LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn Spotlight Ads In 2024: Are They Worth The Investment?

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Silvio Perez

Founder @AdConversion

Should you invest in LinkedIn Spotlight Ads?

In this article you'll learn:

The pro's and con's of LinkedIn Spotlight Ads
How much LinkedIn Spotlight ads cost
Examples of LinkedIn Spotlight ads
3 LinkedIn Spotlight ad strategies

By the end of this article you’ll know if this ad type makes sense for you.

Let’s dive into it! 👇

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Contents

What are LinkedIn Spotlight Ads?
LinkedIn Spotlight Ad Specs
4 Reasons to Invest In LinkedIn Spotlight Ads
4 Reasons You SHOULD NOT Invest In LinkedIn Spotlight Ads
3 LinkedIn Spotlight Ad Strategies Worth Testing

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What are LinkedIn Spotlight Ads?

Spotlight ads are only seen on desktop devices and use a combination of your audience's LinkedIn profile data such as photo, company name, and job title to dynamically change based on the user.

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LinkedIn Spotlight Ad Specs

When creating a spotlight ad you’ve got the following options:

Ad headline = 50 characters
Company name = 25 characters
Company Image = logo or image in JPG or PNG that is < 2 MB
Background Image (optional) = 300x250 in JPG or PNG

I’d personally recommend not adding a background image as it removes the ad description, and the users profile photo will not be shown, which defeats the purpose of this ad type 😅

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4 Reasons to Invest In LinkedIn Spotlight Ads

Reason 1: 74% Lower Cost Per 1,000 Impressions (CPM)

After reviewing $1,726,264.56 in spend by ad type for our B2B SaaS clients, we found linkedin spotlight ads have an average CPM of $5.23, 74% lower than single image ads.

Bar chart comparing LinkedIn spotlight ads CPM with other ad types like carousel, conversation, document, single image and video ads.

Reason 2: Increased Ad Recall

Spotlight ad placements are very “low key” and unintrusive.

They only appear on Desktop and are served on the right side of the newsfeed.

Given an average CPM of $5.23 and subtle placement you can rack large frequencies > 20 without negatively impacting your audience’s experience.

The combination of high frequency and low impression costs = greater potential ad recall

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Reason 3: Low Creative Effort

Spotlight ads only require an image that is < 2MB making it an EXTREMELY low creative effort.

Compare this to formats like single image, carousel, or even video ads.

If you want more exposure without a ton of effort they’re an easy addition.

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Reason 4: Flexible Bidding Strategies

Spotlight ads allow you to multiple bidding strategies depending on your campaign objectives.

Maximum delivery = LinkedIn will automatically adjust your bids for the most exposure
Cost cap = set a target cost per landing page click
Manual bidding = set a specific bid per landing page click

With each of these bidding strategies you have flexibility to test and leverage the one that allows you the greatest exposure for the lowest cost.

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4 Reasons You SHOULD NOT Invest In LinkedIn Spotlight Ads

Reason 1: 83% higher average CPC prices

After reviewing $1,726,264.56 in spend by ad type for our B2B SaaS clients, we found linkedin spotlight ads have an average cost per click of $7.93, 83% higher than single image ads.

Bar chart displaying LinkedIn spotlight ads CPC versus other ad formats including carousel, conversation, document, single image and video ads.

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Reason 2: You want to generate the most conversions

Spotlight ads have horrible engagement rates compared to other LinkedIn ad types.

If your primary objective is to drive conversions then spotlight ads are not the ideal ad type to use.

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Reason 3: You’re trying to drive the most traffic to your site

Spotlight ads have below average clickthrough rates compared to other ad types which makes using them to drive site traffic a poor use case of budget.

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Reason 4: You’re not already investing in other ad types

Spotlight ads are not a game changer ad type. They should be used in support alongside other more dominant ad types such as (image, video, or conversation).

The best use of spotlight ads is remarketing, allowing you to stay top of mind at a low cost in front of the audiences that already know/like/trust you.

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3 LinkedIn Spotlight Ad Strategies Worth Testing

In no particular order, here’s 3 strategies worth testing with spotlight ads.

Strategy #1: Remarketing

The real advantage of spotlight ads are low distribution costs with an average CPM of $5.28.

This in combination with the fact that spotlight ads are a non-intrusive ad type on desktop devices and limited right-hand placements makes them great for remarketing.

You can leverage spotlight ads to remarket:

All website visitors
Company page visitors
Past event attendees
Contacts of customers, and leads in nurture

If you want to learn more about building a LinkedIn remarketing strategy check out our in-depth article on How to Build a Multichannel B2B Retargeting Strategy (Step-By-Step).

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Strategy #2: Company Page Growth

Another potential strategy to test spotlight ads is growing your LinkedIn company page.

You can leverage this ad type to drive visitors to view your page (which will then hopefully lead to a follower), check out this example from Aurora who is using a CTA of “Follow”.

LinkedIn spotlight ad promoting job opportunities with company branding and a ‘Follow’ button.

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Strategy #3: Job Recruitment

Spotlight ads are available with the Job applicants campaign objective and given it’s dynamic element (automatically pulling the photo of the user) you can create personalized recruitment ads.

Objective selection screen for LinkedIn spotlight ads focused on job applicants and engagement goals.

I hope you found this article useful!

And as promised, now know if this ad type makes sense for you.

‍

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Once you understand the basics and set up initial campaigns, start A/B testing and experimenting. You could test many things, for example, different ad formats, creatives, messaging, campaign objectives or targeting - all of which can lead to better performance. From my experience, any significant improvement in advertising efficiency starts with a (sometimes random and "long shot") test. To make the testing process smooth and successful, I recommend starting with a hypothesis, creating a testing plan, and having clear KPIs and ways of tracking those.

Kris Wojcik

Digital Marketing Exec

#1 tip for marketers getting into B2B advertising is to have fun with it. A lot of B2B brands take themselves really seriously to appeal to Enterprise buyers, but the reality is we're all human and you're marketing to humans.

Jess Bahr

Co-Founder & CEO

People buy different, not better. So when you're advertising in B2B, it's crucial to sniff out your differentiator and explain that in a way that your buyers will clearly understand it, consume it, and resonate with it. Each of your buyers is different too so it's important to have a good mix of how you explain the difference.

Tim Davidson

Sr. Director, Digital Marketing

One valuable tip I'd offer new marketers entering the realm of B2B advertising is to prioritize understanding your target audience deeply. B2B advertising differs significantly from B2C advertising in that you're not just targeting individual consumers but engaging with businesses, often involving nuanced decision-making units.

To effectively connect with your B2B audience, invest time researching and profiling your ideal customer profile (ICP). This means identifying their industry, company size, and job roles and delving into their pain points, challenges, and aspirations – try to get in the minds of your ICP from entry-level to executive.

By going that extra mile in understanding your audience, you can craft messaging and content that resonates with them—addressing their specific needs, providing solutions, and positioning your products or services as the standout choice.

Tyler Ray

Global Demand Generation + Growth

Before you create any adverts, you need to figure out what your message is going to be. Don't rush into it until you know 'what problems you solve, how you solve them, and why your customer should solve them.' One sentence on each of those creates your elevator pitch, which should be present in some way, in all of your ads. It also represents the business case for your product. If you can't explain your story easily, how on earth do you expect your audience to remember it?

Joseph Hill

Director of Digital Strategy

You know that crazy Marketing 'funnel' everyone talks about? Always start from the bottom up. Meaning, the first place to start is to know who your customers are and how they equate to revenue. Then work yourself up the funnel to drive the most impact.

Bryttney Blanken

Demand Generation Consultant

Adopt the 'kill your darlings' mantra. You have to be ready to cut what you love if it isn't delivering results—be it an ad, keyword, or campaign. What was once a good performer might not stay that way, so never 'set and forget.' Always monitor and optimise.

Three macroeconomic principles should guide you:

1- Budget is limited.
2- Benchmark against your own metrics, not industry fluff.
3- Make trade-offs based on what performs better.

Kill the darlings that don't contribute to the revenue to make room for what does.

Canberk Beker

Group Global Head of Paid Media

Focus on the audience/ICP first, not being the best/all-in-one product. When you address the pain and call the audience out, it resonates far more than simply stating 'We're #1/the best in ... category'. No one gives a shit about fancy review badges, Gartner, or other reports (maybe just a tiny bit) & enterprise studies/research. Everyone wants to know how your product will solve their pain or problem.

The best way (for me at least) to find out the actual problem of a customer is to go to G2 and your biggest/well-known competitor and read/scrape all the 'What problems is PandaDoc solving and how is that benefiting you?' answers. You'll find out that most answers are about one/two specific cases, and so then it's your job to address it right via website/ad copy messaging.

Alex Panchuk

Performance Marketing

Shift your mindset. You'll generate leads, but it's not just about lead generation. When they convert, focus on quality and intent. To do that, you need to understand the customer and how to reach them with the right and interesting message in the right places, consistently. Make it easy for them to remember you, find you, and buy from you when they are ready. For practical advice, Go through the LinkedIn ebook 'How B2B Brands Grow", study demand generation, join communities, and ask questions there.

Roman Krs

Performance Marketer

Before you blame the channel, do the research to see if there are some other reasons why leads aren't converting to opportunities.

For example:

WEBSITE

Does the ad align with the landing page?
Is it easy to understand how it works, who it's for, how much it costs, and the outcome it drives?
Do you have relevant social proof?

CONVERSION

Is the form simple and short?
Does it offer an easy way to schedule a meeting?
Are there clear CTAs across the website?
Do you address common objections on the demo page?

LEAD HAND-OFF

How long does it take to set up a meeting with a buyer after the form is filled take?
Did we align the follow-up with the intent level?
Do we offer a demo at the first meeting?
Do we identify the core problems of the buyer and how our solution can help solve those issues?

SALES CYCLE

Did we create a close plan?
Have we gotten all key decision-makers involved?
Do we add value along the sales process?
Do we always set up the next meeting with a clear agenda?
Have we properly differentiated ourselves against competitors and keeping with the status quo?

80% of the above don't directly involve the "channel"

Jonathan Bland

Co-Founder

For someone starting with B2B advertising, I highly recommend following the right B2B content creators on LinkedIn, as well as other paid media ones - then block some time to go through their posts/videos to learn new strategies/tips, or merely understand their point-of-view. Then, find ways of testing those strategies/quick wins with your own clients to get your own insights and takeaways - plus, it's a great way of implementing what you learn

Gonçalo Prates

Performance Marketing Manager

Make sure that you nail your fundamentals before you launch your campaign. Know where your ICP spends time online and what they are searching for.

If you don't, you won't be able to nail down your targeting for paid social and you won't go after the right keywords on paid search.

Start with the understanding of your buyer (the qualitative and quantitative) insights, and then go and build your strategy based off of that. There are a lot of great resources on how to technically set up your campaign - just keep it as simple as you can to begin with.

The final part of the fundamentals is to make sure you have tracking in place in your CRM. You need to be able to know what leads came in from your paid ads, and be able to track them throughout the sales process. Otherwise you'll never be able to answer the question at the executive level, "How are our ads performing?

Blake Strozyk

Founder

Seasonality in B2B is real & should be taken into account when optimizing & experimenting with paid ads.

Here is what I mean: We have grown very rapidly over the last 1.5 years and therefore don't have reliable base data from last summer, so only this year we started to feel the summer slow down properly. Many experiments that we ran have to be pre & post (sometimes it's technically not possible to run A/B), so if you launch an experiment in June & compare results with May the results will be heavily impacted by external factors (summer period slowdown).

It's not something new, but something we faced a lot this summer. So don't disregard the importance of taking seasonality into account.

Borys Khodan

Head of Paid Media

1. When building advertising campaigns, be hyper focused on audience and targeting. Your best advertising campaign won't be successful unless you target the right people at the right time.

2. The biggest gold mine for ad copy is customer calls. If you have a tool like Gong, you should be listening to calls every day to find insights on what your customers care about.

Liam Barnes

Sr. Manager, Growth Marketing (Emerging Tech)

The B2B Buyer's journey is complex, make sure you are filling all the content gaps on your paid ad strategy.

Miguel Sánchez

Demand Generation Manager

Offers are the most underused and underappreciated lever in B2B ad performance, and it’s not even close.

People associate Offers with e-commerce style, “buy one get one free” marketing messages. But the category is so much broader than that - it’s offering different things to your audience to see what they respond best to.

In short: Everything you promote with an ad is an Offer, whether you think of it that or not. Some example Offers that B2B companies can use:

a.) Click this ad and schedule a sales call
b.) Click this ad and get access to a demo
c.) Click this ad and get an eBook
d.) Click this ad and get an incentive.

You should start with an Offer when building campaigns, don't make it an afterthought.

Kevin Lord Barry

Co-Founder

Advertising can be daunting as a new B2B marketer, when you don't have a full grasp on how the ad platforms work or you haven't spent as much money on them, you might feel like you are not ready to run ads.

But here's the thing, you will never be 100% ready till you actually take action, and as scary as this might feel, there's a great thing about this too, you are also more prepared than you actually think.

That first campaign won't be perfect, you will make mistakes, and you will lose some $$$ in the process (sad reality about advertising 😅), but as long as you see this as a learning experience, you will accelerate your knowledge about the platforms and become strong in them in no time.

Diego Oquendo

Head of Marketing

Never skip out on creative. With all the targeting features that we have access to as B2B marketers, creating content specific to the persona you're going after is important. Whether it's copy or the images you use, I recommend investing time into making sure they resonate with your ICP.

Ali Yildirim

Co-Founder & CEO

Ultimately it boils down to establishing trust. Your objective is to educate prospects from various angles and persuade them to take the desired action. Providing value upfront through various means is the most sustainable approach to accomplish this.

Rory Conroy

Growth & Performance Marketing Manager

Put a real effort into the ad creation on social channels. Create a list with the prospects’ pain points, their headaches, and how your product could solve any of these pain points, then transform it into ad copy that talks directly to your prospect in a humane language, it’s B2B but we’re talking to people, this will make ads that will stand out on the crowd. We can have the best audience and an infinite budget, but if we don’t master the message (and have a compelling design), chances are that our ads will not be noticed.

Jessica Amaral

Demand Generation Manager

Silvio Perez

Founder @AdConversion

Want to level up your B2B advertising skill set?

AdConversion was created to help B2B marketers master advertising with free courses, articles, resources, and templates created by the world best practitioners.

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10 Tips to Create Winning LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads

Jonathan Bland

Read Article

Since their introduction in 2023, I’ve run hundreds of LinkedIn thought leader ads, for my demand gen agency, Omni Lab, and for my clients in B2B SaaS.

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Through my experimentation with this format, I’ve developed a list of best practices to maximize the chances of success.

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I’ll be sharing all my insights below 👇

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Tip #1: Remember that thought leader ads are just sponsored posts
Tip #2: Make sure your ads connect to your product
Tip #3: Create content people would pay for
Tip #4: Add Premium CTAs to your LinkedIn profile
Tip #5: Test Non-Employee Influencer Campaigns
Tip #6: Optimize your LinkedIn profile as if it were a landing page
Tip #7: Look at the right metrics
Tip #8: Give yourself a reality check
Tip #9: Put yourself in your buyer’s shoes
Tip #10: Focus on Awareness, Not Conversions

‍Tip #1: Remember that thought leader ads are just sponsored posts

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First of all, remember that thought leader ads are not a silver bullet that will save your marketing program – they’re simply sponsored organic posts that can fit into your larger content strategy.

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This isn’t to downplay the power of this format; targeting your ICP with content from your thought leaders is one of the most effective approaches to build brand awareness and mental availability.

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That being said, your thought leader ads won’t be successful if you don’t have great positioning, messaging, content, or targeting.

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The standard rules of marketing still apply.

‍Tip #2: Make sure your ads connect to your product

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If you’re putting ad dollars behind organic posts, make sure they connect back to your product in some capacity.

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I don’t mean adding a demo request CTA to every post, but the content you promote should have a core dotted line back to your product.

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For example, at Omni Lab, I could promote a post highlighting our unique POV and approach to Google Ads, which is one of the services we offer. If this POV resonates with my audience, they’ll most likely think of me when they’re looking for support with their Google Ad campaigns.

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Personal posts, such as occasional pictures of food or selfies on the beach, are okay, but they don’t deserve to be promoted.

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At best, they won’t generate significant awareness for your product, and at worst, they’ll end up confusing your audience.

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If your ICP loves you but they have no idea what you do, you probably won’t be in business for long 😬

Tip #3: Create content people would pay for

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No matter how great your targeting or technical setup, you won’t get very far if you don’t have amazing content that people would be willing to pay for – this is true for ads in general, and especially true for thought leader ads.

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Take some time to reflect on your offer. Are you just providing generic tips that people have heard many times? Or are you offering something unique and valuable that will pique the interest of your audience?

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To give an example, for Omni Lab, I could run thought leader ads highlighting Google Ads bidding strategies. But it would be more effective to share in-depth campaign recommendations for my target accounts.

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Or, if you’re a company like Navattic, you could run ads talking about interactive demos, but it would be more powerful to build out personalized interactive demos for your dream companies.

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Next time you run a thought leader ad campaign, focus on increasing the perceived value of your offer, and you’ll see a massive improvement in performance.

‍Tip #4: Add Premium CTAs to your LinkedIn profile

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If you’re looking to funnel people into an owned audience, such as your newsletter, consider adding a Premium CTA to your thought leader ads. This is something I do at Omni Lab, and it’s helped me generate hundreds of high quality email subscribers.

This CTA option is only available to LinkedIn Premium users: you can add CTAs such as View my newsletter, Visit my website, View my blog, etc., depending on the action you’d like your audience to take.

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If you don’t have LinkedIn Premium, consider editing your post once the organic reach has died down (usually within 72 hours), adding a CTA with a link to your website.

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Even though the primary goal of thought leader ads should not be to drive direct clicks and conversions, adding a CTA allows people to learn more about your company without having to go on a scavenger hunt.

Tip #5: Test Non-Employee Influencer Campaigns

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After running hundreds of thought leader ads, both for Omni Lab and for my clients, I’ve found that thought leader ads from non-employees consistently outperform promoted posts from employees.

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For example, at Omni Lab, we built out a media plan and campaign strategy for Navattic, and their Head of Growth and Operations (Natalie Marcotullio) made a post related to this.

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We boosted this post to our target audience, and it was one of our top performing ads of all time, significantly outperforming all the thought leaders ads from me and my cofounder.

LinkedIn thought leader ad example from a non-employee

Clay is another great example of non-employee thought leadership. Members of their creator program post about how they use the software, and Clay promotes these posts to increase awareness for their company, while simultaneously expanding the reach of their creators – they’ve created a symbiotic relationship where everybody wins.

B2B LinkedIn thought leader ad featuring external creator

If you’re working with well-known people in your industry, consider how you might be able to partner with them: this could look like an audit, a strategy, a discount, access to exclusive features, etc. in exchange for promotion on LinkedIn.

Tip #6: Optimize your LinkedIn profile as if it were a landing page

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When you’re running thought leader ads, your LinkedIn profile turns into your landing page – it’s the place where people go for more information about you and your company.

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Here are a few tips to optimize your profile that I always share with my clients:

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1. Make sure you have a banner image explaining what you do at a high level.

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Example of optimized LinkedIn banner image

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2. Make sure your profile photo is up to date, and use your primary brand color as the background.

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3. Add what you do + the category you play in to your headline

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4. Use the About section to explain why your company exists and how you approach things differently (bonus if you can also add a few testimonials)

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5. Use the featured section to highlight your core CTA + top performing posts demonstrating your expertise

‍

‍Tip #7: Look at the right metrics

‍

Let’s say you have all the fundamentals in place: an optimized profile, great content, solid targeting, etc.

‍

Now, the next step is to ask yourself: What metrics should we look at to understand if our content is working?

‍

Here’s what I recommend to my clients:

‍

1. First of all, check your LinkedIn demographics report to make sure that you’re actually reaching your ICP.

‍

2. Check in-platform metrics such as impressions, engagement, and CTR. If these metrics look healthy, you’ll know that your audience is finding value in your content.

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3. Look at smaller microconversions, such as engaged visits on your website. Are the people reading your thought leader ads eventually navigating to your site to learn more?

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4. Look at the self-reported attribution field on your demo request form. Are more people mentioning your thought leaders? If the answer is yes, you’ll know that your content is building trust with the right people.

‍

5. Finally, you can look at more bottom of funnel metrics, such as sign ups or meetings booked, but ultimately, DO NOT obsess over these metrics. Prioritize numbers 1-4 to understand if your content is resonating – it might take a while to see a significant impact on pipeline and revenue.

‍

Pro Tip: If you’re not sure what content to promote as thought leader ads, look for posts that had a 2-3% CTR organically. In my experience, these posts with a higher organic CTR are also the top performing ads. ‍

Tip #8: Give yourself a reality check

‍

Most people – and B2B buyers especially – aren’t making impulse decisions and can’t be pushed through a funnel.

‍

As the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute has highlighted, if you look at how often prospects make a purchase in your category, you’ll quickly realize how few of the people you’re targeting are actually in-market.

‍

Even if you run the greatest ads in the world, you can’t expect people to schedule a demo if they aren’t actively looking for a solution.

‍

And even if they do book a demo, if you have a higher ACV, you’ll probably have an extremely long sales cycle.

‍

My point is, you can’t expect hundreds of demos or millions in revenue right away. ‍

Tip #9: Put yourself in your buyer’s shoes

‍

This is a fun exercise I like to do with my clients.

‍

I ask: “When you see posts on LinkedIn, what actions do you usually take?”

‍

Usually, the response is something along the lines of:

‍

“I read and keep scrolling…” or “If I like something, I might react or leave a comment…”

‍

Then I ask the follow-up question: “If you see a post you like from a company you’ve never heard of before, would you immediately book a demo?”

‍

And typically the answer is “No, of course I wouldn’t.”

‍

Our prospects aren’t that different than we are; if we wouldn’t buy immediately, they probably won’t either.

‍

If you’re getting good engagement and starting to see other signs of life (such as engaged website visits), you’re headed in the right direction, even if you’re not seeing more demos and sign ups right away. ‍

Tip #10: Focus on Awareness, Not Conversions

‍

Think of thought leader ads as a brand awareness play, not a direct response tactic.

‍

Like any good brand marketing, your thought leader ads should relate to key buying situations, or category entry points.

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For example, if I promote posts about how we help our clients improve their lead quality, prospects may think of Omni Lab if they ever run into lead quality issues.

‍

Or maybe I talk about how we use paid media to increase brand awareness, and prospects may think of us if they’re having a brand awareness problem.

‍

The key to succeeding with thought leader ads is putting the right messages in front of the right people. If you do this over a long enough period of time, the pipeline and revenue will follow.

‍

Hope you found this article helpful!

‍

Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn or Omni Lab with any questions about demand gen or paid media.

Blueprint

min Read

How To Create a B2B Google Ads Optimization Workflow [+Free Template]

Silvio Perez

Read Article

Hey there, B2B Marketer. If you don’t have a well-structured optimization workflow, managing just a handful of Google Ads accounts can be a struggle (been there, done that 😅)

‍

In this article, I’ll walk you through the Google Ads Optimization Workflow template, the exact process I used to go from barely managing five Google Ads accounts to easily managing 30+ 🚀

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Google Ads Optimization Workflow Process
Daily Google Ads Optimizations
Weekly Google Ads Optimizations
Monthly Google Ads Optimizations
Quarterly Google Ads Optimizations
Free Resources to Master B2B Ads 🔥

‍

Why You Need a Google Ads Optimization Workflow Process

Without a consistent approach, managing Google Ads can feel chaotic. You may get lost in metrics that don’t matter or, worse, miss out on key optimizations that could boost your profitability.

‍

I developed the Google Ads Optimization Workflow Template to help me stay organized and focus on impactful daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly optimization tasks.

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👉 Grab your free copy of the template in Module 2, Lesson 1 from the B2B Google Ads 102 - How To Convert Clicks Into Profit course.

Google Ads optimization workflow checklist with daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly tasks, showing status and due dates.

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If you follow this approach, you’ll find yourself in control of your accounts, not the other way around.

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Now let’s dive deep into the tasks by timeframes ⏰

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Daily Google Ads Optimizations

Daily optimizations are essential for ensuring that your accounts are running smoothly. It’s your first line of defense against overspending and wasted ad spending.

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Each day, you should:

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1. Review your budget pacing

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This way, you’ll ensure that you are not overspending or underspending.

2. Check for irrelevant search terms in the Search Terms Report

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You want to add any irrelevant negative keywords. So every single day, you should review your search terms report and compare your search terms to your keywords to find the irrelevant ones and add them to your negative list.

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3. Adjust bids as needed

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If you’re using manual bidding, make sure to adjust your bids accordingly to get visibility.

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If you’re using something like maximize clicks with a bid cap, make sure that you take a look at your average cost per click in relation to your bid cap. If you notice that your average cost per click is really close to your bid cap, you could be throttling yourself.

Google Ads interface showing ad group details for a search campaign, including CPC bid settings for google Ads optimization

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If you’re using Target CPA bidding, ensure that the CPA amount you set is large enough to get enough deliverability. I recommend increasing it by 20% if you notice you’re not spending your budget.

Google Calendar event setup for daily ‘Optimization Power Hour’ focused on Google Ads optimization tasks and campaign reviews.

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By doing that, you will be proactive, and you’re going to catch things much sooner before they become potential fires.

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Weekly Google Ads Optimizations

Weekly optimizations allow you to step back and review broader trends instead of getting caught up in the day-to-day fluctuations.

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Instead of getting caught up in the day-to-day fluctuations, here you should:

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1. Review weekly performance trends (visibility, cost, volume)

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Every week you should look at search impression share, search lost to rank, search lost to budget, and search top impression share.

Google Ads metrics report displaying impression share, lost impressions due to rank, and budget losses for optimization

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You also want to look at how much you have spent, your cost per conversion, your cost per custom conversion, meaning the cost per SQL, converted user, or whatever that KPI is that you’re measured against.

Google Ads campaign report table showing cost, conversions, cost per conversion, and offline MQL for a google ads optimization.

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You will also want to look at volume. How many conversions are you getting? Is it trending up? Is it trending down? These are the things to keep an eye on every week.

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Another thing you can do is check the charts in Google Ads to map different metrics and quickly see the trend of search impression share with this graph 👇

Google Ads performance graph comparing search impression share and conversions over time for better Google Ads optimization.

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🚨Important: When you’re optimizing and looking at things weekly, don’t freak out if you see changes like 25% down search impression share. But if you see it happen consistently for two or three weeks in a row, then there’s definitely something that you need to make a decision about.

‍

Lastly, breaking down your campaigns by themes like brand, non-brand, and competitive will help you to quickly identify underperforming segments and reallocate your budget where it will be most effective.

‍

This will make the optimization process much more manageable.

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2. Pause underperforming keywords

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Pausing underperforming keywords is an opportunity to give more budget to the keywords with good performance.

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You can quickly go to the keyword section in your account and filter by conversions to see which keywords have no conversions. Then, you can sort by cost and understand which ones are hemorrhaging the most budget and can be paused.

Google Ads keyword filter applied to display keywords with zero conversions, aiding in keyword analysis for Google Ads optimization

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3. Add new relevant keywords

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When you check the Search Terms report, there are certain search terms that can make sense to add to your campaign as keywords.

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You can also go to the Google Ads Keyword Planner and find net new keywords that you might not be covering. This is an opportunity to expand your scope and reach, and it’s a good best practice to get into the habit.

Google Keyword Planner results for ‘LinkedIn ads agency,’ showcasing keyword volume, trends, and competition insights

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4. Pause underperforming ads and add new ads to replace underperformers (<5% CTR)

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Pausing underperforming ads is as simple as going to the ad section in your account and then pausing any ads that are not performing anymore.

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So if you notice you have some underperformers, ideally anything less than a 5% click-through rate (but always compare it with your average performance), it’s time to shut off the underperforming ad and add a new ad into the mix.

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This way you can continually improve your overall click-through rate performance to help boost your expected click-through rate and improve your quality score.

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Monthly & Quarterly Google Ads Optimizations

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Monthly and quarterly tasks focus on more strategic, higher-level adjustments.

‍

Monthly Optimizations

It’s crucial to ensure that your campaign settings, quality score, and budget allocation align with your overall goals and haven’t been altered unintentionally.

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This is also the time to assess the impact of your Google Ads efforts on your sales pipeline and to make necessary changes.

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So at the end of each month, you should:

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👉 Audit campaign settings (networks, bidding, location options)

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This step is crucial if you manage multiple campaigns or accounts.

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It’s important to double-check if you’re targeting the right network and don’t have display and search combined together.

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You want to make sure your bids haven’t been updated by accident, or God forbid, you have the auto recommendations still turned on, and they’re automatically updating your bids without your consent. 💀

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You also want to ensure that your location options are set to “presence” and that people are actually in your target location or regularly in, not people who are potentially in other areas and are interested in that location.

Google Ads campaign settings view showing network, location, budget, and bidding strategy

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👉 Review month-over-month pipeline impact from Google Ads

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We’re running ads to generate revenue, and revenue comes from initially having pipeline.

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So you need a dashboard to track the performance month-over-month and connect your activity to revenue.

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It can be as simple as having a report on a spreadsheet where you can see the evolution of your KPIs every month. You can create one from scratch or search for a template on the internet.

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Performance dashboard overview showing lead, pipeline, and revenue metrics by platform

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👉 Review performance by campaign theme (visibility, cost, volume)

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The same analysis we discussed in the weekly optimizations above should be done on a monthly basis too.

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How much are you spending per theme? What is your cost per conversion? What is your conversion rate? And what are the volumes?

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Are you driving more volume in a certain theme versus another? Should you move the budget around?

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These are the questions you should answer here.

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👉 Review quality score (ad relevance, landing page experience, expected CTR)

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How is your quality score by campaign theme? Is it increasing or decreasing month-over-month?

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Ideally, you should aim for a quality score of 7 or above. If it’s lower than that, optimizing your ad relevance, expected CTR and landing page experience will improve things.

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Check out this Quality Score Guide to learn the 80/20 of what you need to know about quality score to improve it.

Google Ads quality score report showing ratings for ad relevance, landing page experience, and expected CTR for optimization.

👉 Review geographic performance and budget allocation

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Here you want to go ahead and see how the campaigns you’re targeting in each region are performing so you can make the necessary adjustments.

Google Ads campaign performance table highlighting APAC region with higher conversions and lower cost per conversion for optimization insights.

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I also recommend checking the Locations report to have a granular view of how each country grouped into a region is performing.

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By doing this, you can find opportunities for new campaigns targeting a single country if it has a good performance and the campaign is limited by budget, or excluding low-performing countries to free up some budget for the top performers.

Location report in Google Ads showing conversion metrics for targeted locations including the United States and Canada, aiding in optimization.

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👉 Review device performance and budget allocation

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In B2B, desktop usually performs better than mobile and tablet, so if you’re targeting all devices you can find opportunities to maximize conversions by breaking out the campaigns into different devices.

Device performance report in Google Ads displaying conversions, cost per conversion, and average CPC across computers, mobile phones, and tablets.

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👉 Review keyword/match type performance and budget allocation

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Are there certain keywords that are doing better for you than others? Certain match types? All of these are insights that will help you optimize your Google Ads campaigns.

Google Ads keyword match type report showcasing conversions and cost per conversion, with a focus on phrase match performance for optimization.

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👉 Review landing page performance and experiments

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How are your landing pages performing? Are you running experiments? If you're not, that's definitely an opportunity.

Google Ads landing page report with conversion metrics and average CPC, helping identify high-performing pages for optimization.

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👉 Implement new campaign experiments

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If you’re not testing new experiments, this is a massive opportunity to improve performance, and you can run experiments easily in Google Ads with their campaign experiments tool.

Google Ads experiments dashboard suggesting new tests like broad match keywords for better ROI in Google Ads

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Quarterly Optimizations

Every quarter, take time to conduct a competitor analysis and review your goals. It’s a great practice to see what new ads and keywords your competitors are using, giving you inspiration and helping you stay ahead in the market.

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‍

This periodic check-in will ensure that your optimizations are aligned with your business objectives, providing a clear path for growth 🙌

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Stay organized with the Google Ads Optimization Workflow template

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If you get your free copy of our Google Ads Optimization Template, you’ll notice that we have daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly tasks discussed above on the template.

Google Ads optimization checklist categorizing tasks into daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly activities for improved campaign performance.

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The way this template works is very simple. We have our tasks on the left, the task title, and the different timeframes. There’s also a space for you to take notes while optimizing your account.

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Then you can change the status of each task, so you and your team will know if a task is done or if it’s in progress, as well as define the task owner.

Google Ads task management table displaying status, tutorial links, task owners, and due dates for structured optimization planning.

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There are also some formulas where, based on the timeframe, the due date will automatically update. So for example, if you set the Last Complete date of a daily task as 2/2/24, it’ll automatically say the due date for that task is 2/3/2024.

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In addition, if you do the same thing for a weekly task, it will add seven days to the due date, and now it will say 2/9/2024.

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Lastly, you’ll also find all the different tutorials covered in this guide linked to each task. The goal of these tutorials is to show you how to do each step so you can use this as a reference.

Google Ads task table with status indicators and video tutorials, showing a comprehensive plan for step-by-step campaign optimization.

By implementing these daily, weekly, and monthly optimizations, you’ll stay ahead of potential issues and make data-driven adjustments that boost your account performance.

‍

I hope this guide helps you to manage your accounts efficiently 🙌

‍

If you have any questions, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn.

‍

From Clicks to Conversions: Master Google Ads for B2B 🔥

If you want to become a Google Ads pro, check out our free B2B Google Ads courses, where you'll learn how to launch, optimize, and scale your campaigns to drive pipeline and revenue.

b2b google ads 101-103 courses by silvio perez from adconversion

‍

Here's what you'll learn in each course:

‍

⚙️ B2B Google Ads 101 - How to Launch Dangerously Effective Campaigns for Beginners

The Googleverse: The Game You're Playing & How To Win
Measurement: How to Make Sure You're Profitable
Targeting: How to Show Up For the Right Searcher
Planning: Putting It All Together

‍

🎯 Google Ads 102 - How to Clicks Into Profit

Visibility: How To Find the Hole Sucking Profits
Workflows: How to Optimize On a Daily, Weekly, Monthly & Quarterly Basis
Experimentation: How to Test & Automate Profitability
Troubleshooting: How To Solve Inevitable Problems

‍

🚀 Google Ads 103 - How to Scale Google Ads For Advanced Advertisers

Methodology: How to Vertically Scale Google Ads From A-Z
Campaigns: Scaling Horizontally Through Campaign Themes
Channels: Scaling Outside of Paid Search

‍

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 😂)

‍

B2B

min Read

Using the Jobs To Be Done Framework to Maximize Revenue in B2B Ads [+Free Template]

Bryttney Blanken

Read Article

Understanding the Jobs To Be Done framework developed by Tony Ulwick can be confusing and overwhelming because most of the information you’ll find is focused on product development.

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In this article, I’m going to unpack the Jobs To Be Done framework from a B2B advertising perspective.

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Why? Because identifying what job your customers are truly “hiring” your product or service to do will be the secret to launching a powerful ad campaign.

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This article is part of our B2B learning track so if you’re serious about learning B2B advertising you’re in the right place!

‍

Let’s dive into it 👏

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Understand Why Customers Choose Your Product
Using the Jobs to Be Done Interview Matrix Template
Customize Your Messaging with Personality Insights
Real Use Case of the JBTB Matrix Template
Free Resources to Jumpstart Your B2B Marketing Career

‍

Understand Why Customers Choose Your Product

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In any industry, people don’t buy products, they invest in solutions to get a job done. It’s not just to buy another thing like your cat-hoarding grandmother. 😅🐈

‍

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For B2B marketers, Tony Ulwick’s Jobs to Be Done framework should be focused on why your customers “hire” your product or service, so you can put them and their needs at the heart of your advertising story.

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This will help you to identify what pain points you’re helping your customers solve to get to the root of what motivates them because your advertising campaign should be about them — not you.

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But how can you do that?

‍

You can use the Jobs To Be Done framework when you're launching a new advertising campaign or when you want to improve the conversion rates of your existing advertising campaigns (aka your ads that aren’t converting)

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The most impactful way to start is by identifying three to five recent customers who fit your target market (or Ideal Customer Profile - ICP).

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If you need help identifying your ideal customer profile, check out this article: “How to Craft B2B Buyer Personas for Ad Targeting”

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Select customers who either recently purchased or have the potential to represent your ideal buyer. These interviews will reveal why they chose your service and what specific pain points you helped them solve.

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To make your life easier, I developed a free template called Jobs to Be Done Interview Matrix 🙌

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You can find it in Module 2, Lesson 3 of my free B2B Advertising Foundations course, and it’s your roadmap for collecting insights during interviews.

Using the Jobs to Be Done Interview Matrix Template to Gather Actionable Insights

‍

‍

In this JTBD Interview Matrix Template, you’ll be looking for five key points that highlight your customer’s journey with your brand:

Situation and Pain Points - What challenges are they facing?
Motivation - Why did they start looking for a solution?
Trigger - What prompted them to move forward with your service?
Ideal Outcome - What result are they seeking?
Competitor Evaluation - What other options were they considering?

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The matrix helps you organize answers by each customer’s profile and offers a side-by-side comparison of their unique characteristics.

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It also offers 8 helpful interview questions you can use to uncover the right golden nuggets that will make your campaign shine. ✨

Customize Your Messaging with Personality Insights

‍

Finally, understanding your customer’s personality type is like having the key to crafting messaging that lands with confidence.

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Resources like Crystal can help you determine each customer’s DISC personality type (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, Compliance) by scraping their LinkedIn profiles, labelling how they like and prefer to be communicated with, and their style and tone because this will ultimately influence the messaging that you can create for each of your advertising personas.

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Here’s a real use case for you to understand each step of the JTBD Interview Matrix

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Let’s take Spotify as an example. I love Spotify, so if I were doing an interview with a Spotify customer, it would look like this:

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‍

Situation & Pain Points

I get tired of hearing the same songs on the radio. I can’t easily listen to the exact song I want to hear.

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Motivation

I want to listen to specific songs when I want

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Trigger

I’m in the gym, and I need a song to pump me up

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Ideal Outcome

I want to listen to the music I choose, everywhere

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Other Solutions/ Products Evaluated – Competitors

Radio, XM Radio, Pandora, Apple Music, Silence

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Personality characteristics (DiSC type, DiSC archetype, etc)

Trailblazer - ID. Confident style, with a mix of informality and formality gets their attention.

Pace: Speak slightly fast. Sounds like a ‘gets shit done’ person.
Tone: Do not sound too eager, as if you have met a friend suddenly after a long time. Keep the tone calm but confident.
Tactics To Win: Strong words, focus on results, respectful confidence

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Based on the JBT Interview Matrix, here are some Spotify ad examples:

‍

‍

The main takeaway is that you can make your ad campaigns even stronger when you really know what “job” your customers are “hiring” your product or service to take care of.

‍

Use the Jobs To Be Done matrix to dig deep into what matters most to them and adjust your messaging to connect on a personal level. 🙂

‍

I hope you found this article helpful!

‍

Connect with me on LinkedIn, and let’s keep the conversation going.

You can also visit my website here for more valuable content.

Jumpstart Your B2B Marketing Career

‍

If you’re serious about mastering B2B advertising, then you definitely need to check out my free course that will teach you the foundational knowledge to becoming a high-performing B2B marketer who knows how to use advertising to drive legit business and revenue impact without the fluff or wasting your time and money learning the ropes the hard way.

‍

Module 1: you’ll get a crash course in the B2Bverse and master terminology, sales processes, and working across teams.

Module 2: you’ll learn how to become your customer's psychologist and understand them deeply with buyer personas that allow you to craft effective messaging.

Module 3: you’ll master the B2B funnel and learn how to think like a CEO to identify performance bottlenecks and convert more leads into revenue.

Module 4: you’ll learn how to put it all together and build your go-to-market strategy that gets your ad in front of your dream buyers and converts attention.

‍

This course was designed with absolute beginners in mind.

‍

Accelerate your learning curve and start the course today for free.

Google Ads

min Read

How to Create Tracking Templates in Google Ads

Silvio Perez

Read Article

Hey there, Digital Marketer. Do you cringe a little when you hear the words “setting up tracking in an ad channel”? 😅

‍

Tracking may be the unsexy side of marketing, but I promise that Google Ads Tracking Templates are simpler than they sound.

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In this article, I’ll show you how to set up tracking right, capture accurate data, and see what’s really driving your conversions and revenue.

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Let’s dive in! 👇

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

What is a Google Ads Tracking Template?
How to install Tracking Templates in Google Ads
Benefits of adding Tracking Templates to your campaigns
From clicks to conversions: Master Google Ads for B2B

‍

What is a Google Ads Tracking Template?

‍

Tracking templates allow you to streamline your link tagging process and pass static and dynamic values.

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I created this little cheat sheet for you here to give you an understanding of a tracking template.

Overview of a Google Ads tracking template, highlighting standard UTM, static values, ValueTrack parameters, and custom parameters.

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Here’s what each parameter means:

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{lpurl}: This is your landing page URL. So whatever the URL is in your ad, the template will automatically inherit it and then automatically append these different static and dynamic values based on these parameters.
UTMs: These are your standard UTMs, like UTM source, UTM medium, campaign, term, and content.
‍Check out our Free UTM Tagger Tool to easily create them in bulk and for more info about each parameter.
Static Values: Static means it’s always the same, it’ll remain consistent. So a static value will always be a text.

So in the image example above, we always want the UTM Source to be google, the UTM Medium to be cpc, and the UTM Campaign to be trial.
Dynamic Values: Dynamic means it changes. The values here usually have squiggly brackets like {keyword} or {matchtype}, which tell Google Ads to populate that field dynamically.

For example, with {keyword}, the UTM Term will automatically insert the keyword that drove the click, giving you granular detail on the search behavior driving each visit.
Custom Parameters: These are parameters you can create that are not part of the UTM parameters, which are your standard ones.

You’ll probably want to use custom UTM parameters if you have some sort of advanced tracking setup.

Anything that is available in the URL, you can then set up with JavaScript the ability to pass the data from those parameters into hidden fields in your form, to then be able to route and track and do all sorts of things in your backend.

In the cheat sheet above, the ad_name parameter will give you details about which ad drove the visit.
‍

So this is a tracking template, and it’s really important as this is going to allow you to get a lot better data and ultimately, better insights from your activities.

How to Install a Tracking Template in Google Ads
‍

You can install a tracking template at the campaign, ad group, or ad level. You could even do it at the account level with the tracking script, but I recommend that you start off at the campaign level.

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Here are the steps you need to follow in your Google Ads account 👇

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Open your account, then open the campaigns tab and choose one campaign. Now go into the settings by clicking on this little gear.

Google Ads campaign dashboard showing navigation to campaigns, ad groups, and the status overview for tracking template setup.

‍Scroll down to additional settings.

Settings panel for a Google Ads campaign, guiding users to ‘Additional settings’ for configuring tracking templates.

Go to the Campaign URL options and paste your tracking template in the “Tracking Template” field.

Google Ads URL options page illustrating the input fields for tracking templates and custom parameters configuration.

Here you’ll want to follow the format from the cheat sheet I shared at the beginning of this article because that is the syntax of the tracking template.
‍

To be easier, you can copy this tracking template below and just add your static values in the highlighted fields:

{lpurl}?utm_source=entersource&utm_medium=entermedium&utm_campaign=entercampaign&utm_term={keyword}_{matchtype}&ad_name=enteradname

UTM Source: People usually use Google or AdWords.
UTM Medium: People usually put CPC or paid search. This 100% depends on you and your business, your company, and how you want to track things.
UTM Campaign: You can put the name of your campaign. The downside is that you have to do this for each campaign.
UTM Term: This will dynamically push the keyword that drove the click and the match type.
Ad_Name (custom parameter): This is 100% optional, and most of the clients from our agency don’t really need custom parameters, but I just want you to be aware of it.

Once you’ve mastered basic tracking, custom parameters can add another layer of insights by capturing non-standard data. For instance, if you want to differentiate ad variations, you could set a custom parameter like ad_name=RSA1.
‍

You can also find all the Value Track Parameters Google supports here:

List of ValueTrack parameters in Google Ads with detailed descriptions for effective tracking template customization.

I usually like to set my tracking templates at the campaign level, which suffices. So, in this case, each campaign must have a unique tracking template.

‍

Another cool thing about the tracking template is once you create the tracking template at the campaign level, you no longer have to worry about tagging your ads with UTM parameters at the ad level.

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It'll automatically inherit the campaign URL tracking template and tag your links appropriately.

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If you're just putting all of the tagged URLs at the ad level, it can be really problematic sometimes and time-consuming to make changes and miss things. This helps streamline things and push those dynamic parameters.

Benefits of Adding Tracking Templates to Your Campaigns

‍

Setting up tracking templates in Google Ads is a powerful way to automate link tagging and capture high-quality data.

‍

The better data we pass through our tracking template, the more insights we can receive.

‍

With standard UTMs, dynamic parameters, and custom fields, you’ll get a clear view of what’s driving performance and find better ways to allocate budget, optimize campaigns, and ultimately boost results. 🚀

‍

Why deny yourself incredible insights such as “which keywords drive the most revenue?..” when you can capture that information at no additional cost?

‍

That’s it about tracking templates! 🎉

‍

Now go build your first one and let the data guide your ad strategies! 🤓

‍

I hope you found this article useful!

From Clicks to Conversions: Master Google Ads for B2B 🔥

‍

If you want to become a Google Ads pro, check out our free B2B Google Ads courses, where you'll learn how to launch, optimize, and scale your campaigns to drive pipeline and revenue.

‍

B2B Google Ads 101-103 course by Silvio Perez, founder of AdConversion, featuring Google Ads strategies for businesses.

‍

Here's what you'll learn in each course:

‍

⚙️ B2B Google Ads 101 - How to Launch Dangerously Effective Campaigns for Beginners

The Googleverse: The Game You're Playing & How To Win
Measurement: How to Make Sure You're Profitable
Targeting: How to Show Up For the Right Searcher
Planning: Putting It All Together

‍

🎯 Google Ads 102 - How to Clicks Into Profit

Visibility: How To Find the Hole Sucking Profits
Workflows: How to Optimize On a Daily, Weekly, Monthly & Quarterly Basis
Experimentation: How to Test & Automate Profitability
Troubleshooting: How To Solve Inevitable Problems

‍

🚀 Google Ads 103 - How to Scale Google Ads For Advanced Advertisers

Methodology: How to Vertically Scale Google Ads From A-Z
Campaigns: Scaling Horizontally Through Campaign Themes
Channels: Scaling Outside of Paid Search

‍

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 😂)

‍

Google Ads

min Read

B2B Google Ads: How To Know If Google Is The Right Channel For Your SaaS

Silvio Perez

Read Article

Hey there B2B SaaS marketer! Are you getting FOMO around Google Ads?

‍

Every day thousands of SaaS businesses are converting clicks into profitable pipeline on Google Ads, and conversely thousands are burning clicks into wasted ad budgets.

‍

After $10M in Google Ads spend management for incredible SaaS companies like ActiveCampaign, Mixpanel, and others, I’ve developed a criteria for Google Ads success.

‍

I call it the Google Ads Sweet Spot. If you want Google to be a significant driver in your pipeline generation you need to make sure your SaaS company checks these 3 criteria.

‍

After reviewing, it’ll be clear if Google is right for you, let’s dive into it 👇

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Proven Concept
Existing Demand
Sufficient Margin
Master Google Ads for B2B

‍

Proven Concept

‍

The first criteria in the Google Ads Sweet Spot is a Proven Concept.

‍

You see, in order to succeed with Google Ads your product has to be built on a time-tested and proven concept.

‍

Imagine running Google ads for a generative AI product before the invention of ChatGPT.

‍

Because AI products still hadn’t gained popularity, you probably would have struggled to generate sufficient searches and clicks on your ads.

‍

If you create an innovative product in a new category that no one understands, you likely won’t see a great return on effort from Google.

‍

In this case, it’d make more sense to focus on educating the market about the problem you solve via demand gen channels such as paid and organic social.

Existing Demand

‍

The second criteria of the Google Ads Sweet Spot is Existing Demand.

‍

This is directly connected to the first criteria: you won’t generate pipeline or revenue if people aren’t actively looking for your solution.

‍

If you only have, for example, 100 people searching for your product every month, it’s going to be impossible to generate significant results from Google.

‍

For example, assuming the industry average conversion rate of 3%, and 5% clickthrough rate (CTR) you’re looking at 5 clicks from the 100 impressions, and you need a minimum of 33 clicks to generate a single lead. At 100 impressions/month it will take you six and a half months to generate ONE lead 🤯– extreme example but I hope you get the point.

‍

You need enough search volume, so you have enough clicks, and ultimately conversions.

‍

To verify that you have sufficient search volume, you can use the Google Ads keyword planner.

‍

Let’s say you want to bid on the term Google Ads courses within the United States. You can see that there are approximately 2,900 searches every month for this specific term, which validates that there’s sufficient search volume to have a chance at success.

‍

Google Ads keyword research for B2B SaaS course marketing, showing ‘Google Ads Courses’ with 2,900 monthly searches.

‍

Keep in mind monthly searches in the keyword planner are just an average and always changing – use them to inform your estimates but take them with a grain of salt.

Sufficient Margin

‍

The third criteria of the Google Ads Sweet Spot is Sufficient Margin.

‍

You SHOULD NOT run Google Ads if you don’t have enough margin, or in other words, a high enough lifetime value (LTV) to offset acquisition costs. Without a high enough LTV, Google will never become a profitable channel for your company.

‍

Here’s an example:

‍

Let’s say you have an LTV of $100 per user, and your average cost per click is $10. In this case, the likelihood of running profitable campaigns is slim – you’d have to convert 10% of your total traffic just to break even 😅 (when the industry average conv rate is 3-5%).

‍

If you’re selling a variety of products and you have a small budget (<$10K/month), I recommend running ads for the products with the highest lifetime value to maximize your chances of profitability.

‍

If your campaigns aren’t profitable right away, that’s okay, as long as you know you’ll recoup your investment 3-6 months down the line.

‍

If you want to see if the math adds up to run Google Ads profitably for your company, check out our free Google Ads Budget calculator.

‍

I hope you found this article helpful!

‍

Google Ads definitely is not for everyone but if your SaaS meets these three criteria your chances of success are far greater than not based on my experience.

‍

If you have any questions, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn.

‍From Clicks to Conversions: Master Google Ads for B2B 🔥

‍

If you want to become a Google Ads pro, check out our free B2B Google Ads courses, where you'll learn how to launch, optimize, and scale your campaigns to drive pipeline and revenue.

‍

Here's what you'll learn in each course:

⚙️ B2B Google Ads 101 - How to Launch Dangerously Effective Campaigns for Beginners

The Googleverse: The Game You're Playing & How To Win
Measurement: How to Make Sure You're Profitable
Targeting: How to Show Up For the Right Searcher
Planning: Putting It All Together

‍

🎯 Google Ads 102 - How to Clicks Into Profit

Visibility: How To Find the Hole Sucking Profits
Workflows: How to Optimize On a Daily, Weekly, Monthly & Quarterly Basis
Experimentation: How to Test & Automate Profitability
Troubleshooting: How To Solve Inevitable Problems

‍

🚀 Google Ads 103 - How to Scale Google Ads For Advanced Advertisers

Methodology: How to Vertically Scale Google Ads From A-Z
Campaigns: Scaling Horizontally Through Campaign Themes
Channels: Scaling Outside of Paid Search

‍

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 😂)

Learning from the Pros

min Read

10 Tips to Create B2B Ads that Convert

Joseph Hill

Read Article

If you want your ads to drive conversions, you need the right messaging, positioning, design, tone, format, offer, etc.

‍

This is especially true in B2B, where pushing prospects from initial awareness to conversion is extremely challenging.

‍

Below are my top 10 tips to maximize your chances of success, based on my own experience working with dozens of B2B clients.

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Tip #1: Figure out what you want to say
Tip #2: Don't use big words or acronyms
Tip #3: Make it quick
Tip #4: Use visuals that make your ad stand out
Tip #5: Create ads that don't look like ads
Tip #6: Steal from the greats
Tip #7: Use powerful hooks
Tip #8: Take up as much space as possible
Tip #9: Speak like a human
Tip #10: Stay in tune with what your customer wants

Tip #1: Figure out what you want to say

‍

This might sound obvious, but before creating any ad, you should get extremely clear on the problem your company solves.

‍

All of your messaging should come back to this problem.

‍

If you’re running case study ads, the case studies should be related to this problem.

‍

If you’re promoting a GIF of your product, the animation should help tell the story of how you solve that problem.

‍

As Eugene Schwartz said: The objective of advertising is to highlight a problem and demonstrate how you can solve it.

‍

Here’s a template I like using with my clients to clearly articulate the problems they solve.

`‍`Tip #2: Don’t use big words or acronyms

‍

The more simple you keep your ads, the better they’ll perform.

‍

There’s no need to drop in words like CAC, ROI, or ARPU into your copy. Acronyms are poo.

‍

Even if you’re talking about complex topics, aim to keep your explanation simple.

‍

Also, keep in mind, it’s impossible to explain everything about your company in a single ad.

‍

To fully understand what you do, a prospect might need to see 20, 30, or 40 different ads, highlighting what you do in different ways.

‍

Think of the ads in your cold layer as an icebreaker.

‍

The idea is to communicate the basics of what you do in a simple and interesting way – not to tell your entire story.

B2B LinkedIn ad for Ledge showcasing time saved on reconciliation through automation.

Here’s an ad we made at Revenu for a client, to do exactly that.

‍Tip #3: Make it quick

‍

Prospects should know exactly what they’re signing up for in 3 steps or less.

‍

We followed that formula for this ad we made for another client.

B2B LinkedIn Ad example for Zip promoting automated invoice processing to streamline finance workflows

With very few words, you can easily understand the benefits of the product.

‍

And if you’re thinking: There’s no way I could explain my offer in 3 steps or less… you need to simplify your process.

‍

When you truly understand your product story, it’s easy to simplify it. That’s where the first tip comes in.

‍Tip #4: Use visuals that make your ad stand out

‍

A picture is worth a thousand words.

‍

Ads that are filled with words don’t grab a users attention.

‍

Think about what you’re trying to say, and how you can visualise it.

‍

You can see how we did this for Scytale below.

‍

It’s a fairly typical advert, but the way it’s broken out visually makes it much easier to digest.

Scytale B2B LinkedIn ad example highlighting fast SOC 2 compliance with automation and expert support.

Pro tip: If you’re only using static image ads, try GIFs. Making something move makes people click it more… simples.

‍Tip #5: Create ads that don’t look like ads

‍

Want to triple your CTR? Make an advert that doesn’t look like an advert.

‍

Once you get a ton of clicks, you can then retarget them with more product-focused messaging, but they’ve now been introduced to your brand.

‍

To create these types of ads, think of the things that you do on a daily basis. For example, listening to Spotify, watching Netflix, playing chess or other online games, etc. How can you incorporate these everyday concepts into your ads, so that they feel natural and less promotional?

‍

Also, think of the memes that make you laugh while you’re scrolling through different social platforms. Can you create versions of these that are related to the problem your company solves?

‍

Here are a few examples we made for inspiration:

Scytale B2B LinkedIn ad example emphasizing quick ISO 27001 compliance with expert assistance.

Scytable B2B LinkedIn ad example offering SOC 2 compliance evaluation via AI-driven questions.

Northspyre B2B LinkedIn ad example featuring Excel automation for managing real estate projects.

P.S. If you want more examples, check out my Sexy Ads Library, which contains over 300 of my favorite ads.

‍Tip #6: Steal from the greats

‍

As Pablo Picasso once said, “Good artists copy, great artists steal.”

‍

Lately I’ve been diving into B2C ads to find inspiration for B2B, from companies like Porsche, Land Rover, McDonald’s, etc.

‍

It’s extremely hard to create amazing ads if you’re starting with a blank canvas.

‍

Here are a few great examples:

Volkswagen ad promoting the versatility and durability of the New Tiguan SUV.

DHL ad illustrating a shortcut for efficient logistics and shipping solutions.

P.S. I’ll be dropping a new library on my LinkedIn soon with tons of B2C examples, drop me a follow to be the first to see it.

‍Tip #7: Use powerful hooks

‍

To perform well, your ads need to have powerful hooks.

‍

In other words, you need to give your prospects a very specific reason to take action.

‍

Are you offering an incentive to take a meeting, such as a gift card, free lunch, or free coffee?

‍

Are you sharing a company resource, such as ad credits, a price promotion, or a software add-on?

‍

Are you providing knowledge, in the form of a consultation, an audit, a workshop, etc.?

‍

If you don’t give your prospects an obvious reason to take action, they probably won’t.

‍

P.S. The hooks with the highest conversion rates are typically ones related to your unique company knowledge and resources. Check out a great example from Google below…

Google Ads B2B campaign offering various ad credit promotions to attract new advertisers.

And this great visual from Cognism, making a joke about gift card ads.

Cognism B2B LinkedIn ad example offering 25 free leads instead of a traditional gift card incentive.

P.S. Don’t get discouraged if your offer isn’t working the first time around – most companies have to experiment with multiple approaches before they find one that works. And when you do, it’s your main driver of new business for the next 5 years.

‍Tip #8: Take up as much space as possible

‍

Ads that take up more space on the screen are more likely to stop the scroll, and typically perform better.

‍

On LinkedIn Ads, square images (1200X1200) usually perform much better than rectangular images (1200X628).

‍

Test vertical images (628X1200) that only appear on mobile too.

‍

This ad we made got a CTR in the 2%+ range on LinkedIn, with a CPC in the $3-6 range.

Scytale B2B LinkedIn ad example featuring a humorous meme about needing expert guidance for SOC 2 compliance.

This tip also applies to Google Ads. Make sure you’re using ad extensions to take up more space on the SERP and increase the chances of getting a click.

‍

P.S. If you’re curious about the ad specs you can use across different platforms, check out this comprehensive guide.

‍Tip #9: Speak like a human

‍

When you’re writing ads for social, make sure you don’t sound like a company.

‍

Be human – friendly, silly, colloquial, personable.

‍

You’re literally on a social media platform… be sociable.

‍

Influencers have all the power these days, because people want to hear from real individuals with a real personality.

‍

So if you want people to listen to you, you need to sound like a human.

‍

These ads we made follow that exact tone, and it’s much nicer to read.

B2B LinkedIn ad example by Scytale showing a Google search for easy and fast SOC 2 compliance solutions.

Ledge B2B LinkedIn ad example humorously listing things to ban in the office, including manual reconciliation.

P.S. Some companies have a more professional and corporate tone of voice, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be clear and straight to the point. There are ways of sounding human, without being cheeky.

‍Tip #10: Stay in tune with what your customer wants

‍

Even if you follow tips 1-9, you’ll still fail if your story is crap.

‍

The world is constantly changing. Over time, the problem you solve may stop being a problem. Or another company may solve it for a fraction of the cost.

‍

When these changes happen, you need to update your product and story in order to stay relevant.

‍

To verify that the problems you solve are important, talk to your customers and interview companies in your ICP that aren’t working with you.

‍

How much of a problem is XYZ to you?
Are you currently solving XYZ problem?
How are you solving it?
Be honest, would you use our product to solve it?
If not, why?
Do you use another company to solve this problem instead?
How much do you pay them?

‍

Asking these questions will help you verify that your product and story make sense.

‍

Pro tip: In addition to qualitative feedback from customer interviews, you can ask your G2 rep for an export of all your reviews and upload it into ChatGPT. Then, you can ask ChatGPT to identify the top pain points and benefits that are mentioned, which will help you further understand the problems your company solves.

‍

Hope you found this article helpful!

Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn with any questions.

‍Resources for mastering B2B advertising

If you’re serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.

‍Here’s 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:

✅ 100% free access.

✅ Taught by vetted industry experts.

✅ Have workbooks, resources, and templates.

✅ Less than 10 minutes per lesson.

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

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 😂)

Learning from the Pros

min Read

10 Tips to Align Your Content and Paid Media Strategy

Justin Simon

Read Article

Over the past decade, I’ve led content marketing for multiple B2B SaaS companies, and I’ve noticed a common problem:

‍

Content marketers and performance marketers rarely communicate.

‍

This leads to inconsistent targeting, positioning, and messaging, which ultimately leads to lackluster results.

‍

If you want to hit your revenue targets, your content and paid media strategies need to be part of the same equation, not completely separate entities.

‍

Below are my top 10 tips on how to get aligned with your content team.

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Tip #1: Don't Create "Ads"
Tip #2: Repurpose the content you already have
Tip #3: Use paid media to guarantee distribution
Tip #4: Have a clear POV
Tip #5: Make sure you have consistent messaging
Tip #6: Don't be afraid to be different
Tip #7: Leverage user-generated content
Tip #8: Share the right content for the right stage of the customer journey
Tip #9: Leverage retargeting
Tip #10: Be willing to adapt and change as you learn

Tip #1: Don’t Create “Ads”

‍

It’s easy to fall into the trap of researching the ads of your competitors and trying to mimic them. Or creating ads with a preconceived idea of what an ad should look like.

‍

But at this point, we’re all hardwired to scroll past the ads in our feed.

‍

Ironically, in order to stop the scroll, your ads have to blend in with other organic content.

‍

If you create great organic posts that are educational, memorable, and enjoyable, they’ll probably also perform well as ads.

Tip #2: Repurpose the content you already have

‍

Are there carousels, newsletters, or podcasts that have performed well for you in the past?

‍

Revisit this content.

‍

Why do you think it performed well? How can you remix it to extend its longevity?

‍

One caveat here: Just because something has performed well in the past doesn’t mean you should run it as an ad.

‍

For ads, I recommend repurposing the content that has performed well AND:

‍

Has a clear POV
Is consistent with your other content themes
Is related in some capacity to what your company does

‍

Otherwise, you may end up confusing your audience.

Tip #3: Use paid media to guarantee distribution

‍

We need to stop seeing paid media as something separate from content.

‍

Great ads are just incredible content with guaranteed distribution to the right people.

‍

If you’re running ads, make sure you’re constantly talking to the content marketers on your team to understand what’s working.

‍

What pieces of content are getting the most engagement, communicating important messages, or telling valuable stories?

‍

Is there an opportunity to put money behind this content?

‍

It’s hard to create winning ads if your team is working in silos.

Tip #4: Have a clear POV

‍

There are so many ads that feel and sound the same.

‍

Even if they're creative, they don’t feel different because they lack a unique POV.

‍

What’s the core idea that you want to communicate to your audience?

‍

How is your perspective or approach different from that of every other company?

‍

If you’re not communicating this, your audience will forget about you almost immediately.

‍

P.S. Don’t be afraid to have a slightly more controversial POV, as long as it makes sense for your brand. Sometimes, taking that risk is necessary in order to be memorable.

Tip #5: Make sure you have consistent messaging

‍

When it comes to messaging, you shouldn’t be throwing spaghetti at the wall.

‍

Instead, you should be repeating yourself constantly. Sharing your core message in different ways so that people can easily understand what you do.

‍

A lot of marketers are afraid of repeating themselves. But in order for you to be known, liked, and trusted at scale, repetition is essential.

‍

If you think of the brands that you trust, you’ve probably heard their core message millions of times, maybe without even realizing.

Tip #6: Don’t be afraid to be different

‍

In order to succeed, you need to be interesting, and do things that other companies aren’t doing.

‍

There’s so much noise these days.

‍

If you’re running ads, everybody else is.

‍

If you’re creating content, everybody else is.

‍

So, ask yourself, what can you do that’s different?

‍

Why should prospects pay attention to you instead of other companies in your space?

‍

Look at what everybody else is doing. Is there an opportunity for you to do the opposite?

‍

You have to be willing to take calculated risks in order to stand out.

Tip #7: Leverage user-generated content

‍

User-generated content is a powerful and underutilized tactic to build trust with your prospects.

‍

Do you have video testimonials or celebratory screenshots from your clients?

‍

This is great for both organic content and ads.

‍

Having testimonials from real people comes across as more authentic than the standard G2 reviews that everyone else uses.

‍

P.S. I know it can be nerve-wracking to ask for testimonials, but I’ve found that clients are usually happy to help – all you have to do is send a simple email or LinkedIn DM. And if you work at a larger org, you can talk to your customer advisory board, or ask your sales or CS team to make the ask.

Tip #8: Share the right content for the right stage of the customer journey

‍

A lot of companies make the mistake of promoting the same content to every single prospect, without considering what stage of the buyer’s journey they’re in.

‍

If someone’s already heard of your brand and interacted with your company multiple times, they’ll likely want to learn more about your product features, and may even be interested in a demo.

‍

But if someone has never heard of you before, they probably won’t be interested.

‍

If you’re targeting a completely cold audience, your priority should be to educate them about the problems you solve, not to generate conversions right away.

‍

The reality is – especially in B2B – the demos you get now are a product of the work you did 6 months ago.

‍

P.S. There are no shortcuts when it comes to building trust. Sure, you can use an intent provider and target people who are technically in-market, but typically, even those people need to see more content before requesting a demo.

Tip #9: Leverage retargeting

‍

By retargeting, I don’t mean offering a demo to every single person that has interacted with your brand.

‍

A lot of people in your retargeting audiences won’t be ready for a demo yet.

‍

But they might be interested in attending your event or joining your webinar. Or they might want to learn more about your product, hear from your thought leaders, see testimonials from similar companies, etc.

‍

What interactions have the people in your retargeting audience taken?

‍

Based on these actions, what type of content do you think they’d be most interested in seeing?

‍

It’s important to do this exercise to create a positive experience for your prospects.

‍

If all you do is offer demos they’ll get tired of you pretty quickly.

‍

Pro tip: Think of your retargeting audience as a newsletter that prospects didn’t opt into. Just like a newsletter, you need a mix of different content to grow the trust of your audience over time.

Tip #10: Be willing to adapt and change as you learn

‍

In both content and advertising, it’s important to create a strategy that’s firm but flexible.

‍

It’s great to have a general plan in place, but it shouldn’t be an immovable object.

‍

You have to be willing to adapt based on your audience’s response.

‍

Are there certain messages that are resonating more?

‍

Are there certain formats that are performing better?

‍

Are there certain audience segments that are expressing more interest in your product?

‍

Based on this feedback, you may have to modify your approach.

‍

Hope you found this article helpful!

Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn with any questions about content strategy or distribution.

‍

Resources for mastering B2B advertising

If you’re serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.

‍Here’s 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:

✅ 100% free access.

✅ Taught by vetted industry experts.

✅ Have workbooks, resources, and templates.

✅ Less than 10 minutes per lesson.

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

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 😂)

Learning from the Pros

min Read

10 Tips to Make LinkedIn Ads Work for B2B SaaS

Roman Krs

Read Article

Over the past few years, I’ve helped dozens of B2B SaaS companies develop their LinkedIn Ads strategy.

‍

Below, I’ll be sharing ten tips that I always give to my own clients, and that will significantly increase your chances of success with LinkedIn Ads 👇

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

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

‍

As a marketer, it can be challenging to fully understand your customers, especially since you’re not in direct contact with them.

‍

In order to gain a better understanding, it’s a great idea to watch 3-5 sales calls, recommended to you by the Head of Sales.

‍

Analyze how your sales team is presenting the product to make sure your messaging is aligned.

‍

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.

‍

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.

‍

Once you’ve 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 haven’t missed any important nuances.

Tip #2: Define Your Targeting

‍

Next, define your targeting.

‍

What job titles, job functions, industries, and company sizes do you want to target?

‍

Once you’ve drafted your audiences, you can share and refine with your stakeholders.

‍

To start out, you can use a simple targeting combination such as Job titles + Company Sizes + Industries.

‍

If your audience is too small using only job titles, you could substitute for Job Function + Seniority + Skills.

‍

A few additional notes:

‍

1. Make sure to check the audience insights section of LinkedIn Campaign Manager to find exclusions that you could potentially make. (video walkthrough)

‍

2. If you have multiple personas, make sure to separate them into different campaigns so you can tailor your messaging.

‍

3. There is no ideal audience size on LinkedIn Ads – 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.

‍

Recommendation: Use a validated company list for better targeting and reporting.

Tip #3: Distribute Your Content

‍

Once you’ve set up your audience, the next step is to distribute content towards them.

‍

I highly recommend optimizing your ads for in-feed consumption – talk about the problems you solve directly in your ad copy.

‍

This way, even if people don’t visit your landing page right away, they’ll still be learning about your company and can be retargeted later down the line with a more bottom of funnel offer.

‍

Videos are a particularly great format for delivering these in-feed messages, and they also allow you to generate large retargeting pools.

‍

When you run these ads, look at your impressions and views to make sure that you’re reaching your ICP. And check your engagement rate and dwell time metrics to ensure that the content is resonating.

‍

Don’t expect demos or trials right away – the goal of these ads is to start generating some initial interest.

Tip #4: Repurpose Your Content

‍

Do you have any great podcast or webinar clips related to your solution?

‍

Has anyone on your team created a product demo walkthrough recently?

‍

Do you have any customer testimonials from recent events?

‍

This type of content can be easily repurposed for ads, and is great for both generating and capturing demand.

‍

Before you start creating new content, look at the content that you already have.

Tip #5: Test Lead Gen alongside ungated content

‍

I know lead gen is an unpopular strategy, but it can be a great approach to run lead gen campaigns alongside ungated content.

‍

If you’re getting leads from incredible people within your ICP, you can show that to your stakeholders as proof that you’re reaching the right audience, and this can help you get approval to run more ungated content.

‍

I don’t 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.

Tip #6: Capture Demand With Retargeting

‍

On LinkedIn, lead gen forms aren’t just for content like ebooks and whitepapers.

‍

They’re also great for capturing demo requests.

‍

The benefit of using lead gen forms is that people don’t have to leave the LinkedIn platform to request a demo, so it helps to simplify the process.

‍

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.

‍

Also, when it comes to these demo campaigns, don’t be discouraged if you don’t see success right away.

‍

In order to succeed, you need to test different types of messaging, different content, and different creatives until you find the right formula.

‍

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 don’t refresh your creatives consistently.

Tip #7: Use Text and Spotlight Ads

‍

Text and spotlight ads are an amazing and affordable way to stay top of mind with your retargeting audiences.

‍

They’re very small and usually appear on the right side of the feed, and they get a ton of impressions but very few clicks.

‍

I recommend setting these ads up with the website visits objective, so that you only pay when someone actually clicks.

‍

Also, I recommend setting the lowest bid you can possibly set, along with a bid cap to avoid overpaying for clicks.

‍

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.

‍

You can use this template to draft the ad copy with ad specifications. You can also use dynamic macros in follower ads.

Tip #8: Leverage your SMEs for thought leader ads

‍

If you have a founder or subject matter expert that’s active on LinkedIn, consider running their posts as thought leader ads.

‍

Thought leader ads are great because:

‍

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

‍

Customer stories and educational content related to the problem you solve typically perform well as thought leader ads.

‍

I’d avoid overly promotional and generic, AI-generated content – you want to distribute content that’s memorable and valuable to your ICP.

‍

For more thought leader ad ideas, check out 14 Powerful LinkedIn Thought Leader Ad Strategies Worth Testing.

Tip #9: Set up the right tracking combination

‍

There is no perfect tracking combination, but you do have to make sure that you’re collecting enough data to understand what’s happening inside your account.

‍

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.

‍

Also, make sure you’re using UTM parameters — it’s much easier now because LinkedIn has dynamic UTM parameters — and pushing them into your CRM for full visibility.

‍

And add “How did you hear about us” into your high-intent forms to capture additional insights about the sources that indirectly influence the prospects.

‍

Just by having these basics in place, you should already have a solid understanding of what’s happening inside your account.

‍

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.

Tip #10: Make a commitment of at least 6 months

‍

If you’re going to get started with LinkedIn Ads, make sure you make a commitment of at least 6 months.

‍

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.

‍

How much money will you need to generate awareness within your cold layer?

‍

How will your retargeting audiences expand over time?

‍

What metrics will you look at to determine initial success? Maybe reach and engagement as leading indicators, and conversions as a lagging indicator?

‍

Present a clear plan to your stakeholders so that they know what to expect and are on the same page. Also, emphasize that success won’t happen overnight, and that it takes time and patience to start seeing results.

‍

Hope you found this article helpful!

‍

Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn with any ad-related questions.

‍

Resources for mastering B2B advertising

If you’re serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.

‍Here’s 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:

✅ 100% free access.

✅ Taught by vetted industry experts.

✅ Have workbooks, resources, and templates.

✅ Less than 10 minutes per lesson.

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

Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start levelling up your advertising skill set.

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Learning from the Pros

min Read

10 B2B SaaS Copywriting Tips for Better Ad Performance

Eden Bidani

Read Article

I don’t need to be the one to tell you this, but B2B tech companies have it hard when it comes to getting their advertising to perform.

‍

They’ve got complicated products. And sophisticated audiences (who are all but totally allergic to buzzwords and fluff). And together, they make communicating your company or product’s value super hard.

‍

Having helped countless B2B companies over the past 9 years I’ve learned more than a thing or two about writing copy for these companies.

‍

And today I’m sharing with you my top 10 copywriting tips – tips you can use right away (literally, try them out after you finish reading this) to evaluate your existing ad campaigns and improve their performance, stat.

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Tip #1: Sell The Click, Not The Product
Tip #2: Take Something Out Of Your Ad Instead Of Putting More In
Tip #3: Write First, Edit Later
Tip #4: Remember How People Interact With Ads
Tip #5: Use The Slippery Slope
Tip #6: Don’t Be Afraid to Try Long Copy
Tip #7: Try to Use Your Voice of Customer As Much As Possible
Tip #8: Clear Before Clever
Tip #9: Tie Benefits Back to Something Realistic
Tip #10: Make Sure Your Copy Passes the “So What” Test

‍

Tip #1: Sell The Click, Not The Product

The first tip is more of a mindset shift: remind yourself that your ad is selling the click, not the product (as a whole).

‍

Prospects don’t see your ad in isolation. They see it in the context of everything else that happens throughout their day, AND in the context of everything else they see on LinkedIn, Google, Facebook or whichever platform your ad is served to them. So unlike an ecom ad, the goal of your ad here is to build excitement and anticipation. You want your prospect to be inspired enough to click on the ad and go where they can learn more about what you have to offer.

‍

This still applies even if you’re providing a free trial, or something else that is free.

‍

Because if you have an average contract value of $50,000-$100,000/year your prospect is NOT going to click on your ad and buy right away.

‍

Instead focus on giving the prospect something – a tip, an idea, an emotional twinge – that will motivate them to click.

‍

This could be through:

‍

The messaging you use (make sure you’re talking about how you solve business problems, not just “hey our product is really cool”)
The type of call-to-action (CTA) (making sure it’s not too pushy for people who didn’t know you existed until now)
The visual in your ad creative (making sure it hits an emotional soft spot)

‍

Remember: You can always go into more depth on the landing page. But that won’t happen if your prospect doesn’t click through in the first place.

Tip #2: Take Something Out Of Your Ad Instead Of Putting More In

Focus on getting one really memorable takeaway across in your ad copy.

‍

Writing copy by committee is never a great strategy and it’s easy to end up with ads that are saying so many different things that the prospect won’t take away any one thing in particular.

‍

Let’s say your product’s main value propositions are: it’s fast, it’s easy to use, and it saves money.

‍

Instead of stuffing all of that information into the same ad, I would write 3 variations:

‍

Ad Variation 1: Fast
Ad Variation 2: Easy
Ad Variation 3: Saves Money

‍

Test each message separately so you can see which performs better AND so the prospect can remember your core value proposition.

‍

Pro tip: you can say the same message 1,000 different times or more by repurposing the way you communicate that message to the market through different creatives, ad types, and copy.

Tip #3: Write First, Edit Later

There are so many times when we sit down to try to write an ad and it’s really hard.

‍

First get all your thoughts, ideas, and concepts out in a document, then let it sit for a couple of hours, and finally go back to it with fresh eyes.

‍

If you just try to write it in one session it’s going to be messy and you’ll spend forever tweaking it.

‍

The idea is that you get to write a really stupid first draft. But you KNOW that it’s going to be bad. So that gives you the chance to get the bad ideas out to make way for the good stuff. Your goal is to come back later to edit and make it better.

‍

I’ve lost count of how many times my first line in the body copy becomes my headline or other parts of my copy shift places with each other because they’re better suited for a different part of the ad. But I’m only able to make these connections with fresh eyes.

‍

Pro tip: you can use ChatGPT for brainstorming but even still you need to let the copy sit. Give yourself time to process it so you can edit it and not just run with it at face value.

Tip #4: Remember How People Interact With Ads

Each element of your ad is a part of the puzzle.

‍

People will stop the scroll because the creative caught them. Then they'll look at the headline. Then they go up and read the body copy. And finally they go back down to the headline before clicking.

‍

The prospect's eyes are going all over the place which means you can’t afford to have copy that’s disjointed.

‍

The headline leads into the body copy and should support the creative. And the body copy should support the headline. All the elements have to work together.

‍

As Eugene Schwartz once said “copy is not written, it’s assembled".

‍

Treat each element of your ad with equal importance and make sure it makes sense when you look at it from the eyes of your prospect.

‍

stepping stones metaphor showing how users interact with your b2b saas ads from creative to click

‍

Pro tip: you can’t create ads in isolation, you need your designer and copywriter working together to ensure each variable in your ad works together (headline, body copy, creative).

Tip #5: Use The Slippery Slope

Your first line of copy should get the reader excited to read the second line. The second line should motivate the reader to read the third line. And so on. Direct marketer Joseph Sugarman calls this the “slippery slope”. It makes sure your ad is interesting to read and that the ideas inside it are easy to digest.

‍

The best way to check and test your messaging for clarity and word choice is to read it out loud.

‍

If you’re in the middle of a sentence and you paused for breath, you should place a period. That will help your sentences flow more naturally one into the other.

Tip #6: Don’t Be Afraid to Try Long Copy

I have a bone to pick with people who say “nobody reads online!” Because of course they don’t – if they don’t have something interesting to read.

‍

People binge on Netflix series, video games, novel trilogies, and more for hours in one go.

‍

When you have people's attention you can keep sharing with them new details. But you have to earn their attention, first. (Which won’t happen with clickbait.)

‍

What can you give them in your ad that will make them feel they got value from this interaction, no matter how fleeting it was?

Did they learn something new?
Did you make them feel something?
Did you make them think for a second?

If you can do at least one of those three things you’ll earn their attention.

‍

It’s hard to do this in 150 characters which is why long form copy is so powerful.

‍

Don’t be afraid to push up until that 600 character limit if needed.

‍

Long copy will also lead to a greater dwell time and provide so much more context and opportunity for you to build motivation so they have a reason to click through.

‍

The takeaway here is that people will read your long form ads if it’s interesting to them. But they won’t read even short copy if it’s terrible.

‍

Side note: When writing ad copy I create 2-3 variations for the headline and the body, usually testing out different lengths (short vs long).

‍

Here’s my simple but effective copywriting template I use in Google Docs:

‍

LinkedIn ads template | Eden Bidani

‍

Pro tip: it’s easy for ads to get stuck in the same creative loops, don’t forget to brainstorm new creative concepts to test.

Tip #7: Try to Use Your Voice of Customer As Much As Possible

If no one in the product marketing or CS team is interviewing your customers do this ASAP.

‍

Get on a call with them and ask them questions such as:

‍

How do you use the product?
What is the impact of your product?

‍

The goal here isn’t to get testimonials, it’s to understand how your customers talk.

‍

You’ll walk away knowing the benefits that matter to them and challenges.

‍

I’d also recommend talking with sales and asking them what are the top customer objections that prospects say and exactly how they describe it.

‍

Using the same words and language your customers use allows you to communicate in their voice.

‍

These insights are so powerful that not even ChatGPT can brainstorm this for you.

‍

For example I used to work with a company that created $700 work bags and I interviewed a customer that mentioned she used to carry around a “mom bag”.

‍

What did she mean by that? “A shapeless, old ugly bag.”

‍

That word “mom bag” is so unique and reflective of the voice of our customers that using that in our landing page copy instantly resonated and resulted in tremendous lifts in conversion rates.

‍

Five customer interviews can be all it takes.

Tip #8: Clear Before Clever

Jay Abraham once said sometimes the easiest way to sell a horse is to say “horse for sale”.

‍

You have a fleeting moment with your prospects engaging with your ads.

‍

So even if you have to use specific, complicated terms (for your sophisticated audience) you need to focus on making your copy as clear as possible.

‍

For example, try to simplify your language as much as possible. Yes, this might result in you using less voice of customer, or using a different brand tone of voice, and other elements of your messaging. But clear will always convert best.

‍

Consider the words you are using and find synonyms that imply the same meaning with less cognitive load.

‍

John Carlton refers to these as “power words” for example:

‍

Sometimes you want to say fast but you should be saying swift.

‍

Swift implies a very different connotation than fast.

‍

It’s a whole different level of sophistication above “fast” but it’s still a simple word.

‍

How would you say this same thing to a friend? Is a great frame to have.

‍

Remember to avoid complicated and overdone words like omnichannel 🤮

Tip #9: Tie Benefits Back to Something Realistic

Everyone LOVES to talk about benefits – think: “Grow your business!”, “Transform your workplace!", “Win more customers!”, or “Optimize your life…!” 🙄

‍

It’s not that it’s not true. They are. But they’re just so high-level and vague people struggle to grasp them. You need to tie them back to something tangible – something realistic that your prospects identify with. Otherwise, they just come off as fluff.

‍

So make sure the claims you make in your ads are specific. And even better, back up your claims by connecting them to a feature or capability of your product.

‍

Take the step to connect your benefits back to something realistic.

‍

Pro tip: even better than talking about how your benefits connect to something realistic, SHOW PROSPECTS HOW this happens with supporting images or videos.

Tip #10: Make Sure Your Copy Passes the “So What” Test

You should be totally skeptical about your copy (just like prospects will be).

‍

People aren’t stupid — even if they fall victim to clickbait they will bounce from your landing pages.

‍

Every time you look at your copy ask yourself so what? And pick it apart to see where it’s fluff.

‍

Sit back and look through to see where you’re missing proof points or what can be removed.

‍

You’ll be able to find all those tiny things that will throw people off reading your ads.

‍

At the end of the day your audience will look at the total sum of your ad (headline, body copy, creative) and if there are elements out of place such as:

‍

Run on sentences
Improper formatting
Typos and obvious errors

‍

All of these details will affect whether the audience feels they can trust you with their click.

‍

So what allows you a third person frame to find what looks off, and what can be stronger.

‍

Pro tip: search for free ad mockup software on Google to find tools you can use to see what your copy will look like to your audience within the platform you’re advertising.

‍

Hope you found this article helpful! 👏

‍Connect with me on LinkedIn and let’s keep the conversation going.

And if you’re in need of copywriting assistance check us out at CAPE Agency.

‍

Resources for mastering B2B advertising

If you’re serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.

‍Here’s 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:

✅ 100% free access.

✅ Taught by vetted industry experts.

✅ Have workbooks, resources, and templates.

✅ Less than 10 minutes per lesson.

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

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 😂)

LinkedIn Ads

min Read

How to Create LinkedIn Audiences that Convert

Soroush Karimian

Read Article

Sometimes, LinkedIn Ads fail due to poor creatives, messaging, or offers.

‍

But many times — and in my experience, most of the time — the problem is actually the audience.

‍

If you aren’t reaching your ICP, it’s almost impossible to drive conversions.

‍

After running LinkedIn Ads for many hypergrowth startups, I’ve developed a methodology to ensure that I’m getting in front of the right people and minimizing wasted spend for my clients.

‍

I’ll be breaking down my entire process below 👇

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Step 1: Define your ICP
Step 2: Brainstorm your targeting
Step 3: Draft your audiences in LinkedIn Campaign Manager
Step 4: Refine your audiences
Step 5: Adjust based on insights
Conclusion‍‍

`‍`‍Step 1: Define your ICP

‍

If you’re taking over a new account and don’t have any audiences yet, here’s where I recommend starting:

‍

1. Explore the website to get some initial ideas on the target job functions and industries of your personas.

‍

2. Talk to your clients. Are there certain industries, company sizes, job titles, or job functions that have historically driven more revenue?

‍

3. Listen to demo calls to gain a deeper understanding of a) what pain points their product solves and b) who resonates most with these pain points

‍Step 2: Brainstorm your targeting

‍

Once you have a strong understanding of your ICP, it’s time to look at the targeting options available within LinkedIn Ads.

‍

To do this, you can make a copy of this LinkedIn persona database sheet, which contains all the job titles and industries available within LinkedIn Campaign Manager.

‍

If you want to target IT professionals, for example, you can add the filter Text contains “Information Technology”, and you’ll find all 389 IT-related job titles that are available.

‍

Based on these results, you can determine exactly what job titles (or job function + seniority) you want to target.

‍

Also, by looking through the industries tab, you can define the industries you want to reach in your campaigns.

‍

Pro Tip: LinkedIn’s industry categorization can be a bit confusing. If you aren’t sure what industries you should be targeting, look up your best-fit customers on LinkedIn. What industries are they in? These are likely the ones you should be targeting.

Meme of Liam Neeson holding a phone with caption "You don't know who I am but I'm going to find your title and give you the solution to your problems," referencing precise LinkedIn Ads job title targeting

Step 3: Draft your audiences in LinkedIn Campaign Manager

‍

Once you have a solid understanding of your ICP and the job titles and industries you want to go after, you’re ready to go into LinkedIn Campaign Manager and create your audiences.

‍

Here’s how you do it:

‍

1. Navigate to the audiences tab, on the left hand side of LinkedIn Campaign Manager.

Screenshot of audiences tab in LinkedIn Campaign Manager

2. Go to “Saved”, and then click on “Create Audience”

Screenshot of create audience button under Saved Audiences in LinkedIn Campaign Manager

3. Click on “Edit” and input your targeting criteria.

Screenshot of a sample audience in LinkedIn Campaign Manager

4. Apply your targeting criteria (in the bottom right corner of your screen)

Screenshot highlighting how to apply changes to an audience in LinkedIn Campaign Manager

5. Save your audience so you can come back to it later. You can do this in the top right corner of your screen.

Screenshot explaining how to save an audience in LinkedIn Campaign Manager

‍

Here are the top 3 audiences that I’ve seen the most success with for capturing demand (feel free to steal or adapt to your company’s needs)

‍

1. Remarketing

90-day Website Visits + 90-day Video Views + 90-day Single Image Ad Interactions + 90-day Company Page Visitors + 90-day Content Lead Gen Form Submissions

AND

Target Locations

AND

Target Job Titles (Substitute for Job Function and Skills if audience is too small)

***Typically I like to go with a 90-day window, but you could go with a longer 180-day window if you have a longer sales cycle.

‍

2. Tier 1 & Tier 2 Accounts

Tier 1 & Tier 2 Account Lists

AND

Target Job Titles

AND

Target Company Size

AND

Target Locations

‍

3. Open opportunities

Companies in the open opportunity phase

AND

Target Job Titles

AND

Target Locations‍

Step 4: Refine your audiences

‍

Now that you’ve drafted your audience, you’re almost ready to launch, but not quite.

‍

Before going live, it’s important to refine your audiences by making exclusions.

‍

Otherwise, you’ll end up wasting money on irrelevant people.

‍

Here’s how you do it:

‍

1. Access the saved audience you already created

Screenshot explaining how to access your saved audiences in LinkedIn Campaign Manager

‍

2. Refine the Audience

‍

Look at the “Member” and “Company” sections of your audience for exclusion ideas.

‍

In the member tab, you can see what job titles, job functions, and seniorities you’re targeting.

‍

For example, if you’re aiming to target the IT job function and 21% of your audience consists of Engineering or Military, you might exclude these irrelevant functions.

Member Tab of Saved Audience in LinkedIn Campaign Manager

In the company tab, you can review what industries, company sizes, and companies you’re targeting.

‍

For example, if you’re aiming to target FinServ and realize that 13% of your audience is in Hospitals and Healthcare, you may want to exclude it from your targeting.

Company Tab of Saved Audience in LinkedIn Campaign Manager

Go through all available options in your saved audience and refine as much as possible.

‍

Once you’re happy with the exclusions you’ve made, you can add this audience to your campaigns.

‍

Here are the top exclusions that I typically make to avoid wasted spend (feel free to use as inspiration)

‍

1. Irrelevant Industries

2. Irrelevant job functions

3. Irrelevant seniorities

4. Up-to-date list of customers and competitors

5. Current employees

6. People who have visited the login or support pages

7. Poor fit titles (ie students, teachers, retired, interns, analysts)

8. Company sizes outside of ICP

9. People who have recently filled out demo forms

‍Step 5: Adjust based on insights

‍

After making exclusions and launching your campaigns, your work isn’t finished. In order to be successful with LinkedIn Ads, you need to continually check and adjust your targeting.

‍

To do this, make sure you look at your demographics report on a weekly basis.

‍

This can be found in the top right corner of LinkedIn Campaign Manager. To access it, simply select your campaign and click on “Demographics.”

How to access demographics report in LinkedIn Campaign Manager

Now, you’ll be able to see the job functions, job titles, companies, industries, seniorities, etc. that your campaigns are reaching.

Insights available in LinkedIn Campaign Manager Demographics Report

Company Industry Tab in LinkedIn Demographics Report

Job title tab in LinkedIn Demographics report

Look through all of these insights – are the people you’re reaching closely aligned with your intended targeting?

‍

Are there certain job titles, functions, companies, industries, etc. that you want to exclude?

‍

Doing this exercise may seem tedious or insignificant, but these small details are often the difference between success and failure. ‍

Conclusion

‍

To summarize, if you want to generate conversions on LinkedIn Ads:

‍

1. Make sure you get extremely clear on who you want to target.

‍

2. Consider testing proven targeting combinations, such as retargeting, tier 1 and tier 2 accounts, and open opportunities.

‍

3. Audit your audiences in LinkedIn Campaign Manager and make all the necessary exclusions to avoid wasted spend.

‍

4. After launch, consistently check your demographics report and adjust your audiences as needed.

‍

P.S. If you have any questions and would like to get in touch, feel free to send me a message on LinkedIn

‍Resources for mastering B2B advertising

If you’re serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.

Here's 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:

✅ 100% free access.

✅ Taught by vetted industry experts.

✅ Have workbooks, resources, and templates.

✅ Less than 10 minutes per lesson.

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

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 😂)

YouTube Ads

min Read

How to get LinkedIn-like Targeting with YouTube Ads for B2B

Silvio Perez

Read Article

LinkedIn has hands down the BEST targeting options available for B2B marketers.

Which leads most brands to only advertising on LinkedIn and not much else for social.

If you’re looking for a new channel to scale ABM and/or reach your ideal customer.

In this article you’ll learn 3 YouTube Ads targeting methods worth testing 👇

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Targeting option 1: Steal from LinkedIn
Targeting option 2: Leverage tech
Targeting option 3: Build custom audiences

Targeting option 1: Steal from LinkedIn

‍

Let’s face it LinkedIn is the BEST for account-based targeting.

The first-party company data they have is unmatched and updated regularly.

This is why 99% of B2B marketers are forced to advertise on LinkedIn.

‍

If you’re pushing a ton of site traffic from LinkedIn Ads and confident in your audience targeting.

Steal that LinkedIn Ads traffic by remarketing to them on YouTube! 🔥

‍

‍

google ads remarketing audience builder interface

Or whatever your utm_source is for your LinkedIn Ad campaigns.

You can also further filter by utm_campaign if the size is large enough.

This way you’re getting in front of the same users on YouTube for a fraction of the cost.

Targeting option 2: Leverage tech

‍

Google allows you to upload contact lists for audience targeting.

These lists can include; existing customers, sales qualified leads, leads in nurture and so much more.

‍

As long as your matched lists exceed 100 in size you can use it for targeting or exclusion on YouTube.

Depending on your CRM (ex: Salesforce, HubSpot) there are different technologies you can use to automatically import contact lists into Google Ads for targeting.

‍

Some of those tools include:

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Hubspot <> Google Ads Integration

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If you’re a Hubspot user you’re in luck!

HubSpot makes it really easy to upload dynamic audiences to Google Ads via integration.

hubspot audience builder interface, offering segments like website visitors, contact list, company list, and lookalike for B2B ads audiences on LinkedIn, Google Ads, YouTube Ads and Facebook Ads

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Salesforce <> Google Ads Integration

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If you’re using Salesforce this also can be done via direct integration with Google Ads.

Simply link the two tools together via the Data Manager in your account.

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Zapier

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Using a CRM that doesn’t have a direct integration with Google Ads?

If you’re in this bucket, I highly recommend exploring Zapier to automate your contact list uploads.

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Zapier will act as the bridge between your CRM and Google Ads, here’s an example of how we automated contact lists imports from ActiveCampaign:

automation flow on zapier linking activecampaign and google ads to sync new contacts with customer lists and create b2b audiences to use on YouTube Ads

Targeting option 3: Build custom audiences

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Fun fact! Google owns YouTube, arguably the second largest search engine in the world.

The amount of behavioural data Google has is incomprehensible 🤯

Lucky for us we can take advantage of it with custom audiences.

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Custom audiences allow you target based on:

What they searched on Google: reach the same Google searchers on YouTube for a fraction of the cost.
Interests or purchase intention: reach people based on relevant keyword interests or in-market behaviour.
Websites browsed: add URLs to reach people who visit similar sites.
Apps used: target users who use certain Google Play Store apps.

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Here’s 3 ways to use custom audiences for B2B targeting:

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Brand keywords of your target accounts

google ads custom segment creation interface using keywords like Zoominfo, gong, mutiny and metadata as an example of a B2B audience that can be used with YouTube Ads campaigns

Company page & LinkedIn page URLs of your target accounts

google ads custom segment creation interface using the websites of Zoominfo, gong, mutiny and metadata as an example of a B2B audience that can be used with YouTube Ads campaigns

Google Play Apps of your target accounts (if applicable)

google ads custom segment creation interface using apps like okta verify, microsoft teams and slack as an example of a B2B audience that can be used with YouTube Ads campaigns

You can also target high-intent solution keywords, and competitor names.

The opportunities are truly endless in terms of the types of keywords you can target.

Start as specific as you can and expand based on your reach.

Hope you found this article helpful!

‍

Resources for mastering B2B advertising

If you’re serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.

‍Here’s 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:

✅ 100% free access.

✅ Taught by vetted industry experts.

✅ Have workbooks, resources, and templates.

✅ Less than 10 minutes per lesson.

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

Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start leveling up your advertising skill set.

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‍

Learning from the Pros

min Read

10 Tips You Need to Know Before Hiring Your Next Ad Agency or Consultant

Bryttney Blanken

Read Article

Working with an advertising agency, freelancer, or consultant?

After the past 12 years working in-house I know what good and bad looks like.

In this article I’m going to share with you my hard lessons learned on working with these partners.

And if you’re an agency owner, freelancer, or consultant reading this (take notes!) 📝

These tips are bucketed into four parts: people, product, process, and results.

Let’s dive in!

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Tip #1: Be clear on your communication needs and expectations
Tip #2: Decide your meeting cadence
Tip #3: Get clear on who and what for your tools
Tip #4: Review your brand foundations
Tip #5: Make sure your extended team knows the audience targeting
Tip #6: Define your operational plumbing
Tip #7: Share your historical benchmarks
Tip #8: Be clear on your naming conventions
Tip #9: Have clear trackable goals
Tip #10: Set clear timelines and deliverables

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[process] Tip #1: Be clear on your communication needs and expectations

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You have to be upfront about this from the beginning.

Where and how often are the two key questions here:

Where will we be communicating? (ex: Slack)
How soon should you expect a response? (ex: within 24 hours)
How fast can I expect a certain task to be completed? (ex: 72 hours)

You need to tell your partners what you expect from them in terms of communication.

Steal this template:

This is equally as important for those of us managing clients as it allows you to more effectively prioritize your communications with clients and triage your day.

[process] Tip #2: Decide your meeting cadence

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This tip connects with the previous around framing expectations.

You have to get clear on how often you’re going to be meeting, is it weekly, bi-Weekly, monthly?

Communicate your expectations on how often you’ll meet and the options available.

By getting clear on your needs and how fast you want to get things done will allow you to answer this.

The best part about defined meeting cadences is that it allows you to hold people accountable.

It’s a forcing function that makes sure you’re getting what you need fast enough.

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My preferred meeting cadence:

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Within the first 6-weeks of working with a new agency or consultant you’ll want to ensure they are set up with:

Systems access
Clearly defined goals
Clarity on your ICP and audience

From here everything is addressed and you can move to a bi-weekly cadence.

Again this is my personal preference align according to your needs!

If you want some tips on how to run an effective meeting check out my LinkedIn post 🎉

[process] Tip #3: Get clear on who and what for your tools

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The last thing you want is for it to take four weeks for your agency to get plugged into your system.

Get your new partners access to your systems as fast as possible so they can begin adding value.

Build a document with a clear list of all the primary tools they’ll need access for and who to contact.

If the agency, consultant, or freelancer you’re onboarding already has clear documentation already on how you can provide them access to their primary tools this is a green flag! 🟢

If you can take the initiative to build an internal version of this document even better.

You know your marketing operations person's name, make sure they know as well.

The more people working together across teams the more important this becomes.

[product] Tip #4: Review your brand foundations

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Make sure your agency, freelancer, or consultant understands your brand.

Your brand foundations consists of:

What does your solution do?
What’s your unique value prop?
What’s your origin story?
Who are your competitors?
What’s your tone of voice?

Even better if your partners can sit in on a live demo (or at the minimum watch a recording).

If your partners don’t get sold on the unique value you provide they will never be able to make an impact with the campaigns they create for you (and red flag if they don’t want to know! 🔴).

[product] Tip #5: Make sure your extended team knows the audience targeting

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We touched on this on tip #4 but this is so important it deserves its own tip.

Audience targeting is the foundation of everything you’re going to be doing.

You need to be absolutely clear on:

Job titles
Job functions
Company size
Industries

Really, really, really hone in on this! 🙏

Make sure your extended teams knows this as well.

This is where your buyer persona comes into play, if you need help on how to craft one check out Module 2 of my B2B Advertising Foundations course where I show you how to piece it together.

Give them as much customer information as possible because they have to know this.

They need to know what good vs bad leads look like.

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Pro tip:

Automated Slack alert showcasing inbound lead details, emphasizing real-time notifications

[process] Tip #6: Define your operational plumbing

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You need to be specific on how things should be tracked.

The goal isn’t to just drive leads, it’s to scale legit qualified pipeline and revenue.

Work with your extended teams to map out your customer lifecycle operations.

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For example, they should be clear on:

Once someone fills out a form, now what?
How are leads being handed off to sales?
How is the team being notified on new leads?
How are they being followed up with?

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From here it’s piecing together the right UTM conventions for measurement, connecting forms in our marketing automation tools so be able to route appropriately.

Walk through all of these steps and the points in-between so things are tracked.

Take my word for it, defining this will save you a lot of headaches at the end of the quarter! 😅

[results] Tip #7: Share your historical benchmarks

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You need to first understand your historical benchmarks so you can share them.

Reverse engineer your funnel to understand your performance between steps.

This will look different for every company but here’s an example for sales led:

Meetings Booked
Meetings Completed
Opportunities
Pipeline
Revenue

Sales metrics funnel highlighting meetings booked, opportunities, and win rate, essential metrics to share with your new agency or consultant

Knowing the difference between steps is crucial to improve efficiency.

If your agency or consultant isn’t trying to reverse engineer your funnel that’s a red flag! 🔴

Share these historical benchmarks and hold them accountable.

[Process] Tip #8: Be clear on your naming conventions

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Your partners need to be able to jump inside your ad accounts and understand what’s happening.

The first step is making sure they are informed on your naming conventions.

Align on naming conventions for:

Forms
Campaigns
Creatives

And if you’re reading this and don’t have existing naming conventions, ask yourself:

What are the questions I’d like to answer from my campaigns?

For example, I want to know:

What’s my performance by region?
What’s my performance by campaign objective?
What’s my performance by ad?

Then use these answers to include them in your naming convention.

This is a really small in the weeds tactical step but worth sharing.

[results] Tip #9: Have clear trackable goals

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Determine the metrics that matter that your advertising partners should track and the frequency in which they should be reporting on these goals to you.

I personally like to report on these weekly to make sure everything is pacing appropriately.

This also allows you to pivot quickly when things start to go off track.

When determining the metrics that matter, also brainstorm your leading indicators.

Leading indicators are clear metrics that help you determine early signs of success.

For example, depending on your campaigns objective it might look a bit different:

Lead gen = qualified leads created
Awareness = engagement rate by ad type

Just choose something that can happen quickly within the first 7 days of a campaign going live and is a relevant milestone that will ultimately lead to your end goal.

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🟢 An early and specific goal is better than no goal at all.

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Without this clarity you or your partners won’t be able to prioritize what needs to be done.

If you’re struggling with deciding on your goals go back to tip #7 and understand your benchmarks.

[results] Tip #10: Set clear timelines and deliverables

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Defining the success metrics that matter and the roadmap to get there is CRUCIAL.

You have to be clear upfront timelines for both parties or it’s going to get squirrely 🐿😅

If it’s not defined upfront as you go things will go sideways.

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Communicate to your agency, consultant, or freelancer:

Here’s what we expect from month 1, 2, and so on…

You’re hiring these experts to come in and solve a specific problem.

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The goal is to hold your partner accountable to the outcome and not tasks.

This keeps you focused on the things that matter (ex: funnel optimization, benchmarks, goals).

I hope you found these 10 tips helpful and the best of luck in your future partnerships! ♥️

‍

Connect with me on LinkedIn, and let’s keep the conversation going.

You can also visit my website here for more valuable content.

‍

Resources for mastering B2B advertising

If you’re serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.

‍Here’s 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:

✅ 100% free access.

✅ Taught by vetted industry experts.

✅ Have workbooks, resources, and templates.

✅ Less than 10 minutes per lesson.

We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can: