How Rebound designed and launched a brand awareness SEM program to establish visibility and credibility for a global life sciences technology organization selling into complex, regulated markets.
The Company + The Challenge
The client is a global life sciences technology organization offering data-driven solutions to enterprise buyers across healthcare, pharma, and related regulated markets. While the company was well established in select segments, it faced limited visibility with new buyer groups and emerging use cases where brand recognition was critical early in the evaluation process.
Historically, paid search efforts were optimized for direct response and lead capture, leaving a gap at the top of the funnel. As a result, the organization struggled to consistently appear in high-intent discovery moments where life sciences buyers begin forming vendor shortlists. Brand presence across priority keywords and categories was fragmented, and messaging lacked a clear, consistent narrative suited to awareness-stage engagement.
To support long, multi-stakeholder sales cycles, the company needed a brand awareness SEM strategy designed to build visibility, reinforce credibility, and establish familiarity with sophisticated B2B buyers, without relying on immediate lead capture as the primary success metric.
Why Rebound + Our Approach
The organization partnered with Rebound to design a brand awareness SEM program purpose-built for life sciences buyers – one that prioritized visibility, credibility, and message consistency over immediate conversion volume. Rather than forcing lower-funnel tactics onto an awareness objective, the goal was to establish a durable presence during early evaluation moments that influence long-term buying decisions.
Rebound approached this engagement by reframing SEM as a strategic brand channel within the broader GTM motion. We focused on appearing consistently across priority categories, reinforcing a clear and credible narrative, and ensuring messaging aligned with how enterprise life sciences buyers research vendors before engaging sales.
This approach allowed SEM to support long sales cycles by shaping perception early, building familiarity and credibility before buyers moved into active evaluation.
What We Actually Did
Results & Impact
- Defined awareness-stage SEM objectives and success metrics
Shifted performance expectations away from direct leads toward impression share, visibility across priority keywords, and consistent presence in early discovery moments.
Following the launch of the brand awareness SEM program, the organization achieved a measurable improvement in visibility across priority life sciences technology categories. Paid search began functioning as a consistent top-of-funnel presence rather than a sporadic performance tactic.
Key outcomes included:
- Increased brand visibility across priority keyword categories
The organization achieved sustained presence on high-value, awareness-stage searches, ensuring it appeared consistently during early buyer research moments.
- Improved impression share and message consistency
Campaign structure and disciplined optimization improved coverage across targeted terms while reinforcing a unified narrative across ads.
- Stronger early-stage buyer familiarity
Sales and marketing teams reported improved recognition among prospects entering later stages of evaluation, supporting longer, multi-stakeholder sales cycles.
- Clear separation of awareness and performance efforts
By isolating brand awareness SEM from lower-funnel programs, the organization gained clearer insight into how paid search supported broader GTM objectives without distorting lead metrics.
- A scalable foundation for future demand programs
The awareness framework created a strong base for downstream performance campaigns, enabling smoother transitions from discovery to evaluation.
- Built a dedicated brand awareness campaign structure
Designed campaigns specifically for awareness, separating them from performance-driven programs to maintain clarity, control, and clean measurement.
Overall, the program established paid search as a strategic brand channel, supporting credibility, familiarity, and long-term pipeline development in complex life sciences markets.
- Prioritized category-level and solution-oriented keywords
Selected keyword themes that reflected how buyers explore problem spaces and solution categories, rather than vendor-specific or transactional terms.
- Developed buyer-aware messaging for regulated markets
Crafted ad copy focused on credibility, relevance, and clarity, reinforcing trust with enterprise stakeholders without overselling or oversimplifying.
- Implemented disciplined optimization and reporting
Established clear monitoring and reporting frameworks to track visibility trends, impression share growth, and message consistency over time.
Quick Stats
Industry:
Life Sciences Technology
Company Type:
Global B2B / Enterprise
Primary Channel:
Paid Search (Brand Awareness SEM)
Services:
SEM Strategy, Brand Awareness Campaigns, Fractional Marketing Leadership
Outcome:
Increased market presence and visibility
Timeline:
Initial launch and optimization over first several months
Rebound helped us think differently about paid search. Instead of chasing immediate conversions, we built a disciplined brand presence that showed up consistently where our buyers were researching. The structure, messaging, and reporting gave us confidence that SEM was supporting our long-term GTM goals.
— Marketing Leader, Global Life Sciences Technology Organization
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