Hi there,
Thanks for reaching out!
I’ve had a look at your situation with the marketing agency campaign. It’s a really common problem, so don't worry, you’re not alone in this. You’re asking about the perfect segmentation, but I suspect the issue runs a bit deeper than just the audience settings on Instagram. Running traffic campaigns to a social profile for a B2B service is like trying to fish for sharks in a pond; you might catch something, but it’s unlikely to be what you’re after and it’s a massive waste of effort.
I’m happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance. The short answer is that you probably need to completely rethink the platform, the campaign objective, and the offer itself. Let's get into it.
TLDR;
- Stop running "Traffic" campaigns on Instagram. You're paying Meta to find people who click, not people who buy. You need a "Lead" or "Sales" objective.
- Your problem isn't segmentation, it's strategy. Your ideal customer isn't a demographic ("men, 25-40"); they are a person with a specific, expensive business problem. You need to define them by their pain.
- For a marketing agency, Google Search ads are almost always the best place to start. You capture people who are actively looking for your services, which is a much easier sell.
- Your offer is probably too weak. "Follow us on Instagram" isn't a compelling reason for a business owner to care. You need a high-value, low-friction offer like a free marketing audit or a detailed strategy guide.
- This letter includes an interactive calculator to help you figure out what you can actually afford to pay for a lead, which will change how you view your ad spend.
Your ICP is a Nightmare, Not a Demographic
Right, let's get this out of the way first. The idea of "perfect segmentation" based on age and location is a myth, especially in B2B. When you tell Meta to find people, and you don't give it a clear conversion signal, it defaults to finding the cheapest people to show your ad to. That's why you're getting kids and pensioners; their attention is cheap because they don’t buy anything. You're literally paying to reach non-customers.
You need to stop thinking about demographics and start thinking about psychographics. Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) isn't "a company with 50 employees." It's a person, a decision-maker, who is staring at a specific, urgent, and expensive problem. Their problem is a nightmare that keeps them up at night. Your agency is the solution to that nightmare.
What does this look like in practice?
- Instead of: "eCommerce businesses in London."
- Think: "The founder of a 2-year-old Shopify store whose ROAS just dropped by 50%, who is terrified their business is about to fail because they can't figure out Meta ads anymore."
- Instead of: "Local service businesses."
- Think: "The owner of an HVAC company who is getting crushed by a competitor on Google and is losing £5,000 in jobs every month because their phone isn't ringing."
Your entire markering strategy needs to be built around this nightmare. The ad copy, the landing page, the offer—everything. When you define your customer by their pain, finding them becomes much simpler. They're the ones searching Google for "how to fix low ROAS," they're the ones in Facebook groups asking "has anyone else's ad costs gone crazy?", they're the ones following industry experts on LinkedIn who talk about solving these exact problems.
Forget broad segmentation. Your first job is to become an expert in your ideal customer's specific, career-threatening nightmare. Do this work first, or you have no business spending a single pound on ads. It's the foundation for everything that follows.
You'll need to calculate what a customer is actually worth
Before you spend another penny, you have to know your numbers. The question isn't "How low can my Cost Per Click go?" but "How high a Cost Per Lead can I afford to acquire a great client?" This is where most new agencies fall apart. They try to get cheap clicks and cheap leads, instead of focusing on acquiring valuable clients profitably. The answer is found by calculating the Lifetime Value (LTV) of a customer.
Let's break it down:
- Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA): What's your average monthly retainer? Let's say it's £1,500.
- Gross Margin %: What's your profit margin on that? After your costs (salaries, software etc.), let's say it's 70%.
- Monthly Churn Rate: What percentage of clients do you lose each month? A healthy agency might have a 5% churn.
The calculation is simple: LTV = (ARPA * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate
In our example: LTV = (£1,500 * 0.70) / 0.05 = £1,050 / 0.05 = £21,000. So, each client is worth £21,000 in gross margin to the business over their lifetime. This is a powerful number.
A healthy business model aims for a 3:1 LTV to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) ratio. This means you can afford to spend up to £7,000 (£21,000 / 3) to acquire a single new client. If your sales process converts 1 in 10 qualified leads into a client, you can afford to pay up to £700 per qualified lead.
Suddenly, that £50 lead from LinkedIn doesn't seem so expensive, does it? It looks like an absolute bargain. This is the maths that unlocks aggressive, intelligent growth. Use the calculator below to figure out your own numbers.
I'd say you need to fix your platform and objective first
Your choice of platform and campaign objective is probably 90% of the problem. You're using Instagram with a "Traffic" objective. This tells Meta's algorithm to "find me the largest number of people who are likely to click a link for the lowest possible price." The algorithm is doing its job perfectly. The issue is, you've given it the wrong job.
People who click a lot are often bored, not actively looking to hire a marketing agency. You are paying to interrupt people who are looking at photos of their friends' holidays. It's the wrong context, the wrong mindset, and the wrong objective.
For a service business like a marketing agency, you need to find people with intent. These are people who have woken up today and thought, "I need help with my marketing." Where do they go? They go to Google.
This is why you need to completely shift your approach. Here is a simple flowchart to guide your thinking. For a new agency, you should be living in the "Yes" column on the left.
Use Intent-Based Platforms
Google Search Ads is your number one priority. Target keywords that show commercial intent, like "marketing agency for small business" or "facebook ads expert."
Use Interruption-Based Platforms
LinkedIn Ads for hyper-specific B2B targeting (e.g., CEOs in the SaaS industry).
Meta Ads (with a conversion objective) for broader B2B audiences (e.g., small business owners).
Your strategy should be:
- Google Search Ads: This is your top priority. Create campaigns targeting high-intent keywords. Send this traffic to a dedicated landing page (not your Instagram profile) that has a clear, compelling offer.
- LinkedIn Ads: If you have a very specific niche (e.g., you only work with FinTech CMOs), LinkedIn is your best bet. It's more expensive, but the targeting is unmatched. One of our B2B software clients gets leads from decision-makers for around $22 CPL, which is incredibly profitable for them.
- Meta Ads (The Right Way): If you must use Meta, you need to change your objective to "Leads". This tells the algorithm to find people who are likely to fill out a form. You can then use their limited B2B targeting options like "Business page admins" or "Small business owners". We've had great success with this for some clients; one B2B software client got over 4,600 registrations at just $2.38 each. But it relies on a very strong offer, which brings me to my next point.
You probably should delete the "Follow us" button
Let's be brutally honest. No busy business owner is going to hire a marketing agency because they have a cool Instagram feed. Your offer—the thing you are asking them to do—is the most common point of failure. "Follow us on Instagram" is a high-friction, zero-value request for a potential client.
You need to replace it with an offer that delivers a moment of undeniable value. Something that solves a small, real problem for them for free, earning you the right to talk to them about solving the whole thing. This is how you build trust and generate qualified leads, not just empty clicks.
Here are some examples of high-value offers for a marketing agency:
- The Free Marketing Audit: A free, automated tool or a 15-minute recorded video where you analyse their current website or ad account and give them 3 actionable tips to improve.
- The Value-Packed Lead Magnet: A detailed PDF guide on "The 5 Biggest Mistakes eCommerce Stores Make With Their Google Ads" or "The Local SEO Checklist for Plumbers." Something they would happily pay for.
- The 20-Minute Strategy Session: A free, no-obligation call where you listen to their problems and provide genuine, expert advice. This is our go-to offer for our own consultancy, and it works because it provides immense value upfront.
Your ad needs to use a framework like Problem-Agitate-Solve to promote this offer. You don't sell "marketing services"; you sell a good night's sleep.
Example Ad Copy:
Headline: Are your Google Ads just burning cash?
Body: You're spending hundreds, maybe thousands, each month on ads, but the phone isn't ringing. Every click feels like another pound down the drain while your competitor's van is on every street. Stop guessing. Get a free, personalised 5-minute video audit of your ad account where we'll show you the three biggest opportunities you're missing right now. No sales pitch. Just actionable advice. Click to get your free audit.
This ad speaks directly to their nightmare, agitates the pain, and offers a clear, valuable, and low-risk solution. This is how you get the attention of actual business owners, not just random Instagram users.
We'll need to look at your campaign structure...
Once you've defined your ICP, chosen the right platform (Google!), and crafted a compelling offer, you need to structure your campaigns for success. A messy structure leads to wasted spend and poor data. Here’s a basic but effective way to set up your initial campaigns on Google and LinkedIn.
For Google Search:
Structure your campaigns around themes based on user intent. This allows you to write hyper-relevant ads and send traffic to specific landing pages.
| Campaign | Ad Group | Example Keywords | Ad Copy Angle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agency - General | Marketing Agency Near Me | [marketing agency london], "local marketing company", [small business marketing services] | Focus on location, local expertise, and understanding the local market. |
| Service - Facebook Ads | Facebook Ads Expert | "facebook ads expert for ecommerce", [hire facebook ads agency], "meta ads specialist" | Highlight specific expertise, case studies (e.g., ROAS improvements), and platform knowledge. |
| Service - SEO | SEO Services | [seo company for plumbers], "local seo services", [ecommerce seo agency] | Talk about ranking improvements, traffic growth, and lead generation from organic search. |
For LinkedIn Ads:
Here, your structure is based on the audiences you build using their powerful demographic targeting. You'll want to test different audiences against each other to see which performs best.
- Job Titles: "Marketing Director", "CEO", "Founder"
- Company Size: 50-200 employees
- Industry: Software, Financial Services
- Member Groups: "SaaS Growth Hacks", "CMO Network"
- Geography: United Kingdom
- Target a list of 100 dream client companies
- Job Seniority: "C-level", "Director"
This kind of structured approach is how you move from just "boosting posts" to running a professional lead generation machine. It takes more work to set up, but the results are night and day. Without a proper structure, you're just throwing money at the wall and hoping something sticks. This way, you're conducting controlled experiments to find what really works, and then you can scale the winners.
This is the main advice I have for you:
To pull all this together, here’s a table outlining the strategic shift I'm recommending. This isn't just about tweaking your current ads; it's about building a completely new and more effective client acquisition system from the ground up. Each step builds on the last, and skipping steps is what gets you poor results.
| Component | Your Current Approach (The Problem) | Recommended Approach (The Solution) |
|---|---|---|
| Core Strategy | Getting traffic to an Instagram profile. | Generating qualified leads for the sales process. |
| Target Audience (ICP) | Vague demographic segments (e.g., age, location). | Hyper-specific profile based on the customer's urgent, expensive business problem (their "nightmare"). |
| Primary Platform | Instagram (Interruption-based). | Google Search (Intent-based). Capture people who are already looking to hire an agency. |
| Campaign Objective | Traffic (Optimises for cheap clicks). | Leads / Conversions (Optimises for people who will fill out a form or book a call). |
| The Offer (CTA) | "Follow us" (Low value, high friction for a business owner). | A high-value, low-risk offer like a "Free Marketing Audit" or a "Custom Strategy Plan". |
| Destination | Instagram Profile. | A dedicated landing page focused on the offer with persuasive copy and a clear call-to-action. |
| Key Metric | Cost Per Click (CPC), Reach. | Cost Per Qualified Lead (CPL), Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). |
As you can probably tell, this is a lot more involved than just choosing a few interests on Instagram. Building a predictable pipeline of clients takes a deep understanding of strategy, customer psychology, and the technical aspects of each ad platform. It's a complex system with lots of moving parts, and getting one part wrong can make the whole thing fail.
It's not something you can just set and forget. It requires constant testing, analysis, and optimisation. This is why businesses hire specialists. Not just to push the buttons, but to build and manage the entire system that turns ad spend into profitable clients.
Hopefully this has given you a much clearer picture of what a successful B2B advertising strategy looks like and the steps you need to take. It's a fundamental shift in thinking, but it's the one that will actually get results for the agency.
If you feel this is a bit overwhelming and would like an expert to take a look at your specific situation, we offer a completely free, no-obligation 20-minute strategy session. We can review your current setup and provide some more tailored advice. It's often the quickest way to get clarity and find the right path forward.
Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh
