What we were solving
The firm's consulting practice was built almost entirely on referrals — a reliable source but not a scalable one. They wanted to develop a repeatable outbound motion to reach new enterprise accounts, specifically C-suite decision-makers (CEOs, COOs, and transformation directors) at large regional and multinational organisations operating in the Gulf.
The challenge was the buyer persona. C-suite executives at this level don't respond to cold email. They don't attend trade shows to be prospected. Their assistants filter their calls. But they are on LinkedIn — consuming content, building networks, and increasingly making vendor decisions based on digital presence and thought leadership. The firm needed to find a way to be visible and credible in that environment before any direct outreach.
What AppLabx did
We built a 40-account target list in collaboration with the client's partners, vetted through AccountSignal™ to identify which accounts showed the highest activity signals on LinkedIn (recent content engagement, page visits, and job change activity indicating potential organisational change and buying readiness).
For each account, we mapped the key decision-making stakeholders — typically 3–5 individuals — and built personalised content and ad experiences for each account tier. Content strategy positioned the firm's partners as the most credible voice on enterprise transformation in the Gulf region: original research, specific case insights (anonymised), and perspectives on regulatory and market shifts their target clients were facing.
Paid ABM campaigns used LinkedIn's matched audience capability to serve highly targeted Sponsored Content and Message Ads exclusively to identified stakeholders at the 40 target accounts. Budgets were concentrated — $200–400 per target account per month — rather than spread across broad audiences. Creative was account-personalised where possible, referencing industry-specific context relevant to each account segment.
What happened
By the end of Q1, AccountSignal™ data showed that 74% of the 40 target accounts had at least one stakeholder who had engaged with the firm's LinkedIn content or ads — viewing a post, following the page, or clicking through to a resource. This was invisible engagement — the kind that warms a relationship before any direct contact is made.
Eight accounts progressed from passive engagement to active conversation: either a direct LinkedIn message to one of the firm's partners, an inbound enquiry through the website (attributed via UTM tracking to LinkedIn), or an introduction request through a mutual connection who had seen the firm's content. Of these eight, six progressed to formal proposal stage in Q2 — representing $2.1M in identifiable pipeline.
"We'd tried ABM through email and events. Nothing worked at the C-suite level. LinkedIn ABM was different because we were showing up in the environment where these executives were already spending time — and we were adding value before we ever asked for anything. The quality of the conversations we're having now is unlike anything we've experienced through other channels."Managing Director · Management Consultancy · Dubai (identity withheld by mutual agreement)