Paid social

Paid advertising on social platforms and display networks turns your budget into awareness and customers. These channels work best when you know your best customer and can measure return.

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Chapters

Article3 min
Cold Is Dear, Warm Is Cheap: Structure Spend As A Funnel
Spending the whole LinkedIn budget cold on strangers is the costliest mistake, so fund warm retargeting and move audiences down a funnel.
Article2 min
Common failures
The usual LinkedIn ad mistakes, starting with running it when deal value cannot absorb a cost per lead above a hundred pounds, and how to avoid each.
Article2 min
Common failures
Ads fail when they speak for the brand instead of the buyer or ask for too much too soon, and each common mistake comes paired with its fix.
Article2 min
FAQs
Answers on LinkedIn ad budgets and set-up, including why a few thousand pounds a month per campaign is the floor for data you can trust.
Article2 min
FAQs
Run three to five live ads per audience and pick video or static by which one carries the argument best, plus other answers on B2B ad practice.
Article1 min
Kill your winners before the market does
Every ad wears out, so watch the early signs of fatigue and have the next ad ready before the current winner stops working.
Article2 min
LinkedIn is expensive, so only run it where nothing else can reach
LinkedIn costs three to five times more per click than search or Meta, so run it only for audiences no cheaper channel can reach.
Article2 min
LinkedIn vs Google: The Comparison That Flips
LinkedIn looks two to five times worse than Google per lead, yet the verdict can reverse once you compare qualified pipeline and closed revenue.
Article1 min
Match the message to the temperature of the audience
Cold, warm and hot audiences need different messages, so match each ad to how well the reader knows you instead of sending everyone a demo ask.
Article2 min
Measure pipeline, not the dashboard
Judge LinkedIn campaigns on pipeline and revenue in your CRM, not on the impressions, clicks and cost per lead the ads manager reports.
Article2 min
Narrow the audience, but not as far as you think
Stacking every targeting filter shrinks the audience until the algorithm starves. Keep it narrow enough to be relevant and broad enough to learn.
Article1 min
Production value buys trust, but native beats polished
B2B ads work best when they look native to the platform and plainly made by a competent person, not glossy productions that read as adverts.
Article3 min
Running LinkedIn Ads As A Lean Founder With AI
A lean founder decides on LinkedIn with a break even test, lets AI agents handle creative and reporting, and puts structure before spend.
Article2 min
Sell the idea first, capture the lead later
Cold LinkedIn audiences are not ready to buy, so earn attention with ideas and insight first and ask for the lead once they know you.
Article7 min
Sell the next click, not the whole company
Body copy closes the belief gap after the hook, so test pain, outcome, proof and comparison angles and see which one each segment answers.
Article2 min
Set the campaign up to optimise, then leave it alone long enough to learn
Set a clear optimisation goal, then give the campaign enough budget and time to exit learning, because every early edit resets it.
Article1 min
Test one variable, or you learn nothing
Change a single variable per ad test, decided in advance, so a winner tells you why it won and you can repeat the result.
Article7 min
The ad is not the creative, it is the argument
A hook gets half a second, so write and test question, statistic, pain and outcome openers matched to each segment and stage of awareness.
Article3 min
The Break-Even Test Before You Spend A Pound
Divide deal value by your lead to customer rate to set the highest cost per lead you can afford, before spending anything on LinkedIn.
Article2 min
The Cost Ladder: From CPM to Closed Revenue
Each cost on LinkedIn is one rung on a ladder from CPM to cost per click, cost per lead and cost per customer, and the lower rungs matter most.
Article2 min
The creative does almost all of the work
Once the audience is roughly right, the ad itself drives results. A great ad to a decent audience beats a mediocre ad to a perfect one.
Article1 min
The first three words do ninety per cent of the work
The opening line decides whether the right buyer keeps reading, so write it to stop that person in the scroll and turn away everyone else.
Article3 min
The Number Everyone Gets Wrong
The median cost per click on LinkedIn misleads, because cost per qualified opportunity and closed revenue decide whether the channel pays.
Article3 min
The Three Levers You Actually Control
Audience, creative relevance and bid strategy are the three levers that move what you really pay in the LinkedIn auction.
Article2 min
Use lead-gen forms, but know what you are trading
Native lead-gen forms convert far better than landing pages because they are pre-filled, but the same ease lowers intent, so plan the follow-up.
Article2 min
What LinkedIn Ads Actually Cost in 2026
The 2026 medians for LinkedIn cover cost per click, CPM and click rate, with a warning that medians make poor budgets.
Article2 min
Why It Costs More Than Every Other Channel
Per click, LinkedIn costs four to ten times more than Google or Facebook, and the premium buys precise targeting of B2B decision makers.
Article3 min
Campaign Manager setup
Set up a LinkedIn ad account, connect your company page, install the Insight Tag with consent, and define conversions so your reporting can be trusted.
Article5 min
Improve your hooks
The first line determines whether anyone reads your ad. Test different hook types (questions, stats, pain statements, outcome promises) to find what stops the scroll for each segment.
Article3 min
Audience building and matched audiences
Build a cold LinkedIn audience from firmographic filters, add matched audiences from your CRM, and layer them with exclusions so spend reaches likely buyers.
Article5 min
Improve your visuals
Images and videos determine whether ads get noticed in feed. Test formats systematically: single images versus carousels versus videos, and match visual type to segment and awareness stage.
Article3 min
Ad format selection
Pick the LinkedIn ad format that fits your objective and the temperature of the audience, and start with two formats you can produce well.
Article5 min
Improve your calls-to-action
Match CTA to segment readiness. Hot traffic wants "Book demo now", cold traffic wants "Get the guide". Asking for too much too soon kills conversion. Asking for too little from ready buyers wastes opportunities.
Article6 min
Improve your body copy
Test message angles (pain, outcome, proof, comparison), positive versus negative framing, and platform-specific copy structures. Different segments respond to different angles, and you won't know which until you test.
Article3 min
Retargeting setup
Build three retargeting audiences on LinkedIn from website visitors, video viewers and lead form openers, exclude the wrong people and match each audience with the right message.
Article3 min
LinkedIn ad reporting and optimisation
Set up a weekly LinkedIn report that links spend to meetings and pipeline, then use simple rules to shift budget between audiences and creatives with confidence.
Article3 min
Run monthly creative refreshes
Set a monthly routine that spots tired ads from your data, retires them and replaces them with fresh variations before results drop.
Article3 min
A/B test ad formats systematically
Run a clean A/B test on ad formats by changing only the format, fixing the sample size in advance and logging each result so winners become your defaults.
Article3 min
Build a swipe file of winners
Collect your best ads and other people's long-running ads in one searchable place, with the numbers and the angle, so every new brief starts from evidence.
Article4 min
Analyse click-through by audience segment
Break click-through rate down by job function, seniority, company size and other segments, compare each one to your average, and decide where to rewrite the ad and where to put more budget.

Tools

ToolClient acquisition
Canva
Generates branded designs and presentations from text prompts using AI and a large template library.
Acquisition
Free plan
Sign up on Canva
ToolClient acquisition
LinkedIn
Professional network where B2B founders and sellers research, connect with and reach out to decision-makers.
Outbound
Free plan
Sign up on LinkedIn
ToolClient acquisition
LinkedIn Ads
Advertise your products and services to reach professionals and decision-makers with targeted campaigns on LinkedIn.
Paid social
Sign up on LinkedIn Ads
ToolClient acquisition
Madgicx
Automate bid management and creative testing across Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns using AI.
Paid social
Sign up on Madgicx
ToolClient acquisition
Manychat
Build automated conversations across Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and other social channels to capture leads.
Lead generation
Free plan
Sign up on Manychat
ToolClient acquisition
Meta Ads
Run and manage Facebook and Instagram advertising campaigns directly from Meta's native platform.
Paid social
Sign up on Meta Ads
ToolClient acquisition
Reddit Ads
Runs paid advertising campaigns on Reddit with tracking for spend, impressions, clicks and performance per account.
Paid social
Sign up on Reddit Ads
ToolClient acquisition
Revealbot
Automates bidding and budgets across Meta, Google Ads, TikTok and Snapchat with rule-based triggers.
Paid social
Sign up on Revealbot
ToolClient acquisition
Skai
Plan and optimise paid campaigns across retail media, search and social from one platform.
Lead generation
Sign up on Skai
ToolClient acquisition
TikTok Ads
Create, target and measure video advertising campaigns to reach audiences on the TikTok platform.
Paid social
Sign up on TikTok Ads
ToolClient acquisition
X Ads
Runs paid campaigns on X, formerly Twitter, to reach audiences by interest, keyword and follower lookalikes.
Paid social
Sign up on X Ads

About this playbook

Paid social and display ads let you reach people based on who they are, what they search and where they go online. They work fast and you can scale them as you grow. Learn what to test first, how to set up campaigns that improve over time, and how to tell whether the spend is worth it.