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CIM · Production data and automation for pharma, Europe

2,961 ad clicks from LinkedIn Ads in 13 months.

CIM helps pharma manufacturers collect and use their production data. We ran its LinkedIn Ads to engineers, quality and production leaders at a list of European pharma companies, and CIM ended up with the highest click-through rate among eight companies in its field.

  • 13 months
  • LinkedIn Ads
  • Europe
Services provided
  • LinkedIn Ads
  • Strategy and targeting
  • Ad copy and graphics
  • Video production
  • Retargeting and event ads

Who we targeted

1Audience

  • Decision makers at target pharma companies
  • Engineers and automation specialists
  • Quality and production leaders
  • Event audiences in Denmark and Sweden
  • Video viewers (retargeting)

Job titles beat job functions in testing, so the main campaign ran on job titles at a list of target companies.

2Industry

  • Pharmaceutical manufacturing
  • Life science production

3Company size

  • Pharma manufacturers on CIM's target list

4Job titles

  • Automation engineer
  • Design engineer
  • Quality assurance manager
  • Production manager
  • Maintenance manager
  • Head of engineering
  • Site director

5Countries

  • EUEurope
  • DKDenmark
  • SESweden

All ads in English.

The numbers

Pharma decision makers who saw, clicked and engaged.

Results from CIM's LinkedIn Ads reports over 13 months.

2,961

Ad clicks

Clicks on CIM's ads across three reporting periods.

123%

Higher click-through rate on retargeting

Video shown to people who already knew CIM, against video shown to the cold company list.

1.83%

Click-through rate

On the target company list in month 4, against a 0.44% LinkedIn average.

267,311

Impressions

Times the ads were shown to the target audience in the same periods.

CIM against seven competitors, months 10 to 12
410ad clicks, vs 267 for the median competitor

In LinkedIn's own comparison of CIM and seven companies in its field, CIM had the highest click-through rate of all eight. It got more clicks than the median competitor from fewer impressions: 44,655 against 77,475.

Median competitor267
CIM410

Clicks on sponsored content in Europe over the same ten weeks, from LinkedIn's competitor report.

ChallengeBig buyers, long decisions, and a product that is hard to explain

CIM sells to pharma manufacturers, where a purchase goes through a large group of people and takes many months. Most of its selling had been offline and account by account. Buyers often did not see the difference between the OEE systems they already had and what CIM offers, and some thought CIM was too small.

The goal: make CIM known to the right people at large pharma companies, and teach them something useful along the way.

SolutionEducate first, then follow up with video

We ran awareness ads to engineers, quality and production leaders at a list of European pharma companies, and promoted CIM's pharma event in Denmark and Sweden. We tested job titles against job functions, two rounds of new images and copy, carousel ads and a website visits objective. Job titles won, and in month 4 we expanded the company list.

After a video day we produced six short thought leadership videos on data silos, the limits of OEE, AI and decision support, and used them to retarget people who had already seen CIM. Early tests also showed that posts from CIM's own people did much better than posts from the company page.

ImpactThe right people saw CIM, and they clicked

Across three reporting periods the ads were shown 267,311 times and clicked 2,961 times. On the target company list the click-through rate reached 1.83%, against a 0.44% LinkedIn average, and video shown to people who already knew CIM got 0.63% against 0.28% for video shown to the cold company list.

In LinkedIn's comparison with seven competitors, CIM had the best click-through rate of all eight.

How we helped

What we did, and when

Awareness to target pharma companies first, a wider company list from month 4, then video and retargeting.

  1. Month 1

    Strategy and targeting

    Strategy workshop, a list of target pharma companies in Europe, a detailed list of job titles, and messages built on the buyers' real objections.

  2. Month 1

    Launch

    Awareness ads went live to job titles at the target companies, plus ads for CIM's pharma event in Denmark, Sweden and the rest of Europe.

  3. Months 2 to 10

    Testing and optimisation

    Audience, image, copy, carousel and objective tests. A wider company list from month 4 with a 1.83% click-through rate, then video ads and retargeting from month 5.

  4. Month 13

    Results

    2,961 ad clicks, 267,311 impressions and the best click-through rate among eight companies in CIM's field.

Month by month

Steady clicks from a focused audience.

Ad clicks for each reporting period, with the click-through rate.

Ad clicks

All campaigns, by reporting period.

Ad clicks
  1. 1,607
    Months 1 to 41.33%
  2. 949
    Months 8 to 100.93%
  3. 405
    Months 11 to 130.92%

How we count. Months are counted from the first campaign. Figures come from CIM's LinkedIn Ads report for its first months and two quarterly LinkedIn reports for months 8 to 13. Months 5 to 7 are not in the totals because those reports overlap or do not give totals, so the real totals are higher. Ad clicks and impressions are the sums of these three periods. Click-through rate is clicks divided by impressions: reported for months 1 to 4 and calculated from the reported figures for later periods. The 1.83% company list rate, the 0.44% LinkedIn average and the video comparison, including the 123% higher click-through rate for retargeting video, are as quoted in CIM's reports. The competitor figures come from LinkedIn's competitor report for CIM and seven companies in its field over ten weeks.

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