Customer story – Zen Media

How Zen Media raised lead quality by 25% with Ocean

Zen Media replaced broad LinkedIn industry targeting with Ocean-powered lookalike audiences — and immediately saw a 25% improvement in lead quality scores.

Zen Media team

The customer

Zen Media

Zen Media is a Danish B2B lead generation agency whose core offering is the "Lead Motor" — a service that ensures their clients a continuous inflow of qualified leads.

Because every lead they deliver is scored against a set of qualification criteria, Zen Media needs their targeting to be as precise as possible. Quantity means nothing if the leads fail the quality threshold.

Zen Media LinkedIn campaign setup with Ocean audiences

The challenge

Broad targeting was letting the wrong companies in

Zen Media was running LinkedIn campaigns using the platform's built-in industry targeting. The problem: LinkedIn's industry categories are broad. Campaigns reached companies that looked right on paper but failed Zen Media's qualification scoring — wasting ad spend on companies their clients would never close.

Each lead Zen Media generates is scored on multiple criteria. Regular LinkedIn industry campaigns were producing leads with an average score of 2.8. They needed a way to narrow the audience without losing reach.

"LinkedIn has great targeting options, but the broad industries do include companies we would disqualify."

— Zen Media team
Ocean.io ICP filters for precise LinkedIn targeting

The solution

ICP-matched audiences built from lookalikes

Zen Media built their LinkedIn audiences from Ocean lookalikes of their clients' best customers — then layered on filters for company size, industry, and web traffic to match their exact ICP. The resulting audience lists were far more precise than anything LinkedIn's own targeting could produce.

Lookalike audiences from best customers — Start with known high-value accounts and find companies that match their profile
ICP filters on top — Narrow by size, industry, and web traffic to exclude companies that won't qualify
LinkedIn-ready export — Account lists uploaded directly as LinkedIn audiences for immediate campaign use

"With Ocean.io we can focus our ad spend on the right companies."

Zen Media team

The result

25% higher lead quality — same ad spend

Campaigns using Ocean-powered audiences generated leads with an average score above 3.5 — up from 2.8 with standard LinkedIn industry targeting. Better targeting produced better leads, delivered straight to sales ready to act on.

25% higher lead quality scores — Leads from Ocean audiences scored above 3.5 vs 2.8 average from broad LinkedIn industry targeting
More qualified leads ready for sales — Higher-scoring leads require less filtering — the sales team spends time selling, not disqualifying
Better ROI on LinkedIn ad spend — Ad budget concentrated on companies that actually match the ICP, not just the right industry

Focus your ad spend on the companies that will actually convert

  • Build lookalike audiences from your best-fit customers
  • Layer on ICP filters to exclude companies that won't qualify
  • Export directly to LinkedIn for immediate campaign use
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