Stop Burning Budget: 6-Hour Research Before Any Campaign
Marek called me, marketing director at a SaaS company. His voice sounded tired.
„Tommy, we burned through €15,000 testing campaigns. Three months. Zero meaningful results. Maybe there’s just no demand for our product?”
There was demand. Quite significant.
The problem lay elsewhere. Marek and his team launched campaigns BEFORE doing proper research. They targeted wrong people, in wrong channels, with messages that didn’t hit real customer problems.
This is the most expensive mistake I see in B2B marketing. Testing on live organism instead of thoughtful strategy. Guessing who the customer is instead of checking before spending the first euro.
€15,000 in three months. Burned on trial and error method.
And all it took was 6 hours of proper research before launch.
Why Most Marketing Teams Make the Same Mistake
I hear this constantly: „Research is waste of time. Better to quickly test and draw conclusions from data.”
Sounds rational. In theory.
In practice I see what happens. Team launches campaigns „to see what works”. Tests different target groups, different messages, different channels. Everything at once. After a month budget shrinks, results are mixed, nobody knows what actually works and what doesn’t.
So they test further. Another month. More money. More guesswork.
After three months marketing director calls asking if maybe there’s just no demand for their product.
The truth is opposite of what most think. 4-6 hours of solid research BEFORE campaign saves months of chaotic testing.
I’m not talking about multi-month research projects. I’m not talking about hiring agencies for tens of thousands of euros. I’m talking about structural approach to gathering information that already exists and waits for you to use it.
Pre-Launch Research Framework: 6 Hours That Change Everything
Through 13 years managing campaigns for over 100 B2B clients I developed process I call Pre-Launch Research Framework. This isn’t theory. This is proven method that saved my clients hundreds of thousands of euros and months of wasted time.
The entire process takes 4-6 hours spread over one or two days. Result? Exact plan of WHO your customer is, WHERE to find them and WHAT to tell them. Before you spend the first euro on ads.
Let’s go through each step.
Step 1: Own Data Analysis (1 hour)
Before you start looking outside, check what you already know. Most companies sit on gold mine in form of their own data and don’t use it at all.
Google Analytics 4
Go into GA4 and ask yourself three questions.
First: who converts best? You’re not looking at all traffic. You’re looking at people who actually bought or left lead. What’s their demographics? What source did they come from? What pages did they visit before conversion?
Second: what traffic source gives best conversion rate? Maybe you have 10 thousand users from SEO but 0.5% converts. And from LinkedIn Ads you have only 500 users but 4% converts. Where should you invest more?
Third: what’s the path to conversion? Do people buy on first visit? Do they return three times before deciding? If they return, from where? This tells you where you should be present throughout decision process.
Google Ads (if you already run campaigns)
Which campaigns have best conversion rate? Not CTR. Not reach. Conversion rate.
Which keywords bring actual customers not just clicks? Very often I see companies spending 70% of budget on keywords that generate traffic but zero sales.
Which audience groups perform best? Maybe you target „IT managers” generally, but turns out best converts are companies 50-200 employees from financial industry.
CRM
This is often most undervalued data source.
What customer profile stays with you longest? What has highest LTV? What has shortest sales cycle?
Where did your best customers come from? Not all customers. The best ones. Because maybe from LinkedIn comes many leads, but valuable ones come from referrals.
What common characteristics have customers who stay vs those who quit after three months?
One of my clients discovered in CRM that e-commerce companies stay average 24 months, and service companies only 6 months. They changed entire targeting. Customer acquisition cost dropped 40% because they stopped attracting people who would leave anyway.
Step 2: Competitor Analysis (1 hour)
Most companies do competitor analysis wrong. They create list of 20 companies, make superficial notes about each and end with chaos of data without any conclusions.
Instead I use 3×3 matrix that allows choosing three competitors worth deep analysis.
3×3 Matrix: How to Choose Right Competitors
You evaluate each potential competitor in three dimensions.
Quality – is this company you can learn something from? Check on LinkedIn if they have team above 30 people. Do they have visible funding or revenues? Are they growing stably for minimum 2 years? If it’s startup without traction, skip it. They’re testing blindly themselves.
Rigor – does company actually test and experiment? Go to their blog and search „A/B test” or „experiments”. Check on LinkedIn if they hire Growth Product Manager, CRO Specialist, Data Scientists. Company that publishes case studies of their experiments knows what they’re doing.
Relevance – this is most important dimension. Not every competitor is equally relevant. Direct competition (same product, same customer) is obvious. But often more value comes from indirect competitors – those who have same customer as you, but solve problem differently.
After going through matrix your list of 15-20 competitors shrinks to 3-5. And that’s good. Now you can spend hour on deep analysis instead of week on superficial one.
What to Analyze in Selected Competitors
SEMrush or Ahrefs – what are their top keywords? What do they rank for organically? What paid ads do they display? Which pages generate most traffic?
LinkedIn – who are they hiring? This is phenomenal indicator of strategic direction. If they hire Head of Lifecycle Marketing, in 2-3 months they’ll launch email nurture. If looking for Enterprise Sales, they’re moving upmarket. If building Content department, they’re betting on inbound.
Website – how do they communicate product value? What problems do they address? What case studies do they show? Who do they speak to in their messaging?
One of my clients applied this approach and after two months called: „Tommy, we found patterns in keyword strategy at these three companies. First campaigns gave 180% ROAS. We never had this before.”
This isn’t magic. It’s focus on right sources.
Step 3: Real Customer Problems (1 hour)
Here most companies take shortcuts. They assume they know what problems their customers have. „Want to save time.” „Need efficiency.” „Looking for convenience.”
These are empty words. Marketing speak that means nothing.
You want to know real problems? You must listen to how customers speak in their language.
3-4 Star Reviews
Amazon, G2, Capterra, Clutch – depending on your industry. But don’t read 5-star reviews (there are only superlatives) or 1-star reviews (there are people who just hate everything).
Open 3-4 star reviews. These usually start like: „Good product, BUT…”
And that word „BUT” is gold.
„I like it, BUT setup takes too long” „Works OK, BUT customer service doesn’t respond” „Nice, BUT too expensive for what it offers” „Helpful, BUT documentation is terrible”
You create simple table: Problem | How many times appeared | Exact customer quote.
After 30 minutes you have list of 10-15 real problems, formulated in CUSTOMER language. Not your marketing department.
Customer Conversations
If you have access to current customers, call 5-10 of them. Don’t do formal interview. Ask one question:
„What did the day look like when you decided you had to solve this problem?”
This is magic question that discovers real context of purchase decision. Doesn’t ask about product. Asks about their life.
Example from real conversation:
Me: „What did the day look like when you decided you needed our solution?”
Client: [5 seconds silence] „Well… I was after another meeting where boss asked why we don’t have current campaign data. I spend 4 hours weekly collecting reports from three systems. I felt like an idiot in front of whole team.”
This is real problem. Not „need efficient reporting”. But „feel like idiot in front of boss because don’t have current data”.
One of my clients thought main problem was „saving time”. After 10 conversations turned out 8 out of 10 clients talked about… fear of losing job because not delivering results. We changed entire messaging. Conversion rate jumped from 1.8% to 3.2% in 4 weeks.
Step 4: Customer Language (1 hour)
You have problems. You have motivations. But there’s one more element that decides if your ad works: language.
Most companies write messages like marketing department speaks. Problem is customers don’t speak that way.
Reddit and Industry Forums
Go to subreddits related to your industry and look for threads where people ask for product recommendations, complain about current solutions, describe their daily problems.
And copy EXACT quotes.
„Damn, I spend 3 hours daily merging tickets from five different systems and my boss thinks I’m sitting on reddit”
„Tried three tools for X, all are either too expensive or don’t integrate with Y”
„Is it just me who’s really tired that Z requires 20 clicks to do simplest thing?”
This is real language. Unfiltered by PR. Without corporate speak.
You create document „Voice of Customer – Quotes” and paste all found statements there. Categorize them: frustrations, alternative solutions, priorities, workflow.
And then use THIS language in your ads, landing pages and emails.
Effect? People read and think: „Oh damn, that’s exactly ME. This guy understands me.”
30 minutes research on Reddit = language that converts for next 6 months.
Tools That Help
Gummy Search automatically analyzes Reddit threads and extracts insights. SparkToro shows where your target group spends time online and what they read. AnswerThePublic shows what questions people ask in Google on given topic.
You don’t need to use all. But one of them can save you hours of manual searching.
Step 5: Persona Definition (1 hour)
You have data from own systems. You have competitor analysis. You have real problems and customer language.
Now you must connect all this into answer to question: WHO SPECIFICALLY is your ideal customer?
Most companies create personas like: „Mark, 35 years old, IT Manager in medium company, looking for efficient solution.”
This is useless. This is demographic description that tells you nothing about how to target campaigns.
Urgency-Budget-Authority Framework
Instead of demographics, you evaluate potential customers in three dimensions.
Urgency – how quickly do they want to solve problem? If it’s „someday, maybe, would be nice” – skip it. You’re looking for people who say „damn, I MUST solve this by end of quarter.”
Budget – do they have resources for your solution? You can have person with huge problem, but if they work in company that doesn’t have budget for tools – they’re not your customer.
Authority – can they make purchase decision? Do they need to ask 5 other people for approval? The shorter decision path, the better customer.
Your ideal customer is: High Urgency + High Budget + High Authority.
Example of Specific Persona
Instead of: „Marketing manager 30-45 years old”
Write: „Head of Marketing in B2B SaaS company, 50-200 employees, Series A funding, tried two marketing automation tools but team didn’t use because too complicated, now CEO gives her quarter to improve lead gen or they’ll have to hire agency (which she doesn’t want because wants control), feels pressure for results but doesn’t have time for 4-week onboarding of new tool”
See the difference? This isn’t demographic description. This is SITUATION. And this situation tells you exactly how to target campaigns and what to communicate.
Step 6: Competitor Ad Research (30 minutes)
Last puzzle element. Before you create own ads, see what competition tests.
Facebook Ads Library
Go to facebook.com/ads/library. Type competitor name. You’ll see all active ads they display.
Look for two things.
First: what creatives do they test? What headlines? What images? What formats (video, carousels, single image)?
Second: which ads run longest? Ad that’s active for 3+ months is probably ad that works. Because nobody pays for ad that doesn’t convert for three months.
Google Ads
Type competitor brand name in Google. See what ads they show. What extensions they use. What messages they test.
Also type main keywords in your industry. See who advertises on them and what they communicate.
What to Do With This Information
You don’t copy competitor ads. That would be stupid and ineffective.
You look for patterns. What problems do they address? What benefits do they emphasize? What communication tone do they use?
And then you think: how can I do this BETTER? How can I stand out? What can I say that they don’t say?
How Marek Saved Another €15,000
Back to Marek. After our conversation he did all this research. Took him two working days.
What did he discover?
From GA4 and CRM analysis came out that best customers are companies 100-300 employees from financial industry. And they were targeting everyone from 50 to 500 employees in all industries.
From competitor analysis came out that two main players don’t address ERP system integrations at all. And that was main problem of their best customers.
From G2 reviews came out that people aren’t looking for „efficiency”. They’re looking for „peace of mind that reports will be ready on time without sitting until midnight”.
From Reddit research came out that their target group spends more time on LinkedIn than they thought, but in completely different groups than they targeted.
Marek changed targeting. Changed messages. Changed channels.
Result after two months: lead acquisition cost dropped 45%. Lead quality increased (they measured by demo conversion rate). Sales increased 30%.
Not because they had better product. Product was the same. But finally they spoke to right people, in right places, with right messages.
Most Common Mistakes in Pre-Launch Research
After years working with clients I see same mistakes repeating over and over.
Mistake One: Analyzing All Competitors
„We have 20 competitors, we must analyze them all.” No, you don’t. Choose 3-5 most important using 3×3 matrix and focus deeply on them.
Mistake Two: Relying Only on Demographics
„Our customer is manager 35-45 years old.” This tells you nothing about how to target them. You need situation, not demographics.
Mistake Three: Ignoring Own Data
Companies spend thousands on external research, and have gold mine in GA4, CRM and conversations with current customers. Start with what you already have.
Mistake Four: Research Without Action Plan
You do research, create 50-page report and… nothing. Report lands on Google Drive and nobody opens it. Research makes sense only if you translate it into specific decisions.
Mistake Five: One-Time Research
Market changes. Competitors pivot. New players enter. Research isn’t one-time project. It’s system you must update regularly.
How to Implement This at Your Company
If you’re planning new campaign, new channel, new product – stop. Don’t launch anything before going through this process.
Block 6 hours in calendar spread over two days. First day: own data analysis, competitor analysis, problem research. Second day: customer language, persona definition, ad research.
Write everything in one document. Don’t scatter notes across different files, slacks, emails. One „Pre-Launch Research” document you return to before every marketing decision.
Before each new campaign ask yourself three questions:
- Do I know WHO specifically is my customer?
- Do I know WHERE exactly to find them?
- Do I know WHAT to tell them to make it work?
If answer to any is „no” or „not sure” – return to research. Don’t launch campaign.
Summary
6 hours of research vs €15,000 burned on tests.
This isn’t difficult choice.
Most marketing teams test 2-3 months blindly. Smart teams do 6 hours research before launch.
Research isn’t waste of time. It’s investment that returns many times over.
Marek burned €15,000 before he called me. After implementing pre-launch research his next campaign was profitable from first month.
Not because he had bigger budget. Not because he had better product. But because he knew exactly who was on other side of screen and what they really needed.
And that makes all the difference
What Next?
You now have two options.
Option A: You implement this yourself. You have framework, you have method, you have examples. This is solid foundation that can already change your campaign results.
Option B: You want to go deeper.
Because what you read is basic version. Foundation. In practice research is much more – purchase path analysis, touchpoint mapping, Jobs To Be Done segmentation, deep competitor communication analysis, message-market fit testing.
Companies that do this more thoroughly get better results. Not 10-20% better. 100-200% better.
If you feel your campaigns could work better, but don’t know where the problem is – let’s talk.
15 minutes. Specifically about your situation. I’ll tell you honestly if I see potential and if audit even makes sense.
→ Choose time in calendar: labroi.co/rozmowa
No commitment. No sales. If after conversation you decide you can handle it yourself – great. At least you’ll know where to start.
Tom Piskorski Senior Marketing Campaign & Analytics Specialist 13+ years experience in Google Ads, Meta Ads and LinkedIn Ads campaigns for B2B companies across Europe. Managed budgets exceeding €500,000 monthly for over 100 clients.
🔒 Pozostało 80% artykułu
Odblokuj pełną treść bezpłatnie
Podaj firmowy adres email aby czytać dalej.
Odblokowujesz także wszystkie pozostałe artykuły na stronie!
