Solved: LinkedIn Ads Not Converting to Platform Sign-Ups

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out!

I understand you've been struggling with LinkedIn Ads. It's an incredibly frustrating situation, and a story I've heard many times before. Pouring thousands into a platform only to get tyre-kickers and a bounce rate that makes your eyes water is enough to make anyone think the whole platform is just trash for advertising.

But it's not. I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts, because the problem isn't the platform itself. The problem is that most people, even experienced marketers, treat LinkedIn like it's Google or Facebook. It's a completely different beast, with a different user mindset. Your success on Google is actually what's blinding you on LinkedIn. Once you stop trying to apply the same logic, and start thinking about the user's context, things can change very, very quickly. We'll need to tear down your current approach and rebuild it based on how decision-makers actually use the platform.

We'll need to look at why your current approach is built to fail...

Okay, let's be brutally honest. The reason your campaigns are failing is because your entire strategy is based on a flawed premise. You said your messaging works on Google. Of course it does. On Google, someone is actively typing "best accounting software for small business" into a search bar. They have a problem, they're aware of it, and they are actively, right this second, looking for a solution. They are hunting. Your job is simply to show up and be the most convincing answer.

LinkedIn is the complete opposite. Nobody logs onto LinkedIn to find a new software platform. They log on to check their notifications, see if they got a promotion, feel important, maybe read an article from a thought leader, and generally procrastinate between meetings. They are grazing, not hunting. When your ad shows up in their feed, you are an interruption. You're the person at a dinner party who suddenly stands on a chair and starts shouting about their product. Unless what you're shouting is incredibly relevant and interesting, you'll be ignored.

This is why your 95% bounce rate isn't surprising; it's predictable. You're interrupting someone's passive scrolling with a high-friction request like "Book a Demo" or "Sign Up". That's like asking someone for their hand in marriage on the first date. It's too much, too soon. They click out of mild curiosity, see a landing page that requires them to think and commit, and they instantly hit the 'back' button to return to the comfort of their feed. The mental cost is too high.

The entire game on LinkedIn isn't to find people who are ready to buy today. It's to find the right people, earn their attention and trust with something valuable, and capture their contact information so you can nurture them into a sales conversation over time. Your ads are the start of a conversation, not the end of one.

I'd say you need to define your customer by their nightmare, not their job title...

You mentioned you're targeting by job titles. This is LinkedIn 101, and it's where most people stop. It’s also why most ads are generic and ineffective. A job title tells you what someone does, but it tells you nothing about their problems, their fears, or what keeps them up at night. To stop burning cash, you have to define your customer not by their demographic, but by their *pain*.

Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) isn't a "VP of Sales at a 100-person tech company". It's a "VP of Sales who is terrified of missing their quarterly target because their reps are wasting half their day on manual data entry instead of selling." It's a "Head of HR who is bleeding top talent because their onboarding process is a chaotic mess of spreadsheets and emails."

Your ICP isn't a person; it's a *problem state*.

Once you've identified that specific, urgent, expensive, career-threatening nightmare, everything changes. Your targeting becomes sharper. You're not just looking for job titles anymore. You're looking for clues. What industry newsletters do they read? What influencers do they follow on LinkedIn? What software do they already use (and complain about)? Are they members of specific LinkedIn Groups for their role? This intelligence is the blueprint for your entire targeting strategy. You can layer job titles WITH interests in certain software, WITH membership in certain groups, WITH seniority levels. You can build a hyper-specific audience of people who are far more likely to have the exact problem your platform solves.

For example, one B2B software client we worked with was struggling with high lead costs on LinkedIn. Instead of just targeting broad job titles, we focused on the specific 'nightmare' problem their platform solved for Heads of Sales at tech companies. We layered targeting to find decision-makers in the right industries and of the right seniority who were also members of specific sales-focused LinkedIn groups. By speaking directly to their pain points in the ad copy, we were able to bring their cost per lead down to just $22 for highly qualified decision-makers. This is the kind of result you get when you stop shouting at everyone and start whispering to the right people. Do this work first, or you have no business spending another pound on ads.

You probably should write a message they can't ignore...

Because you've been using messaging that works on Google, it's likely very feature-focused and solution-aware. "Our Platform Does X, Y, and Z. Get a Demo." This falls flat on LinkedIn because, as we've established, the audience isn't actively looking for a solution. They may not even be fully aware they have a problem. Your ad's first job is to make them feel understood. You need to articulate their pain better than they can themselves.

The most effective framework for this is Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS).

• Problem: Hit them with a pain point they recognise immediately. Start the ad with a question that drills into their specific nightmare.
• Agitate: Twist the knife. Remind them of the consequences of inaction. What happens if this problem continues? What are the professional or financial stakes?
• Solve: Introduce your platform not as a collection of features, but as the clear, simple solution to the pain you've just agitated.

Let's imagine your platform is a project management tool. Here's the difference:

This change in messaging is profound. You stop selling a product and start solving a problem. People will always pay more attention to someone who understands their problems than to someone who just talks about their solutions.

You'll need to delete the "Request a Demo" button...

This brings us to the most critical, most common, and most costly failure point in all of B2B advertising: the offer. The "Request a Demo" button is arguably the most arrogant Call to Action ever conceived. It presumes your prospect, a busy decision-maker, has nothing better to do than book a 30-minute slot in their calendar to be sold to by a stranger. It is high-friction and low-value. It screams "I want your time and money now".

You have to earn the right to ask for a demo. Your initial offer's only job is to deliver an "aha!" moment of undeniable value that makes the prospect sell *themselves* on your solution.

The key here is to switch from a high-friction landing page to a LinkedIn Lead Gen Form. When a user clicks your ad, a form pops up pre-filled with their LinkedIn profile information (name, email, company, job title). All they have to do is click "Submit". You've reduced the effort required from a minute of typing and page loading down to two clicks. This single change can dramatically increase your conversion rate from click to lead.

But a Lead Gen Form only works if the offer is right. You need to give them something valuable in exchange for their details. Here are some ideas that work:

• A high-value guide or report: "The 2024 State of [Your Industry] Report"
• A diagnostic tool or checklist: "Free Checklist: 10 Critical Security Flaws in Your Current IT Setup"
• A short video course or webinar recording: "Watch our 15-Min Masterclass on Optimising Ad Spend"
• A tangible template: "Download Our Proven Sales Projection Spreadsheet"

You mentioned you got three leads from a case study who then went cold. That's not a failure; that's the process working as intended! A case study download is a top-of-funnel action. Those leads aren't ready for a demo. They are now in your ecosystem. Your job isn't to immediately try and book a meeting, but to nurture them with a series of helpful, non-salesy emails that build trust and demonstrate your expertise. Maybe the next email shares another valuable resource. The one after that invites them to a webinar. Only after you've provided value multiple times do you earn the right to ask for the demo.

You'll need to calculate the numbers that actually matter...

You're worried about the high CPC on LinkedIn. That's a natural reaction, but it's focusing on the wrong metric. The real question isn't "How low can my Cost Per Click go?" but "How high a Cost Per Lead can I afford to acquire a truly great customer?" The answer lies in its counterpart: Customer Lifetime Value (LTV).

Once you know what a customer is worth to you, you can work backwards to figure out what you can afford to pay for a lead. This simple bit of math frees you from the tyranny of cheap clicks and allows you to invest confidently in acquiring the right kind of customers. Suddenly, that $22 CPL for a B2B decision-maker that I mentioned earlier (a result from one of our recent LinkedIn campaigns for a software client) doesn't look expensive; it looks like a bargain if that customer is worth thousands.

Here’s the basic formula:

LTV = (Average Revenue Per Account Per Month * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Customer Churn Rate

Let's run some numbers. This calculator will help you understand the relationship between a customer's lifetime value and what you can sustainably pay to acquire them. A healthy business model often aims for an LTV to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) ratio of at least 3:1.

This is the main advice I have for you:

So, to bring this all together, you need a complete strategic overhaul. No more tweaking creatives or landing page headlines. We need to change the entire model. Here is the exact plan I would implement if we were to take this on.

This isn't just theory; it’s a proven process. Getting it right involves a lot of testing and refinement, which can be a slow and expensive learning curve if you're going it alone. You're not just setting up an ad; you're building a predictable system for generating high-value B2B leads on the world's largest professional network. It requires a specialist skillset that's very different from running Google or Meta campaigns.

With our experience, particularly in B2B SaaS, we can help you skip the costly trial-and-error phase and implement this entire strategic framework for you. We understand the nuances of the platform, from the creative that works best to the subtle targeting layers that unearth the best prospects.

If you're open to it, I'd be happy to offer you a free, no-obligation 20-minute strategy session. We can have a proper look at your current campaigns, your offer, and your audience, and give you an even more detailed, actionable plan to turn your LinkedIn ad spend from a cost centre into a profit engine.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh