🛡️IT & Managed ServicesMulti-month engagement

Regional IT MSP: 14 Calls in 90 Days

14 booked calls and 4 signed retainers in 90 days, at £71 per call.

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This local MSP relied on referrals and one cold caller. We helped them win 4 retainers through LinkedIn Ads in 90 days.

14 booked calls in 90 days
£71 per booked call
4 signed retainers, around £94k of first year contract value
Every lead inside a 90 minute drive of the office

LinkedIn AdsLanding PageEmail Follow Up

14 in 90 days

Booked Calls

£71

Cost Per Call

Signed Retainers

~£94k

Year 1 Contract Value

The before and after

Pipeline: before

Referrals and one cold caller

After

14 booked discovery calls in 90 days

Cost per booked call: before

A BDR setup and lumpy months

After

£71

Signed business: before

Two quiet months put the year at risk

After

4 retainers worth around £94k in year one

The fuller story

Before we started, they had little control over when new enquiries came in. Referrals were welcome, but they couldn't rely on them arriving when they needed more work. They still had engineers to pay during the quiet months.

I wanted the campaign to reflect how they actually delivered the service. We focused on law, accountancy and finance firms close enough for the team to visit, with an IT risk review that gave decision makers a specific reason to get in touch.

The campaign in this case study

Local MSP, local clients

This was a regional MSP selling to firms of 20 to 200 staff within a 90 minute drive. The whole campaign leaned on the fact they can actually turn up at the office. If that sounds like your business, this is the closest example to you.

I start with where your team can realistically visit. That keeps the budget focused on firms you can look after, then we build the offer around what those buyers need help with.

Here, the IT risk review gave local decision makers a reason to speak to the MSP about their own systems.

Law firms

Accountancy

MSP office

Finance firms

Within a 90 minute drive

Service area → relevant firms → IT risk review

Want calls from businesses near you?

Other campaigns I've run for a larger MSP

Selling one service into one sector

For a larger IT MSP I've run campaigns pushing one service into one sector, like networking and architecture into legal firms and cyber security into start ups. Those need their own audience, angles and offer. Every campaign gets built around your buyer and the service you want to sell more of.

Service

Networking and architecture

Buyer

Legal firms

Campaign

Ads and an offer built for this buyer

Service

Cyber security

Buyer

Start ups

Campaign

Ads and an offer built for this buyer

The service determines who we need to reach and what the ads should explain. I wouldn't send a legal firm's buyer the same campaign as a start up buying cyber security. We work through your service and ideal client before choosing the targeting or writing the ads.

Which service do you want to sell more of?

If the vendor is funding it

MDF and vendor funded campaigns

We've worked with Westcoast for over 8 years on LinkedIn, Google and Meta Ads, including vendor funded MDF campaigns. If you've got vendor marketing money going unspent, we know how to turn it into campaigns and give the vendor the reporting they ask for.

The situation

This regional IT MSP served professional services firms, including law, accountancy and finance. They relied on referrals and one cold caller for new business, which left them exposed when enquiries slowed down. Two quiet months would put the year at risk. They had never run paid ads properly.

What we did

We built a LinkedIn audience of 1,800 IT decision makers at firms with 20 to 200 staff inside a 90 minute drive of their office. The two ad angles covered the cost of slow IT responses and cyber security beyond Cyber Essentials Plus. Both led to a landing page offering a free 30 minute IT risk review.

The result

The campaign produced 14 booked discovery calls in 90 days at £71 per booked call. Of those, 4 became signed MSP retainers worth around £94k of first year contract value. The enquiries came from the firms they wanted to work with, at a lower cost than their previous BDR setup.

4 Retainers SignedLinkedIn Ads • IT risk review funnel

Why it worked

James's read on what actually moved the numbers.

We drew the map first

A regional MSP can't look after the whole country. Setting a 90 minute drive radius before anything else meant every call was with a firm they could actually service.

A small list that saw the ads a lot

We kept the audience to 1,800 relevant decision makers. Repeated exposure gave those firms opportunities to recognise the MSP and consider the offer, without spending on people outside its service area.

A clear reason to book

The free IT risk review connected the issues in the ads to a specific appointment. A buyer could see what they were being invited to discuss before submitting their details.

What the calls turned into

I judge this campaign by the signed business as well as the cost of enquiries. The 14 calls at £71 each led to 4 retainers. That is the commercial result here, rather than a promise that every future quarter will look the same.

Who we targeted

Who

1,800 IT decision makers.

Firm size

20 to 200 staff professional services firms (law, accountancy, finance).

Geography

Inside a 90 minute drive of their office.

Creative angles

Angle 1

The hidden cost of slow IT

Ads about what a slow IT response quietly costs a professional services firm.

Why it worked: A partner can understand the cost of staff waiting for IT support, even if they don't know the technical cause. That gives us a more relevant starting point than a list of support features.

Angle 2

Cyber security beyond Cyber Essentials Plus

Ads explaining what firms should consider beyond their Cyber Essentials Plus certification.

Why it worked: The certification gives us a specific subject to discuss with a buyer. We can explain the wider security work rather than asking them to respond to a vague cyber threat warning.

Angle 3

A free 30 minute IT risk review

A simple landing page offering the review as the next step.

Why it worked: The review tells the prospect what the appointment is for. They can assess whether it's worth their time before speaking to the MSP, rather than booking an open-ended sales conversation.

Ads that don't look like ads

A stock photo of a server room and a claim about "proactive support" give a buyer very little to go on. They can't tell how you're different from the provider they're already paying.

I'd rather give them something worth reading or watching. That might be an account of an IT problem they recognise, a news-style piece explaining a risk, or an engineer talking through an issue on camera. The format depends on who we're trying to reach and what we're selling.

For this campaign, the ads covered slow IT responses and cyber security beyond certification. The IT risk review then gave interested buyers a way to discuss those issues with the MSP.