10 Tips to Create Winning LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads

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Jonathan Bland

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

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. 

LinkedIn thought leader ad example with Premium View my Newsletter CTA

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. 

LinkedIn thought leader ad example from a non-employee

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.

B2B LinkedIn thought leader ad featuring external creator

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. 

Example of optimized LinkedIn banner image

2. Make sure your profile photo is up to date, and use your primary brand color as the background. 

Example of optimized LinkedIn profile photo

3. Add what you do + the category you play in to your headline

Example of optimized LinkedIn profile 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)

Example of optimized LinkedIn profile About section

5. Use the featured section to highlight your core CTA + top performing posts demonstrating your expertise

Example of optimized LinkedIn profile featured section

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. 

Jonathan Bland
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