Solved: High CAC on LinkedIn & Google Ads; Need PPC Strategy

Hi there,

I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance regarding your tech recruitment platform's advertising strategy. Scaling from 10 to 100 paying customers using paid ads is a common challenge, and addressing the customer acquisition cost (CAC) is indeed crucial. I'll break down some areas you should focus on, based on our experience.

We'll need to look at ad platform choice...

You've mentioned using LinkedIn and Google Ads. Both can work, but it's about how you're using them. Are you sure your target audience can best be reached with these platform’s targeting options? Wrong ad platform = wrong targeting = difficult to achieve results. For B2B, LinkedIn's generally good because you can target job titles, company size and all that, however it can be pricey. Have you looked at very specific job titles on LinkedIn, and also company sizes? I remember working with a software client who had a similar high CAC issue. We lowered it by using lead gen forms on LinkedIn - people could ask for a free trial of their SaaS product. That worked better than sending traffic to the website, as the conversion rates for lead gen forms were higher, and it was easier to get the free trial.

Google Ads can also be effective. Are your potential customers actively searching for tech recruitment solutions? Think about the keywords they might use. Are you bidding on those keywords? If you’re not, then you’re potentially missing out on some really low hanging fruit. For instance, if someone types in "Best tech recruitment agency", are you showing up in the ads?

Bear in mind, you might want to optimise for conversions if conversions are the goal. To optimise performance, I’d always split test creative and targeting within the same campaign.

I'd say you must get super-specific with targeting...

The phrase "HR professionals and hiring managers" is way too broad. You've really got to narrow down your ideal customer profile. Think about the specific company size, industry, job titles, even their LinkedIn groups. I would say that the more niche you go, the less you'll pay. For instance, you might want to focus on hiring managers at tech startups with between 50 and 200 employees. Then use LinkedIn's targeting options to focus on this specific segment.

Another option is to target decision makers at specific companies that you'd like to see your ads. E.g. with Apollo.io or ZoomInfo. Then look at the targeting options you have available and try to target them as accurately as possible.

On the LinkedIn side, you'll need to do some thinking about what you'd like to achieve. What is your main objective? If the goal is to start conversations, then you probably need to run a conversation ad. If your objective is lead generation, you'll probably want to test LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms (opens up a popup after someone clicks on the ad and autofills their details) which usually work best with sponsored content ads. Or you can point sponsored content ads to a landing page. Depending on what your objective is, you'll want to consider what ad format will work best to achieve that and what ad formats are available for this type of campaign.

You probably should focus on lead generation...

CAC is a killer, especially for startups. Instead of just blasting out generic ads, try creating content that's super valuable to your ideal customer. For instance, you could create a guide on "The Top 5 Mistakes Companies Make When Hiring Tech Talent". Then promote that with paid ads, targeting those niche audiences. It's not a direct sell, but it builds trust and gets 'em in your funnel. Then you can retarget them later with more direct ads. So instead of asking them to buy, offer something that's highly valuable to them for free.

Your main options here are lead form ads (lower cost per lead, but will require more effort to turn into a customer) versus pointing the ads to a landing page (higher cost per lead but much better qualified).

I remember one case where we helped a client in the environmental controls niche reduce their cost per lead by 84% using LinkedIn and Meta Ads.

The great thing about running ads to a landing page is that you can add all sorts of trust signals to the page to increase the chance of someone converting. Some professional copy could really go a long way.

You'll need some patience and testing...

How quickly you'll see results is tricky to say. It could be a few weeks, could be a couple of months. It really depends on how well you nail the targeting and messaging. And you'll need to keep a close eye on your metrics and be ready to tweak things as you go. It's a marathon, not a sprint, and there'll be plenty of unexpected twists and turns along the way. The best ad platform is where the target audience can best be reached with the ad platform’s available targeting options. Wrong ad platform = wrong targeting = difficult to achieve results.

Proper split testing and campaign structure will go a long way.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

Paid advertising is a bit of a balancing act and can be a steep learning curve. If you're finding it tricky to get the results you need, and would like some help to scale up your campaigns quickly, you could consider expert help. We have years of experience running paid advertising campaigns, including in your niche. For example, I recall a campaign where we reduced the cost per user acquisition for a medical job matching SaaS from £100 to £7 using Meta Ads and Google Ads. I also remember working on a B2B software campaign and saw 4,622 registrations at $2.38 cost per registration using Meta Ads. Plus, we've generated B2B decision makers at $22 CPL using LinkedIn Ads.

Feel free to book a free consultation, the link is in our bio - we'd be happy to help!

Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh