Learning from the Pros

If you’re a marketer with some paid media experience, you’ve likely heard the same LinkedIn Ads advice many times: disable audience expansion, turn off the LinkedIn audience network, use manual bidding, etc. 

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This is all great advice, but following it doesn’t guarantee success – as the LinkedIn Ads market becomes increasingly saturated, it takes a more advanced approach to be successful.

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Below, I’ll be sharing some less common strategies that my LinkedIn Ads agency has used to generate millions in revenue, and that you can implement to take your LinkedIn Ads performance to the next level.  

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Tip #1: Leverage the LinkedIn Insight Tag
• Tip #2: Implement a solid paid search strategy
• Tip #3: Review the intent of your search terms on Google
• Tip #4: Use video
• Tip #5: Communicate with your sales team
• Tip #6: Have a monthly and quarterly maintenance plan
• Tip #7: Experiment with organic content
• Tip #8: Use thought leader ads
• Tip #9: Leverage ad scheduling
• Tip #10: Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to connect with your ICP
• Conclusion

Tip #1: Leverage the LinkedIn Insight Tag

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This might sound silly, but I think it’s important to say it: Make sure you’re leveraging the LinkedIn Insight Tag to its full potential. 

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I’ve audited so many accounts where the insight tag isn’t installed and all the spend is going to cold audiences, and I’ve also seen accounts where the tag is installed, but the right audiences haven’t been set up. 

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As soon as you create your account, set up your 30, 90, and 180-day website visits remarketing audiences – these audiences are extremely high value and aren’t retroactive. 

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In other words, if you set them up 6 months after creating your account, you’ll miss out on 6 months of website traffic that you could retarget 😢

If you haven’t installed the insight tag already, check out this tutorial.

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And for a full breakdown of the remarketing audiences you can create in LinkedIn Campaign Manager, take a look at this comprehensive guide. 

Tip #2: Implement a solid paid search strategy

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One of the best ways to improve your LinkedIn Ads results is to implement a solid paid search strategy – this could be Google Ads, Bing, or another paid listing. 

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Although LinkedIn’s targeting capabilities are incredible, you’re typically reaching a colder audience that isn’t actively searching for your solution, and have to take them from unaware to aware before driving conversions, which means longer sales cycles. 

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Meanwhile, with paid search, you can target people who are looking for your exact solution or researching the pain points you solve and shopping for vendors/solutions. 

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By running search ads and then retargeting with LinkedIn Ads, you can stay in front of in-market, warm audiences that are already problem and brand-aware, and significantly shorten your sales cycle. You can even qualify this in-market search traffic by layering in LinkedIn’s demographic and firmographic targeting filters on top of your warm website traffic to only retarget high-fit prospects. 

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Pro tip: If you’re investing a lot of money in paid search (30K+/month), you might be able to create a custom LinkedIn Ads remarketing audience with the UTM source “paid_search”, or “cpc”, or “google”. This way, you’ll only retarget high-intent prospects who have already clicked on your search campaigns. 

Tip #3: Review the intent of your search terms on Google

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There’s no point in running search campaigns if you’re not getting in front of your ICP.

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If you’re a performance marketer working at an agency, make sure you communicate with in-house marketers to confirm you’re showing up for the right search terms – their feedback is essential, because they know their business and ICP better than you do. 

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To make things simple, send the team a search terms report bi-weekly or monthly, and ask for feedback on what to exclude. 

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By doing this, you’ll improve the quality of your Google Ads traffic, and also significantly improve the quality of your LinkedIn Ads remarketing audiences. 

Tip #4: Use video

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Video is one of the most impactful formats on LinkedIn, as it allows you to build trust, communicate your value, and showcase your personality more effectively than images. 

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If you work at a service-based company, you can steal the exact strategy I use at my agency:

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1. Target your cold audience with videos that clearly describe what you do and what problems you solve – these videos don’t have to be super exciting, but they do have to be relevant to the right audience and weed out people who aren’t in your ICP. 

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2. In remarketing, use clips of yourself speaking on well-known podcasts – this will help you build more credibility with your ICP and make them more likely to reach out. 

If you‘re selling a product instead of a service, run video ads showcasing how leaders in your industry use your product to solve their problems – this third-party validation is extremely powerful and has helped my SaaS clients generate millions in revenue over the past few years. 

Tip #5: Communicate with your sales team

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There’s no point in having great CPCs, CTRs, and CPLs if the sales team has no interest in working with your leads. 

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At minimum, I’d recommend meeting with your sales team once a month to go over your lead quality – these conversations will help you refine your targeting and exclusions, and minimize the amount of ad dollars being wasted. 

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In addition to this monthly check-in, you can go one step further and set up automated lead alerts in Slack (using Zapier). When these alerts come in, your sales team can react – thumbs up for a good lead and thumbs down for a bad one – and you can use these reactions to get real-time feedback and make quick pivots in targeting. 

Tip #6: Have a monthly and quarterly maintenance plan

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This might seem a bit boring, but it’s important to have a monthly and quarterly maintenance plan for your account – the same way you have a maintenance plan for your car or for your health. 

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For example, if you launched new video campaigns, did you create video view audiences and add them to your remarketing campaigns? Is your insight tag still active and picking up website traffic? Is your ad budget staying on LinkedIn and not being wasted on the LinkedIn audience network? Are your conversion events still functional, or do you have to update them due to changes in your website URLs? 

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Without these consistent checks, things can easily go awry and you can waste thousands or even millions of dollars. 

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Here’s the exact maintenance checklist that we use with our clients – feel free to make a copy and use it for your own accounts. 

Tip #7: Experiment with organic content

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If a piece of content performs well organically, it will most likely also perform well as an ad. 

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Use organic social media as a testing ground – test different pain points, messages, formats, and styles, on both personal accounts and your company page, and make note of what’s attracting meaningful DMs and high-quality leads. 

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Once your posts have received a solid amount of engagement, you can boost them to your ICP and turn them into evergreen assets that will continue to generate inbound leads with minimal effort. 

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By maximizing distribution via paid, you’ll improve your organic performance, and by testing new concepts via organic social, you’ll improve the ROI on your paid media efforts. 

Tip #8: Use thought leader ads

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Posts from thought leaders will consistently outperform ads from company pages. This is partially due to a mindset shift – when we post from our personal pages our reputation is on the line, so we try to be less promotional and more helpful. 

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That being said, even if you promote the same exact post from a company page vs a thought leader’s page, the thought leader ad will typically perform better – this confirms that the saying is true: people want to buy from people, not companies. 

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By running thought leader ads, you can expect to see: 

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1. Increased engagements, which will allow you to build your remarketing audiences more quickly

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2. An increase in LinkedIn DMs from qualified prospects

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3. A spike in organic search traffic

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4. An incremental lift in conversions (my agency saw a 15-20% increase)

Pro tip: Experiment with different types of thought leader ads (videos, images, text, custom graphics) and double down on whatever works best. 

Tip #9: Leverage ad scheduling

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LinkedIn Ads start running on UTC time (8 p.m. EST), which means that a lot of companies are spending their money at nighttime and run out of budget by 5 or 6 a.m. – this leads to poor performance, as prospects are typically not as receptive to ads at these hours. 

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With ad scheduling, you can ensure that your ads are showing up at the right times. 

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For my agency, I like to run ads from 5 a.m. to 2 p.m. EST, pause in the afternoons, and restart in the evenings. For you, this schedule might look a bit different, based on when your ICP is most active. 

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In addition to scheduling, it can also be interesting to experiment with ad rotation, especially if you’re a smaller company with limited budget. 

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For example, you could run 3 campaigns on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and 3 different campaigns on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. 

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Typically, to run 6 campaigns you’d need a budget of at least $60/day (due to LinkedIn’s $10/day per campaign minimum), but with ad rotation, you’d only need $30/day – in other words, your budget would go a longer way and you’d be able to reach more audiences. 

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Ad scheduling and rotation may not be necessary if you have a massive budget and are targeting a broad audience, but it can make a huge difference if you’re spending under $30K/month and want to make the most of your budget. 

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To get started with ad scheduling and ad rotation, you can use DemandSense, a tool that we developed at my agency.

Tip #10: Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to connect with your ICP

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If you’re experimenting with LinkedIn organic, paid, and thought leader ads, it’s a great idea to connect with your LinkedIn profile visitors to maximize the impact of your efforts. 

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Here’s exactly how you can do this:

1. Set up a filter in LinkedIn Sales Navigator for people who have visited your profile, aren’t connected with you (2nd or 3rd degree connections), and fit your ICP criteria (right company size + seniority level)

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2. Send connection requests to these people on a weekly basis – in my experience, it’s best to send blank connection requests to avoid coming across as a salesperson

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3. Once your connection request has been accepted, send a simple intro message such as: Hey X, saw you checked out my profile and thought it would be good to connect. If you ever have any questions about LinkedIn Ads or want to talk about B2B marketing, let me know. Here's the link to some resources that people commonly ask me for: [insert valuable link]

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With this approach, I typically see about a 60% acceptance rate, and I always get a lot of follow up questions, such as: Do you work for X company? Have you experienced X problem? 

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Plus, a lot of prospects end up visiting my company website, which means that I can stay in front of them for a longer period of time, since they get pulled into my LinkedIn remarketing audience. 

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Pro tip: You can start by doing this process manually with LinkedIn Sales Navigator, but you can also automate and simplify the process by using a tool like PhantomBuster. 

Conclusion

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Even if you’re doing everything right on LinkedIn – communicating with sales, using video, experimenting with organic social, amplifying your thought leadership, etc. – don’t expect to see tons of demos and opportunities right away. 

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Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and email are very transactional channels, but LinkedIn Ads are more similar to SEO – it takes time to see results but your efforts will pay dividends down the road. 

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Hope you found this article helpful!

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‍Feel free to reach out with any questions about LinkedIn Ads or paid media. 

Most B2B SaaS companies have a two-dimensional approach to paid media: prospecting campaigns to generate awareness, remarketing campaigns to capture demand. 

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This isn't necessarily wrong, but there are so many more possibilities, such as moving existing open deals faster to close – this is called pipeline acceleration.

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As a Demand Marketing Manager at Unmuted, I've helped my B2B SaaS clients drive revenue through pipeline acceleration.

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Here are my 10 tips on how to make this playbook work for you 👇

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Tip #1: Communicate the goal to your internal stakeholders
• Tip #2: Start targeting your open opportunities with LinkedIn Ads
• Tip #3: Tailor your messaging to different personas
• Tip #4: Measure the impact of your campaigns
• Tip #5: Don’t forget to exclude your customers
• Tip #6: Apply the same playbook to upsells and cross-sells
• Tip #7: Incorporate different channels into the mix
• Tip #8: Use thought leader ads
• Tip #9: Leverage signals to understand how deals are progressing
• Tip #10: Use insights from closed lost campaigns to tweak your strategy

Tip #1: Communicate the goal to your internal stakeholders

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Before running any pipeline acceleration campaigns, make sure your executive team understands that the goal is NOT to drive new opportunities, but to increase the rate (and speed) at which open opportunities turn into revenue. 

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This might seem basic, but without this alignment, your campaigns may be considered a failure and paused prematurely, even if they’re extremely successful. 

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Tip #2: Start targeting your open opportunities with LinkedIn Ads

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Once you have buy-in from internal stakeholders, I recommend getting started with LinkedIn Ads. 

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For your targeting, you can create a dynamic list of open opportunities in HubSpot and connect it to LinkedIn Campaign Manager. And if you’re using another CRM, such as Salesforce, you can send your open opportunities to LinkedIn Campaign Manager via Zapier. 

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On top of this company list of open opportunities, you’ll want to layer on job titles within your DMU (decision-making unit) – these are all the people that may be involved in sales conversations. 

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For example, if you’re selling an attribution tool, you might want to reach RevOps, Marketing, Sales, and Business Development job titles at your target accounts. 

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Marketing job titles (VP of Marketing, Head of Demand Gen, Chief Marketing Officer) will likely push the deal forward, but other departments will need to sign off in order for a purchase to be made. By building trust within all these key departments, you’ll increase the likelihood of a deal moving over the finish line. 

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Pro tip: If you don’t have a massive list of open opportunities, you may not be able to layer on job titles, as your audience size will be too small. If you run into this issue, try using job function targeting instead.

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Tip #3: Tailor your messaging to different personas

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If you have a large enough audience size to do so, consider creating different campaigns for each persona within your DMU (decision-making unit). For example: 

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Campaign 1: Open opportunity companies + Marketing job titles

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Campaign 2: Open opportunity companies + Finance job titles

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Campaign 3: Open opportunity companies + Sales job titles

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By separating these different personas into different campaigns, you can create messaging that’s more relevant to each department – marketing ads could focus on measurement, finance ads could focus on revenue, sales ads could focus on closing more deals, etc. 

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With more tailored messaging, your ads are more likely to resonate and leave an impression on different departments. 

Tip #4: Measure the impact of your campaigns

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Once your campaigns are live, you need a way to measure (and prove) that they’re working. 

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Here’s how I recommend doing it:

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1. When a deal closes, go to the Companies tab in LinkedIn Campaign Manager and see how many impressions (and engagements) the Closed Won company received. If you see a lot of impressions and engagements, it’s safe to assume that your ads played a role in the eventual conversion. 

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2. To take things up a level, consider using a tool like Fibbler, which sends ad impressions on a company level back into HubSpot – this will allow both your marketing and sales team to see how many ads companies saw before making a purchase. 

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3. If you have a larger budget, consider investing in a tool like Dreamdata or HockeyStack, which will provide more details on the incremental lift driven by your pipeline acceleration campaigns. 

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4. For a true A/B test, manually split your open opportunities into two different groups, and expose only one of them to the pipeline acceleration ads. Are the exposed companies closing faster and at a higher rate? 

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5. To further understand the impact of your campaigns, ask the POC of your new customers if they happened to see your ads, and if those ads influenced their decision in any capacity. 

Tip #5: Don’t forget to exclude your customers

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This is simple, but extremely important: Don’t forget to exclude new customers from your pipeline acceleration campaigns. 

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If your customers continue seeing ads from your company during their onboarding phase, you may end up annoying them, in addition to throwing money down the drain. 

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Making these exclusions is straightforward: when a company transitions from opportunity to closed won in HubSpot, they should be added to a new dynamic list of customers, which can be connected to LinkedIn Campaign Manager and added as an exclusion list in your pipeline acceleration campaigns. 

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If you’re using a different CRM, the process is similar, you’ll just have to make the connection through Zapier instead. 

Tip #6: Apply the same playbook to upsells and cross-sells

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Once this playbook is working well for pipeline acceleration, you can apply it (with a few modifications) to upsells and cross-sells. 

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For example, if you launch a new product, you could target a list of all your existing customers highlighting its capabilities, and outlining how it will enhance their existing workflows. Check out an example from ZoomInfo below: 

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The possibilities are endless once you understand the fundamentals of LinkedIn’s targeting – any lifecycle stage can be targeted with relevant content and offers. 

Tip #7: Incorporate different channels into the mix

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Once LinkedIn Ads are working well for you, consider adding other channels and strategies into the mix to create a sense of omnipresence. 

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For example, maybe you could test Meta or Reddit retargeting ads (depending on where your audience spends the most time). 

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It’s also a great idea to leverage LinkedIn organic, to expand your reach beyond paid ads. 

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Your Head of Sales, Chief Commercial Officer, members of your marketing team, and other employees who are consistently posting on LinkedIn can connect with people within the DMU (Decision-making unit) at your open opportunity companies – this way, they’ll be seeing content from your organization constantly, and you’ll be top of mind throughout the entire sales process. 

Tip #8: Use thought leader ads

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To maximize the impact of your ads, you ideally want your team to be posting relevant content on LinkedIn, and you can take things to the next level by running thought leader ads, boosting the top performing posts from your team members to your list of open opportunities. 

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For example, if your Head of Sales makes a post related to the capabilities of your product and it goes viral, you can put some ad spend behind this post, targeting all your open opps – this will serve as great social proof, reassuring members of the DMU that working with your company is the right decision. 

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The added benefit of thought leader ads is that they don’t look like ads at all, and typically drive more interest and engagement than standard company ads. 

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Here’s a good example from Sendoso:

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Tip #9: Leverage signals to understand how deals are progressing

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To understand how deals are progressing, take a look at the signals that are available to you. 

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Is a specific company seeing your ads a lot? Are they engaging frequently? Are they going a step further and visiting your website? (you can easily see this using a tool like Warmly, LeadInfo, or Leadfeeder)

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If you’re in the US and have access to person-level identification tools, you can even see some of the people that are visiting your site. For example, if the CFO, CMO, and CTO are all visiting your website, you can infer that the deal is progressing rapidly and chances of a purchase are high. 

Tip #10: Use insights from closed lost campaigns to tweak your strategy

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Keep a close eye on closed lost deals and look for recurring patterns. 

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Are you consistently losing on pricing, timing, or to a specific competitor? 

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This is great intel for messaging in future pipeline acceleration campaigns – if you can get ahead of potential objections, the likelihood of an opportunity closing is significantly greater. 

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For example, let’s say you’re reviewing a year of data and notice that you lost most of your deals to a specific competitor. 

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In your future pipeline acceleration campaigns, you might want to run competitive ads, highlighting the benefits of choosing your product. This might help prospects who are thinking of working with your competitor choose to work with your company instead.  

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Here’s a great example from Cognism: 

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Hope you found this article helpful!

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‍‍Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn with any questions about pipeline acceleration, paid media strategy, or B2B marketing. 

Over the past five years, I’ve helped B2B SaaS companies like Clickhouse, WildSparq and EventsAir drive millions in pipeline and revenue through SEO. 

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My lesser-known strategies have been featured by CXL, Ahrefs, The Marketing Millennials and more.

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Along the way, I’ve developed an SEO playbook that B2B SaaS companies can follow (step by step) to start seeing high quality inbound leads in a matter of months. 

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I’ll be breaking down my entire process below 👇

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Tip #1: Define Your Money Keywords
• Tip #2: Understand What's Already Ranking
• Tip #3: Build a Best-in-Class Page
• Tip #4: Nail the basics
• Tip #5: Build Quality Backlinks for $0
• Tip #6: Publish At Scale
• Tip #7: Design Pages That Convert
• Tip #8: Leverage sales calls, customer success calls, and customer research
• Tip #9: Keep Improving
• Tip #10: Scale as you grow

Tip #1: Define Your Money Keywords

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Most B2B SaaS companies see SEO as a checkbox on their to-do list. 

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The CMO or CRO says, “Competitors are outranking us, we need to do some SEO.”

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And marketers, who are already juggling a million different tasks, simply go to Semrush or Ahrefs, find some keywords with low difficulty and high search volume, throw them into ChatGPT, and publish a few articles. 

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Unsurprisingly, this doesn’t yield inbound leads and has minimal impact on revenue. 

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For SEO to actually drive results, you need to focus on the keywords that your dream clients are searching, or what I like to call “money keywords.”

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Here’s a matrix that you can use to identify them: 

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Column 1: Make a list of your main offers (ie calendar scheduling)

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Column 2: Make a list of the industries you serve best (ie sales, HR, marketing, etc.)

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‍Column 3: Make a list of your main competitors (ie Chili Piper, Calendly, HubSpot)

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Column 4: Make a list of the problems you solve, or jobs to be done (ie struggling to route leads efficiently)

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Now, you can use these columns to create high-intent long-tail keywords. For example: 

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1. Best calendar scheduling software

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2. Calendar scheduling for sales teams

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3. Chili Piper alternatives

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4. How to route leads more efficiently

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Keep in mind, these “money keywords” will probably have a low search volume, and that’s okay. At the end of the day, you want traffic that will convert into pipeline, not a large number of visitors outside of your ICP. 

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When you’re doing this exercise, make sure to involve your founder (if you’re a smaller founder-led company) or your sales team (if you’re a larger sales-led organization) – they’ll likely have great insights related to the problems you solve. 

Tip #2: Understand What’s Already Ranking 

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Now that you’ve identified those money keywords, type them into Google to see what type of content is already ranking organically. 

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For example, if you type in “Chili Piper alternatives” you’ll find that the top organic search results are something along the lines of “Top 10 Chili Piper alternatives to consider”, or what is commonly referred to as a product listicle. 

Look through these existing articles and think about what your company can do even better. Can you include a comparative table or social proof, and clearly demonstrate why you’re the best without sounding overly biased?

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Or, if you’re creating an article on how to speed up the lead routing process, look at the guides at the top of the SERP and think: 

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How can I create similar articles that are even more helpful? How can I demonstrate greater experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness?

Maybe it’s by going much more in-depth, or weaving in relevant videos, or highlighting screenshots of your product. 

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Pro tip: Don’t be afraid of highlighting your product throughout your articles. As marketers, we often worry about sounding too promotional, but the truth is, you need to show that your product is the obvious solution to a problem in order to drive revenue. 

Tip #3: Build a Best-in-Class Page 

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Once you’ve researched what top-ranking pages are doing, it’s time to figure out how to blow them out of the water. 

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If you’re creating a listicle, can you add better visuals, weave in your product more, or add relevant CTAs? 

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If it’s a how-to article, can you link to a lead magnet or a YouTube video with more helpful context? 

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If it’s a landing page, can you add a more comprehensive FAQ section that answers all of your prospect’s questions?

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Pro tip: Always consider where your prospect might be in their journey based on their search query. For a more top of funnel how-to article, you can include more subtle CTAs and connections to your product, while for a competitor comparison article, it makes more sense to include a clear demo request CTA. 

Tip #4: Nail the basics

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Technical SEO is important for e-commerce sites with thousands of pages, but most B2B SaaS websites (which are often 50 pages or less) don’t need a ton of technical SEO to win. 

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Sure, you still need the basics. 

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For example, let’s say you write an article related to the keyword “Best calendar scheduling software.”

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You’d want your slug to be “best-calendar-scheduling-software”; you’d want to include your keyword in your H1, meta title, and meta description; and you’d want to incorporate the keyword naturally throughout your article.

You’d also want good UX, a clear menu nav, solid design and UI on both mobile and PC, some internal links to relevant topics throughout your website, and some other pages linking back to your article. 

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That’s really all you need. 

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After you have these basics in place, focus on producing a high volume of content that’s relevant to your prospects, and don’t lose sleep over technical optimizations. 

Tip #5: Build Quality Backlinks for $0

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Even if you have the best content, ranking for your dream keywords isn’t easy, especially if your competitors have been around for decades and have extremely high domain authorities. 

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To compete against the giants and set yourself up for success, you need high quality backlinks to your website. 

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Here’s one of my favorite ways to get them:

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1. Go to Semrush or Ahrefs, whichever keyword research tool you prefer, and paste the LinkedIn profile URLs of your thought leaders (Founder or other execs) into the backlinks tab. 

2. In the results, you’ll find a list of all the articles featuring your thought leaders and linking out to their LinkedIn profiles. 

3. Message these companies and see if they can update the articles to link to your website, not just to the LinkedIn profile URL. Even better if you can get a backlink to one of your high-intent pages. 

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After doing this, you can go a step further and visit the podcast search engine Listen Notes, type in your niche (ie B2B ads, recruitment, sales enablement), filter by top podcasts in your space, and make a list on a Google sheet. 

Next, have your thought leaders reach out to the podcast hosts via LinkedIn. 

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The message can be short and simple, such as: Hey Sam, enjoyed your recent episode on X, had an unusual idea for your show. Are you against a conversation?

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From my experience, around 20% of hosts will respond, and your thought leaders will start getting featured on amazing podcasts, which will eventually lead to more backlinks to the company website. 

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Pro Tip: To start seeing results quickly, aim to send 5-10 messages per week to podcast hosts in your space. 

Tip #6: Publish At Scale

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With SEO, quality matters, but quantity is a massive competitive advantage. 

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Larger companies are spending a lot of money on ads, content marketing, and events, but they typically have a ton of red tape. 

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They may take two weeks to approve a topic, a month to plan out the content, a month for design, a month for web development, a month to publish… Which is to say, by the time they’ve published 2 or 3 pages, you could have published 30, 40, or 50 quality articles, and started stealing some of the market share. 

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To start seeing results, publish as much content as possible focused on your money keywords (occasionally weaving in more top of funnel content). 

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Also, remember, unless you’re a super authoritative company, it’ll usually take 2-3 months for Google to crawl your pages, so the content you publish today is setting you up for success 90 days from now. 

Tip #7: Design Pages That Convert

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If you’re investing a lot of money in content, make sure you also invest in great design. The better the user experience, the more likely you are to drive conversions. 

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Here are some questions to ask yourself:

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• Are your pages aesthetically pleasing?
• Is your content skimmable on both mobile and PC?
• Are you including screenshots, videos, or aha moments that relate to your product?
• Can you add more social proof (customer quotes, guides, walkthroughs) to increase trust?
• Are you sprinkling relevant CTAs throughout your content? 
• Can you add sticky CTAs that are aligned with the funnel stage of each article (ie subscribe to newsletter for more top of funnel articles, request a demo for more bottom of funnel content)?

These changes, which might seem small, can lead to massive improvements in performance. 

Tip #8: Leverage sales calls, customer success calls, and customer research

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You can rank pages using generic AI-generated content that says things like “turbocharge your revenue” or “10X your productivity,” but prospects will immediately bounce. 

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If you want them to stay on your page – and possibly even schedule a demo – you need to write in-depth content that resonates with their exact pain points. 

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Looking at customer research and listening to calls is a great starting point. Even better if you can take your sales and CS teams out to lunch, walk them through the topics you’re tackling in your content, ask for additional insights, and weave these insights into your articles. 

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This way, all the content you create will be amazing for sales enablement in addition to SEO. 

Tip #9: Keep Improving

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As I mentioned previously, to win with SEO, you need to publish content quickly – when it’s ready, not when it’s perfect. 

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That being said, you should always be looking for ways to improve the content you’ve already published. 

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About 2 or 3 months after publication, check how your article is ranking. 

‍

For example, let’s say you write an article, and after a few months it settles at position number 7. You could look at this article more closely, and think of ways to get it closer to number 1. 

‍

Could you add a more comprehensive FAQ section, embed a relevant YouTube video, add nicer images of your product, include more customer quotes, or earn a few high quality backlinks? 

‍

These consistent optimizations can go a long way if you want to move up in the rankings. 

Tip #10: Scale as you grow

‍

SEO isn’t something you can set and forget – even if you’re an established company, there’s always room for improvement. 

‍

Once you’ve implemented tips 1-9, think of ways you can scale your efforts even further. 

‍

Can you increase your article production by hiring more team members or working with freelancers? Or create incredible resources (such as custom tools) that will be highly valuable to your ICP?

‍

Also, don’t just think about SEO – after all, SEO is only a piece of the marketing ecosystem – think of ways to improve your ads, your YouTube channel, your podcast, your LinkedIn page, etc. 

‍

Improvements in all these areas will lead to greater brand awareness and trust, which will lead to more successful SEO. 

‍

Hope you found this article helpful!

‍

Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn with any questions, or check out the Breaking B2B website or Breaking B2B podcast for more unusual B2B/SaaS SEO insights.  

‍

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

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Takes < 90 seconds to sign up (seriously we timed it 😂)

‍

People Also Ask

‍

How can I effectively measure the ROI of my SEO efforts in a B2B SaaS context?

Utilize key performance indicators (KPIs) such as organic traffic growth, conversion rates, and customer acquisition costs. Implement tools like Google Analytics and CRM systems to track the journey from organic search to lead conversion and revenue generation.

‍

What are the best practices for conducting keyword research tailored to B2B SaaS audiences?

Focus on identifying high-intent keywords that align with your product’s solutions to specific business challenges. Consider the different stages of the buyer’s journey and develop content that addresses each phase, from awareness to decision-making.

‍

How can I optimize my website’s technical SEO to support scalable growth for a B2B SaaS company?

Ensure your website has a clean architecture with logical URL structures, fast load times, and is mobile-friendly. Regularly audit for issues like broken links or duplicate content, and implement structured data to enhance search engine understanding.

‍

What role does content marketing play in enhancing SEO for B2B SaaS, and how can I develop an effective content strategy?

Content marketing is pivotal in attracting and engaging your target audience. Develop a strategy that includes creating valuable, informative content such as blog posts, whitepapers, and case studies that address your audience’s pain points and demonstrate your expertise.

‍

How can I build high-quality backlinks to improve my B2B SaaS website’s domain authority and search rankings?

Engage in thought leadership by contributing guest posts to reputable industry publications. Develop shareable content assets like original research or infographics, and foster relationships with industry influencers to encourage natural backlinking.

‍

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. 

‍

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

‍

I’ll be sharing all my insights below 👇

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

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. 

‍

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

‍

The standard rules of marketing still apply. 

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

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

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. 

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

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? 

‍

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. 

‍

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. 

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

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. 

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

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. 

‍

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. 

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.

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

‍

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. 

‍

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

‍

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

‍

‍

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

‍

‍

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

‍

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)

‍

‍

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. 

‍

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? 

‍

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. 

‍

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. 

‍

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People Also Ask

‍

What are LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads?

LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads are sponsored posts that promote content from personal profiles, allowing companies to leverage the personal brand and credibility of their thought leaders to engage target audiences authentically. 

‍

How can I ensure my Thought Leader Ads align with my product?

Ensure that the content in your Thought Leader Ads connects back to your product or service, even subtly. While not every post needs a direct call-to-action, there should be a clear link between the content and what your company offers to maintain relevance and drive interest. 

‍

What type of content works best for Thought Leader Ads?

Content that offers unique, valuable insights or information that your target audience would find beneficial tends to perform well. Aim to create posts that people would be willing to pay for, as this indicates high value and relevance. 

‍

How should I optimize my LinkedIn profile for Thought Leader Ads?

Treat your LinkedIn profile like a landing page: use a banner image that explains your role, ensure your profile photo is professional, craft a headline that clearly states what you do, and utilize the ‘About’ section to detail your company’s mission and unique approach. 

‍

What metrics are important to track for Thought Leader Ads?

Monitor metrics such as impressions, engagement rates, click-through rates (CTR), and audience demographics to assess whether your content resonates with your target audience. Additionally, track website visits and self-reported attribution to understand the broader impact on your marketing funnel.

‍

‍

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. 

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.

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.

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:  

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:

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…

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

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.

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.

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.

‍

1. How much of a problem is XYZ to you?
2. Are you currently solving XYZ problem?
3. How are you solving it?
4. Be honest, would you use our product to solve it?
5. If not, why?
6. Do you use another company to solve this problem instead?
7. 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 😂)

‍

People Also Ask

‍

What are the key elements to consider when creating B2B ads that drive conversions?

Effective B2B ads require clear messaging that addresses the specific problem your company solves, simple language free of jargon, concise content, attention-grabbing visuals, and a human tone that resonates with your target audience. 

‍

How can I ensure my B2B ad stands out visually to capture attention?

Utilize compelling visuals that align with your message and consider incorporating movement, such as GIFs, to draw attention. Ads that don’t resemble traditional advertisements can also increase engagement by appearing more organic in users’ feeds. 

‍

Why is it important to avoid complex language and acronyms in B2B ads?

Using simple language ensures your message is easily understood, broadening your ad’s appeal and effectiveness. Avoiding industry jargon and acronyms prevents confusion and keeps the focus on the value your solution provides. 

‍

How can I create a compelling hook in my B2B ad to encourage action?

Offer clear incentives or unique value propositions that address your audience’s needs or pain points. This could include special offers, exclusive insights, or highlighting unique features that set your solution apart. 

‍

What role does understanding the customer’s problem play in crafting effective B2B ads?

A deep understanding of the customer’s problem allows you to tailor your messaging to demonstrate how your product or service provides a solution, making your ad more relevant and persuasive.

‍

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: 

‍

1. Has a clear POV
2. Is consistent with your other content themes
3. 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. 

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

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Is there an opportunity to put money behind this content? 

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

Tip #4: Have a clear POV

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

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

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

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

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

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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

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

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

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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. 

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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

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

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There’s so much noise these days. 

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If you’re running ads, everybody else is. 

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If you’re creating content, everybody else is. 

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

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

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

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

Tip #7: Leverage user-generated content

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

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

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This is great for both organic content and ads. 

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

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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

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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. 

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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. 

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

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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. 

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

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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

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

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

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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. 

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What interactions have the people in your retargeting audience taken? 

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

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

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

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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

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

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

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

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Are there certain messages that are resonating more? 

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Are there certain formats that are performing better? 

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

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

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Hope you found this article helpful!

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

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People Also Ask

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Why is it important to align content marketing with paid media efforts?

Aligning content marketing with paid media ensures consistent messaging, maximizes reach, and enhances engagement by delivering valuable content to the right audience at the right time. This synergy leads to more effective campaigns and better return on investment. 

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How can repurposing existing content benefit a paid media strategy?

Repurposing high-performing content, such as carousels, newsletters, or podcasts, extends its longevity and leverages proven engagement. By remixing successful content, you can maintain audience interest and ensure consistency across channels. 

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What role does having a clear point of view (POV) play in content and paid media alignment?

A distinct POV differentiates your brand and makes your messaging memorable. Communicating a unique perspective helps your audience understand how your approach stands out from competitors, fostering stronger connections and recall. 

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Why is consistent messaging crucial across content and paid media channels?

Consistent messaging reinforces brand identity and ensures that your audience receives a unified narrative, regardless of the platform. Repetition of core messages builds trust and aids in brand recognition, making your campaigns more effective. 

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How can leveraging user-generated content enhance a paid media strategy?

Incorporating user-generated content adds authenticity and social proof to your campaigns. It showcases real customer experiences, building trust and encouraging engagement from potential clients who see relatable success stories.

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