LinkedIn Ads Expert: How to choose the best one?

If you are interested in LinkedIn Ads, you are most likely worried about how to get a LinkedIn Ads expert. What to look for? Which qualifications does this job require?

However, before you start looking for a professional or a Linkedin ads agency, a thorough business analysis is required. You need to know if LinkedIn is suitable for you – as we’ll explore further in this article, a few factors make a huge difference.

If you find out LinkedIn is not the best platform for your PPC ads, there are countless alternatives such as Google Ads, Facebook and Instagram Ads, Twitter Ads, and so on. These offer lower CPCs than LinkedIn and might be the right tool for your business.

If, on the other hand, you come to the conclusion that LinkedIn Ads are for you, read on. You’ll need a LinkedIn Ads consultant to help – and we’ll give you the tips that should guide you in this difficult decision.

1 – Does a LinkedIn Ads Campaign make sense for your business?

First of all, you should be aware that LinkedIn works for very specific kinds of business (the characteristics of which we’ll explain further along this article). So, depending on what you sell and your target customer, LinkedIn Ads might or might not make sense for you. If you’re starting out and want to do PPC ads, this is the first question you need to answer.

In this article, we’ll go through a few topics that will help you understand if you should create a LinkedIn Ads campaign.

Also, it’s important to emphasize once again that CPC (cost per click) is a lot higher on LinkedIn, in comparison to ad platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. In order to ensure a high ROI (return on investment), it is essential to understand your business and where your customers are.

The flip side to this is that CPL (cost per lead) is low, so if LinkedIn fits your niche, it’s a great place to find new customers.

For example, we’ve generated more than 100 sales qualified leads for the project management software Emdesk in two months.

In this section, we’ll tell you all about the main traits of a company that should advertise on LinkedIn.

B2B company

LinkedIn is fuelled by work connections and professional relationships. It is also quite specific: most users are B2B professionals. We recommend using this network to advertise only if your product or service is for businesses.

SaaS performs extremely well on this ad platform, not only because it is a B2B business, but also because users on LinkedIn are constantly on the lookout for tools like those. You’ll find CEOs, CTOs, Managers and all kinds of management roles on LinkedIn, which are the users you want to go after if you sell SaaS and related products.

Continuous need to generate leads

If your business does not allow you to service many customers at the same time (i.e. due to having a small team, or a product that needs a lot of maintenance, etc.), we don’t recommend this platform, as any LinkedIn Ads expert worth his salt will let you know.

LinkedIn Ads is ideal for generating leads frequently and consistently.

All companies need to generate leads, but some of them depend more on returning loyal customers than others. Of course, this is something that’s not easy to evaluate; but if you know your business and the challenges your company faces, you’ll know what’s more important: new business or customer loyalty.

Then, you need to analyse whether you can service those leads as fast as you get them. If new business is the fuel to your company, LinkedIn Ads are ideal.

Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and Buyer Persona Profile

One of the biggest strengths of LinkedIn as an ad platform is its ability to target and segment users through many specific criteria such as country, company industry, company name, company size, job function, job title, job seniority, and many others.

Of course, this requires your buyer persona to be thoroughly defined before you decide to start a campaign on LinkedIn Ads.

Segmentation allows you to easily reach the customers that fit your ideal profile. There are so many segmentation options available on LinkedIn that you can match your buyer persona in your ad settings.

Your product or service solves a problem that some people have. If you can find exactly those people that your product or service will help, it’s a lot easier to sell. So, segmentation improves your conversion rate – and it is one of the reasons why LinkedIn offers a low CPL.

2 – Factors to look into when choosing a LinkedIn Ads expert

There are a few factors that help you figure out what you need in a LinkedIn Ads consultant. Those characteristics are detailed in this section.

It’s not easy to pick up a professional for advertising, but if you follow our tips, you’ll find the right LinkedIn Ads expert for your business needs.

2.1 – Check them out on LinkedIn

If you’re looking for a LinkedIn Ads specialist, the first place to look for them is – you guessed it – their LinkedIn profile. Do they have a lot of relevant connections? Are their posts interesting and engaging?

LinkedIn’s recommendations can also be a good indicator to check if they come from CEOs. Here you can see some of them on my LinkedIn’s profile.

After all, you can’t expect someone to advertise your business well on LinkedIn if they don’t advertise themselves properly. Content marketing skills are relevant, but not enough if the professional can’t show examples of his previous LinkedIn Ads work. Which leads us to the next point.

2.2 – Check their client portfolio

It’s extremely important to analyze your candidates’ portfolios. These pieces of evidence about their previous work can help you understand if they match your needs. Have they ever worked for someone in your industry? Do they have relevant experience – i.e. they worked with one of your competitors in the past, or a company that is somehow related to the kind of product or service you sell.

Some companies we’ve worked for

This knowledge is not only important when screening a LinkedIn Ads expert, but also to understand if this professional is able to provide results. Their portfolio should give you a good picture of the work they’ve developed, if done right.

If something seems missing, tread carefully. It’s better to err on the side of caution when analyzing your candidates’ portfolios: make sure you have all the details in order to be able to proceed with the commissioning.

2.3 – What is the fee structure?

Of course, the way you pay for your LinkedIn Ads expert might depend as well on a series of factors, which are related to your agreement but also with the way that professional usually works.

There are two main fee models when hiring a marketing professional: fixed rate or hourly rate. Depending on a few things, one of them is going to be better for you.

If you have a load of work that is going to remain constant through the duration of the project, a fixed rate might be better for you and your contractor. This ensures that service levels stay constant, while satisfying both yours and their requirements and needs.

If, however, you’re not sure of how much work you’re going to require from your LinkedIn Ads expert, you might do better with an hourly rate. This means you agree on a price per hour and your contractor sends you a monthly report with how many hours were spent on your project or projects.

2.4 What’s your minimum monthly ad spend?

Another factor you should weigh in when selecting a professional is your minimum monthly ad spend. Some LinkedIn Ads experts only work starting from a minimum monthly ad spend, and if you cannot afford it, you cannot afford that professional. But there’s nothing wrong with that.

Everyone has their own budget according to several factors. Rather than pushing money into your funnel, focus on making sure every cent you spend on advertising is well spent.

Nonetheless, your ad spend needs to be realistic. Let’s say you have a short amount to spend on advertising per month. You need to be very specific in your segmentation, targeting a smaller group of users.

If, however, you have quite a large budget, you can target groups that are higher up in your sales funnel and enhance your targeting slowly.

3 – Linkedin Ad Agency or freelancer?

In some cases, it might be easier to get a freelance LinkedIn Ads consultant rather than a whole agency. These are the main reasons why:

A freelancer is less expensive. If you hire an agency, you’re always paying for expenses that come with hiring a whole company.
Direct contact. You can talk directly with your professional rather than wait for an account manager.
It’s flexible.
You can start with a lower budget, as agencies tend to have a high minimum spend in order to break even. With a freelancer, you’re only paying one person, so you can achieve more with a smaller budget.

4 – Conclusion

This article’s goal is to help you decide whether or not you need a LinkedIn Ads expert, and what to look for in one according to your needs.

It is important to match your niche requirements to the professional you’re hiring, but other factors like price and availability weigh in too.

If you’d like to learn more about how we help B2B SaaS and Tech companies grow their MRR through LinkedIn advertising, contact us online or send us an email today at info@getuplead.com to speak with someone on our team.