Execution Cadence / Stage 03 Sample Output
Orbit
Employee onboarding software for mid-market HR teams
Company
Orbit SaaS
Sector
HR Technology
Cadence
90-Day Sprint
Strategist
Apostolos Bolkas
Orbit helps mid-market HR teams reduce time-to-productivity for new hires. When we kicked off, they had a proven product, strong retention, and a capable sales team closing deals, but monthly pipeline felt unpredictable. Some months delivered 22 qualified demos, while others dropped to nine with no clear explanation.
The mandate: establish an objective measurement framework, run disciplined weekly experiments across search and paid social, and scale qualified pipeline to a consistent 35 Sales Accepted Leads per month within 90 days.
Starting Pipeline
18 / mo
Sales Accepted Leads
90-Day Target
35 / mo
Target achieved in Q1
Paid Media Budget
€5,700 / mo
Optimised down from €7,000
Blended CAC
€163
Reduced from €245 baseline
What we track and why
Before launching any live campaigns, we agreed on exact conversion rules across each funnel stage. Vanity metrics were completely removed from weekly tracking so leadership focused solely on revenue velocity.
Lead Submitted
Form completions by verified source
Owner
MarketingProtocol Note
Tracked in GA4 and HubSpot. Source must be verified rather than defaulted to direct traffic.
Demo Booked
Calendar bookings within 48 hours of submission
Owner
MarketingProtocol Note
A 48-hour response window filters out unqualified noise and cold outreach overlap.
Sales Accepted Lead
SAL confirmed by account executive in CRM
Owner
SalesProtocol Note
Our primary North Star metric. All acquisition channels optimise towards this number.
Opportunity Created
Deal stage 2+ with agreed timeline in pipeline
Owner
SalesProtocol Note
Tracked weekly to evaluate channel efficiency and deal progression speed.
Deal Won
Closed-won annual recurring revenue
Owner
SalesProtocol Note
Reviewed in monthly and quarterly retrospectives to adjust channel budget weighting.
What we tested, what we learned
Every creative angle and audience test was run with a clear hypothesis, a hard deadline, and pre-agreed decision rules.
LinkedIn Document Ads will generate a lower cost per lead than Thought Leadership Ads for mid-market HR buyers.
Verified Result (Cost per Lead)
Document Ads achieved €38 CPL versus €57 CPL on Thought Leadership Ads.
Strategic Takeaway
Document Ads outperformed by 34%. Downloadable frameworks drove high dwell time and strong buyer intent signals that reduced paid acquisition cost.
'See it in action' CTA will outperform 'Book a demo' on the main landing page hero.
Verified Result (Click-Through / Demos)
Click-through rate increased by 22%, demo requests rose by 18%, and SAL qualification rate stayed steady.
Strategic Takeaway
Lower-commitment copy reduced initial friction for early-stage researchers without diluting lead quality.
An outcome-focused headline ('New hires productive in half the time') will outperform feature-led copy ('Structured onboarding workflows').
Verified Result (Demo Inquiries)
Demo requests increased by 41% across a three-week test window.
Strategic Takeaway
Buyers at the initial evaluation stage prioritise business impact and cost reduction over detailed software features.
Retargeting visitors who viewed the pricing page but did not convert will produce qualified leads at lower CAC than cold traffic.
Verified Result (SAL Volume & CAC)
12 verified SALs in 30 days. CAC dropped to €140 compared to €350 on cold campaigns.
Strategic Takeaway
Pricing page visitors have already validated budget and fit. Retargeting them with a client ROI story delivered 2.5x higher conversion.
Where the pipeline comes from
By auditing actual conversion data in CRM, we reallocated budget away from broad search keywords into high-intent LinkedIn Document Ads and retargeting workflows.
LinkedIn Ads
Document Ads and pricing retargeting split 60/40.
Google Search
Trimmed from €2,800 to focus strictly on high-intent buyer terms.
Customer Referrals
Two clients became active advocates after the new case study went live.
Organic & Thought Leadership
Generated by one practical post that reached 38k impressions.
Total Monthly SALs
35 / mo
Target hit. Up from 18 at start.
Total Paid Spend
€5,700
Reduced and reallocated from €7,000.
Blended CAC
€163
Down 33% from the €245 starting baseline.
Where we focus next
With the core channels stabilised, we direct execution capacity into compounding organic flywheels and landing page refinements.
DAY 01–10
Build a structured referral system around active customer advocates.
Referrals now generate 26% of qualified pipeline at zero media spend. We will identify the specific customer milestones that trigger recommendations, create clear sharing assets, and approach five more accounts with an identical profile.
DAY 11–20
Extend the winning outcome-focused copy to all paid landing pages.
The homepage headline rewrite produced a 41% lift in demo inquiries. We will roll out the same outcome-led messaging across all paid search and LinkedIn landing pages over a three-week testing window.
DAY 21–30
Establish a weekly organic LinkedIn publication cadence.
One educational post generated 38k impressions and six sales leads with zero ad spend. We will establish a disciplined schedule of one post per week focused on solving real buyer problems rather than generic product promotion.
The one lever that changes everything
Organic content and customer referrals are generating 43% of qualified pipeline at zero media spend, yet they were largely running on coincidence. While paid campaigns are functioning well, they were masking the larger compounding opportunity. If Orbit systematises referral workflows and maintains weekly thought leadership, the team can comfortably reach 50 qualified leads per month without expanding the advertising budget.
Methodology / Full Deliverables
This output came from real execution data.
Not speculation. The Performance Roadmap engagement includes:
Measurement Plan
Clear conversion rules agreed upfront before spending a single euro. Every experiment has a primary success metric and a decision rule.
Experiment Backlog
A prioritised pipeline of testable hypotheses, each paired with an audience definition, channel offer, and expected revenue impact.
Campaign Architecture
Full tracking and campaign configuration across search and LinkedIn Ads, documented clearly before budget is committed.
High-Intent Copywriting
Grounded customer case studies, comparison guides, and ad copy built to guide buyers from curiosity to a sales call.
Weekly Pipeline Updates
Every Monday: live campaigns shipped, verified performance numbers, and next decisions for leadership.
Quarterly Growth Review
A comprehensive review of what scaled, what was stopped, and the next 90-day execution priorities with budget allocation.