by Rui Teles, founder linkedinlab.io
LinkedIn Ads are expensive because you're doing them wrong
Everybody understands the power of LinkedIn in the B2B space:
Exposure to over 63M decision-makers
Exposure to an audience with purchasing power
Ability to become an expert in your field
Advanced targeting capabilities
Even though everyone sees the potential of LinkedIn, 90% of the businesses I talk with have the same belief: LinkedIn Ads are expensive.
If you look at the traditional funnel that has Meta paid ads as a source of acquisition, we have:
With Meta, the target audience is huge. So you get low CPC, CPL but a lot of no-shows, low win rates (bad quality leads).
This whole funnel is very transactional and expects the buyer to act immediately.
The problem is... B2B buyers are not impulsive buyers!
So when we try to replicate this same strategy using Linkedin Ads what happens is:
The audience is much smaller than Meta (3Bn vs 300M MAUs). You're competing with all the other advertisers for a smaller audience
The audience on LinkedIn is much more sophisticated. When you get in front of the user, and he clicks on your ad, he is still very unlikely to book a call or buy your services on the 1st website visit
This results in a high Cost Per Click and high Cost Per Booked Meeting on LinkedIn Ads.
Linkedin Ads are expensive because everyone is treating LinkedIn users as impulsive buyers.
For that reason, we have built a LinkedIn retargeting strategy that focuses on building trust and credibility with buyers who have shown intent.
Results we get:
B2B Marketing Agency - Lead gen agency
Over $8k spent on Linkedin ads generated 45 booked calls with 90%+ show up rate → Resulting in $405k of pipeline generated.
Altium.com - B2B tech companyl
From $562.17 / customer…
Before: spending $20k/month on advertising. CAC $562.17
… to $193.51 / customer
After: Within 60 days, we were able to triple the number of conversions they saw (meeting requests), without increasing ad spent.
How: Correct setup for retargeting, A/B testing, optimizing budget on Google Ads & LinkedIn Ads.
B2B Marketing Agency - Amazon Agency
This agency was spending $500/month with little to no results when we started to work together.
1 Month after we generated 55 booked meetings with $1,200 in ad spent.
4 Months after we were generating 69 booked meetings with a monthly ad spend of $1,000
We dropped Cost Per Lead from $141 down to $15.
BulkBookStore.com - online book shopping
Situation: Client had a pretty good idea of who the target audience was and had a great offering that would save them money on bulk book purchases.
Problem: Cost Per Clicks were high and the traffic that was going to the website was not converting.
Solution: We optimized the cold traffic layer and then implemented a retargeting layer to build trust/credibility,
Result: We started seeing our retargeting layer get 3-4x ROI!
LinkedIn Ads as a demand generation engine
We have quickly realized that if we used LinkedIn ads to a cold audience only, it would never be profitable.
So we have built a marketing strategy that leverages LinkedIn ads as a demand generation vehicle but optimizes for ROI by targeting buyers who already have shown intent.
If you want to have a positive ROI on your Linkedin Ads, you need to use LinkedIn ads to nurture potential buyers who have already shown intent (website visits, click on cold ad, newsletter signup, LinkedIn page views, etc.)
You have to utilize Linkedin Ads to build trust, build authority, and position yourself as the go-to expert in front of buyers who already have given you an indication that they are interested in your services.
Simplifying, our strategy is composed of 2 steps:
An initial cold ads campaign
The initial campaign will target a cold audience.
The goal of this campaign is to present yourself + get potential buyers to show intent (website visits, LinkedIn page views, video views, subscribe to your newsletter).
Present them with: "who are we", "what we do", "what results can we get you".
Type of Ads: ICP's main pain points, services provided, results, etc..
Retargeting campaigns
In the retargeting campaigns (30, 60, 90 days), we will target buyers who have shown intent on your services
The goal of the retargeting ads is to build trust, and credibility while creating urgency for the potential buyer to take action.
Type of Ads: case studies, testimonials, blog posts, how-tos, expert advice, cost of inaction, etc.
This is obviously oversimplified. To maximize ROI, we have different retargeting strategies depending on the total audience size and the ad spent budget.
Overall we have realized that if you are running LinkedIn Ads into a cold audience, without any retargeting strategy that leverages demand gen content, you have ZERO chances of getting a positive ROI.
And that is why everyone says that "LinkedIn Ads are expensive".
Who is this for:
If you are a B2B Service provider that:
has the capacity to handle more customers & deliver results
has case studies, testimonials, and/or content showcasing expertise (blog, YouTube channel, e-books, etc.)
has an average deal size or customer lifetime value above €3.5k
has the financial capabilities to invest at least €1,500/month
has a marketing strategy composed of other channels (organic, paid, SEO, newsletter etc.) - preferred
What now:
If you don't have the resources (time and money) to build all this expertise in-house, you can partner with us for a fraction of the cost and time to deliver (our services start at €1,500/month & you will see results in 30-90 days).
What does it look like to work with us:
Why should you partner with us?
1. Get faster results by removing the learning curve period
What we will do for you:
Setup LinkedIn Insight tag
Setup conversions tracking & value in a way that allows for ad performance analysis
Ongoing ad performance analysis & ad optimization
Strategize the best ad type for the message / goal
Strategize the best target audience definition
Strategize the best bidding method to optimize ROI
Ad creative & copy creation / consultation
We know exactly the best configurations, setup, type of ads to be done.
While using our services you will see results in 60-90 days. Building it in-house might take 6 months to start to see results.
2. Get better ROI by leveraging our proven LinkedIn Ads framework
We don't have the magic formula to make LinkedIn Ads work, but we have worked with over 60 clients, and we know how to optimize our strategy for your specific use case.
With our experience, we can guide you on what ad types will perform better, what bidding strategy, what ad campaign setup, what targeting, how to track conversions, how to analyze performance, etc.
Relying on our experience will yield a better ROI than building this expertise in-house.
If you're interested in discussing this possibility further, you can book a call below.
If you want to implement our LinkedIn ads framework on your own/with your current agency/with your internal team, you can access our LinkedIn ads playbook below:
FAQ
How much ad budget do I need to start seeing results?
We have worked with B2B service companies that were starting with as little as 500€/month.
Usually, our Account Managers like to have an ad budget of at least 1,500€/month. But the minimum ad spent needed will vary depending mainly on the following factors:
ICP Target audience size
Existing website traffic sources
Average contract size / customer lifetime value
How long will it take to have a positive ROI using LinkedIn Ads
This will depend on your current marketing ecosystem.
If you already have healthy website traffic from other sources than LinkedIn we will be able to launch and see results from the retargeting in 30 days.
If Linkedin Ads will be your main source of traffic we will likely need 60-90 days to see results.
Who are you?
My name is Rui Teles, and I have over 7 years of experience in sales and marketing for B2B services and SaaS companies.
I completed an MBA in 2021 and since then I partnered with the leading LinkedIn Agency in the United States where we worked with over 60 clients.
I've decided to start linkedinlab.io in 2023 with the mission to help B2B service companies leverage targeted paid media to deploy demand generation tactics.
How much do your services cost?
We have a tiered pricing structure that depends on your ad budget.
For an ad spent of:
500€ - 2,500€ -> Agency fee: 1,500€/month
2,500€ - 7,000€ -> Agency fee: 2,500€/month
7,000€ - 15,000€ -> Agency fee: 3,500€/month
15,000€ - 25,000€ -> Agency fee: 5,000€/month
