LinkedIn Ads Expert: The Course Creator's UK Guide

Finding a good LinkedIn ads consultant in London for a course creator is a proper challenge. The city is swimming with agencies and freelancers, but most of them are generalists. They might be brilliant at running campaigns for big finance firms or SaaS companies, but selling an online course requires a completely different mindset. Tbh, focusing on finding someone *in* London is probably your first mistake. What you really need is an expert who understands the UK EdTech market, and they could be based in Manchester, Bristol, or anywhere else. Expertise trumps post code, every single time.

The problem is, most course creators get dazzled by a slick sales pitch and a fancy office address near Canary Wharf. They end up with a consultant who applies a one-size-fits-all B2B template to their course, burns through their budget, and delivers a handful of expensive, low-quality leads. To avoid this, you need to change your approach from finding a vendor to vetting a strategic partner. It’s less about their location and more about their track record and thinking.

So, what separates a real expert from a confident amateur?

It all comes down to proof. And I don't mean a list of logos on their website. I mean hard, verifiable results from clients just like you. When you're looking at their case studies, your eyes should glaze over at vague claims like "increased brand awareness" or "grew engagement". This is marketing fluff and means nothing for your bottom line. You are selling a course, so you need enrolments. It's that simple.

You need to be looking for specific, tangible outcomes. I remember one campaign we worked on for a course creator where we generated $115k in revenue in just over six weeks. For another eLearning client, we drove a 447% ROAS in the first week. These are the kinds of numbers that matter. Look for case studies that talk about:

• -> Cost Per Lead (CPL) or Cost Per Enrolment: How much did it cost to get one qualified person to sign up?
• -> Return On Ad Spend (ROAS): For every £1 spent on ads, how many pounds in course sales came back?
• -> Revenue Generated: The actual amount of money the campaigns produced.

If a consultant can't show you case studies with these kinds of metrics, specifically for online courses, eLearning, or at a push, student recruitment, then they don't have the relevant experience. They'll be learning on your budget, and that's a very expensive education for you.

What kind of results can you realistically expect in the UK?

Let's be brutally honest: LinkedIn is not a cheap platform. If you're used to getting £1 leads on Facebook, you're in for a shock. You're paying a premium to get your course in front of specific professionals based on their job title, industry, and seniority. From my experience running a campaign for a B2B software client, we saw a CPL of around $22 (£18-£20) for a decision maker. For a course enrolment, the cost could be higher or lower depending on your price point and how compelling your offer is.

The question you should be asking isn't "How cheap can I get a lead?" but "How much can I afford to *pay* for a student?" This is where understanding your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) becomes critical. If your course costs £2,000 and has a good profit margin, paying £100 or even £200 to acquire a new student might be incredibly profitable. If your course is £99, LinkedIn is almost certainly the wrong platform for you.

To get your head around the numbers, you need to stop thinking like a marketer and start thinking like a CFO. A good consultant will help you with this maths. They'll build a model based on your course price and expected conversion rates to determine a target Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) that ensures profitability. Anyone who skips this step and just starts running ads is just gambling with your money. To get a better feel for your own numbers, play around with the calculator below.

How to spot a real expert on the first call

The initial consultation or "strategy session" is where you seperate the wheat from the chaff. A poor consultant or salesperson will spend the whole time talking about themselves, their agency, and how amazing they are. They'll agree with everything you say and promise you fantastic results without any real basis. This is a massive red flag.

A true expert will turn the tables. They'll spend most of the call interrogating you (in a good way). They will act like a doctor diagnosing a patient, asking probing questions to understand the health of your business before they even think about prescribing a solution. Expect questions like:

• -> "Tell me about your most successful students. What are their job titles? What problems were they trying to solve by taking your course?"
• -> "What's your sales process after someone expresses interest? How do you nurture leads?"
• -> "What have you tried so far? What worked and what didn't? Can I see the data?"
• -> "Why do you believe LinkedIn is the right platform for you? Have you considered other channels?"

They should be challenging your assumptions. If you say "I want to target all marketing managers in the UK", they should push back with "Why? Is that really your core audience? Could we get better results by focusing on a smaller, more specific niche first, like 'Heads of Content at B2B SaaS companies with 50-200 employees'?" This kind of pushback is a sign of a confident expert who is more interested in getting you results than just getting your signature on a contract. For any founder looking to hire, we've put together a comprehensive guide to vetting paid ad experts in London which has a full checklist of what to look for.

Is LinkedIn even the right platform for your course?

Just because you want to use LinkedIn doesn't mean you should. A good consultant will give you honest advice, even if it means talking you out of using their primary service. The platform choice depends entirely on your target audience and course price.

When LinkedIn is a great choice:

• -> Your course is specifically for people in certain job roles (e.g., 'Financial Modelling for Investment Bankers').
• -> Your course is high-ticket (definitly over £500, ideally £1,000+).
• -> Your students' employers are likely to pay for the course, so you can target companies of a certain size or industry.

When you should probably look at Meta (Facebook/Instagram) instead:

• -> Your course appeals to a broader audience based on interests rather than job titles (e.g., 'Beginner's Guide to Digital Photography').
• -> Your course is priced lower, requiring a lower Cost Per Enrolment to be profitable.
• -> You need to build a larger audience quickly and nurture them over time.

We've run hugely succesful campaigns for courses on Meta. It's often a better starting point. The decision between them is a common challenge, and the right answer depends on a deep dive into your ideal student. We've actually written a full guide comparing the strategic differences between LinkedIn and Meta Ads specifically for the EdTech space.

The main thing is that a consultant should be having this strategic conversation with you. If they just say "Yep, LinkedIn it is" without any analysis, they are not doing their job properly. Often, we find that the most common reasons UK online course campaigns on LinkedIn fail is because it was simply the wrong platform for that particular offer to begin with.

This is the main advice I have for you:

To cut through the noise of the London agency scene and find a partner who can actually help you grow, you need a clear process. Forget the fancy presentations and focus on what really matters: proven, relevant expertise.

Ultimately, finding the right partner is a lot of work. But doing this due diligence upfront will save you thousands of pounds and months of frustration down the line. You're not just buying ads; you're investing in a growth engine for your business, and it needs the right engineer to build it.

Getting it right means finding someone who has already made all the expensive mistakes on someone else's budget. They know which audiences to test, what ad copy resonates, and how to build a landing page that actually converts for a UK audience. That expertise is what you're paying for.

If you're tired of the guesswork and want an expert pair of eyes on your strategy, we offer a free, no-obligation consultatoin. We'll take a look at your course, your audience, and your goals, and give you a brutally honest assessment of what it will take to succeed with paid ads. There's no hard sell, just straightforward, actionable advice from specialists who do this day in, day out.