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 cybersecurity buyers on LinkedIn
Security is the clearest example on LinkedIn of engagement and traffic being different things. Budget from the wrong one and the campaign looks excellent and delivers nothing.
| Targeting facet | CPM | Landing page CTR | Cost per landing page click | Engagement rate | Accounts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Computer and Network Security | $39.71 | 0.24% | $27.46 | 3.23% | 36 |
| Data Security Software Products | $31.82 | 0.19% | $16.12 | 1.62% | 48 |
| Computer Networking Products | $26.56 | 0.05% | $17.23 | 1.78% | 26 |
| IT Services and IT Consulting | $31.96 | 0.15% | $18.01 | 2.11% | 121 |
| Technology, Information and Internet | $37.61 | 0.18% | $19.55 | 2.23% | 167 |
- 3.23% engagement rate targeting Computer and Network Security, the highest of any technology audience in the panel. Security people read and react.
- $27.46 per landing page click, well above the $17.54 panel median. They engage in feed and do not leave it.
- Data Security Software Products is a different audience entirely: $31.82 CPM and $16.12 a click. Targeting the product category rather than the job function is materially cheaper.
- The practical read: judge security campaigns on landing page clicks and pipeline, never on engagement rate, or you will scale the campaign that feels best and produces least.
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 cybersecurity
We do not hold enough security specific lead campaigns to publish a security cost per lead without overstating what seven or eight accounts can tell you, so the nearest reliable figures are the technology ones below. Read them as an upper bound on the content offer and a lower bound on the demo, because security buyers download more and commit later than the tech average.
| 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 security vendors whose buyers are on LinkedIn
London, serving US, UK and EU. Eight people, three from LinkedIn Marketing Solutions. $2,500 to $9,500 a month, published. We have measured 36 advertiser accounts targeting Computer and Network Security and 48 targeting Data Security Software Products, which is how we know a security audience engages at 3.23% and still costs $27.46 a landing page click. That gap is the whole design problem in security paid media, and knowing the size of it is what stops a campaign being built on an engagement rate that never becomes pipeline. Best paired with a specialist for analyst relations and security content, which is not what we do.
2. OTReniX — dedicated vertical practices in security and industrial
States that team members work full time on accounts within a single vertical, running ABM, paid search, LinkedIn ads, content syndication and outbound for one sector at a time.
3. Merritt Group — cybersecurity PR and analyst relations at enterprise scale
Runs a dedicated cybersecurity practice and states more than 80 security clients including CrowdStrike and Black Hat. Tradeoff: communications led rather than performance led.
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. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. CyberWhyze — video led demand generation for security vendors
Works exclusively with cybersecurity companies and builds its offer around video.
10. 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.
11. 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.
Side by side
| Agency | Best for |
|---|---|
| Kiin | best for security vendors whose buyers are on LinkedIn |
| OTReniX | dedicated vertical practices in security and industrial |
| Merritt Group | cybersecurity PR and analyst relations at enterprise scale |
| Ironpaper | content led demand for long, complex sales cycles |
| Powered by Search | paid, SEO and content stacked as one system |
| Directive | paid search, paid social, SEO and CRO at enterprise scale |
| Refine Labs | demand creation over lead capture |
| Impactable | LinkedIn first demand with cybersecurity and fintech concentration |
| CyberWhyze | video led demand generation for security vendors |
| Understory | paid media, GTM engineering and founder content from one team |
| Walker Sands | integrated B2B technology and financial services programmes |
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 cybersecurity specifically
Optimising to engagement
Security is the highest engaging audience in the panel at 3.23% and one of the most expensive to get to a website at $27.46 a click. An engagement optimised campaign will look like the best thing in the account and send almost nobody to the site. Judge on landing page clicks and pipeline.
Targeting the job instead of the stack
Computer and Network Security costs $27.46 a landing page click. Data Security Software Products costs $16.12. Same broad buyer, 41% less per click, because you are describing what they run rather than what their title says.
Gated content as the whole programme
Security buyers will take the report and stay anonymous. That is fine if the report is doing brand work, and a problem if it is the only conversion path. Pair it with a direct route for the minority already in market.
What to budget
Using this sector’s own measured numbers, a $39.71 CPM and $27.46 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 | 75,548 | 109 | 9 to 19 |
| $8,000 a month | 201,461 | 291 | 23 to 50 |
| $20,000 a month | 503,651 | 728 | 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 cybersecurity 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 cybersecurity 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 $39.71 CPM and $27.46 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 cybersecurity 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 cybersecurity 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 cybersecurity?
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.