Let's be blunt. For most B2B SaaS founders, LinkedIn Ads is a bonfire for burning cash. You've probably been told it's the holy grail for reaching decision-makers, a direct line to the C-suite. Yet here you are, staring at a dashboard with sky-high CPCs, a trickle of rubbish leads, and a feeling in your gut that you're just throwing money at a wall. You're not wrong. The reason it's not working is because you’re playing by the rules of other platforms, and on LinkedIn, that’s a guaranteed way to lose.
The secret isn't in some hidden targeting option or a magical ad format. It's in a complete mindset shift about who you're targeting, what you're saying, and what you're asking them to do. Forget everything you think you know about 'awareness' and 'demographics'. We're going to talk about how to weaponise LinkedIn to find the people whose problems are so painful, they'll be desperate for your solution. This is how you stop donating money to Microsoft and start acquiring customers.
So, Why Are My LinkedIn Ads So Expensive and Useless?
It usually boils down to a few classic blunders. First, your targeting is probably far too broad and based on vanity. You think targeting "Chief Technology Officer" in "London" is smart. It's not. You're competing with every global enterprise with a million-pound budget trying to reach that same person. You're paying a premium to show your ad to someone who gets 50 of these a day and has become completely blind to them. Your ad just becomes noise.
Second, you're likely running the wrong type of campaign. If I see another SaaS founder running a "Brand Awareness" or "Reach" campaign, I might just lose my mind. When you select that objective, you are literally instructing LinkedIn's algorithm to "find me the cheapest people to show my ad to, who are least likely to do anything". The algorithm does its job perfectly. It finds people who are constantly online but never click, engage, or buy. Because their attention is cheap. You are actively paying to reach non-customers. For a growing SaaS, every penny needs to drive an action, not just a fleeting impression. Awareness is a byproduct of sales, not the other way around.
And finally, your offer is almost certainly the problem. That "Request a Demo" button on your landing page? It’s probably the most arrogant, high-friction call to action in marketing. You're asking a busy, important person to commit 30-60 minutes of their time to be sold to by a stranger. Why would they? They have no idea if you're any good, and they don't have time to find out. It’s a huge ask with zero upfront value for them. This is the single biggest conversion killer in all of B2B advertising, and it needs to be deleted.
Who Are You Actually Selling To? (Hint: It’s Not a Job Title)
This is where we get to the core of it. Your Ideal Customer Profile, your ICP, is not a demographic. "Companies in the fin-tech sector with 50-200 employees" is a useless starting point. It leads to generic messaging that speaks to no one. To stop wasting money, you must redefine your customer not by who they are, but by the specific, urgent, and expensive nightmare they are living through right now.
Your job is to become an expert in their professional pain. Your target isn't just "Sarah, the Head of Engineering". She's "Sarah, the Head of Engineering who lies awake at 3 AM terrified that her two star developers are about to quit because the dev workflow is a chaotic mess of buggy staging environments and manual deployments". That's a nightmare. It has urgency. It has career-threatening implications. It has a quantifiable cost in lost talent and delayed product launches.
Another example: say you have a SaaS for law firms. Your nightmare ICP isn't 'Partners at commercial law firms'. It's 'A senior partner who just found out a junior associate missed a critical filing deadline because they couldn't find the right document version, exposing the entire firm to a multi-million-pound malpractice lawsuit'.
When you define the problem this clearly, your entire strategy changes. You're no longer selling software; you're selling a solution to a five-alarm fire. The ad copy writes itself. The targeting becomes obvious. You stop looking for job titles and start looking for the digital breadcrumbs of their pain. What podcasts do they listen to on their commute? What industry newsletters do they *actually* read? What software tools are they already paying for? This intelligence is the blueprint for your entire campaign. Trying to run ads without this is like flying blind. If you truly want to make LinkedIn work, you need to understand that targeting nightmares, not demographics, is the only path.
How Much Can You Actually Afford to Pay For a Lead?
The obsession with getting the lowest possible Cost Per Lead (CPL) is crippling your growth. It forces you into cheap, low-quality channels and prevents you from competing where your best customers actually are. The real question isn't "How low can my CPL be?" but "How high a CPL can I afford to acquire a fantastic customer?". The answer to that is Lifetime Value (LTV).
Calculating this is not as hard as it sounds and it's probably the most important bit of maths you can do for your business. You just need three numbers:
-> Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA): What's your average monthly recurring revenue per customer? Let's say it's £500.
-> Gross Margin %: What's your profit on that revenue after accounting for costs like servers, support, etc.? Let's say it's a healthy 80%.
-> Monthly Churn Rate: What percentage of customers do you lose each month? Let's say it's 4%.
The calculation is simple:
LTV = (ARPA * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate
So, for our example:
LTV = (£500 * 0.80) / 0.04
LTV = £400 / 0.04 = £10,000
In this scenario, every single customer you sign is worth £10,000 in gross margin over their lifetime. This number changes everything. A common, healthy ratio for LTV to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is 3:1. This means you can afford to spend up to £3,333 to acquire a single customer and still run a very profitable business.
Now let's work backwards. If your sales process converts 1 in 10 qualified leads into a paying customer, you can afford to pay up to £333 for a single, well-qualified lead.
Suddenly that £50 CPL you were seeing on LinkedIn doesn't look so expensive, does it? In fact, it looks like an absolute bargain. I remember one B2B SaaS client who was getting leads from LinkedIn for about $22 CPL. They thought it was pricey until we did this maths. They realised they could profitably pay ten times that amount. This is the financial model that unlocks aggressive, intelligent scaling. It frees you from the tyranny of cheap leads and allows you to confidently invest in acquiring high-value customers. Before you spend another pound, you need to be able to unmask your true ad ROI and this is the first step.
How Do I Find These 'Nightmares' on LinkedIn?
Once you understand the specific pain you're solving and how much a customer is worth, finding them on LinkedIn becomes a tactical exercise. You move from lazy demographic targeting to a much more precise, multi-layered approach.
Here's how you can translate a 'nightmare profile' into a LinkedIn audience:
1. Start with Company Attributes: Don't just target an industry. Get specific. What's the ideal company size? 50-200 employees? 201-500? This is a crucial filter. Small companies have different problems to big ones. Are there specific industries that feel this pain more acutely? For a FinOps SaaS, targeting "Software Development" and "IT Services" is a good start.
2. Layer on Job Functions and Seniority: Instead of just a specific job title like "CTO", think about the function. Target "Engineering" or "Information Technology" as a function, then layer on seniority levels like "Director", "VP", "CXO". This captures people with relevant titles you might not have thought of (e.g., Head of Platform, Director of SRE).
3. Use Group Membership: What LinkedIn Groups would someone experiencing this pain join? For our Head of Engineering, they might be in groups like "DevOps Engineers", "SaaS Leaders & Founders", or "Kubernetes Professionals". Targeting these groups is a powerful signal of interest and expertise.
4. Skill & Interest Targeting: This is where you can get really clever. What skills would they list on their profile? For a data analytics tool, targeting skills like "Tableau", "Power BI", or "SQL" makes sense. These are the tools they are either using or competing with.
5. Account-Based Marketing (The Pro Move): This is the most powerful tool in your arsenal. Don't wait for your ideal customers to find you. Make a list of them. Use tools like Apollo.io or ZoomInfo to build a list of 100-500 companies that are a perfect fit. Upload this as a Company List to LinkedIn's Matched Audiences. Then, you can create a campaign that *only* shows ads to the specific decision-makers (e.g., VPs of Engineering) at those exact companies. The cost per click will be higher, but the quality is unmatched. You're talking directly to your dream clients.
I've put together a sample targeting structure below for a hypothetical SaaS that helps sales teams with forecasting.
| Targeting Layer | LinkedIn Selection | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Companies | Company Size: 51-500 employees Industry: Computer Software, IT Services, Financial Services |
Focuses on mid-market companies likely to have a formal sales team but struggling with manual processes. |
| Job Experience | Job Function: Sales, Business Development Seniority: VP, Director, Manager |
Targets the decision-makers and budget-holders responsible for team performance and revenue targets. |
| Interests & Traits | Member Groups: "SaaS Sales Leaders", "Sales Leadership Community" Skills: "Salesforce", "Sales Operations", "Revenue Forecasting" |
Narrows the audience to those actively engaged in the sales community and familiar with the relevant tools and challenges. |
You have to test these combinations. Seperate them into different ad sets so you can see what works. One ad set might target company attributes + job functions. Another might target member groups + seniority. After a week or two, you'll see which approach is delivering the goods. This is far more effective than just blasting a single job title and hoping for the best. It's a key part of any founder's guide to paid acquisition.
What Should My Ads Actually Say?
Right, you've found your audience. Now you have about three seconds to stop their scroll. Generic, feature-led copy ("Our AI-powered platform synergises workflows...") will get you nowhere. Your ad needs to grab them by the collar by speaking directly to their nightmare.
There are two simple but powerful formulas I use constantly for B2B SaaS ad copy:
1. Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS)
This is perfect for hitting a raw nerve. You state the problem, you poke the bruise to make it hurt more, and then you present your product as the painkiller.
-> Problem: State the nightmare clearly. "Staring at another inaccurate sales forecast?"
-> Agitate: Remind them of the consequences. "While your reps are sandbagging deals, your board is demanding predictable revenue. That difficult conversation is coming."
-> Solve: Introduce your solution. "Our platform connects directly to your CRM, giving you a real-time, unbiased forecast you can actually trust. Stop guessing, start growing."
2. Before-After-Bridge (BAB)
This paints a picture of transformation. You describe their current hell, show them what heaven looks like, and position your product as the bridge to get there.
-> Before: Describe their current world. "Your AWS bill just landed. It's 30% higher than last month, and your engineers have no idea why. Another fire to put out."
-> After: Describe the world with your solution. "Imagine opening your cloud bill and smiling. You see exactly where every pound is going, and waste is automatically flagged and eliminated."
-> Bridge: Position your product as the vehicle. "Our FinOps platform is the bridge to cloud cost clarity. Start a free trial and find your first £1,000 in savings today."
Notice how these examples aren't about features. They are about outcomes. They sell relief, confidence, and control. This is the core of effective B2B ad creative.
As for formats, keep it simple to start:
-> Single Image Ad: This is your workhorse. Use a clean, simple graphic that isn't too busy. Sometimes a graph showing a dramatic 'before/after' change, or a simple, bold text-based image works better than stock photos. It's the fastest way to get your message across.
-> Video Ad: A 30-60 second video can be incredibly powerful if done right. A simple screen recording of your software solving one specific problem can work wonders. Or a founder talking directly to camera, explaining the problem they solve. A persuasive video can really qualify leads and bring costs down.
-> Carousel Ad: Good if you have a few key benefits or steps to a process you want to walk through. Each card can tackle a different pain point.
I'd test a single image ad against a short video first. Use the same copy and see which format resonates more with your audience. Don't overcomplicate it.
What Do I Ask Them To Do? (And Why 'Request a Demo' is Killing You)
This is the moment of truth. You've targeted the right person with the right message. Now, what's the offer? As we've established, "Request a Demo" is a conversion graveyard. It's a high-friction, low-value proposition that screams "I want to take up an hour of your time to sell you something".
Your offer's only job is to provide a moment of undeniable value. An "aha!" moment that makes the prospect sell themselves on your solution. For B2B SaaS founders, you have an incredible advantage here. The best offers are product-led.
Here are offers that actually work:
-> The Gold Standard: A Free Trial (No Credit Card). This is the ultimate low-friction offer. Let them get their hands on the actual product. Let them experience the transformation firsthand. If your product is good, it will sell itself. You're not generating 'Marketing Qualified Leads' (MQLs) for a sales team to chase; you're creating 'Product Qualified Leads' (PQLs) who are already half-sold. This is the single best way to fix the problem of low signups for a new SaaS.
-> The Freemium Plan. Similar to a free trial, but it's free forever for a limited set of features. This is brilliant for products with network effects or a wide potential user base. It gets people into your ecosystem. The upsell comes later.
-> A Valuable Tool or Asset. If a free trial isn't feasible, you must bottle your expertise into something they can use immediately. This is not a fluffy whitepaper. It's a utility.
- For a marketing tech SaaS: A free, automated website audit that reveals their top 3 SEO errors.
- For a data analytics platform: A free 'Data Health Check' that scans their database and flags the biggest issues.
- For us, as a B2B ad consultancy: A free, 20-minute strategy session where we audit a prospect's failing ad account and give them actionable advice.
The principle is the same across the board: you must solve a small, real problem for free to earn the right to ask for their money to solve the big one. Your offer has to be so good that they feel a bit silly for not taking it. It all happens on your landing page, which needs to be ruthlessly optimised for this one single action. If your page isn't converting, you need a guide to building high-converting landing pages that work.
How Should I Structure My Campaigns?
A messy campaign structure is a fast way to lose track of what's working and what's not. You need a logical structure that allows you to test variables in a controlled way. I'd recomend a simple prospecting and retargeting setup.
Campaign Objective: For a SaaS with a free trial or a high-value asset, your objective should almost always be Website Conversions. This tells LinkedIn to find people most likely to go to your site and complete the specific action you've defined as a conversion (e.g., a trial signup). If you're using LinkedIn's native Lead Gen Forms (more on that below), you'll use the Lead Generation objective.
Here’s a simple, effective structure to start with:
Campaign 1: Prospecting - [Your SaaS Name] - Conversions
The goal here is to find new customers. Each ad set should contain one distinct audience you want to test.
-> Ad Set 1: Job Functions + Seniority (e.g., Targeting VPs of Sales in the UK)
--> Ad 1: Single Image Ad (PAS Formula)
--> Ad 2: Video Ad (BAB Formula)
-> Ad Set 2: Group Memberships (e.g., Targeting members of "SaaS Sales Leaders" group)
--> Ad 1: Single Image Ad (PAS Formula)
--> Ad 2: Video Ad (BAB Formula)
-> Ad Set 3: ABM Company List (e.g., Targeting your top 200 prospect companies)
--> Ad 1: Single Image Ad (PAS Formula)
--> Ad 2: Video Ad (BAB Formula)
Campaign 2: Retargeting - [Your SaaS Name] - Conversions
The goal here is to bring back people who have shown interest but haven't converted yet. The audiences are much warmer.
-> Ad Set 1: Website Visitors - 90 Days (Excl. Converters)
--> Ad 1: Case Study/Testimonial Ad
--> Ad 2: Overcome an Objection Ad ("Think it's too complex to set up? See how in 2 mins")
This structure lets you clearly see which prospecting audience is performing best and allocate budget accordingly. You keep your top-of-funnel and bottom-of-funnel messaging seperate, which is vital.
A note on Lead Gen Forms vs. Landing Pages: LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms (which open inside LinkedIn and pre-fill the user's details) will almost always give you a lower Cost Per Lead. However, the quality is often much lower because the friction is so minimal. A person who takes the time to visit your landing page, read your copy, and then fill out a form is a much more qualified and motivated lead. I almost always recomend sending traffic to a dedicated landing page for B2B SaaS. The leads cost more, but they are worth more.
It's this kind of strategic thinking that differentiates successful campaigns. It's not just about turning ads on; it's about building a machine. For many founders, understanding the nuance between Google and LinkedIn Ads is the first major hurdle in building a real lead generation engine.
How Much Should I Spend, and How Do I Know It's Working?
There's no magic number for a starting budget, but I would not bother with less than £1,000-£2,000 per month for a serious effort on LinkedIn. The clicks are expensive, so you need enough spend to get statistically significant data quickly. If you spend £10 a day, it'll take you months to figure out what's working.
Your actual daily budget should be guided by your LTV and CAC calculations. If you can afford to pay £300 for a lead, and you want to get 10 leads a month from LinkedIn to test the channel, then you have a budget of £3,000.
Bidding Strategy: When you start, use LinkedIn's default Maximum Delivery (also known as automated bidding). This tells LinkedIn to get you the most results for your budget. Once you have a stable Cost Per Lead and want to scale, you can switch to Target Cost bidding, where you tell LinkedIn the average price you're willing to pay per conversion. This gives you more control but requires more data to work well.
Measuring What Matters: Do not get distracted by vanity metrics. Impressions, reach, and even clicks are mostly meaningless. There are only a few numbers you need to care about:
-> Cost Per Lead (CPL) or Cost Per Trial: This is your main performance indicator. What does it cost to get one person to sign up?
-> Lead-to-Customer Rate: Of the people who sign up for a trial, what percentage become paying customers?
-> Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): This is the final number. (Total Ad Spend / Number of New Customers).
-> CAC vs. LTV: Is your LTV at least 3x your CAC? If yes, you have a profitable, scalable channel. If no, you need to optimise.
I've summarised the main advice for getting started below:
| Action Item | Recommendation | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Define Your ICP | Focus on their 'Nightmare Problem', not their job title or demographic. Be incredibly specific. | Allows for hyper-relevant ad copy and precise targeting that cuts through the noise. |
| 2. Calculate Your LTV | Calculate your Lifetime Value to understand what you can afford to pay for a customer. | Frees you from chasing cheap, low-quality leads and unlocks confident, aggressive scaling. |
| 3. Fix Your Offer | Replace "Request a Demo" with a low-friction, high-value offer like a free trial or a useful tool. | Dramatically increases conversion rates by giving value before you ask for anything in return. |
| 4. Structure & Test | Use seperate campaigns for prospecting and retargeting. Test distinct audiences in different ad sets. | Provides clear data on what's working so you can double down on winners and cut losers. |
| 5. Measure Correctly | Focus obsessively on CPL, CAC, and the LTV:CAC ratio. Ignore vanity metrics. | Ensures your ad spend is generating profitable growth, not just clicks and impressions. |
This systematic approach is the only way to avoid just burning money. It's the foundation of any succesful strategy for UK B2B SaaS ads.
Is It Worth Doing This All Yourself?
As you can probably tell, running LinkedIn Ads effectively for a B2B SaaS is not a simple case of boosting a few posts. It's a complex, time-consuming discipline that demands a unique combination of strategic thinking, financial modelling, copywriting, and technical platform knowledge. It's a full-time job to do it properly.
You have to constantly research new audiences, write and design new ads, monitor performance, adjust bids, and optimise landing pages. All while trying to run and grow your actual business. For many founders, it's simply too much to handle, and they end up making costly mistakes that lead them to beleive the platform just "doesn't work".
The truth is, it does work, but it requires relentless focus and deep expertise. This is where getting proffesional help can make a huge difference. An expert has already made the mistakes, run the tests, and learned the lessons on other people's budgets. They can compress years of learning into weeks, helping you find a profitable acquisition channel far faster and with less wasted spend than you could on your own.
If you've read this far and feel a bit overwhelmed, or you're simply tired of your LinkedIn campaigns underperforming, it might be time to consider getting some help. We specialise in this exact challenge. We help B2B SaaS companies build and scale profitable customer acquisition engines on platforms like LinkedIn.
We offer a completely free, no-obligation strategy session where we'll dive into your business, your goals, and your current ad campaigns. We'll give you our honest, unfiltered advice on what we think you should do next. If we think we can help, we'll tell you how. If not, you'll still walk away with a ton of value and a clear plan of action. Feel free to get in touch to book yours.
Hope this helps!
