How Kees de Boekhouder finally proved the impact of upper-funnel channels

Together with their performance agency partner Draft Digital, Kees de Boekhouder discovered that the real challenge wasn’t a lack of channels or ambition, but a lack of clarity. As the team expanded from search into TikTok, YouTube, display, and social, upper-funnel activity was clearly driving momentum, yet traditional attribution tools failed to capture its true impact.

Draft Digital played a key role in identifying where measurement broke down and how disconnected data was holding back confident decision-making. By adding Billy Grace as a unified measurement layer and connecting marketing data directly to CRM outcomes, Kees de Boekhouder and Draft Digital unlocked full-funnel visibility. For the first time, they could validate the contribution of branding and upper-funnel channels, and scale budgets based on what actually drives profitable growth.

“We can now clearly see what works. Not only by channel, but also in lead quality and conversion. That gives us a solid foundation for growth.”

Daniël Muller

Head of Growth, Kees de Boekhouder

Challenges

Kees de Boekhouder is the go-to accounting firm for freelancers in the Netherlands. To fuel further growth, the team deliberately expanded beyond search into a broader media mix, including TikTok, YouTube, display, Meta, and Bing. This diversification reduced reliance on word-of-mouth and branded search, and significantly increased reach.

But as spend and channel complexity grew, clarity declined.

Traditional analytics platforms, including GA4, focused heavily on last-click signals. As a result, upper-funnel channels appeared to contribute little or nothing, despite clearly influencing demand. Display and social channels claimed conversions in their own dashboards, yet generated few direct leads in analytics. At the same time, lead quality started to fluctuate, without a clear explanation of which channels or campaigns were responsible.

In short: budgets were increasing, but the true value of each channel remained invisible. Without understanding which touchpoints influenced high-quality leads and closed deals, it became impossible to scale with confidence.

Approach

Together with agency partner Draft Digital, Kees de Boekhouder set out to replace assumptions with insight. The solution was to connect marketing performance directly to sales outcomes by integrating HubSpot CRM with Billy Grace.

This integration created a single, unified view of the full customer journey,from first impression to closed client. Instead of looking at channels in isolation, every interaction was captured and stitched together into one evolving journey.

Billy Grace applied Unified Marketing Measurement (UMM) models to fairly assign value to every touchpoint, including impressions that never resulted in a click. This meant that channels designed to create demand (such as TikTok, YouTube, and display) were finally measured on their real influence, not just their last-click performance.

By linking marketing data with CRM outcomes, lead quality and conversions could be analyzed by channel, campaign, and touchpoint. When leads converted into clients, journeys were automatically updated, revealing which channels drove not just leads, but profitable growth.

For the first time, Kees de Boekhouder and Draft Digital had full-funnel visibility, allowing them to shift budgets with confidence, validate the role of upper-funnel media, and make decisions based on cost per client rather than assumptions.

Results

With these insights, the team could shift budgets confidently, knowing what actually worked. Not just what got the last click.

+34% of previously unattributed conversions were assigned to the actual influencing channel

By stitching impressions, clicks, and CRM outcomes into one journey, Billy Grace reassigned conversions that were previously invisible in traditional analytics platforms. This revealed which channels actually influenced demand, not just the ones that captured the final click.

+40% more leads generated by Meta

Meta was driving significantly more leads than platform and last-click reporting showed. With full-funnel attribution in place, its true contribution became visible, allowing budgets to be evaluated on real impact instead of underreported results.

TikTok delivered the highest lead quality

While TikTok appeared upper-funnel only in traditional tools, its leads converted at a higher quality than any other paid channel. This proved TikTok wasn’t just creating awareness, but attracting high-intent prospects that turned into clients.

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Key takeaways

✅ TikTok and other upper-funnel channels aren’t just for awareness. They drive measurable business impact over time.
✅ Connecting marketing and CRM data changes how you see performance.
✅ Channel decisions should be based on cost per client, not just cost per lead.
✅ AI-powered attribution makes branding provable, not just plausible.