Insights 35: How to Fail at LinkedIn Ads

People often think LinkedIn ads will 3x their revenue.

And it can be done on $1k per month budget.?

I promise you:

It will NOT work!

Not if you don’t know who the intended audience is.

Not without segmentation, customer avatars.

Not without knowing exactly what sort of content will work - or what the ad should even say.

And definitely NOT without clear knowledge of your Total Addressable Market Size.

Take this down:?

Ads are the LAST piece of the marketing puzzle, NOT the first!

If you REALLY want to gamble $1000 on ads without first laying a FOUNDATION:

Go to the casino instead and waste your $1000 there - at least you’ll have fun!

So how do you build the foundation to support ads?

The first step is measuring your Total Addressable Market.

You need to know precisely:

How big is your TAM?

Do you have 600 potential buyers? Or 1 million?

The larger the audience size you want to reach, the more $$$ you need.

To find your ad TAM you need to use the LinkedIn ad platform, by inserting job titles, geographies, industries, business size into the tool - and it will spit out an estimated value of TAM - and that’s just the basics.

Want my team to find out exactly how big your total addressable market is?

Second step is content:

Start content by thinking about your customers’ hopes, dreams and FEARS.

What fear and hesitation do they feel when they contemplate engaging you, at different stages of the buying journey.

For example:

1.?What’s their fear in signing a contract and engaging you (bottom of funnel)?

2.?What’s their fear as they search for the service you provide (middle of funnel)?

3.?What’s their fear before they even know your solution exists (top of funnel)?

Even if you?know?all of that:

How are you going to?address?those concerns without being salesy?

The better you map out that customer journey - and your messaging in response to these fears- the greater the odds of success.

Need a primer on discovering those objections and answering them?????My podcast episode with Copywriting Expert Steven Lewis offers a quick recap ??

https://www.areyoub2b.com/podcast/landing-pages-that-land?

Once you know?how?and?where?to meet your customer, it’s time to build CREDIBILITY.

Because?Credibility + Visibility = Profitability!

Which is at the heart of what we do.

Credibility must be?created?- it?can’t?be bought!

That’s where content comes in.

You’ve probably heard the conventional wisdom that a customer requires 7 touchpoints before they’ll buy.

That’s the past!

7 touchpoints was valid in the OLD world, the world of outbound sales - when those touchpoints were phone calls.

But nobody has time for your phone calls anymore.

In the content marketing era, you need to generate A LOT more engagement before you pitch:

In 2022, a prospect needs to see 32 PIECES of content before they’ll give you their details in a form.

Amassing that content library can be a lot of work - no doubt about it.

But:

By tracking the engagement from each of those content pieces by using tools like?Hubspot?or?Dreamdata:

And by gradually building up a narrative around your business:

You’ll create a potent message which powers ALL your future marketing - not just LinkedIn ads, but also future promotions, sales presentations, product placements, you name it!

So how long should content creation take?

The whole process SHOULD take six months to a year - but remember:

This is an EVERGREEN funnel you’re building.

What takes a year to build will PAY OFF FOR TEN!

Does creating 32 pieces of content seem like a daunting task? ????How to 20x times more content??? this recent newsletter teaches you to turbo-charge your content production!

Next, set a realistic budget:

Remember I said a customer needs 32 touchpoints (minimum!) before buying?

Here’s how that comes into play with ads:

You might need to re-target your customer 32 TIMES before they’re ready to give their details!

If the keyword you’re targeting is $3 per click - and you want to touch 1000 people, thirty two times

You’d better be prepared to spend $96,000 or $16,000 per month.

($3/click x 1000 people x 32 touch points)

In that light, you can probably understand why we stress the need to?first nail your content and message BEFORE spending on ads!

Measure twice, cut once - and all of that!

And now: The ad itself!

So you’ve spent about 12 months climbing the content mountain.

You’ve micro targeted 1000 super-hungry business buyers - some with a white-hot need for your service.

You understand every possible objection - at every funnel stage.

You’ve created 32-54 absolutely sparkling pieces of content.

You’ve mapped out a journey to help retarget your audience to something fresh every time they bounce - and rest assured, they WILL bounce a few times before they stick!

You’ve set aside an appropriate budget.

And you’re ready to go!

Now what?

Make sure your ad inspires EMOTION:

Which emotion?

That’s up to you!

But here’s a?palette?you can use to narrow down your options:

If you’re selling an alarm system, you want to tap into the emotion of fear and helplessness that comes from being robbed.

Make prospects FEEL that emotion when they see your ad.

Then show how you guide them towards feelings of security and safety.

Apple definitely understand emotion. They're one of the most well loved brands.

They focus on evoking delight, surprise, love and connection with every product.

Recently they've also started tapping into the emotions of safety and security with their privacy protection features or this ad about their splash resistant phones.?

What’s the right emotion for your brand?

That depends on your brand and customer..

As you can see, the road to success with LinkedIn ads is a well planned one.

And smart companies will first create content, post organically, see success before evolving to ads.

If you want to fast-track the Linkedin ad process: let’s get on a call - and let’s get creative!

https://www.areyoub2b.com/linkedin-strategy-call

Peace, love and GROUNDWORK!

P.S.?there, if you want to learn all the secrets behind LinkedIn?join my exclusive #linkedin-secret-slack-group?where I drop all the trends, hacks & tips as I see it happening + much more.