10 Tips to Make LinkedIn Ads Work for B2B SaaS
Over the past few years, Iâve helped dozens of B2B SaaS companies develop their LinkedIn Ads strategy.Â
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Below, Iâll be sharing ten tips that I always give to my own clients, and that will significantly increase your chances of success with LinkedIn Ads đ
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TABLE OF CONTENTS:Â
- Tip #1: Research Your Customers
- Tip #2: Define Your Targeting
- Tip #3: Distribute Your Content
- Tip #4: Repurpose Your Content
- Tip #5: Test Lead Gen alongside ungated content
- Tip #6: Capture Demand With Retargeting
- Tip #7: Use Text and Spotlight Ads
- Tip #8: Leverage your SMEs for thought leader ads
- Tip #9: Set up the right tracking combination
- Tip #10: Make a commitment of at least 6 months
Tip #1: Research Your Customers
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As a marketer, it can be challenging to fully understand your customers, especially since youâre not in direct contact with them.Â
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In order to gain a better understanding, itâs a great idea to watch 3-5 sales calls, recommended to you by the Head of Sales.Â
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Analyze how your sales team is presenting the product to make sure your messaging is aligned.Â
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In addition to this, you can pull transcripts and summaries from hundreds of calls and have ChatGPT develop a content matrix and empathy map for you, summarizing the top pain points of your prospects.Â
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Here is a templatized example of the outcome. ChatGPT can pull it out in this format based on the call summaries and give you a good foundation of commonalities for different prospects.
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Once youâve identified the top pain points and topics with the help of ChatGPT, send them over to a few people on your sales team to validate them. It can be very subjective but can help you to ensure that you havenât missed any important nuances.Â
Tip #2: Define Your Targeting
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Next, define your targeting.Â
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What job titles, job functions, industries, and company sizes do you want to target?Â
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Once youâve drafted your audiences, you can share and refine with your stakeholders.Â
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To start out, you can use a simple targeting combination such as Job titles + Company Sizes + Industries.Â
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If your audience is too small using only job titles, you could substitute for Job Function + Seniority + Skills.Â
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A few additional notes:Â
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1. Make sure to check the audience insights section of LinkedIn Campaign Manager to find exclusions that you could potentially make. (video walkthrough)
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2. If you have multiple personas, make sure to separate them into different campaigns so you can tailor your messaging.
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3. There is no ideal audience size on LinkedIn Ads â small audiences of 10K can work well and larger audiences of 100K can also work well. Start by targeting your ideal customers, and you can expand over time.Â
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Recommendation: Use a validated company list for better targeting and reporting.
Tip #3: Distribute Your Content
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Once youâve set up your audience, the next step is to distribute content towards them.Â
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I highly recommend optimizing your ads for in-feed consumption â talk about the problems you solve directly in your ad copy.Â
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This way, even if people donât visit your landing page right away, theyâll still be learning about your company and can be retargeted later down the line with a more bottom of funnel offer.Â
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Videos are a particularly great format for delivering these in-feed messages, and they also allow you to generate large retargeting pools.Â
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When you run these ads, look at your impressions and views to make sure that youâre reaching your ICP. And check your engagement rate and dwell time metrics to ensure that the content is resonating.Â
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Donât expect demos or trials right away â the goal of these ads is to start generating some initial interest.Â
Tip #4: Repurpose Your Content
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Do you have any great podcast or webinar clips related to your solution?Â
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Has anyone on your team created a product demo walkthrough recently?
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Do you have any customer testimonials from recent events?
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This type of content can be easily repurposed for ads, and is great for both generating and capturing demand.
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Before you start creating new content, look at the content that you already have.Â
Tip #5: Test Lead Gen alongside ungated content
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I know lead gen is an unpopular strategy, but it can be a great approach to run lead gen campaigns alongside ungated content.Â
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If youâre getting leads from incredible people within your ICP, you can show that to your stakeholders as proof that youâre reaching the right audience, and this can help you get approval to run more ungated content.Â
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I donât recommend lead gen as a standalone tactic, but it can be a solid way to get some initial results and build your retargeting audiences, while also validating the quality of your targeting.Â
Tip #6: Capture Demand With Retargeting
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On LinkedIn, lead gen forms arenât just for content like ebooks and whitepapers.Â
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Theyâre also great for capturing demo requests.Â
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The benefit of using lead gen forms is that people donât have to leave the LinkedIn platform to request a demo, so it helps to simplify the process.Â
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To start, I recommend running these ads to your retargeting audience, since people who have already interacted with your brand are the most likely to convert.Â
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Also, when it comes to these demo campaigns, donât be discouraged if you donât see success right away.Â
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In order to succeed, you need to test different types of messaging, different content, and different creatives until you find the right formula.Â
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Another word of advice: Make sure you refresh the creatives in your retargeting audience at least once a month. Retargeting audiences tend to be small and have very high frequencies, so you may see signs of ad fatigue if you donât refresh your creatives consistently.Â
Tip #7: Use Text and Spotlight Ads
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Text and spotlight ads are an amazing and affordable way to stay top of mind with your retargeting audiences.Â
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Theyâre very small and usually appear on the right side of the feed, and they get a ton of impressions but very few clicks.Â
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I recommend setting these ads up with the website visits objective, so that you only pay when someone actually clicks.Â
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Also, I recommend setting the lowest bid you can possibly set, along with a bid cap to avoid overpaying for clicks.Â
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Another format to consider are follower ads, which are very similar to spotlight ads, but intended to drive more company page followers. This format is great for your colder audiences, and can help funnel your ICP into your organic audience for a longer term nurture.Â
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You can use this template to draft the ad copy with ad specifications. You can also use dynamic macros in follower ads.Â
Tip #8: Leverage your SMEs for thought leader ads
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If you have a founder or subject matter expert thatâs active on LinkedIn, consider running their posts as thought leader ads.Â
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Thought leader ads are great because:Â
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1. They have high CTRs and very low CPCs compared to other formats
2. They allow you to get high-performing organic content in front of your ICP
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Customer stories and educational content related to the problem you solve typically perform well as thought leader ads.Â
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Iâd avoid overly promotional and generic, AI-generated content â you want to distribute content thatâs memorable and valuable to your ICP.Â
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For more thought leader ad ideas, check out 14 Powerful LinkedIn Thought Leader Ad Strategies Worth Testing.Â
Tip #9: Set up the right tracking combination
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There is no perfect tracking combination, but you do have to make sure that youâre collecting enough data to understand whatâs happening inside your account.Â
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First of all, you can track online conversions, like form submissions on your website. Then, you can also set up conversion API to have a deeper understanding of which campaigns are turning into pipeline and revenue.Â
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Also, make sure youâre using UTM parameters â itâs much easier now because LinkedIn has dynamic UTM parameters â and pushing them into your CRM for full visibility.Â
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And add âHow did you hear about usâ into your high-intent forms to capture additional insights about the sources that indirectly influence the prospects.
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Just by having these basics in place, you should already have a solid understanding of whatâs happening inside your account.Â
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If you want even more insights on which campaigns and ads are influencing pipeline, you could use a tool like Fibbler to look at multi-touch attribution.Â
Tip #10: Make a commitment of at least 6 months
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If youâre going to get started with LinkedIn Ads, make sure you make a commitment of at least 6 months.Â
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Once you have your audience, targeting, messaging, and content ready to go, you need to decide what your game plan will be and how much budget you need.Â
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How much money will you need to generate awareness within your cold layer?Â
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How will your retargeting audiences expand over time?Â
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What metrics will you look at to determine initial success? Maybe reach and engagement as leading indicators, and conversions as a lagging indicator?Â
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Present a clear plan to your stakeholders so that they know what to expect and are on the same page. Also, emphasize that success wonât happen overnight, and that it takes time and patience to start seeing results.Â
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Hope you found this article helpful!
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Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn with any ad-related questions.Â
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Resources for mastering B2B advertising
If youâre serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.Â
âHereâs 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
â Â 100% free access.
â Â Taught by vetted industry experts.
â Â Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
â Â Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can:
- Â Scale their ideas
- Level up their careers
- Make a positive impact
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start levelling up your advertising skill set.
Takes < 90 seconds to sign up (seriously we timed it đ)
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50+ Ad Specs for The Top 10 Ad Platforms
Have you ever wondered what dimensions does that ad require? đ¤
Then started searching to find the answer? (same here lol)
To save you (and ourselves) trouble, we gathered the most popular ad specs across 10 channels in one place:Â
- Google Display Ad Specs
- LinkedIn Ad Specs
- Twitter (X) Ad Specs
- Quora Ad Specs
- Reddit Ad Specs
- YouTube Ad Specs
- Google Discovery / Demand Gen Ad Specs
- TikTok Ad Specs
- Meta Ad Specs
âď¸ Bookmark this article and refer back to it when you need ad specs.Â
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Google Display Ad Specs
Source: support.google.com
Browse examples at adstransparency.google.com
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LinkedIn Ad Specs
Source: business.linkedin.com
Browse examples at: linkedin.com/ad-library/home
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âX (Twitter) Ad Specs
âSource: business.twitter.com
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- You can request to have video lengths increased up to 10 minutes
- Carousel can use images or videos but must be in the same aspect ratio (ex: 1:1 or 16:9)
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Quora Ad Specs
Source: image ads, video ads
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Reddit Ad Specs
Source: reddit.my.site.com
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* Headlines will be truncated to 100 characters on mobile/mobile web for the conversation placement.
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Youtube Ad Specs
Source: support.google.com
Browse examples at adstransparency.google.com
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Google Discovery / Demand Gen Ad Specs
Source: support.google.com
Browse examples at adstransparency.google.com
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TikTok Ad Specs
Source: ads.tiktok.com
Browse examples at library.tiktok.com/ads
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âMeta Ad Specs (Facebook/Instagram)
Source: business.facebook.com
Browse examples at: www.facebook.com/ads/library
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Resources for Mastering B2B Advertising
Hope you found this ad specs article useful!
If youâre serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.Â
â
Hereâs 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
â 100% free access.
â Taught by vetted industry experts.
â Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
â Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
â
We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can:
⢠Scale their ideas
⢠Level up their careers
⢠Make a positive impact
â
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start leveling up your advertising skill set.
Takes < 90 seconds to sign up (seriously I timed it đ)
3 Powerful Strategies For Scaling SaaS Google Ads You Need To Know
Google Ads is a blessing and a curse.
You're blessed with intent and cursed with scale.Â
Itâs a powerful channel for scaling pipeline for SaaS startups but low search volume is a challenge.Â
In this article youâre going to learn 3 powerful strategies for scaling your SaaS google ads further.Â
This wonât solve your limited search volume issues that's just the nature of your target keywords and B2B SaaS but these strategies will help you squeeze more performance from your account.Â
Letâs dive into it đ
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Strategy #1: Broad Match Discovery
- Strategy #2: Advertising outside of English
- Strategy #3: Industry campaigns
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Strategy #1: Broad Match Discovery
Before you click away Iâm not talking about using broad match in the traditional sense.Â
Where you let Google show your ads for WHATEVER they think is relevant.Â
Broad match discovery is where you combine broad match keywords AND an audience.Â
It essentially means youâre giving Google the flexibility to show your ads for whatever they feel is relevant but within the confines of your targeted audience.Â
I would not recommend testing this approach unless you have:
- Strong negative keyword lists
- Proven converting phrase match keywords
- Significant conversion volume (> 15/month)
The benefit is you get to scale your top keywords safely past phrase match.Â
How to implement broad match discovery:Â
Step 1: Find proven converting phrase match keywordsÂ
Review your performance across converting phrase match keywords to identify which youâre going to prioritize testing with broad match discovery.Â
Donât rely on âtotal conversionsâ make sure youâre viewing performance by keyword based on the custom metrics that matter for your business (ex: Demo, Trial, SQL, SAL, Opp, etc).
Once youâve identified some worthwhile keywords itâs time for step 2.Â
Step 2: Brainstorm your targeted audiences
Google has 5 audience types you can leverage for targeting in your search campaigns.Â
- Your data = website visitors or contact lists
- In-market = people actively researching a given topic
- Life events = people whoâve accomplished a life milestone (ex: create a business, get married)
- Detailed demographics = industries, company sizes, education level.Â
- Affinity = people who are interested in a certain topic
You can use a mixture of all these different types of audiences to layer on top of your broad match discovery campaigns.Â
If youâre dealing with < 500 searches/month for your keywords I recommend clustering a minim of 10-15 audiences on top of your campaigns to help with delivery.Â
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Step 3: Setup a campaign experimentÂ
The safest way you can test broad match discovery is in a 50/50 experiment alongside your top converting phrase match campaign.Â
You can easily AB test in Google Ads using the campaign experiments feature.Â
Located under Campaigns > ExperimentsÂ
Using this feature build an experiment splitting the traffic by 50% for your original campaign vs the experiment version using broad match AND the targeted audiences you brainstormed in step 2.Â
Strategy #2: Advertising outside of English
English is the most competitive language in the world with the majority of advertisers.Â
Weâve seen reductions of up to 70% in our average CPC targeting other languages.Â
If your company has the resources to sell in multiple languages â take advantage of localization!
Localization campaigns are when you target keywords, write ad copy, and design landing pages that all are in your audience's native language (ex: Spanish, German, Portuguese).Â
Youâll reap the benefits of lower costs due to less competition.Â
The downside however with localization is search volume.Â
If youâre already advertising in English outside of North America and finding success, definitely recommend testing this strategy.Â
How to implement localized campaigns:Â
Step 1: Find proven converting phrase match keywordsÂ
Review your performance across converting phrase match keywords to identify which youâre going to prioritize testing with broad match discovery.Â
Donât rely on âtotal conversionsâ make sure youâre viewing performance by keyword based on the custom metrics that matter for your business (ex: Demo, Trial, SQL, SAL, Opp, etc).
Step 2: Brainstorm your targeted languages
Ask your internal team what languages your sales team is able to sell in.Â
Based on your options make a list of potential languages.
Next, if youâre advertising outside of North America, review the top performing countries and identify their local languages and see if you have the internal resources that can speak that language.
If you canât sell in this language then this strategy wonât make sense.Â
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Step 3: Hire a local translator Â
Donât make the mistake of relying on Google Translate to perform the bulk of your translation.
Youâll want to hire a translator that grew up in the area in which you want to advertise.Â
For instance, if youâre advertising in Portuguese.Â
The dialect for Europeans living in Portugal and those living in Brazil is very different.Â
A local brazilian can tell if itâs not their dialect just like a native portuguese.Â
I recommend hiring locals off Upwork can be as low as $12/hour depending on the language.Â
These translations will make a world difference in your ad and landing page copy.Â
Strategy #3: Industry campaigns
Industry campaigns can be great for coverage and quality.
This is where youâre going to bid on a desired keyword and add a related industry term.Â
For example, letâs say bidding on the keyword âcrm softwareâ hereâs how you can modify this keyword to make it industry specific:
- healthcare crm software
- crm software for fintechÂ
- crm software for small businesses
The benefits of industry campaigns:Â
- Personalized ad copy that can yield greater CTRs
- Higher quality leads due to a more qualified search term
- Lower cost per click prices due to less competition
The downside however is search volume (the constant struggle of Google for SaaS đ ).
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How to implement industry campaigns:Â
Step 1: Find proven converting phrase match keywordsÂ
Just like the other strategies weâre going to identify proven keywords first that we can create industry variations for.Â
Step 2: Brainstorm your target industries
Run a win rate analysis in your CRM and understand which industries have the shortest sales cycles and largest deal sizes? Based on your findings, prioritise the industries in which you want to target.Â
Step 3: Build and prevent keyword overlap
Once you have your keywords and target industries youâre ready to build your campaigns.Â
Make sure to add your industry terms as negative keywords in your generic non-brand campaigns.
Otherwise you can have people seeing your generic ads for your industry terms.Â
Hope you found this article helpful!Â
Best of luck scaling your Google Ads campaigns for your SaaS.Â
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Resources for mastering B2B advertising
If youâre serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.Â
âHereâs 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
â Â 100% free access.
â Â Taught by vetted industry experts.
â Â Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
â Â Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can:
- Â Scale their ideas
- Level up their careers
- Make a positive impact
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start leveling up your advertising skill set.
Takes < 90 seconds to sign up (seriously we timed it đ)
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