Case study · Techpresso
HubSpot: $1.24 CPC on Techpresso — lowest in our case study set
HubSpot ran a 5-placement campaign on Techpresso focused on founder and marketing-lead audiences. The campaign delivered 500K+ unique impressions at a $7.20 CPM and $1.24 CPC, the lowest CPC across all case studies in our library.
$1.24
CPC
500K+
Impressions
$7.20
CPM
5
Placements
The goal
HubSpot targeted founders, marketing leads, and growth operators evaluating all-in-one CRM stacks. Techpresso's audience composition lined up tightly: 16.8% founders, 29.6% in marketing & design, and 25% at 1-10 person companies where CRM decisions are rarely committee-driven and close fast.
The campaign
- 5 placements distributed across a 5-week window.
- Specific feature focus per placement (free CRM, Marketing Hub, Sales Hub) rather than a generic brand message.
- Highly specific CTAs: "try the free CRM" converts significantly better than "learn more" in newsletter placements.
- Native copy written by Dupple that frames HubSpot as a specific tool-category answer rather than a brand narrative.
Why the CPC was so low
Three factors combined to drive CPC below every other campaign in our sample:
- Free-tier offer: "Free" in a CTA measurably lifts CTR in B2B newsletter placements.
- Brand familiarity: HubSpot has enough name recognition that readers don't need convincing to click.
- Startup-heavy audience fit: Techpresso's 25% startup readership actively evaluates free-to-start CRM options.
The signup report
The campaign report to HubSpot included the usual corporate-domain breakdown plus signup attribution via UTMs. The breakdown showed a higher-than-average share of pre-seed and seed startups in the signups, aligned with HubSpot's Startup Program targeting.
Campaigns promoting free tiers or free tools tend to produce the lowest CPCs on Techpresso because the reader's decision to click is nearly friction-free.
Similar campaigns
- DigitalOcean: 1M+ impressions, $1.70 CPC (8 ads)
- Intel: 700K+ impressions, $3 CPC (5 ads)
- Intercom: 1.1M+ impressions, $2 CPC (10 ads)
- ElevenLabs: 500K+ impressions, $1 CPC (5 Spotlights)
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