LinkedIn Ads UK: Find the Right Course Sales Agency

Finding a decent LinkedIn ads agency in the UK that actually gets how to sell online courses is a proper headache. Most of them are used to selling five-figure software deals to big corporates with six-month sales cycles. They apply the same tired playbook to selling your course and then wonder why they've burned through your budget with nothing to show for it but a handful of expensive, low-quality leads.

The truth is, selling education is different. You're not selling a tool to make a business more efficient; you're selling a personal or professional transformation to an individual. The decision is emotional, personal, and often made much faster. The strategies that work for HubSpot don't work for a coding bootcamp or a leadership course. So lets break down what actually works, and how you can spot an agency that gets it from one that's just going to waste your time and money.

So, why is LinkedIn such a minefield for course creators?

First off, you need to accept that LinkedIn is expensive. Clicks in the UK for a professional audience can easily be £5-£15 a pop. If your agency doesn't have a rock-solid strategy from day one, you can spend thousands of pounds in a week and have absolutely zero to show for it. I've seen it happen countless times. A business comes to us after blowing £10k with another agency on a generic "brand awareness" campaign that reached a lot of people but persuaded no one.

The core problem is a misunderstanding of the user's intent. Someone scrolling LinkedIn isn't in "buying mode." They're networking, reading industry news, or just procrastinating. You can't just hit them with a "Buy My Course for £2,000" ad and expect it to work. It's like proposing on the first date. You have to warm them up first.

This is where most agencies go wrong. They push for hard conversions straight away, like a sales call or a direct enrollment. This is a high-friction ask. Why would a busy professional in London or Manchester give up 30 minutes to be sold to by someone they've never heard of? It's arrogant and ineffective. They need to see value from you before they ever consider giving you their money. This is why a well-thought-out funnel is not just a nice-to-have, it is the only way to succeed.

What a winning UK course sales funnel on LinkedIn actually looks like

Forget the complex, 12-step funnels you see for enterprise software. For courses, it needs to be simpler and more value-driven. Think of it in three stages:

1. Top of Funnel (ToFu): The Free Value Offer

This is your first handshake. You're not asking for a sale; you're offering free, genuinely useful help that's directly related to the problem your course solves. Your campaign objective here is Lead Generation. You're not optimising for clicks; you're optimising for people giving you their email address in exchange for something valuable. This proves they have the problem you solve.

Good ToFu offers for courses:

• -> A free live webinar on a niche topic (e.g., "The 5 Biggest Mistakes New Managers in UK Tech Startups Make").
• -> A detailed PDF guide or checklist (e.g., "The Complete 2024 SEO Checklist for UK eCommerce Sites").
• -> A free short email course or video series.

The ad copy needs to hit a specific pain point. No generic stuff. Speak directly to the nightmare that keeps your ideal UK customer awake at night. For example: "Struggling to get your first 100 SaaS customers in the UK? In this webinar, we'll break down the exact outreach strategy we used to land deals with FTSE 100 companies." This ad generates a lead, but more importantly, it frames you as an expert worth listening to.

2. Middle of Funnel (MoFu): Building Trust and Desire

Now you have a list of leads who have shown interest. The goal here is to nurture them. You do this through retargeting campaigns on LinkedIn and an email sequence. Show them different ads that build on that initial trust. Here you should be showing them:

• -> Testimonials from UK students. Video testimonials are gold. Seeing someone from a recognisable UK company praise your course is incredibly powerful.
• -> A behind-the-scenes look at the course content or community.
• -> Case studies of student success stories. "How Sarah from Bristol went from Junior Dev to Team Lead in 6 months after taking our course."

This stage is all about overcoming objections and building the desire for the transformation your course offers. You're proving that you can deliver on your promise.

3. Bottom of Funnel (BoFu): The Call to Enrol

Only now, after you've provided value and built trust, do you go for the sale. The ads at this stage are direct and create urgency. You retarget everyone who's engaged with your MoFu content or visited your sales page.

Effective BoFu offers:

• -> "Enrolment closes Friday at midnight."
• -> "Last chance to get the early bird discount of 20%."
• -> "Only 5 spots left in our next cohort."

This structure works because it aligns with the customer's journey. It takes them from being problem-aware to solution-aware, and finally, to being ready to buy. Any agency that can't articulate a similar, nuanced funnel for your course probably doesn't have the experience you need.

How to spot a genuinely expert UK agency (and avoid the time-wasters)

Okay, so you know what a good strategy looks like. Now, how do you find an agency that can actually execute it? You need to become a savvy buyer and ask the right questions. When you're on that initial "chemistry call," here's how you cut through the sales pitch.

1. "Show me your case studies... for UK course sales."

This is the most important question. Don't let them show you a case study for a US-based SaaS company. It's not relevant. The UK market is different, the costs are different, and the culture is different. You need to see proof that they have successfully sold online courses, or at the very least, high-ticket eLearning products, to a UK audience. Ask them to walk you through the results. What was the ROAS? What was the cost per enrolment? We have deep experience generating massive revenue for course creators, and we apply that industry knowledge to the specific platforms you need. When it comes to LinkedIn, for example, I remember one B2B campaign where we generated leads from key decision-makers at just $22 each. An agency worth their salt will have specific, relevant numbers like these ready and be proud to share them. If they're vague or try to deflect, it's a massive red flag.

2. "What would your initial 90-day strategy be for my course?"

A good agency will give you a thoughtful, tailored answer. They'll ask you questions about your ideal student, your course price, and your goals. Their answer should sound a lot like the funnel we just discussed. They should talk about testing different value offers at the top, building retargeting audiences, and split-testing creative.

A bad agency will give you a generic, one-size-fits-all answer. "We'll start with some brand awareness campaigns to build your presence, then we'll drive traffic to the site and optimise for conversions." This is meaningless fluff. It shows they haven't thought about your specific business and are just going to run a basic setup that probably won't work.

3. "What kind of targeting would you test first for a UK audience?"

This is a technical question to test their platform knowledge. If they just say "we'll target by job title," that's a rookie answer. An expert will talk about layering different targeting options. For instance: "We could start by targeting people in the UK with the job title 'Marketing Manager', but then we'd layer that with an interest in 'Content Marketing' or specific skills like 'SEO'. We could also test targeting alumni from specific UK universities known for their business programmes, or members of groups like 'The UK Marketing Network'." This demonstrates a deeper, more strategic understanding of how to find your ideal student on LinkedIn. If you want to know more about this, we've written a detailed guide on LinkedIn ads for EdTech founders that goes into more detail on targeting.

4. "What's a realistic Cost Per Enrolment (CPA) we should aim for?"

No one can promise you a specific result. There are too many variables. But an experienced agency should be able to give you a realistic ballpark based on your course price and their experience in the UK market. They should explain the maths. For example: "With UK CPCs around £8 and a typical lead-to-enrolment funnel converting at 0.5%, a rough starting estimate for CPA could be around £1600. Our job would be to systematically improve that through optimisation."

Be very wary of anyone who promises you a ridiculously low CPA without any data. They're either lying to get the sale or they're inexperienced. It's much better to have an honest, realistic conversation about costs from the beginning.

The numbers that actually matter: Moving beyond vanity metrics

Most agency reports are filled with fluff. Impressions, reach, click-through rate... these are nice to know, but they don't pay the bills. For a course creator, there are only a few metrics that truly matter.

• Cost Per Lead (CPL): This is how much you pay for someone to download your free guide or sign up for your webinar. This is your ToFu metric. A good CPL in the UK on LinkedIn for a professional audience might be anywhere from £15 to £50.
• Cost Per Acquisition/Enrolment (CPA): This is the big one. How much does it cost, in total ad spend, to get one paying student? This is your BoFu metric.
• Return On Ad Spend (ROAS): This is the ultimate measure of success. For every £1 you put into ads, how many pounds do you get back in course sales? A 3:1 ROAS (£3 back for every £1 spent) is often a good starting benchmark, but with the right strategy, this can go much higher.

Your agency should be obsessed with these numbers. Their entire strategy should be built around improving them. If their reports focus on how many people saw your ad, they're focused on the wrong thing.

To really understand your numbers, you need to know what you can afford to spend to acquire a customer. This is where a simple ROAS calculation comes in handy. It turns a vague goal into a concrete financial target.

Getting targeting right: How to find actual students in the UK

LinkedIn's targeting capabilities are its greatest strength, but they're also where a lazy agency can burn your budget on the wrong audience. You need to go beyond surface-level targeting and build a detailed picture of your ideal UK student.

Here’s a smarter way to approach it:

Layering is everything. Don't just target one thing. Combine multiple criteria to zero in on the perfect audience. For example, instead of just targeting "Project Managers," you could build an audience of:

• People in the United Kingdom...
• with the Job Title Project Manager OR Job Function Project Management...
• AND who have PMP Certification or Agile Methodologies listed as a skill...
• AND who are members of the group "UK Project Management Professionals".

This audience is infinitly more qualified than just targeting a broad job title. They are in the right location, have the right job, have demonstrated an interest in upskilling, and are actively part of a professional community. This is how you find people who are likely to invest in their careers.

Think outside of job titles. What publications do they read? What influencers do they follow? What software do they use? You can target followers of specific Company Pages. For a design course, you could target UK followers of Adobe or Figma. For a sales course, you could target UK followers of HubSpot or Salesforce. This is a powerful way to tap into existing communities of engaged professionals. And if you're not sure which platform to start on, our guide comparing Google Ads vs LinkedIn Ads for UK courses might help clear things up.

Don't forget university alumni. This is a fantastic, often underutilised, targeting option. Want to sell a finance course? Target UK alumni of the London School of Economics or Warwick Business School. It's a great way to find ambitious professionals from a certain academic background.

Your Final Action Plan: A Summary

Finding the right partner to grow your course enrolments is a big decision, and it's easy to get it wrong. It's not just about technical skill; it's about finding a LinkedIn ads expert who understands the specific nuances of the UK education market. After all our work in this space, I've seen what seperates the successful campaigns from the expensive failures. It comes down to a clear, disciplined approach.

To make it easier, I've broken down the entire process of finding and vetting an agency into a simple action plan. Use this as your checklist.

This process might seem rigorous, but it's what's required to protect your investment and find a partner who can genuinely help you grow. There are many agencies in London and across the UK, but finding one that truly specializes in this niche is rare. Doing this homework upfront will save you a huge amount of money and frustration in the long run.

If you're tired of generic advice and want to speak with a team that lives and breathes this stuff, and has the UK-specific case studies to prove it, we offer a completely free, no-obligation strategy session. We'll look at your course, your goals, and give you an honest assessment of how LinkedIn Ads could work for you. No hard sell, just straightforward, expert advice.