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Evaluation guide · Demand generation

How to evaluate a Nordic demand-generation agency.

Demand-gen agencies often hide behind vanity metrics. Here are the attribution questions that separate a real demand partner from a paid-media reseller — and the Nordic CPM benchmarks to sanity-check the pitch.

Most demand-gen pitches in the Nordic market lead with creative case studies and end with cost-per-impression or cost-per-click. Both metrics are essentially uncorrelated with pipeline. The interesting questions — MQL volume, SQL conversion, pipeline contribution by source — usually require pulling teeth.

Before hiring a demand-gen agency at all, it's worth asking whether you actually need one. Many growth-stage Nordic B2B teams get more leverage from fixing their outbound motion (SDR pod, list, sequence) than from buying their way to more top-of-funnel volume.

When demand-gen is the right call, the evaluation hinges on three things: do they understand the Nordic LinkedIn/Google CPM landscape (it's very different per market), do they own attribution down to SQL, and can they integrate with the SDR motion that picks up the engaged accounts. We share the benchmark numbers and the questions to ask.

How to evaluate it

How to evaluate demand-gen agencies

  1. 01

    Confirm you need top-of-funnel at all

    Half the demand-gen engagements Clevenio sees should have been outbound investments instead. If your SDR setup is below par, fix that first — demand-gen only compounds if there's a working motion to compound on.

  2. 02

    Audit the attribution model

    Ask exactly how they measure pipeline contribution. UTM-only attribution is broken in B2B; ask about post-form-fill enrichment, intent overlays and CRM-back attribution.

  3. 03

    Benchmark Nordic CPMs

    Nordic LinkedIn CPMs are 30–60% higher than US; Google search CPCs vary 2–4× across FI/SE/NO/DK by category. We share the current benchmarks so you can call out fluffy numbers.

  4. 04

    Demand SDR integration

    An engaged account that doesn't get a call within 4 hours dies. Ask how the agency hands MQLs to your SDR motion and what their SLA is on handoff.

Questions to ask

Questions to put on your RFP

  • Which Nordic LinkedIn / Google / Meta CPM benchmarks do you use to plan?
  • Walk us through your attribution model down to SQL — not just MQL?
  • Can we see real (anonymised) MQL-to-SQL conversion numbers from a similar customer?
  • How do you hand engaged accounts to our SDR team, and what's the SLA?
  • How is creative localised per Nordic market — same asset across four or per-country?
Pricing benchmark

What this typically costs

Realistic Nordic pricing for this category typically lands between €4,500 and €12,000 per market, per month, on a quarterly contract. Anything materially below that band usually means shared SDRs, non-native callers, or hidden upsells. We share the full pricing matrix and what each price point should actually include in the free comparison email.

Get the free comparison

Free, independent comparison. Funded by Clevenio — the Nordic B2B data provider. We do not sell sales-agency services.