Want to improve your SaaS B2B LinkedIn Ads?
It’s not enough to take a “set it and forget it” attitude toward your LinkedIn ads. Simply setting your budget and letting them run is not a strategy at all. If this is your approach, you’re likely losing out on potential leads and new revenue.
One thing we do here at Elevate Demand is run active tests around the ad type, copy, creative, and offer. We’ve invested over $25M in ad spend and are happy to share our learnings so you can improve your own LinkedIn Ads.
In the guide below, we share our findings plus some actionable tips for you to follow when it comes to running effective campaigns that drive revenue for your B2B SaaS business.
Best B2B LinkedIn Ad Types
LinkedIn offers a variety of ad types for you to play around with. But as with any advertising platform, the format you choose should be selected based on the needs/desires of your target audience and what your specific goals are for the ad campaigns. LinkedIn ads are great for driving brand awareness, driving website visits, boosting engagement, generating leads, and much more.
Sponsored Content
Sponsored content ads are made to look like “boosted” posts that were shared from a company’s LinkedIn page. They are the most “organic”-looking ads of the bunch. You can include a headline, image, body text, and clickable link, as well as carousel ads, videos, or even lead gen ads in the same format.
Text Ads
Text ads on LinkedIn are similar to Google and Bing ads in that they appear as a few lines of text with a simple call-to-action, next to your company logo. They operate on a pay-per-click or impression model. Text ads are quite boring compared to the other types available on LinkedIn.
Sponsored InMail
Ever log into LinkedIn and have a billion messages from marketers asking you to “schedule a call”? In many cases, these are Sponsored InMail messages these marketers have created to generate new leads. B2B businesses see varying degrees of success with these ads, and much of this success is dependent on the messaging you use. With the right copy, they can be effective in directing users to your website or enticing them to book a call.
Dynamic Dds
Dynamic ads are the most personalized ad type you’ll find on LinkedIn. With these ads, you can promote job opportunities, direct users to your website, increase content downloads, and more. LinkedIn also provides ready-made templates you can use to make personalizing your ad creative simple.
Best B2B LinkedIn Ad Copy Improvements
The ad copy is the first thing users see when they stumble upon your ad. It’s important to make it count. Even if you aren’t an expert copywriter, there are a few tips you can follow to write eye-catching and click-worthy ad copy.
1. Statistics & Numbers in Introductory Text
Including numbers and statistics in your ad introductory text is a good way to grab users’ attention and entice them to learn more. Some examples include social proof numbers (e.g. “Over 2000 5-star reviews!”) or key industry statistics (e.g. “Increased sales by 120%”).
2. Reference the Target Persona / Industry Multiple Times
Mentioning your target persona and/or the industry you are referring to within your ads is a good way to appeal directly to your target audience. We recommend mentioning the persona or industry once in the introductory text and once in the headline.
As an example, if you’re targeting Marketing teams or Medical Device companies, having several call-outs within the text improves results–i.e. clicks and conversions.
3. Avoid Using the Content Type in Title
Putting words like “webinar”, “whitepaper”, or “case study” at the front of your headline should be avoided. This may be common practice, but our tests have found that it decreases ad performance. Instead, use more active language like, “You’re invited to join us for a webinar”.
Best B2B LinkedIn Ad Creative Improvements
The “ad creative” is the content that visually renders the ad itself. As we covered previously, there are different types of LinkedIn Ads formats available. Here are a few tips for making your ad creative more effective.
4. Call Out the Persona or Industry
Text in your creative that calls out the industry/persona will improve your LinkedIn ad results.
Not only should you call out your audience several times in the copy, but in the creative as well. We’ve found this to improve click-through rate (CTR) and decrease cost per click (CPC).
Note: You shouldn’t be running images without text unless it’s to test your images against stock photos.
5. Avoid Using Your Logo
Most companies add their logo to the creative, but in current testing, this impacts results and should be removed.
We continually test logo vs non-logo in creative and have found historically that non-logo ads will get better results.
Now, if you have a large enough budget, adding your logo might be more impactful for building “awareness”, but you might expect fewer clicks.
6. Stock Images Perform Well
A great stock image can outperform poorly thought out custom creative in most scenarios. We’ve tested almost every ad set with a customer’s standard image versus a basic stock relevant photo and in most scenarios, the stock photo will win.
When doing images with text though, avoid stock and instead do a fairly solid color background with clear text call outs to the audience.
7. Avoid Bottom of the Funnel Lead Capture Ads
One more thing to keep in mind: we’ve also found ad intent to dramatically change results.
Bottom of the funnel demo and free trial ads have terrible connect rates and are some of the biggest offenders of wasted ad spend. When we audit these ad types we find that they close to revenue at less than 1%.
In our standard mix, we run no bottom of the funnel lead capture ads. In fact, we’ve tested bottom of the funnel “get a demo”/”free trial” ads against our approach several times.
We’ve found that over the long term, you’ll generate more revenue and better quality inbound leads when you avoid sales-focused LinkedIn ads.
Best Tips for Optimizing Your B2B LinkedIn Ads
Many of the “tried and tested” LinkedIn Ad tips aren’t actually tested at all. While many marketers will insist they know best, unless they have tested results across multiple campaigns, they’re only likely to make an educated guess at best.
At Elevate Demand, we’re invested in helping our clients generate real, tangible results from their LinkedIn Ads. This means revenue, not just impressions or clicks. That’s why we A/B test various ad types, copy, creative, and offers to land on the perfect game-winning formula.
In summary:
- Ad stats and relevant social proof when appropriate.
- Include multiple audience call-outs, either industry or persona including in the creative.
- Avoid branding in your creative and lean heavily towards stock photos or clean, simple pattern backgrounds.
- Remove language that indicates intent or lead capture as the first word – such as webinar, demo, whitepaper.
- Always be testing your ads.
If you want to know what makes our ads so successful and see the campaigns we’re running for customers, book a discovery call today.