Growing Dynamics 365 subscriptions in Canada

The situation

Dynamics 365 is Microsoft’s CRM and customer engagement platform, spanning sales, customer service, marketing and analytics. In Canada, the product faced a familiar B2B problem: subscription volume was limited, qualified leads were scarce and awareness in the market was low.

The engagement involved working with Microsoft and a primary Dynamics 365 partner in Canada, with one commercial goal: acquire more subscriptions, more efficiently.

The objectives were explicit from the start:

• significantly increase Dynamics 365 subscriptions
• reduce customer acquisition cost
• improve the volume of qualified leads
• increase awareness of Dynamics 365 in the Canadian market

Research before spend

The work began with research and planning rather than campaign launches. Enterprise software is bought by committees, and Dynamics 365 competes in a crowded category — so the first question was who, specifically, needed to be reached, and what would persuade them.

Primary decision makers included C-level executives and senior leaders in several priority sectors:

These were the focus audiences, not the only ones — but defining them gave every later decision about targeting, keywords and messaging a clear reference point.

Competitive research looked at how comparable companies and campaigns in the U.S. market were acquiring signups. That meant evaluating their offers, their positioning, their search strategy, the structure of their funnels and the landing pages those funnels relied on — and identifying what could be adapted for Canadian buyers.

What the market required

The research pointed to an opportunity after the click: aligning the landing experience more closely with campaign intent, so that a buyer in a specific region saw a page that confirmed they were in the right place rather than a generic, national experience.

Recommendations for the website and landing pages focused on that alignment:

• Regional landing pages instead of generic national experiences
• Clearer calls to action, so the next step was never ambiguous
• Visible phone and email contact options for buyers who preferred to talk
• Reviews and social proof wherever they were available
• Tighter alignment between what a campaign promised and what the landing page delivered

The acquisition strategy

The channel plan combined demand capture with demand creation: search to reach buyers already looking for CRM and customer engagement software, and LinkedIn to reach senior decision makers who were not yet searching.

Campaign architecture

Keyword research mapped three kinds of search demand: high-intent terms that signaled active evaluation, high-volume category terms that defined the market, and long-tail commercial queries that were cheaper to win and often closer to a decision.

Google Ads and Microsoft Ads campaigns were built around that map using a highly granular structure — tightly themed campaigns and ad groups, so that each query could be matched with specific ad copy and a relevant landing page.

On LinkedIn, the program was structured around the buyer’s stage rather than a single conversion goal. Messaging and audiences changed as buyers moved through the funnel:

1. 01 · Top of funnel

   Brand awareness

   Introduce Dynamics 365 to senior decision makers in priority sectors who were not yet in market.

2. 02 · Middle of funnel

   Visits and engagement

   Bring engaged audiences to the website with more specific, problem-led messaging.

3. 03 · Bottom of funnel

   Website conversions

   Ask for action from audiences who had already shown interest.

Optimization and measurement

Execution was continuous rather than set-and-forget. The work covered campaign architecture, ad copy creation, A/B testing, bid management, budget allocation and landing-page experimentation.

Measurement was built in from the beginning: conversion tracking through Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics, and performance reporting in Google Data Studio (since renamed Looker Studio). Campaign decisions — where to add budget, which ads to retire, which landing pages to test — were updated continually based on what the performance data showed.

What changed

The results came from the combination, not from any single tactic: a more precise audience strategy, a granular campaign architecture, funnel-specific messaging and a steady cadence of experimentation. Together they materially improved acquisition performance — more subscriptions, at a far lower cost per acquisition.