LinkedIn Ads for B2B SMEs: How to Build a Pipeline Without Burning Cash

LinkedIn Ads are a core part of what makes your business tick, but they can also be expensive. The cost-per-click (CPC) is higher than Google or Meta, and if you don't prepare and plan effectively, you could find that your budget is eaten up very quickly. For B2B SMEs selling high-value services, LinkedIn is one of the best and most effective ways of building a sales pipeline, but this needs to be done strategically.

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In this guide, we break down the best ways of being able to run LinkedIn Ads in a way that helps to support pipeline growth without worrying about wasting your budget. This is key to benefitting from the success that LinkedIn Ads can bring, and helping boost your brand at the same time.

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Pipeline, Not Clicks, Is Key

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One of the biggest errors that a lot of B2B SMEs make is to run their LinkedIn Ads like a traffic channel. The fact of the matter is that LinkedIn is not designed for impulse clicks, but instead it's meant to capitalize on targeted influence. Before you launch anything, it's essential that you seek to define where your campaign fits in your sales funnel - awareness, consideration, or lead capture. Mid funnel offers that support sales conversions tend to provide the best ROI for SMEs.

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Narrow Down Your Audience

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When it comes to making the best possible LinkedIn choices, precision is the key to justifying higher costs. Instead of broad job titles, layer your targeting to search for job title + seniority, industry + company size, and location + role relevance. It is important to do this in order to reduce the generality of your queries, and hone in more on specific professionals and roles you believe will be integral to helping improve business success long-term.

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Lead With Value

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Cold approaches can sometimes prove to be a success, but they are also a gamble. Instead, if you are serious about securing leads and generating interest as a business, you need to think about how you can lead with value. This means focusing on value-driven offers like short guides, webinars, case studies, and more. These help to position your business as credible, and will reduce friction when it comes to making this work better for you.

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Measure Pipeline Impact

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If you want to make the most of LinkedIn Ads effectively, you need to make sure you understand the way in which the ads are working for you. This means looking at genuine conversion opportunities, instead of simply clicks and impressions. You have to track things like cost per qualified lead, and sales cycle influence, in order to improve your marketing and sales alignment, and drive campaigns in the best possible way.

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These are among the key elements that you need to consdier when you're looking to improve your SME, and figure out the optimal way of being able to utilise LinkedIn Ads in order to get the best outcome for your business. Follow these ideas to help you start to build a pipeline without spending too much of your budget in the process.