A Masterclass in Running a Successful LinkedIn Ads Campaign

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to announce that AJ Wilcox , LinkedIn Ads extraordinaire, is guest starring on this week's edition of "Marketing with Meaning".

Why?

Because he’s about to break down exactly:

• Why LinkedIn Ads is such a powerful tool for B2B brands
• How the channel justifies its higher price point (per click) vs competitors

And, most importantly…

• What a successful LinkedIn Ads strategy actually looks like

… Far better than I ever could.

This is gold dust, everyone. Trust me.

Take it away, AJ!

First, a little bit of LinkedIn Ads history.

LinkedIn Ads have always been expensive per click.?

When they were first released back in 2008, LinkedIn set a floor of $2 per click, meaning that the lowest amount you could bid on their platform for traffic was $2.?

That sounds really good right now.

BUT – at the time – you could also get traffic from Google for <$1 per click and Facebook was practically giving away traffic for a fraction of $.01.

Since the click cost on LinkedIn has always been higher than other networks, naturally the average Cost per Conversion is also higher as well.??

In 2024, the cost per click on LinkedIn has risen to $10-16 per click, and it’s not uncommon for Meta advertisers to get B2B clicks in the $3-5 range.??

LinkedIn Ads is clearly an expensive channel, so you might be wondering:

Why would someone be willing to pay such a premium to advertise on LinkedIn??

There’s actually a very good reason.

To illustrate the point, I’ll share an example from one of our clients.?

They were heavy advertisers on Meta as well as LinkedIn. When we first started working with them, we looked at the performance of their Meta Ads and saw that their cost per click was about 1/3 on Meta compared to LinkedIn.??

With similar conversion rates between the two channels, we saw Costs per Conversion costing roughly 3X more on LinkedIn.?

If you were managing this budget, your natural reaction might be:

“Hey, let's move budget away from LinkedIn and over to Meta, where our cost per lead is 1/3 as much!”

And I wouldn’t blame you for this reaction.?

BUT, as we continued to monitor and measure performance, we noticed a significant X-factor here.??

Because Meta does not have the ability to understand who people are professionally, it was getting leads from prospects who were much less qualified.?

We talked to their sales team and they shared that they were disqualifying 85% of all Meta leads.

Meanwhile, they were only disqualifying 5% of the leads from LinkedIn.?

By looking at the bigger picture, the story changed quite a bit.?

Even though we were paying 3X more for LinkedIn traffic, we ended up with a Return on Investment? (ROI) that was 2X that of Meta! Phenomenal!?

Back to the original Q:

Why would someone be willing to pay such a premium to advertise on LinkedIn??

Well, the answer is quite simple.

Companies are willing to pay more for traffic on LinkedIn as long as it translates to higher-quality prospects throughout the whole sales process.?

We would not be willing to pay 3X more if the traffic weren't worth at least 3X more.

Cost Per Lead Performance

You may be advertising on LinkedIn, or considering it, and wondering what kinds of Costs Per Lead (CPLs)? you might expect. Let’s cover the benchmarks here so you know what to expect.?

There are many different definitions of “lead,” so I’ll break these into two camps:?

1. Content Lead – where someone fills out a form in order to access gated content 2. Sales Lead – where someone fills out a form in order to meet with someone?

(These stats relate to North America. If you’re advertising in other parts of the world, you’ll likely see costs being significantly less.)?

For Content Leads, we often see CPLs being in the $50-$120 range, but the really high-performing offers may get leads for under $20.?

Sales Leads are a different story.

We know that cold audiences are not willing to hop on a call with your sales rep (unless otherwise highly incentivised).??

Most advertisers who target a cold audience, driving to a sales conversion (demo, call, free trial, etc.),? will see conversion rates in the 0-1% range, resulting in CPLs in the $1,000 to $2,000 range.?

This is crazy, and I don't recommend this approach.

Instead, I recommend only showing sales-focused ads to warm or hot audiences, where conversion rates are naturally higher.?

When done properly, this can result in average CPLs between $150-$500, which is MUCH better.??

This, of course, requires that you either:

1. Already have warm audiences, or
2. You’re properly nurturing your cold audiences until they become warm.?

Warming Up Cold Audiences

Cold audiences become warm when they Know, Like, and Trust your brand.

The fastest ways I’ve seen to build that trust with cold audiences are:?

• Give really valuable education away for free.
• Don’t ask for anything from them until they’re warm.?
• Help them do their job better with tips/tricks/guides.
• Use personal video content to make a human connection much faster than the written word can.?

Thankfully, LinkedIn Ads has the best retargeting out there, so you can create audiences of those who’ve interacted with your helpful content, and then retarget them with different offers when they come back next.

Key Takeaway? Don’t Shortcut the Process?

If you try to shortcut the process (trying to force cold traffic into your sales funnel) LinkedIn Ads will?look very expensive, and you might think it won’t work.

But when you do it right by properly warming up cold traffic, and generating qualified leads from your warm traffic, then LinkedIn Ads may become your highest-performing channel!?

It does take time – and certainly takes a financial investment – to warm audiences up.

Make sure you dedicate 3-6 months for your LinkedIn Ads to show you what they’re capable of.?

Don’t give up. And reap the rewards.

Author: AJ Wilcox

AJ Wilcox is a LinkedIn Ads pro who founded B2Linked.com, THE LinkedIn Ads agency, in 2014. He's managed over $150M in spend on the platform, they're official LinkedIn partners, he's the host of the? LinkedIn Ads Show podcast, and he has managed 5 of the world’s top 10 LinkedIn Ads accounts. He's a ginger & triathlete. He lives in Utah, USA with his beautiful wife and 5 adorable kids, and his company car is a wicked-fast go-kart.

Enjoyed this newsletter?

Here are a few more newsletters you can check out:

• How to Sell to an Audience That Needs You, but Doesn't Want You
• The Brand Building Circuit
• Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing: A Thought Experiment

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Peace and Love ??