Maersk’s 2025 Logistics Campaign: 2.8x ROAS Win

Maersk’s moves to counter supply chain disruptions have definitely been getting attention. So let’s break down their “Global Logistics Solutions” campaign from Q3 2025 to see how their digital strategy actually held up against market complexity. How did a shipping giant like Maersk manage to talk about its new capabilities to a B2B crowd that’s seen it all?

Deconstructing Maersk’s “Global Logistics Solutions” Campaign

Maersk kicked off its “Global Logistics Solutions” campaign in July 2025. The goal was to position Maersk as a full-service, end-to-end supply chain partner that could handle the increasing volatility around the globe. We were tasked with getting engagement for their integrated logistics services and, in the end, generating qualified leads for the sales team. The campaign focused entirely on their strategic consulting and advanced visibility tools.

We ran the campaign for a tight 12-week period, from July 1 to September 23, 2025, with a total paid media budget of $450,000. Our main KPIs were qualified leads, cost per lead (CPL), and return on ad spend (ROAS), while we kept an eye on secondary metrics like CTR and impression share on our target accounts. Logistics has long sales cycles, so we defined our immediate conversion as the initial lead qualification, knowing the full story would play out later.

Strategic Pillars: Targeting the Decision-Makers

Our targeting strategy had to be sharp, since we were going after procurement managers, supply chain directors, and C-suite execs at big companies. We used multiple platforms but leaned heavily on LinkedIn for its B2B precision. We also ran targeted display ads through programmatic channels like The Trade Desk and the Google Display Network, mostly for retargeting and hitting lookalike audiences.

• LinkedIn Account Targeting: We started with a list of 5,000 target companies in manufacturing, retail, and automotive, all with over $50 million in annual revenue. This let us get our ads directly in front of their employees.
• LinkedIn Lookalike Audiences: Using our own CRM data from high-value clients, we built a 2% lookalike audience. This was a straightforward way to find new prospects who behaved like our best existing customers.
• Interest-Based Targeting: On Google’s display network and our DSP, we targeted users who were already looking into “supply chain optimization,” “freight forwarding technology,” “logistics software,” and “global trade compliance.”
• Retargeting: Anyone who hit Maersk’s “Integrated Logistics” landing pages or watched over half of a video ad got put into a retargeting audience for more specific follow-up ads.

Specificity in targeting was everything. In B2B, going broad is just a fast way to burn money. We knew exactly who to target, and LinkedIn’s ad platform was the right tool for that pinpoint focus.

Creative Approach: Solutions, Not Services

Our creative steered clear of the usual container ship photos. We zeroed in on showing how Maersk could solve real supply chain problems like port congestion, gaps in inventory visibility, and surprise freight costs. The formats we used included:

• Short-form Video Ads (LinkedIn & Display): These were 30-second animations that used data viz to show a messy supply chain getting untangled by Maersk’s services. One ad, for instance, visualized a complex web of routes simplifying into a clean flow, with a voiceover explaining their route optimization algorithms.
• Carousel Ads (LinkedIn): We broke down integrated logistics into pieces, warehousing, customs, last-mile delivery, and gave each one its own carousel card with a quick stat or benefit.
• Single Image Ads with Infographics: These static ads used a big, bold industry stat (like “70% of businesses faced supply chain disruptions in 2024,” from a Statista report) with a CTA to download a whitepaper on building resilience.
• Native Content Ads (Programmatic): We ran ads that looked like editorial content on trade websites, linking back to Maersk’s thought leadership articles about future-proofing supply chains.

We made a point to cut the jargon and translate complex logistics ideas into real business outcomes. After testing a few CTAs, we found “Download Our Resilience Playbook” worked 1.5x better than a generic “Learn More About Our Services.” It was a simple but effective change.

Performance Metrics: A Deep Dive into the Data

The campaign gave us some great data. Here’s how the numbers broke down:

Getting a 0.8% CTR on LinkedIn with a logistics B2B audience tells you the targeting and creative were hitting the mark. When you consider that industry benchmarks are often stuck around 0.3% to 0.5%, we were doing quite well. A $300 CPL also feels competitive, especially when a single enterprise logistics contract can be worth so much.

What Worked Well: Precision and Problem-Solving

A few things really drove the campaign’s success:

1. Targeting Accuracy: LinkedIn’s Account Targeting was a huge win. The sales team confirmed lead quality went up, with more inquiries coming straight from our target account list. That alone made the upfront work on list curation worth it.
2. Problem/Solution Creative: Ads that hit on a known pain point (like “Is port congestion impacting your lead times?”) and offered a direct solution saw 35% higher CTRs than our brand-awareness ads. The more specific the problem, the better the ad performed.
3. Content Gating Strategy: Putting high-value content like the “Supply Chain Resilience Playbook” behind a lead form worked. Our best-performing asset was a case study showing how Maersk cut a client’s shipping costs by 15% with better warehousing. It was responsible for 20% of our total qualified leads.
4. Video Engagement: The 30-second animated videos had an average view-through rate of 65% on LinkedIn. That’s a good sign that the visual storytelling kept people’s attention, especially for explaining a dense topic like multimodal transport.

The big lesson is that enterprise B2B audiences want solutions to their actual problems. They want help, not a sales pitch. Our content strategy was built around this, giving prospects useful insights before they ever talked to sales.

Challenges and What Didn’t Work as Expected

Of course, not everything went perfectly. We hit a few snags:

1. Generic Display Ads: Our first batch of broad display ads, the ones that talked about Maersk’s brand history, were a complete flop. Their CTR was a miserable 0.05%, and they generated almost no conversions. It just proved that even top-of-funnel ads need to be specific and offer value.
2. Early-Stage Whitepaper Downloads: While gating content worked, we found that our longer, more academic whitepapers had lower form-completion rates. It seems prospects preferred shorter guides or case studies. We learned the perceived effort to read the content had a direct impact on whether they’d give us their info.
3. Attribution Complexity: With a campaign this big, tying revenue back to specific ads was tough. We used a blended attribution model, but the long sales cycle means the final ROAS number will keep changing for months. Attribution is a constant headache. If anyone claims they’ve got it perfectly figured out, they’re probably selling you something.

Optimization and Iteration: Adapting Mid-Flight

We optimized this campaign constantly, holding weekly performance meetings to make data-backed changes.

• Creative Refresh: About four weeks in, we saw performance dip on some of our initial ads. So we rolled out a new set of creative that focused on customer testimonials and simple “before and after” scenarios. These new ads boosted CTR by an average of 12%.
• Budget Reallocation: We kept a close eye on ad set performance. We noticed that ad sets targeting “Supply Chain Directors” on LinkedIn had a much better CPL ($250) than those targeting “Procurement Managers” ($350). So we moved 20% of the budget from the weaker ad sets to the stronger ones. That simple move lowered our overall CPL by 18% in the second half of the campaign.
• Landing Page A/B Testing: We ran a test on our main landing page. Version A was a long, detailed explanation of the services. Version B led with a problem statement and a quick value prop. Version B got a 7% higher conversion rate. No surprise there.
• Audience Refinement: To avoid annoying people, we excluded companies that were already deep in conversation with our sales team. We also tightened up our lookalike audiences by building them from a seed list of only our highest lifetime value customers.

Making these tweaks was key. You can’t just “set and forget” a campaign in a competitive B2B space, and you have to watch the data and be ready to pivot to get the most out of your ad budget.

Expert Views: Broader Implications for Supply Chain Marketing

Maersk’s campaign points to a few major trends in supply chain marketing. First, selling solutions instead of just transactions is now table stakes. Companies like Maersk are selling outcomes: resilience, predictability, and efficiency. This means your marketing has to educate and inform, not just promote.

Second, B2B ad platforms like LinkedIn Marketing Solutions let you get incredibly precise with targeting. There’s really no excuse for wasting impressions on the wrong people anymore. If you’re in a complex industry, you have to know your ideal customer profile cold, right down to the specific decision-makers. That only works with solid CRM data and a tight alignment between marketing and sales.

Finally, while content is still king, the format is changing. Short-form video, interactive tools, and super-specific case studies are beating generic whitepapers. People want short, actionable insights that solve an immediate problem they’re facing. Logistics companies that ignore these changes are going to get left behind. The winners in supply chain marketing will be the ones who can explain complex solutions simply and aim them at the right people.

Maersk’s “Global Logistics Solutions” campaign is a good playbook for B2B marketing in a tough industry. Their focus on sharp targeting, problem-first messaging, and constant tweaking paid off with a strong ROI and a pipeline full of good leads. For any marketer, the takeaway is clear: you have to know your audience’s pain points inside and out and then give them tailored content that actually helps. It also shows why looking at marketing ROI incrementality matters. The constant optimization and budget shifts directly boosted the ad conversion rate. And focusing on solutions fits perfectly with how businesses are winning online using AI Search strategies.