Electric.ai: 86% Decrease in QCPL with Cross-Channel ABM.

LinkedIn has the right targeting capabilities. But sky-high CPMs challenged the ability to hit target CPLs. We rebuilt Electric's demand generation program leveraging 1P and firmographic audiences to run cross-channel, on Google and Meta, leading to considerable CPL efficiency while maintaining high quality.

Client

Electric

Role

Media Strategy, Media Planning, Buying & Optimization

Paid Media Campaign

Key Takeaway

The audience existed beyond LinkedIn. It just wasn't addressable through native tools. Rebuilding firmographic precision off-platform cut CPL by 86% and drove 4x higher CTR, proving B2B targeting doesn't have to live on one platform.

Context

Right audience, wrong economics.

IT unicorn Electric was scaling demand gen on LinkedIn, targeting C-suite and senior decision-makers with precision. Engagement was strong. The ICP was locked. But LinkedIn's CPMs made lead acquisition unsustainable at scale.

Growth required replicating what was working without paying LinkedIn's toll. The question was whether firmographic precision could be rebuilt on a platform with better economics.

Approach

The strategic case for going off-platform.

Audiences are platform-agnostic. Targeting tools aren't.

The same C-suite buyers, company sizes, and seniority levels Electric reached on LinkedIn all existed on Meta. The constraint wasn't audience availability. It was that LinkedIn's native targeting tools had no equivalent on other platforms. Solving for addressability, not reach, changed the entire equation.

Audiences are platform-agnostic. Targeting tools aren't.

Enrichment data as a targeting layer

Most teams treat LinkedIn targeting as a binary: pay the premium or sacrifice precision. Third-party enrichment data offered a third option: reconstruct the same firmographic layer on a platform with better economics. If the data was accurate, the platform didn't matter.

Enrichment data as a targeting layer

Lead quality validation from day one

Moving to a cheaper platform creates a natural risk: lower-quality leads that waste sales time. We designed quality validation into the system from the start with qualifying questions, email verification, and persona-level signal so we'd know immediately if the move was working.

Lead quality validation from day one

Solution

Rebuilding firmographic precision from scratch.

Audience architecture

We rebuilt firmographic segments using third-party data providers, mapping company size, seniority, industry, and role into targetable audiences on Meta. Each segment matched a validated persona from Electric's LinkedIn program.

Audience architecture

Creative and conversion testing

We tested creative hooks, formats, and conversion paths across persona-specific campaigns. Social proof and case study creative consistently outperformed, signaling where these buyers sat in the consideration cycle.

Creative and conversion testing

Lead quality validation

Cheaper leads mean nothing if they don't convert. We validated every lead through qualifying questions and email verification, then used persona-level signal to concentrate spend where efficiency was highest.

Lead quality validation

Data-directed allocation

Not every LinkedIn segment translated to Meta equally. By letting persona-level data direct spend rather than mirroring LinkedIn's allocation, we found pockets of efficiency a straight port would have missed.