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Innovatr

61% of ad delivery on decision-makers, at a third of the B2B median cost per lead.

Client · Innovatr · Brand & Marketing Manager · Mar – Sep 2026

  • Rebranding
  • Content
  • Paid media
  • Lead sourcing
  • Marketing automation

Rebrand, website, CRM, email and LinkedIn Ads for a consumer research company, in seven months.

The rebuilt Innovatr home page, leading with the consumer-intelligence positioning.

The starting point

The website led with “Stop Guessing. Launch Better Innovation.”, a generic line that didn't explain what made the product different. There was no paid advertising and very little inbound interest.

Brand and website

The new positioning led with “Old research is dead. Stop being told. Start asking why.”, followed directly by proof points.

Before
After
Home The Innovatr home page before and after: a generic purple “Stop Guessing” hero replaced by an editorial layout headlined “Old research is dead. Stop being told. Start asking why.” with proof stats beneath it.
Before
After
Tools The tools section before and after: a dense pink grid of cards rebuilt as a lighter, clearly ranked set with descriptions and states.
Before
After
Case studies The case study section before and after the rebuild.
Before
After
Contact The contact page before and after the rebuild.

Turning research into content

Innovatr's studies produced findings that only clients saw. I turned them into public content that states a finding and shows the data behind it.

  • Opening slide of a research carousel: “Gen Z hasn't quit drinking. They can't afford it”, drawn from 4,339 unprompted comments.
  • The same carousel showing the emotional split behind the finding: sadness 35 percent, joy and interest 15, concern 11.
  • A further slide in the generational drinking carousel.
  • Cover of the “Your research is holding you back” carousel, introducing Innovatr.
  • “The old way: slow, expensive, unclear”, listing 6-8 week turnarounds and R200K study costs.
  • “Fast. Smart. Affordable.”: 24 hour insights, from R3k per concept, a 44M consumer panel.

Ad creative

The ad campaign “The Innovatr Way” compared Innovatr with traditional research firms and their six-week turnarounds and six-figure study costs.

  • Ad carousel cover: “Old research is dead. Most brands haven't been told yet.”
  • “Kantar. IPSOS. Nielsen. They haven't changed their model in decades. Why are you still paying for it?” with 6 week, R500K and 30% figures.
  • A further slide from The Innovatr Way ad carousel.
  • Closing slide from The Innovatr Way ad carousel.

Same message, two formats

“The Innovatr Way” ran as both a carousel and a video with the same message. The video performed far better.

0.68%
Click-through as videoAgainst 0.24% for the same message as a carousel, nearly three times higher.
+45–50%
Video click-through over the platform normThe video ads beat LinkedIn's video benchmark; the carousel fell below its own.

Same account and message, so the difference came from the format. Video was then used for awareness.

Building the marketing system

There was no list of potential buyers. We built one in a CRM and connected it to email, LinkedIn Ads and remarketing, so the ads targeted named companies.

0 → live
CRM built in six monthsContacts from every source, de-duplicated by email and segmented.
Account-based
Targeting on named organisationsThe market was mapped company by company to make account-based targeting possible. Volumes are confidential.

This was a sourced audience rather than inbound enquiries. LinkedIn's delivery data below shows the ads reached these companies.

Email sequences

Every lead from the ads entered an email sequence. I wrote and designed each email; this one was sent under the founder's name.

  • The top half of an Innovatr email headed “Old research is dead. And most brands still haven't noticed.”, a letter from the founder followed by what one traditional study costs a South African brand: R500K–R900K for focus groups, R350K–R1.2M for a quant study and six to ten weeks to deliver.
  • The bottom half of the same email: the old way against the Innovatr way side by side, a “40x faster” callout, three market stats, the company's proof numbers, a teaser for the next email and a “See the Innovatr Way” button.

Email results

36.7%
Opens, onboarding sequenceAgainst a 30% target and a typical B2B rate of 30–35%.
4.1%
Clicks, onboarding sequenceAgainst a 3% target and a typical B2B rate of about 2.5%.
61.5%
Opens, outreach sequenceClose to double the typical B2B rate.

Zoho Campaigns, sent to leads from LinkedIn, April–July 2026. Bot opens filtered out.

Who the ads reached

LinkedIn's delivery data shows whether the ads reached people with the authority to commission a study.

61%
Of delivery reached decision-makersSenior, Director, VP, C-suite, Owner and Partner. Entry-level: under 3%.
14 of 22
Top companies by delivery were targetsMajor South African banks, insurers and consultancies. Names are confidential.
56%
In the three target metrosJohannesburg, Pretoria and Durban, the geography Innovatr sells into.

LinkedIn delivery demographics, April–July 2026.

Lead quality by campaign flight

Each short campaign flight narrowed the audience. Lead quality is measured as the share of leads using a work email; lead counts are confidential.

MonthWork-email share of leadsWhat changed
Launch flight~27%Broad targeting, personal emails accepted. Forms then rebuilt to require a work email.
Refined flight91%Industry targeting on the mapped accounts. Most new leads matched the ideal customer profile (ICP).

Lead counts and budget are confidential.

Costs against LinkedIn benchmarks

Video was used for awareness and carousels for conversions. Each is compared with LinkedIn's published B2B benchmarks.

~3×
Better cost per lead than the B2B medianA third of LinkedIn's published B2B median cost per lead. The actual figure is confidential.
52%
Cheaper per click than the normCompared with LinkedIn's published B2B click costs, and lower again across the whole account.
61%
Cheaper per thousand impressionsAgainst the published CPM norm, sustained across more than a million impressions.
44–48%
Video view rate vs 29.5%15–19 points over the platform norm.

Form completion was 46–57% against a 10–13% benchmark. No flight ran longer than five weeks, which is short for LinkedIn's optimisation, so these are early results.

What didn't work

Organic posts reached few people; paid ads delivered about 166 times the impressions. The emails beat every open and click benchmark but got no replies, and each pause between flights reset LinkedIn's learning phase.

What I'd do differently

I'd assign someone to call new leads from the first flight, and run fewer, longer flights. Cold leads needed a phone call more than another email.