If I had to boil down my entire job as a marketer into one sentence, it’d be this: I listen to customers and then build campaigns that sound like them. 
‍

Voice of customer (VOC) isn’t just a tactic. It’s the strategy. It’s the thing AI can’t fake, dashboards can’t predict, and competitors can’t steal. It’s also where all my best ideas come from.
‍

Here are 10 detailed ways I collect, activate, and scale the voice of a customer across everything I do.

‍

1. Start every new role by talking to customers. Relentlessly.

When I joined ContactMonkey, the very first thing I did wasn’t digging into attribution models or revamping landing pages. It was scheduling as many customer and prospect conversations as I could fit into my calendar. 
‍

I even made it part of my official 30-60-90 plan. 
‍

In those early weeks when your brain is still fresh and your to-do list is short, there’s nothing more valuable than hearing firsthand what people love, hate, and don’t understand about your product or category. 
‍

One of my favorite moves? 
‍

Posting on LinkedIn asking if anyone in my network is willing to get on a quick call. In this case, I posted asking if anyone in my network owns internal comms and would be willing to chat (our ICP at ContactMonkey). 
‍

I offered to buy them a coffee in exchange for a chat (no sales pitch). 
‍

I got 12+ responses. If you don’t have a network in your space yet, no problem.
‍

Shadow your CS or AM teams. Listen to support calls. It’s not about volume, it’s about patterns. 
‍

When I start hearing the same pain points and language again and again, that’s when I know I’ve struck gold.
‍

2. Replace vague promises with oddly specific customer results

Years ago at Chili Piper, we ran one of our most successful landing page tests using a stat pulled directly from a customer. 
‍

The control copy said “Double your meetings”. A nice round promise. The variation said “Book 48% more meetings”. Not as flashy, but 100% real results from a real customer. 
‍

And it crushed. Why? 
‍

Because people can smell BS. “Double” sounds too good to be true.
‍

But “48%” feels like someone actually ran the numbers. The same logic applied to our newsletter sign-up. We swapped “Join 15k+ marketers” for the actual number, like “14,889 marketers”, and updated it monthly. Way better engagement. 
‍

I’ve learned that authenticity beats hyperbole every single time. 
‍

Whether it’s landing pages, ads, or CTAs, I always ask: can I anchor this in a real result? If I can, that’s the copy I go with.
‍

3. Scale testimonial collection

Most marketers want more testimonials. But very few make it easy for customers to give them. 
‍

That’s where tools like testimonial.io come in. At Chili Piper, we used it to collect both video and text testimonials at scale.
‍

What I loved is that it wasn’t just a form. It created a nice-looking landing page where we could showcase quotes, filter by industry or persona, and make it dead simple for sales to grab proof on demand. 

We even layered in rewards: For example, $10 for a written review, $20 for a video. 
‍

It made the process feel fun, not transactional. If you don’t have the budget for a tool, you can still make this work with forms and folders. It just requires more manual work. 
‍

But either way, the key is removing friction. Make it easy, incentivize smartly, and watch the social proof roll in.
‍

4. Map the moments when asking for testimonials feels natural

I used to be hesitant about asking happy customers for quotes or reviews. It felt too much like asking someone who’s already paying us for more favors.
‍

Now I’ve learned that timing is everything and when you get it right, people are actually eager to help. 
‍

At Chili Piper (and coming soon to ContactMonkey!), we built simple workflows around high-NPS scores.

If someone gave us a 9 or 10, they’d get an email asking if they’d share a quick testimonial (with an incentive if we needed it). 
‍
Renewal time is another great moment. If the CSM is having a positive QBR, that’s your window.
‍

And if you have an in-app experience, even better. Prompt people when they’ve just hit a milestone or seen a big win. 
‍

These are the moments when they’re feeling the value and that’s when you should make the ask. Not months later in a generic email blast.
‍

5. Mine sales calls using Gong alerts

If your sales team uses Gong, Clari, or any call recording tool, you’re sitting on a goldmine of unfiltered customer language. 
‍

At Chili Piper, I set up custom alerts for keywords like “love this,” “so helpful,” or “amazing”. 
‍

Whenever a prospect or customer said something positive, I’d get an alert. Sometimes we’d clip those and turn them into ads. Other times we’d just use them for internal messaging work. 
‍

At ContactMonkey, I’ve taken it further. I created an alert for the word “chaos” because we were testing a new homepage copy around that theme. 
‍

Now I can see in real time if that word is spiking in conversations. It’s like a heartbeat monitor for customer sentiment. 
‍

Pro tip: Make sure your alerts only track customer speech, not your reps. Otherwise, you’ll get a lot of noise. This is one of the lowest-lift, highest-impact VOC tactics I’ve ever used.
‍

6. I always prioritize real photos over polished stock

In one of my previous companies, we ran a bunch of Facebook ads targeting college professors. We tested beautifully lit, high-production images.
‍

We even went to a local university campus and took our own photos. 
‍

But the creative that won? 
‍

A grainy, dimly lit shot of a real professor with a projector half-illuminating his face. It looked like a scene from a low-budget documentary and it worked like magic. 
‍

Why? 
‍

Because it was instantly recognizable to our audience. They saw themselves in that ad. That lesson stuck with me. 
‍

I now prioritize real customer images (with permission, of course) over generic visuals, especially on social platforms like LinkedIn.
‍

Even if the photo isn’t perfect, the context is. It builds trust faster than any stock model with a laptop ever could.
‍

7. Engineer VOC moments at in-person events

One of the most underrated ways to capture and activate the voice of a customer is through small, curated in-person dinners. 
‍

At Chili Piper, we’d pick anchor events, like INBOUND or SaaStr, and then build a dinner party around them. We invited a mix of customers and high-fit prospects. No pitch. Just dinner.
‍

But the magic was in the seating chart. 
‍

When a prospect ends up next to a customer, the VOC starts flowing naturally. It’s not a case study. It’s a conversation. And it’s way more persuasive than sitting them beside someone from your sales team. 
‍

These dinners don’t have to break the bank. We’d partner with other Martech brands targeting the same ICP, split the cost, and divide the invite list. We typically budgeted around $200 per head depending on the city (this can vary wildly). 
‍

But if you can’t swing a dinner? Start by gifting tickets to customers so they can attend the event. That alone builds goodwill and puts your brand top of mind.
‍

8. Create memorable, feel-good moments for customers 

One of my favorite VOC plays was when we ran a billboard that was not about us, but celebrating our customers. 
‍

People took selfies with it. It created a moment. 
‍

You can apply the same principle with award nominations, speaking opportunities, or simply amplifying your customers’ successes. 
‍

These aren’t transactional gestures. I don’t do them expecting a quote or post in return. I do them because they’re the right thing to do. 
‍

People remember how you made them feel. When you make your customers feel seen and valued, they’re more likely to become your advocates. 
‍

Reciprocity is real but only when it’s authentic. Whether it’s putting them on stage, giving them swag, or celebrating their wins, this kind of VOC is quiet but powerful.
‍

9. Recycle everything into retargeting gold

Once you start collecting VOC, don’t let it sit in Notion or your testimonial page. Use it. In your retargeting campaigns especially. 
‍

At Chili Piper we  ran video snippets from customer calls as YouTube pre-roll. We sliced a single testimonial video into six different LinkedIn ads. We even ran static image ads that are just screenshots of nice LinkedIn posts or tweets. 
‍

If someone says something amazing about you on LinkedIn, screenshot it and run it as an ad. That’s what I used to do before Thought Leader ads were even a thing. 
‍

Don’t worry about fancy production. Don’t wait until you have a full video library. Start with what you have.
‍

Voice of the customer doesn’t always need tons of polish. It needs visibility.
‍

10. Amplify customers with Thought Leader ads (yes, from their accounts)

This one is super meta, but wildly effective. 
‍

If a customer writes a post about your event, product, or company, don’t just repost it from your brand page. 
‍

With LinkedIn’s Thought Leader ad type, you can run their post as an ad from their account. It’s voice of customer, directly from the customer’s mouth. 
‍

Chili Piper is doing this with people who attended their ChiliPalooza event. They encouraged them to post their takeaways, then promoted those posts with paid. I haven’t tested it yet at ContactMonkey, but it’s high on my list. 
‍

It’s a modern version of influencer marketing, except the influencer is your actual user. Just make sure they’re comfortable with it, and always get consent. 
‍

Bonus: If you can’t run it as an ad, screenshot it and use it in your retargeting. It still works.
‍

The voice of the customer isn’t a box I check. It’s the lens I try to apply to everything I do, from homepage headlines to how I design event experiences. 
‍

Because at the end of the day, no copy I write will ever be more compelling than something a real customer says when they don’t know they’re being marketed to.
‍

That’s the voice that cuts through the noise.
‍

Hope you found this article helpful! 
‍

‍If you’re looking to pick up an advertising course, check out these free courses that will teach you how to launch, optimize, and scale ad campaigns effectively. 
‍

And if you have any questions about using the voice of the customer in your campaigns, feel free to send me a message on LinkedIn, I love connecting with fellow marketers!

One of the most overlooked but crucial aspects of running a successful Google Ads campaign is our naming conventions.
‍

I’ve worked with countless clients optimizing their ad performance, and I can tell you that this is the one thing that makes everything easier — or breaks everything.

‍

Why Naming Conventions Matter

A naming convention is the process I follow repeatedly when naming my campaigns.
‍

And from my experience, having a consistent and logical naming convention is essential for my organization and productivity when managing them. 

A messy campaign structure makes performance tracking, reporting, and optimization significantly harder.
‍

I feel like trying to find something in a cluttered room — wasting my time and effort. And it can be even worse.
‍

Think about this like sharing a room with a messy roommate. If everything is disorganized, I’ll struggle to find what I need, and so will anyone else trying to help me.  But if everything has a place, everything is easier to manage.
‍

A strong naming convention ensures that I, my team, and my tools can quickly understand and filter campaigns without unnecessary frustration.

‍

How to Structure a Naming Convention

Here’s my recommendation to create a naming convention that makes everything easier, based on tests on my campaigns:

‍

‍

• Region: Where the campaign is being targeted. For example, NA for North America, or EMEA for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
  ‍

• Campaign Theme: The general type of campaign. The five core themes are: Brand, Non-Brand, Competitive, RLSA, and Content.
  ‍

• Search Type: Identifies that this is a search campaign.
  ‍

• Language: The language of the campaign (EN for English, ES for Spanish, for example).
  ‍

• Match Type: The type of keyword match being used: Exact, Phrase, Broad, etc.
  ‍

• Device: The primary device targeting, generally All Devices, Desktop, or Mobile.
  ‍

‍

This structure allows us to quickly filter and analyze data in Excel, Google Ads, or any reporting tool.

‍

Examples of Naming Conventions

I came up with some examples of how to apply naming conventions to your campaigns:

A campaign targeting North America, focused on non-brand searches in English, using exact match keywords, and targeting all devices would be named: NA_NonBrand_Search_EN_Exact_AllDevices

‍

A campaign targeting Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, focused on content searches in English, using phrase match keywords, and targeting only mobile would be named: EMEA_Content_Search_EN_Phrase_Mobile

‍

A campaign that targets the Asia-Pacific region, focused on brand searches in English, using phrase match keywords, targeting desktops would be named: APAC_Brand_Search_EN_Phrase_Desktop

‍

A campaign targeting North America, focused on competitive searches in English, using phrase match keywords, targeting desktops would be named: NA_Competitive_Search_EN_Phrase_Desktop

‍

And finally, a campaign targeting Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, focused on RLSA searches in English, using broad match keywords, targeting all devices would be named: EMEA_RLSA_Search_EN_Broad_All-Devices

‍

Benefits of a Good Naming Convention

A well-structured naming convention helps in three major ways:

• Better Performance Tracking: With a clear naming structure, I can instantly see how different segments of my campaigns are performing. No need to dig into settings — everything is in the campaign name itself. This makes it much easier to analyze trends and optimize based on what’s working.
  ‍

• Efficient Team Collaboration: If multiple people are working on the account, a consistent naming convention ensures everyone understands what each campaign is for. When a new team member joins, they won’t have to waste hours figuring out the structure.
  ‍

• Faster Reporting & Filtering: When I export campaign data, a structured naming convention lets me quickly filter and sort campaigns based on region, keyword type, device, and more. This makes reporting significantly more efficient.

‍

Should we name our campaigns the same across platforms?

Absolutely!
‍

Naming our campaigns the same across all platforms helps us maintain consistency, simplify analysis, and easily compare performance across different channels when reporting on your overall campaign results.
‍

Please notice that slight platform-specific details might need to be added to the campaign name to account for unique targeting options or features on each platform, but as a whole, having consistent names allows us to easily group data and compare results without confusion.

‍

To sum up

A good naming convention costs you nothing — but the benefits are enormous.
‍

Get it right, and you’ll make everything in your Google Ads campaigns easier to manage, optimize, and scale.
‍

So don’t wait. Go set up your naming convention and start running smarter campaigns! 
‍

And  if you really want to level up your B2B advertising game, there’s more to master than just negative keywords.
‍

That’s where Google Ads course by AdConversion comes in.
‍

Join 5000+ B2B marketers who are sharpening their paid media skills inside AdConversion’s free, on-demand courses.
‍

Here’s why you should sign up:
‍

✅ 100% free access – No hidden fees, no fluff.
‍

✅ Taught by vetted industry experts – Learn from people who run high-budget B2B campaigns.
‍

✅ Workbooks, resources & templates – So you can implement, not just watch.
‍

✅ Bite-sized lessons (<10 min each) – Easy to fit into your schedule.
‍

Click here to join in under 90 seconds (seriously, we timed it 😂)

‍

I’ve spent a lot of time wrestling with tracking form submissions in Google Tag Manager (GTM), and I know how frustrating it can be when things just don’t work as expected. 

Forms behave in all sorts of unpredictable ways. Some refresh the page, some stay put, and others redirect users to a "Thank You" page. 

And because there’s no universal rule for how developers build forms, you and I need different tracking approaches depending on the situation.

And since chances are you’re using form submission to also track how your Google ad campaigns are converting, it becomes super critical for us to get this right. 

That’s why in this guide, I’ll break down the most effective ways to track form submissions, step by step, so you don’t have to figure it all out the hard way like I did.

‍

Understanding the Tag and Trigger Relationship in GTM

Before we dive into the methods, let’s quickly cover the basics. GTM relies on two key components:

• Tags: These send data to platforms like Google Analytics 4 (GA4).
  ‍
• Triggers: These tell GTM when to fire a tag.

To track form submissions properly, you need:

1. A GA4 event tag that sends a form submission event to GA4.
   
   
2. A trigger that detects when a form is successfully submitted.

‍

Step-by-Step: Creating a GA4 Event Tag

• Go to Tags in GTM and click New.
  
  

‍

• In Tag Configuration, select Google Analytics: GA4 Event.
  
  

‍

• In the Measurement ID field, insert your GA4 tracking ID (or use a Constant Variable if you’ve set one up).
  ‍
• In the Event Name field, enter "generate_lead" (this is a recommended GA4 event, but you can change it if needed).
  ‍
  

‍

• Leave the Triggering section empty for now. We’ll configure that next.
  ‍
• Click Save.

At this point, the tag exists but doesn’t do anything because there’s no trigger.
‍

Now, let’s set that up based on how your form behaves.

‍

Method 1: Track Form Submission Using GTM’s Built-in Form Submission Trigger

In an ideal world, GTM’s built-in Form Submission trigger would work for every form. 

But in my experience, it rarely does. This trigger only works if the form fires a native submit event, which many modern forms (especially AJAX-based ones) don’t.

‍

Step-by-Step: Configuring the Form Submission Trigger

‍

• In GTM, go to Variables > Configure and enable all Form Variables (Form ID, Form Classes, Form Target, Form Text, etc.).
  
  

‍

• Navigate to Triggers and create a new trigger:
  ‍
  
  • Choose Form Submission as the trigger type.
    
    
    
    

‍

• Check Wait for Tags and set a delay (e.g., 2000 milliseconds) to ensure tracking before the page redirects.
  ‍
• Enable Check Validation to ensure only valid submissions are tracked.
  ‍
• Under "Enable this trigger on…", set Page Path contains / so it works across the site.
  
  
  
  

‍

• Click Save.

‍

Assigning the Trigger to the GA4 Event Tag

1. Open the GA4 event tag.
   ‍
2. In the Triggering section, select the Form Submission trigger you just created.
   ‍
3. Click Save.
   ‍
4. Enable Preview Mode in GTM and test it by submitting a form.
   ‍
5. Check the GTM Debug Panel to see if a Form Submit event appears.
   ‍
   
   • If it appears, great! The trigger works.
     ‍
   • If it doesn’t, your form likely prevents the submit event. Move on to the next method.

‍

Method 2: Track Form Submissions via a "Thank You" Page

If your form redirects users to a confirmation page after submission, this is the easiest and most reliable tracking method.

The one mistake I see folks repeat often is they link to this thank you or add it in your sitemap.

The way this method works is it sends an event every time this page is loaded. 

So you want to double check to ensure that people don’t land on this page through other sources.

‍

Step-by-Step: Setting Up a Thank You Page Trigger

• In GTM, go to Triggers and create a new trigger.
  ‍
• Choose Page View as the trigger type.
  
  

‍

• Select Some Page Views and define the condition:
  ‍
  
  • If the URL is static (e.g., https://www.example.com/thank-you), set Page Path equals /thank-you.
    ‍
  • If the URL is dynamic, use Page URL contains thank-you (just make sure it’s unique).
    ‍

‍

• Name the trigger something clear (e.g., "Pageview – Form Submission").
  ‍
• Click Save.

‍

Assigning the Trigger to the GA4 Event Tag

1. Open the GA4 event tag.
   ‍
2. In the Triggering section, select the Thank You Page trigger.
   ‍
3. Click Save.
   ‍
4. Enable Preview Mode and test by submitting the form.
   ‍
5. Verify in GA4 Debug View that the event fires only when users reach the confirmation page.

‍

This method is foolproof as long as users can’t access the "Thank You" page without actually submitting the form.

Enhancing Tracking with Custom Parameters

If you have multiple forms on your website, tracking just a generic "form submission" event isn’t enough. 

You need to capture more details that help differentiate between each form submission, such as:
‍

• Form ID: A unique identifier assigned to each form, which can be extracted using GTM’s built-in variables.
  
  
• Form Name: Some forms may not have an explicit ID, but they may have a specific name attribute that can be tracked.
  
  
• Page URL: If each form is located on a unique page (e.g., /contact-us vs. /signup), capturing the URL will help differentiate where the submission occurred.
  
  
• Form Type: If you have multiple lead capture forms (e.g., demo request, newsletter signup, contact form), you can categorize submissions based on the form's purpose.

‍

Step-by-Step: Adding Custom Parameters to the GA4 Event Tag

‍

• Enable Form Variables: Go to Variables > Configure, and enable all Form Variables (Form ID, Form Classes, Form Target, Form Text, etc.).
  ‍
• Modify Your GA4 Event Tag:
  ‍
  
  • Open your GA4 event tag in GTM.
    ‍
  • In the Event Parameters section, click Add Row.
    ‍
  • Define custom parameters for form tracking:
    ‍
    
    • Parameter Name: form_id → Value: {{Form ID}}
      ‍
    • Parameter Name: form_name → Value: {{Form Name}}
      ‍
    • Parameter Name: page_path → Value: {{Page Path}}
      ‍
• Save and Test:
  
  • Enable Preview Mode in GTM.
    ‍
  • Submit different forms on your site and check if the correct form details appear in the GTM Debug Panel.
    ‍
  • If the values are being captured correctly, publish the changes.
    ‍

‍

If you want to use this data in GA4 reports, you’ll need to register it as a Custom Dimension:

• In GA4, go to Admin > Custom Definitions.
  
  

‍

• Click Create Custom Dimension.
  ‍
• Define each parameter:
  ‍
  
  1. Name: Form ID → Event Parameter: form_id → Scope: Event
     ‍
  2. Name: Form Name → Event Parameter: form_name → Scope: Event
     ‍
  3. Name: Page Path → Event Parameter: page_path → Scope: Event
     ‍

‍

• Click Save.

‍

By implementing this setup, you ensure that every form submission is attributed to the right form, providing clearer insights into form performance, lead quality, and conversion attribution.

‍

PRO TIP 💡

Form submission is just one step in the buyer’s journey.

To truly track and optimize for conversions, map the entire journey. Start from initial engagement to the final revenue event, and track each step.

By tracking and feeding all these data points back into ad networks, you help the algorithm prioritize high-intent users.

Here’s an example of how the buyer journey might look like:

Sales-led Company:

Product-led Company:

We covered how to set it up in detail in this free Google Ads course, which also walks you through full-funnel tracking and measurement strategies.

‍

Conclusion

The right tracking method depends on how your form behaves:
‍

• Use the Form Submission trigger if GTM’s listener detects the event.
  ‍
• Use the Thank You page method if the form redirects after submission.
  ‍
• Use click tracking for AJAX-based forms.

Test everything thoroughly in Preview Mode to ensure you’re capturing data correctly. 

I’ve been through enough form tracking struggles to know that what works on one site may completely fail on another. 

Hopefully, this guide saves you a lot of time and frustration!

If you’re looking to see what the paid media marketing pros are up to, you should come and hang with them in the community.

The community is where you can ask the questions you wouldn’t post on LinkedIn and get insights that you wouldn’t find on Google.

You get access to:
‍

• Weekly experiments with real data: No guesswork, just tested strategies from real campaigns. 
  ‍
• Templates & playbooks: Proven frameworks to streamline our processes and improve efficiency. 
  ‍
• Masterminds & expert discussions: Stay ahead of strategies, tactics, and ad platform changes instead of reacting late. 
  ‍
• Benchmarking against top B2B advertisers: Learn what’s working for others running high-budget campaigns.

‍

Come, sign up and see what the pros are talking about in the community. It takes less than a minute to sign up.

‍

I see a lot of companies completely overcomplicate ABM on LinkedIn. 

Some think they need an expensive ABM platform just to get started. Others assume that simply uploading an account list and running ads will magically drive pipeline. 

Neither approach works.

I’ve tested LinkedIn Ads for ABM across different industries, budgets, and company sizes, and I’ve seen what actually moves the needle. The key isn’t just running ads. It's getting the fundamentals right and making sure ads, targeting, and sales outreach all work together.

In this post, I’m breaking down 10 practical, no-BS strategies I use to make ABM campaigns on LinkedIn drive real results. If you’re tired of wasted budget and low engagement, this is for you.

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Tip 1: Your Account List is the Foundation. Get It Right
• Tip 2: Upload a Company List, Not a Contact List
• Tip 3: Monitor and Manage Ad Frequency
• Tip 4: Cap Impressions Using LinkedIn’s Company Feature
• Tip 5: Test One-to-One ABM Ads (But Avoid Germany)
• Tip 6: Use LinkedIn Ad Engagement as a Sales Trigger
• Tip 7: Split Campaigns by Employee Size
• Tip 8: Create ABM-Specific Remarketing Lists
• Tip 9: Don’t Sleep on Exclusions
• Tip 10: LinkedIn Ads Are Just One Part of ABM

‍

‍

Tip 1: Your Account List is the Foundation. Get It Right

The account list is the backbone of any ABM campaign.

If your account list is wrong, everything else will fail. Your targeting, your engagement, your pipeline.

A lot of companies just pull a list from a data provider using filters like industry, employee size, and technology stack and assume it’s good to go. But here’s the issue:

• Data providers are never 100% accurate. I’ve used ten different data providers, and they all have their problems.
  
  
• You’ll end up with bad data. You might export 5,000 accounts, but not all of them are actually relevant.

How to Build a Better Account List
‍

1. Work with sales. Most companies create their ABM list in a vacuum and don’t loop in sales. That’s a mistake.
   
   
2. Look at past closed-won deals. If you’re just pulling a list of the biggest logos you can think of (Nike, Google, Microsoft) you’re probably missing accounts that actually convert.
   
   
3. Check the late-stage pipeline. What do these accounts have in common?
   
   
4. Ensure coverage. What accounts are missing? Just because a sales rep Slack-ed over a few high-profile accounts doesn’t mean they’re the only accounts worth targeting.

A well-built account list makes every impression valuable. If your impression itself isn’t worth anything, your list is wrong.
‍

‍

Tip 2: Upload a Company List, Not a Contact List

Once you have a strong account list, the next step is uploading it to LinkedIn Ads.

This is where a lot of folks make a critical mistake. They upload a contact list instead of a company list.

‍

Why Contact Lists Are a Bad Idea

• Low match rates: You’ll be lucky to get 30-70% of your contacts matched in LinkedIn.
  
  
• People change jobs constantly: Your contact list gets stale fast. People get promoted, leave, or switch roles.
  
  
• You’ll miss key decision-makers: If someone new joins a company in the target role, they won’t be in your contact list.

‍

Why Company Lists Work Better

• Match rates are 95-100%: LinkedIn recognizes companies better than individual contacts.
  
  
• Dynamic audience updates: If someone gets promoted or a new decision-maker joins the company, they’ll automatically be included.
  
  
• More precise targeting: You can layer on job titles, seniority, and functions to ensure you’re reaching the right people within those accounts.

If you only upload a contact list, you’ll have to constantly update it. That’s an operational nightmare.

If you upload a company list and use job title filters, LinkedIn does the updating for you. Plus, you get better match rates.

‍

‍

Tip 3: Monitor and Manage Ad Frequency

Since ABM campaigns target smaller audiences, ad frequency can get out of control fast if you’re not careful.

If people see the same ad 40 times in a month, they won’t just ignore you, they’ll actively resent your brand.

I always check my frequency metrics and aim for around three impressions per week per person.

If my frequency goes beyond that, I rotate in new creatives.

‍

How to Manage Frequency

• If an ad is performing well, keep it running until engagement drops.
  
  
• If performance starts declining, pause it and swap in a new version.
  
  
• Small tweaks work. You don’t need an entirely new creative. Sometimes just changing the headline, background color, or image is enough to reset engagement.

A good ABM strategy requires constant creative refreshes.

If you don’t monitor frequency, you’re going to annoy your target accounts instead of influencing them.

‍

‍

Tip 4: Cap Impressions Using LinkedIn’s Company Feature

One of the biggest budget-wasters in LinkedIn ABM campaigns is uneven ad distribution.

Let’s say you’re targeting 500 companies. If Amazon is on that list, Amazon employees alone might eat up 50% of your budget. Why? Because Amazon has more employees in your target roles than smaller companies.

‍

How to Fix This

LinkedIn has a Company Engagement Feature that lets you cap impressions per company.

• Create dynamic exclusion lists for companies that have received 500+ impressions in the past 7 days.
  
  
• Once a company hits that limit, it gets automatically excluded, forcing LinkedIn to spread the budget to other accounts.

‍

How to Adjust Your Cap

• If none of the companies hit the cap → Lower the threshold (e.g., 300 impressions).
  
  
• If too many companies are excluded → Raise the cap (e.g., 700 impressions).

This simple tweak ensures that no single company dominates your budget, and every account on your list gets a fair share of impressions.

‍

‍

Tip 5: Test One-to-One ABM Ads (But Avoid Germany)

I’ve been testing one-to-one ABM ads for a while now, and the results have been insane.

A standard LinkedIn image ad usually gets a 0.5% to 1% click-through rate.

But when I run personalized one-to-one ABM ads, I’m seeing 5% - 10% CTRs.

‍

How to Run One-to-One ABM Ads

1. Create a simple template.
   
   
2. Dynamically insert the company name or logo.
   
   
3. Tweak the messaging slightly to make it feel personal.

These ads stand out because they look like they were designed specifically for the company.

But before you go all-in, there are two major caveats:

• Don’t run these in Germany: German companies will hit you with a legal notice if you use their name or logo in an ad.
  
  
• This works best for MarTech, SalesTech, and Customer Success industries: If you’re targeting IT buyers, this approach might feel too aggressive.

If you’re hesitant to use logos, you can still personalize these ads by:

• Mentioning the company in the ad copy instead of the image.
  
  
• Using a screenshot from the company’s website instead of their logo.

One-to-one ABM ads aren’t for every industry, but in the right space, they massively outperform standard image ads.

‍

‍

Tip 6: Use LinkedIn Ad Engagement as a Sales Trigger

A big mistake I see in ABM campaigns is running LinkedIn ads in isolation and expecting them to create pipeline on their own.

That’s not how it works.

You need to use LinkedIn ad engagement as a sales trigger to prioritize outreach.

Instead of sales reaching out cold, why not time it based on actual engagement? If an account is consistently clicking on ads or engaging with content, that’s a strong signal that they might be open to a conversation.

LinkedIn lets you create dynamic audience lists based on engagement, which means I can track things like:

• Paid clicks: Who has clicked on an ad multiple times over a set period?
  
  
• Video views: Who has watched a certain percentage of a video ad?
  
  
• Impressions: Which accounts have received a high volume of impressions?

I can then send this data to sales as a prioritized list of accounts.

A sales rep reaching out to an account that has clicked on an ad three times in the past two weeks is going to have way more success than reaching out completely cold.

Some companies use tools like Fibbler to track progression of clicks over a period of month, all the way towards becoming an opportunity.

But even if you’re just using LinkedIn’s native company engagement feature, you can still set up alerts for sales when an account’s activity spikes.

This is one of the easiest ways to align marketing and sales, yet most companies don’t do it. If you’re just running LinkedIn ads without tying them into your outbound strategy, you’re leaving money on the table.

‍

‍

Tip 7: Split Campaigns by Employee Size

A CEO at a 50-person company is very different from a VP at a 10,000-person company.

You can’t treat them the same.

The way LinkedIn distributes ad spend also makes this even more important. If you mix small and large companies in the same campaign, the large companies will dominate your spend.

Why? Because they have more employees that fit your targeting criteria.

I split campaigns into two groups:

• 500+ employees: Exclude managers. There are too many, and they don’t always have decision-making power.
  
  
• Under 500 employees: Keep managers in. At smaller companies, managers have more influence over decisions and often report directly to the CEO.

‍

At big companies, targeting managers is usually a waste of money.

If I’m running an ad campaign for a marketing software company, the CMO at Amazon isn’t going to care about my ad.

But at a 200-person company, the CEO or VP of Marketing might be the final decision-maker.

This segmentation also allows me to write better ad copy. If I know I’m speaking to executives at smaller companies, my messaging will be more direct and high-level.

If I’m speaking to senior managers at larger companies, I might focus more on how my product solves day-to-day problems.

If you’re running a single campaign for all employee sizes, chances are your budget is being wasted on the wrong people at big companies while ignoring the right people at smaller ones.

‍

‍

Tip 8: Create ABM-Specific Remarketing Lists

Most people run generic remarketing campaigns, but for ABM, you need to build remarketing lists specific to your target accounts.

This means you’re not just retargeting anyone who clicked on an ad. You’re only retargeting people from your ABM account list who showed engagement.

Here’s how I structure my ABM remarketing lists:

• Image ad remarketing: People from ABM accounts who clicked on an image ad.
  
  
• Video view remarketing: People from ABM accounts who watched at least 50% of a video ad.
  
  
• Website remarketing: Visitors from ABM accounts who landed on key pages (e.g., demo request, pricing, case studies).

This ensures I’m spending remarketing dollars on accounts that actually matter rather than random people who engaged once and never came back.

‍

What should you show in these remarketing campaigns?

In remarketing, I shift the content to focus on social proof and direct response ads. This could be:

• Case studies featuring similar companies
  
  
• Testimonial ads showing a customer’s face and a short quote
  
  
• Comparison ads (e.g., "Us vs. Them")
  
  
• Before and after ads that show the pain before using my product and the results after

In some cases, I also test demo CTAs and incentives, especially for enterprise deals where a small push (like a free assessment or report) can make a big difference.

If you’re only running top-of-funnel awareness ads and never segmenting high-intent ABM accounts into remarketing, you’re missing a huge opportunity to convert engaged prospects.

Side Note: Check out all the cool ads that Tim Davidson put together over here.

‍

‍

Tip 9: Don’t Sleep on Exclusions

A lot of people think that because they’re targeting an account list, they don’t need to add exclusions.

That’s a mistake.

Even if your account list is perfect, LinkedIn’s targeting isn’t.

Here’s the problem: LinkedIn doesn’t always match job titles and company names correctly. If someone has multiple roles in their profile, LinkedIn might target them under the wrong company.

For example, let’s say someone runs a side business while working full-time at Amazon. LinkedIn might show them your ad under both companies, meaning you’re wasting budget on someone who isn’t actually part of your ABM target.

To fix this, I always:

• Check LinkedIn’s Demographics Report to see which job titles and industries are getting served ads.
  
  
• Exclude job functions that don’t matter. If I’m selling to CMOs and VPs of Marketing, I don’t want my ads going to HR or IT.
  
  
• Exclude competitors.

Just because you’re running ABM doesn’t mean you can trust LinkedIn to get everything right.

If you’re not actively reviewing exclusions, you’re burning ad dollars.

‍

‍

Tip 10: LinkedIn Ads Are Just One Part of ABM

I need to make this very clear. Running LinkedIn Ads alone is not ABM.

ABM is about orchestrating multiple touch points across marketing and sales. If you’re just running ads and waiting, you’re missing the point.

Here’s how I integrate LinkedIn Ads into a full ABM strategy:

1. Pick a set of high-priority accounts (start with 50-100).
   
   
2. Run LinkedIn ads to build awareness.
   
   
3. Monitor engagement signals (clicks, views, impressions).
   
   
4. Trigger sales outreach when accounts show activity.
   
   
5. Use email, cold calls, events, and direct mail to reinforce messaging.
   
   
6. Retarget engaged accounts with case studies and demo CTAs.
   
   
7. Track movement through the funnel and adjust the strategy.

One of the best ways to start is by working closely with an enterprise sales rep.

Pick 100 accounts and run a coordinated campaign, where marketing runs ads and sales follows up based on engagement.

If you’re just running LinkedIn Ads and calling it ABM, you’re not doing ABM. You’re just running ads to a list.

‍

Hope you found this article helpful! 

‍If you’re looking to learn more about LinkedIn Ads, check out these free LinkedIn Ads courses, that will teach you how to launch, optimize, and scale LinkedIn Ads campaigns effectively. 

And if you have any questions about LinkedIn Ads, feel free to send me a message on LinkedIn.   

In my previous company as the Head of Marketing, I went down the rabbit hole and looked for the best LinkedIn Ads Agencies out there.

I spent weeks poring over agency websites, got on calls, digging into case studies, and even had candid conversations with some of their clients.

If you’re a VP of Marketing who has seen fair share of “lead gen” hype, you’ll appreciate this no-fluff look at the top LinkedIn advertising agencies that actually move the needle.

1. AdConversion – The Demand Gen Powerhouse

I first came across the AdConversion agency when I was searching for an agency in my previous company that could deliver more than just a flood of low-quality leads.

‍

What impressed me was their laser focus on demand generation, built around full-funnel strategies. This is an agency that doesn’t simply buy clicks. They craft ad experiences that nurture prospects from awareness to close.

What impressed me about AdConversion:

• Structured Full-Funnel Approach: AdConversion’s 5 Stages Model ensures campaigns are methodically executed across every stage of the buyer’s journey. Create (brand affinity), Capture (converting in-market buyers), Accelerate/Activate (speeding up sales cycles or converting free trial users), Revive (re-engaging closed-lost opportunities), and Expand (driving revenue from existing customers).
  
  
• Data-Driven Optimization: Their dedicated data team builds detailed dashboards, implements offline conversions, and provides real-time performance tracking to improve campaign effectiveness.
  
  
• Always-On Automation: AdConversion uses an internal system to optimize ads 24/7, automatically pausing underperforming ads (e.g., CPSQL > $1,000), detecting ad fatigue (e.g., frequency > 5, CTR < 1%), and adjusting ad schedules for optimal performance.
  
  
• Creative & Conversion-Focused Execution: AdConversion takes full ownership of design, copywriting, and landing pages, ensuring that every campaign asset is optimized for engagement and conversion. Their structured creative process ensures ads don’t just look good, they’re built to drive pipeline and revenue.
  
  
• Transparent Pricing & No Hidden Fees: AdConversion does not lock you into long-term contracts and you can walk away from the partnership at any time. Unlike many agencies that charge a percentage of ad spend, AdConversion operates on a flat-fee model, ensuring your costs remain predictable without additional markup based on budget increases.

Bottom Line: If you’re looking to transform LinkedIn from a lead-generator into a revenue engine, AdConversion is a partner that understands the entire buyer’s journey. Their pricing starts at $6,600/month.

Chat with the team and see if it makes sense for your business. They even tell you if they’re not the right fit on the first call.

2. Omni Lab – The Data-Obsessed Performance Marketers

Omni Lab immediately caught my attention for its no-nonsense, demand-gen approach. Specializing in B2B SaaS, they prioritize tracking every micro-conversion that eventually builds into a significant pipeline.

‍

When I dug into their methodology, what stood out was their commitment to transparency and measurable performance.

Key Takeaways on Omni Lab:

• Pipeline Impact Over Vanity Metrics: Omni Lab insists that every ad dollar must correlate to revenue. Their dashboard isn’t cluttered with impressions and CTRs. They break down performance to show the exact pipeline impact.
  
  
• Speed & Agility: They’re built for fast-paced environments. If you need a campaign to go live in days (not weeks), their lean processes and agile approach make that possible.
  
  
• Sophisticated Retargeting: Their approach ensures that no high-intent lead slips away. They focus on keeping prospects engaged through precision audience segmentation, exclusion lists, and dynamic retargeting strategies that reinforce messaging across multiple touchpoints until they’re sales-ready.

Bottom Line: Omni Lab’s pricing is based on your monthly ad spend. It starts at $3,665/month for a $5,000/month ad budget and it does not include creatives or copywriting.

‍

3. Impactable – Affordable, Yet Highly Focused

Not every company has a massive ad spend, and that’s where Impactable comes in.

‍

Originally known as a LinkedIn lead-generation shop, Impactable has evolved into a full-scale LinkedIn advertising agency without requiring a massive budget.

Their pitch is simple: deliver quality, demand-driven campaigns that are accessible to SMBs and startups alike.

What I Discovered About Impactable:

• Cost-Effective Solutions: With plans starting under $849/month, Impactable makes LinkedIn advertising accessible. They’ve refined their process to squeeze maximum performance out of modest budgets.
  
  
• Demand Generation Focus: While many agencies settle for generic lead gen, Impactable uses retargeting and personalized messaging to ensure that leads aren’t just numbers—they’re potential revenue drivers.
  
  
• Strong Focus on Retargeting: They have one of the most robust strategies in place when it comes to retargeting. Their strategy takes into account all the different engagements a prospect could potentially have with you and makes the best use of everything that LinkedIn Ads has to offer.

Bottom Line: Impactable offers a smart entry point into LinkedIn advertising without sacrificing quality. However, this pricing is applicable only if you want them to handle LinkedIn Ads. If you’re looking for an agency that can handle other channels, you’ll be paying extra.
‍

4. B2Linked – Technical Mastery for High-Budget Campaigns

B2Linked is where the deep technical expertise of LinkedIn advertising truly comes to light. Founded by AJ Wilcox, a recognized expert in the space, they bring a level of analytical rigor that few agencies can match.

‍

I was struck by how methodical their approach is; every campaign is treated as a data puzzle to solve.

Key Insights on B2Linked:

• Deep Auditing & Optimization: With over 800 audited accounts, B2Linked identifies common pitfalls in targeting and bidding strategies, then uses proprietary tools to rectify them.
  
  
• Advanced Bidding Techniques: They’ve built internal tools that lets them run tests to ensure that every bid is optimized for cost-efficiency and reach.
  
  

Bottom Line: For companies that spend less than $15,000/month on LinkedIn ads, their pricing is set at $3,000/month + a one-time setup fee of $1,000. Copywriting and design is an add-on package that is priced at $1,000/month.

5. Remotion – The Specialist for B2B Tech Companies

Remotion is a dedicated LinkedIn advertising agency focusing exclusively on B2B SaaS companies.

‍

With a proven process for generating pipeline, they have been specializing in LinkedIn Ads and B2B SaaS since 2016

What Sets Remotion Apart:

• Exclusive Focus on LinkedIn Ads for B2B Tech: Remotion's specialization allows them to deeply understand the nuances of LinkedIn's platform and the unique challenges faced by B2B tech companies.
  
  
• Comprehensive Campaign Management: They handle all aspects of LinkedIn advertising, from lead generation and brand building to demand generation, ensuring strategies align with company-specific KPIs.
  
  
• Collaborative Approach: Remotion works closely with clients' internal teams, including sales and marketing, to ensure ad messaging aligns with overall business objectives and effectively nurtures prospects.
  
  
• Data-Driven Optimization: Utilizing automatic reporting, they focus on metrics that matter, analyzing performance down the funnel to SQLs, opportunities, and customers, ensuring continuous improvement.
  
  
• Expertise Across Tech Verticals: Their experience spans various tech sectors, including cybersecurity, fintech, martech, and more, allowing them to craft tailored strategies for each industry.

Bottom Line: If you’re a B2B tech company looking to leverage LinkedIn as a strategic growth channel, Remotion’s specialized focus and collaborative approach make them a formidable partner, despite their premium pricing ($$$$).

‍

Final Thoughts: Choosing the Right Partner for Your LinkedIn Strategy

Every agency has its strengths and unique focus areas. The best choice depends on your specific objectives, budget, and the maturity of your LinkedIn strategy.

For me, the standout performer is AdConversion. After all, I did hire them at my previous company to build pipeline and revenue.

Needless to say, they didn’t disappoint.

Google makes money when people click on ads, whether those clicks convert or not. That’s why our defense against blowing our budget starts with negative keyword lists.

I learned this the hard way when I spent $300 on clicks meant for my DJ business on the keyword “DJ Khaled”. Because he came into town and I didn't add “DJ Khaled” as a negative keyword.

Today, I’m breaking down how to use negative keyword lists  effectively so you don’t make the same mistake that I did.

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• What Negative Keywords Are and Why They Matter
• Building and Organizing Negative Keyword Lists
• Applying Negative Keywords Strategically
• How to Add Negative Keywords in Google Ads?
• Universal Negative Keyword List for B2B
• The Bottom Line

‍

What Negative Keywords Are and Why They Matter

Negative keywords are words or phrases that prevent our ads from appearing when people search for them.

In Google Ads, they are the exact opposite of “positive keywords”, which are words or phrases that match the ads to what people are searching for.

The simplest way I can explain positive vs. negative keywords is: Positive keywords are the searches I want to show up for, but negative keywords are the searches I don’t want to waste my money on.

As I always say: Positive keywords give me visibility, but negative keywords give me focus. Without them, I’m spending money on people who were never looking for me in the first place.

By consistently adding negative keywords, I’m able to refine search terms, report, and block irrelevant, wasteful queries.

And I can’t stress this enough: Negative keywords are crucial to success as a Google advertiser.

‍

Building and Organizing Negative Keyword Lists

One of the best ways to implement negative keywords is through lists.

I could apply them at the campaign or ad group level, but using a negative keyword list keeps things organized.

Think about categories like employment, education, profanity, or even competitors. I recommend grouping similar themes.

For example, as a B2B marketer, I block keywords around job searches or salary info, which are rarely relevant. And instead of adding these keywords manually to every campaign, I create a negative keyword list called “Employment” and apply it across the account.

When it comes to competitors, if I see irrelevant brand searches appearing in my search terms report, I add them to a “Competitor” negative keyword list and block them all at once.

I don’t want to pay for clicks from users looking for a company I don’t even sell!

‍

Applying Negative Keywords Strategically

As I mentioned before, I could add negative keywords at the ad group or campaign level.

But here’s the trick: Using them strategically for campaign sculpting. This is how I prevent closely related keywords from triggering the wrong ad group.

It’s powerful but can get complicated if not handled with care.

If I go overboard, I might create keyword conflicts, meaning my ads don’t show up at all.

The lesson I learned is: Start simple, and build out as needed.

‍

How to Add Negative Keywords in Google Ads?

Negative keywords aren’t a one-and-done deal. They need to be continuously refined to keep campaigns running efficiently.

The best way to do this? A system.
‍

First, I review the search terms report. Google gets looser with keyword matching every year, so I  always find searches that shouldn’t be triggering my ads.

And then block them.

Second, I build themed negative keyword lists. Here are some common ones:
‍

• Employment: Blocks job-related searches like hiring, careers, salary, Glassdoor.
• Education: Stops ads from showing up for courses, certifications, degree programs.
• Investors: Prevents searches related to stock prices, funding rounds, shareholder meetings.
• Profanity: Blocks offensive or inappropriate searches.
• Bargain Shoppers: Eliminates searches with free, cheap, discount, coupon.
• Support: Keeps customer service-related queries out, like help desk or technical support.

By now,  if I were you, I couldn't help but apply the negative keyword lists to my Google Ads dashboard. So here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do it:

• In my Google Ads dashboard, click the  🛠️Tools icon

• Click the Shared Library drop-down in the menu (1), and then Exclusion Lists (2)

• Click on the ➕icon (Add negative keyword list) to create a list

• Name your list, paste in the negative keywords, and save

• To apply a negative keyword list to a campaign, click on the list in the Exclusion lists

• And check the campaign name to which you want the negative keyword list applied to.

‍

Universal Negative Keyword List for B2B

Over the years of managing B2B Google Ads campaigns, I’ve learned that a well-optimized negative keyword list is just as important as selecting the right positive keywords.

To help businesses cut out wasted spend and improve lead quality, I’ve compiled a universal list of negative keywords that I consistently apply across campaigns.

These terms filter out job seekers, educational or support questions, and other unqualified traffic that could derail ad performance.

No matter where we are in our advertising strategy journey, this list serves as a strong foundation for refining targeting and maximizing ROI.

‍

Employment

1. address
2. headquarters
3. careers
4. glassdoor
5. indeed
6. job openings
7. positions
8. salary
9. internship
10. looking for work
11. occupation
12. part time
13. full time
14. recruiter
15. resume

‍

Education

1. "can I"
2. "how to"
3. "what is"
4. "what are"
5. "books"
6. "courses"
7. "school"
8. "classes"
9. "university"
10. "college"
11. "academy"
12. wikipedia
13. "powerpoint"
14. "presentation"
15. "training"
16. "workshops"

‍

Support

1. help desk
2. knowledge base
3. login
4. support

‍

Investors

1. funding
2. investment
3. investors
4. series a
5. series b
6. series c
7. series d
8. series e
9. series f
10. crunchbase

‍

Profanity

1. chicks
2. dating
3. kinky
4. naked
5. nude
6. porn
7. porno
8. sex
9. x-rated
10. xxx
11. fuck
12. damn
13. shit
14. bitch
15. cunt
16. fucker
17. hoe
18. asshole
19. ass
20. murder
21. death
22. accident
23. horrific

‍

Bargain Shoppers

1. close outs
2. short cut
3. shortcuts
4. remainders
5. remainder
6. liquidation
7. close out
8. hack
9. hacks
10. closeout
11. cheap
12. overstock
13. bargain
14. cheapest
15. clearance
16. odd lots
17. shortcut
18. free
19. discount
20. closeouts
21. inexpensive
22. short cuts
23. discounted

‍

Politics

1. democrats
2. republicans
3. senate
4. congress
5. terrorism
6. isis
7. hamas
8. voting
9. legislation
10. riots

‍

Of course, each business is unique in its own way.

So definitely add new negative keywords to your Google Ads account depending on your business and make sure to take that into account when adding the above negative keywords.

And to make it easy for you to manage your own negative keyword list, we created a template for you.

You can access the Negative Keyword List Templates in the Paid Search - Planning Template in the "Negative Keyword Lists" tab.

‍

The Bottom Line

Negative keywords aren’t just a nice-to-have.

They’re the guardrails that keep your Google Ads budget from spiraling into wasted clicks. By grouping them into strategic lists and continuously refining, you’re ensuring that every dollar goes toward the right audience.

So, don’t wait.

Start building and optimizing your negative keyword lists today. Your ROI will thank you.

But if you really want to level up your B2B advertising game, there’s more to master than just negative keywords. That’s where Google Ads course by AdConversion comes in.

Join 4,500+ B2B marketers who are sharpening their paid media skills inside AdConversion’s free, on-demand courses. Here’s why you should sign up:

✅ 100% free access – No hidden fees, no fluff.

✅ Taught by vetted industry experts – Learn from people who run high-budget B2B campaigns.

✅ Workbooks, resources & templates – So you can implement, not just watch.

✅ Bite-sized lessons (<10 min each) – Easy to fit into your schedule.

Click here to join in under 90 seconds (seriously, we timed it 😂)

Over the past 5 years, I’ve helped hundreds of B2B SaaS companies develop a strong LinkedIn Ads funnel architecture. 

This has allowed them to show up in front of the right audiences, with the right messages, at the right time, ultimately leading to more pipeline and revenue. 

I’ll be breaking down my entire methodology below.

Let’s dive in.👇

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Tip #1: Outline your variables
• Tip #2: Whiteboard your funnel
• Tip #3: Set clear campaign goals
• Tip #4: Create ads that match the funnel stage
• Tip #5: Don’t forget attribution
• Tip #6: Get efficient before getting fancy
• Tip #7: Retarget like a pro
• Tip #8: Test smart, not random
• Tip #9: Keep tabs on performance
• Tip #10: Learn, improve, repeat

Tip #1: Outline your variables

‍

Before you do anything else, you want to outline all your variables.  

‍

What audiences do you need to target? Are they actually active on LinkedIn or will you have to try with a different platform? How large are your audience sizes? How much budget do you have? What content do you have available to you and what gaps do you currently have? 

‍

You need to put all those pieces on the table to understand if LinkedIn is a viable channel for you in the first place. 

‍

If you have minimal content, a small budget, and an audience that isn’t very active on LinkedIn, you’re setting yourself up for failure. 

Tip #2: Whiteboard your funnel

‍

Once you have your pieces on the table, you can use Figma, Miro, or simply pen and paper (my personal preference) to start mapping out your funnel. 

‍

For example, let’s say you’ve created your audience and have identified that your TAM is around half a million people. But maybe your ideal ICP — which you want to start targeting with ads — is only 65K people. 

‍

Now, you need to ask yourself the question: what type of content would this audience find interesting and push them further down the funnel? 

‍

Maybe, to start, they’d want to see something funny related to a pain point they’re having. Next, they might want to see more content related to this pain point, in addition to product videos and testimonials. Eventually, they might be open to requesting a demo.

‍

Ultimately, you want to map out the journey that you want your prospects to take; even if they don’t follow this exact journey — which they probably won’t — doing this exercise forces you to have empathy for them, and your content ecosystem will be more likely to move the needle. 

Tip #3: Set clear campaign goals

‍

A goalie, defender, midfielder, and striker all have different roles and shouldn’t be judged by the same criteria. 

‍

The same is true for ad campaigns. 

‍

Top of funnel, bottom of funnel, cross-sell, upsell, and pipeline acceleration campaigns are completely different, and need to be judged by completely different metrics. 

‍

Before spending any money, it’s important to clearly define the KPIs for your campaigns. 

‍

For example, for a top of funnel campaign to a cold audience, your goal might be to maximize engagement, and you might be looking at metrics such as engagement rate and cost per engagement. 

‍

For a bottom of the funnel campaign, you might be assessing performance by looking at metrics such as cost per demo, cost per SQL, or cost per opportunity. 

‍

Defining these key metrics is essential — if you fail to define them, your leadership team might ask you to pause all your top of funnel/awareness campaigns because they haven’t generated enough demo requests 😥

Tip #4: Create ads that match the funnel stage

‍

A lot of people these days say things like the B2B buyer’s journey isn’t linear and the funnel isn’t actually real, and sure, that’s true, but it’s still meaningful to match the content/offer to the level of awareness of your prospect. 

‍

Someone who visited your LinkedIn company page 11 months ago probably shouldn’t be seeing the same content as someone who visited your pricing page yesterday. 

‍

With the ads in the cold layer, you’re showing up unannounced in someone’s feed, and you’re simply looking to pique their curiosity. 

‍

Once they’ve engaged with you multiple times, you can start being a bit more direct (promoting demos, trials, sign ups, etc.). 

‍

Aside from the funnel stage, you also might want to segment your ads by persona — for example, CFOs, salespeople, and product people will all care about different things, and should be seeing customized messaging based on their needs and concerns. 

‍

One caveat: you have to be careful to not make your audience too small. 

‍

If you segment by region, funnel stage, and persona, you may not have a large enough audience size to run a campaign. 

‍

If this happens, you’ll have to triage and decide which targeting criteria to prioritize. 

Tip #5: Don’t forget attribution

‍

This might seem basic but it has to be said. 

‍

You don’t need a super complex attribution setup, but you do want to have an idea of what campaigns are driving an incremental lift in pipeline. 

‍

If you don’t have access to an attribution tool like Dreamdata or HockeyStack, here’s a simple way to start doing this: 

‍

For high-value conversions (ie qualified lead, demo request, or opportunity), in addition to your standard last touch/last conversion event, set up a duplicate last touch/each conversion event, with a 90-day click/90-day view window and a very small value (ie 1 cent). 

‍

‍

By doing this, you’ll find that some campaigns that you believed weren’t performing are actually driving — or at least influencing — a significant amount of conversions. 

‍

Aside from this, it’s a good idea to look at different sources to build a more complete picture of what’s working: in-platform attribution, your CRM, self-reported attribution, Gong call mentions, conversion API, the revenue attribution report, etc. 

‍

It’s also helpful to look at both directly attributed and blended pipeline quarter over quarter. If these numbers, along with your pipe-to-spend ratio, are consistently increasing, it’s a good indicator that your campaigns are working. 

Tip #6: Get efficient before getting fancy

‍

In order to be effective, you first need to be efficient. 

‍

I like using the example of a car: if you need to drive 50 miles, it’s going to be much more difficult if your oil hasn’t been changed, your tires are flat, and you only have a quarter tank of gas. 

‍

The same thing is true for LinkedIn Ads: using the LinkedIn audience network, enabling audience expansion, not leveraging exclusions, using too many exclusions, targeting too many people, not targeting enough people, using OR instead of AND or AND instead of OR, using the wrong campaign objective, choosing the wrong bid strategy, etc.

‍

These are issues I see all the time, and though they may seem minor, they have a huge impact on overall performance. 

‍

You won’t hit your pipeline and revenue targets if you don’t pay attention to the smaller details. 

Tip #7: Retarget like a pro

‍

Effective retargeting requires a nuanced approach. 

‍

Prospects who have visited your site in the past 30 days are more likely to request a demo/book a call, so it’d be appropriate for them to see ads with a more direct CTA. 

‍

‍

Prospects in your general 90-day remarketing audience might be considering different products/services, so case studies, testimonials, thought leadership, and other trust-building content might push them further down the funnel. 

‍

‍

People in your 180-day remarketing audience may not be in-market anymore, but you can stay in front of them for a very low cost using different LinkedIn ad formats such as text and spotlight ads. 

‍

‍

If the prospects in your 90 or 180-day remarketing audiences engage with your ads and visit your site, they’ll enter the 30-day remarketing audience and see more direct demo request/book a call ads. 

‍

If the prospects in the 30-day remarketing audience don’t engage with your demo ads, they’ll get pulled into the 90-day remarketing layer. 

‍

Ultimately, by creating this remarketing ecosystem, you’ll make sure you’re A) capitalizing on people who are in-market and B) staying top of mind with prospects who aren’t ready to buy just yet. 

‍

To learn exactly how to set up your retargeting audiences, take a look at this retargeting blueprint. 

Tip #8: Test smart, not random

‍

You should be constantly testing elements in your campaigns to maximize performance: different copy, pain points, landing pages, targeting criteria, etc. 

‍

But you want to make sure that all your tests are both meaningful and insightful. 

‍

For example, testing a blue creative vs. a red creative wouldn’t be meaningful; instead, you’d want to test more significant elements, e.g. testing one messaging angle vs. another, or testing a native audience vs. an ABM audience. 

‍

Also, it’s important to conduct proper A/B tests — they’re called A/B tests and not A/B/C/D/E/F/G tests for a reason 😅— to extract accurate insights from your experimentation. If you’re simultaneously testing copy, creatives, pain points, landing pages, and targeting, you’ll have no idea what led to an improvement in results. 

‍

Pro tip: To ensure that your tests are both meaningful and insightful, you can use this simple experimentation formula If we do X, I believe Y, as measured by Z. 

Tip #9: Keep tabs on performance

‍

This is another tip that might seem obvious, but is often overlooked. 

‍

If you’re testing campaigns with different audiences, you need to keep a close eye on which audience performs better. 

‍

If you’re testing two ads with different messaging angles, you need to see which ad has more engagement and a higher CTR. 

‍

If you’re testing two different landing pages, you need to see which page has the most engaged visits and conversions. 

‍

To be clear, I’m advocating for keeping a close eye on performance — not constantly tweaking things in your account.

‍

If you’ve set your campaigns up strategically, you don’t need to be making changes every day, and want to give LinkedIn’s algorithm the time to optimize and learn. 

‍

Pro Tip: I typically recommend allowing an ad to spend around $100 before shutting it down — sometimes, an ad that starts out slow can end up being a top-performer. 

Tip #10: Learn, improve, repeat

‍

With ad campaigns, you never reach a final destination; in other words, your job is never finished. 

‍

If your ads performed well this quarter, you’ll need to find a way to improve performance the following quarter. 

‍

You’ll have to sit down and ask yourself:

‍

1. What worked well that we should continue doing in the future?

‍

2. What didn’t go well that we should pause moving forward? 

‍

3. Based on what we’ve learned, are there any new tests that could move the needle and improve results?

‍

If you aren’t constantly improving, you’ll likely get left behind by the competition. 

‍

Hope you found this article helpful! 

‍

‍If you’re looking to learn more about LinkedIn Ads, check out these free LinkedIn Ads courses, that will teach you how to launch, optimize, and scale LinkedIn Ads campaigns effectively. 

‍

And if you have any questions about LinkedIn Ads, feel free to send me a message on LinkedIn.   

Running Google Ads today isn’t the same as running Google Ads in 2015. 

‍

What years ago was a winning strategy no longer is, and will only lead to headaches, poor leads, and wasted spend. 

‍

Many marketers have already abandoned Google entirely, claiming that it doesn’t work anymore or it’s a waste of money — but this, in my experience, isn’t true. 

‍

Over the past few years, I’ve helped B2B SaaS companies such as Dreamdata, Airtame, and Templafy drive millions in revenue through Google Ads, and have developed a repeatable strategy to maximize performance. 

‍

I’ll be sharing my tips for success below 👇

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Tip#1: Set up quality conversion tracking
• Tip #2: Consolidate your campaigns and ad groups
• Tip #3: Focus on exclusions
• Tip #4: Create fast and relevant landing pages
• Tip #5: Leverage smart bidding
• Tip #6: Decrease the amount of RSAs per ad group 
• Tip #7: Pin you headlines
• Tip #8: Don’t forget about device adjustments
• Tip #9: Figure out whether you should bid on your own brand or not
• Tip #10: Separate Brand and Non-Brand in your reporting
• Bonus tip: Dive deeper into your performance by country

Tip #1: Set up quality conversion tracking

‍

Many companies are simply tracking form submits, without paying attention to lead quality. This makes optimization challenging, both for the performance marketer managing the account and for the Google Ads algorithm. 

‍

To improve performance, make sure you send all the lifecycle stages from your CRM back into the Google Ads platform — this might look like MQLs, SALs, opportunities, etc. — and assign higher values to higher value conversions, so that Google’s algorithm understands what to optimize for. 

‍

If you’re using HubSpot as a CRM, this process will be very simple, as your Click IDs will automatically be captured without requiring a manual setup. 

‍

If you’re using a different CRM, you’ll need to manually push your click IDs into your CRM using hidden fields — this process might seem complicated, but you should be able to find a marketing operations specialist on Upwork that can help you with the initial setup. 

Tip #2: Consolidate your campaigns and ad groups

‍

In the past, when exact match was still exact, SKAGs (single keyword ad groups) made sense. 

‍

By including one keyword per ad group and using that keyword in the ad and landing page copy, you could improve your overall quality score. 

‍

Now that exact match is a lot less exact, this approach doesn’t make sense anymore. 

‍

These days, consolidation is the way to win — by grouping relevant keywords into the same ad group, we give the Google Ads algorithm more data points to make optimizations. 

Tip #3: Focus on exclusions

‍

With exact match being less exact, exclusions are now more important than inclusions. 

‍

In other words, instead of trying to come up with hundreds of keywords to include in your campaigns, it’s better to spend your time excluding hundreds of irrelevant keywords. 

‍

For example, maybe you want to show up for the keyword customer journey tracking, but notice in your search terms report that you’re consistently showing up for the term customer journey mapping, which isn’t relevant to your core offering. By excluding different variations of customer journey mapping, you’ll be able to improve your overall targeting and get in front of more relevant prospects. 

‍

‍

Pro tip: In the Google Ads reporting section, you can easily create a search terms report and schedule it to be emailed to you on a weekly basis. This will allow you to be more proactive about making exclusions in your account. 

Tip #4: Create fast and relevant landing pages

‍

Landing pages are one of the most overlooked aspects of Google Ads performance. 

‍

If they aren’t loading quickly, Google will lower your quality score and it will be nearly impossible to get in front of your prospects. Before launching any campaign, double check that your landing pages are loading quickly on both mobile and desktop devices. 

‍

Next, make sure your landing page is as closely related as possible to the keywords in your ad group. For a product analytics ad group, you’d want your landing page to focus on product analytics. For a marketing analytics ad group, you’d want your landing page to focus on marketing analytics.

‍

Take a look at the customized landing pages below:

‍

‍

This message match will improve your quality score and will also improve the relevance for your prospects, leading to better performance. 

‍

I know that creating new landing pages can be a heavy lift, especially if you have a small team. If this is the case, I recommend duplicating an existing landing page and simply modifying the hero section. Once you start seeing some initial traction from this simple landing page, you can put in the extra effort to create a fully customized experience. 

‍

Pro tip: To check the speed of your landing pages, you can use a free tool such as PageSpeed Insights. 

Tip #5: Leverage Smart Bidding

‍

Sometimes, smart bidding doesn’t make sense. For example, if you’re starting a new campaign and have zero conversions, it’s a better idea to start with manual CPC or maximize clicks with a bid cap. 

‍

However, once you have 10+ conversions per campaign, you’ll typically see better performance if you switch over to smart bidding and let Google optimize for you. 

‍

‍

This wasn’t always the case — in the past, Google’s algorithm was much less sophisticated, and you were better off trying to control every single bid adjustment. 

‍

But these days, you’ll usually see more traffic and an increase in conversions by letting go of control, as long as you’re feeding Google high quality signals from your CRM. 

‍

As with everything in marketing, there are exceptions, and there are instances where you’ll switch to smart bidding and your CPCs will skyrocket 😨

‍

If this happens, consider testing a portfolio bidding strategy with a target CPA and a bid cap — this will mimic max conversions bidding while giving you more control over the cost per click. 

Tip #6: Decrease the amount of RSAs per ad group

‍

Most people think that having more responsive search ads = more variations for Google = better performance. 

‍

But the opposite is actually true. 

‍

Let’s say you create 3 RSAs, and have 15 headlines per ad. This means that Google will have to test 45 different headlines until it finds a winning combination, which could take years 😅

‍

If you only include 1 RSA per ad group (maximum two), your headlines will be tested much faster and Google will be able to find a winning combination more easily, minimizing wasted spend and improving overall results. 

‍

Pro tip: If you have a small budget, you might want to take things a step further, and test 6-9 headlines instead of 15. This way, Google will be able to test all the headlines in a matter of weeks (not years). 

Tip #7: Pin your headlines

‍

There’s still a lot of debate around pinning vs not pinning headlines. 

‍

Some people say that pinning is a bad idea, since it will negatively impact your ad strength, but ultimately, Google’s ad strength has no bearing on performance. 

‍

I’ve seen more success with pinning because it makes your headlines more legible — if your ads are clear and searchers have a better understanding of what your company does, you’ll see an improvement in performance. 

‍

If your headlines are redundant — as often happens with unpinned headlines, which leads to words like Google Ads agency and Google Ads consultant being next to each other — prospects are less likely to trust you, and much less likely to click. 

‍

Here’s the exact formula that I like to follow for my headlines:

‍

Headline 1: Include your target keyword to maximize relevance

‍

Headline 2: Include unique selling points or social proof

‍

Headline 3: Include your company name or a relevant CTA

‍

‍

For each headline, I like to create 2-3 variations that Google can test. 

‍

Pro tip: Spend most of your time crafting headlines 1 and 2. Headline 3 is much less important these days, as Google rarely displays it in the SERP. 

Tip #8: Don’t forget about device adjustments

‍

Oftentimes, certain devices will significantly outperform others. 

‍

For example, if you see that 20% of your spend and 90% of your conversions are happening on desktop, you might want to add a negative bid adjustment to mobile devices or tablets, in order to increase the budget allocated to desktop. 

‍

‍

You could argue that mobile impressions are still valuable, and that decreasing spend on mobile could negatively impact performance if people are researching on their phones and then converting on desktop, but based on my experience, it’s best to work with the data that’s available to you — if a certain device is converting at a higher rate, I would recommend adding negative bid adjustments to the other devices. 

Tip #9: Figure out whether you should bid on your own brand or not

‍

Running brand campaigns vs not running them at all is a controversial topic. 

‍

Some people say that the impact of brand campaigns is minimal — prospects were already looking for you and may have converted organically — and that they simply exist to inflate performance marketing metrics. 

‍

However, in my experience, this isn’t the case, and it usually is a good idea to run brand campaigns to protect your brand, especially if competitors are bidding on your company name. 

‍

Back when I was working at Momondo, a B2C company, we were driving a ton of revenue from competitive campaigns, bidding on our competitor, Kayak, who wasn’t running brand campaigns to protect themselves. 

‍

Now, you might be thinking: sure, that’s B2C, but in B2B, especially enterprise B2B, you probably won’t change the course of a deal with a single ad. 

‍

But from what I’ve seen with my B2B clients, this isn’t true — my clients have driven a significant amount of revenue by bidding on competitor terms, which validates that bidding on your own terms to protect yourself is a good idea. 

‍

Check out the example from Mixpanel below. If they didn’t bid on their own brand name, competitors like Pendo and Heap might end up stealing some of their prospects. 

‍

‍

If you’re undecided about whether you should run brand campaigns or not, you can run a holdout study. 

‍

Stop running brand campaigns in a specific region — maybe start with one of your less important regions — and see if the amount of demos or trials goes down. If it does, you can assume that you’re losing out on pipeline and revenue by not bidding on your own terms. 

Tip #10: Separate Brand and Non-Brand in your reporting

‍

Brand and non-brand campaigns are completely different. 

‍

Brand campaigns are defensive. Someone already found out about your brand through other marketing efforts, and they’re looking for you specifically — you’re bidding on your own name in order to protect your brand from competitors trying to steal your traffic. 

‍

On the other hand, non-brand campaigns are offensive. You’re trying to show up for relevant solutions that your prospects might be looking for, and you’re trying to drive interest from a colder audience. 

‍

In other words, getting a conversion on a non-brand campaign is significantly more challenging than driving a conversion on a brand campaign; you need to separate these campaign types in your reporting to truly understand what’s working. 

Bonus tip: Dive deeper into your performance by country

‍

Most companies and ad agencies tend to look at performance by region, but completely ignore performance by country, which results in inefficient spending. 

‍

For example, if you’re targeting France, Italy, Spain, DACH, Nordics, and the UK in the same campaign, if you drill down and analyze performance by country, you might realize that all your spend is going to the southern European countries, which typically have more affordable CPCs. 

‍

And if you look further down the funnel, you might see that Spain, DACH, and Nordics are generating a lot of form submissions, but that all your pipeline is actually coming from the UK. 

‍

Ultimately, you want to ask yourself: 

‍

1. Are any countries cannibalizing my spend and do they need to be separated into different campaigns?

‍

2. Are there countries that aren’t generating any form submissions that we might want to pause?

‍

3. Are there countries that are generating submissions but never convert into pipeline that we might want to invest less money in?

‍

If you ask yourself these questions consistently, you’ll be in a much better position than 99% of companies.

‍

Hope you found this article helpful! 

‍

If you’re looking to learn more about Google Ads, check out these free Google Ads courses, that will teach you how to launch, optimize, and scale Google Ads campaigns effectively. 

‍

And if you have any questions about Google Ads or paid media in general, feel free to reach out on LinkedIn. 

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. 

‍

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.

‍

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.  

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

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. 

‍

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. 

‍

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.

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

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. 

‍

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. 

‍

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. 

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

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? 

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

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. 

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

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. 

‍

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

‍

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

‍

2. An increase in LinkedIn DMs from qualified prospects

‍

3. A spike in organic search traffic

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

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. 

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

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)

‍

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

‍

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]

‍

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? 

‍

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. 

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

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. 

‍

Hope you found this article helpful!

‍

‍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. 

‍

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.

‍

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

‍

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

‍‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

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. 

‍

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. 

‍

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. 

‍

‍

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.

‍

Tip #3: Tailor your messaging to different personas

‍

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: 

‍

Campaign 1: Open opportunity companies + Marketing job titles

‍

‍

Campaign 2: Open opportunity companies + Finance job titles

‍

‍

Campaign 3: Open opportunity companies + Sales job titles

‍

‍

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. 

‍

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

‍

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

‍

Here’s how I recommend doing it:

‍

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. 

‍

‍

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. 

‍

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. 

‍

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? 

‍

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

‍

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

‍

‍

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. 

‍

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. 

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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: 

‍

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

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. 

‍

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. 

‍

Here’s a good example from Sendoso:

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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)

‍

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

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. 

‍

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.  

‍

Here’s a great example from Cognism: 

‍

‍

Hope you found this article helpful!

‍

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

Hey there, if you’re a B2B marketer looking to scale your Google Ads campaigns, you’re in the right place.

‍

In this article, I’ll walk you through how to effectively use YouTube Ads and Google Demand Generation (previously known as Discovery) campaigns to scale beyond paid search and stay top of mind while keeping costs low.

‍

So let’s dive in! 👇

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Why You Need to Scale Beyond Paid Search
• How to Leverage Custom Audiences
• How to Stay Omnipresent with Remarketing
• From Clicks to Conversions: Master Google Ads for B2B

‍

Why You Need to Scale Beyond Paid Search

Search campaigns are fantastic for capturing high-intent users, but eventually you’ll hit a wall. Why? There’s only so much traffic coming from people searching for your keywords (especially in B2B).

‍

As I always say, Google Ads is a blessing and a curse. You’re blessed with intent but cursed with scale. 

‍

So to break through, it’s necessary to explore other types of Google Ads campaigns.

‍

Video and Demand Gen campaigns, in particular, are great for that because they let you reach a broader audience on YouTube, Gmail, and Discover at a fraction of the cost per click you’d pay for high-intent search terms.

‍

‍

For example, instead of paying $100 per click for “CRM software”, you could pay just $0.05 per view on YouTube, targeting the same audience.

‍

It’s a game-changer for SaaS companies looking to grow.

‍

How to Leverage Custom Audiences

‍

You may ask how you can get LinkedIn-like targeting with YouTube Ads and Demand Gen campaigns since we can’t rely on job titles or target specific companies.

‍

The secret to successful prospecting with these channels lies in custom audiences.

‍

These are people actively searching for your top-performing keywords, competitors, or industry terms.

‍

Custom segments let you target users based on search behavior, getting your brand in front of highly relevant prospects at just the right time.

‍

Here’s how you can create custom segments on Google Ads:

1. Go to “Tools” on the left-hand side of your Google Ads manager
2. Click to expand the “Shared library” option and go to “Audience Manager”
3. Click on the “Custom segments” option
4. Click on the plus sign to create a new custom segment

‍

‍

Below is a custom segment I created to target people with any interest or purchase intentions in B2B-related terms and tools and how many impressions I can get per week with this segment.

‍

‍

I also recommend creating custom segments with the following:

• Relevant B2B Apps (especially if they integrate with your product)
• Your competitors
• Relevant B2B Brands
• Your high-converting paid search keywords
• Irrelevant B2C Interests/Searches for exclusion if needed

‍

As I pointed out, by using these custom audiences, you can target people who have searched specific terms on Google through Demand Gen or YouTube campaigns. Instead of paying a premium cost for search clicks, you’re reaching them on different platforms for dramatically less.

‍

If you want to learn more about YouTube costs check out this benchmark data we pulled from $1,041,988 in ad spend from our own B2B SaaS clients.

‍

Staying Omnipresent with Remarketing

‍

In B2B marketing, sales cycles can range from months to years, so another great option to leverage Video and Demand Generation campaigns on Google Ads is using remarketing audiences to stay top of mind with your prospects.

‍

Running remarketing campaigns on YouTube, Gmail, Discovery and Google Display allows you to re-engage visitors who’ve interacted with your site or content.

‍

For example, you can create specific segments based on user activity, such as visiting your pricing page, blog, case studies, or downloading a resource.

‍

Here are some of the remarketing segments I recommend most for B2B SaaS companies:

• Pricing Page Visits
• Product Page Visits
• Prospects that downloaded a resource
• Prospects that attended webinars or in-person events (custom list)
• Demo Page Visits (excluding users that filled out the form)
• Trials (for PLG companies)
• Case Study Visits

‍

If you’re running LinkedIn Ads and confident in your audience targeting, you can also steal that LinkedIn Ads traffic by remarketing them on Google 🔥

‍

To do that, you just need to build a retargeting audience using utm_source=linkedin or whatever utm_source you use for your LinkedIn Ad campaigns. 

‍

‍

This will let you get in front of the same users on YouTube, Gmail, Discovery, and Display for a fraction of the cost you’re paying on LinkedIn. 🤓

‍

Check out our free LinkedIn Ads courses to master this channel:

• B2B LinkedIn Ads 101: The Ultimate Crash Course for New LinkedIn Advertisers
• B2B LinkedIn Ads 102: The Blueprint for LinkedIn Ads Optimization
• B2B LinkedIn Ads 103: Advanced Scaling Strategies From $25M in Ad Spend

‍

The beautiful thing about remarketing is that it deals with smaller audience sizes and requires less budget, but it keeps you in front of the people who matter most.

‍

So I highly recommend building a multichannel B2B retargeting strategy to ensure your brand stays visible, nurturing prospects throughout their long decision-making process.

‍

You can steal my YouTube Remarketing Checklist to ensure you don’t forget anything when creating your campaigns.

‍

Final Words

‍

Scaling beyond search campaigns, leveraging custom audiences, and using remarketing are your keys to running successful B2B SaaS campaigns on YouTube and Google Demand Generation.

‍

These strategies let you break free from search constraints, attract new prospects efficiently, and remain top of mind throughout the sales cycle.

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

‍

From Clicks to Conversions: Master Google Ads for B2B 🔥

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

‍

‍

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

‍

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

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

‍

🎯 Google Ads 102 - How to Clicks Into Profit

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

‍

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

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

‍

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

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

‍

Paid ads have the potential to be the biggest revenue driver in your business. Not to mention, they are one of the fastest ways to build brand awareness. 

‍

But if you are like most B2B SaaS companies, you probably find that a large portion of ads you run drive a less-than-impressive CTR or an astronomical CPL. 

‍

Before you switch strategies or try another platform, we need to look at your ad copy. One study found that 75% of B2B LinkedIn ad creative was ineffective, ranking just one star or less out of five 😱

‍

Here are 3 common mistakes SaaS companies make in their ad messaging. Read on to learn what they are and how you can fix them today. 

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Mistake #1: Showing the what but not the how
• Mistake #2: Trying to fit too much in one ad
• Mistake #3: Using buzzwords

Mistake #1: Showing the what but not the how   

‍

You need to get specific about the core features of your product. 

‍

You might be thinking, well duh!  

‍

But you would be surprised at how many ads fail to clearly communicate how their product actually achieves the awesome results that it does. 

‍

If you search the LinkedIn ad library, you’ll find it awash with ads like this ⤵

And while, yes, everyone wants to make more sales, statements that solely focus on a result, without explaining the how, leave people in the vague zone.

‍

The mind craves certainty, tangibility and proof. So you’ll want to get out of the vague zone and into the land of specificity as quickly as possible. 

‍

Here’s how to fix it 

‍

In our B2B ad agency, we have consistently seen this formula perform again and again.

‍

1. Hone in on one specific feature

2. Clearly tie it to a very specific outcome

3. Show how the feature actually achieves that outcome

‍

(Bonus if you combine it with a visual snapshot of this process happening on the platform)

‍

Let’s take an example. 

‍

Imagine you are an analytics company that tracks user behavior on your website. 

‍

Your product has a LOT of functions, but it essentially allows marketing teams to understand what users do on your website, so they can improve user experience and ultimately make more sales. 

‍

Usually, something like this happens. You simplify the whole process and end up with a headline like “Turn data into dollars.”

‍

Short and catchy, right? 

‍

Maybe. But if you ask the marketing manager reading the ad to explain what they’re actually getting? They will have no idea. 

‍

Try this instead.

‍

Think about one core feature of your product that customers like. 

‍

In this case, it could be tracking when customers drop off during the sales process.

‍

Focus the whole ad around that feature. 

‍

For example, we could say something like “See when customers drop off, remove obstacles that stop them buying.”

‍

Ok, you can make it catchier than that. 

‍

But this version allows our audience to really understand how the product helps them.

‍

Combining this with a visual to show what we mean is also a game changer. Here this might look like a simplified snapshot of a tracking dashboard, with a notification that says “462 users dropped off at checkout.”

This ad is now:

⤷ Tangible

⤷ Our audience gets what our product does

⤷ And instead of spelling out the result, we make it easy to make the connection between this feature and making more sales. 

‍

Here’s a real example from one of my clients, a data analytics platform. It hones in on one specific feature that allows you to watch replays of users navigating your platform:

Mistake #2: Trying to fit too much in one ad

‍

When you work closely on a product, you are acutely aware of ALL its awesome features. 

‍

But, that doesn’t mean you should mention them all in a single ad. 

‍

While you might think everything is important, speaking to too many benefits or features can confuse or overload your audience, ending up something like this ⤵

The more you make your audience work to understand your product, the more likely they won’t remember your ad at all.

‍

Speaking to one benefit in one ad is typically much more memorable. 

‍

The goal of an ad in SaaS isn’t usually to make an outright sale – B2B sales processes are far too long and convoluted for that.

‍

Instead, we want to pique our audience’s interest just enough to click to learn more.

‍

They can then dig further into your features on the website or landing page. 

‍

Here’s how to fix it 

‍

So how can you avoid saying too much? 

‍

Let’s take an example.

‍

Imagine you have a marketing automation software that:

‍

• Automates email campaigns
• Segments audiences
• Includes prebuilt templates 
• Connects to a CRM
• Integrates with tools
• AND has analytics capabilities

‍

You might be struggling to know what to focus on. 

‍

Try this.

‍

Choose a real-life use case. For example, reviving abandoned cart sales with automated emails. 

‍

Instead of listing features, your ad might say something like: 

‍

“70% of shoppers abandon their cart. Bring them back with set-and-forget followups you can activate in a few clicks.”

‍

Not only does this hone in on one easy-to-grasp feature, it also helps your audience imagine implementing and benefiting from the product.

‍

Here’s another example from one of my clients, a customer feedback analytics platform. It focuses on the use case of automating feedback tagging: 

Mistake #3: Using buzzwords

‍

We know we shouldn’t use buzzwords, but still, it’s a constant battle not to let them worm their way into B2B content. 

‍

I get it.

‍

⤷ Everyone else is using them  

⤷ They are an industry norm 

⤷ And they neatly encapsulate what we want to express  

But ultimately, they are the lazy way out. And they are killing your conversions.

‍

So the next time you feel the urge to harness, unlock, optimize, revolutionize, supercharge, streamline, or transform in your B2B ads, try this 👇

‍

Do the tangibility test. 

‍

1. Can your claim be proved right or wrong? 
2. Could you go away and draw it on a piece of paper?

‍

If the answer is no, keep reworking it until it’s a yes. 

‍

Here’s how to fix it 

‍

Let’s take the headline of this ad ⤵

Could you prove with a yes or no if this company can ‘streamline product drops’? Erm, I’m not really even sure what that means. 

‍

Could you draw ‘streamlining a product drop’ on a notepad? Me neither. 

‍

I did some digging and learned that this company offers a platform where brands can run eCommerce launches. 

‍

So let’s adapt the headline to something like this.

‍

“Launch your new clothing line on a platform that will never crash.”

‍

Could you prove it’s possible or not to launch products on this platform? Yes.

Could you prove it to be true or false that the platform will never crash? Yes. 

Could you draw this concept on a piece of paper? I could give it a good shot. 

‍

Here’s an example for one of my clients, where I used conversational and human language over buzzwords to promote a webinar:

Final Thoughts

‍

Great SaaS ads don’t have to be flashy or loaded with buzzwords. They succeed when they:

‍

• Show how they achieve the outcome
• Focus on a single message at a time
• Use clear, tangible language over jargon

‍

By avoiding these three common messaging mistakes, you’ll not only boost your click-through rates but also connect with your audience in a way that builds trust and drives action.

‍

Now, go audit your ad copy—what changes can you make today?

‍

Hope you found this article helpful! 👏

‍

Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn with any copywriting questions. 

‍

And for more B2B SaaS copywriting tips, check out this article by Eden Bidani. 

‍

Free Resources to Build a Full-Funnel Paid Media Program
‍

If you want to build a full-funnel B2B paid media program, then you should definitely check our free course Building a Paid Media Program: Scale Your B2B SaaS Advertising. 
‍

Here’s what is in for you:

• Module 1: you'll learn the S.C.A.L.E framework for building a paid program.
  
  
• Module 2: you'll learn how to create your paid strategy with the five stages.
  
  
• Module 3: you'll learn how to measure your paid media program correctly.
  
  
• Module 4: you'll learn how to create world-class campaigns from A-Z.
  
  
• Module 5: you'll learn how to create an experimentation engine.
  
  
• Module 6: you'll learn how to scale with the Scaling Quadrant.

‍

It doesn’t matter if you’re a seasoned B2B advertiser or a complete newbie.

You’re going to walk away with frameworks and repeatable processes for building a paid media program that scales.
‍

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

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

‍

People Also Ask

How can I effectively measure the impact of improved ad messaging on my campaign performance?

Utilize A/B testing to compare different ad copies and analyze metrics like click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, and cost per acquisition (CPA) to determine which messaging resonates best with your audience.

‍

What are some strategies to ensure my ad messaging aligns with my target audience’s pain points and needs?

Conduct thorough market research, including customer surveys and interviews, to gain insights into your audience’s challenges. Use this information to craft messages that directly address their specific concerns.

‍

How can I balance creativity and clarity in my ad messaging to effectively communicate my value proposition?

Focus on clear and concise language that highlights the unique benefits of your product. While creativity can capture attention, clarity ensures the message is understood and compelling.

‍

What role does audience segmentation play in crafting effective ad messages for B2B SaaS products?

Segmenting your audience allows for personalized messaging that speaks directly to the needs of different groups, increasing relevance and engagement. Tailor your ad copy to address the specific pain points of each segment.

‍

How can I avoid using jargon or buzzwords in my ad messaging while still appearing knowledgeable and credible?

Use straightforward language that clearly explains your product’s benefits. Focus on how your solution solves problems rather than relying on industry jargon, which can alienate or confuse potential customers.

‍

Hey everyone 👋 

‍

I’m Campbell Nelson, Marketing Director at Firefish Software, a CRM designed for recruitment agencies. 

‍

Over the last 12-18 months, I’ve led Firefish Software’s transition from a traditional lead gen strategy to a demand gen approach, which has helped us significantly increase both pipeline and brand awareness. 

‍

I’ll be breaking down our entire paid media strategy & sharing my learnings below👇

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Background
• Our Strategy
• Lessons Learned

‍Background

‍

Last year, we made the transition from lead gen to demand gen for the following reasons: 

‍

1. While we were generating a ton of MQLs, our lead to opportunity and opportunity to closed won conversion rates were poor. We hypothesised that by going ungated, we could build more trust and increase conversion rates.  

‍

2. New clients acquired through lead gen campaigns had a relatively low LTV and  were problematic when it came to stickiness, which seemed to indicate a lack of brand affinity. By switching to a demand gen approach, we believed that we could solve this issue and increase retention further through the lifecycle. 

‍

3. In the CRM space, buying cycles are dictated by contract renewals which can sometimes run  for up to 4 years, meaning that most prospects are out of market. By shifting to ungated content, our goal was to maximize distribution and increase long-term mental availability, which would be crucial for predictable growth. 

‍

4. When attending conferences and expos, a lot of prospects mentioned our blog but had no idea that we were a CRM software – this was indicative of a lack of product awareness. We decided that ungated content would be necessary to distribute our value propositions more widely and be in the consideration set when prospects entered the market. 

‍

So far, this shift has been highly successful. Since going ungated and removing lead gen forms, we’ve seen a 40% year-on-year increase in opportunities from direct and organic branded search channels. Further down the funnel, we’ve seen a 50% increase in closed-won revenue from branded organic search and each quarter we are seeing incremental improvements in our win rates from each demand focussed channel – all associated with increased awareness. 

‍Our Strategy

‍

Here’s the full breakdown of the paid media strategy that has led to our success👇

‍

LinkedIn

‍

30% of our LinkedIn budget goes to content. These are typically playbooks and other resources that will help recruiters (key members of the buying committee) become better at their jobs. If everyone in the buying committee trusts us and has an awareness of our value, we know that they’ll champion us and push deals over the finish line. 

‍

‍

50% of our budget goes to product ads, aimed at our key decision makers (C-suite, VPs, Directors). These ads are all related to our main value propositions, and they clearly articulate how we can solve their biggest problems. 

‍

By consistently highlighting these pain points, we know that we’ll be top of mind when decision-makers start actively searching for solutions. 

‍

‍

Finally, the remaining 20% of our LinkedIn budget goes to social proof. We show these ads to both champions (recruiters) and decision-makers (VPs and execs) that have entered our remarketing audience, either by visiting our website or engaging with other ads in some capacity. 

‍

The goal of these ads is to continue to build trust and increase the likelihood of a conversion. 

‍

‍

YouTube

‍

While most of our spend happens on LinkedIn, we also run YouTube Ads to stay in front of prospects across multiple channels. 

‍

All of these ads clearly highlight our value propositions and show exactly how our product works. 

‍

‍

To minimize wasted spend, we run these 30-second video ads to our warmest audiences: 

‍

1. Remarketing, staying in front of people who have already visited our site

‍

2. Prospecting, targeting people who have searched our dream product-related keywords on Google (doing this via YouTube is great because we can get in front of high-quality prospects without paying Google’s insanely high CPCs)

‍Lessons Learned

‍

By leading Firefish Software’s marketing and implementing this strategy, I’ve learned a lot of important lessons – here are the biggest ones:

‍

1. It’s okay to make mistakes 

‍

You’re not going to get everything right the first time around. Sometimes your message won’t resonate and your ads will flop, and that’s okay. Marketing is all about failing, learning from the failures, and trying again. 

‍

2. Nail down your value proposition 

‍

This is something that so many B2B SaaS companies get wrong 😢

‍

In the early days, we were testing a lot of different messages in our ads, but we hadn’t clearly outlined our value proposition or the problems we were solving with our product. 

‍

Now that we’ve clearly outlined our core value props, all our ads highlight them in some capacity. Also, most of our content now relates to these value props as well, so we can easily repurpose it for our ad campaigns. 

‍

Ultimately, having alignment across your entire marketing department on overall messaging is essential to maximize your ROI and return on effort. 

‍

3. Create a memorable experience

‍

It’s so easy to fall into the trap of copying exactly what’s already being done in your industry. 

‍

But by doing this, you’ll likely end up with vanilla B2B ads that your prospects won’t remember. I know we definitely fell into this trap, running generic ads with boring “click here” CTAs 🥱

‍

No matter what type of ads you’re running – product, content, social proof, etc. – the most important question you should ask yourself is: 

‍

Are my ads memorable? 

‍

If they aren’t, prospects probably won’t think of your brand when it’s time to buy. 

‍

4. Figure out attribution

‍

If you’re switching to a demand gen strategy, you need to get good at stakeholder management and bring your CRO/CFO along on the journey – otherwise, they might be alarmed by the sudden decrease in leads. 

‍

To prove that your strategy is working, I highly recommend using an attribution tool like Dreamdata or HockeyStack (Dreamdata has a free version that you can get started with) to demonstrate that certain touchpoints are having an impact on pipeline. 

‍

In addition to this, it’s a good idea to set up microconversion events, such as engaged visits, to demonstrate that your ICP is finding value in your content. 

‍

Finally, make sure you’re also tracking positive comments and mentions of your ads in self-reported attribution – showing these to the leadership team will increase their confidence in your new demand gen approach.

‍

5. Have fun

‍

We often forget this in B2B, but marketing is supposed to be fun. 

‍

It’s supposed to be about creativity and testing new ideas, not just measurement and graphs. If you’re having fun, your prospects will take notice, and will likely  be more interested in working with you. 

‍

Hope you found this article helpful!

‍

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

‍

Free Resources to Build a Full-Funnel Paid Media Program
‍

If you want to build a full-funnel B2B paid media program, then you should definitely check our free course Building a Paid Media Program: Scale Your B2B SaaS Advertising. 
‍

Here’s what is in for you:

• Module 1: you'll learn the S.C.A.L.E framework for building a paid program.
  
  
• Module 2: you'll learn how to create your paid strategy with the five stages.
  
  
• Module 3: you'll learn how to measure your paid media program correctly.
  
  
• Module 4: you'll learn how to create world-class campaigns from A-Z.
  
  
• Module 5: you'll learn how to create an experimentation engine.
  
  
• Module 6: you'll learn how to scale with the Scaling Quadrant.

‍

It doesn’t matter if you’re a seasoned B2B advertiser or a complete newbie.

You’re going to walk away with frameworks and repeatable processes for building a paid media program that scales.
‍

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

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

‍

People Also Ask

How can transitioning from a lead generation to a demand generation approach impact the quality of leads and overall customer retention?

Shifting to demand generation focuses on creating awareness and interest, potentially attracting more engaged prospects who have a genuine need for your solution, leading to higher-quality leads and improved customer retention.

‍

What are the key considerations when deciding to ungate content in a B2B marketing strategy?

Consider the trade-off between lead quantity and quality. Ungating content can enhance trust and reach, but it’s essential to have alternative methods for capturing prospect information and nurturing leads effectively.

‍

How can a company effectively measure the success of a demand generation strategy compared to traditional lead generation?

Evaluate metrics such as brand awareness, website engagement, lead-to-opportunity conversion rates, and customer lifetime value to assess the effectiveness of demand generation efforts.

‍

What challenges might arise when shifting from a lead generation to a demand generation model, and how can they be addressed?

Challenges include aligning internal teams, redefining success metrics, and adjusting marketing tactics. Address these by providing training, setting clear goals, and maintaining open communication across departments.

‍

How can a demand generation approach be tailored to accommodate long buying cycles, such as those influenced by multi-year contracts?

Implement strategies that maintain ongoing engagement with prospects, such as regular content updates, nurturing campaigns, and staying top-of-mind until they are ready to make a purchasing decision.

‍

Hey B2B marketer! Without clearly defined rules for testing and optimizing your PPC campaigns, you’re either going to pause things prematurely, or you’re going to scale too early.

‍

In this article, you’ll learn how to make decisions based on logic instead of emotions when managing your PPC campaigns.

‍

Let’s dive in! 👇

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• 1 - Find Your Breakeven Costs
• 2 - Non-Performer Rule
• 3 - Maintenance Rule
• 4 - Free PPC Optimization Cheat Sheet
• 5 - Free Resources to Build a Full-Funnel Paid Media Program

1 - Find Your Breakeven Costs

Your goal is to drive more pipeline and revenue, so knowing how much you can afford to spend per lead or click is the first step to ensure you don’t lose money while optimizing for performance.

‍

Breakeven Cost per Lead

‍

Here’s what you will need  to  calculate your  breakeven cost per lead:

‍

1. Take your average deal size
   ‍
2. Multiply that towards your lead to close won rate.
   ‍

Example: 
‍

If your deal size is $3,000 and your close rate is 10%, your breakeven cost per lead is $300.
‍

This means that when optimizing your ppc campaigns, you can spend up to $300 to break even. So you’ll start to lose money if anything goes after $300.
‍

Breakeven Cost per Click
‍

This is a step further and will inform what you’re willing to pay the channel for a click. 
‍

Here’s what you will need to calculate your  breakeven cost per click:
‍

1. Take the breakeven cost per lead target
   ‍
2. Multiply that towards your landing page or form conversion rate if you use lead gen forms.
   ‍

Example: 
‍

If your breakeven cost per lead is $300 and your landing page/form conversion rate is 5%, your breakeven cost per click is $15.
‍

This foundational math grounds your optimization decisions and eliminates emotional bias, ensuring you stay within profitable bounds.

2 - Apply a Non-Performer Rule

When ads fail to deliver results, emotions often lead us to either pause campaigns too soon or let them run too long.
‍

This is where the non-performer rule saves the day.
‍

The rule is simple: 
‍

• Pause any ad that spends 2-3x your target cost per lead without generating conversions.
  ‍
• Timeframe: All time.

‍

Example:
‍

If your target is $300 per lead and you spend $600-$900 without results, it’s time to hit pause.
‍

This removes emotional bias and gives your ads a fair shot before deciding their fate.
‍

By doing this, you stop wasting money and gain clarity on what isn’t working, allowing you to allocate your budget more effectively.

‍

3 - Apply a Maintenance Rule

Even great ads don’t perform forever. Over time, performance may drop due to ad fatigue or other factors.
‍

The maintenance rule will help you handle these scenarios with logic, not guesswork. 
‍

Here’s how it works: 
‍

• If an ad’s cost per lead increases to 1.5-2x your target over a 7-14-day period, it’s time to pause.
  ‍

Example:
‍

If your cost per lead target is $300, an ad costing $450-$600 per lead is no longer viable, and you should pause it.

Free B2B PPC Optimization Rules Cheat Sheet
‍

Save this cheat sheet below to have these rules on hand when optimizing your B2B PPC campaigns. 🙂
‍

‍

This isn’t statistically significant, but it’s an easy approach grounded in logic that helps to remove emotion.

‍

Remember:  The best advertisers think like investors, and they execute like scientists, so rational thinking is key.

‍

By calculating breakeven costs, applying the non-performer rule, and using the maintenance rule, you can make logical, repeatable decisions that keep your B2B campaigns profitable and focused.

‍

With the automated rules feature, you can even automate some of these actions for certain channels like Google Ads. To learn more about that, check out my free B2B Google Ads 102 Course - How To Convert Clicks Into Profit.

‍

I hope you found this article helpful ✌️
‍

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

Free Resources to Build a Full-Funnel Paid Media Program
‍

If you want to build a full-funnel B2B paid media program, then you should definitely check my free course Building a Paid Media Program: Scale Your B2B SaaS Advertising. 
‍

Here’s what is in for you:

• Module 1: you'll learn the S.C.A.L.E framework for building a paid program.
  
  
• Module 2: you'll learn how to create your paid strategy with the five stages.
  
  
• Module 3: you'll learn how to measure your paid media program correctly.
  
  
• Module 4: you'll learn how to create world-class campaigns from A-Z.
  
  
• Module 5: you'll learn how to create an experimentation engine.
  
  
• Module 6: you'll learn how to scale with the Scaling Quadrant.

‍

It doesn’t matter if you’re a seasoned B2B advertiser or a complete newbie.

You’re going to walk away with frameworks and repeatable processes for building a paid media program that scales.
‍

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

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

‍

People Also Ask

‍

1 - What’s PPC optimization all about?

Think of PPC optimization as fine-tuning your paid ads to get the most bang for your buck. It’s about tweaking keywords, targeting the right B2B audiences, crafting killer ad copy, and making sure your landing pages are on point. The goal? To get your ads in front of the right decision-makers and drive those valuable actions that matter to your business.

‍

2 - How does ad copy make or break a B2B PPC campaign?

Your ad copy is your first impression—so make it count! Speak directly to your audience’s pain points and needs. Highlight what makes you stand out, whether it’s a solution to their problem or something that saves them time and money. Test out different versions (because A/B testing is your best friend) and see what clicks—literally.

‍

3 - Why are landing pages such a big deal in B2B PPC?‍

Landing pages are where the magic happens. When someone clicks your ad, they expect to land on a page that delivers exactly what was promised. If your landing page is laser-focused, speaks to their needs, and makes it easy to take the next step, your conversion rates will thank you.

4 - What metrics actually matter in B2B PPC campaigns?

In B2B, it’s not just about clicks—it’s about qualified leads and pipeline growth. Watch metrics like CTR, CPC, conversion rate, cost per MQL/SQL, pipeline generated, and ROAS. For Google Search campaigns, don’t ignore quality score. These numbers will tell you if you’re spending wisely or burning budget.

5 - Why is monitoring your B2B PPC campaigns so important?

Things change fast in PPC—your audience, your competition, and even market trends. Keeping a close eye on your campaigns helps you pivot quickly when needed, refine your approach, and keep your ROI looking sharp. Regular check-ins = better results. Simple as that.

Google Ads is not getting any cheaper, so frequently auditing your account is critical to keep your campaigns profitable.

‍

In this step-by-step guide, I will walk you through the exact same process we use internally to audit our clients’  Google Ads accounts.

‍

As a bonus, you can get a free copy of my 8-Part Google Ads Audit Checklist from Module 1, Lesson 5 of my B2B Google Ads 102 free course, so you can have it on hand while you go through the tasks below.

‍

So let’s get started 👇

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Part 1 - Account Review
• Part 2 - Campaign Review
• Part 3 - Ad Group Review
• Part 4 - Keyword Review
• Part 5 - Ads & Extensions Review
• Part 6 - Landing Page Review
• Part 7 - Budget & Performance Review
• Part 8 - Visibility Review
• Resources to Master B2B Google Ads
• Google Ads Audit FAQ

Part 1 - Account Review

‍

First and foremost, you can’t improve your account performance without mastering the basics. So let’s dive in!

‍

1. Billing Information
‍

Is your billing information correct?

‍

Checking this will ensure that your ads continue to run smoothly and you don't face any unexpected billing issues.

‍

To check your billing information, follow these steps:
‍

1. Sign in to your Google Ads account.
   ‍
2. Click on the "Billing" icon on the left-hand menu.
   ‍
3. Click on "Settings" to view your current billing information.

‍

‍

Here, you can view your payment method, payer details (name, address, etc), and other important details. 

‍

Make sure all the information is correct and up-to-date. If you notice any errors, click on the pencil next to each detail to make the necessary changes.

‍

‍

It's important to note that any changes you make to your billing information may take up to 24 hours to take effect. 

‍

Additionally, if you have any pending charges on your account, you won't be able to make changes until those charges are paid off.

‍

2. Is your time zone correct?

‍

The accuracy of your account's time zone setting is more crucial than it may seem at first glance. The time zone affects how you schedule ads, interpret performance data, and manage billing cycles.

‍

You cannot change your time zone manually, and it can only be reset once, so as Google advises, choose your new time zone carefully.

‍

To request a change, you’ll need to fill out this form and follow the instructions below:
‍

• The form must be filled out by an Admin user of a manager account.
  ‍
• Your time zone can only be shifted eastward, for example, from GTM (Greenwich Mean Time) to IST (India Standard Time).
  ‍

3. Do you have auto-tagging turned on?

‍

Auto-tagging is an easy 3-step process:
‍

1. Sign in to your Google Ads account
   ‍
2. On the left-hand side, under admin> click on Account Settings
   ‍
3. Click on “Auto-tagging” - check the box and save.

‍

Once you enable this feature, Google will automatically mark your source_medium as “cpc”

‍

‍

4. Did you turn off ad suggestions?

‍

Have you ever gone to your Google Ads account and noticed a bunch of changes that weren’t made by you or anyone on your team?This probably happened because you didn’t turn off the ad suggestions 😅

‍

So follow these steps to have peace of mind:
‍

1. Sign in to your Google Ads account.
   ‍
2. Click on the "Campaigns" on the left-hand menu.
   ‍
3. Click on "Recommendations" and go to “Auto-apply”

‍

‍

Make sure you turn off all of the recommendations that aren’t relevant to your account.

‍

I personally like to turn off all of them, so I don’t have any changes made by Google without my consent.

‍

‍

5. Is your conversion tracking still working accurately?

‍

This is crucial because if your conversion tracking is not working correctly, you won’t feed Google’s algorithm with essential data to make the best bidding choices for your conversion-based strategies.

‍

Here’s how you can check if your tracking is in place:
‍

1. Sign in to your Google Ads account.
   ‍
2. Click on the "Goals" on the left-hand menu.
   ‍
3. Click on "Conversions" and go to “Summary”
   ‍
4. You’ll be able to see the status of your conversions - you want to see “Active”

‍

‍

Pro-tip: If you see the status “No recent conversions” - search for your keyword on Google and submit a test.

‍

If you don’t see any activity and have been running Google Ads campaigns for a while, it probably means you’ll need to see what’s going on to ensure the tracking setup is in place.

Part 2 - Campaign Review

‍

Depending on the size and organization of the account, this step will take longer or shorter. So let’s go 👷‍♂️

‍

1. Do your campaigns follow a logical naming convention?

‍

Having a solid naming convention in place isn’t just about aesthetics, it’s the foundation for good account management.

‍

My campaigns usually have a naming convention  that follows this structure:
‍

• Region (NA, EMEA, APAC)
  ‍
• Campaign Theme (Brand, NonBrand, Generic, Competitor)
  ‍
• Keyword Topic
  ‍
• Network (Search, Display)
  ‍
• Keyword Match Type (Exact, Phrase, Broad)
  ‍
• Device (Desktop, Mobile, All Devices)
  ‍
• Offer (Demo, Trial, etc)

‍

‍

So if you have disjointed campaign names, it’s an opportunity to adjust that and make your life easier.

‍

2. Are you targeting the right networks (display unchecked)?

‍

You want to focus on the Search Network and search partners, avoiding the Display Network unless it’s a separate campaign.
‍

1. Select the desired campaign
   ‍
2. Go to “Campaign Settings” (on the right-hand side)
   ‍
3. Click on Networks
   ‍
4. Choose the desired Network and save 

‍

‍

1. At the campaign level
   ‍
2. Scroll over your campaign
   ‍
3. Setting logo will appear
   ‍
4. Click on the logo
   ‍
5. Under Networks, choose the desired Network and save.

‍

‍

3. Is your location targeting and options still accurate?

‍

If you have a proper naming convention, you should be able to tell where you intend to target your campaigns, but you still need to ensure the correct locations are selected. 

‍

Similar to Networks, there are two ways to check your locations:
‍

1. Select the desired campaign
   ‍
2. Go to Locations (on the left-hand side - Audiences, keywords and content)
   ‍
3. Click on the pencil icon
   ‍
4. Choose the desired locations and save 

‍

‍

1. At the campaign level > Scroll over your campaign 
   ‍
2. The settings logo will appear
   ‍
3. Click on the logo
   ‍
4. Under Locations, Enter location(s) and Save.

‍

‍

4. Are you targeting one language per campaign (with relevant ads + landing pages)?

‍

In a perfect world, your ads and landing pages should match the primary language of the targeting locations.

‍

Here’s how you can change the language of your campaigns:
‍

1. At the campaign level, toggle over your campaign name
   ‍
2. Click on the icon setting once it appears
   ‍
3. Under “Languages” you can select the desired language and click Save.

‍

‍

5. Is your daily budget still aligned with your goals?

‍

Being an effective marketer involves strategically allocating your budget over the designated campaign duration while achieving the goals. 

‍

Ex. If your average cost per demo is $300 and you need to generate 10 demos, then you must have at least $3,000 - Now, if the plan is to run the campaign for 30 days, then you must allocate a $100 daily budget and check daily to make sure it’s pacing well. 

‍

Generally speaking, I don’t recommend running campaigns with less than $50/day for B2B campaigns, but this will obviously depend on your average cost per click.

‍

Check our Google Ads Budget Calculator tool if you need help to define your budget 🙌

‍

6. Are you using the correct bidding strategy?

‍

When you’re first starting out, getting as many clicks as possible is important to get some early conversions, so the “Maximize Clicks” strategy is a good option.

‍

If you have more than 15 conversions, you can switch to the “Maximize Conversions” strategy if your goal is to get as many conversions as possible.

‍

If you have offline conversions set up, you can use the “Maximize Conversion Value” strategy or the “Target ROAS” strategy. These will help you get more relevant conversions.

‍

Here are two ways to check your bidding options:
‍

1. Select the desired campaign
   ‍
2. Go to Setting (on the right-hand side)
   ‍
3. Click on Bidding  > “Change bid strategy”
   ‍
4. From the dropdown menu, select the desired bidding strategy and save.

‍

‍

1. At the campaign level > scroll over your campaign > Setting logo will appear
   ‍
2. Click on the logo
   ‍
3. Under Bidding, “Change bid strategy”
   ‍
4. From the dropdown menu, select the desired bidding strategy and save.

‍

7. Do you have the correct conversion actions set? (if applicable)

‍

Campaigns can inherit account-level conversions or have specific conversion actions set. 

Both approaches are valid, but it’s essential to use the one that aligns with your campaign goals. 

‍

For instance, if a campaign-specific conversion action set is used, make sure it includes all relevant actions in the conversion funnel.

‍

Follow the steps below to add/check conversion actions:

‍

1. At the campaign level > scroll over your campaign
   ‍
2. Setting logo will appear, click on the logo
   ‍
3. Under Goals, “Use campaign-specific goal setting”
   ‍
4. Click the pencil icon 
   ‍
5. Select the appropriate (previously tested) conversions and save. 

‍

‍

8. Are your ad rotation settings still accurate?

‍

Generally speaking, I recommend using the “Best Performing Ads” option. This way, the Google algorithm will analyze your ads' performance and prioritize delivering the the ads  with the best performance.

‍

But if you see that Google is serving some ads dramatically more than others, then you can select “Rotate Ads Indefinitely” and Google will distribute each ad individually.

‍

For conducting A/B testing on multiple ads, I recommend selecting the "Do not optimize" setting to make sure you’re collecting more precise data.

‍

To review your ad rotation settings, follow these steps:
‍

1. At the campaign level > scroll over your campaign
   ‍
2. Setting logo will appear, click on the logo
   ‍
3. Click on additional settings > Ad rotation
   ‍
4. Click the pencil icon 
   ‍
5. Select the preferred method and save. 

‍

You can also follow the steps above at the Ad Group level

‍

‍‍

9. Is your ad schedule still up to date?

‍

You can review your campaign's performance by day of the week and time of day, then adjust your ad schedule as needed. To do so, follow these steps:
‍

1. Click on “Overview” on the left-hand side
   ‍
2. Under the “Day & Hour” table, you can choose the metrics that matter the most to you to view performance by Day and/or Hour.

‍

‍

Now that you know which days and times generate the best results, you can tailor your ad scheduling accordingly. 
‍

1. Select the campaign or ad group
   ‍
2. Click on Ad Schedule on the left-hand side
   ‍
3. Click the pencil icon
   ‍
4. Choose the optimal time and save. 

‍

‍

10. Are you targeting the right devices?

‍

Similar to the ad schedule, you can follow the same steps to find the best performance by device and make adjustments. Steps as follows:
‍

1. Click on “Overview” on the left-hand side
   ‍
2. Under the “devices” table, you can choose the metrics that matter the most to you. 

‍

‍

You can now update your targeting by device accordingly. 
‍

1. Select the campaign or ad group
   ‍
2. Click on “When and where ads showed” on the left-hand side
   ‍
3.  Edit bid adjustment
   ‍
4. To stop showing on a specific device, choose “Decrease with 100% ratio > Save 

‍

‍

If you’re using the device on the campaign naming convention, you want to make sure the campaign is targeting the device it has on its name.

‍

11. Are you excluding existing leads and sales from your campaigns? (bonus)

‍

A practical approach to lowering costs involves not targeting existing leads and customers. 

‍

Google enables the upload of first-party data for use primarily in Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA) and for creating exclusions. Steps below:
‍

• Select audiences on the left-hand side
  ‍
• Edit exclusions
  ‍
• Select the Campaign or Ad group
  ‍
• Choose the previously uploaded audience > Save

‍

‍

12. Do you have observational audiences added to your campaigns? (bonus)

‍

Gain insights into how different audiences interact with your campaigns without altering who sees your ads:
‍

1. Select audiences on the left-hand side
   ‍
2. Audience segments
   ‍
3. Select Campaign or Ad Group
   ‍
4. Under observation, choose what is important to you and save. 

‍

‍‍

13. Have you been actively running campaign experiments in the past? (bonus)

‍

With the Experiments feature, you can execute A/B tests without needing to set up new campaigns.

‍

If the outcome proves successful, the winning campaign can then be chosen as the primary one.

‍

Part 3 - Ad Group Review

‍

1. Are your ad groups broken out logically into related themes?

‍

There are generally 6 buckets of themes for search ads:
‍

• Brand
• Non-brand
• Competitive
• RLSA (Search Remarketing)
• Content
• Dynamic Search Ads

‍

A clear naming convention aids in quickly identifying campaign and group themes. Example:

‍

‍Campaign: NA_Non-Brand_Search_EN_Exact_All-Devices_Demo

‍Group: Non-Brand_Software

‍

If there is no proper naming convention, then we have some cleaning to do:
‍

1. Download the data at the keyword level
   ‍
2. Delete: Ad spend < $ 1
   ‍
3. Open a new column called “Theme” beside the Keywords
   ‍
4. Tag the Theme of the campaign/group according to the Keyword
   ‍
5. Turn it into a pivot table to get the data by Theme
   ‍
6. Update the naming convention

‍

If you don’t do a good job separating your keywords into themed ad groups, it will hurt your quality score.

‍

Because if you have too many keywords in your ad group, it’s hard to make sure that the ads are relevant to all these keywords.

‍

2. Do you have less than 15 keywords per ad group?

‍

This is not a set-in-stone law, but it will help you mitigate the damage to your ad relevance.

‍

Google allows up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions in Responsive Search Ads. The goal is for keywords within each group to have a relevant ad to boost the quality score. 

‍

At the end of the day, you know you are doing a good job with your ad groups and how you structured your keywords if you see that your ad relevance is above average.

‍

‍

3. Are your ad groups filled with relevant keywords, ads, and landing pages?

‍

Each group’s keywords should align with an ad in the same language, context, and call to action as well as a landing page contextualizing the search terms.

‍

Here’s a good example of a great message match from the CRM software folk.

‍

They’re bidding on the keyword “CRM software for startups”, their ad mentions “CRM for startups”, and if you click on the ad, their landing page talks exactly about CRM for startups. Everything is aligned.

‍

‍

4. Are your best ad groups receiving enough budget?

‍

With accurate conversion tracking in place for your campaigns (we covered this in Part 1), we can see which ad groups bring more conversions at a lower cost per conversion.After reviewing the ad group performance, you can optimize your ad groups in these ways:
‍

1. Pause the ad groups with more search volume that are just cannibalizing and eating up all the campaign budget without bringing conversions.
   
   
2. Take the top performers' ad groups and put them into their own campaign.
   
   
3. Run target CPA bidding and set different target CPA caps at the different ad group levels, so you can put a more restrictive cap on the one that’s eating up all the budget and then put a larger one on the one that hasn’t spent enough.

‍Part 4 - Keyword Review

‍‍

1. Are your search terms as close to perfect as possible?

‍

Regularly checking the search term report has 2 main benefits:
‍

• Reduce CPA: Comparing the number of clicks to the number of conversions - exclude all irrelevant results.
  
  
• Increase Expected CTR: Compare the number of impressions to the number of clicks - exclude all irrelevant results.
  
  

How to check the search term report in Google ads:
‍

1. Under “Campaigns” on the left-hand side > Click “Insights and reports”
   ‍
2. Select “Search terms”
   ‍
3. Filter by campaign
   ‍
4. Evaluate the above recommendations. 

‍

‍

2. Do you have a strong negative keyword list in place?

‍

Negative keywords help us reduce the wasted budget and increase the overall quality of ads. 

‍

The broader the match type, the more important it is to have an extensive list of negative keywords. 

‍

However, even with Exact match type, search terms must be regularly checked, and negative keywords constantly be updated.

‍

Maintaining a universal negative keyword list for your entire account can be beneficial. This list might include words related to profanity, employment, bargaining, etc.

‍

Below you can access a sample list we use in our agency. 

‍

👉 Master Negative Keyword List

‍

‍To avoid unintended blocking, please ensure these negative keywords apply to your business and do not overlap with any targeting keywords.How to create a new list in Google: 
‍

1. Select “Tools” on the left-hand side
   ‍
2. Under “Shared library” click on “Exclusion lists”
   ‍
3. Select the “plus sign”
   ‍
4. Add the list of desired negative keywords and name the list accordingly. 

‍

‍

3. Do you have the appropriate match types for your keywords?

‍

If you don’t know which match type you should start with, then always start with the Exact match type and work your way up. 

‍

If you don’t get quality conversions with the Exact match type, then changing the match type won’t help.

‍

Generally, Broad match types have the highest wasted budget - unless the campaign is layered with a first-data party audience. 

‍

4. Do you have underperforming keywords you can pause or optimize?

‍

Usually, 20% of the keywords are responsible for 80% of the results. Make sure to check the performance of each keyword and pause underperformers continuously. 

‍

However, before pausing, analyze the relevance of search terms against keywords. 

‍

If they align, evaluate the click-through rate (CTR) to determine if the ad copy requires updates. 

‍

If users are still clicking on the ad without converting, consider revising the landing page.

‍

5. Are your keyword bids set at an optimal amount?  (if applicable)

‍

If you're using automated bidding, you don't have to worry about this step.

‍

But if you're using manual bidding, sometimes your manual bid is too low, so your ads won’t show on the first pages of the results.

‍

I recommend that your Max. CPC amount is at least high enough to the first page bid estimate.

‍

You can find the keyword bid simulator by hovering over the small chart in the Max. CPC field.

‍

‍Part 5 - Ads & Extensions Review

‍‍

1. Are your keywords in your ad copy?

‍

This is an easy way to increase ad relevance and ultimately get more clicks. 

‍

I can’t stress enough the importance of having a strong message match.

‍

When users encounter their specific search terms within your ad—especially if these terms are variations of your targeted keywords—the likelihood of them proceeding to your landing page significantly increases.

‍

‍

2. Are you title-casing the beginning of each letter in your ad?

‍

Title casing is when you capitalize the letter of each important work in the sentence.

‍

In my experience, title casing works better on paid search because your ads will look more professional, and it will enhance readability.

‍

‍

‍3. Do you have a minimum of two ads per ad group?

‍

Running multiple ads allows for A/B testing or split testing, where different versions of ads can be compared to see which one performs better. 

‍

By consistently testing ads, you’ll drive a better click-through rate, and this will ultimately result in a better Expected Click-through rate, which will improve your quality score and reduce your costs while putting your ads in a better search results position.

‍

4. Are you speaking one-to-one, communicating benefits, answering objections, and providing a CTA?

‍

You want to make sure you are speaking one-to-one In your copy and not using corporate speak, where it seems you’re talking to an auditorium versus a person.Here are a few important points your ads should cover:

1. Are you communicating benefits in the second headline to differentiate yourself from your competitors on the SERP?
   
   
2. Are you answering objections? (If there are objections that you can answer on your copy)
   
   
3. Are you providing a Call-to-Action (CTA) that moves people and motivates them?

‍

Here’s a good example from Brevo:

‍

‍

• We can instantly see the benefit: 9000 emails free per month
  ‍
• One-to-one communication: Don’t let them overcharge you
  ‍
• CTA that motivates: Stop overpaying for email and get the best value in email delivery & email marketing tools.

‍

5. Are you using all the characters available in your headline, description & path fields?

‍

You don’t have to use every single one, but I recommend you use as many as you can.

‍

Utilizing all available characters in Google Ads' headline, description, and path fields increases message clarity and impact, boosting click-through and conversion rates. 

‍

6. Are you using as many ad extensions (assets) as possible? (Especially core ones)

‍

Extensions expand your presence on the search results page, improving the chances of receiving more clicks, which will increase your expected CTR and the overall quality score. 

‍

‍

While assets such as the business logo and name are best set at the account level, it's often better to tailor other extensions, like callouts, structured snippets, sitelinks, etc., to reflect the the messaging of each campaign or ad group. 

‍

How to create new ad extensions  in Google: 
‍

1. Select “Campaigns” on the left-hand side
   ‍
2. Under “Assets” click on “Assets”
   ‍
3. Select the desired extension to see the ones you already have.
   ‍
4. Click on the “plus sign” to add new ad extensions. 

‍

‍

7. Are you consistently testing new ad copy, types and modifiers?

‍

If you are not doing this, you’ll know because you will see the click-through rate consistently going down week over week, month over month.

‍

If you’re auditing someone else’s account, you can check the “Changes history” option to see if they are constantly testing new ads.

‍

For modifiers, you can use dynamic keyword insertion in your ad copies to dynamically test different variations.

‍

8. Are you sending searchers to relevant landing pages?

‍

In my opinion, this is the most important thing.

‍

If your prospects search for “CRM for startups”, your ads should say “CRM for startups”, and your landing page should say “CRM for startups”.

‍

‍

This sounds basic and trivial, but the amount of people who miss this is dramatic.

‍

So make sure that you have a strong message match.

‍Part 6 - Landing Page Review

‍‍

‍Remember that success will come from half traffic and half your landing page, so I highly recommend deep diving into your pages individually as you go through this.

‍

1. Are you mirroring the message from your ad on the landing page?

‍

As I mentioned in the last step of Part 5, the landing page experience is a crucial element of the quality score. 

‍

A page that fails to align with your ad's messaging is unlikely to offer value to the user. 

‍

2. Can the searcher understand what you do & why in 5 seconds or less?

‍

This is called the five-second rule, and it’s essentially a test where if your prospects just look at the above the fold section of your landing page, can they understand in five seconds what you do and essentially why they should care?

‍

In this example from Microsoft Clarity, we can easily understand that this is a free tool that will help you get insights into the behavior of users on your website so you can improve your products. 

‍

It’s also used by 100k+ sites worldwide and is GDPR & CCPA-compliant.

‍

‍

You don’t want to be vague on your landing pages, and you want to make sure that they have the following:
‍

• Clear and concise headline
  ‍
• Engaging subheadlines 
  ‍
• Visual elements
  ‍
• Call to action (CTA) throughout the page
  ‍
• Quick loading time for all devices

‍

To learn more about landing page best practices, dive into the article below by Pedro Cortés:

‍10 Proven Landing Page Tips To Boost Your Conversion Rates

‍‍

3. Is your landing page loading fast enough?

‍

As mentioned above, the landing pages must load quickly on all devices. Tools like Lighthouse or PageSpeed Insights can help you better understand areas of opportunity. 

‍

I recommend you run your page through PageSpeed Insights and apply anything applicable. 

‍

You’re probably going to need the help of a developer, but it’s definitely worthwhile to improve the page speed because this is a big factor in terms of your landing page experience for quality score.

‍

‍

A simple thing to improve your landing page loading time is compressing the website images to reduce the file sizes.

‍

4. Do you have one clear call to action on your landing page that mirrors your ad?

‍

If your ad is talking about Downloading a Whitepaper but the landing page only has CTAs around Booking a Demo, then that will have a negative experience for the user. 

‍

Align landing page CTAs with ad promises to ensure a seamless user experience and encourage conversions.

‍

5. Are you communicating benefits, answering objections, and providing a CTA?

‍

The higher the ask, the more context must be provided on the page. This is specifically true for the “Book a Demo” CTA. 

‍

Ensure you address objections while emphasizing the key benefits of your product that will solve the users' problems.

‍

I recommend that you talk with your sales team to get insights on different objections that come up in the sales process, this way you can add sections on your landing page to proactively communicate against those objections so that you can actually drive more quality leads.

‍

6. Does your form, chatbot, or online booking widget still work?

‍

Before launching any new offers, test the page to make sure everything is working as intended.
‍

• Submit a fake test lead and see if it actually routes into your CRM. 
  ‍
• Go look for your lead record.
  ‍
• Check if the page isn’t broken. 
  ‍
• Review what the experience looks like. 

‍

Make sure you audit that process because I can't tell you how many times people think their campaigns are failing, and then something just broke on the technical side.

Part 7 - Budget & Performance Review

‍

1. What is the spread of budget and performance by campaign theme? (NonBrand, Brand, Competitive, RLSA, Content)

‍

This is where you will need to export a lot of data from Google Ads and use Excel/Google Sheets.

‍

👉 I recommend watching the Part 7 video above if you need a walkthrough on exporting and labeling the data to perform this analysis.

‍

Here’s a common successful budget distribution you can use as guidance: 
‍

• Brand: < 20%
• Non-brand > 60%
• Competitive > 20%

‍

You can use our free Google Ads Budget Calculator to find your ideal Google Ads budget.

‍‍

2. What is the spread of budget and performance by region?

‍

If you are targeting multiple regions, break out the campaign as such (ex: NA, EMEA, APAC).

‍

👉 Check out the Part 7 video above if you need a walkthrough on the data analysis methodology using Excel.

‍

Look for the highest-performing locations for each region and make sure low-quality conversions are not wasting your budget. If you’re not separating your campaigns into regions, you can still check how the budget has been spread around different locations through the Locations report:

‍

1. Select “Campaigns” on the left-hand side
   ‍
2. Go to “Locations”, under “Audiences, keywords, and content” 
   ‍
3. Select the desired campaign
   ‍
4. Download the data under Location
   ‍
5. Summarize into a pivot table to get:
   1. Ad spent
   2. Conversions
   3. Cost per conversion
      ‍

‍

3. What is the spread of budget and performance by offer?

‍

If you are separating the campaigns by offer, break out the campaign as such (Demo, Trials, eBooks, etc)

‍

👉 Check out the Part 7 video above if you need a walkthrough on the data analysis methodology using Excel.

‍

Here’s how to download the landing page report:

1. Select “Campaigns” on the left-hand side
   ‍
2. Go to “Landing Pages”, under “Insights and Reports” 
   ‍
3. Select the desired campaign
   ‍
4. Download the data
   ‍
5. On Excel:
   1. Delete: Ad spend <$1
   2. If there is no proper naming convention:
      1. Open a new column (Offer) beside the landing page (LP)
      2. Tag the offer of the campaign according to the LP
      3. Summarize into a pivot table to get:
         1. Ad spent
         2. Conversions
         3. Cost per conversion

‍

6. What is the spread of budget and performance by match type?
‍

If you are separating the campaigns by match type, break out the campaign as such (Exact, Phrase, Broad)

‍

👉 Check out the Part 7 video above if you need a walkthrough on the data analysis methodology using Excel.

‍

Here’s how to download the match type  report:

1. Select “Campaigns” on the left-hand side
   ‍
2. Go to “Search Keywords”, under “Audiences, keywords, and content” 
   ‍
3. Select the desired campaign
   ‍
4. Add the column “Match type”
   ‍
5. Download the data 
   ‍
6. On Excel, summarize into a pivot table to get:some text
   1. Ad spent
   2. Conversions
   3. Cost per conversion
      ‍

‍

7. What is the spread of budget and performance by device?
‍

If you are separating the campaigns by devices, break out the campaign as such (Desktop, Mobile, Tablet,  All Devices)

‍

👉 Check out the Part 7 video above if you need a walkthrough on the data analysis methodology using Excel.

‍

If the campaigns are not separated into devices, here’s how you can check the spread of budget and performance by device downloading the device report:

‍‍

8. What is the spread of budget and performance by week days?

‍

Check if you’re targeting all days of the week and if there’s opportunities to exclude some days when the performance is not good, so you can free up budget for the strongest days.Here’s how to download the day of the week  report:

1. Select “Campaigns” on the left-hand side
   ‍
2. Go to “When and where ads showed”, under “Insights and reportst” 
   ‍
3. Select the desired campaign
   ‍
4. Choose “Day” in the right-side navigation if you only want to see the day of the week
   ‍
5. Download the data
   ‍
6. On Excel, summarize into a pivot table to get:some text
   1. Ad spent
   2. Conversions
   3. Cost per conversion

‍

‍

To learn more about how to create a winning Google Ads budget strategy, dive into the article below:

‍How to Create a Winning Google Ads Budget Strategy for B2B SaaS‍

‍Part 8 - Visibility Review

‍

Here’s where we will talk more about Impression Share and Quality Score.

‍

1. What is the search impression share by campaign theme? (NonBrand, Brand, Competitive, RLSA, Content)

‍

There are different ways you can see the impression share by the campaign theme. 

‍

You can use Excel as I showed previously in Part 7, or you can go into your account and filter by campaign name, assuming you have good campaign naming conventions.

‍

👉 Check out the Part 8 video above if you need a walkthrough on how to find this data.

‍

‍

2. What is the search lost rank by campaign theme? (NonBrand, Brand, Competitive, RLSA, Content)

‍

The process here is the same from the previous task. The only difference is that you need to add the “Search lost IS (rank)” column.

‍

👉 Check out the Part 8 video above if you need a walkthrough on how to find this data.

‍

3. What is the search lost to budget by campaign theme? (NonBrand, Brand, Competitive, RLSA, Content)

‍

The process here is the same from the previous tasks. The only difference is that you need to add the “Search lost IS (budget)” column.

‍

👉 Check out the Part 8 video above if you need a walkthrough on how to find this data.

‍

4. What is the search top IS by campaign theme? (NonBrand, Brand, Competitive, RLSA, Content)

‍

The process here is the same from the previous tasks. The only difference is that you need to add the “Search top IS” column.

‍

👉 Check out the Part 8 video above if you need a walkthrough on how to find this data.

‍

5. Do 70% of your keywords have above 7 quality scores?

‍

This is something I learned from Brad Geddes years ago, the OG of Google Ads.

‍

Check the video below to see a complete guide on Quality Score and how to perform a Quality Score analysis:

‍

‍

6. What aspects of quality score do you need to improve?

‍

After going going through the data in the previous task, summarize your findings to know where you have opportunities to improve.

‍

Example:

• 100% of keywords have a Quality Score below 7.
  ‍
• 94% of keywords are rated as “Below Average” for landing page experience.
  ‍
• 45% have “Above Average” ad relevance.
  ‍
• 100% have “Below Average” expected CTR. 
  ‍

‍Optimization strategies you can adopt to improve your Quality Score:
‍‍

• Improve Landing Page Experience:
  ‍
  • Ensure pages are fast, relevant, and mobile-friendly
    ‍
  • Align ad copy with landing page content for a seamless message match.
    
    
• Refine Ad Relevance
  ‍
  • Group keywords into tightly themed ad groups.
    ‍
  • Write ads tailored to the specific intent of each group.
    
    
• Boost Expected CTR
  ‍
  • Test compelling ad headlines and descriptions.
    ‍
  • Use ad extensions to enhance visibility and clickability.
    ‍

I hope you received a ton of value from this Google Ads Audit guide.

‍

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

‍From Clicks to Conversions: Master Google Ads for B2B 🔥
‍

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

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

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

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

🎯 Google Ads 102 - How to Clicks Into Profit

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

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

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

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

‍

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

‍People Also Ask‍
‍

How can a Google Ads audit improve my campaign performance?
‍

• A Google Ads audit can significantly enhance your campaign performance by identifying inefficiencies and areas for optimization within your account. 
  ‍

‍How often should I conduct a Google Ads audit?
‍

• It is recommended to conduct a Google Ads audit at least once every quarter. For accounts with significant spending or those in highly competitive industries, more frequent audits may be beneficial to stay ahead of competitors and efficiently manage advertising spend.
  ‍

‍What are the key components of a Google Ads audit?
‍

• Budget Allocation: Analyzing how the budget is distributed across various channels and campaigns to identify opportunities for reallocation.
  ‍
• Campaign Themes: Reviewing the balance between branded, non-branded, and competitive campaigns to ensure optimal allocation for reaching new customers.
  ‍
• Device Usage: Evaluating performance across devices (mobile, computer, tablet, TV) to tailor strategies for each device type.
  ‍
• Match Types: Assessing the use of exact, phrase, and broad match types in campaigns to ensure efficient targeting.
  ‍
• Quality Score: Examining the quality score of keywords, focusing on ad relevance, landing page experience, and expected CTR to identify areas for improvement.
  ‍
• Visibility Metrics: Analyzing impression share and losses due to rank and budget to optimize bid strategies and campaign visibility.

‍

How often should I perform a Google Ads audit?

It’s recommended to conduct a comprehensive audit at least quarterly. However, for high-spending accounts or during periods of significant change (e.g., new product launches or market shifts), more frequent audits may be beneficial.

‍

Can I perform a Google Ads audit myself, or should I hire a professional?

While self-auditing is possible, hiring a professional can provide deeper insights and a fresh perspective. Professionals are often equipped with advanced tools and expertise to identify issues that might be overlooked otherwise.

‍

‍

Hey there, B2B marketer!  If you're having trouble with high CPLs and low CTRs, bad creatives could be the problem.
‍

In this article, I’ll unpack what great B2B advertising looks like and 10 techniques you can steal from these top B2B ads.
‍

So let’s dive in 👇

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• #1 - Address ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) Needs
• #2 - Clear CTA (Call to Action)
• #3 - Optimized Elements
• #4 - Channel-Savy Ads
• #5 - Direct Language
• #6 - Plain Speak
• #7 - Concise Copy
• #8 - Authentic Imagery
• #9 - Break Norms
• #10 - Build Trust
• Free Resources to Jumpstart Your B2B Marketing Career

‍

1. Address ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) Needs

‍

If you don’t know what your audience cares about, you’ll miss the mark entirely. 

The first thing to do is identify the job your customers are hiring your product or service to do so your ads will speak directly to their needs. Because remember, it's not about you. It’s about them.

In the Dooly example below, you can notice within the first five seconds that:

• The ad is talking to sales teams and sales representatives.
• It addresses a major pain point these audiences experience from deeply knowing their audience and having well-defined ad personas.

‍

2. Clear CTA (Call to Action)
‍

Clarity equals high conversions. Your ads need to have a clear call to action that is compelling and stands out in the headline.

Look at the Lusha ad call to action: “Turn prospects into sales faster with Lusha”. Pretty clear!
‍

3. Optimized Elements
‍

High-converting ads optimize the elements. They effectively use all the ad components to avoid repetition and tailor the ads to the medium for the most impact, making it easier to convert.

Everyone is busy, and no one wants to waste time. So, by understanding how people use the platform you're advertising on, you can maximize your ad experience and use all the elements meaningfully.

‍Warning 🚨: When using a lead-gen form or landing page to convert demo requests, make sure the entire experience is as easy as possible to navigate, understand, and convert.

Too often, I’ve seen forms or landing pages that do not match the message in the ad, which is not only confusing but also more challenging to convert. 

Here’s a winning example from Zingtree. The goal is to book a demo using a lead gen form:
‍

‍

‍Why this is a winning ad

• The ad copy clearly states that you can chat with an expert to learn more with a “Learn More” CTA button.
• Matching ad and lead gen form headlines
• Lead gen form copy is clear on what is involved with filling out the form and what will be on the call.
• Lead gen form uses prefilled-in forms as much as possible to decrease the user needing to fill them in – only requiring one form field to be selected.
• The lead gen form confirmation message clearly explains what happens next and points to helpful content.

‍

Where it can improve

• It should  say how many business days or hours the team will reach out to schedule the demo
• It could have also pointed to a booking link in the thank you message so leads could automatically book their meeting instead of pointing to content. This helps capture the attention  you already have in a more impactful way

4. Channel-Savy Ads
‍

Tailor ads to the medium for impact. “The medium is the message”.

This ad from Cognism is a great example. They repurposed the results from a poll on their organic page comparing their brand with their 2 most significant competitors in EMEA. Genius 😎
‍

5. Direct Language
‍

Use 'you' and 'your' for engagement. 

‍

Let’s not forget that it’s B2B, but we’re still talking to people.
‍

6. Plain Speak
‍

Cut the jargon and use the customer's words in the ads.
‍

7. Concise Copy
‍

Keep your copy short, ideally between 60 to 120 characters, so it’s easy to consume.Your goal isn’t to explain everything your product does in the ad, it’s to make the prospect take the next step, which could be visiting your website, scheduling a demo, or signing up for a free trial.
‍

8. Authentic Imagery
‍

Use authentic human images, no stock photos.

‍

There are millions of studies and experiments showing the psychological effect of adding people to the ads (this one from Incivus is a good one), but one of the main reasons is that it connects with the viewer on a human level and builds trust.
‍

9. Break Norms
‍

Create ads that defy traditional expectations.

This ad from UserGems is pretty cool because it mimics the in-platform alerts to grab the audience's attention and lean into the pain point they were trying to talk about with their ICP.
‍

10. Build Trust
‍

Leveraging social proof and addressing objections early can have a big impact.

‍

Social proof helps build trust, and your prospects will see all the other big brands and competitors using your tool, so it will also give them FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). 
‍

‍

Great B2B ads don’t just happen, they’re built on understanding your audience, removing friction, and breaking the norms. 

‍

I hope you found this article helpful!To learn more about B2B ads best practices, dive into the articles below:

• 10 B2B SaaS Copywriting Tips for Better Ad Performance
• 10 Tips to Create B2B Ads that Convert

‍

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

‍

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

‍Jumpstart Your B2B Marketing Career

‍

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

• Module 1: You’ll get a crash course in the B2Bverse and master terminology, sales processes, and working across teams.
  
  
• Module 2: You’ll learn how to become your customers' psychologists and understand them deeply through buyer personas that allow you to craft effective messaging.
  
  
• Module 3: You’ll master the B2B funnel and learn how to think like a CEO to identify performance bottlenecks and convert more leads into revenue.
  
  
• Module 4: You’ll learn how to put it all together and build your go-to-market strategy that gets your ad in front of your dream buyers and converts attention.
  ‍

This course was designed with absolute beginners in mind.Accelerate your learning curve and start the course today for free.

‍

People Also Ask

‍

How can I effectively measure the success of my B2B ad campaigns?

Utilize key performance indicators (KPIs) such as click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, and return on investment (ROI) to assess campaign effectiveness. Implement tracking tools like Google Analytics to monitor user engagement and conversions.

‍

What are the best practices for aligning ad creatives with my Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)?

Conduct thorough market research to understand your ICP’s pain points and preferences. Develop ad content that directly addresses these needs, using language and visuals that resonate with your target audience.

‍

How can I ensure my call-to-action (CTA) is compelling and drives conversions?

Craft clear and concise CTAs that communicate the value proposition. Use action-oriented language and place the CTA prominently within the ad to encourage immediate response.

‍

What strategies can I employ to create authentic imagery in my B2B ads?

Use real customer photos or behind-the-scenes images of your team to build trust. Avoid generic stock photos; instead, opt for visuals that genuinely represent your brand and resonate with your audience.

‍

How can I break industry norms in my advertising to stand out without alienating potential clients?

Innovate within the boundaries of your brand identity. Experiment with unique ad formats, storytelling techniques, or humor, ensuring that these elements align with your brand values and appeal to your target audience.

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

I’ll be breaking down my entire process below 👇

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

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

‍

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.”

‍

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

‍

‍

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

‍‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

1. Best calendar scheduling software

‍

2. Calendar scheduling for sales teams

‍

3. Chili Piper alternatives

‍

4. How to route leads more efficiently

‍

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. 

‍

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 

‍

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

‍

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?

‍

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: 

‍

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. 

‍

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 

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

Sure, you still need the basics. 

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

That’s really all you need. 

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

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. 

‍

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?

‍

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. 

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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. 

‍

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

‍

• 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

‍

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. 

‍

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. 

‍

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. 

‍

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

Tip #9: Keep Improving

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

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

‍

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. 

‍

Master B2B LinkedIn Ads with these 3 Free Courses:

‍

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

‍

‍

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

‍

⚙️ B2B LinkedIn Ads 101 - The Ultimate Crash Course for New LinkedIn Advertisers

• Foundations For LinkedIn Ads Success
• Measurement: Tracking & Key Principles
• Targeting: Reaching Your Dream Buyers
• Ads: Mastering The 9 Ad Formats

‍

🎯 B2B LinkedIn Ads 102 - The Blueprint for LinkedIn Ads Optimization

• Monitoring: How To Spot Performance Trends
• Auditing: How To Find The Darlings You Need To Kill
• Reporting: How To Transform Data Into Insights
• Optimization: How To Make Your LinkedIn Ads Profitable

‍

🚀 B2B LinkedIn Ads 103 - Advanced Scaling Strategies From $25M In Ad Spend

• Concepts of Scaling
• Divide and Conquer
• Learnings From $25M+ In LinkedIn Ad Spend

‍

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 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.

‍

‍

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

‍

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

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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

‍

Why You Need a Google Ads Optimization Workflow Process

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

Daily Google Ads Optimizations

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

‍

Each day, you should:

‍

1. Review your budget pacing

‍

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

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

‍

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

‍

3. Adjust bids as needed

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

Pro Tip: Setting up Google Calendar reminders can be helpful, and something that I always tell my team that manages client accounts internally at our agency is to block an hour on their calendars every single day to go through their accounts and optimize them. We call it “optimization power hour”. ⚡️

‍

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

‍

Weekly Google Ads Optimizations

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

This will make the optimization process much more manageable.

‍

2. Pause underperforming keywords

‍

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

‍

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

‍

3. Add new relevant keywords

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

Monthly & Quarterly Google Ads Optimizations

‍

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

‍

Monthly Optimizations

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

‍

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

‍

So at the end of each month, you should:

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

Pro tip: Check out our free Building a Paid Media Program course (Module 3, Lesson 2) to learn how to build an automated dashboard for less than $200/month using Google Sheets + a connector like Dataslayer or Supermetrics.

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

These are the questions you should answer here.

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

👉  Review geographic performance and budget allocation

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

👉  Review device performance and budget allocation

‍

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

‍

👉  Review keyword/match type performance and budget allocation

‍

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

‍

👉  Review landing page performance and experiments

‍

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

‍

👉  Implement new campaign experiments

‍

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

‍

Quarterly Optimizations

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

‍

Pro tip: The channel ad libraries are great resources for competitor research. Check out these 10 tips for free competitor research using them.

‍

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

‍

Stay organized with the Google Ads Optimization Workflow template

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

From Clicks to Conversions: Master Google Ads for B2B 🔥

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

‍

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

‍

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

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

‍

🎯 Google Ads 102 - How to Clicks Into Profit

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

‍

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

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

‍

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

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

‍

People Also Ask

‍

How can I effectively prioritize optimization tasks within my Google Ads workflow?

Assess tasks based on their potential impact on key performance indicators (KPIs) like conversion rates and return on ad spend (ROAS). Focus on high-impact areas first, such as budget pacing and search term relevance, to ensure efficient use of resources.

‍

What tools or templates can assist in organizing and tracking my Google Ads optimization activities?

Utilize the Google Ads Optimization Workflow Template provided in Module 2, Lesson 1 of the B2B Google Ads 102 course. This template helps structure daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly tasks, ensuring a systematic approach to campaign management. 

‍

How can I ensure that my optimization efforts align with my overall B2B marketing objectives?

Regularly review your marketing goals and ensure that your Google Ads strategies support these objectives. Align optimization tasks with broader business aims, such as lead generation or brand awareness, to maintain strategic coherence.

‍

What are the common pitfalls to avoid when implementing a Google Ads optimization workflow?

Avoid neglecting regular reviews of budget pacing and search term reports, as this can lead to overspending or irrelevant traffic. Ensure that optimization tasks are performed consistently to maintain campaign effectiveness.

‍

How can I adapt my optimization workflow to accommodate changes in campaign performance or market conditions?

Stay agile by regularly analyzing performance data and being prepared to adjust your workflow in response to trends or shifts in the market. Flexibility allows for timely optimizations that keep campaigns aligned with business goals.

‍

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

Let’s dive into it 👏

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS: 

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

‍

Understand Why Customers Choose Your Product

‍

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

‍

‍

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

‍

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

‍

But how can you do that?

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

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

‍

‍

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

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

‍

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

‍

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

Customize Your Messaging with Personality Insights

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

‍

Situation & Pain Points

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

‍

Motivation

I want to listen to specific songs when I want

‍

Trigger

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

‍

Ideal Outcome

I want to listen to the music I choose, everywhere

‍

Other Solutions/ Products Evaluated – Competitors

Radio, XM Radio, Pandora, Apple Music, Silence

‍

Personality characteristics (DiSC type, DiSC archetype, etc)

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

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

‍

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

‍

‍

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

‍

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

‍

I hope you found this article helpful!

‍

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

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

Jumpstart Your B2B Marketing Career

‍

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

‍

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

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

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

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

‍

This course was designed with absolute beginners in mind.

‍

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

‍

People Also Ask

‍

How can I effectively identify the ‘jobs’ my B2B customers are trying to accomplish with our product or service?

Conduct in-depth customer interviews and surveys to uncover the underlying tasks and objectives your clients aim to achieve. Focus on understanding their pain points and the desired outcomes they seek. 

‍

What are the best practices for integrating the JTBD framework into our existing B2B advertising strategy?

Align your marketing messages with the specific jobs your customers need to be done. Develop content and campaigns that address these needs directly, demonstrating how your solution effectively fulfills their objectives. 

‍

How can the JTBD framework assist in differentiating our B2B offerings from competitors in the market?

By focusing on the unique jobs your product addresses, you can highlight distinct value propositions that set you apart. This approach shifts the conversation from features to the specific benefits and outcomes your customers can expect. 

‍

What role does customer feedback play in refining our understanding of their jobs to be done?

Regularly gathering and analyzing customer feedback helps in accurately identifying and prioritizing the jobs that need to be done. This ongoing process ensures your offerings remain relevant and effectively meet customer expectations. 

‍

How can we measure the impact of applying the JTBD framework on our B2B advertising ROI?

Track key performance indicators such as conversion rates, customer acquisition costs, and customer satisfaction levels before and after implementing JTBD-informed strategies. Analyzing these metrics will provide insights into the framework’s effectiveness in enhancing your advertising efforts.

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

Let’s dive in! 👇

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS: 

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

‍

What is a Google Ads Tracking Template?

‍

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

‍

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

‍

Here’s what each parameter means:

‍

• {lpurl}: This is your landing page URL. So whatever the URL is in your ad, the template will automatically inherit it and then automatically append these different static and dynamic values based on these parameters.
  
  
• UTMs: These are your standard UTMs, like UTM source, UTM medium, campaign, term, and content.
  ‍Check out our Free UTM Tagger Tool to easily create them in bulk and for more info about each parameter.
  
  
• Static Values: Static means it’s always the same, it’ll remain consistent. So a static value will always be a text.
  
  So in the image example above, we always want the UTM Source to be google, the UTM Medium to be cpc, and the UTM Campaign to be trial.
  
  
• Dynamic Values: Dynamic means it changes. The values here usually have squiggly brackets like {keyword} or {matchtype}, which tell Google Ads to populate that field dynamically.
  
  For example, with {keyword}, the UTM Term will automatically insert the keyword that drove the click, giving you granular detail on the search behavior driving each visit.
  
  
• Custom Parameters: These are parameters you can create that are not part of the UTM parameters, which are your standard ones.
  
  You’ll probably want to use custom UTM parameters if you have some sort of advanced tracking setup.
  
  Anything that is available in the URL, you can then set up with JavaScript the ability to pass the data from those parameters into hidden fields in your form, to then be able to route and track and do all sorts of things in your backend.
  
  In the cheat sheet above, the ad_name parameter will give you details about which ad drove the visit.
  ‍

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

How to Install a Tracking Template in Google Ads
‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

2. ‍Scroll down to additional settings.

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

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

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

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

• UTM Source: People usually use Google or AdWords.
• UTM Medium: People usually put CPC or paid search. This 100% depends on you and your business, your company, and how you want to track things.
• UTM Campaign: You can put the name of your campaign. The downside is that you have to do this for each campaign.
• UTM Term: This will dynamically push the keyword that drove the click and the match type.
• Ad_Name (custom parameter): This is 100% optional, and most of the clients from our agency don’t really need custom parameters, but I just want you to be aware of it.
  
  Once you’ve mastered basic tracking, custom parameters can add another layer of insights by capturing non-standard data. For instance, if you want to differentiate ad variations, you could set a custom parameter like ad_name=RSA1.
  ‍

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

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

Benefits of Adding Tracking Templates to Your Campaigns

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

That’s it about tracking templates! 🎉

‍

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

‍

I hope you found this article useful!

From Clicks to Conversions: Master Google Ads for B2B 🔥

‍

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

‍

‍

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

‍

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

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

‍

🎯 Google Ads 102 - How to Clicks Into Profit

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

‍

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

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

‍

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

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

‍

People Also Ask

‍

What is a tracking template in Google Ads?

A tracking template is a URL parameter setup in Google Ads that appends tracking information to your landing page URLs. This allows you to monitor specific details about ad clicks, such as the campaign, ad group, keyword, and device involved. 

‍

Why should I use tracking templates in my campaigns?

Implementing tracking templates automates link tagging, ensuring consistent and accurate data collection across your campaigns. This leads to better insights into performance metrics, enabling more informed optimization decisions. 

‍

How do I set up a tracking template in Google Ads?

To set up a tracking template:

1. Log in to your Google Ads account.
2. Navigate to the desired account, campaign, ad group, or ad level.
3. Click on “Settings” and then “Additional settings.”
4. Under “Tracking,” enter your tracking template URL, incorporating the necessary ValueTrack parameters.
5. Save your changes.

This setup enables dynamic tracking of various metrics. 

‍

What are ValueTrack parameters, and how do they work in tracking templates?

ValueTrack parameters are dynamic URL components that capture specific information about each ad click, such as the device used ({device}), the keyword that triggered the ad ({keyword}), and the campaign ID ({campaignid}). When a user clicks your ad, these placeholders are replaced with actual data, allowing for detailed performance analysis. 

‍

How can I test if my tracking template is working correctly?

After setting up your tracking template, use the “Test” button in the “Tracking” section of your Google Ads account settings. This function combines your final URL with the tracking parameters to ensure it directs to the correct landing page and that all parameters are functioning as intended.

‍

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

TABLE OF CONTENTS: 

• Proven Concept
• Existing Demand
• Sufficient Margin
• Master Google Ads for B2B

‍

Proven Concept

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

Existing Demand

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

‍

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

Sufficient Margin

‍

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

‍

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

‍

Here’s an example: 

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

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

‍

I hope you found this article helpful!

‍

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

‍

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

‍From Clicks to Conversions: Master Google Ads for B2B 🔥

‍

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

‍

‍

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

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

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

‍

🎯 Google Ads 102 - How to Clicks Into Profit

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

‍

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

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

‍

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

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

‍

People Also Ask

‍

What are some advanced targeting techniques for B2B SaaS Google Ads campaigns?

Utilize features like custom intent audiences to target users actively searching for solutions similar to your SaaS product. Combine these with demographic and location filters for precise audience targeting.

‍

How can I effectively allocate my budget across different Google Ads campaign types for B2B SaaS?

Consider allocating your budget to a mix of search campaigns for high-intent keywords, display campaigns for brand awareness, and remarketing campaigns to re-engage potential leads.

‍

How do I choose the right bidding strategy for my B2B SaaS Google Ads?

Select bidding strategies based on your campaign goals. Use target CPA (cost per acquisition) for lead generation or maximize clicks to drive traffic. Test different strategies to determine what works best for your objectives.

‍

What are the common mistakes to avoid in B2B SaaS Google Ads campaigns?

Avoid broad targeting that wastes budget, neglecting negative keywords, and under-optimizing ad creatives. Regularly review and refine your campaigns based on performance metrics.

‍

How can I use ad extensions effectively in B2B SaaS Google Ads?

Include ad extensions like callouts, sitelinks, and structured snippets to provide additional information, improve click-through rates, and enhance ad visibility. Highlight key features, testimonials, or unique offerings.

‍

‍

‍

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?