We built an annual research report on how finance teams use AI for an accounting SaaS. It went live in February 2026, passed 165 leads to the sales team, and earned 66 links from 37 sites.
Our client counted February 2026 among its strongest months for marketing-qualified leads. Months later, the report still shows up in its sales outreach, paid social, and display ads.
Our client sells accounting software to finance teams. It's a crowded category, and buyers compare tools for months before they talk to sales.
In April 2025, we told our client it needed a steady stream of links from other sites, at least 5 a month, and that original research was the best way to earn them. Around the same time, every finance leader wanted to know what AI meant for their team, and most of what got written about it was hype.
So we set 2 goals for the report: leads the sales team could follow up on, and links that keep coming after launch.
We ran 4 pieces of work for this report.
Finance teams were curious about AI, and few had moved past testing it. We built the survey around that tension, so the report would answer a question these buyers were already asking each other.
We surveyed 128 CFOs, controllers, finance staff, and IT administrators across 5 industries between December 2025 and January 2026.
We gated the full report behind a short form, so every download became a lead the sales team could see.
Our editors wrote the findings in plain numbers and kept the hype out. Our client's team called the finished report credible, well-timed, and practical.
We pitched the findings to finance and accounting writers, trade publications, and partner sites. The report earned 66 links from 37 sites by September 29, 2026, and it keeps earning them because the data is something only our client could publish. (More on how we run content-led PR.)
We helped our client push the report through email, a press release, its partner network, and paid social, so it reached buyers who weren't searching for it yet.
We also track how the site shows up in AI answers and report it next to leads. (Here's how our AI search and SEO work fits together.)
The report passed 165 leads to our client's sales team. Our client counted February 2026, the launch month, among its strongest months for marketing-qualified leads.
| Milestone | Result |
|---|---|
| Survey fielded | December 2025 to January 2026 |
| Report published | February 2026 |
| Leads passed to sales | 165 |
| Links earned (June 2026) | 43 from 28 sites |
| Links earned (September 29, 2026) | 66 from 37 sites |
| Campaign schedule after launch | 1 per quarter |
By September 29, 2026, the report had earned 66 links from 37 sites, including coverage in a finance trade publication. In June 2026 the count was 43 links from 28 sites, so it kept growing months after launch.
Months after launch, the report still runs in our client's sales outreach, paid social, and display ads.
After this report, our client signed on for a new campaign every quarter, so each report can feed the next one.
Gate the report and send the leads to sales. 165 leads reached the sales team because every download went through a form. An ungated PDF can still earn links, but it won't tell sales who read it.
Pick a topic your buyers are unsure about. Finance leaders were curious about AI and didn't know where to start, and the survey gave them numbers instead of opinions.
Plan the distribution before you write. Email, a press release, partners, and paid social each put the report in front of a different group of buyers.
Measure links for months. The report went from 43 links in June 2026 to 66 by late September 2026. A good report keeps picking up links long after launch week.
About the numbers: lead counts come from our client's marketing team. Link counts come from our outreach tracking. Respondent counts come from the survey itself. We don't name clients without their written permission.
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