Execution cadence · Stage 03 sample output
Orbit
Employee onboarding software for mid-market HR teams
This is an illustrative example. The company scenario and figures show how the work is presented; they are not reported client results or promised outcomes.
- Company
- Orbit SaaS
- Sector
- HR technology
- Cadence
- 90-day sprint
- Strategist
- Apostolos Bolkas
Executive memorandum
Commercial mandate & context
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.
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18 / mo
Starting pipeline
Sales Accepted Leads
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35 / mo
90-day target
Target achieved in Q1
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€5,700 / mo
Paid media budget
Optimised down from €7,000
-
€163
Blended CAC
Reduced from €245 baseline
Roadmap index
5 sections
Execution specs
90-day cycles • €6,000–€8,000 per cycle
01 · Measurement framework
Stage definitions
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.
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Lead submitted
Form completions by verified source
Owner
Marketing
Protocol note
Tracked in GA4 and HubSpot. Source must be verified rather than defaulted to direct traffic.
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Demo booked
Calendar bookings within 48 hours of submission
Owner
Marketing
Protocol note
A 48-hour response window filters out unqualified noise and cold outreach overlap.
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Sales accepted lead
SAL confirmed by account executive in CRM
Owner
Sales
Protocol note
Our primary North Star metric. All acquisition channels optimise towards this number.
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Opportunity created
Deal stage 2+ with agreed timeline in pipeline
Owner
Sales
Protocol note
Tracked weekly to evaluate channel efficiency and deal progression speed.
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Deal won
Closed-won annual recurring revenue
Owner
Sales
Protocol note
Reviewed in monthly and quarterly retrospectives to adjust channel budget weighting.
02 · Experiment results
Validated tests
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.
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01
Decision: Scale
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.
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02
Decision: Keep
'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.
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03
Decision: Scale
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.
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04
Decision: Scale
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.
03 · Channel performance
Pipeline attribution
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.
Spend
€4,200
SALs
14
Blended CAC
€300
Google search
Trimmed from €2,800 to focus strictly on high-intent buyer terms.
Spend
€1,500
SALs
6
Blended CAC
€250
Customer referrals
Two clients became active advocates after the new case study went live.
Spend
€0
SALs
9
Blended CAC
Free
Organic & thought leadership
Generated by one practical post that reached 38k impressions.
Spend
€0
SALs
6
Blended CAC
Free
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35 / mo
Total monthly SALs
Target hit. Up from 18 at start.
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€5,700
Total paid spend
Reduced and reallocated from €7,000.
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€163
Blended CAC
Down 33% from the €245 starting baseline.
04 · Next 30 days
Execution milestones
Where we focus next
With the core channels stabilised, we direct execution capacity into compounding organic flywheels and landing page refinements.
-
01
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.
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02
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.
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03
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.
05 · The strategic diagnosis
Core recommendation
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
What your Roadmap includes.
Your engagement uses your campaign data and agreed priorities to deliver:
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Measurement plan
Clear conversion rules agreed upfront before spending a single euro. Every experiment has a primary success metric and a decision rule.
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Experiment backlog
A prioritised pipeline of testable hypotheses, each paired with an audience definition, channel offer, and expected revenue impact.
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Campaign architecture
Full tracking and campaign configuration across search and LinkedIn Ads, documented clearly before budget is committed.
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High-intent copywriting
Grounded customer case studies, comparison guides, and ad copy built to guide buyers from curiosity to a sales call.
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Weekly pipeline updates
Every Monday: live campaigns shipped, verified performance numbers, and next decisions for leadership.
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Quarterly growth review
A comprehensive review of what scaled, what was stopped, and the next 90-day execution priorities with budget allocation.