10 Tips to Make LinkedIn Ads Work for B2B SaaS
Over the past few years, Iâve helped dozens of B2B SaaS companies develop their LinkedIn Ads strategy.Â
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Below, Iâll be sharing ten tips that I always give to my own clients, and that will significantly increase your chances of success with LinkedIn Ads đ
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TABLE OF CONTENTS:Â
- Tip #1: Research Your Customers
- Tip #2: Define Your Targeting
- Tip #3: Distribute Your Content
- Tip #4: Repurpose Your Content
- Tip #5: Test Lead Gen alongside ungated content
- Tip #6: Capture Demand With Retargeting
- Tip #7: Use Text and Spotlight Ads
- Tip #8: Leverage your SMEs for thought leader ads
- Tip #9: Set up the right tracking combination
- Tip #10: Make a commitment of at least 6 months
Tip #1: Research Your Customers
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As a marketer, it can be challenging to fully understand your customers, especially since youâre not in direct contact with them.Â
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In order to gain a better understanding, itâs a great idea to watch 3-5 sales calls, recommended to you by the Head of Sales.Â
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Analyze how your sales team is presenting the product to make sure your messaging is aligned.Â
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In addition to this, you can pull transcripts and summaries from hundreds of calls and have ChatGPT develop a content matrix and empathy map for you, summarizing the top pain points of your prospects.Â
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Here is a templatized example of the outcome. ChatGPT can pull it out in this format based on the call summaries and give you a good foundation of commonalities for different prospects.
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Once youâve identified the top pain points and topics with the help of ChatGPT, send them over to a few people on your sales team to validate them. It can be very subjective but can help you to ensure that you havenât missed any important nuances.Â
Tip #2: Define Your Targeting
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Next, define your targeting.Â
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What job titles, job functions, industries, and company sizes do you want to target?Â
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Once youâve drafted your audiences, you can share and refine with your stakeholders.Â
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To start out, you can use a simple targeting combination such as Job titles + Company Sizes + Industries.Â
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If your audience is too small using only job titles, you could substitute for Job Function + Seniority + Skills.Â
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A few additional notes:Â
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1. Make sure to check the audience insights section of LinkedIn Campaign Manager to find exclusions that you could potentially make. (video walkthrough)
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2. If you have multiple personas, make sure to separate them into different campaigns so you can tailor your messaging.
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3. There is no ideal audience size on LinkedIn Ads â small audiences of 10K can work well and larger audiences of 100K can also work well. Start by targeting your ideal customers, and you can expand over time.Â
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Recommendation: Use a validated company list for better targeting and reporting.
Tip #3: Distribute Your Content
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Once youâve set up your audience, the next step is to distribute content towards them.Â
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I highly recommend optimizing your ads for in-feed consumption â talk about the problems you solve directly in your ad copy.Â
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This way, even if people donât visit your landing page right away, theyâll still be learning about your company and can be retargeted later down the line with a more bottom of funnel offer.Â
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Videos are a particularly great format for delivering these in-feed messages, and they also allow you to generate large retargeting pools.Â
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When you run these ads, look at your impressions and views to make sure that youâre reaching your ICP. And check your engagement rate and dwell time metrics to ensure that the content is resonating.Â
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Donât expect demos or trials right away â the goal of these ads is to start generating some initial interest.Â
Tip #4: Repurpose Your Content
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Do you have any great podcast or webinar clips related to your solution?Â
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Has anyone on your team created a product demo walkthrough recently?
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Do you have any customer testimonials from recent events?
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This type of content can be easily repurposed for ads, and is great for both generating and capturing demand.
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Before you start creating new content, look at the content that you already have.Â
Tip #5: Test Lead Gen alongside ungated content
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I know lead gen is an unpopular strategy, but it can be a great approach to run lead gen campaigns alongside ungated content.Â
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If youâre getting leads from incredible people within your ICP, you can show that to your stakeholders as proof that youâre reaching the right audience, and this can help you get approval to run more ungated content.Â
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I donât recommend lead gen as a standalone tactic, but it can be a solid way to get some initial results and build your retargeting audiences, while also validating the quality of your targeting.Â
Tip #6: Capture Demand With Retargeting
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On LinkedIn, lead gen forms arenât just for content like ebooks and whitepapers.Â
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Theyâre also great for capturing demo requests.Â
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The benefit of using lead gen forms is that people donât have to leave the LinkedIn platform to request a demo, so it helps to simplify the process.Â
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To start, I recommend running these ads to your retargeting audience, since people who have already interacted with your brand are the most likely to convert.Â
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Also, when it comes to these demo campaigns, donât be discouraged if you donât see success right away.Â
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In order to succeed, you need to test different types of messaging, different content, and different creatives until you find the right formula.Â
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Another word of advice: Make sure you refresh the creatives in your retargeting audience at least once a month. Retargeting audiences tend to be small and have very high frequencies, so you may see signs of ad fatigue if you donât refresh your creatives consistently.Â
Tip #7: Use Text and Spotlight Ads
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Text and spotlight ads are an amazing and affordable way to stay top of mind with your retargeting audiences.Â
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Theyâre very small and usually appear on the right side of the feed, and they get a ton of impressions but very few clicks.Â
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I recommend setting these ads up with the website visits objective, so that you only pay when someone actually clicks.Â
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Also, I recommend setting the lowest bid you can possibly set, along with a bid cap to avoid overpaying for clicks.Â
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Another format to consider are follower ads, which are very similar to spotlight ads, but intended to drive more company page followers. This format is great for your colder audiences, and can help funnel your ICP into your organic audience for a longer term nurture.Â
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You can use this template to draft the ad copy with ad specifications. You can also use dynamic macros in follower ads.Â
Tip #8: Leverage your SMEs for thought leader ads
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If you have a founder or subject matter expert thatâs active on LinkedIn, consider running their posts as thought leader ads.Â
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Thought leader ads are great because:Â
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1. They have high CTRs and very low CPCs compared to other formats
2. They allow you to get high-performing organic content in front of your ICP
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Customer stories and educational content related to the problem you solve typically perform well as thought leader ads.Â
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Iâd avoid overly promotional and generic, AI-generated content â you want to distribute content thatâs memorable and valuable to your ICP.Â
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For more thought leader ad ideas, check out 14 Powerful LinkedIn Thought Leader Ad Strategies Worth Testing.Â
Tip #9: Set up the right tracking combination
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There is no perfect tracking combination, but you do have to make sure that youâre collecting enough data to understand whatâs happening inside your account.Â
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First of all, you can track online conversions, like form submissions on your website. Then, you can also set up conversion API to have a deeper understanding of which campaigns are turning into pipeline and revenue.Â
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Also, make sure youâre using UTM parameters â itâs much easier now because LinkedIn has dynamic UTM parameters â and pushing them into your CRM for full visibility.Â
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And add âHow did you hear about usâ into your high-intent forms to capture additional insights about the sources that indirectly influence the prospects.
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Just by having these basics in place, you should already have a solid understanding of whatâs happening inside your account.Â
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If you want even more insights on which campaigns and ads are influencing pipeline, you could use a tool like Fibbler to look at multi-touch attribution.Â
Tip #10: Make a commitment of at least 6 months
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If youâre going to get started with LinkedIn Ads, make sure you make a commitment of at least 6 months.Â
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Once you have your audience, targeting, messaging, and content ready to go, you need to decide what your game plan will be and how much budget you need.Â
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How much money will you need to generate awareness within your cold layer?Â
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How will your retargeting audiences expand over time?Â
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What metrics will you look at to determine initial success? Maybe reach and engagement as leading indicators, and conversions as a lagging indicator?Â
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Present a clear plan to your stakeholders so that they know what to expect and are on the same page. Also, emphasize that success wonât happen overnight, and that it takes time and patience to start seeing results.Â
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Hope you found this article helpful!
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Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn with any ad-related questions.Â
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Resources for mastering B2B advertising
If youâre serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.Â
âHereâs 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
â Â 100% free access.
â Â Taught by vetted industry experts.
â Â Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
â Â Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can:
- Â Scale their ideas
- Level up their careers
- Make a positive impact
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start levelling up your advertising skill set.
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Other Articles You May Enjoy.
10 Tips to Create B2B Ads that Convert
If you want your ads to drive conversions, you need the right messaging, positioning, design, tone, format, offer, etc.Â
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This is especially true in B2B, where pushing prospects from initial awareness to conversion is extremely challenging.Â
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Below are my top 10 tips to maximize your chances of success, based on my own experience working with dozens of B2B clients.Â
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TABLE OF CONTENTS:Â
- 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
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This might sound obvious, but before creating any ad, you should get extremely clear on the problem your company solves.Â
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All of your messaging should come back to this problem.Â
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If youâre running case study ads, the case studies should be related to this problem.Â
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If youâre promoting a GIF of your product, the animation should help tell the story of how you solve that problem.Â
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As Eugene Schwartz said: The objective of advertising is to highlight a problem and demonstrate how you can solve it.Â
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Hereâs a template I like using with my clients to clearly articulate the problems they solve.Â
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Tip #2: Donât use big words or acronyms
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The more simple you keep your ads, the better theyâll perform.Â
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Thereâs no need to drop in words like CAC, ROI, or ARPU into your copy. Acronyms are poo.
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Even if youâre talking about complex topics, aim to keep your explanation simple.Â
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Also, keep in mind, itâs impossible to explain everything about your company in a single ad.Â
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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.Â
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Think of the ads in your cold layer as an icebreaker.Â
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The idea is to communicate the basics of what you do in a simple and interesting way â not to tell your entire story.Â
Hereâs an ad we made at Revenu for a client, to do exactly that.
âTip #3: Make it quick
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Prospects should know exactly what theyâre signing up for in 3 steps or less.Â
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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.Â
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And if youâre thinking: Thereâs no way I could explain my offer in 3 steps or less⌠you need to simplify your process.
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When you truly understand your product story, itâs easy to simplify it. Thatâs where the first tip comes in.
âTip #4: Use visuals that make your ad stand out
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A picture is worth a thousand words.
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Ads that are filled with words donât grab a users attention.
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Think about what youâre trying to say, and how you can visualise it.
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You can see how we did this for Scytale below.Â
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Itâs a fairly typical advert, but the way itâs broken out visually makes it much easier to digest.
Pro tip: If youâre only using static image ads, try GIFs. Making something move makes people click it more⌠simples.
âTip #5: Create ads that donât look like ads
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Want to triple your CTR? Make an advert that doesnât look like an advert.
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Once you get a ton of clicks, you can then retarget them with more product-focused messaging, but theyâve now been introduced to your brand.Â
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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?Â
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Also, think of the memes that make you laugh while youâre scrolling through different social platforms. Can you create versions of these that are related to the problem your company solves?Â
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Here are a few examples we made for inspiration:Â Â
P.S. If you want more examples, check out my Sexy Ads Library, which contains over 300 of my favorite ads.
âTip #6: Steal from the greats
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As Pablo Picasso once said, âGood artists copy, great artists steal.âÂ
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Lately Iâve been diving into B2C ads to find inspiration for B2B, from companies like Porsche, Land Rover, McDonaldâs, etc.Â
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Itâs extremely hard to create amazing ads if youâre starting with a blank canvas.Â
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Here are a few great examples:
P.S. Iâll 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.
âTip #7: Use powerful hooks
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To perform well, your ads need to have powerful hooks.Â
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In other words, you need to give your prospects a very specific reason to take action.Â
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Are you offering an incentive to take a meeting, such as a gift card, free lunch, or free coffee?
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Are you sharing a company resource, such as ad credits, a price promotion, or a software add-on?Â
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Are you providing knowledge, in the form of a consultation, an audit, a workshop, etc.?
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If you donât give your prospects an obvious reason to take action, they probably wonât.Â
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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 belowâŚ
And this great visual from Cognism, making a joke about gift card ads.
P.S. Donât get discouraged if your offer isnât working the first time around â most companies have to experiment with multiple approaches before they find one that works. And when you do, itâs your main driver of new business for the next 5 years.
âTip #8: Take up as much space as possible
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Ads that take up more space on the screen are more likely to stop the scroll, and typically perform better.Â
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On LinkedIn Ads, square images (1200X1200) usually perform much better than rectangular images (1200X628).
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Test vertical images (628X1200) that only appear on mobile too.Â
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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 youâre using ad extensions to take up more space on the SERP and increase the chances of getting a click.Â
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P.S. If youâre curious about the ad specs you can use across different platforms, check out this comprehensive guide.Â
âTip #9: Speak like a human
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When youâre writing ads for social, make sure you donât sound like a company.Â
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Be human â friendly, silly, colloquial, personable.
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Youâre literally on a social media platform⌠be sociable.
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Influencers have all the power these days, because people want to hear from real individuals with a real personality.Â
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So if you want people to listen to you, you need to sound like a human.Â
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These ads we made follow that exact tone, and itâs much nicer to read.
P.S. Some companies have a more professional and corporate tone of voice, but that doesnât mean you canât be clear and straight to the point. There are ways of sounding human, without being cheeky.
âTip #10: Stay in tune with what your customer wants
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Even if you follow tips 1-9, youâll still fail if your story is crap.
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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.Â
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When these changes happen, you need to update your product and story in order to stay relevant.Â
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To verify that the problems you solve are important, talk to your customers and interview companies in your ICP that arenât working with you.
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- How much of a problem is XYZ to you?
- Are you currently solving XYZ problem?
- How are you solving it?
- Be honest, would you use our product to solve it?
- If not, why?
- Do you use another company to solve this problem instead?
- How much do you pay them?
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Asking these questions will help you verify that your product and story make sense.Â
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Pro tip:Â 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.Â
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Hope you found this article helpful!
Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn with any questions.Â
âResources for mastering B2B advertising
If youâre serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.Â
âHereâs 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
â Â 100% free access.
â Â Taught by vetted industry experts.
â Â Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
â Â 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 đ)
10 Tips to Align Your Content and Paid Media Strategy
Over the past decade, Iâve led content marketing for multiple B2B SaaS companies, and Iâve noticed a common problem:Â
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Content marketers and performance marketers rarely communicate.Â
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This leads to inconsistent targeting, positioning, and messaging, which ultimately leads to lackluster results.Â
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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.Â
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Below are my top 10 tips on how to get aligned with your content team.Â
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TABLE OF CONTENTS:Â
- 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: Donât Create âAdsâ
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Itâs 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.Â
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But at this point, weâre all hardwired to scroll past the ads in our feed.Â
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Ironically, in order to stop the scroll, your ads have to blend in with other organic content.Â
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If you create great organic posts that are educational, memorable, and enjoyable, theyâll probably also perform well as ads.Â
Tip #2: Repurpose the content you already have
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Are there carousels, newsletters, or podcasts that have performed well for you in the past?Â
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Revisit this content.Â
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Why do you think it performed well? How can you remix it to extend its longevity?Â
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One caveat here: Just because something has performed well in the past doesnât mean you should run it as an ad.Â
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For ads, I recommend repurposing the content that has performed well AND:Â
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- Has a clear POV
- Is consistent with your other content themes
- Is related in some capacity to what your company does
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Otherwise, you may end up confusing your audience.Â
Tip #3: Use paid media to guarantee distribution
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We need to stop seeing paid media as something separate from content.Â
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Great ads are just incredible content with guaranteed distribution to the right people.Â
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If youâre running ads, make sure youâre constantly talking to the content marketers on your team to understand whatâs working.Â
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What pieces of content are getting the most engagement, communicating important messages, or telling valuable stories?Â
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Is there an opportunity to put money behind this content?Â
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Itâs hard to create winning ads if your team is working in silos.Â
Tip #4: Have a clear POV
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There are so many ads that feel and sound the same.Â
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Even if they're creative, they donât feel different because they lack a unique POV.Â
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Whatâs the core idea that you want to communicate to your audience?Â
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How is your perspective or approach different from that of every other company?Â
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If youâre not communicating this, your audience will forget about you almost immediately.Â
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P.S. Donât be afraid to have a slightly more controversial POV, as long as it makes sense for your brand. Sometimes, taking that risk is necessary in order to be memorable.Â
Tip #5: Make sure you have consistent messaging
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When it comes to messaging, you shouldnât be throwing spaghetti at the wall.Â
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Instead, you should be repeating yourself constantly. Sharing your core message in different ways so that people can easily understand what you do.Â
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A lot of marketers are afraid of repeating themselves. But in order for you to be known, liked, and trusted at scale, repetition is essential.Â
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If you think of the brands that you trust, youâve probably heard their core message millions of times, maybe without even realizing.Â
Tip #6: Donât be afraid to be different
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In order to succeed, you need to be interesting, and do things that other companies arenât doing.Â
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Thereâs so much noise these days.Â
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If youâre running ads, everybody else is.Â
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If youâre creating content, everybody else is.Â
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So, ask yourself, what can you do thatâs different?
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Why should prospects pay attention to you instead of other companies in your space?Â
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Look at what everybody else is doing. Is there an opportunity for you to do the opposite?
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You have to be willing to take calculated risks in order to stand out.Â
Tip #7: Leverage user-generated content
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User-generated content is a powerful and underutilized tactic to build trust with your prospects.Â
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Do you have video testimonials or celebratory screenshots from your clients?Â
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This is great for both organic content and ads.Â
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Having testimonials from real people comes across as more authentic than the standard G2 reviews that everyone else uses.Â
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P.S. I know it can be nerve-wracking to ask for testimonials, but Iâve found that clients are usually happy to help â all you have to do is send a simple email or LinkedIn DM. And if you work at a larger org, you can talk to your customer advisory board, or ask your sales or CS team to make the ask. Â
Tip #8: Share the right content for the right stage of the customer journey
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A lot of companies make the mistake of promoting the same content to every single prospect, without considering what stage of the buyerâs journey theyâre in.Â
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If someoneâs already heard of your brand and interacted with your company multiple times, theyâll likely want to learn more about your product features, and may even be interested in a demo.Â
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But if someone has never heard of you before, they probably wonât be interested.Â
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If youâre targeting a completely cold audience, your priority should be to educate them about the problems you solve, not to generate conversions right away.Â
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The reality is â especially in B2BÂ â the demos you get now are a product of the work you did 6 months ago.Â
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P.S. There are no shortcuts when it comes to building trust. Sure, you can use an intent provider and target people who are technically in-market, but typically, even those people need to see more content before requesting a demo.Â
Tip #9: Leverage retargeting
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By retargeting, I donât mean offering a demo to every single person that has interacted with your brand.Â
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A lot of people in your retargeting audiences wonât be ready for a demo yet.Â
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But they might be interested in attending your event or joining your webinar. Or they might want to learn more about your product, hear from your thought leaders, see testimonials from similar companies, etc.Â
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What interactions have the people in your retargeting audience taken?Â
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Based on these actions, what type of content do you think theyâd be most interested in seeing?Â
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Itâs important to do this exercise to create a positive experience for your prospects.Â
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If all you do is offer demos theyâll get tired of you pretty quickly.
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Pro tip: Think of your retargeting audience as a newsletter that prospects didnât opt into. Just like a newsletter, you need a mix of different content to grow the trust of your audience over time.Â
Tip #10: Be willing to adapt and change as you learn
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In both content and advertising, itâs important to create a strategy thatâs firm but flexible.Â
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Itâs great to have a general plan in place, but it shouldnât be an immovable object.Â
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You have to be willing to adapt based on your audienceâs response.Â
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Are there certain messages that are resonating more?Â
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Are there certain formats that are performing better?Â
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Are there certain audience segments that are expressing more interest in your product?Â
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Based on this feedback, you may have to modify your approach.Â
â
Hope you found this article helpful!
Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn with any questions about content strategy or distribution.Â
â
Resources for mastering B2B advertising
If youâre serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.Â
âHereâs 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
â Â 100% free access.
â Â Taught by vetted industry experts.
â Â Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
â Â 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 đ)
10 Tips to Make LinkedIn Ads Work for B2B SaaS
Over the past few years, Iâve helped dozens of B2B SaaS companies develop their LinkedIn Ads strategy.Â
â
Below, Iâll be sharing ten tips that I always give to my own clients, and that will significantly increase your chances of success with LinkedIn Ads đ
â
TABLE OF CONTENTS:Â
- Tip #1: Research Your Customers
- Tip #2: Define Your Targeting
- Tip #3: Distribute Your Content
- Tip #4: Repurpose Your Content
- Tip #5: Test Lead Gen alongside ungated content
- Tip #6: Capture Demand With Retargeting
- Tip #7: Use Text and Spotlight Ads
- Tip #8: Leverage your SMEs for thought leader ads
- Tip #9: Set up the right tracking combination
- Tip #10: Make a commitment of at least 6 months
Tip #1: Research Your Customers
â
As a marketer, it can be challenging to fully understand your customers, especially since youâre not in direct contact with them.Â
â
In order to gain a better understanding, itâs a great idea to watch 3-5 sales calls, recommended to you by the Head of Sales.Â
â
Analyze how your sales team is presenting the product to make sure your messaging is aligned.Â
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In addition to this, you can pull transcripts and summaries from hundreds of calls and have ChatGPT develop a content matrix and empathy map for you, summarizing the top pain points of your prospects.Â
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Here is a templatized example of the outcome. ChatGPT can pull it out in this format based on the call summaries and give you a good foundation of commonalities for different prospects.
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Once youâve identified the top pain points and topics with the help of ChatGPT, send them over to a few people on your sales team to validate them. It can be very subjective but can help you to ensure that you havenât missed any important nuances.Â
Tip #2: Define Your Targeting
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Next, define your targeting.Â
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What job titles, job functions, industries, and company sizes do you want to target?Â
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Once youâve drafted your audiences, you can share and refine with your stakeholders.Â
â
To start out, you can use a simple targeting combination such as Job titles + Company Sizes + Industries.Â
â
If your audience is too small using only job titles, you could substitute for Job Function + Seniority + Skills.Â
â
A few additional notes:Â
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1. Make sure to check the audience insights section of LinkedIn Campaign Manager to find exclusions that you could potentially make. (video walkthrough)
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2. If you have multiple personas, make sure to separate them into different campaigns so you can tailor your messaging.
â
3. There is no ideal audience size on LinkedIn Ads â small audiences of 10K can work well and larger audiences of 100K can also work well. Start by targeting your ideal customers, and you can expand over time.Â
â
Recommendation: Use a validated company list for better targeting and reporting.
Tip #3: Distribute Your Content
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Once youâve set up your audience, the next step is to distribute content towards them.Â
â
I highly recommend optimizing your ads for in-feed consumption â talk about the problems you solve directly in your ad copy.Â
â
This way, even if people donât visit your landing page right away, theyâll still be learning about your company and can be retargeted later down the line with a more bottom of funnel offer.Â
â
Videos are a particularly great format for delivering these in-feed messages, and they also allow you to generate large retargeting pools.Â
â
When you run these ads, look at your impressions and views to make sure that youâre reaching your ICP. And check your engagement rate and dwell time metrics to ensure that the content is resonating.Â
â
Donât expect demos or trials right away â the goal of these ads is to start generating some initial interest.Â
Tip #4: Repurpose Your Content
â
Do you have any great podcast or webinar clips related to your solution?Â
â
Has anyone on your team created a product demo walkthrough recently?
â
Do you have any customer testimonials from recent events?
â
This type of content can be easily repurposed for ads, and is great for both generating and capturing demand.
â
Before you start creating new content, look at the content that you already have.Â
Tip #5: Test Lead Gen alongside ungated content
â
I know lead gen is an unpopular strategy, but it can be a great approach to run lead gen campaigns alongside ungated content.Â
â
If youâre getting leads from incredible people within your ICP, you can show that to your stakeholders as proof that youâre reaching the right audience, and this can help you get approval to run more ungated content.Â
â
I donât recommend lead gen as a standalone tactic, but it can be a solid way to get some initial results and build your retargeting audiences, while also validating the quality of your targeting.Â
Tip #6: Capture Demand With Retargeting
â
On LinkedIn, lead gen forms arenât just for content like ebooks and whitepapers.Â
â
Theyâre also great for capturing demo requests.Â
â
The benefit of using lead gen forms is that people donât have to leave the LinkedIn platform to request a demo, so it helps to simplify the process.Â
â
To start, I recommend running these ads to your retargeting audience, since people who have already interacted with your brand are the most likely to convert.Â
â
Also, when it comes to these demo campaigns, donât be discouraged if you donât see success right away.Â
â
In order to succeed, you need to test different types of messaging, different content, and different creatives until you find the right formula.Â
â
Another word of advice: Make sure you refresh the creatives in your retargeting audience at least once a month. Retargeting audiences tend to be small and have very high frequencies, so you may see signs of ad fatigue if you donât refresh your creatives consistently.Â
Tip #7: Use Text and Spotlight Ads
â
Text and spotlight ads are an amazing and affordable way to stay top of mind with your retargeting audiences.Â
â
Theyâre very small and usually appear on the right side of the feed, and they get a ton of impressions but very few clicks.Â
â
I recommend setting these ads up with the website visits objective, so that you only pay when someone actually clicks.Â
â
Also, I recommend setting the lowest bid you can possibly set, along with a bid cap to avoid overpaying for clicks.Â
â
Another format to consider are follower ads, which are very similar to spotlight ads, but intended to drive more company page followers. This format is great for your colder audiences, and can help funnel your ICP into your organic audience for a longer term nurture.Â
â
You can use this template to draft the ad copy with ad specifications. You can also use dynamic macros in follower ads.Â
Tip #8: Leverage your SMEs for thought leader ads
â
If you have a founder or subject matter expert thatâs active on LinkedIn, consider running their posts as thought leader ads.Â
â
Thought leader ads are great because:Â
â
1. They have high CTRs and very low CPCs compared to other formats
2. They allow you to get high-performing organic content in front of your ICP
â
Customer stories and educational content related to the problem you solve typically perform well as thought leader ads.Â
â
Iâd avoid overly promotional and generic, AI-generated content â you want to distribute content thatâs memorable and valuable to your ICP.Â
â
For more thought leader ad ideas, check out 14 Powerful LinkedIn Thought Leader Ad Strategies Worth Testing.Â
Tip #9: Set up the right tracking combination
â
There is no perfect tracking combination, but you do have to make sure that youâre collecting enough data to understand whatâs happening inside your account.Â
â
First of all, you can track online conversions, like form submissions on your website. Then, you can also set up conversion API to have a deeper understanding of which campaigns are turning into pipeline and revenue.Â
â
Also, make sure youâre using UTM parameters â itâs much easier now because LinkedIn has dynamic UTM parameters â and pushing them into your CRM for full visibility.Â
â
And add âHow did you hear about usâ into your high-intent forms to capture additional insights about the sources that indirectly influence the prospects.
â
Just by having these basics in place, you should already have a solid understanding of whatâs happening inside your account.Â
â
If you want even more insights on which campaigns and ads are influencing pipeline, you could use a tool like Fibbler to look at multi-touch attribution.Â
Tip #10: Make a commitment of at least 6 months
â
If youâre going to get started with LinkedIn Ads, make sure you make a commitment of at least 6 months.Â
â
Once you have your audience, targeting, messaging, and content ready to go, you need to decide what your game plan will be and how much budget you need.Â
â
How much money will you need to generate awareness within your cold layer?Â
â
How will your retargeting audiences expand over time?Â
â
What metrics will you look at to determine initial success? Maybe reach and engagement as leading indicators, and conversions as a lagging indicator?Â
â
Present a clear plan to your stakeholders so that they know what to expect and are on the same page. Also, emphasize that success wonât happen overnight, and that it takes time and patience to start seeing results.Â
â
Hope you found this article helpful!
â
Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn with any ad-related questions.Â
â
Resources for mastering B2B advertising
If youâre serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.Â
âHereâs 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
â Â 100% free access.
â Â Taught by vetted industry experts.
â Â Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
â Â Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can:
- Â Scale their ideas
- Level up their careers
- Make a positive impact
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start levelling up your advertising skill set.
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10 B2B SaaS Copywriting Tips for Better Ad Performance
I donât need to be the one to tell you this, but B2B tech companies have it hard when it comes to getting their advertising to perform.
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Theyâve got complicated products. And sophisticated audiences (who are all but totally allergic to buzzwords and fluff). And together, they make communicating your company or productâs value super hard.
â
Having helped countless B2B companies over the past 9 years Iâve learned more than a thing or two about writing copy for these companies.Â
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And today Iâm sharing with you my top 10 copywriting tips â tips you can use right away (literally, try them out after you finish reading this) to evaluate your existing ad campaigns and improve their performance, stat.
â
TABLEÂ OFÂ CONTENTS
- Tip #1: Sell The Click, Not The Product
- Tip #2: Take Something Out Of Your Ad Instead Of Putting More In
- Tip #3: Write First, Edit Later
- Tip #4: Remember How People Interact With Ads
- Tip #5: Use The Slippery Slope
- Tip #6: Donât Be Afraid to Try Long Copy
- Tip #7: Try to Use Your Voice of Customer As Much As Possible
- Tip #8: Clear Before Clever
- Tip #9: Tie Benefits Back to Something Realistic
- Tip #10: Make Sure Your Copy Passes the âSo Whatâ Test
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Tip #1: Sell The Click, Not The Product
The first tip is more of a mindset shift: remind yourself that your ad is selling the click, not the product (as a whole).Â
â
Prospects donât see your ad in isolation. They see it in the context of everything else that happens throughout their day, AND in the context of everything else they see on LinkedIn, Google, Facebook or whichever platform your ad is served to them. So unlike an ecom ad, the goal of your ad here is to build excitement and anticipation. You want your prospect to be inspired enough to click on the ad and go where they can learn more about what you have to offer.Â
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This still applies even if youâre providing a free trial, or something else that is free.
â
Because if you have an average contract value of $50,000-$100,000/year your prospect is NOT going to click on your ad and buy right away.Â
â
Instead focus on giving the prospect something â a tip, an idea, an emotional twinge â that will motivate them to click.
â
This could be through:Â
â
- The messaging you use (make sure youâre talking about how you solve business problems, not just âhey our product is really coolâ)
- The type of call-to-action (CTA) (making sure itâs not too pushy for people who didnât know you existed until now)
- The visual in your ad creative (making sure it hits an emotional soft spot)
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Remember: You can always go into more depth on the landing page. But that wonât happen if your prospect doesnât click through in the first place.Â
Tip #2: Take Something Out Of Your Ad Instead Of Putting More In
Focus on getting one really memorable takeaway across in your ad copy.Â
â
Writing copy by committee is never a great strategy and itâs easy to end up with ads that are saying so many different things that the prospect wonât take away any one thing in particular.Â
â
Letâs say your productâs main value propositions are: itâs fast, itâs easy to use, and it saves money.Â
â
Instead of stuffing all of that information into the same ad, I would write 3 variations:
â
- Ad Variation 1: FastÂ
- Ad Variation 2: Easy
- Ad Variation 3: Saves Money
â
Test each message separately so you can see which performs better AND so the prospect can remember your core value proposition.Â
â
Pro tip: you can say the same message 1,000 different times or more by repurposing the way you communicate that message to the market through different creatives, ad types, and copy.Â
Tip #3: Write First, Edit Later
There are so many times when we sit down to try to write an ad and itâs really hard.
â
First get all your thoughts, ideas, and concepts out in a document, then let it sit for a couple of hours, and finally go back to it with fresh eyes. Â
â
If you just try to write it in one session itâs going to be messy and youâll spend forever tweaking it.Â
â
The idea is that you get to write a really stupid first draft. But you KNOW that itâs going to be bad. So that gives you the chance to get the bad ideas out to make way for the good stuff. Your goal is to come back later to edit and make it better.Â
â
Iâve lost count of how many times my first line in the body copy becomes my headline or other parts of my copy shift places with each other because theyâre better suited for a different part of the ad. But Iâm only able to make these connections with fresh eyes.Â
â
Pro tip: you can use ChatGPT for brainstorming but even still you need to let the copy sit. Give yourself time to process it so you can edit it and not just run with it at face value.
Tip #4: Remember How People Interact With Ads
Each element of your ad is a part of the puzzle.Â
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People will stop the scroll because the creative caught them. Then they'll look at the headline. Then they go up and read the body copy. And finally they go back down to the headline before clicking.
â
The prospect's eyes are going all over the place which means you canât afford to have copy thatâs disjointed.
â
The headline leads into the body copy and should support the creative. And the body copy should support the headline. All the elements have to work together.Â
â
As Eugene Schwartz once said âcopy is not written, itâs assembled".
â
Treat each element of your ad with equal importance and make sure it makes sense when you look at it from the eyes of your prospect.
â
â
Pro tip: you canât create ads in isolation, you need your designer and copywriter working together to ensure each variable in your ad works together (headline, body copy, creative).
Tip #5: Use The Slippery Slope
Your first line of copy should get the reader excited to read the second line. The second line should motivate the reader to read the third line. And so on. Direct marketer Joseph Sugarman calls this the âslippery slopeâ. It makes sure your ad is interesting to read and that the ideas inside it are easy to digest.
â
The best way to check and test your messaging for clarity and word choice is to read it out loud.Â
â
If youâre in the middle of a sentence and you paused for breath, you should place a period. That will help your sentences flow more naturally one into the other.
Tip #6: Donât Be Afraid to Try Long Copy
I have a bone to pick with people who say ânobody reads online!â Because of course they donât â if they donât have something interesting to read.Â
â
People binge on Netflix series, video games, novel trilogies, and more for hours in one go.Â
â
When you have people's attention you can keep sharing with them new details. But you have to earn their attention, first. (Which wonât happen with clickbait.)
â
What can you give them in your ad that will make them feel they got value from this interaction, no matter how fleeting it was?Â
- Did they learn something new?
- Did you make them feel something?
- Did you make them think for a second?
If you can do at least one of those three things youâll earn their attention.Â
â
Itâs hard to do this in 150 characters which is why long form copy is so powerful.Â
â
Donât be afraid to push up until that 600 character limit if needed.Â
â
Long copy will also lead to a greater dwell time and provide so much more context and opportunity for you to build motivation so they have a reason to click through.Â
â
The takeaway here is that people will read your long form ads if itâs interesting to them. But they wonât read even short copy if itâs terrible.
â
Side note: When writing ad copy I create 2-3 variations for the headline and the body, usually testing out different lengths (short vs long).Â
â
Hereâs my simple but effective copywriting template I use in Google Docs:
â
LinkedIn ads template | Eden Bidani
â
Pro tip: itâs easy for ads to get stuck in the same creative loops, donât forget to brainstorm new creative concepts to test.Â
Tip #7: Try to Use Your Voice of Customer As Much As Possible
If no one in the product marketing or CS team is interviewing your customers do this ASAP.Â
â
Get on a call with them and ask them questions such as:Â
â
- How do you use the product?
- What is the impact of your product?
â
The goal here isnât to get testimonials, itâs to understand how your customers talk.Â
â
Youâll walk away knowing the benefits that matter to them and challenges.Â
â
Iâd also recommend talking with sales and asking them what are the top customer objections that prospects say and exactly how they describe it.Â
â
Using the same words and language your customers use allows you to communicate in their voice.Â
â
These insights are so powerful that not even ChatGPT can brainstorm this for you.Â
â
For example I used to work with a company that created $700 work bags and I interviewed a customer that mentioned she used to carry around a âmom bagâ.
â
What did she mean by that? âA shapeless, old ugly bag.âÂ
â
That word âmom bagâ is so unique and reflective of the voice of our customers that using that in our landing page copy instantly resonated and resulted in tremendous lifts in conversion rates.Â
â
Five customer interviews can be all it takes.Â
Tip #8: Clear Before Clever
Jay Abraham once said sometimes the easiest way to sell a horse is to say âhorse for saleâ.Â
â
You have a fleeting moment with your prospects engaging with your ads.Â
â
So even if you have to use specific, complicated terms (for your sophisticated audience)Â you need to focus on making your copy as clear as possible.
â
For example, try to simplify your language as much as possible. Yes, this might result in you using less voice of customer, or using a different brand tone of voice, and other elements of your messaging. But clear will always convert best.Â
â
Consider the words you are using and find synonyms that imply the same meaning with less cognitive load.Â
â
John Carlton refers to these as âpower wordsâ for example:Â
â
Sometimes you want to say fast but you should be saying swift.Â
â
Swift implies a very different connotation than fast.Â
â
Itâs a whole different level of sophistication above âfastâ but itâs still a simple word.Â
â
How would you say this same thing to a friend? Is a great frame to have.Â
â
Remember to avoid complicated and overdone words like omnichannel đ¤Ž
Tip #9: Tie Benefits Back to Something Realistic
Everyone LOVES to talk about benefits â think: âGrow your business!â, âTransform your workplace!", âWin more customers!â, or âOptimize your lifeâŚ!â đ
â
Itâs not that itâs not true. They are. But theyâre just so high-level and vague people struggle to grasp them. You need to tie them back to something tangible â something realistic that your prospects identify with. Otherwise, they just come off as fluff.Â
â
So make sure the claims you make in your ads are specific. And even better, back up your claims by connecting them to a feature or capability of your product.
â
Take the step to connect your benefits back to something realistic.Â
â
Pro tip: even better than talking about how your benefits connect to something realistic, SHOW PROSPECTS HOW this happens with supporting images or videos.Â
Tip #10: Make Sure Your Copy Passes the âSo Whatâ Test
You should be totally skeptical about your copy (just like prospects will be).Â
â
People arenât stupid â even if they fall victim to clickbait they will bounce from your landing pages.Â
â
Every time you look at your copy ask yourself so what? And pick it apart to see where itâs fluff.Â
â
Sit back and look through to see where youâre missing proof points or what can be removed.Â
â
Youâll be able to find all those tiny things that will throw people off reading your ads.Â
â
At the end of the day your audience will look at the total sum of your ad (headline, body copy, creative) and if there are elements out of place such as:
â
- Run on sentences
- Improper formatting
- Typos and obvious errors
â
All of these details will affect whether the audience feels they can trust you with their click.Â
â
So what allows you a third person frame to find what looks off, and what can be stronger.Â
â
Pro tip: search for free ad mockup software on Google to find tools you can use to see what your copy will look like to your audience within the platform youâre advertising.Â
â
Hope you found this article helpful! đ
âConnect with me on LinkedIn and letâs keep the conversation going.Â
And if youâre in need of copywriting assistance check us out at CAPE Agency.
â
Resources for mastering B2B advertising
If youâre serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.Â
âHereâs 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
â Â 100% free access.
â Â Taught by vetted industry experts.
â Â Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
â Â Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can:
- Â Scale their ideas
- Level up their careers
- Make a positive impact
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start levelling up your advertising skill set.
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10 Tips You Need to Know Before Hiring Your Next Ad Agency or Consultant
Working with an advertising agency, freelancer, or consultant?
After the past 12 years working in-house I know what good and bad looks like.Â
In this article Iâm going to share with you my hard lessons learned on working with these partners.Â
And if youâre an agency owner, freelancer, or consultant reading this (take notes!) đ
These tips are bucketed into four parts: people, product, process, and results.
Letâs dive in!Â
â
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- Tip #1: Be clear on your communication needs and expectationsÂ
- Tip #2: Decide your meeting cadence
- Tip #3: Get clear on who and what for your tools
- Tip #4: Review your brand foundations
- Tip #5: Make sure your extended team knows the audience targeting
- Tip #6: Define your operational plumbingÂ
- Tip #7: Share your historical benchmarks
- Tip #8: Be clear on your naming conventions
- Tip #9: Have clear trackable goalsÂ
- Tip #10: Set clear timelines and deliverables
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[process] Tip #1: Be clear on your communication needs and expectationsÂ
â
You have to be upfront about this from the beginning.Â
Where and how often are the two key questions here:
- Where will we be communicating? (ex: Slack)
- How soon should you expect a response? (ex: within 24 hours)
- How fast can I expect a certain task to be completed? (ex: 72 hours)Â
You need to tell your partners what you expect from them in terms of communication.Â
Steal this template:
âHey {Name}, I want to be really clear that with the agencies I work with I expect a response from my slack or emails within {timeframe, ex: 12Â business hours}â.Â
This is equally as important for those of us managing clients as it allows you to more effectively prioritize your communications with clients and triage your day.Â
[process] Tip #2: Decide your meeting cadence
â
This tip connects with the previous around framing expectations.Â
You have to get clear on how often youâre going to be meeting, is it weekly, bi-Weekly, monthly?
Communicate your expectations on how often youâll meet and the options available.Â
By getting clear on your needs and how fast you want to get things done will allow you to answer this.Â
The best part about defined meeting cadences is that it allows you to hold people accountable.Â
Itâs a forcing function that makes sure youâre getting what you need fast enough.Â
â
My preferred meeting cadence:
Weekly for the first six weeks to build trust and create momentum then move towards bi-weekly.Â
â
Within the first 6-weeks of working with a new agency or consultant youâll want to ensure they are set up with:
- Systems access
- Clearly defined goalsÂ
- Clarity on your ICP and audienceÂ
From here everything is addressed and you can move to a bi-weekly cadence.Â
Again this is my personal preference align according to your needs!
If you want some tips on how to run an effective meeting check out my LinkedIn post đÂ
[process] Tip #3: Get clear on who and what for your tools
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The last thing you want is for it to take four weeks for your agency to get plugged into your system.Â
Get your new partners access to your systems as fast as possible so they can begin adding value.
Build a document with a clear list of all the primary tools theyâll need access for and who to contact.Â
If the agency, consultant, or freelancer youâre onboarding already has clear documentation already on how you can provide them access to their primary tools this is a green flag! đ˘
If you can take the initiative to build an internal version of this document even better.
You know your marketing operations person's name, make sure they know as well.Â
The more people working together across teams the more important this becomes.
[product] Tip #4: Review your brand foundations
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Make sure your agency, freelancer, or consultant understands your brand.
Your brand foundations consists of:
- What does your solution do?
- Whatâs your unique value prop?
- Whatâs your origin story?
- Who are your competitors?Â
- Whatâs your tone of voice?Â
Even better if your partners can sit in on a live demo (or at the minimum watch a recording).Â
If your partners donât get sold on the unique value you provide they will never be able to make an impact with the campaigns they create for you (and red flag if they donât want to know! đ´).Â
[product] Tip #5: Make sure your extended team knows the audience targeting
â
We touched on this on tip #4 but this is so important it deserves its own tip.Â
Audience targeting is the foundation of everything youâre going to be doing.
You need to be absolutely clear on:Â
- Job titles
- Job functions
- Company size
- Industries
Really, really, really hone in on this! đ
Make sure your extended teams knows this as well.Â
This is where your buyer persona comes into play, if you need help on how to craft one check out Module 2 of my B2B Advertising Foundations course where I show you how to piece it together.Â
Give them as much customer information as possible because they have to know this.Â
They need to know what good vs bad leads look like.Â
â
Pro tip:Â
Keep all this customer information in a shared document so your partners can refer back to it in the future when needed and setup a shared channel to monitor lead quality đĽ
[process] Tip #6: Define your operational plumbingÂ
â
You need to be specific on how things should be tracked.Â
The goal isnât to just drive leads, itâs to scale legit qualified pipeline and revenue.Â
Work with your extended teams to map out your customer lifecycle operations.Â
â
For example, they should be clear on:Â
- Once someone fills out a form, now what?
- How are leads being handed off to sales?Â
- How is the team being notified on new leads?Â
- How are they being followed up with?Â
â
From here itâs piecing together the right UTM conventions for measurement, connecting forms in our marketing automation tools so be able to route appropriately.
Walk through all of these steps and the points in-between so things are tracked.Â
Take my word for it, defining this will save you a lot of headaches at the end of the quarter! đ
[results] Tip #7: Share your historical benchmarks
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You need to first understand your historical benchmarks so you can share them.Â
Reverse engineer your funnel to understand your performance between steps.
This will look different for every company but hereâs an example for sales led:
- Meetings Booked
- Meetings Completed
- Opportunities
- Pipeline
- Revenue
Knowing the difference between steps is crucial to improve efficiency.Â
If your agency or consultant isnât trying to reverse engineer your funnel thatâs a red flag! đ´
Share these historical benchmarks and hold them accountable.Â
[Process] Tip #8: Be clear on your naming conventions
â
Your partners need to be able to jump inside your ad accounts and understand whatâs happening.Â
The first step is making sure they are informed on your naming conventions.
Align on naming conventions for:Â
- Forms
- Campaigns
- Creatives
And if youâre reading this and donât have existing naming conventions, ask yourself:Â
What are the questions Iâd like to answer from my campaigns?Â
For example, I want to know:
- Whatâs my performance by region?Â
- Whatâs my performance by campaign objective?
- Whatâs my performance by ad?
Then use these answers to include them in your naming convention.Â
This is a really small in the weeds tactical step but worth sharing.Â
[results] Tip #9: Have clear trackable goalsÂ
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Determine the metrics that matter that your advertising partners should track and the frequency in which they should be reporting on these goals to you.Â
I personally like to report on these weekly to make sure everything is pacing appropriately.Â
This also allows you to pivot quickly when things start to go off track.
When determining the metrics that matter, also brainstorm your leading indicators.Â
Leading indicators are clear metrics that help you determine early signs of success.
For example, depending on your campaigns objective it might look a bit different:Â
- Lead gen = qualified leads created
- Awareness = engagement rate by ad type
Just choose something that can happen quickly within the first 7 days of a campaign going live and is a relevant milestone that will ultimately lead to your end goal.Â
â
đ˘ An early and specific goal is better than no goal at all.
â
Without this clarity you or your partners wonât be able to prioritize what needs to be done.Â
If youâre struggling with deciding on your goals go back to tip #7 and understand your benchmarks.Â
[results] Tip #10: Set clear timelines and deliverables
â
Defining the success metrics that matter and the roadmap to get there is CRUCIAL.
You have to be clear upfront timelines for both parties or itâs going to get squirrely đżđ
If itâs not defined upfront as you go things will go sideways.Â
â
Communicate to your agency, consultant, or freelancer:
Hereâs what we expect from month 1, 2, and so onâŚ
Youâre hiring these experts to come in and solve a specific problem.Â
â
The goal is to hold your partner accountable to the outcome and not tasks.Â
This keeps you focused on the things that matter (ex: funnel optimization, benchmarks, goals).Â
I hope you found these 10 tips helpful and the best of luck in your future partnerships! âĽď¸
â
Connect with me on LinkedIn, and letâs keep the conversation going.Â
You can also visit my website here for more valuable content.
â
Resources for mastering B2B advertising
If youâre serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.Â
âHereâs 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
â Â 100% free access.
â Â Taught by vetted industry experts.
â Â Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
â Â Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can:
- Â 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 đ)
Google Ads Quality Score: Everything You Need To Know (2024)
Mastering quality score is essential if you want to pay less per click and outrank competitors.
In this article youâll learn the 80/20 of what you need to know about quality score.Â
Letâs dive into it!Â
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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- Quality Score SimplifiedÂ
- How is Quality Score Calculated?
- How to audit your Quality Score?
- How to improve your Quality Score?
- Quality Score FAQ
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Quality Score SimplifiedÂ
Back in 2005, Google released Quality Score.Â
This is a number from 1-10 that Google created to determine how relevant your ads are to what people are searching for (1 being the lowest relevance, and 10 being the highest).Â
Google wantâs people who search to find what they are looking for.
This way they come back to Google and search again in the future.
Quality Score is how they gamified the system to achieve this objective.Â
Itâs the perfect trinity between advertiser, searcher, and Google:Â
- Advertisers are rewarded with lower costs when having higher quality scores
- People searching for answers on Google will now find more relevant informationÂ
- Because people find relevant information they use Google again in the futureÂ
Before Quality Score was introduced Google was filled with tons of irrelevant ads leading to a poor experience for searchers and ultimately less people using Google in the future.Â
(In my opinion) Quality Score was one of the most important features released that transformed Google into the most dominant search engine in the world.Â
The secret to improving Quality Score is relevance.
How is Quality Score Calculated?
Ad relevance, landing page experience, and expected CTR are the three variables that go into calculating your Quality Score. Depending on how relevant each is to your keywords youâll have a final score between 1-10 (1 being the lowest relevance, and 10 being the highest).Â
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Ad Relevance
A metric that determines how relevant your keywords are to your ad copy.Â
Above average signifies great relevance, below average signifies room for improvement, below average signifies poor keyword and ad copy relevance.Â
Ad relevance is 100% in your control and below average ad relevance is usually the result of poor ad group structure resulting from too many keywords and/or few variations of ad copy.Â
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Landing Page Experience
A metric that determines how relevant your keywords, ads, and post click experience matches the search intent of the user.Â
Itâs not just about having your keywords on the page, it also takes into consideration page load speeds, page structure (ex: H1, H2s, H3s), and mobile optimization.Â
Above average signifies a great landing page experience, average signifies room for improvement, and below average signifies poor post click experience.Â
Expected CTR
A metric that determines the likelihood of someone clicking on your ads once seen in the Google search results.Â
In my experience auditing Google Ads accounts this is the #1 most common variable that drags down quality score for most accounts since itâs the least in your control.Â
This is Googleâs perception based on historical and predicted performance on how well you believe your ad will be engaged with.Â
Above average signifies a highly engaging ad, average signifies room for improvement, and below average signifies poor ad engagement.Â
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How to audit your Quality Score?
Once you understand the basics of quality score that it is a factor of relevance and three components that determine whether youâre a 1-10 the next logical question becomes:
Whatâs impacting my quality score performance?
Hereâs how to run a Google Ads quality score to find whatâs impacting your performance.Â
[EMBED YOUTUBE VIDEO]
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Step 1 - Download a keyword reportÂ
Within your Google Ads manager navigate to the keywords section within your account:
Campaigns > Keywords (press G + K for a keyboard shortcut)
Modify your keyword columns to include:
- Quality Score
- Ad Relevance
- Landing Page Experience
- Expected CTR
Once completed download your keywords into a CSV.
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Step 2 - Summarize your keywords into a pivot table
Pivot tables are great for summarizing large amounts of data.Â
Within Excel navigate to Insert > PivotTable to summarize your keyword report.Â
Once complete format your table as follows:
- Rows = Quality Score
- Values = Count of Keywords
- Filter = Quality score 1-10 (exclude â)Â
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Step 3 - Drill down to understand Quality Score performance
With your table setup now you can easily see overall quality score performance and drill down into specific elements such as ad relevance, landing page experience, and expected CTR.Â
Switch your rows to drill down into each element of quality score to diagnose performance:Â
- Ad Relevance; rows = Ad Relevance, values = count of keywords
- Landing Page Experience; rows = Landing Page Experience, values = count of keywords
- Expected CTR; rows = Expected CTR, values = count of keywords
How to improve your Quality Score?
After completing your Google Ads Quality Score audit it should be pretty clear which factor of QS is hurting your performance? (ex: ad relevance, landing page experience, expected CTR).
Hereâs some recommendations on how to improve each QS factor:Â
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Improving Ad Relevance
Below average ad relevance is a symptom of poor ad group structure.Â
If you have below average ad relevance, fear not! Because this is 100% in your control.
Hereâs some tips to improve your ad relevance:Â
- Add more headline variations to your responsive search ads to include the keywords within your ad groups.Â
- Keep your ad groups tightly grouped with thematic keywords, for the keywords that canât fit the theme consider putting it into its own group with relevant copy. Â
- Consolidate your active keywords and remove below average ad relevance variations that are not receiving any worthwhile impressions or clicks.Â
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Improving Landing Page ExperienceÂ
Below average landing page experience is a symptom of poor post click experience.Â
If youâve been neglecting your landing pages this is where itâs going to bite you.Â
Hereâs some tips to improve landing page experience:Â
- Include your primary keyword in your headline 1 to match search intent and your ad copy.Â
- Run your landing page through PageSpeed Insights to find how you can improve the mobile and desktop experience.Â
- Follow on page SEO best practices and have proper headline, and content formatting. Remember Google will crawl your landing pages so make sure itâs technically sound.Â
- Install a session recording tool to see how users behave on your landing page, the insights here are invaluable at understanding gaps.Â
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Improving Expected CTRÂ
This is Googleâs perception on how likely your ads will be clicked.Â
Unfortunately this aspect of Quality Score is the least in your control but that doesnât mean there isnât anything you can do to improve it.Â
Hereâs some tips to improve your expected clickthrough rate:Â
- Use as many ad extensions as possible (ex: sitelink, image, structured snippet, etc). Ad extensions provide more info to the searcher and make your ads larger.Â
- Test new RSA ad copy on a monthly basis to consistently try and improve your ad clickthrough rate performance on an ongoing basis.Â
- Monitor your account clickthrough rate trends month over month to combat negative trends. You can set up an automated rule within Google Ads to be notified automatically via email.Â
- Audit your search terms report and build your negative keyword lists. Block irrelevant impressions of your ads so that you can actually drive clicks.Â
- Experiment with dynamic keyword insertion to see if it positively affects your ad CTR.
Quality Score FAQ
How long does it take to improve your quality score?Â
Technically every time your keyword enters an auction quality score is recalculated to determine placement of your ad in relation to your competitors.Â
However in my experience it usually takes a month to see significant changes in your overall score.Â
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Should you worry about low quality scores?Â
Yes, low quality scores should cause concerns but it shouldnât be your initial priority. The first goal should be to drive relevant traffic and convert users.Â
If youâre not currently accomplishing this then stressing about quality score is pointless as itâs really only a factor of reducing your costs and improving visibility.Â
If youâre not already converting the visibility you do have, getting more of it wonât help.Â
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What is a good quality score?Â
A good quality score will fluctuate depending on your keyword strategy but overall Iâd recommend having 70% of enabled keywords in your account with a score > 7.Â
Just know this is highly circumstantial and if youâre running a competitive keyword strategy you will have lower quality scores by default given the difficulty of including your competitors in your ads.Â
Hope you found this article helpful! đĽ
Check out our video tutorial linked if you want a visual walkthrough.Â
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