Where does LinkedIn Ads for B2B fit into your marketing campaign? What types of ads should you be running on LinkedIn to maximize their effectiveness? Should you run video ads or static images? How much do you need to spend on LinkedIn Ads to know it’s worth it?
These are questions we get from clients in the SaaS and B2B spaces all the time. LinkedIn requires a lot more of a time and money investment than other platforms. So, having questions like these is expected and in this post, we’ll be answering them for you.
What Type of Platform is LinkedIn Ads?
First thing’s first: what type of platform is LinkedIn Ads? In the simplest terms, it’s a display platform. This means we’re going to be showing graphic images to people in an effort to get people to click on the ad and possibly convert. More importantly though, it means that people aren’t searching for what we’re offering. This is important and we’ll come back to it later.
Another thing to focus on is that LinkedIn Ads for B2B is a highly targeted network. In fact, it’s got the best job title targeting and professional targeting out of all the major platforms, even Google Ads and Facebook Ads.
The last two things to consider are the fact that LinkedIn Ads tend to be more costly and our favorite point, LinkedIn has a lot of untapped potential.
It’s easily argued that the higher costs are worth it. In return, you get access to premium data, very accurate job title, and industry data that other platforms don’t provide. In this sense, if you’re in a suitable industry, the investment will be worthwhile.
On the topic of potential, we see a lot of B2B businesses who aren’t taking advantage of LinkedIn Ads. This means that the competition is scarce and you have a better chance at succeeding.
Breaking Down the Feed
The main way you’ll be showing people your ads is on the LinkedIn Ads feed. Now, consider the audience you’ll be showing your ads to. They’re not searching for your product and you’re not advertising to them because they like certain pages (like on Facebook).
Most likely, you’re advertising to them because they’re a specific type of person in a specific industry. You know that if they’re scrolling their feed and they see your ad that relates to them, there’s a high chance that they’ll click on it.
Where Does LinkedIn Ads Fit In To Your Funnel?
Now that you’ve got an idea of what LinkedIn Ads is and the value it brings to the table, let’s answer the first question. Where does LinkedIn Ads for B2B fit in to your marketing campaigns? The answer is that it fits in right at the top of your sales funnel, at the awareness stage, as well as at the conversion stage.
For the most part, your campaigns will focus on the top of the funnel where you’re targeting people that you know are likely to be customers based on your existing customers.
What you don’t want to do is treat LinkedIn Ads like you would Google Ads. Rather, approach it similar to Facebook Ads but more professional – the better job title targeting and refined targeting for the B2B space allows this.
If you have a high LTV customer, a software company, or a B2B business, LinkedIn Ads is your chance to get right in front of your prime prospect. LinkedIn gives you a lot of data about users all at your finger tips – job title, indstury, and seniority.
You can use this data to get people at the top of your funnel with a lead magnet or generally offering some value. Going straight for a sale is risky and a somewhat wasteful spending approach. Start off passive. Offer them a guide with 20 tips for their industry, or a whitepaper breakdown on how their industry is going to change in the next year. Anything which offers genuine value will work (just make sure it’s actually valuable and educational).
An added bonus is that since you’re the one issuing guidance, they’ll see you as an authority figure. Find more out about how to create effective LinkedIn lead magnets by checking out our video below.
What Types of Ads Should You Run on LinkedIn?
On to the second question, what types of ads should you be running on LinkedIn Ads B2B. Is it video or static image, or another type? There are two types of ads that we prioritize on LinkedIn to get the cheapest cost per qualified lead.
#1 - LinkedIn Video Lead Gen Form Ads
First there are LinkedIn Video Lead Gen forms. This is the undisputed champ in terms of the first place you should go when launching a LinkedIn Ads campaign. Before you get ahead of yourself and think, “I’m not good with video”, or, “It’ll take weeks for me to make a video”, it’s better to just get it done especially on LinkedIn. More so when you’re trying to get some initial traction.
Go ahead and hire someone to create a quick 30 second video if you aren’t confident in your own abilities. For an average video that long, you’ll only have to pay around $50, so it’s worth it. In the video, promote your eBook or whitepaper, or whatever your offer is – keep it simple. Talk about the value you’re offering and get them to opt in. It’s really easy and you don’t want to miss out on this easy win.
#2 - Ads That Offer Value
The second ad type for LinkedIn Ads for B2B is anything that’s basically just giving away value. Here’s a great example:
Users are going to be scrolling through their feed and here they have an eBook giving them eCommerce ideas. It’s intriguing and for anyone in the eCommerce space, it’s relevant. It also touches on a sensitive area: do these users have the best strategy in place for two huge commercial holidays?
There are plenty of ways to go about this. For more ideas go ahead and check out our free cheatsheet. This is a collection of our favorite LinkedIn Ads and they will give you some inspiration when creating your own.
How Much Should You Spend on LinkedIn Ads?
This last question is trickier to answer, but we realize you’re probably searching for a rough number. In short, we’d recommend you have a minimum of $5,000 to $7,000 to spend on LinkedIn Ads for B2B. If you really want to find out if this platform is going to benefit your marketing efforts, that’s where you should start.
This makes more sense for some businesses than others, and the LTV of your customers is important. But an important point is that the first $1k-2k is going to be spent on testing. Then, the last $1k-2k will be iterating on what you learned from that testing. That’s why investing more than other platforms is important – these 2 stages are unavoidable and for true value, you need to spend this much.
Now, let’s say you have a really high LTV customer and there’s a really long sales cycle. We’d go one step further and recommend spending even more so that you at least get a couple of highly valuable leads. You can then reach out to those leads and figure out where they’re at in your sales funnel. Maybe they’re closer to the bottom than you expected, but most likely they’ll need a few more ads pushed their way before they get there.
What we definitely don’t recommend is going into LinkedIn Ads with a couple of thousand or so dollars, throwing it into ads, and calling it a wash. We’ve had campaigns that instantly get results, but this is very uncommon and shouldn’t be your expectation. You do need a decent-sized budget and you should have a strategy that involves testing and refining the strategy as you go.
LinkedIn Ads B2B IS NOT Google Ads!
Before we wrap things up the final point we want to highlight is that LinkedIn Ads B2B is nothing like Google Ads. You’re going to be retargeting people with more value and more often than you would on Google Ads. After doing this a bunch of times then you have to actively reach out to them, again unlike you would with Google.
LinkedIn Ads is a platform where you’ll be constantly reeling people in. Think of LinkedIn users as being more resistant to becoming a customer than Google users are. You need to keep pushing value, build trust and paint yourself as an authority figure, and eventually, this will put you in a position where you can send a cold outreach email and they’ll be very likely to give in. They’re aware of your brand and how you can benefit them, why wouldn’t they?
Hire a LinkedIn Ads Agency
LinkedIn Ads for B2B is definitely more intimidating than Facebook Ads. The costs are one thing, but the sheer capabilities of this platform make it easily overwhelming for a beginner.
Because it costs so much, small businesses might feel like LinkedIn Ads is a risky investment, and understandably so. That’s why hiring a LinkedIn Ads Agency is worth considering. At KonvertLab, we’ve managed LinkedIn accounts for businesses in plenty of industries. Want to find out more about we can help? Book a call below and let’s talk.