Machinery Manufacturer: 15X ROI
Over £1.3M of revenue from under £250k of ad spend, with CPL down from £300+ to £55.
The before and after
£300+
£55
Dependent on trade conferences
17 clients at £26k+ each
Almost nothing from digital
£1.3M+ from under £250k spend
The fuller story
This is packaging machinery. Big, loud, expensive kit that most buyers only purchase a few times in their career. For years the sales team relied on trade shows and hoped the right people walked past the stand.
We didn't try to make machinery look clever. We filmed it working, put the sales team on camera, and made sure the people who mattered saw the brand every week, not just during show season.
The best signal wasn't in the dashboard. At the shows, prospects started walking up to the stand and saying "we've seen you all over LinkedIn recently". The sales conversation was half done before anyone shook hands.
The situation
A specialist machinery manufacturer was relying on expensive trade conferences for new business. They got almost nothing from Google. Cost per lead was over £300 and the pipeline was unpredictable.
What we did
We built an always-on lead engine across Google Search, LinkedIn Ads and Facebook retargeting. Targeted plant managers and engineering buyers directly, instead of waiting for them at events.
The result
17 new clients worth £26k+ each. CPL dropped from £300+ to £55. Over £1.3M of revenue from less than £250k of ad spend across 5 years. Their highest monthly lead volume ever, running on autopilot.
Why it worked
James's read on what actually moved the numbers.
Each format had one job
The machine videos found people. The selfie videos turned them into leads. The client and stand photos closed the gap with pipeline. Asking one ad to do all of that is why most manufacturer campaigns fall flat.
Google caught the comparison shoppers
Search ran on long-tail terms where buyers compare machines and work out what each one is for. The ads led to advice on why buying new, with support and engineering maintenance behind it, beats buying second hand or cheap imports. That is the real objection, so we answered it in the search results.
Being recognised is the outcome
£55 leads are nice. Prospects arriving at the stand already knowing who you are is what made the sales team's job easy, and why this has run for over five years.
Who we targeted
Plant managers and engineering buyers, reached directly instead of waiting for them at trade conferences.
Google Search to catch buyers already looking.
Facebook retargeting to bring back people who had already visited.
Creative angles
Long-tail comparison searches
Google Ads on the searches buyers make when comparing machines and working out what each one is for, leading to advice on buying new with support versus second hand or cheap imports.
Why it worked: Someone comparing machines is close to buying. Answering the second hand and import question head on wins the people who would otherwise have gone elsewhere to save money.
What you get with a new machine: installation, engineering support and maintenance. Compare before you buy.
See which machine fits your output, then talk to an engineer, not a call centre.
Satisfying machine videos
Close-up clips of the machines running at full speed. No voiceover, no sales pitch.
Why it worked: People watch machinery working the same way they watch a good cooking video. These got cheap reach and, more importantly, built a big retargeting pool of people who had watched to the end.
120 packs a minute. Sound on.
Staff selfie offer videos
The team filming themselves on a phone, talking through offers on entry-level machines, who each one is perfect for and any sales discount running.
Why it worked: This is what actually generated the leads. Shown to the people who had already watched the machine videos, a real person explaining a real offer feels like a conversation, not an advert.
Who our entry-level flow wrapper is perfect for, and this month's offer.
How to script and film a phone video like these, without a studio or an agency.
Read the video blueprintSelfies with happy clients
Photos of the team standing with customers in front of their new machines.
Why it worked: Proof without a case study. A buyer sees a company like theirs, smiling next to the exact machine they're considering. That nudges people over the line.
Show stand selfies, as company and thought leader ads
The team at their stand during conferences, run from the company page and from individual people's profiles.
Why it worked: Timed to the shows, this put the brand all over prospects' feeds at the exact moment they were at the event. It made the stand the one people went looking for.
The week-by-week plan for showing up on prospects' feeds before, during and after a show.
Get the trade show playbookHow the funnel worked
- Step 1
Google Search, LinkedIn Ads
- Step 2
Website enquiry
- Step 3
Facebook retargeting for visitors who left
- Step 4
Sales conversation
"I don't get any of this social media stuff... but whatever you boys are doing keep doing it!"
What you can take from this
Events are not the only route to engineers
The buyers they met at conferences could be reached every week on Google and LinkedIn.
Judge it over years, not weeks
Over £1.3M of revenue came from under £250k of spend across 5 years. 17 clients at £26k+ each.
Layer the channels
Search captures demand, LinkedIn reaches the job titles, retargeting stops warm visitors going cold.
Run this play yourself
Free guides, playbooks and tools covering the exact strategy and sector behind this case study.
The full 2026 UK guide to reaching plant managers and engineering buyers on LinkedIn.
Read itRead nextThe £50k targeting mistake most manufacturers make before they ever see a lead.
Read itRead nextHow to make one trade show work for 12 months, and what to run between shows.
Read itFree toolFree pack of search terms to exclude so Google spend stops leaking to the wrong clicks.
Read itPlaybookThe week-by-week plan for owning a show before you arrive.
Read itGuideHow to run ads from your team's own profiles, like the stand selfies here.
Read itGuideFilm selfie offer videos on a phone that actually get leads.
Read itWant a pipeline like this?
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