LinkedIn Ads Specialist | B2B Youtuber/Blogger | Rooftop Cinema Owner

I've been running B2B ads for 9 years, diving deep into LinkedIn Ads in 2020—that’s 5 years of laser-focused expertise on the platform. Since then, I’ve managed millions in ad spend for 150+ clients, helping businesses scale their demand generation, lead gen, and revenue strategies.

💡 What I do:
👉 I run Kiin, a niche LinkedIn Ads agency working with budgets up to $100K/month
👉 I help B2B companies own their demand, lower CPLs, and convert more pipeline
👉 I design and execute high-performing LinkedIn campaigns that drive real ROI

🔹 Want to scale your LinkedIn Ads profitably? Let’s chat. Book a call: https://calendly.com/phil-kiin/30min
🔹 Learn more at www.kiin.co

Philip Ilic

LinkedIn Conversation ads have been some of our best-performing ad formats for a bunch of my clients. 

They are getting demo requests for as little as $120 to $350.

I used to say they were hit or miss. 

50% of the time they would work. 
50% not.

but i am finding more like 75% of the time they do if done right.
 
Cool thing is they also work really well to a cold audience. 

If you think about it they are just a cold message sent to your ICP at scale (like outbound) but with no spam filters. 

I made a deep-dive loom playbook video covering:
+ How to set them up
+ What to write in them
+ How to approach bidding (opposite of what you’d normally do)
+ When and how to use them
+ How to use incentives effectively alongside them

If you want it...
Comment 'convo' down below💪

And i'll send dm you a link. 

p.s. make sure you are connected with me otherwise i can't send it!

LinkedIn Ads Specialist | Dm Me To Access My full LinkedIn Ads Playbooks👇 | Rooftop Cinema Owner🍿

If I've got a list of 1,000–5,000 companies… 
And the budget to properly hit them… 
I don't run a normal funnel. 
I go all in on content distribution. 

Here's exactly how I do it.

1️⃣ Upload the company list.
Then I layer it with job titles.
Make sure the list is super tight. 

If you can add a layer which is more of a signal then that is great,

Now we've got a tight, high-value audience. 
No broad targeting. 
Just the accounts we actually want.

2️⃣ Create up to 10 Thought Leader Ads.

Some video. 
Some image posts. 
Different angles. 
Different people from the company if possible.
Founder content. 
Product content. 
Educational content. 
Social proof. 
Contrarian takes.

The goal is that every time someone from that company logs into LinkedIn… they see us. 
Not once. 
Repeatedly.

3️⃣ Control frequency properly.

This part matters.

I'm looking for minimum 5–10 impressions per post. 
Each person seeing at least 5 different posts, ideally closer to 10. 
Strong penetration across the list.

Post getting tired? 
Frequency too high? 
Engagement dropping? 
Swap it out. 

Rotate creative every few weeks.

4️⃣ Let familiarity build. Then convert.

After a few weeks you start seeing direct inbound. 
Branded searches. 
Website visits from those accounts. 
Random demo bookings.

One way to see this 'influenced pipeline' is using Fibbler, a super great tool for this.

They've seen you 20+ times. 
You're not a stranger anymore.

That's when we layer in Lead Gen Forms, BOF campaigns, Conversation Ads, direct demo messaging, and warm outbound to the same list.

You're not introducing yourself. They should have some brand and personal awareness. 

There is no classic TOF → MOF → BOF. 
We're not building tiny retargeting pools. 
We're hitting the entire list consistently.

This flips the traditional funnel on its head.

It works when the list is under 5k, LTV is strong, you've got enough budget to dominate, and you actually monitor frequency and penetration.

Most companies massively under-invest in frequency. 
But frequency builds familiarity. 
And familiarity builds pipeline.

---
p.s. want us to build this for you, send me a dm to discuss 💪

Most people’s LinkedIn ads fail because they don’t know how to report on influenced pipeline.

If you can only see the directly attributable things such as leads + demos, then you are missing out on major superpower of LinkedIn ads.

this is the content delivery/ demand gen / how pipeline is influenced part. 

But without a way to see that the pressure to focus on demos and leads gets super high. 

And that kind of pressure pushes marketers to lean heavily on bottom-of-funnel tactics...
Things like lead gen forms and incentive ads.

These do work super well. 

but without focusing on the nurture (180 day retargeting content delivery) part, the lead gen part will flatline… and then fail.

demos = pipeline = revenue, right?
Kind of.

In my opinion LinkedIn ads’ true super power lies more in its ability to deliver content at scale to a really high value ICP.

This is the demand gen part.

We push (mostly thought leader ads) to your ICP.

We work hard on multiple bits of content so we deliver a full message.

This all delivers our message, things like…
+ what does your product do
+ why is it awesome
+ why is it different
+ how did people used to tackle this problem before your solution
+ Who have you worked with before
+ what amazing things are they saying about you
+ why do they think you are awesome
+ how do they use you and get massive results
+ what is your position in your general market
+ do you have an opinion on the general topic you work in

This builds trust and teaches your ICP about your product.

And then often they fill out a form or come inbound through…
branded search
or through “direct”
or unknown
or even a lead gen ad

but when you dig deeper you see they actually engaged with your thought leader ads 7 times…
clicked 4 times to your site
and had 200 impressions over the past couple months

This is 'influenced pipeline'.

The LinkedIn ads do the heavy lifting.

before the companies tab on LinkedIn there was no way to really report on this.

And this is why Fibbler is an essential tool for us at Kiin.

If we can’t report on influenced pipline we are missing out on reporting on LinkedIn’s most important metric.

How much pipeline and revenue has LinkedIn influenced.

And then when the lead gen ads fail, which eventually they do, if all your budget is focused on that, then people end up switching off their LinkedIn ads.

They say it failed. 
that LinkedIn ads suck.

Honestly this is why I love Fibbler
It has made my job to tell a compelling story about why LinkedIn ads work much easier.

When a client can see a dashboard (see pic) with the number which states the influenced pipe / revenue it is easy to see why linkedin ads are so powerful.

P.S. This is exactly why Fibbler exists. It connects your LinkedIn ad impressions, engagements, and clicks directly to your CRM so you can finally see the influenced pipeline most marketers are missing. Try it free for 30 days at https://www.fibbler.co/

There is a huge discrepancy between LinkedIn ad landing page clicks and what clients see in GA4. Here is why:

A client yesterday pointed out they were seeing around 5% of clicks to landing page in GA4 vs what we report in LinkedIn.
(If you're reading this 👋)

So I went deep. 
LinkedIn docs, ad fraud studies, GA4 consent mode research, every thread I could find.

Here's what's actually happening:

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗰𝘆

Even perfectly configured, a 15-30% gap between Landing Page Clicks and GA4 sessions is normal.

Some advertisers report only 1 in 3 clicks becoming a session. 
The documented range is 5-40%.

𝟭. 𝗠𝗼𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗯𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱𝘀

LinkedIn counts the click the instant someone taps.

GA4 only counts after the page loads, JavaScript executes, and a cookie is set.
On mobile there's a multi-second delay. Users hit back or close the app.

Facebook's data shows GA tracking fails on 10-80% of mobile clicks. LinkedIn behaves the same way.

𝟮. 𝗖𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗯𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀

"Deny Cookies" = invisible to GA4.
A normal banner reduces recorded traffic by 10-15%. Misconfigured? The drop can hit 95%.

One study found a $1M+/quarter company underreporting by 25% because their cookie platform was blocking Google Tag Manager entirely.

If your clients are in Europe or the UK, this is likely your biggest culprit.

𝟯. 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸

AJ Wilcox (B2Linked) analysed LAN traffic with ad fraud expert Dr. Augustine Fou.
63% was bot or suspicious. Only 37% confirmed human.

2,000 clicks paid for. ~1,000 real people showed up.

Headless bots don't process JavaScript, clicks in LinkedIn, invisible in GA.

𝟰. 𝗚𝗔𝟰 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
If a user grants cookie consent after browsing a few pages, GA4 resets the session and marks it as "Direct."
Your LinkedIn traffic is there. 
Just under the wrong label.

𝟱. 𝗠𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗸𝘀 + 𝗮𝗱 𝗯𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀
Click, back, click again = 2 LinkedIn clicks, 1 GA session.
Bad bots made up 37% of all web traffic in 2024. Ad blockers block GA but don't stop LinkedIn counting.

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱:
→ Mobile bounce: 10-20% lost 
→ Cookie denial: 10-15% invisible 
→ GA4 misattribution: 5-10% 
→ LAN bots (if on): up to 63% 
→ Ad blockers: 5-10% 
→ Repeat clicks: 3-5%

Stack a few and 50-80% of clicks vanish before GA4 sees them.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗼:
→ Turn off LAN unless there's a reason 
→ Audit cookie consent (GTM must load BEFORE the banner) 
→ Enable GA4 Consent Mode v2 Advanced + behavioural modelling 
→ Speed test landing pages — under 1 second on mobile 
→ Honest benchmarks: 15-20% = normal. 30%+ = investigate. 50%+ = broken.

LinkedIn Ads work. 
We see the pipeline. 
We see the revenue.
But tracking is always a pain in the ass.

A few months back I had a client who was pushing me hard to put $50k a month into bottom of funnel ads.

It actually worked well for a while.

They were over the moon with the amount of leads coming in.

The CMO had super aggressive targets given to him.

 And that pressure got pushed onto me.

For a while it worked really well.

We were getting a ton of demo requests each month.

Things looked bright.
Until they didn’t.

What happened next is the CPL started to rise — not slowly, but really quickly.
It went from $200–300 per demo request to $600–800 in a matter of weeks. 

Then 1000 + a couple of weeks later. 

+ We refreshed creatives.
+ Tried different targeting types.
+ Expanded the ICP slightly.

But nothing kept the price down.

I kept recommending a demand gen strategy.

I could see we needed to invest a lot more in content distribution. 
Nurture. Retargeting. Education.

But they were fully on the lead gen bandwagon.

They were addicted to these leads.

I also pushed hard to get them to analyse actual pipeline and revenue generated, not just demo volume.

They never helped us get the right data for this. Or wanted to.

I have a sneaky suspicion they knew this was a downward spiral and preferred to live in ignorance.

Long story short…
The leads ended up costing $1,200+.

To be fair, their ACV was around $40–60k, so on paper it was still “doable”.

Once we eventually dug into it, after hundreds of thousands spent, the ROI was negative.

Many of the leads were low quality.
Very few converted into real pipeline.

Now I refuse to work with companies that don’t get behind the recommended strategy.

I even introduced a clause that once we present our go-to-market strategy, if we’re not aligned at the strategy level, either side can walk away risk-free. 

Money back.

It’s not worth pushing something we know will fail eventually.

p.s. If you wanna do LinkedIn ads properly, I’ll drop our full funnel strategy playbook video in the comments.

I see people doubting AI will completely take over many marketing jobs in the next 18 months.

I believe it.

I've been building our own internal Kiin Intelligence Agent and it's performing tasks at a level most people can't.

Is it better than the best specialist for each individual task? Maybe not.
But it's better than most.

For example I trained it to do 90% of the work around LinkedIn Ads strategy.

It researches the company, the product, the ICP... ...goes on Reddit, G2, and other places to find both positive and negative reviews.

It analyses messaging.

It looks at how much the company is posting organically and gives a full report.

It literally does 95% of the strategy work for me.
I just add the final recommendations (which it also attempts... and gets a lot right).

We also used to need 2 people at Kiin spending all day Friday building weekly client reports.

Now those reports (releasing this next week to the team) come 95% prepared. 

We just review and refine.

I can clearly see much of my job will be automated.

Not all of it. But a lot.

In the short run it makes us way more efficient internally.

In the long run it means fewer people handling more accounts.

I'm both terrified and excited at the same time.

LinkedIn Ads are easy.
All you have to do is...

- Know your demand gen vs demand capture budget split
- Understand influenced pipeline and how to track it
- Know whether to optimise TLAs for engagement or brand awareness
- Know the difference between CPC and clicks to landing page
- Know which TLA content bucket to use and when
- Know when to promote an organic post vs create something new
- Know your convo ad open rate benchmark, and what to do when you're under it
- Know what each drop-off in the convo ad funnel means
- Know when to use lead gen forms vs landing pages
- Know whether low pipeline is a targeting, message or speed-to-lead problem
- Know when TOFU isn't building retargeting pools
- Know how to design MOFU for influenced pipeline
- Know when BOFU is burning budget on the wrong audiences
- Know how to set up retargeting windows and how to layer by engagement depth
- Know when and how to run incentive ads on convo ads
- Know how to bid on conversation ads and why it matters
- Know how to calculate budget against audience size and CPM
- Know whether audience expansion is helping or hurting you
- Know what exclusions to set and why
- Know the benchmarks for each ad format so you know how to optimise
- Know when creative is fatiguing
- Know when an account is broken at the ad level vs the strategy level
- Remember to connect CRM data back to your LinkedIn Ads
- Remember to pass engagement signals from ads to the sales team
- Remember to align with sales so ads and pipeline actually connect
- Remember to set up self-reported attribution from day one
- Remember to track lead → SQL → opportunity → revenue, not just CPL
- Remember that LinkedIn video views are 2 seconds, and what to track instead
- Remember to follow up on lead gen form leads instantly
- Remember that account historical performance affects current campaigns
- Remember that audience expansion is a LinkedIn revenue feature, not a targeting feature
- Remember that LinkedIn ≠ Google
- Know how to use TLAs to warm up outbound before the first touch
- Know your ICP tightly enough to actually build an account list

Easy, right? 😰

#LinkedInAds #B2B #DemandGeneration

I just hit over 4,000 subscribers on my newsletter.

It’s always been a side project. I’ve neglected it more times than I’d like to admit… sorry 😅

But when I look at it properly, it’s responsible for a really meaningful part of how I bring in new clients.

Email marketing is actually incredibly powerful.

We get 50%+ open rates on pretty much every send, even on the 8th, 9th, 10th email in a sequence. 

It means people genuinely care about what I write.

I don’t write often. But when I do, it’s usually:
• an A/B test
• real performance data
• insights from the hundreds of thousands we spend on LinkedIn ads each month

These aren’t recycled blog posts. 
They’re things we’re actively testing inside client accounts.

Maybe that’s why people keep reading, even though I’m painfully inconsistent.

Here’s why email is worth the effort:

1. You own your media

I have direct access to everyone who subscribes.

There’s no algorithm that can throttle my reach overnight.

For me, a newsletter subscriber is infinitely more valuable than a social media follower.

2. You build an actual relationship

Email, especially if you’re consistent, builds long-term trust with your ICP.

It keeps you top of mind.
+ It nurtures the 97% who aren’t in market yet.
+ It shows expertise.
+ It builds social proof over time.
+ It compounds.

3. It’s mostly free
Yes, I use LinkedIn ads, YouTube and organic LinkedIn to grow it.

But once someone subscribes, I can reach them in their inbox for free.

And if you’re anything like me, you check your inbox more than you check social media.

If it costs me $16 to acquire a subscriber who’s a VP of Marketing and they:
• read my emails
• click the links
• watch the videos

Then I can reach that person indefinitely, as long as I keep delivering value.

And from what I’ve seen, a percentage of those subscribers eventually become customers.

4. It’s a serious conversion engine

I’ve been digging into our data and comparing newsletter subscribers with sales calls and closed clients over the past year.

A large proportion of clients had, at some point, subscribed and read my emails.

Some booked calls directly from a newsletter link.

Email is massively underrated.

It’s powerful.

But it’s also a grind to build.

Still, 4,000 subscribers later, I’m very glad I stuck with it.

P.S. Why not sign up (link in the cmments)
Inside you’ll get:
• Real A/B test results from campaigns we’re actively running
• Deep-dive playbooks on LinkedIn Ads and GTM
• Loom walkthroughs breaking down strategy and performance
• A bunch of high-quality freebies, including 68 LinkedIn Canva ad templates

Honestly, I think one of the best strategies I know, which very few ppl do with LinkedIn ads, is saturation over retargeting.

What I mean by this is if you have a limited account list, then just make sure the audience size matches your budget.

Then the goal is NOT to go broad. 
Then do middle of funnel 180 day retargeting. 
Then bottom of funnel retargeting of the middle.

This works. but what i am talking about here is different. 

What I have been testing instead is saturating a limited cold audience with content.

Making sure the penetration rate is high. 
Decent frequency. 
Enough bits of content. Enough impressions etc.

The goal is to hit up as many ppl on that list as possible with at least: 5-10 bits of content (mostly TL ads) 
With 5-10 frequency on each bit of content. 
Work on penetration rate.

The point is that we get as many ppl on this list to receive content which communicates...
+ who you are
+ what you do
+ why you are amazing
(withh enough impressions and content each)

Then when we launch the bottom of funnel plays (LinkedIn lead gen / to demo page ads + warmbound)

These ppl will already be super primed.

The point is also to be in front of these ppl for a good period of time, as we all know someone might not yet be in market but might be in 6 months.

Its a little different but I see this working super well over the full funnel strategy.

Both work. 
But this is especially powerful if you have a list you want to target and hit up for the next 3-6 months.

Or if you have limited TAM (account-based targeting).

#linkedinads #demandgen #leadgen

We tried Linkedin ads and it didn't work...
I hear this all the time. 

But when I look under the hood, I see a massive mess. 
+ no structure
+ bidding off
+ LAN on
+ no strategy
+ no thought leader ads
+ no attribution 
+ no clue if ads are influencing pipeline (and not using Fibbler to check)
+ 100% of budget in lead gen
+ all the budget in 2 TL ads 
+ $300 spent, then they panicked and decided it doesn't work

Ppl jump straight to 'ads aren’t working' when the issue is buried way deeper.

So I built this mental model I run through every single time 👇

Layer 0: Attribution
Can we even trust the data?
Half the time… we can’t. Tags broken, UTMs missing, CRM a mess. No way to looking at influenced pipeline/revenue.

Layer 1: Account setup
Bidding wrong. Audience expansion on. LinkedIn Audience Network secretly taking 98% of the budget.

Layer 2: Funnel
No structure. Just random campaigns.
No retargeting. No Thought Leader Ads. No flow.

Layer 3: Lead gen
Leads coming in… but none converting down stream.
Or they just die in the CRM.

Layer 4: Targeting + demographics
You think you’re hitting ICP… you’re not.
Wrong seniority, wrong company size, wrong industries. Very few exclusions.

Layer 5: Creative
No Tl ads
low CTRs
A mess of ads with no clear objectives. 

Layer 6: Spend
Budget leaking into campaigns doing nothing.
Meanwhile your best campaigns are underfunded.

Layer 7: Pipeline
This is the big one.
LinkedIn might actually be working… just not where you’re looking.
Is there Influenced pipe??? 
(Fibbler is a great one to integrate here to know this one)

And honestly…
When I go through this with clients, it’s never just one thing.

It’s like 5–6 small inefficiencies stacked on top of each other.
👉 Slightly wrong targeting
 👉 Weak creative
 👉 No retargeting
 👉 Bad attribution

That’s why most ppl quit LinkedIn ads too early.

They have no idea why their ads are not working, then they say LinkedIn ads are sh£t. 

Not everyone should advertise, but most b2b companies can find success on the platform. 

p.s. i'd highly recommend Fibbler as a foundation. 
If you do not know your influenced pipeline, you are flying half blind.

Brand partnership • LinkedIn Ads Specialist | Dm Me To Access My full LinkedIn Ads Playbooks👇 | Rooftop Cinema Owner🍿

I audited an account recently that had a ton of campaigns running.

But it was completely unclear what the point of each one was.

A massive mess.

Here's what I always do to bring clarity. I define two things for every campaign:

1. Is it demand gen or demand capture?

Understanding this changes everything about how you run it.

Most people hope each campaign does both. It won't.

A demand gen campaign should often be zero-click and native to LinkedIn. 

Keep people on the platform. 
Educate them there.

A demand capture campaign should have a harder CTA. 
You're catching intent that already exists.

2. What is the specific objective of that campaign?

Every campaign gets one objective. Not two. One.

The most common ones I use:

→ Get people to watch a video so they learn about X 
→ Get people to click through to a landing page 
→ Get people to download a lead magnet 
→ Get someone to request a demo via a lead gen form

Once you know the objective, you know exactly how to measure whether it's working.

If the goal is landing page clicks, look at CTR, CPC, bounce rates. 

If it's a nurture campaign, look at dwell time. 

If it's video views, look at video views.

Sounds obvious. But most accounts I audit don't do this.

One objective per campaign means you always know if it's succeeding or not.


#linkedinads

What should my Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) be from LinkedIn Ads?
It's the question every client asks.
And the question most ppl running your ads love to dodge 
(including me)

Here are the 10 factors that determine your LinkedIn Ads CAC:

1. TAM + In-Market Rate
Big addressable market with lots of in-market buyers = more people ready to buy = your CAC drops.

Tiny niche with 500 companies = every impression is expensive and conversion is slow.

Market size sets the floor.

2. Product-Market Fit
The one everyone skips.
Strong PMF = ppl convert faster, churn less, refer more.
Weak PMF = even great ads can't save you. Every lead is a fight.
The best CAC optimisation isn't in the ad account. It's in the product.

3. ACV
High ACV = you can absorb more spend per close.
$60k ACV deal with a $5k CAC is fine.
$6k ACV deal with a $5k CAC is a disaster.
ACV sets the ceiling on what CAC is even acceptable.

4. Sales Cycle Length
Longer cycles = more spend before a close registers.
Most attribution windows don't capture 9-month journeys.
So your CAC looks worse than it actually is and you kill the channel too early.

5. Lead-to-Close Rate
This is the biggest multiplier.
Same CPL. 5% close rate vs 20% close rate.
That's a 4x difference in CAC.
Sales team quality, SDR speed, lead quality — all of it lives here.

6. Creative Quality
Bad creative gets punished by LinkedIn's algorithm.
Higher CPMs. Less distribution. Worse CAC.
Good creative can cut CPL by 30–50% on identical targeting.
The ad is not separate from the CAC equation.

7. Category Maturity
Do ppl already know your category exists?
If yes, they're searching, comparing, primed to convert. CAC is lower.

If no, you have to teach them they have a problem before you can solve it.
That education costs money.

Blue ocean markets sound exciting until you see the CAC.

8. Brand Awareness
Cold audiences who've never heard of you convert at a fraction of the rate of warm ones.
No brand in market = your ads are doing double duty.
Paying for awareness AND conversion at the same time.
Retargeting audiences are your cheapest source of CAC reduction.

9. Landing Page Conversion Rate
You can run perfect campaigns and blow it all here.
1% LP conversion vs 4% LP conversion = 4x difference in CAC.
Most advertisers obsess over the ad.
They should obsess over what happens after the click.

Our internal CAC is: ~$1,500

What's yours?

#LinkedInAds #B2B #DemandGeneration

Thought leader ads are not necessarily your best organic content.

I hear a lot of people say your best performing organic LinkedIn content is what you should push in TL ads.

I don't think that's true.

My best content is a selfie of me with my cat. 
or me at my roof top cinema in Lisbon
Everyone loves those
Get 20x my normal engagement.

But that doesn't mean I should push that as a TL ad.

Realistically we need to push content which is sometimes more BOF.

This doesn't always get the most engagement, but that's ok.

The point is your ICP needs to know:
+ Your features
+ How you work
+ What you do
+ Who you've helped

That's the point of a TL ad.

An organic content strategy where you post 4x a week is very different to LinkedIn thought leader ad content.

With TL ads we need to be strategic about what we push.

The way I see it, we need to think about what specifically does the ICP need to know about you to understand why they should use you over your competitors. 

Or even why they need your SaaS at all.

So we need content specifically about:

+ Your product
how does it work, what specific features can help them.

+ Your social proof
who have you helped, how did you help them, some stats, ideally some logos.

We need to deliver this content to your ICP in the demand gen part of your LinkedIn ads funnel.

This is the entire point of demand gen. 
A lot of this content from TL ads is designed to be zero-click. 

We are trying to get your ICP to consume the content, to learn about you and what you do.

So yeah, i guess not every vp of marketing needs to see my wit my cat sefie.

Yesterday one of our LinkedIn Ads specialists at Kiin flagged something I hadn’t seen before.

I took a look and realised the campaign was performing incredibly well.

It was a tactic we’d never tested in this specific way before, and for this client it was working extremely well.

It’s rare to find something genuinely new.
We’re constantly testing, iterating, tweaking.
So when something fresh actually works well, it’s super exciting.

I asked the team to roll it out across five more accounts as a structured test.
We’ve just done that. literally 24 hours later. 

This is one of the reasons I love running a large number of LinkedIn Ads accounts.

The cross-account learning is powerful. 
Seeing what works, what doesn’t, how different ICPs respond, how creative fatigue shows up, how bidding strategies behave, that breadth of data compounds fast.

It reminds me why having a specialist partner like us matters.

Not because we claim to know everything.

But because we’re deep in it every single day, always learning.

There are only a handful of teams who operate at this depth on LinkedIn. And i know pretty much all of them. 

Running truly current playbooks is hard.
You need volume.
You need pattern recognition.
You need the willingness to try things that aren’t in a blog post yet.

A lot of people run someone else’s framework.
We try to build and refine our own.

Ai is also freaking me out at the mo also.

But moments like this remind me we can still add a lot of value... for now at least.

That’s why I’m glad we chose to go deep on LinkedIn Ads rather than broad across everything.

#linkedinads

My client thought the account was failing.
I thought it was pretty much on track.
We were both looking at the same data.

So how were we drawing completely different conclusions??? 

Knowing what good looks like, at each layer of the funnel, is half the battle.

Here's how I read the metrics:

👉 Demand gen vs demand capture.

These are two completely different games.
Most people mix them up and then wonder why nothing makes sense.

👉 Cold layer (demand gen)

The only goal here is building high-quality, affordable retargeting audiences.
That's it.

So we're looking at:
+ Clicks to landing pages
+ Engagement
+ Video views

Don't expect leads from cold.
That's not the job.

👉 180 day retargeting / demand gen layer 
This is about content distribution.

Consistently communicating to your ICP...
who you are
what you do
How you do it
us vs them
old vs new 

Bascially we need to get the ICP to know about you and your product 
(brand awareness). 

Here we care about:
+ Engagement rates
+ Dwell time
+ Clicks to landing pages
+ Video views
+ Impressions
+ Frequency and penetration rate

alot of this is zero click and native to LinkedIn. 

You need your ICP to see enough content that you actually become familiar.
Not one impression. Not five.
Enough that they know you.

👉 Demand capture layer

Now we're looking at harder metrics.

+ Lead gen form opens and fills
+ Website form submissions

Basically MQLs/ SQLs / Demos booked etc

This is the bottom of the funnel.
It should convert.

If it doesn't, the problem is usually further up stream.

👉 Each ad type also has its own logic Also.

Thought leader ads need to be read completely differently from single image ads.

CPC doesn't matter for TL ads.
What matters is 'clicks to landing page'.

And especially in demand gen, where I use TL ads most, the real question is: 
are people actually consuming the content?

Dwell time matters.
Video views matter.
Are they sitting with the post long enough to absorb the message, or just scrolling past?

At the same time, we want enough reach within the ICP.
So impressions, frequency, and penetration rate all come into play.

Conversation ads are their own beast.
Most reporting tools handle these badly.

For convo ads you're reading open rates, click-through rates etc

The whole flow matters, not just the end conversion.

Linkedin is confusing 
(luckily for me as it'll take longer for ai to take my job).

But half the battle is knowing what good looks like.

I reviewed an account yesterday that has over $1M in pipeline attributed to LinkedIn Conversation Ads.

Revenue already trickling in.
(we are also doing full funnel here so it is not the only thing happening)

Here's what actually makes them work:

1. Open rate
Everything starts here.

Low open rate = less ppl see the offer = less clicks = less leads.

It compounds downward fast.

Open rate is about 2 things:
Targeting: your offer has to match your ICP. That's a separate post.

The headline: treat it exactly like a cold outbound subject line.

We aim for 30%+ minimum. 40% is great.

(I've seen accounts with lower open rates but cheaper CPL than accounts with 40%+, so it's one factor, not the only factor)

A/B test your headlines constantly until you hit a number you're happy with.

2. The opening copy
Short. To the point. No wall of text.

I reviewed one today that tried to say everything at once.

Overwhelming to look at. Obviously wasn't converting.

Here's the format I use:
Social proof first: "Top brands like X and Y use [company] to [outcome]"

One line on a specific benefit or feature to hook them.

CTA: book a quick 15-min demo.

That's it.

If you want higher conversion, add an incentive: $100 Amazon gift card for a 30-min call. The math always works if your deal size is decent.

3. The CTA options
I keep it to 2 max.

"I'm interested" opens the lead gen form.
"Not right now. 
That's it.

Super simple. 
No choose-your-own-adventure nonsense.

We have a bunch of accounts where convo ads are the entire demand capture engine.

#LinkedInAds #ConversationAds #B2BMarketing

B2B SEO & Web Design For Revenue Not Vanity | DM To Discuss | Host @ Business Growth Show (Top 10 B2B Marketing Podcast, Cognism)

Your website struggling to drive a steady flow of qualified demos/leads?
Tired of losing leads to competitors ranking higher on Google/AI?
Frustrated your SEO agency isn't delivering demos & revenue?

WE FIX THAT.

OUR GROWTH STRATEGIES:

→ SEO to get top of Google & LLMs, bringing revenue-focused demos and signups
→ Start driving pipeline from AI and Google organic as fast as 90 days

BREAKING B2B - B2B MARKETING & DEMAND GENERATION PODCAST

Grow your b2b/SaaS company without the BS. Weekly top 2.5% podcast with actionable marketing tips to grow your revenue: www.breakingb2b.com

STILL NOT CONVINCED?

→ See our work, client results & starting rates here: www.breakingb2b.com

BOOK A CALL:

💻: www.breakingb2b.com
📧: Connect & DM Me
✉️: sam@samdunning.org

CORE SERVICES:

→ B2B SEO strategy and execution
→ Content marketing
→ Digital marketing for SaaS

WHY BREAKING B2B?

→ We focus on revenue, not vanity metrics
→ Our strategies are data-driven and results-oriented
→ We have a proven track record with B2B and SaaS companies
→ Our podcast (Breaking B2B) gives you free, valuable insights into B2B marketing

About time your website became your best (24/7) salesperson?
Get in touch today, and let's start growing your business.

P.S.
Agencies: We offer white-label SEO to help you deliver results on time and within budget.

Sam Dunning

I ask the public: whats the point of linkedin?

Founder @ Breaking B2B | B2B SEO For Revenue Not Vanity | SaaS & B2B Teams Hire Us To Scale Organic Pipeline From Google & AI Search | DM To Discuss | Host @ Breaking B2B (Top 2.5% B2B Marketing Podcast)

Marketing: please don't rely on AI for SEO

CEO:


Watch full B2Backstreet Boys vid: https://lnkd.in/e9warMqW

RB2B are coming for the incumbent with AI search. 2yr old vs 14yr old SaaS. Here's our game-plan this month for Adam Robinson to keep ramping organic market share and pipeline from SEO/AEO:

QUICK SNAPSHOT.

Our focus is to continue driving sign-ups as quick as humanly possible from SEO/AEO and earning mindshare for RB2B whenever ICPs need visitor identification software, are comparing vendors, annoyed with their current provider or have the expensive problem we solve.

We've seen solid AI & search wins against long-term competitors (see images).

We’ll keep prioritizing competitor-focused bottom funnel KWs to capture high-intent demand. The plan includes 2x product listicle articles and 2x pricing-intent pages, targeting folks in evaluation or purchase mode.

“Uplead alternatives” pages across multiple domains are currently driving high-value traffic, indicating strong switch intent. RB2B can intercept this demand with a differentiated alternative page. “Hunter io pricing” represents a high-volume BOFU query where capturing comparison-driven traffic to directly influence purchase decisions.

We're crafting a comprehensive guide on “Lead scoring best practices”, a strong mid-funnel topic for RB2B because buyers searching it are actively trying to improve lead prioritization and sales efficiency. It allows RB2B to reframe why traditional scoring fails and position real-time website intent as the missing input that makes lead scoring actionable.


NET NEW CONTENT CREATION.

listicle articles:
- uplead alternatives
- happierleads alternatives

a quick summary and intro, why listen to us, what is uplead/happierleads, why look into alternatives (based on what prospects say e.g. on G2), list of 10 alternatives, RB2B at #1 with why customers choose them, show product in action, pricing and feature info, where we are a good + poor fit then list of 10 other options below with fair summary + conclusion and FAQs.

listicle and alternative/competitor content on your own site is solid for being cited and recommend in AI search and enables you to control the narrative with dream clients on ChatGPT and google ai overviews.

pricing guides:
- hunter io pricing
- snitcher pricing

these pages review the software pricing, share user feedback, breakdown of costs and share where RB2B is differentiated and why customers choose them. plus they often rank well within 90 days.

mid-funnel guide:
- lead scoring best practices


EARN BACKLINKS.

Secure niche relevant da50+ backlinks for:
- sales outreach strategy
- sales outreach plan
- lead capturing
- how to identify website visitors


EXTERNAL LISTICLE ARTICLE PLACEMENTS.

Secure placements on articles evaluating software like ours that are well ranked in google and AI searches for:
- sales prospecting platforms

___

Grab a call to see if Breaking B2B can scale demos quick as 90 days for your SaaS: https://lnkd.in/e7XuM6au

Watch my 34-minute SEO/AEO breakdown video for RB2B: https://lnkd.in/eiZfaXXq

I’m seeing SaaS execs burn time and cash on the AI prompt tracking goldrush…and it’s KILLING me. Do this instead if you wanna drive pipeline:

Rather than tracking every prompt under the sun that has a tiny bit of relevance to your brand that someone may or may not type into ChatGPT needing your solution…

…Just because it looks cool and gives a great looking chart on a LLM visibility tool.

It reminds me of SEO agencies that would push top funnel articles and content to get max traffic at all costs that drove little to no pipeline and revenue.

The better way?

Focus on what your ICP search on Google and AI search when:

- needing your solution now
- comparing different vendors
- looking to move from the incumbent 
- having the crisp problem you solve

and starting with those 5% in market.

get your brand recommended in LLMs and rank on Google for these money terms first. 

often these have less search volume but high buying intent, can rank and get you cited on AI faster and often drive pipeline fast as 90 days with the right strategy.

PS. grab my 90 days to revenue SEO/AEO video guide: https://lnkd.in/et7yce7s

I started Breaking B2B because I’m selfish as fudge.

Rewind a few years.

At my last agency.

Monthly cash flow was up and down

We’d sell a few projects and be on an up.

And the next month have low sales and be struggling.

A stressful life.

Then it clicked.

We had a steady flow of daily leads from our organic #1 money keywords on Google.

Why not offer the same for our clients 

Do something we can deliver well on.

Get organic search working to drive solid leads for them.

And secure us some monthly recurring revenue.

After some time…

I learnt B2B SaaS companies were the ones we got best results for 

They had the problems we solve around:

- lacking SEO resource in house
- competitors outranking them on Google & AI search
- relying too much on paid ads or outbound
- last agency delivering traffic but not pipeline 

So in Feb 2024 Breaking B2B began with one focus. 

B2B SaaS SEO & AI search for revenue NOT vanity.

This strategy is cooking demos for us weekly and I'm yet to find a more powerful SaaS marketing engine...but it's not one channel. It's a DEADLY TRIO:

- Linkedin (exec brand + paid)
- SEO & AI search
- Youtube

In 22 minutes you're gonna learn:

- The results they drive
- How they work together
- Exactly how to leverage each one
- Why these deadly 3 channels crush it

This playbook helped Breaking B2B go from 0-$2M ARR in 2yrs.

Watch the full breakdown: https://lnkd.in/ejQkzPVR

RB2B just hit $7.8M ARR w/ 3 FTEs. We've ran their SEO/AEO engine since $5M ARR (7mos ago). Peek our exact strategy for Adam Robinson' SaaS this month:

BACKGROUND & RESULTS SO FAR.

Our focus driving sign-ups as quick as humanly possible from AI and google organic search. So far we have great coverage with top spots on google and consistent brand recommendations on LLMs for all major competitor alternative searches, visitor identification software searches, comparison searches and a bunch more use case and integration ones. Through a mix of customer research focused content, light technical works, link building and external listicle placements. Per below screenshot and Adams words...its paying off. Let's dive into the strategy this month.


NET NEW CONTENT

listicle articles:
- best lead intelligence software (400 searches/mo)
- opensend alternatives (90 searches/mo)
- lead qualification checklist (600 searches/mo)

comparison landing page:
- leadfeeder vs lead forensics (150 searches/mo)

3x bottom funnel pieces and 1x mid funnel piece. All manually crafted.

The first piece targets “lead intelligence software”, a keyword with solid search demand. A product listicle will allow RB2B to capture decision-stage traffic from buyers actively evaluating lead intelligence and visitor identification tools. Positioning us as the #1 backed by why customers choose us, pros and cons, pricing, showing our product in action + CTA...then a fair evaluation of other tools. Solid to control the narrative and these pages often get cited in AI search.

We'll also publish a competitor comparison page, sharing where RB2B is a stronger alternative across different use cases for users evaluating website visitor identification or intent data platforms. 

Another BOFU page will target OpenSend alternatives and competitors, helping intercept comparison-driven traffic.

Lastly, a listicle article around lead qualification checklists, aimed at attracting sales and RevOps teams looking to improve their lead qualification processes and naturally introducing RB2B as part of the workflow.


BACKLINKS.

We'll earn da50+ niche relevant links for:
- data enrichment tools
- 6sense alternatives
- 6sense competitors
- intent data types	


EXTERNAL LISTICLE PLACEMENTS

Huge for LLMs to cite. Top 3 placements. Great for classic SEO too with a solid backlink.

___

Wanna see if we can scale demos quick as 90 days for your B2B/SaaS?

Visit the Breaking B2B site to check our results, pricing and grab a call: https://lnkd.in/e7XuM6au

Watch my 34-minute SEO/AEO breakdown video for RB2B: https://lnkd.in/eiZfaXXq

Breaking B2B went from $50k/mo to $185k/mo last yr. George Coudounaris runs our LinkedIn Ads and most enquiries mention LinkedIn on calls. Here’s exactly what he did (and our plan to hit $400k/mo this year):

BACKGROUND.

With organic reach tanking like crazy I knew LinkedIn ads would be key to keep top of mind for our SEO/AEO services for B2B SaaS marketing leaders and to amplify my organic content. 

Plus, fixing our funnel of SEO/AEO and YouTube traffic who hit our site but didn't convert.

Getting the deadly trio: SEO, YouTube and LinkedIn cookin'


THE STRATEGY.

(1) George made me get brutally clear on ICP 

With a very limited budget to start (1.2k/mo), we weren’t going to rely on LinekdIn’s native filters. We wanted a TIGHT company list that matched his ICP of B2B SaaS companies he serves best. 

So he asked me:
Who are your best clients? 
Who gets the most value?
Which companies do you want more of? 

Turned that into firmographic filters, pulled a list, looked through it manually - so we knew we were getting in front of the right companies from Day 1. 


(2) Thought Leadership Ads became the growth engine

Thought Leadership Ads are winning right now for many b2b orgs with execs already organically posting with a following. Its high engagement rates mean you get better bang for your buck, and is a great place to start.

(my engagement rates are 8-15%) 

But we don’t just boost any content. 

Before we started,
We mapped best performing posts to the 5 Stages of Awareness

• Stages 1-3 → cold audiences
• Stages 3-5 → warm audiences

Then filled any content gaps.

Next step: every post needed a CTA.

Early-stage posts link to helpful resources.
Later-stage posts push toward booking a call.

Result?

Thought Leadership Ads consistently hit engagement rates as high as 15%, which meant Sam was everywhere his buyers looked.

Since then, we’ve layered in:

• Company page ads so Breaking B2B grows beyond my face
• Amplifying clients/partners getting results posting about Breaking B2B

So the brand scales, not just me.


(3) Constant Optimisation of Thought Leadership Ads

Judge the top performing Thought Leadership Ads by looking at:
Engagement rate
Cost per landing page click (a custom metric not available in platform)
New subscribers
High intent pages
Calls booked

And have a tight feedback loop on what’s landing to closed-won. 


(4) Acknowledge the reality of the buying journey 

Most prospects aren’t in-market today. Many have an SEO vendor they’re probably not seeing value from. 

Others are getting their business to the point where they can finally invest in SEO/AEO. 

The ads keep us top of mind. So when they’re ready, they come straight to Breaking B2B.

—

What’s next as we push toward our stretch goal?

• Upload a new company list to double audience size
• Increase spend to scale reach
• Scale top-performing ads into the expanded audience
• Grow company page ads so demand scales beyond me


Follow along as George and I share results!

VP Marketing: "how do we justify more investment in content, SEO, or AEO when traffic is less reliable, attribution is messy, and every tool promises charts that go up and to the right?"

Me: stop treating AI search like a vanity traffic game.

Treat it like a consideration set game.

Wynter asked 101 SaaS CMOs which channels they use to discover and research vendors.

84% said they use AI tools.

Instead of scaling content for the sake of volume, focus first on high-intent, bottom-of-funnel pages that earn mindshare and drive pipeline.

strong comparison and alternative pages.

industry pages, verticals pages, product listicles.

clear positioning on your own site.

external mentions on the sites LLMs are pulling from for pipeline driving prompts and keywords.

Control the narrative on your own site.

Build credibility on third-party sources.

Measure pipeline impact, not just visibility metrics.

and the best part?

done right, this playbook gets you ranked well on google organic

and mentions on AI search for high intent buyers.

a double win.

PS. grab my 90 days to revenue SEO/AEO mini-guide and video: https://lnkd.in/et7yce7s

Here's the 7 top pipeline channels for SaaS marketers & founders....based on 24 months of data and 755 discovery calls:

(755 sales call transcripts analysed across 2 years).


1. Paid Ads (Google + LinkedIn): 28%

Most explicitly stated dominant channel.

Quotes:
“70% of our inbound comes from Google ads, LinkedIn…” 
“We’d kind of spent money on Google ads for a few years… last year we got two inbound inquiries qualified.” 

Often described as:
- Majority of inbound
- Primary measurable driver
- First lever to scale or cut


2. Outbound Sales: 24%

Extremely common among:
- Early-stage SaaS
- Bootstrapped companies
- Technical founders

Examples:
“Outbound, sort of outbound work.” 
Hiring AEs / BDRs to fill pipeline 

Many companies say:
- Inbound is low
- Sales team drives growth


3. Referrals / Word of Mouth: 18%

Example:
“Word of mouth, referrals, they trust way more…” 

Often described as:
- Best quality leads
- Hard to scale
- Relationship-driven


4. SEO/AEO: 14%

Rarely dominant, but often present.

Quotes:
“30% coming from direct or organic.” 
“It’s not doing that at the moment.” 
“I want it to be a big jumping off point for inbound… and it’s not doing that at the moment.” 

Common answers:
- A desired channel
- Underperforming
- “Trickle of leads" 

Organic search often described as:
- Secondary
- Under-optimized
- Desired but not yet performing


5. Partner / Ecosystem (marketplaces, integrations): 7%

Usually:
- Supplemental
- Not fully controlled


6. Social Content (LinkedIn, Podcast, YouTube): 6%

More common among:
- Founder-led brands

Organic linkedin posting and social selling is big here.

YouTube massively neglected still in B2B SaaS.


7. Events / PR / Community: 3%

Mentioned occasionally but rarely primary pipeline driver.

Often:
- Trade shows
- Speaking
- Industry PR
- Slack/Discord groups

____

PS. join 1,951+ b2b legends enjoying the Breaking B2B newsletter (instantly unlock 90 days to revenue SEO/AEO playbook): https://lnkd.in/et7yce7s

RB2B (24mnth startup) are catching the 14 year old incumbent…7 months after starting SEO & AEO w/ Breaking B2B: 

Owning positioning for the niche.

Controlling the narrative.

Recommended in AI search.

Top of Google organic.

No vanity traffic.

Focused on high intent buyers.

Hunting for their software now.

Comparing options available.

Needing a specific integration.

Frustrated with current provider.

Having a crisp painful problem to solve.

Driving sign-ups and revenue.

___

Peek the full video breakdown we run for Adam Robinson’ SaaS: https://lnkd.in/eiZfaXXq

Grab my 90 days to revenue SEO & AEO playbook: https://lnkd.in/et7yce7s

No alternative text description for this image

I ask the public: how to get #1 on google?

taplio

The Battle

Philip Ilic

Sam Dunning

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScorePhilip Ilic's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreSam Dunning's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Philip Ilic

Sam Dunning

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Philip Ilic's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreSam Dunning's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScorePhilip Ilic's LinkedIn Performance