Solved: Best Practices for Conversational Ad Demos?

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out. Happy to give you some initial thoughts on your situation. It's a good question and one that a lot of B2B SaaS companies grapple with. Getting demos via convo ads can work, but it's often not as straightforward as just turning on a campaign. The ad format is only one part of the puzzle. To really make it work, you've got to get the underlying strategy right, which means nailing your audience, your message, and critically, your offer.

I'll walk you through how I'd approach this, going from the high-level strategy down to the nuts and bolts of the ads themselves. There's a bit to unpack here, but getting this foundation right is what separates the campaigns that burn cash from the ones that actually drive growth.

We'll need to look at your ICP beyond the numbers...

You mentioned your ICP is pretty dialed in, with about 60k total reach. That's a good start, but I find that most businesses define their ICP in a way that's not actually that helpful for writing ads that get a response. A profile like "CTOs at fintech companies with 50-200 employees" is a demographic. It tells you who they are, but it tells you nothing about why they would ever give you the time of day, let alone their money.

This is probably the most common mistake I see. To stop wasting money on ads that get ignored, you need to define your customer not by their job title, but by their nightmare. What is the specific, urgent, expensive, and maybe even career-threatening problem that keeps them awake at night? Your ICP isn't a person; it's a problem state. You need to become an absolute expert in that problem.

For example, I remember one client who had a Head of Engineering as a key decision-maker. She wasn't just a job title. She was a leader who was terrified that her best developers were about to quit out of sheer frustration with a clunky, broken internal workflow. She was worried about shipping new features slower than the competition and having the CEO breathe down her neck about it. That's the nightmare. Your SaaS doesn't just 'improve workflows'; it stops her best talent from walking out the door. See the difference? It's a completely different emotional level.

Or think about a legal tech SaaS client. The nightmare wasn't 'needing better document management'. The nightmare was a senior partner missing a critical filing deadline because a document was lost in a sea of shared drives, exposing the entire firm to a massive malpractice lawsuit and reputational ruin. Your software isn't a tool; it's an insurance policy against catastrophe.

So the first thing I'd do is get really, really specific on this. What is the precise nightmare your SaaS solves? What's the 'before' state of your customer? Full of anxiety, frustration, inefficiency, and risk. What's the 'after' state? Calm, in control, efficient, looking like a hero to their boss. This work is the foundation for everything else. You have to do this before you even think about spending another pound on ads. Once you've defined that nightmare, you can start crafting a message that speaks directly to it, which is what will make your convo ads actually start a conversation, rather than just being another piece of spam in their inbox.

This intelligence is the blueprint for your whole targeting strategy. Forget just job titles. Where do these people go to solve their problems? What niche podcasts do they listen to on their commute? What industry newsletters do they actually open and read? What other SaaS tools are they already paying for? Are they in specific Facebook groups or following particular influencers on Twitter/X? This is the stuff that lets you find them where they live, instead of just shouting into the void. It takes a bit of research, a bit of digging, but it's work that pays for itself a hundred times over. It's proper inteligence gathering.

You probably should rethink the 'Demo' offer...

Right, now let's talk about the goal: "to drive demos". I'm going to be brutally honest here. The "Request a Demo" button is probably the single biggest point of failure in all of B2B advertising. It's one of the most arrogant Calls to Action ever created.

Think about it from your ICP's perspective. They are a busy, important person. You're a stranger. And you're asking them to commit 30-60 minutes of their valuable time to sit through a sales pitch for a product they don't yet understand or trust. It's a huge ask. It's high-friction and, from their point of view, very low-value. It immediately frames the entire interaction as you trying to sell them something, which puts their guard up instantly.

Your offer's only job should be to deliver a moment of undeniable value. An "aha!" moment that makes the prospect sell themselves on your solution. You want them to experience a small win, for free, that makes them think, "Wow, if this is what they give away for free, imagine what the full product can do."

For a SaaS founder like yourself, this is your ultimate advantage. The absolute gold standard offer is a completely free trial, with no credit card details required. Or a freemium plan. Let them get their hands on the actual product. Let them use it. Let them feel the transformation for themselves. When the product itself proves its value, the sale becomes a formality. You're not just generating a list of "Marketing Qualified Leads" (MQLs) for a salesperson to chase down and try to convince. You're creating "Product Qualified Leads" (PQLs) who are already half-sold because they've seen the value with their own eyes. This is a fundemental shift that changes the entire dynamic of your sales process.

What about your question on incentives, like a gift card? I'd strongly advise against it. It cheapens your brand and attracts the wrong kind of person. You'll get people booking demos just to get the £50 Amazon voucher, with absolutely no intention of buying. They'll waste your time and screw up your conversion data. The incentive should be the value of your solution itself, not some unrelated bribe.

So, instead of the convo ad's goal being "book a demo", what if its goal was "start your free trial"? Or "use our free tool to diagnose X problem"? The conversation becomes much easier. It's not "Can I have 30 minutes of your time to sell to you?". It's "I saw you're a [Job Title]. A lot of people in your role struggle with [The Nightmare]. We built a tool that solves that. Here's a link to try it for free, no strings attached." It's a gift, not an ask.

If for some reason a free trial isn't viable, you are not exempt from this principle. You have to bottle your expertise into an asset that provides instant value. For example, for a marketing agency, this could be a free, automated SEO audit that shows them their top 3 keyword opportunities. For a data analytics platform, it could be a free 'Data Health Check' that flags the top issues in their database. For a corporate training company, it could be a free 15-minute interactive video module on 'Handling Difficult Conversations' for new managers. For us, as a B2B advertising consultancy, it's a 20-minute strategy session where we audit failing ad campaigns completely free. You have to solve a small, real problem for free to earn the right to solve the bigger problem for money.

I'd say you need a solid targeting strategy on LinkedIn...

Okay, with a clearer idea of the ICP's nightmare and a much stronger, value-first offer, we can talk about platforms and targeting. For a niche B2B SaaS, LinkedIn is almost certainly your primary battleground. It's where you can apply that ICP intelligence most effectively.

Your current approach seems to be looking at a total audience and a remarketing audience. This brings up your question: "Remarketing audiences only?". Absolutely not. Your remarketing audience of 2-5k is valuable, but it's tiny. You'll saturate that audience and burn them out in a matter of weeks, if not days, especially if you're hitting them with a weak 'request a demo' offer. Your remarketing audience is your BoFu (Bottom of Funnel) – people who are already aware of you. You must have a strategy to constantly fill the top of the funnel (ToFu) with new, relevant people. That 60k total audience is your hunting ground.

Here's how I'd structure the targeting on LinkedIn:

ToFu (Top of Funnel - Cold Audiences):
This is where you find new people who've never heard of you. Your goal here is to get them to engage with your value-first offer (the free trial/tool). -> Company-Based Targeting: You can upload a list of target companies. If you know the exact type of firm that benefits most, build a list of them (you can use tools like Apollo.io or ZoomInfo for this) and target decision-makers only within those companies. This is hyper-specific. -> Job Title + Industry/Company Size: This is the bread-and-butter of LinkedIn. Target the specific job titles of your decision-makers (e.g., Head of Engineering, CTO, Head of Product) and layer it with their industry (e.g., Software, Financial Services) and company size (e.g., 51-200 employees). -> Group Targeting: Are there specific LinkedIn groups where your ICP hangs out? You can target members of these groups. It's a great way to find engaged professionals in a certain niche.

MoFu/BoFu (Middle/Bottom of Funnel - Warm/Hot Audiences):
This is your remarketing. These people have shown some interest, and your job is to get them over the line. -> Website Visitors: Anyone who has visited your site in the last 30-90 days. You can segment this further (e.g., visited the pricing page but didn't sign up for a trial). -> Video Viewers: People who have watched a certain percentage (e.g., 50% or more) of one of your video ads. This is a great indicator of interest. -> Company Page Engagers: Anyone who has interacted with your company's LinkedIn page.

You need seperate campaigns for ToFu and MoFu/BoFu. The messaging will be different. For ToFu, you're introducing the problem and your solution. For MoFu/BoFu, you're reinforcing the value, showing case studies, and overcoming objections.

Now, to your other question: "Who do you send from?". For Conversation Ads, this is absolutely critical. Do NOT send from your company page. It screams "automated marketing message". You should send it from a real person's profile. Ideally, the founder, the Head of Sales, or a relevant senior figure at your company. It needs to look and feel like a genuine, one-to-one outreach message. This builds trust and massively increases the chance of a reply. The name and title should be recognisable and credible to the person receiving it.

I remember one B2B software client we worked with where we zeroed in on their decision-makers on LinkedIn, crafted the right message, and we were able to get them leads for around $22 CPL. That's for a qualified lead from a specific B2B decision-maker, so it shows what's possible when you get the targeting and messaging right.

You'll need to get the ad creative and format right...

Now we get to the ad itself. All the strategy in the world doesn't matter if the ad is rubbish. The creative needs to grab attention and the copy needs to resonate with the 'nightmare' we defined earlier.

Let's look at the formats in the context of LinkedIn:

-> Conversation Ads: This is what you asked about. Think of it as paid, scalable cold outreach. It lands directly in their LinkedIn inbox. The key here is to not sound like a robot. Use the Problem-Agitate-Solve (PAS) framework.
Problem: Start by stating the nightmare. "Hi [First Name], running a dev team is tough. Keeping your best engineers happy and productive is a constant battle." Agitate: Twist the knife a little. "It's frustrating when you see them bogged down by clunky internal tools, slowing down feature releases while competitors pull ahead." Solve: Introduce your value-first offer as the solution. "We built a platform that automates the boring stuff so they can focus on what they love. Many engineering leaders find it gives their team back 5-10 hours a week. Would you be open to trying it out for free?"

Notice the offer is the free trial, not a demo. It's a low-friction, high-value proposition.

-> Sponsored Content (Image/Video Ads): These appear in the main LinkedIn feed. They are brilliant for your cold (ToFu) campaigns, driving traffic to your landing page where people can start their free trial. - Image Ads: Need to be visually arresting. A clear, bold headline that calls out the ICP or their pain point. For example, for a FinOps platform, an ad might say: "Your AWS bill is out of control. Again." - Video Ads: These can be incredibly powerful. A 30-60 second video where you (or a team member) explain the problem and show a quick glimpse of the 'after' state using your software can work wonders. It helps pre-qualify leads because they've invested time in watching it. People who watch 50%+ of your video are a fantastic audience to retarget.

Here's a potential campaign structure to test:

This structure allows you to test different approaches for cold outreach while ensuring you're capturing and converting the interest you generate through remarketing. You'd run these, see which audiences and creatives perform best, turn off the losers, and scale up the winners.

We'll need to look at the numbers properly...

Finally, let's talk about how to measure success. You're trying to get demos, which leads to a focus on Cost per Demo or Cost per Lead (CPL). That's okay, but it's not the full story. The real question isn't "How low can my CPL go?" but rather "How high a CPL can I afford to acquire a fantastic customer?"

To answer that, you need to know your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV). This is the metric that separates amateur advertisers from professional growth strategists. Let's run a quick, hypothetical calculation for your SaaS:

Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA): What's an average customer worth to you each month? Let's say it's £400.
Gross Margin %: What's your profit margin on that? For SaaS, it's often high. Let's say 85%.
Monthly Churn Rate: What percentage of customers do you lose each month? Let's say it's 3% (which is pretty good).

The calculation is: LTV = (ARPA * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate

LTV = (£400 * 0.85) / 0.03
LTV = £340 / 0.03
LTV = £11,333

So, in this example, each customer you sign up is worth over £11,000 in gross margin to your business over their lifetime. This is the truth. This is the number that should guide your advertising spend.

A healthy business model often aims for a 3:1 LTV to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) ratio. This means you can afford to spend up to £3,777 (i.e., £11,333 / 3) to acquire a single new customer. Now work backwards. If your sales process converts 1 in 10 qualified trials into a paying customer, you can afford to pay up to £377 for that qualified trial.

Suddenly, that $22 (£18) lead from a CTO on LinkedIn I talked about earlier doesn't seem expensive, does it? It looks like an absolute bargain. This is the maths that unlocks aggressive, intelligent scaling. It frees you from the tyranny of chasing cheap, low-quality leads and allows you to confidently invest in acquiring the right customers who will stick around and pay you for years. It reframes the entire discussion from a cost-centre to an investment-centre.

I know this is a lot to take in, but these are the layers you need to get right. It's a process of defining the core problem, crafting an irresistible offer, finding your audience, and then executing with the right ads and measuring what truly matters. I've detailed my main recommendations for you in a table below to give you a clear overview.

Putting all of this into practice isn't a quick fix; it's a systematic process of testing, learning, and optimising. It's not just about setting up an ad and hoping for the best. It's about building a predictable engine for customer acquisition.

That's where professional help can often make a huge difference. With years of experience running these kinds of campaigns for B2B SaaS clients, we can help you skip a lot of the painful (and expensive) trial and error. We can provide insights you might not have thought of and take over the entire implementation and optimisation process for you, making sure every pound you spend is working as hard as it possibly can to grow your business.

If you'd like to chat through this in more detail and have us take a look at your current setup, we offer a free, no-obligation initial strategy session. We could audit what you're doing now and map out a more concrete plan of attack.

Hope this helps give you a clearer path forward.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh