Case Study · Data & A.I. Platform

Databricks

Blackbird PPC managed Databricks for five years. Through relentless ad testing, full-funnel measurement, and best-in-class dashboarding, Blackbird augmented growth with quality responses.

Client

Databricks

Engagement

5 years

Channels

Search · LinkedIn · Social

Focus

Full-funnel pipeline

Results

Pipeline that outpaced spend

Spend scaled six-fold while marketing-qualified pipeline scaled eight-fold.

MQL Volume

Marketing-qualified leads over the engagement

Lead quality held at scale

Ad Spend

Scaled into 40+ countries across Europe & Asia

Pipeline outpaced spend

01 · The Challenge

Grow aggressively without losing efficiency

Hit aggressive growth goals while maintaining efficiency.
Lead-quality variability across channels and ad formats made bottom-of-funnel performance hard to gauge.
Ad-platform and CRM tracking configuration did not allow accurate cost and response attribution.

02 · The Solution

Four connected workstreams

Each workstream fed the next, turning measurement into an optimization loop.

Asset diversification & testing

Identified growth areas for each asset type — eBooks, whitepapers, webinars, events, trials. Active assets and ad units doubled every year for three years; systematic testing across platforms, geos, personas, audiences, and funnel stage lifted CTR while mitigating cost.

Data consolidation & lead-quality evaluation

Connected web-analytics engagement, ad-network creative performance, and CRM MQLs/opportunities so every dollar of spend mapped to a CRM campaign, and every lead mapped back to a paid-media campaign.

Built-in optimization logic

Frequency and impression-share data estimate room for growth per campaign, keeping spend away from low marginal returns at scale.

Optimal media mix by marginal efficiency

Modeled the elasticity between spend and MQLs/opportunities to dial up high-marginal-efficiency campaigns and dial down the low ones.

Active ad units doubled year over year across NAMER, EMEA, and APAC.

Web-analytics, ad-network, and CRM data consolidated into one attribution model.

A weekly ‘magic quadrant’ balances efficiency against room for growth.

Optimal media mix at scale, shifting toward the most efficient channels.

Yield curves model diminishing returns — marginal efficiency by channel.

03 · Proof

Five years of compounding growth

Quarterly ad spend (bars) and MQL volume (line), Q3 2017 to Q2 2020.

Spend gradually increased 6×.

MQLs increased 8× — efficiency and lead quality at scale.

Quarterly ad-spend growth vs. MQL growth, with trend line.

In their words

“They move fast, they go the extra mile, they’re proactive, responsive, and most importantly, they know their stuff.”

Justin Epstein

Startup Advisor; former Marketing Principal at Databricks and Prophecy

Ready to scale pipeline like this?

Full-funnel measurement, relentless testing, and a media mix tuned to marginal efficiency.