LinkedIn Ads Framework for B2B brands
It’s expensive. It’s inconvenient. “We tried it and we got no leads.”
Ah, Linkedin Ads, the indisputable King of B2B advertising.
After years of experimenting with Single Image ads and Video Ads, Messages, Conversations, and InMail(RIP), delivering results for Kongsberg, Autodesk, Microsoft, Adobe, and Akeneo we have established a formalized media framework for advertising on Linkedin.
Approach
Despite the popular approach of driving leads straight from Linkedin through buying traffic or lead generation forms, we have analyzed terabytes of data from our clients and we see that Linkedin offers a reverse bell curve of results.
It’s great for reaching the right segments of the audience in the right context and it’s good for converting activated, hot prospects. Everything in-between can serve a supporting role in the media day journey of your audience, but the best way to use linkedin is to drive awareness that leads people to search for more information about you, and then capture the generated demand from those who didn’t convert on your domain through search or other media channels.
Who should handle your Linkedin Ads?
You’re a CMO, marketing manager or a brand manager and you don’t have the time or expertise to manage LinkedIn Ads yourself. Not as a question, as a statement. You just don’t. There is a reason there are whole agencies and teams built around working on Linkedin Ads.
So the choice is who do you outsource to?
Freelancers - cheaper than a LinkedIn Ads agency, but it’s one person who has 10 other accounts to manage. Good if you’re limited with budget and have a one-off project.
Linkedin Agencies - you’re getting a full, dedicated team of experts who eat Linkedin for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. And that’s the problem - such a focus leads to myopia and requires the client to know exactly what they need to squeeze out of the platform and how it will impact the rest of the media mix. Impactable and B2Linked are kings of this.
Media Agencies - if you are not running just Linkedin Ads and need all the other channels, platforms, bells and whistles, like copywriting, graphic design, video creation, etc., then a media agency is your choice. Just like the big holding company agencies, based. offers omnichannel media planning and strategy, media buying, and data analytics services and has specialized partners that can help with creative. If you’ve got a healthy budget and want to play in the big league - media agency is the answer.
Now, when the pitches have been seen, choice of partner has been made, the agreement signed - how do you run Linkedin Ads profitably?
Soft Launches
No better way to test creative and messaging as in organic social. Soft launch your ads - especially videos, carousels, and animations, as organic posts and test the reception, recall, and engagement from your existing audience to inform strategic decisions going forward.
And don’t cheat - actually use organic posts from your Company Page or from your employees without sponsoring them.
Targeting: Existing LinkedIn Organic Audience
Content: Creatives and Copy from every other layer and campaign.
Formats: Videos, Carousels, Documents.
Bidding: No.
Goals: Test the waters and measure the reception of your creative for a couple of weeks before paid campaigns launch.
KPIs: Positive audience sentiment, engagement rate.
Frequency/Reach Layer
Here’s where Linkedin shines. No other platform and channel gives you such a laser-focused precision in reaching your audience and showing your message as many times as possible. If your creative is good, why not proudly show it more than once?
In this layer we work with a cold audience who are not asked to do anything except pay attention. And it’s easier to pay attention when just 1px of the ad is seen for 1ms and then disappears into oblivion.
Targeting: Company List OR Industry + Function + Seniority (optional). We’re going after the widest possible audience at this stage and aim to make them aware of your message, in relevant context, at appropriate time.
Content: Who you are. The answer can take a myriad of forms - through the product launch, through an employer branding video, pointing out the insight you have about the audience’s problem, making fun of competition, thought leadership from your brand’s leaders.
Formats: Videos, Single Image Ads, Text and Spotlight Ads (as support), Thought Leader Ads. Experiment with creative and variations as much as possible, testing all possible combinations and determine the winning creative to scale it up with extra budget and more precise audience targeting that increases the intensity of your campaigns.
Bidding: Manual CPM, with -15% of avg. Linkedin recommended bid.
Goals: Reach as many people as often as possible.
KPIs: Brand Lift (15-30% lift), Ad Recall (~30% lift), Reach (aim for 50% audience penetration), Frequency (3-10).
Activation Layer
The consideration stage doesn’t exist on Linkedin. When people are considering their purchasing decision they leave Linkedin and search on Google and Bing, they look up the topic on reddit, they ask on twitter, and they gauge the opinion of people they trust in their slack and discord communities.
But you can activate the audience that has been warmed up and aware of your message with an offer of a shortcut - offer them the on-domain content that they would be looking for in other places.
Targeting: 90-Day Retargeting List of warmed up audience from previous campaigns AND/OR Industry+Job Titles (+ Company List) targeting. Optionally use the second part as a filter to narrow the audience.
Content: Product/Service info, social proof, case studies, testimonials, product use videos, demos, etc.
Formats: Videos, Single Image Ads, Document Ads. Keep experimenting with creative and variations as much as possible, testing all possible combinations and determine the winning creative to scale it up with extra budget and more precise audience targeting that increases the intensity of your campaigns.
Bidding: Manual CPC, with -15% of avg. Linkedin recommended bid.
Goals: Get and keep their attention by reducing the number of steps people need to take to find it.
KPIs: Incremental Traffic Growth (+25-30%), Organic Traffic Growth (+15-30%), Nurture (Engaged Audience list with Scroll Depth, Pages Visited, Time-on-Page qualifiers)
Conversion Layer
The promised land of “Get a Demo”, “Free Trial”, “Get a Quote”, and “Book a Meeting”. We can use CTAs here and treat them seriously.
Conversion layer aims to capture demand from the audiences who haven’t converted through other means and channels or on-domain.
Targeting: 30-Day Retargeting of the Warm Audience
Content: Demo Videos, Client Testimonials, Limited Time Deals,
Formats: Videos, Single Image Ads, Document Ads. Keep experimenting with creative and variations as much as possible, testing all possible combinations and determine the winning creative to scale it up with extra budget and more precise audience targeting that increases the intensity of your campaigns.
Bidding: Manual CPC, with -15% of avg. Linkedin recommended bid or tCPA of max 50% of your CAC.
Goals: Dispell any doubts and confusion about the actions the audience needs to take and convert the demand you’ve generated so far. This is the bucket at the bottom of the funnel and it gets full rarely and empties quickly, never forget to refill it.
KPIs: Volume of Leads, Lead Velocity, CPL, CAC, LTV, ROAS.
If this all sounds like fun to you, good luck in setting up your first proper Linkedin Ads Campaign.
If you want someone else to do it for you - fill in the brief and we’d absolutely love the chance to get to work with you!