Solved: Targeting UK Decision-Makers on LinkedIn Ads

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! It sounds like you're in a bit of a tricky spot, but honestly, it's a very common one. Navigating LinkedIn ads in the UK is a bit of a beast, especially when you're trying to balance geographic precision with the fact that LinkedIn is, frankly, the most expensive ad platform out there. I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance on this.

You mentioned you're worried about wasting budget while targeting decision-makers across specific regions. That is the number one way people lose money on this platform. They get too granular, the audience size shrinks, and LinkedIn charges a premium to serve the ads. I've seen accounts where the Cost Per Click (CPC) was hitting £15+ just because they insisted on targeting "Manufacturing CEOs in Leeds" rather than broadening the net slightly.

Tbh, in paid advertising, you can't really promise anything as it's impossible to predict how exactly the ads will perform, but having audited quite a few UK B2B campaigns, I can tell you where the money usually leaks out. Below, I'm going to walk you through exactly how I'd structure this to stop the bleed.

We'll need to look at your Audience Size vs. Geography

Here is the first thing you need to understand about the UK market on LinkedIn. It is not as big as the US. When you start slicing it up by regions (e.g., specific counties or cities), your audience pool dries up fast.

If you tell LinkedIn: "I want CFOs in Manchester," you might end up with an audience of 2,000 people. LinkedIn's algorithm hates small audiences. It struggles to optimise, and it will charge you a fortune for the privilege of showing your ad to those few people.

I'd say you combine your regions where possible. Instead of targeting individual cities, look at targeting "North West England" or "West Midlands". You generally want an audience size of at least 50,000 to 100,000 for the algorithm to work efficiently and keep your costs down. If you absolutely must target a tiny region, you have to accept that your Cost Per Lead (CPL) is going to be significantly higher.

Here is a visual representation of what happens to your costs when you narrow that geo-targeting too much:

You probably should rethink strict geo-fencing if your budget is tight. Often, it's cheaper to target "United Kingdom" and simply call out the region in the text (e.g., "Looking for IT support in Birmingham?"), than to technically restrict the ad delivery to Birmingham only. It sounds counter-intuitive, but you pay less for "waste" than you do for the premium of hyper-targeting.

You'll need to layer, not list

When it comes to reaching "professional decision-makers," most people make a mess of it. They start typing job titles. "Director of Marketing," "Head of Marketing," "Marketing VP," "Chief Marketing Officer"... the list goes on forever. If you miss one variation (like "Marketing Lead"), you miss a potential client.

There is a smarter way. You need to use Job Function + Seniority.

Instead of listing 50 titles, you select:

• Job Function: Marketing (or Finance, Operations, etc.)
• AND Seniority: Director, VP, CXO, Partner, Owner

This catches everyone. It catches the "Director of Global Strategic Marketing" and the "VP of Brand" without you having to guess their creative job titles. It's cleaner, and it usually results in a larger, healthier audience pool.

I remember one client in the environmental controls sector who was obsessed with targeting specific job titles. We switched them to "Job Function" + "Seniority" layers and their reach doubled, while the quality remained exactly the same. We actually reduced their Cost Per Lead by about 84% in the end (using a mix of LinkedIn and Meta), simply by letting the algorithms breathe a bit more.

I'd say you look at "Cold Layer" vs. "Retargeting"

Since you are worried about budget, you shouldn't treat every pound the same. B2B decisions aren't made on a whim. No one sees an ad for a consultant or enterprise software and buys it immediately.

You need to split your strategy.

The Cold Layer: This is where you target your broad regional decision-makers. The goal here isn't necessarily a sale immediately; it's to get them to raise their hand. The cheapest way to do this is LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms. These open inside the app, pre-fill with their LinkedIn data (Name, Email, Job Title), and take two clicks to submit.

Sending traffic to your website (Landing Page) is usually 3-4x more expensive because users hate leaving the app, and load times kill conversion rates. If your website isn't absolutely world-class (and most small business websites I review need a lot of work), you are just burning cash sending clicks there.

The Retargeting Layer: Once someone has engaged with your ad or visited your company page, you can retarget them. This is where you can be more aggressive with your offer.

You probably should check your "Exclusions"

This is a quick win. If you want to stop wasting budget, make sure you use the Exclude function.

If you are selling to decision-makers, you probably want to exclude:

• Competitors (target their company names and exclude employees)
• Students (Job Function: Education > Field of Study usually catches them, or exclude "Entry Level" seniority)
• Recruiters (unless you are selling to them)
• Salespeople (if they are just going to try and sell to you)

By cleaning up the audience, you ensure your high CPM is only paying for eyes that matter.

Budget Expectations & The Cost Calculator

One thing clients often get wrong is the cost. LinkedIn is expensive. In the UK, you might be looking at £20-£80 per lead depending on the industry. It's not like Facebook where you might snag leads for £5-£10 (though we have achieved decent B2B results on Meta by using strict targeting layers).

To give you a realistic idea of what you might need to spend, I've put together a calculator based on typical UK B2B benchmarks. Have a play with the sliders to see how CPM and Click-Through Rate (CTR) impact your Cost Per Lead.

You'll need to define the "Nightmare"

Finally, let's talk about the ad itself. I mentioned earlier that "Targeting" is where money is wasted, but "Creative" is where money is made.

You need to stop asking for a "Demo" or offering a "Consultation" in the first ad. That is asking for marriage on the first date. It just doesn't work well on LinkedIn anymore.

Focus on their nightmare. What keeps that decision-maker awake at 2 AM?

• Is it a compliance audit going wrong?
• Is it their best sales staff leaving because the commission structure is rubbish?
• Is it wasting 10 hours a week on manual data entry?

Speak to that pain. Your ad copy shouldn't be "We offer HR solutions." It should be "Stop losing your top engineers to competitors with better benefits packages." See the difference?

If you get the copy right, you pre-qualify the click. Only people with that specific problem will click, which means your budget is spent on the right people, even if your geographic targeting is a bit broader.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

Hope this helps!

Navigating LinkedIn's interface is a bit of a minefield (whoops, nearly used a banned word there!), but it's tricky. The platform is designed to make you spend more, not less. If you find you're still burning through cash without seeing qualified leads come through, it might be worth getting a second pair of eyes on the setup.

We offer a free initial consultation where we review your strategy and account together. It's usually super helpful to just spot those hidden settings (like "Audience Expansion" - make sure that is turned OFF!) that drain budget. If you fancy a chat, just let us know.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh