Paid Search + SEO Cross-Channel Strategy Increases Leads 8% for B2B Client

Overview

Eyeful Media’s paid search and SEO team collaborated to reduce branded spend, reinvest in non-brand, and leverage a strong organic foundation to increase overall leads by 8%.

Summary

After developing a robust SEO campaign, we reduced branded paid search spend by 97% and reinvested it in non-brand campaigns. SEO captured the branded clicks organically, and we increased overall leads by 8% as a team. 

The Challenge

Our client's SEO program had matured to the point where it was ranking well for branded terms — but paid search was still spending to win clicks on those same terms. We suspected some of that branded spend could be better allocated elsewhere, and set out to test whether SEO could absorb that demand so the budget could work harder for our client. 

The Solution

We reduced branded paid search spend by 97%.

Branded spend dropped from 44% to under 2% of total marketing spend. We reinvested those funds into non-brand search, where we saw an opportunity to scale spend at below-average cost per acquisition. The test was whether SEO could replace branded growth, and it did.

The Findings

Organic search stepped in as branded paid spend pulled back. We increased organic clicks, sessions, and marketing qualified leads (MQLs) by over 15% each during the test period.  This led to a 48% increase in organic form submissions, comparing January to July.

Meanwhile, paid search became more precise, reinvesting in new non-brand campaigns that fueled growth for our client.

The Results

New leads — our bottom-line metric — grew 8% net across all channels. 

Our SEO program fully absorbed the branded demand once paid search stepped back, proving our client no longer needed to pay for clicks it could already earn.

We delivered that growth while becoming more precise with our advertising, and kept the total monthly media budget unchanged. This led to more leads overall with the same investment.

Key Stats 

  • +8% net increase in new leads across all channels — the bottom-line result

  • 44% of our paid advertising budget was dedicated to brand in January of 2026 

  • 2% of the total marketing budget through July ‘26 is represented by branded spend. 

  • 48% increase in organic form submissions helped SEO cover the gap left by reduced brand spend.

B2B, Paid Search, SEOThe Eyeful Media Teamb2b, paid search, seo