The Missing 10%: How a Large IT Company Found (and Fixed) the Leak Destroying Their Sales Pipeline
They were spending serious money on ads. Then someone asked about their retargeting setup.
Imagine spending thousands filling a bucket whilst standing over a drain.
That is exactly what this large, sophisticated IT company was doing. Professional campaigns. Healthy marketing budget. Decent website traffic. Everything looked good on paper.
Then I asked to see their retargeting setup. Silence.
No LinkedIn Insight Tag. No Meta Pixel. No retargeting infrastructure whatsoever. I actually had to ask twice because I thought I had misunderstood.
No obligation • 30-minute strategy call
Why This Matters More Than You Think
Here is the uncomfortable truth about B2B website traffic: 99% of visitors disappear forever.
They land on your site, browse your services, maybe check your pricing page. Then they leave. And unless you have retargeting infrastructure in place, that is the last you will ever see of them.
The Maths That Should Terrify You
If you spend £10,000 driving traffic to your website and only 1% convert immediately, you have just paid £9,900 to generate visitors who will never come back. That is not a marketing strategy. That is a money furnace.
Most B2B companies do not know they have this problem. They look at their traffic numbers and feel good. They see their conversion rate and think "that is about average." What they do not see is the massive opportunity cost hiding in their analytics.
Every pound spent driving traffic is wasted if there is no follow-up system to recapture the 99% who did not convert immediately.
The B2B Buying Reality
B2B purchases are not impulse decisions. Your prospects need time to:
- •Build internal consensus (committees, stakeholders, budget holders)
- •Compare alternatives (your competitors are just one Google search away)
- •Wait for budget cycles (quarterly approvals, annual planning)
- •Build trust in your company (before risking their reputation on a vendor)
If you are not staying visible during this entire process, someone else will be.
Go deeper:
Want to install tracking pixels properly? Read our complete Tracking Pixels Setup Guide for step-by-step instructions.
What They Actually Did (The 4-Step Fix)
The implementation was simple. The execution mattered. Here is exactly what we did.
Install the LinkedIn Insight Tag (10 Minutes)
First things first: get the bloody tracking in place. The LinkedIn Insight Tag is a simple piece of code that goes on your website and tracks every visitor automatically. It took about 10 minutes to implement.
Once live, it started building retargeting audiences in the background. Everyone who hit their website was now trackable for future campaigns.
Pro tip: Make sure you are not falling into the 3 hidden traps that kill LinkedIn ads during setup. Many campaigns waste budget on settings LinkedIn quietly enables.
Build Smart Retargeting Audiences
Not all website visitors are equal. We segmented audiences based on behaviour:
- •People who visited specific service pages (showing intent)
- •People who viewed pricing information (showing serious interest)
- •People who spent more than 2 minutes on site (showing engagement)
- •People who visited multiple pages (showing research behaviour)
Each audience got tagged differently so we could show them relevant content based on what they had already shown interest in.
Create Video Content That Builds Trust
This is where most companies get it wrong. They create generic product explainers or boring testimonials. We took a completely different approach.
30-Second Team Introductions
Put actual faces to the company name. Made the business approachable instead of corporate and distant. Created instant familiarity before any sales conversation.
45-60 Second Technical Demonstrations
Showed real expertise in action. Addressed specific pain points the prospect had been researching. Positioned the company as technical authorities.
30-Second Behind-the-Scenes Content
Showed the team actually working. Created that psychological feeling of "I have been here before." Dramatically reduced the barrier to picking up the phone.
Critical Point
These were not testimonial videos. They were psychological trust-building tools disguised as ads. The goal: When a prospect finally books a call, they should already know you, trust you, and be half-convinced you are the right choice.
Reallocate 10% of Existing Budget
Here is the beautiful part: We did not ask for more money. We took 10% from their sponsorship and Google Ads budget and redirected it into LinkedIn retargeting.
Everything else stayed exactly the same. Still driving traffic, still building awareness, still doing all the things that were working.
We just stopped letting 99% of that traffic disappear into the void.
Why This Actually Worked (The Psychology)
Here is what I have noticed from years of watching B2B sales calls: the first 10 minutes are always the same. Building rapport. Establishing credibility. Making the prospect comfortable enough to actually listen to your pitch.
Every single call starts with trust-building. And trust-building takes time, effort, and psychological work.
The insight that unlocked everything:
What if we could do that trust-building work BEFORE the prospect ever picks up the phone?
That is exactly what the video retargeting achieved. By the time prospects called, they had already:
- →Seen the team and recognised their faces
- →Witnessed the expertise through technical demonstrations
- →Felt familiar with the company culture and approach
- →Built trust without needing a single conversation
This is the work that normally takes 10 minutes at the start of every sales call. We did it in advance, for free, at scale.
Sales reps reported something fascinating:
"The conversations feel completely different now. Prospects are warmer, more receptive, asking better questions. They are not defensive or sceptical. They already feel like they know us."
"It is like we are picking up a conversation we had already started, rather than introducing ourselves from scratch."
Related reading:
This concept is what we call "The Invisible Sales Rep." Read the full breakdown of how B2B retargeting does the selling for you.
The Results (What Actually Happened)
Here is the thing about this case study that most people miss: The results were not just about quantity. It was a compound effect.
Enquiry Calls Doubled
More website visitors who had been retargeted eventually picked up the phone and called. That alone would have been a win.
Conversion Rates Skyrocketed
Not only were there MORE calls, but those calls converted at a massively higher rate. This was the real magic.
Think about what that means: 2x the enquiry calls × significantly higher conversion rate = exponential improvement in actual revenue.
Why did conversion rates jump so dramatically?
Because prospects were not calling cold anymore. They had seen the videos. They recognised the team. They trusted the expertise. That awkward trust-building phase at the start of every sales call? Already done.
And remember: This entire transformation came from reallocating just 10% of their existing budget. They did not spend a single extra pound.
Warning:
Many companies set up LinkedIn retargeting but immediately lose money to hidden settings. Read how one company lost £96k to LinkedIn's default settings before you launch your campaigns.
Replicable Steps (Your Checklist)
Want to replicate this for your business? Here is exactly what to do.
The B2B Retargeting Checklist
Install the LinkedIn Insight Tag
Takes 10 minutes. See our LinkedIn Insight Tag Setup Guide.
Create behaviour-based audiences
Segment by pages visited, time on site, and engagement level. Hot leads get different content than casual browsers.
Film trust-building video content
Team intros (30 sec), technical demos (45-60 sec), behind-the-scenes (30 sec). Real people, real expertise, real environment.
Reallocate 10% of existing ad spend
No new budget required. Take a portion from awareness campaigns and redirect to retargeting.
Disable LinkedIn's budget-wasting defaults
Critical: Turn off Audience Network, Audience Expansion, and Maximum Delivery.
Measure enquiry calls (not vanity metrics)
Ignore impressions and clicks. Track actual phone conversations with potential customers.
Who This Strategy Works For
This is not for everyone. But if these apply to you, you are leaving serious money on the table:
You are already spending money driving website traffic (if not, fix that first)
You sell to other businesses, not consumers (B2C retargeting works differently)
Your sales cycle takes time (people need to think about it, not impulse purchases)
Your service requires explanation and trust (not simple commodity products)
You do not currently have retargeting pixels installed (go check right now, you might be surprised)
The uncomfortable truth:
If you are spending money driving traffic to your website but you are not retargeting those visitors, you are essentially paying to fill a bucket with holes in it. You are not just missing opportunities. You are actively wasting money.
Want This Strategy for Your Business?
We will help you set up LinkedIn retargeting, create your video ads, and reallocate your budget to convert the traffic you are already getting.
On the call, we will review your current traffic, discuss your ad spend allocation, and map out a LinkedIn retargeting plan for your business.
Want to see the potential ROI first? Try our Retargeting ROI Calculator to calculate how much revenue you are leaving on the table.