For LinkedIn ads to work effectively, you need some core elements in place. In this article, we will explore a list of indicators showing whether you are truly prepared to run LinkedIn ads.
10 Key Factors Indicating You’re Not Ready for LinkedIn Ads
By evaluating these key factors, you can determine if your business is ready to run LinkedIn ads or if there are important steps to take before diving into this channel.
1. LinkedIn Ads is your sole traffic channel
LinkedIn Ads are most successful when used in conjunction with other channels, such as Google Ads, paid listing, and SEO.
If LinkedIn Ads is the only kind of paid traffic you have going to your website or you don’t have any other paid traffic, LinkedIn Ads might not be an excellent choice for you.
The reason is that you’ll be forcing Linkedin to carry too much of the burden and relying too much on the expensive cold layer.
2. The LTV (lifetime value) of your product is less than $3,000
If the lifetime value of your product or service is less than $3,000, LinkedIn ads may not be suitable due to their relatively higher cost per click. The logic is that LinkedIn ads tend to attract a higher-quality demographic and are more effective when promoting higher-priced items.
Therefore, if you operate in B2C, e-commerce, retail, or even small businesses with a value under $3,000, LinkedIn ads might prove to be a challenging or potentially unsuitable option.
3. You don’t have a mature/high-converting website
If your website is not properly optimized and does not convert existing traffic effectively, it may not be the right time to run LinkedIn ads.
It might be like pouring water into a leaky bucket. Fix the bucket first.
One of the superpowers of LinkedIn ads is finding and qualifying traffic on your website. However, if your website is not adequately set up, lacks optimization, and struggles to convert visitors, LinkedIn ads won’t be able to overcome that.
I would recommend focusing on optimizing your website and exploring alternative strategies, such as Google ads and targeting bottom-of-the-funnel traffic, as going after top-of-the-funnel with LinkedIn ads could be potentially expensive.
4. You don’t have a product market fit
Another aspect that can make LinkedIn ads a bad fit for a company is the absence of a product-market fit.
If you haven’t identified your target audience or haven’t determined your core offer, price point, or value proposition, LinkedIn ads can be an expensive form of market research. You could spend $10,000- $20,000 on LinkedIn ads to discover specific industries, job titles, and target countries that you do best with and learn from these insights.
Using Linkedin Ads to figure out who you should be selling to is expensive.
5. You lack clarity on your target audience
If you don’t have a clear understanding of your target audience, running LinkedIn ads can be costly and inefficient.
One of the red flags is when someone is asked, “Who do you want to advertise to?” and their response is, “Anyone who has a business and sells things online – we could target them.” While they believe they’ve created something universally applicable, it becomes apparent that they haven’t identified their target audience.
We could launch a campaign targeting decision-makers across all industries, but after investing $5,000-$10,000 and three months of effort, we would likely discover that the majority (80-90%) of our results come from just five specific industries.
6. Your target audience is not active on LinkedIn
While LinkedIn ads can work for any industry, they tend to perform better for industries that are actively engaged on the platform.
For example, if your target audience consists of doctors, lawyers, accountants, police officers, or government workers, they are typically not very active on LinkedIn, so it’s hard to get a positive ROI on LinkedIn targeting these professionals.
Therefore, it’s important to not only identify your target audience but also consider their level of activity on LinkedIn.
7. Your LinkedIn company page is incomplete or immature
Before you jump into running LinkedIn ads, it’s important to establish your LinkedIn company page a little bit.
Here’s the thing: when people see your ad, they often click over to your company page to check you out. It’s like their mini-research. So, if your page only has a couple of followers, zero posts, and zero information, it’s not going to leave a great impression.
So I would recommend growing your follower base a little and adding at least a few posts before launching your LinkedIn ad campaign. And don’t forget about your personal LinkedIn page too! Fill it up with top-notch content, get some followers, and show that you’re active on the platform. Having a standout professional presence will help you grab attention.
8. You don’t have an internal system in place to handle leads
LinkedIn is effective at generating qualified leads, but if you lack a well-defined process to follow up and convert those leads, LinkedIn ads may not be of much help.
You need a rock-solid process for what to do once those leads land in your pipeline. How are you going to follow up? How are you going to seal the deal through your sales team? And don’t forget about ensuring a smooth demo process too.
9. Your company is too small to establish trust
While LinkedIn ads can work for businesses of all sizes, having a very small company size, such as being a solopreneur or having fewer than ten employees, may hinder your credibility and trust factor. Consider strategies to improve your employee count and showcase your company’s stability.
10. You don’t have attribution and conversion tracking in place
Before starting LinkedIn ads, it is critical to have proper attribution and conversion tracking systems established.
Here’s the thing I see all the time: companies start running LinkedIn ads, they’re all excited, they have everything in place (good website, good market fit), but guess what? They haven’t set up proper conversion tracking. So they’re spending money, and getting leads, but they have no clue where those leads are coming from. They might even think it’s coming from Google or some other source. Then they blame LinkedIn and call it a failure.
But you can avoid it. Get your conversion tracking sorted out. You want to know exactly how many leads you’re getting from LinkedIn and how they’re converting. Set up channel attribution and self-attribution so you can track the effectiveness of your campaigns. It’s like having a GPS for your marketing efforts. So buckle up and get that tracking in place!
Read in detail how to set up proper tracking for your LinkedIn campaigns.
To Sum Up
LinkedIn Ads can be a valuable addition to your marketing strategy, but it’s essential to evaluate your business readiness.
By considering these factors, you can determine if LinkedIn ads are the right fit for your business and make informed decisions about your advertising strategies.
