# How We Connect Paid Media to Pipeline and Revenue | Crank Source: https://wearecrank.com/b2b-marketing/paid-media-to-pipeline How Crank connects B2B paid media to pipeline and revenue: tracing every enquiry through sales qualification and judging channels on cost per qualified enquiry. --- Paid media to pipeline # How We Connect Paid Media to Pipeline and Revenue. We trace every enquiry through to sales qualification, then judge each channel on what it costs to produce a genuine opportunity rather than what it costs to produce an enquiry. [Talk to Crank ](https://wa.me/447457416922?text=paid%20media%20to%20pipeline) On this pageContents 1. 1.[How do you connect paid media to pipeline and revenue?](#how-do-you-connect-paid-media-to-pipeline-and-revenue) 2. 2.[Why does cost per enquiry point the wrong way?](#why-does-cost-per-enquiry-point-the-wrong-way) 3. 3.[What do the ad platforms miss?](#what-do-the-ad-platforms-miss) 4. 4.[How long before paid media produces a real opportunity?](#how-long-before-paid-media-produces-a-real-opportunity) 5. 5.[What do we set up first?](#what-do-we-set-up-first) 6. 6.[What does this mean for your budget?](#what-does-this-mean-for-your-budget) ## How do you connect paid media to pipeline and revenue? You follow every enquiry from the ad click into the sales system and record whether it qualified, then compare channels on cost per qualified enquiry. Cost per enquiry on its own ranks channels in the wrong order more often than not. That is the method we use in B2B accounts. It has three parts: trace each enquiry through to sales qualification, reconcile what the advertising platforms reported against what the sales system holds, and set an honest expectation for how long a real opportunity takes to appear. £901 vs £665 Cost per qualified enquiry: the channel that looked cheaper against the one that looked dearer 5.3% vs 54.5% Share of enquiries that qualified, same two channels 16 Enquiries the sales system held that the ad platforms never claimed \~10 weeks To the first real opportunity Figures from a 2026 account for a social impact software business, across £16,481 of spend. [Read the full case study](/case-studies/social-impact-software-qualification-2026). ## Why does cost per enquiry point the wrong way? Because the cheapest enquiries are often the least qualified. In that account, one channel produced enquiries at £47 and another at £363, which made the first look nearly eight times cheaper. Once qualification was traced through the sales system, the cheap channel qualified 5.3 per cent of its enquiries and the dearer one qualified 54.5 per cent. Cost per qualified enquiry came out at £901 for the cheap channel against £665 for the dear one, so the channel that looked nearly eight times cheaper was a third more expensive. A gated technical document did the qualifying before anyone in sales spent time on it. The people who requested it had chosen the topic and identified themselves by role. Broad search terms did not do that. The same account showed the trap from another angle. One channel took 27 per cent of spend and produced 74 per cent of enquiries, which looks like a clear case for moving budget towards it. Its enquiries converted at a tenth of the rate. Acting on either obvious move would have made the account worse. ## What do the ad platforms miss? They miss people who were influenced by advertising but arrived through another route. The platforms reported 128 enquiries for the period, while the sales system held 144 attributed to paid activity. Those sixteen people had been influenced by the ads, but their sessions were recorded as direct, organic or offline. That is twelve per cent of results the platform view alone would have credited elsewhere or missed. It is one reason we reconcile the two sources rather than trusting either one. The wider picture on credit allocation is in our guide to [B2B marketing attribution](/b2b-marketing/marketing-attribution). ## How long before paid media produces a real opportunity? In that account it took roughly ten weeks. Across £16,481 of spend, 128 enquiries produced 31 marketing-qualified contacts and one sales-qualified contact. Knowing that timeline matters because it stops a working campaign being cancelled at week six for looking like it is not working. Agreeing the expected timeline with the sales team before launch is part of how we set up [B2B paid media](/b2b-marketing/paid-media-b2b). ## What do we set up first? We put the plumbing in before we optimise anything: * Every enquiry is matched to a record in the sales system, so qualification status is known per enquiry. * Marketing and sales agree what counts as marketing-qualified and sales-qualified before reporting starts. * Platform-reported results and sales-system results are reported side by side, with the gap shown. * Budget decisions are made on cost per qualified enquiry, with cost per enquiry kept as a supporting figure. This is the groundwork that makes [B2B performance marketing](/b2b-marketing/performance-marketing) honest. Without it, optimisation moves money towards whichever channel is cheapest to measure. ## What does this mean for your budget? Before moving budget on the strength of cost per enquiry, check what share of those enquiries sales actually accepted. If you cannot see that, the ranking you are acting on may be the wrong way round. If you want to see this for your own accounts, we can trace a sample of recent enquiries through to qualification and show you what it does to the channel ranking. ### See which channels produce real opportunities Crank helps B2B teams connect paid media to pipeline and revenue, not just clicks and form fills. [Talk to Crank](https://wa.me/447457416922?text=paid%20media%20to%20pipeline) You might also find helpful [Paid MediaB2B Paid MediaHow paid media is structured across LinkedIn, Google and the rest of a B2B channel mix.](/b2b-marketing/paid-media-b2b)[AttributionB2B Marketing AttributionModels, methods and the data needed to link marketing activity to closed revenue.](/b2b-marketing/marketing-attribution)[PerformanceB2B Performance MarketingPerformance marketing that ties every pound of spend to a commercial outcome.](/b2b-marketing/performance-marketing)[Demand GenB2B Demand GenerationThe channels, framework and proof behind a B2B demand generation programme.](/b2b-marketing/demand-generation) ## Paid media and pipeline in real accounts The qualification study above, plus three B2B accounts where connecting activity to commercial outcomes changed the decision. * [Social impact software · 2026B2B lead generation for social impact software£901 vs £665 Cost per qualified enquiry, cheap channel vs. dear channelRead the case study](/case-studies/social-impact-software-qualification-2026) * [Data infrastructure software · 2025–2026B2B paid social lead generation for data infrastructure software40x Cost per enquiry variance between formats, same audience, same weekRead the case study](/case-studies/data-infrastructure-b2b-two-year-programme) * [Content management software · 2020B2B account-based marketing for content management software26x Growth in monthly leadsRead the case study](/case-studies/content-management-software-abm-programme-2020) * [Commerce software · 2020B2B lead generation for commerce software£1,058 vs £69 Cost per enquiry, brand text vs. demand campaignRead the case study](/case-studies/commerce-software-integrated-campaign-2020) [Back to B2B Marketing](/b2b-marketing) ## More on B2B Marketing [Performance MarketingPaid media strategy, budgeting, and measurement for B2B teams.](/b2b-marketing/performance-marketing)[Lead GenerationChannel strategy and quality control for B2B lead generation.](/b2b-marketing/lead-generation)[Demand GenerationBuilding pipeline before a buyer starts actively searching for you.](/b2b-marketing/demand-generation)[Marketing AttributionAttribution models and measurement approaches for long B2B cycles.](/b2b-marketing/marketing-attribution)[Google Ads for B2BSearch advertising strategy for B2B demand capture.](/b2b-marketing/google-ads-b2b)[LinkedIn Ads for B2BPaid social strategy built around the LinkedIn B2B audience.](/b2b-marketing/linkedin-ads-b2b)[B2B Paid MediaCross-channel paid media planning for B2B marketing teams.](/b2b-marketing/paid-media-b2b)[Crank AIAI-assisted marketing production, from landing pages to ad creative.](/b2b-marketing/crank-ai)