost the creator network programme could not scale.
Single-Platform Dependency
Running only on LinkedIn capped both volume and cost efficiency. LinkedIn's auction in the DACH market kept costs per thousand impressions high, and there was no second channel to absorb budget or test other audience behaviour.
DACH Market Complexity
German-speaking markets need native-level creative, culturally appropriate professional messaging, and careful compliance with European privacy rules. English-market approaches do not simply translate, and Germany, Austria, and Switzerland each needed their own targeting.
Starting From Zero
No accounts, tracking, audiences, or tested creative existed. All of it had to be built before any optimisation could start, and the first quarter's data was the only baseline available.
What Was Built
Jakub ran the paid media across four quarters, first on LinkedIn and then on Meta and LinkedIn together. Q4 2024 built the foundation on LinkedIn: video-first creative and a first read on which audiences responded, at about $270 a lead. In Q1 2025, lead form optimisation lowered the cost per lead. In Q2 2025 the budget was cut by 54% with no creative refresh, and cost per lead rose to $348. In Q3 2025 Meta launched as the main channel alongside LinkedIn, with audiences split into segments across agencies, freelancers, entrepreneurs, business owners, and streamers, and budgets weighted across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland by response rather than population. That quarter produced 1,606 leads at a blended $8.86 on $14,224 of spend. Most of the fall in cost came from the move to Meta: LinkedIn's own cost per lead in the final quarter was still $201. The 97% figure compares the first quarter ($270) with the last ($8.86 blended).
Step 1
Campaign Architecture
A campaign structure across LinkedIn and, from Q3 2025, Meta, with separate ad sets for each audience segment and country. Naming conventions and UTM parameters made it possible to read performance by platform, audience, creative, and region, which is what every optimisation decision was based on.
Step 2
Creative Testing Framework
Regular rotation of headlines, visuals, ad formats, and calls to action. Each variant ran long enough to judge before it was promoted or paused. AI-assisted copy in German and English increased the number of variants that could be tested in each cycle.
Step 3
Audience Segmentation System
Distinct audience segments across agencies, freelancers, entrepreneurs, business owners, and digital professionals, each with messaging written for their context. In Q3 2025 the best segments came in at $7.12 and $7.66 per lead.
Step 4
Quarterly Strategy Reviews
A review at the end of each quarter set the next quarter's plan: budget split between platforms, weighting across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and which audiences to prioritise, based on cost per lead and volume.
Growth Timeline
Q4 2024: Foundation
LinkedIn only, video-first creative. Cost per lead about $270. This first quarter of the engagement is the baseline for the 97% figure.
Q1 2025: Breakthrough
Lead form optimisation lowered the cost per lead. The case deck's Q1 figures do not reconcile with each other, so they are not quoted here.
Q2 2025: Constraint
Budget cut by 54% with no creative refresh. Cost per lead rose to $348.
Q3 2025: Scale
Meta launched as the main channel. 1,606 leads at $8.86 blended on $14,224 of spend. Best segment $7.12. LinkedIn alone was still $201 a lead.
The Results
$270+
Starting CPL
Q4 2024, the engagement's own first quarter, LinkedIn only
$8.86
Final Blended CPL
Q3 2025 across Meta and LinkedIn: 97% lower than the first quarter. LinkedIn on its own was $201
1,700+
Total Leads
Across all four quarters and both platforms
1,606
Q3 2025 Leads Alone
The final quarter, on $14,224 of spend
$7.12
Best Segment CPL
The best-performing audience segment in Q3 2025
$110K+
Total Spend Managed
Total ad spend across the engagement, as stated in the case deck
How It Works Day-to-Day
The engagement ran on a weekly optimisation cadence with a strategy review each quarter. Each week, performance was checked across every audience segment, country, and creative variant. Weak creatives were paused, winning variants were scaled, and new tests were queued. Once Meta was live, budget moved between LinkedIn and Meta based on where each delivered the lower cost per lead. At the end of each quarter, a review of the accumulated data set the next quarter's plan: which audiences to expand, which platform to weight, and which creative directions to try. The client received regular reporting without having to manage day-to-day operations. Campaign management, creative production, bid adjustments, and audience changes were handled externally, which left the internal team free to focus on programme development and partner onboarding.
What This Demonstrates
"Jakub has been amazing. He has been very serious from day 1, always available, and really performed well. We can only recommend him."
Upwork client, social ads tracking project
From a separate 11-week Upwork tracking project (October 2024 to January 2025), not a review of this engagement
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Related Service
Past Paid Ads work is shown here with its context and qualifiers. See every result on one page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did cost per lead fall from $270 to under $9?
Mostly because of the platform. Meta reached the same professional audiences far more cheaply than LinkedIn in this market: in the final quarter LinkedIn still cost $201 a lead, while the blend across both platforms was $8.86. The earlier LinkedIn work carried into the Meta launch, including the lead form optimisation of Q1 2025 and the audience segments built along the way. It was not a straight line: when the budget was cut 54% in Q2 2025 with no creative refresh, cost per lead rose to $348.
Was lead quality measured?
The case record covers cost per lead, lead volume, and spend. It holds no enrolment or lead-quality figures, so this page makes no claim about lead quality.
Can this approach work outside the DACH market?
The method is not specific to one market: build the tracking first, test creative systematically, try more than one platform, segment audiences, and review each quarter against the data. The DACH-specific parts were native German-language creative and targeting across three countries, which would be adapted to the language and culture of any new market.
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