Hi there,
Happy to share some initial thoughts and guidance. It's great you've built a business on referrals, but it's a common problem for that to start drying up. Moving into more structured outbound and paid advertising is the logical next step, and you're right to think about your web presence first. Getting that wrong is like pouring water into a leaky bucket.
Based on my experience helping other B2B service and software companies make this exact transition, here’s a bit of advice on how I’d approach it.
We'll need to look at your website and offer first...
Before you even think about spending a single pound on ads, your website needs to be a well-oiled machine for converting visitors into leads. Right now, your main goal isn't just to have a 'web presence', it's to have a destination that convinces a potential client to take the next step. For a high-value B2B service like AI consulting, that next step is almost always getting them on a call with you.
So, your entire website, especially the homepage or any landing page you send traffic to, should be built around one single purpose: getting a qualified prospect to book a consultation or request a discovery call. Everything else is a distraction. A lot of businesses make the mistake of having a site that's more like a brochure, listing services without a clear path forward. This doesn't work well for lead generation.
Think about your sales process. What's the ideal first conversation you have with a client? Is it a "Free AI Strategy Session"? An "AI Readiness Audit"? A "Technical Migration Roadmap Call"? Your website needs to sell them on taking that specific action. You need some really persausive copy here. This isn't just about listing that you do 'AI project development'; it's about articulating the painful problems you solve and the valuable outcomes you deliver. Professional sales copy can make a world of difference here, it's not something to skimp on.
I'd say you need to nail down your call to action...
You asked how to test a CTA before putting traffic on it. It’s a good question, but the CTA isn't just the button text. It's the entire offer. "Contact Us" is a terrible CTA because it offers no value and puts all the work on the prospect. "Book a Free 30-Min AI Opportunity Audit" is a brilliant CTA because it's specific, value-driven, and time-bound.
To test this properly, I'd recommend A/B testing your landing pages. You create two versions of the page, each with a slightly different offer, headline, or layout. Then you send 50% of your ad traffic to Page A and 50% to Page B. After a week or two, you see which page generated more calls booked. It’s the most straightforward way to let the data tell you what works. You don't need fancy tools to start, you can just create two seperate pages on your site and run two different ads pointing to them.
Remember, you're in a competative space. Your prospects are likely senior people (CTOs, Heads of Product, CEOs) who are short on time and are being pitched constantly. Your offer needs to stand out and feel like a genuinely good use of their time. A generic website just won't cut it.
You probably should focus on Google Ads to start...
You mentioned wanting to advertise without using Meta, which is perfectly fine for your business model. In fact, I’d say Google Search Ads should be your number one priority.
Why? Because you're selling a solution to a problem people are actively searching for. When a company's leadership decides they need to explore AI or migrate a legacy system, their first stop is often Google. They're not scrolling Instagram hoping for an answer. They're typing things like "AI consulting for finance industry" or "how to integrate AI into existing software". You want to be the first result they see when they do that.
You'd want to do some proper keyword research, but here are some examples of what you might target, based on the services you mentioned:
| Service Area | Potential Keyword Themes | Intent |
|---|---|---|
| AI Consulting | "ai strategy consulting", "ai implementation services", "ai consultant for small business" | High - actively looking for an expert. |
| AI Development | "custom ai development company", "hire ai development team", "ai software developers" | High - looking to build something specific. |
| Technical Migrations | "legacy system migration to ai", "data migration services", "technical migration consultant" | Very High - this is often an urgent, complex need. |
The key is to bid on keywords that signal commercial intent. You also need a strong list of negative keywords (like -jobs, -salary, -course, -free tutorial) to avoid wasting money on irrelavent clicks from people looking for something else.
You'll need to be strategic with other platforms...
While Google is your best bet for capturing immediate demand, you can definately explore other channels to generate awareness and leads.
LinkedIn Ads: Honestly, this is probably your second-best option, maybe even on par with Google depending on your exact ideal client. The targeting on LinkedIn is unmatched for B2B. You can target people by their exact job title, company size, industry, and seniority. Want to get your ad in front of every Chief Technology Officer at a FinTech company with 50-200 employees in London? You can do that. We've seen success with LinkedIn Ads for B2B software companies. For example, we ran a campaign for a software company and achieved a cost per lead of $22 for B2B decision makers. You'd likely run sponsored content ads (an image or video in the feed) that point to your landing page with the strong "Book a Call" offer.
Reddit Ads: You mentioned Reddit. This can be tricky, but potentially rewarding. The targeting is much broader than LinkedIn, but you can target specific communities (subreddits). You could try running ads in subreddits like r/business, r/technology, r/datascience, or even industry-specific ones where your potential clients hang out. The key here is that your ad can't feel like an ad. It needs to be conversational and offer genuine value, maybe linking to a helpful case study or a whitepaper on your site before asking for the call.
For both of these platforms, you're interrupting them rather than catching them when they're searching. This means your creative and your offer have to work much harder to grab their attention.
This is the main advice I have for you:
To put it all together, here’s a table summarising my main recommendations for you to get started with a more robust lead generation strategy.
| Area of Focus | My Recommendation | Why It's Important |
|---|---|---|
| Website & Offer | Scrap the idea of a simple 'brochure' site. Build a persuasive landing page focused on a single, high-value CTA (e.g., "Book a Free AI Readiness Audit"). | You need to convert expensive B2B traffic efficiently. A clear offer and path forward is the only way to do that and not waste your ad budget. |
| Primary Ad Channel | Start with Google Search Ads, targeting high-intent keywords related to the specific problems you solve. | This captures the 'low-hanging fruit' – businesses that are already aware of their problem and are actively looking for a solution like yours. |
| Secondary Ad Channel | Systematically test LinkedIn Ads, using its powerful targeting to reach specific decision-makers in your ideal client companies. | This allows you to proactively generate leads from perfect-fit companies, even if they aren't actively searching at that exact moment. |
| Measurement | A/B test your landing pages and offers to see what actually resonates with your audience. Track everything back to one metric: cost per qualified sales call. | Paid advertising is about data, not guesswork. Testing is the only way to improve performance and lower your lead costs over time. |
This is obviously a lot to take in, and getting it right involves a fair bit of expertise, testing, and continuous optimisation. It’s not just about setting up an ad and hoping for the best. It's about understanding the entire funnel, from the psychology of the ad copy to the user experience on the landing page.
That's where a professional consultancy like us can make a huge difference. With years of experience running these kinds of B2B campaigns, we can help you avoid costly mistakes and get to a profitable result much faster. We can provide insights you might not have thought of and take over implementation of the entire process for you, ensuring that every dollar you spend is working to grow your business.
If you'd like to discuss this in more detail, we offer a free initial consultation where we can look at your specific situation and give you a clearer roadmap. Feel free to get in touch if that sounds helpful.
Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh
