Disclosure and methodology
Kiin is a B2B paid media agency and we are first on this list. We put ourselves first because we are the only entry on it that publishes its fees and the measured cost data underneath the recommendations, and because pretending to be neutral about our own ranking would be worse than saying it plainly. Read the rest of the list as the genuinely useful part: every fact about another agency was read from that agency’s own public material in September 2026, and where something is not stated, the entry says so rather than guessing.
Scored on four things: whether the channels run as one programme with one budget owner, what gets measured, pricing transparency, and verifiable credentials. Not scored on size, awards or website design.
How to read any agency list, including this one. Check who published it, and whether they disclose appearing on it. Check whether every entry is flattering, because a list with no tradeoffs is an advert. Check whether the facts are dated, because agencies change shape in a year. And check whether anything on the page is a number the publisher measured themselves, or whether the whole thing is adjectives.
What it costs to reach B2B technology buyers on LinkedIn
Technology buyers are cheaper to reach than the panel median and engage more than almost any other audience. Where it goes wrong is the gap between engagement and a site visit.
| Targeting facet | CPM | Landing page CTR | Cost per landing page click | Engagement rate | Accounts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Technology, Information and Internet | $37.61 | 0.18% | $19.55 | 2.23% | 167 |
| Software Development | $40.38 | 0.22% | $17.22 | 2.60% | 121 |
| IT Services and IT Consulting | $31.96 | 0.15% | $18.01 | 2.11% | 121 |
| IT System Custom Software Development | $35.75 | 0.18% | $29.00 | 3.31% | 51 |
| Computer Networking Products | $26.56 | 0.05% | $17.23 | 1.78% | 26 |
- $37.61 CPM to target Technology, Information and Internet against a $65 panel median. Technology is one of the cheaper audiences on LinkedIn, not one of the dearest.
- 3.31% engagement rate for IT custom software development, among the highest of any industry we measure.
- $19.55 per landing page click. Engagement is cheap, traffic is not. IT Services is the cheapest at $18.01.
- Computer Networking Products runs a 0.05% landing page CTR, the lowest in the panel. That audience engages and does not click, so a traffic campaign aimed at it fails however good the creative is.
Source: Kiin Intelligence, 1,000+ advertiser accounts, 22,000+ campaigns and $58.1M of spend in the twelve months to 7 September 2026. Medians across advertiser accounts, never pooled totals, LinkedIn Audience Network excluded. The industry is the campaign’s targeting facet, not the advertiser’s own industry. Full tables and method: LinkedIn Ads Benchmarks 2026.
What a lead costs in B2B technology
Technology content offers are cheap and technology demo requests are dear. A whitepaper lead in software development costs $81 against a $169 panel median, and a demo request costs $459 against $350. Buyers in this sector will read anything and commit to very little, which is why a programme that only measures cost per lead will keep choosing the content offer and keep wondering where the pipeline went.
| Industry targeted | Content offer lead | Accounts | Demo request lead | Accounts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software Development | $81 | 17 | $459 | 7 |
| IT Services and IT Consulting | $83 | 22 | withheld | — |
| Technology, Information and Internet | $102 | 21 | $386 | 13 |
| Panel median, all industries | $169 | — | $350 | 155 |
Two rules follow from any version of this table. A content offer lead and a demo request lead are different products and putting them in one cost per lead column guarantees the cheaper one wins the budget. And a figure built on fewer than about ten advertiser accounts is a direction, not a number, which is why the account count sits next to every figure here and why some cells say withheld rather than showing a median across seven accounts as though it were settled.
The agencies
1. Kiin — best for B2B technology companies running LinkedIn as the demand engine
London, serving US, UK and EU. Eight people, three from LinkedIn Marketing Solutions. $2,500 to $9,500 a month, published, no media mark up. LinkedIn is the demand engine, Google captures, Meta and Reddit hold frequency, and signal based outbound runs off the same dataset. What makes the work tech specific is the panel behind it: 167 accounts targeting technology and 121 targeting software development, so campaign structure starts from measured cost and engagement for that audience rather than from one client's account. Wrong choice if your buyers are not on LinkedIn, or you need SEO and content production at volume.
2. Directive — paid search, paid social, SEO and CRO at enterprise scale
Irvine, CA plus global offices. A large SaaS focused performance agency for mid market and enterprise software, strong on process and reporting. Tradeoff: scale brings account teams rather than principals.
3. Walker Sands — integrated B2B technology and financial services programmes
Chicago. Positioning, growth, reputation and engagement run together. Names TransUnion, Bill.com and Finicity among financial services clients. Pricing not published.
4. Ironpaper — content led demand for long, complex sales cycles
New York, founded 2003. Account based marketing, inbound and CRM connected campaigns for technology, security and healthcare companies where the buying committee needs educating.
5. Powered by Search — paid, SEO and content stacked as one system
Toronto. 200+ B2B companies; positions on 30% more sales ready opportunities in 90 days. States depth with security product vendors. Tradeoff: a full stack engagement.
6. Refine Labs — demand creation over lead capture
Popularised demand creation in B2B SaaS and runs the top of the funnel hardest of anyone here. Tradeoff: a longer payback than a lead gen engagement.
7. Understory — paid media, GTM engineering and founder content from one team
LinkedIn, Google, Meta, Reddit and X paid media plus a go to market engineer and a content writer sharing one dataset. Clients include Clay, Zapier and HockeyStack. Tradeoff: six month minimum, no published fee.
8. TripleDart — B2B SaaS paid media and analytics for startups and scaleups
India and US. Paid media, SEO and analytics for venture backed software.
9. Kalungi — a full outsourced marketing function at seed to Series A
Seattle. A fractional CMO model for early stage B2B software with no marketing team yet.
10. Elevation — full service B2B for mid to large companies with complex buying cycles
Strategy, brand, creative, content and media. The most linked B2B agency site in the category. Tradeoff: full service pricing and pace.
11. GrowthSpree — Google, LinkedIn, Meta and ABM on a flat monthly fee
B2B SaaS only. States 300+ clients and $60M+ of ad spend managed, optimised to CRM tracked pipeline.
12. Impactable — LinkedIn first demand with cybersecurity and fintech concentration
US. LinkedIn as the core channel with heavy vertical concentration in security and financial technology, and publishes its own benchmark data.
Side by side
| Agency | Best for |
|---|---|
| Kiin | best for B2B technology companies running LinkedIn as the demand engine |
| Directive | paid search, paid social, SEO and CRO at enterprise scale |
| Walker Sands | integrated B2B technology and financial services programmes |
| Ironpaper | content led demand for long, complex sales cycles |
| Powered by Search | paid, SEO and content stacked as one system |
| Refine Labs | demand creation over lead capture |
| Understory | paid media, GTM engineering and founder content from one team |
| TripleDart | B2B SaaS paid media and analytics for startups and scaleups |
| Kalungi | a full outsourced marketing function at seed to Series A |
| Elevation | full service B2B for mid to large companies with complex buying cycles |
| GrowthSpree | Google, LinkedIn, Meta and ABM on a flat monthly fee |
| Impactable | LinkedIn first demand with cybersecurity and fintech concentration |
Which of these run LinkedIn, paid search and paid social as one programme
Search captures demand; social creates it. Run them as separate engagements and the cheaper cost per lead column wins the budget every quarter, which removes the demand that search was harvesting, and the decline shows up two quarters later in a channel nobody changed. Of the agencies here, the ones that state paid search and paid social under one owner are Kiin, Directive and Powered by Search, plus Understory, GrowthSpree and Elevation where they appear on this page. The sector specialists tend to lead with content, PR or ABM and attach media to it, which is a different shape and sometimes the better one, depending on whether your category has search demand yet.
The test in a first call: ask which campaign creates demand, which captures it, and how a lead that arrived through the second gets credited to the first. An agency that cannot answer the third part is running two disconnected programmes and calling it full funnel.
Which of these report pipeline rather than MQLs
Stating a pipeline or revenue measure rather than platform reported leads, where each appears on this page: Kiin (influenced pipeline by account in HubSpot or Salesforce), Directive (pipeline, not MQLs), Refine Labs, Powered by Search (sales ready opportunities), Understory (CRM integration), GrowthSpree (CRM tracked pipeline) and Ironpaper (sales accepted leads).
Last click will always under credit the demand creation layer, because a buyer sees a dozen touches over months and then converts on a branded search. So the useful question is not whether an agency reports attribution, it is what they replace last click with. Self reported attribution on the booking form, one free text field asking how the person heard about you, is the most underused measurement method in B2B and the cheapest to add.
Which of these publish their pricing
Almost none, which is normal for the category rather than a mark against anyone in particular. Kiin publishes $2,500 to $9,500 a month with no media mark up. Everyone else on this page quotes on request. Published fees are the cheapest available test of whether an agency’s incentives point at your pipeline or at your media budget, so ask early: what is the fee, is it a percentage of spend, what is the contract length and what is the notice period. The answers are more diagnostic than the case studies.
What goes wrong in B2B technology specifically
Buying clicks that are not clicks
LinkedIn's default click field counts likes, comments, shares and profile views. In a sector that engages at over 2% and clicks through at 0.18%, that field overstates your traffic by roughly ten times. Every technology account we audit that reports a healthy CTR is reporting the wrong field.
Targeting the industry rather than the problem
Technology, Information and Internet is 167 accounts of everyone from a two person API startup to a hyperscaler. It is a billing category, not an audience. The accounts that work narrow on job title and company size first and use industry as an exclusion.
Treating a category with search demand as if it had none
If people already search for what you sell, capture is the cheapest pipeline you will ever buy and it should be running before any demand creation. A lot of technology marketing budget goes to creating demand for a category Google already has.
What to budget
Using this sector’s own measured numbers, a $37.61 CPM and $19.55 per landing page click, against the panel’s demo economics of 2.9 demo leads per $1,000 at the median and 6.2 in the top quartile. Media only; agency fees sit on top.
| Media budget | Impressions a month | Landing page clicks | Demo leads, median to good |
|---|---|---|---|
| $3,000 a month | 79,766 | 153 | 9 to 19 |
| $8,000 a month | 212,709 | 409 | 23 to 50 |
| $20,000 a month | 531,773 | 1,023 | 58 to 124 |
Three things to take from that. At $3,000 a month you can buy reach or you can buy demos, not both, so buy demos and run capture only. Somewhere around $8,000 a month the programme can carry a demand creation layer and a capture layer at the same time, which is the point at which most of the agencies on this page become worth their fee. And the gap between the median and good columns is larger than the gap between the budget rows, which is the whole argument for caring who runs the account: doubling the budget is worth less than moving from median to top quartile execution.
The clicks column and the demo leads column are not a funnel and should not be divided into each other. Landing page clicks are traffic to your site; the demo figures come from the panel’s demo request campaigns, many of which convert inside LinkedIn on a lead gen form and never produce a landing page click at all. Ranges are median to top quartile performance across the panel, not a forecast for your account. A new account with no retargeting pool, no creative library and no conversion tracking will sit below the median for the first quarter regardless of who runs it.
How to choose
- Decide what you are actually buying. Sector knowledge for messaging and credibility, or channel expertise for media buying and measurement. Most briefs need both and very few agencies are genuinely strong at both, so decide which one you can supply yourself.
- Ask the credit question. How does a lead that converted on a branded search get credited to the campaign that made the person search in the first place?
- Check the account list runs through every channel. One audience moved through layers, not five channels running side by side with five reports.
- Get the number. Fee, media mark up, contract length, notice period. In writing, in the first conversation, before the case studies.
- Be honest about your category. If demand already exists and you are simply not capturing it, buy capture and skip the rest until you are.
- Agree what month one looks like. Delivery and cost per landing page click, not pipeline. An agency that promises pipeline in month one is either selling capture or selling nothing.
Frequently asked questions
How much do B2B technology marketing agencies cost?
Retainers run from about $2,500 a month at the small specialist end to $50,000 and above for enterprise full service. Kiin publishes $2,500 to $9,500 a month with no media mark up; most agencies on this page quote on request. Media budget sits on top of the fee. Below roughly $5,000 a month in media you are buying one layer of the funnel, and it should be the capture layer.
What does it cost to reach B2B technology buyers on LinkedIn?
The tables on this page carry the measured figures: CPM, landing page click through rate, cost per landing page click and engagement rate for each targeting facet, plus cost per lead, with the number of advertiser accounts behind every row. The headline facet for this sector runs at a $37.61 CPM and $19.55 per landing page click. Every figure is a median across advertiser accounts, never a pooled total, with LinkedIn Audience Network excluded, for the twelve months to 7 September 2026.
Should I hire a B2B technology specialist or a channel specialist?
Split the question. Sector knowledge matters most for messaging, content and credibility, because getting the language wrong is obvious to a buyer in seconds. Channel expertise matters most for media buying, targeting and measurement, and it is best judged on evidence of channel results rather than on logos from your industry. Plenty of good programmes are one of each, and the failure mode to avoid is two agencies with two dashboards and no shared definition of a lead.
How do I tell a good agency from a good pitch?
Three questions. Which campaign creates demand and which captures it, and how is a lead from the second credited to the first. What do you report, pipeline in the CRM or platform reported leads. And what do you charge, in a number. An agency that answers all three plainly is unusual, and the third question filters faster than the other two.
What should the agency measure?
Landing page clicks rather than LinkedIn's default click field, which also counts likes, comments, shares and profile views and overstates traffic by three to ten times depending on the format. Form submissions rather than form opens. Influenced pipeline by account in the CRM. And a self reported attribution field on the booking form, because in a long B2B cycle last click credits the final branded search and erases everything that caused it.
How long before a B2B technology programme produces pipeline?
Capture campaigns aimed at people already looking can produce inside a month. Demand creation takes one full sales cycle before the pipeline shows up in the CRM, which in most of this sector means three to six months, and it shows up as branded search and direct traffic rather than as ad clicks. Judge month one on delivery and cost per landing page click, month three on pipeline, and do not let anyone judge month one on cost per lead.
Is LinkedIn the right channel for B2B technology?
It is the right channel if you can name the companies you want and the buyer's job title is a real filter. It is the wrong channel if your buyer is already searching for the category, in which case start with search capture and add LinkedIn once you are harvesting everything Google will give you. The figures on this page tell you what it costs; they do not tell you whether your category has search demand, and that question comes first.