Global identity and access management platform

CONFIDENTIAL CLIENT

CASE STUDY · CYBERSECURITY, IDENTITY AND ACCESS MANAGEMENT

How a Global Cybersecurity Leader Grew Pipeline by 166%

How Somebody Digital rebuilt the attribution infrastructure for a global identity and access management platform through a six-month analytics blackout, turning paid media that was disappearing into a void into a revenue engine growing pipeline across 6 regions and 12 languages.

166% pipeline growth 8.73x ROAS 6 regions 12 languages

GLOBAL FOOTPRINT · 6 REGIONS, 12 LANGUAGES

Live attribution across every market, from ANZ and UKI to Japan and DACH.

+ 0 %

Increase in attributed pipeline revenue

Year on year

0 x

Return on ad spend

More than double the benchmark

- 0 %

Reduction in cost per lead

Across the engagement

+ 0 %

ANZ conversions

With UKI conversions up 125%

THE SITUATION

Every dollar of paid media, disappearing into a void.

For most enterprise B2B marketers, a six-month analytics blackout would be cause for panic. For this client, one of the world’s leading identity and access management platforms, it was the reality they handed to Somebody Digital at the start of the engagement.

A major analytics migration had severed their attribution infrastructure entirely. With enterprise buying cycles stretching three to six months and procurement involving senior stakeholders across security, IT, and finance, the inability to connect ad spend to pipeline was strategically paralyzing. Whether the spend was working was, quite literally, untraceable.

The numbers visible before the blackout were not encouraging either. ROAS had plateaued at 3.62x, and previous platform experiments had been deprioritized after failing to demonstrate ROI. The business needed to scale global revenue under strict margin discipline. The infrastructure to do so simply did not exist.

6-month analytics blackout — attribution severed entirely

3.62x ROAS plateau, with no line of sight to fix it

A Blackout, Not a Blip

0 months

An analytics migration severed attribution entirely. Every dollar spent on paid media disappeared into a void, with no way to trace whether it was working.

Optimized for the Wrong Thing

MQLs

Campaigns chased MQL volume, a proxy metric that flatters activity in a long enterprise sale while obscuring real commercial impact and pipeline

No Consistent Attribution

0 languages

No consistent UTM structure across markets meant ANZ, UKI, Japan, DACH, and others ran on assumptions. Cross-market analysis was effectively impossible.

WHAT WE DID

Fix the foundation before building anything.

Make sure the tracking is working first, then build on that foundation.

Data visibility · BigQuery pipelines

Salesforce data piped inLive

Marketo data piped inLive

Click to closed-won visibilityRestored

Attribution · 14-token UTM

A 14-token UTM framework

utm_source · utm_region · utm_lang · utm_stage · +10 more

Every click, traceable to revenueOne attribution layer across language, region, and cycle length

Modular global architecture

ANZ · dedicated conversion buildTailored

UKI · dedicated conversion buildTailored

Japan · hybrid English and JapaneseUnlocked

Pipeline-first optimization

MQL volume Click activity

Attributed
RevenueTHE ONLY TARGET

Rebuild Data Visibility

See the spend again, first

Somebody Digital rebuilt the foundation before reaching for the campaigns. Custom BigQuery pipelines pulled Salesforce and Marketo data directly into Google Ads, bypassing the reporting blackout entirely. For the first time, the client had a direct line of sight from paid media through to pipeline stage and closed-won revenue, in real time, across every active market.

Unified Attribution

One attribution layer for every click

A 14-token UTM framework was implemented across the entire account, creating a consistent attribution layer capable of tracking every click through to its commercial outcome, regardless of language, region, or buying-cycle length. This was the prerequisite for every optimization decision that followed.

Modular Global Architecture

A tailored strategy per market

With attribution restored, the account was restructured around a modular global model. Rather than monolithic campaigns with token localization, each market got a strategy built on its own demand signals and conversion behavior. Japan blended English and Japanese to capture English-language intent that was being systematically missed. ANZ and UKI received dedicated conversion architecture rather than shared global flows.

Pipeline-First Optimization

Optimize for revenue, not proxies

Throughout, the optimization target shifted from MQL volume to pipeline value. Every bid strategy, budget allocation, and creative test was evaluated against a single question: is this contributing to attributed revenue?

THE RESULTS

A paid media operation finally accountable to revenue.

Not more spend. A direct line from every click to the pipeline it created.

YEAR ON YEAR

The headline shift

Attributed pipeline revenue+166%

↑ Year on year

Return on ad spend8.73x

↑ Up from 3.62x

Cost per lead-60%

↓ Lower is better

RETURN ON AD SPEND

More than double the benchmark

3.62x

Before

8.73x

After

ROAS climbed from a 3.62x plateau to 8.73x, more than double the industry benchmark.

REGIONAL CONVERSIONS

Localized markets, unlocked

ANZ conversions+168%

UKI conversions+125%

Japan conversion rate+18%

Hybrid English and Japanese localization

PHASE 4 — AUTHORITY

Architecture, not just spend

0 %

Services represented only 8.5% of total investment. The growth was the result of the architecture, not the money spent building it.

In the last two years, we have gone from wondering what our contribution is on non-English-speaking campaigns to being able to fully attribute not only what we bring to the table, but the growth on it, thanks to the data-driven approach from Somebody Digital.

Senior Manager, International Paid Media

Global identity and access management platform

WHAT THIS PROVES

The output was pipeline. The asset was the infrastructure.

Before this engagement, the client was running global paid media on faith, spending across six regions and twelve languages with no reliable way to know what was working. The analytics migration exposed that problem; it did not cause it. Somebody Digital built the revenue intelligence layer that made the entire operation accountable to commercial outcomes for the first time.

FROM SPENDING ON FAITH

Accountable to revenue

Every dollar of paid media is now traceable to the pipeline it creates, in real time, across every market.

FROM A REPORTING BLACKOUT

A revenue intelligence layer

BigQuery pipelines and a unified UTM framework turned an attribution void into a single line of sight from click to closed-won.

FROM MQL PROXIES

Pipeline value

Optimizing for attributed revenue rather than activity made every bid, budget, and test answer to commercial outcomes.

The 166% pipeline growth is the output. The infrastructure that makes it repeatable, scalable, and improvable is the asset.

LET'S TALK

Could your commercial engine work like this?

Most clients are operating against a distorted picture and don’t know it yet. The first step is mapping what yours is hiding.