How we helped Proton drive $1M+ in pipeline and grow opportunities by 250% with paid ads

$1M+

pipeline influenced from paid ads

11.5x

return on ad spend

🎯

+250%

opportunities

About Proton

Proton is an AI-powered CRM purpose-built for distributors. It gives sales reps real-time product recommendations, surfacing the right leads and helping teams move faster, grow revenue, and drive deeper customer relationships — without the bloat of traditional CRMs.

The challenges

Proton faced multiple roadblocks in scaling its paid marketing efforts effectively:

No past success with Google Ads

Previous attempts at using Google Ads didn’t drive meaningful pipeline or demo volume.

LinkedIn success felt like a fluke

Despite getting one customer via LinkedIn in the past, Proton couldn’t replicate the result. It wasn’t repeatable or scalable.

Extremely niche ICP with low search demand

Proton’s audience is very specific and narrow, making it difficult to target with traditional paid strategies. Google search volume was especially low, compounding the challenge.

Our approach

To address these challenges, Hey Digital implemented a full-funnel strategy:

Full restructure of Google Ads by intent

We split campaigns into Brand, Competitor, Medium Intent, and High Intent segments. This allowed us to narrow targeting to only high-converting terms and ICP-relevant queries.

Aggressive bidding on High-Intent keywords

We used a focused keyword list tightly aligned with the product’s ICP and went aggressive on bids to capture demand in a low-volume market.

Complete LinkedIn campaign rebuild

We rebuilt the LinkedIn Ads structure from scratch, including:

ABM prospecting with custom lists
Retargeting campaigns optimized for demo conversions
Broad reach awareness campaigns to warm up cold leads

Compelling creatives that captured attention

We launched unique ad creatives paired with strong, direct copy and striking visuals. These weren’t generic B2B templates. The messaging and visuals spoke to real problems, real workflows, and real wins for Proton’s ICP.

Factors.ai + Salesforce for attribution

We implemented Factors.ai to improve visibility into ad performance, syncing it with Salesforce to measure pipeline-influenced leads more accurately.

Awareness campaigns to support sales outreach

We launched wide-reach awareness campaigns to make sure prospects were familiar with Proton before SDRs reached out. The goal: prospects saying, “Oh yes, I’ve heard of you.”

Results

$1M+ pipeline influenced

In just 7 months, we helped Proton generate over $1M in influenced pipeline from LinkedIn and Google Ads, backed by Salesforce data.

11.5x return on ad spend

From just $86,785 in ad spend, we drove 11.5x in pipeline return across platforms.

250% growth in opportunities

From November 2024 to May 2025, our paid ads helped Proton grow qualified opportunities by 250%, proving paid ads as a scalable, repeatable growth channel.

High-CTR creatives and low CPAs

Multiple ads drove demos at $158–$435 CPAs, while also hitting high engagement benchmarks (1.09%+ CTR), showing creative resonance with a hard-to-reach audience.

By combining precision-targeted Google Ads, ABM-focused LinkedIn campaigns, engaging creatives, and a multi-touch attribution strategy, Hey Digital helped Proton turn a previously unscalable channel into a predictable revenue engine.

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