LinkedIn lets you reach people by job title, seniority, industry and company, which is why B2B teams keep paying its higher prices. Here is how to set up a first campaign properly.
Step 1: Pick one objective
Campaign Manager asks for an objective first, and it shapes the ad formats and bidding available. The main groups are awareness (brand awareness), consideration (website visits, engagement, video views) and conversion (lead generation, website conversions, talent leads). For a first campaign, choose lead generation or website conversions if you have a clear offer, and awareness only if your audience has never heard of you.
Step 2: Build the audience
This is where LinkedIn earns its price. You can combine:
- •Job titles, functions and seniority
- •Company size, industry and company names
- •Skills and groups
- •Matched audiences: your own contact lists, website visitors (through the Insight Tag) and account lists
Be careful not to stack so many filters that the audience becomes too small to deliver. Use the audience size indicator, and consider broadening by function and seniority rather than specific titles. Also exclude existing customers and your own employees.
Step 3: Install tracking
Add the LinkedIn Insight Tag to your site and set up conversion tracking for the actions that matter: form submissions, demo requests, content downloads. If you use lead gen forms, connect them to your CRM so leads are not left sitting in a download.
Step 4: Choose a format
- •Single image ads are simple and a sensible default.
- •Video ads suit explaining a product or telling a founder story.
- •Document ads let people read a guide or deck inside the feed; good for lead magnets.
- •Carousel ads show multiple points or steps.
- •Lead gen forms prefill a viewer's profile data so they can submit without leaving LinkedIn.
- •Conversation and message ads deliver messages directly to inboxes; use sparingly.
Step 5: Write for a professional audience
Be specific and useful. "Cut ad production time from weeks to hours" beats "Revolutionary marketing solution". Lead with the problem your audience has, quote a number you can support, and offer something of value, such as a benchmark report or template, before asking for a demo.
Step 6: Set budget and bidding
LinkedIn enforces a minimum daily budget, so check the current figure. Clicks cost more here than on most platforms, so plan for a budget that can generate enough leads to judge the results. Automated bidding is easier to start with; manual bidding gives control once you have data. Run the campaign for a few weeks before drawing conclusions, since B2B audiences are small and slow to convert.
Step 7: Run several creatives
Include at least three or four distinct ads in each campaign so LinkedIn can learn which resonates. Vary the message and the offer, not just the color of the button.
Step 8: Measure what matters
Click-through rate and cost per click are early signals. The numbers that count are cost per lead, lead quality, cost per opportunity and pipeline sourced. Review these with sales: a cheap lead that never answers the phone is expensive.
Step 9: Optimize
- •Pause underperforming ads and audiences once they have had enough impressions.
- •Refresh creative every few weeks; small audiences see ads repeatedly.
- •Retarget website visitors and video viewers with a stronger offer.
- •Test the offer, since a better lead magnet usually beats a better button.
Managing LinkedIn with your other channels
Most B2B teams also advertise on Meta, Google and Reddit, and keeping each channel supplied with fresh creative is the hard part. Omneky generates LinkedIn-ready creative from a single brief and launches it alongside your other channels from one place, with results in one view.
Key takeaways
- •Choose one objective and a right-sized audience.
- •Install the Insight Tag and connect lead forms to your CRM.
- •Offer value before asking for a demo, and rotate several creatives.
- •Judge success by cost per opportunity and pipeline, not clicks.