I've been combining PDFs into a single file with Acrobat X Standard and have been able to get a 30-page document down to ~8MB. I've been seeing numerous similar documents that are just as, if not more image-heavy and roughly the same resolution that are quite smaller in filesize, despite having many more pages, like this Brand Finance document that is 55 pages and weighs in at ~7MB (http://www.brandfinance.com/knowledge_centre/reports/brand-finance-banking-500-2012)
I was wondering if there's something I'm missing in optimization settings within Acrobat X Standard that is causing me to end up with a heavier file that has pages the same resolution and image quality?