Glean Case Study
The Client
Glean, founded by former Google search engineers, has developed an AI-powered enterprise search platform that helps employees find answers and automate work.
Their Work AI platform represents the evolution of workplace search, combining powerful search capabilities with AI-driven content generation and automation.
During our engagement, Glean secured two major funding rounds: a Series D at $2.2B valuation in February 2024, followed by a Series E at $4.6B valuation in September 2024.
Nick is a top-notch performance marketer. He brings a great attitude and perspective to each campaign and project. He fully understands how to impact each stage of the marketing funnel and how to ensure you are tracking the right metrics to show value in the work. I haven't met many people who have done such a great job at putting together a paid digital playbook and he's at the top of my list for anyone in my network asking me if I have anyone that can help support their digital marketing. On top of that, he is one of the most genuine and thoughtful human beings to chat with.
— Daniel Hendersen, Head of Digital Marketing @ Glean
The Challenge
Glean partnered with Nick Lafferty to build out their paid media program from scratch with a goal of driving at least a 10x return on ad spend in sales pipeline . Starting with a modest monthly budget split between Google and LinkedIn, they needed a strategy to:
Test and validate LinkedIn as a channel
Experiment with different buyer personas
Build brand awareness in the competitive enterprise search space
Generate high-quality demo requests that consistently created sales pipeline
The Strategy
Our approach centered on three key pillars:
1. Thought Leadership Advertising (TLA)
The cornerstone of our strategy was a deep partnership with Glean's Product Marketing and Social teams to leverage executive thought leadership.
In a hyper-competitive AI space, consistent access to authentic executive insights helped differentiate Glean's message.
We scaled TLA spend by 250% over six months, achieving engagement rates 4x above industry benchmarks.
This approach proved crucial in establishing Glean's credibility as they introduced novel AI capabilities to the enterprise market and powered other parts of our LinkedIn Ads strategy.
2. Multi-Channel Optimization
We implemented a dual-platform strategy:
LinkedIn:
Conversation ads delivering 60% open rates
Strategic mix of thought leadership and demo-focused content
Scaled monthly spend by 1,233% while improving lead quality
Google:
Scaled from zero to significant monthly spend
Achieved significantly higher ROAS compared to LinkedIn
Optimized for demo requests from enterprise decision-makers
3. Creative Testing & Optimization
Regular testing of ad formats yielded key insights:
Conversation ads consistently outperformed traditional formats
Incentivized demo offers drove 3x higher conversion rates
Thought leadership content generated 4% average CTR
Results
Over 18 months, we achieved:
900% increase in monthly ad spend while maintaining minimum 10x ROAS goal
660% growth in monthly qualified leads
Millions in qualified pipeline
Key Learnings
Thought leadership content, when properly scaled, can drive both brand awareness and conversions
Multi-format approach (TLA, conversation ads, single image) creates a comprehensive funnel
Platform diversification between LinkedIn and Google provides stability and efficiency
Consistent testing and optimization enable efficient scaling while maintaining performance
About Nick
Nick Lafferty is a growth marketing expert with over 10 years experience helping B2B SaaS companies with GTM strategy and execution. He most recently worked at Loom (acquired by Atlassian for $1B) where he was Head of Growth Marketing, prior to that he was Head of Growth at Mailgun (acquired by Sinch for $2B). He’s now a full-time consultant whose current clients Watershed($1.8b valuation), Air ($35m Series B) and Float Financial ($48.5m Series B).