How Fill My Funnel Saw First Meetings in Week 1 From 3 LinkedIn Ads Cold Outbound Campaigns

Case study · LinkedIn Ads Specialist Outbound

Fill My Funnel is a LinkedIn-only paid-acquisition agency run by Tom Tigwell, a Top-50 LinkedIn Certified Marketing Expert who has managed over £250 million in LinkedIn Ads spend for 100+ clients across six years (Asana, ACCA, Kitt, Global Switch, Greenomy). Danish Lead Co. built three parallel cold outbound campaigns that respect that channel-specialist positioning: SaaS companies already running LinkedIn Ads (free-audit angle), SaaS companies not yet running LinkedIn Ads (new-channel strategy angle), and B2B marketing agencies as referral and white-label partners. The first meetings landed in week one and multiple deals are moving forward.

3

Parallel cold outbound campaigns

Week 1

First meetings booked

2

Intent tracks (running ads / not running)

SaaS + Agencies

Two buyer-type segments

Client Overview

Fill My Funnel is a London-based LinkedIn Ads specialist agency founded and led by Tom Tigwell. The shop is LinkedIn-only by design, not a generalist paid-social team. Tom is a Top-50 LinkedIn Certified Marketing Expert globally, has personally managed over £250 million in LinkedIn Ads spend, and has run campaigns for 100+ clients over the past six years. Named accounts include Asana, ACCA, Kitt, Global Switch, and Greenomy. The agency's most recent published case point is Retain, where Fill My Funnel drove a 150% quarter-on-quarter improvement in website inbounds across Q2 to Q3 2024 using their LinkedIn Ads methodology.

Two things matter about Fill My Funnel that shape how their outbound has to be built. First, the channel-specialist positioning is the entire moat. The instant the agency sounds like a generalist, the credibility ladder (Top-50 Certified, £250M, 100+ clients on LinkedIn specifically) collapses. Second, the agency is founder-led. Tom is the sender, the technician, and the closer. The outbound system was designed to preserve both: every variant speaks LinkedIn-only, and Tom Tigwell signs every email personally.

What in-house marketers and agency owners look up before they buy LinkedIn Ads help

"My LinkedIn Ads are running but performance is plateauing. Who actually specialises in LinkedIn?"

Most paid-social agencies treat LinkedIn as a side-channel after Meta and Google. LinkedIn-only specialists are rare and identifiable by their named accounts, certifications, and historic spend managed on the platform. Fill My Funnel's free-audit angle for SaaS companies already running LinkedIn Ads opens the conversation on the buyer's existing pain (plateauing performance) rather than a generic intro.

"We're a B2B SaaS. Should we be on LinkedIn Ads at all, and how would we structure it?"

SaaS companies not yet running LinkedIn Ads need a strategy conversation, not an audit. The opener acknowledges the absence ("I noticed you're not running LinkedIn Ads") and offers a quarterly strategy framing with named SaaS analogues like Asana and Greenomy. The pitch is shaped to where the buyer actually is, not where the seller wishes they were.

"I run a B2B marketing agency. Could I offer LinkedIn Ads to my clients via a partner?"

B2B marketing agencies running Google Ads, content, or generalist paid social are a natural referral and white-label pool for a LinkedIn specialist. The agency-partnership track is its own sequence with a partnership opener rather than a direct-sell opener, because the sales motion (revenue-share and referral economics) is completely different.

Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) for Fill My Funnel outbound

Direct buyer profile (SaaS)

• B2B SaaS companies, typically Series A through growth-stage
• Marketing leaders with budget authority over paid acquisition (CMO, VP Marketing, Head of Demand Gen, Head of Paid)
• Split into two intent tracks: companies currently running LinkedIn Ads, and companies not yet running LinkedIn Ads
• Buyers with named-account analogues in the portfolio (similar profile to Asana, ACCA, Kitt, Global Switch, Greenomy)

Partner profile (B2B marketing agencies)

• B2B marketing agencies in the 5-100 headcount range, founder-led or director-led
• Agencies with a B2B client base where LinkedIn Ads is a missing capability
• Two-way fit: agencies who could offer LinkedIn Ads to their clients via partnership, and agencies who could help Fill My Funnel's clients with Google Ads or other complementary channels
• Founders and partners who care about referral economics and white-label capacity

How DLC built Fill My Funnel's cold outbound system

A channel-specialist agency has a positioning advantage and a positioning trap. The advantage is that 100+ clients and £250M of LinkedIn-specific spend make the credibility unmistakable to anyone who reads carefully. The trap is that one generic line ("we help B2B companies grow") collapses the whole moat. The build was designed to keep the moat intact in every variant.

1

Channel-specialist positioning preserved in every variant

"LinkedIn Ads" appears in subject lines, openers, body copy, PS-lines, and signatures. The credibility ladder (Top-50 LinkedIn Certified Marketing Expert, £250M+ in LinkedIn Ad spend managed, 100+ LinkedIn campaigns over six years) is anchored to the platform, not to general paid social. No variant says "paid acquisition" when "LinkedIn Ads" can be said instead. The moat is preserved at the lexical level. This is what specialist-channel personalisation actually looks like, not first-name tokens but vocabulary discipline.

2

Intent-axis segmentation by ad behaviour

The SaaS audience splits cleanly along one dimension: are they currently running LinkedIn Ads or not? Companies currently running get the free-audit opener ("I saw you have been running some Ads on LinkedIn and there is some great stuff there, that said, I noticed a few areas that would immediately boost your performance"). Companies not running get the new-channel opener ("I noticed you are not currently running LinkedIn Ads, here is what a strategy could look like for Q4"). Same agency, same sender, two completely different value propositions tied to where the buyer is today.

3

Agency-partnership track as a parallel referral channel

B2B marketing agencies are not direct buyers, they are partners. The third batch runs a separate sequence pitching referral and white-label arrangements with B2B agencies whose own clients need LinkedIn Ads. The opener is partnership-shaped ("Would you be interested in offering LinkedIn Ads to your clients?" or "Would you be able to help some of our clients with Google Ads?"), the economics are revenue-share, and the close is a partner conversation rather than a single-deal close. Mixing this into the SaaS batches would have destroyed the conversion rate of both.

4

Founder-led outbound, Tom Tigwell on every signature

There is no SDR layer between the buyer and the founder. Tom Tigwell signs every variant in every batch personally, with the same signature block (Founder & CEO, Fill My Funnel, Dudley House, Paddington, London W2 1PL). This is deliberate. The Top-50 LinkedIn Certified Expert credential only works if it comes from the person who holds it. An SDR introducing Tom would have weakened the positioning. A founder-led signature compounds it. Founder-led outbound is one of the highest-leverage moves for any specialist B2B services firm.

"A channel-specialist agency cannot afford a single sentence that sounds generalist. Fill My Funnel's positioning is built on six years of LinkedIn-only work, £250 million in LinkedIn-specific spend, and a Top-50 LinkedIn Certified credential that Tom holds personally. We built the outbound around that and refused to dilute it. Three batches, two intent tracks, one named sender. The first meetings booked in week one because the buyer could tell, from line one, that this was a LinkedIn specialist writing to them, not an agency in disguise."

, Frederik Jakobsen, Founder, Danish Lead Co.

What the build delivered

3 parallel cold outbound campaigns shipped end-to-end

Marketing Agencies (referral and white-label partnership), SaaS Running LinkedIn Ads (free-audit angle), and SaaS Not Running LinkedIn Ads (new-channel strategy angle). Each batch shipped with its own ICP definition, opener architecture, three-step sequence, reply-handling track, and named-account proof point set.

First meetings landed in week 1, multiple deals moving forward

The combination of founder-led signature, specialist vocabulary, and intent-matched openers produced first-meeting bookings inside the first week of sending. Multiple deals are in active pipeline behind those meetings. The vague framing is deliberate; the channel-specialist positioning, not a meeting count, is the case here.

Two intent tracks built on ad-behaviour signal

Targeting splits the SaaS list on whether the company is currently running LinkedIn Ads. The technographic signal drives which opener fires, which proof points are leaned on (Retain's 150% QoQ inbound improvement for "running" track, Asana and Greenomy strategy framing for "not running" track), and which call-to-action closes the sequence.

Agency-partnership sequence preserved as a separate channel

B2B marketing agencies are sequenced on partnership economics, not single-deal economics. The opener pitches mutual referral (LinkedIn Ads in, Google Ads out) and the close is a partnership conversation. Treating agencies as buyers would have killed the response rate, treating them as partners is what makes the batch work.

Named-account proof operationalised, not just listed

Asana, ACCA, Kitt, Global Switch, Greenomy, and the Retain case point are placed in the highest-engagement positions of each variant. The 150% QoQ inbound improvement at Retain anchors Email-2.1 of the SaaS batches. Asana and Greenomy anchor the strategy framing in the not-running track. PS-lines carry the £250M and Top-50 credentials. Proof points earn their placement, they do not pile up as a logo bar nobody reads.

Founder-led signature held across every batch

Tom Tigwell, Founder & CEO, signs every variant. Full Paddington address, direct phone, and direct email in the signature block. The Top-50 LinkedIn Certified Marketing Expert credential lives in the PS of every Email-1 variant. Founder-led specifics compound the channel-specialist positioning at the bottom of the email, exactly where the buyer's eye lands when deciding whether to reply.

Before vs. after the rebuild

Dimension	Before	After
Positioning vocabulary	"Paid social", "marketing", generic	"LinkedIn Ads" everywhere, hard-enforced
Targeting	"B2B SaaS" as one bucket	2 intent tracks × 1 partner track = 3 sequences
Proof placement	Logo bar in signature	Asana, Greenomy, Retain (150% QoQ) anchored to specific variants
Credential anchoring	Buried in agency bio	Top-50 LinkedIn Certified + £250M + 100+ clients in PS of Email-1
Sender persona	Could have been an SDR	Tom Tigwell, Founder & CEO, signs every variant
Agency segment	Treated as direct buyers	Treated as referral and white-label partners, separate sequence
Time to first meeting	Slow ramp	First meetings landed in week 1

Strong fit vs. less suitable for this play

Strong fit

• Channel-specialist agencies (LinkedIn Ads, Google Ads, HubSpot only, Klaviyo only, etc.) with deep platform credentials
• Founders willing to sign every email personally, no SDR layer
• Agencies with named-account portfolios (real logos, real case points with dated improvements)
• Agencies whose audience splits cleanly along a technographic signal (running the channel / not running it)
• Agencies open to a parallel partner channel (other agencies as referrers, not as competitors)

Less suitable

• Generalist paid-social agencies with no clear channel moat
• Agencies whose owner refuses to be the sender (and has no equivalent in-house personality to anchor)
• Agencies with no dated, named case points (only "happy client" testimonials)
• Agencies whose audience is undifferentiated on technographic or behavioural signals
• Founders who would dilute the channel-specialist positioning to "win more deals" with non-fit buyers

Five lessons from the Fill My Funnel build

1.

A channel-specialist agency is built on lexical discipline. Say the channel.

"Paid social" is the death of a LinkedIn-only agency. "LinkedIn Ads" is its moat. Every subject line, opener, body line, PS, and signature in every variant uses the channel name explicitly. The credibility ladder (Top-50 LinkedIn Certified, £250M, 100+ clients on LinkedIn specifically) only stacks when the channel is named at every layer.

2.

Intent-axis segmentation rewrites the opener. Running ads is not the same buyer as not running ads.

SaaS companies already running LinkedIn Ads want a sharper hand on the lever. SaaS companies not running LinkedIn Ads want a strategy conversation. Same agency, same founder, same credentials, two completely different openers and two different proof-point ladders. Running both as one sequence would have flattened both.

3.

B2B marketing agencies belong in a partner sequence, not a buyer sequence.

Pitching an agency as a direct buyer compresses the partnership opportunity into a single deal and destroys reply rate. Pitching the same agency as a partner unlocks referral and white-label economics with a long-tail revenue tail. The third batch is built on partnership opener, partnership offer, partnership close.

4.

Founder-led signature is the unfair advantage of a specialist agency.

The Top-50 LinkedIn Certified credential, the £250M spend managed, the six years of LinkedIn-only work, all of it belongs to Tom personally. An SDR introducing Tom would weaken the credential by one degree of separation. Tom signing every email compounds the credential at the highest-engagement line of the message: the signature.

5.

Named accounts must be operationalised, not piled up.

Asana, ACCA, Kitt, Global Switch, Greenomy, Retain. Six named accounts. None of them work if they sit in a logo bar at the bottom of every email. Each one gets a specific placement (Retain anchors Email-2.1 of the SaaS batches, Asana and Greenomy anchor the strategy framing in the not-running track) where the reader will actually encounter it at the right moment in the sequence.

Continue exploring

Want a channel-specialist cold outbound system for your B2B services firm?

If your agency has a single-channel moat, a founder willing to be the sender, dated named-account case points, and an audience that splits along a behavioural or technographic signal, the Fill My Funnel playbook can be adapted to your offer. We start by mapping your channel vocabulary, naming your forbidden-words list, defining your intent tracks, and deciding which buyer types belong in partner sequences versus direct sequences.

Book a strategy call See DLC services More case studies

For further reading on the tooling that supports specialist-channel outbound at scale, see the best AI outbound prospecting tools for sales teams in 2026.

Frequently asked questions

How does cold outbound work for a LinkedIn Ads specialist agency?

Cold outbound for a channel-specialist agency works when every variant says the channel out loud. Generic "paid social" or "B2B marketing" openers collapse the moat. Fill My Funnel's discipline is to say "LinkedIn Ads" in subject lines, openers, body copy, PS-lines, and signatures, with the credibility ladder (Top-50 LinkedIn Certified Marketing Expert, £250M+ spend, 100+ LinkedIn clients) anchored throughout. Founder-led sending from Tom Tigwell compounds it.

Why segment SaaS audiences by whether they are currently running LinkedIn Ads?

Two audiences in the same vertical can need completely different openers. A SaaS marketer currently running LinkedIn Ads wants an audit of what is not working. A SaaS marketer not running LinkedIn Ads wants a strategy framing for whether and how to start. Mixing the two into one sequence forces a beige opener that wins neither. Splitting on the technographic signal lets each opener match where the buyer actually is.

Why is the marketing-agency segment run as a separate batch rather than mixed with SaaS?

Agencies are partners, not direct buyers. The sales motion is referral economics and white-label arrangements, which is structurally different from a one-shot agency-services close. The opener pitches mutual referral ("Would you be interested in offering LinkedIn Ads to your clients?" or "Would you be able to help some of our clients with Google Ads?"), the offer is partnership terms, and the close is a partner conversation. Running this in the same sequence as SaaS direct-sell would have killed both response rates.

What is the role of Tom Tigwell's personal credentials in the campaign?

Tom's credentials are the credibility moat: Top-50 LinkedIn Certified Marketing Expert globally, £250M+ in LinkedIn Ads spend managed personally, 100+ LinkedIn campaigns over six years. They are placed in the PS-line of every Email-1 variant because the PS-line is the most-read line in a cold email. The credentials only work because Tom personally signs every email, no SDR layer between buyer and founder.

How long does it take to see first meetings from this kind of outbound?

Fill My Funnel's first meetings landed in the first week of sending, with multiple deals moving forward shortly after. The speed comes from the combination of specialist positioning, intent-matched opener, founder-led signature, and named-account proof at the right placements. The case here is not a meeting count, it is the channel-specialist positioning being respected at every layer of the sequence.

How are named accounts (Asana, ACCA, Kitt, Global Switch, Greenomy, Retain) used in the copy?

Each named account is placed in a specific high-engagement position rather than piled into a logo bar. Retain's 150% quarter-on-quarter inbound improvement (Q2 to Q3 2024) anchors Email-2.1 of the SaaS batches. Asana and Greenomy anchor the strategy framing in the not-running track ("we have worked with SaaS companies like Asana and Greenomy"). Kitt, Global Switch, and ACCA broaden the proof base across enterprise B2B. Each placement is intentional, the reader meets the right name at the right point in the sequence.

Why is the outbound founder-led rather than run by an SDR layer?

The Top-50 LinkedIn Certified Marketing Expert credential belongs to Tom Tigwell personally. An SDR introducing Tom would dilute the credential by one degree of separation. Tom signing every email personally compounds the credential at the most-read position of the message: the signature. For a specialist agency where the founder is the technical authority, founder-led outbound is structurally more credible than any SDR motion.

Which buyer titles are targeted in the SaaS direct-sell batches?

CMOs, VPs of Marketing, Heads of Demand Generation, Heads of Paid Acquisition, and senior performance-marketing managers at B2B SaaS companies. The list is filtered for budget authority over paid acquisition specifically, then split by the ad-behaviour signal (currently running LinkedIn Ads or not). On the agency-partnership batch, the buyer is the founder, managing director, or head of partnerships at a B2B marketing agency, not the agency's account team.

What tools and stack does the Fill My Funnel system run on?

Sending and warm-up runs on Smartlead with isolated inbox pools per batch, so deliverability reputation does not cross between the SaaS Running, SaaS Not Running, and Marketing Agencies sequences. Targeting uses LinkedIn Ads technographic signals (whether a company is currently advertising on LinkedIn) plus firmographic filters for SaaS direct-sell and a separate agency database for the partner track. CRM and reply handling is wired so Tom Tigwell owns the inbound conversation consistently.

Can Danish Lead Co. build a similar specialist-channel outbound for our agency?

Yes, when the offer has a clear channel-specialist moat (LinkedIn only, Google Ads only, HubSpot only, Klaviyo only, etc.), dated named-account case points, a founder willing to be the sender, and an audience that splits along a behavioural or technographic signal. We start by mapping your channel vocabulary, building your forbidden-words list (the generalist words your buyer should never see), defining your intent tracks, and separating partner sequences from direct-sell sequences. Book a call via danishleadco.io/book-a-demo if your agency fits that profile.