Solved: LinkedIn Ad Formats in Swansea (The Real Reason)

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! Happy to give you some of my initial thoughts and guidance on this. You're asking about LinkedIn ad formats in Swansea, which is a good question, but I suspect the real key to unlocking performance for you lies a little deeper than just picking between a video or an image ad. The format is often the last piece of the puzzle, not the first.

Let's unpack what it really takes to get this right, especially in a specific local market.

Your ICP is a Nightmare, Not a Postcode

Right, first things first. Forget "the Swansea market." That's not a target audience. It's a geographical area. This is probably the single biggest mistake people make. They think local, so they think broad. The truth is, the power of a platform like LinkedIn is its ability to be incredibly specific, even within a smaller city like Swansea. You're not trying to reach everyone in the SA1 postcode; you're trying to reach a handful of specific people with a specific problem.

You need to stop thinking about sterile demographics like "manufacturing companies in South Wales with 50-100 staff". That tells you almost nothing of value and leads to generic, ignorable ads. To stop burning cash, you have to define your customer by their pain. Their urgent, expensive, career-threatening nightmare.

Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) isn't a person; it's a problem state. Let's imagine you sell IT support services. Your ICP isn't 'John, director of a logistics firm'. It's 'John, director of a logistics firm, who just had his entire server go down during the busiest week of the quarter, is getting screamed at by his biggest client, and is terrified it's going to happen again'. That's a nightmare. That's a problem you can solve.

Or maybe you're a recruitment agency. Your ICP isn't 'Head of HR at a tech startup'. It's 'Head of HR at a tech startup who has had the same Senior Developer role open for four months, is losing projects to competitors because of it, and is getting grilled by the board every week'. That's the pain. That's what you build your entire campaign around.

Once you've isolated that specific nightmare, you can get clever. Who are these people? Where do they hang out online (even when they're not on LinkedIn)? What local business groups are they in? Do they follow Swansea Bay Business Club? Do they read Wales Business Insider? Are they members of certain industry-specific groups on LinkedIn? This intelligence is the blueprint for your whole strategy. You have to do this work first. If you don't, you have no business spending a single quid on ads, wether in Swansea or anywhere else.

You need to become an absolute expert in their specific problem. That's how you cut through the noise.

We'll need to look at your offer first... it's probably not good enough

Now we get to the second-most common point of failure. Once you know whose nightmare you're solving, what are you actually offering them in your ad? If the answer is "our services" or a button that says "Contact Us" or, heaven forbid, "Request a Demo," you've already lost.

The "Request a Demo" button is one of the most arrogant Calls to Action ever created. It presumes your prospect, a busy decision-maker, has absolutely nothing better to do than book a slot in their calendar to be sold to by a complete stranger. It's high-friction, it screams "sales pitch", and it offers them zero immediate value. It instantly positions you as just another commodity vendor begging for their time.

Your offer's only job is to deliver a moment of undeniable value. An "aha!" moment that makes the prospect think, "Finally, someone gets it," and makes them sell *themselves* on your solution.

You're not a big SaaS company, I get that. But you are not exempt from this rule. You have to bottle your expertise into a tool, an asset, or a peice of content that provides instant value and solves a small, real problem for free. This is how you earn the right to solve the whole thing for them later.

What could this look like for a business in Swansea?

You see the difference? The bad offers are all about YOU. The good offers are all about THEM and their problem. They give something away first. They build trust. They demonstrate expertise without having to shout about it. An offer like this changes everything. It reframes the entire interaction from a sales pitch to a helpful intervention. If your offer isn't built to solve a part of their nightmare for free, your ad format won't save you.

I'd say you need to define your objectives properly

Okay, so you've nailed down the specific nightmare you solve and you've crafted an irresistible, high-value offer. *Now* we can start talking about the mechanics of LinkedIn.

Your question about ad formats is actually a question about campaign objectives. On LinkedIn, you don't just 'run an ad'. You have to tell the platform what you want to achieve, and it will optimise its delivery to get you that outcome. The objective you choose will then limit which ad formats are even available to you.

So, what is your primary goal? Be brutally honest with yourself.

-> Is it to get names and email addresses as cheaply as possible? Then your objective is probably 'Lead Generation'. This uses LinkedIn's native Lead Gen Forms, which pop up right there in the app and pre-fill the user's details. It's incredibly low-friction, which means you'll get more leads, but they might be lower quality because it was so easy for them to sign up. They haven't had to put in much effort or visit your website.

-> Is it to drive people to your high-value offer on a landing page? Then your objective is 'Website Visits' or 'Website Conversions'. You'll get fewer leads this way because there's more friction (they have to leave LinkedIn, visit your site, and then fill out a form), but the ones you do get will be much more qualified and invested. They've put in the effort.

-> Is it to start a direct, one-to-one conversation? Then you might want to test 'Conversation Ads' (which are essentially sponsored InMail messages). These can be powerful but also feel a bit more intrusive if not done well. They work best when you have a very, very specific audience and a very personal-sounding message.

From my experience, for most B2B lead generation, the battle is between Lead Gen Forms and a dedicated Landing Page. I remember one B2B SaaS client we worked with was getting leads for around $22 each using LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms targeting specific decision-makers. That's a great price, but they had a solid process for qualifying those leads afterwards. Another client, in environmental controls, found that while landing page leads cost more initially, they closed at a much higher rate, making them cheaper in the long run. We actually managed to reduce their cost per lead by 84% by refining this approach.

The point is, the decision of "Lead Gen Form vs. Landing Page" is a far more important strategic choice than "Image vs. Video." You need to decide on your objective first, as this will dictate your entire approach.

You probably should focus on targeting before format

This is where we bring it all together. You know who you're targeting (by their nightmare), what you're offering them, and what you want them to do. Now you can build that audience inside LinkedIn and layer on the 'Swansea' location.

This is where LinkedIn leaves other platforms in the dust for B2B. Don't just type 'Swansea' into the location box and hope for the best. That's a waste of money. You need to use LinkedIn's detailed targeting to build a precise audience *first*, and then apply the geographic filter.

Think back to our ICP. Let's build a hypothetical audience for an HR consultancy in Swansea that specialises in the manufacturing sector.

See how much more powerful that is? You're not just targeting 'Swansea'. You're targeting Directors and Owners of manufacturing companies of a certain size within Swansea. That is an incredibly specific, high-value audience. Now, when you put your ad in front of them with a message that speaks directly to their nightmare (e.g., "Struggling with high staff turnover on the factory floor?"), it's going to hit home.

This is how you make a local campaign work. Precision targeting first, location second. Not the other way around. It's about finding the right needles in the haystack, not just buying the whole haystack.

You'll need to test these ad formats

Finally, we get to your original question. With everything else in place, which format should you use? The honest answer is: you need to test. But here's my take on the main contenders based on what usually works.

-> Single Image Ad: This is your workhorse. It's the fastest way to get your message across. A strong image, a killer headline that calls out the pain point, and clear text. It works brilliantly for driving traffic to a landing page or for a Lead Gen Form campaign. It's quick to produce and easy to test variations of. I'd almost always start here. You can get a message across instantly and get anyone interested to click.

-> Video Ad: These can be very effective, but they need to be good. A short, 15-30 second video that quickly outlines the problem and your solution can work wonders. People who watch a significant portion of your video before clicking are generally more qualified leads. I've worked with B2B SaaS clients who used simple, well-produced videos to get lots of trial signups. But a bad, wobbly video shot on a phone will do more harm than good. It needs to look profeshional.

-> Carousel Ad: These are good if you have multiple points to make, or want to showcase different features or steps in a process. For example, our hypothetical HR consultancy could have a carousel with slides like: 1) High staff turnover costing you thousands? 2) Our 3-step retention audit finds the leaks. 3) Download the free checklist to get started. It allows you to tell a mini-story.

-> Conversation Ad: As I mentioned, these are more like paid emails. They can feel very personal and direct, but also easy to ignore or get annoyed by. I would only use this if you have an extremely targeted list (e.g., you've uploaded a list of 50 specific directors you want to reach) and a very compelling, non-salesy message.

I usually run sponsored content campaigns for lead generation (that's the Image, Video, and Carousel ads you see in the main feed). Then I'd set up one campaign and create different ads inside it to test an image vs. a video. You let them run for a week or so on a modest budget, and see which one delivers the best Cost Per Lead. The data will tell you what your audience in Swansea responds to. Don't guess, test.

Let's talk about the real numbers: Cost vs. Value

This brings me to a final, crucial point. How much should you be paying for a lead? A lot of people get scared when they see a £20, £50, or even £100 cost per lead from LinkedIn. They compare it to the £2 they might get from a Facebook campaign and panic. This is the wrong way to think about it.

The real question isn't "How low can my Cost Per Lead (CPL) go?" but "How high a CPL can I afford to acquire a fantastic customer?" The answer is found in your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV).

Let's do some simple maths for a hypothetical Swansea-based service business. Don't worry, it's straightforward.

1. Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA): What's an average client worth to you per year? Let's say it's a retainer of £5,000.

2. Gross Margin %: What's your profit margin on that? After your costs, let's say it's 70%.

3. Average Customer Lifespan: How long does the average client stick with you? Let's say 3 years.

Now, the LTV calculation is simple: LTV = (ARPA * Gross Margin %) * Lifespan

LTV = (£5,000 * 0.70) * 3 = £10,500

In this example, each new customer is worth £10,500 in gross margin to your business over their lifetime. A healthy ratio for Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) to LTV is about 1:3. This means you can afford to spend up to £3,500 (£10,500 / 3) to acquire a single new customer.

Now, let's say your sales process is decent and you convert 1 in 10 qualified leads into a paying customer. This means you can afford to pay up to £350 per qualified lead (£3,500 / 10).

Suddenly, that £50 lead from a perfectly targeted LinkedIn ad doesn't seem so expensive, does it? It looks like an absolute bargain. This is the maths that separates the businesses that potter along from the ones that grow intelligently. It frees you from the tyranny of cheap, low-quality leads.

This is the main advice I have for you:

To wrap this all up, here is the step-by-step process I would recommend you follow. Forget about the ad format for now and focus on getting these fundamentals right first.

As you can see, there's a fair bit to get right before you even upload an image. It's not just about setting up an ad and hoping for the best. It's a process of deep audience understanding, strategic offer creation, and methodical testing and optimisation.

Getting this wrong can be a very quick way to waste a lot of money, especially on an expensive platform like LinkedIn. Getting it right, however, can build a predictable engine for generating high-quality leads for your business right there in your local market.

If you'd like to go through this process for your specific business and have an expert eye look over your plans, we offer a free, no-obligation initial strategy session where we can do just that. It might be helpful to have a second opinion before you start spending.

Hope that helps give you a much clearer framework.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh