Solved: Google Ads vs LinkedIn (Know This First!)

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out!

Happy to give you some initial thoughts on the whole Google Ads vs. LinkedIn Ads question. It’s a common one, and tbh the answer isn't as simple as picking one over the other. It really comes down to understanding who your customers are and, more importantly, how they go about finding solutions like yours. Most businesses get this bit wrong and end up wasting a load of money before they've even started.

I'll walk you through how I'd approach this, starting with the big picture and then getting into the details. The goal is to get you thinking less about the platforms themselves and more about the strategy behind acquiring customers profitably.

The Real Question Isn't Google vs. LinkedIn, It's 'Search' vs. 'Social'

Forget the logos for a minute. Think about two different scenarios.

Scenario 1: The Leaky Pipe. Your kitchen is flooding. What do you do? You grab your phone and type "emergency plumber Aberdeen" into Google. You're not browsing, you're not 'discovering'. You have an urgent, expensive problem and you are actively searching for the person who can solve it *right now*. This is 'Intent-Based Marketing'. You are capturing demand that already exists.

Scenario 2: The Casual Scroll. You're on LinkedIn, scrolling through your feed, looking at colleagues' updates, maybe reading an article. You're not actively looking to buy anything. Suddenly, an ad pops up for a new project management software. You didn't wake up thinking about it, but the ad talks about a problem you've been having with your team's workflow. It interrupts your scrolling and tries to create a need you didn't know you had. This is 'Interruption-Based Marketing'. You are trying to generate new demand.

Google Ads is the plumber. LinkedIn Ads is the project management software.

One isn't inherently better than the other, they just do completely different jobs. Your first task is to figure out which camp your customers fall into. Are they in pain and actively searching for a cure, or are they unaware they even have a problem until you point it out to them?

Answering this single question will tell you where to put your money first. For most businesses, especially local ones, the answer is almost always Google Ads. You want to be the first result people see when their pipe bursts.

We'll need to look at Google Ads: Your Unfair Advantage If People Are Already Looking For You...

So, how do you know if people in Aberdeen are actually searching for what you do? Simple: you do a bit of keyword research. You dont need fancy tools to start, just common sense. Open up Google and start typing in phrases you think a customer would use. What words describe the pain you solve?

For example, if you sell IT support services, they might be searching for:

• -> "IT support Aberdeen"
• -> "business computer repair near me"
• -> "outsource IT services Scotland"
• -> "cybersecurity for small business"

These are 'high-intent' keywords. The person typing them has a problem and is looking to spend money to fix it. This is where you want your ads to show up. On the other hand, keywords like "what is cybersecurity" or "how to set up a business network" are informational. People searching for these are in learning mode, not buying mode. You can ignore them for now.

The goal with Google Ads is to match the user's specific problem with your specific solution at the exact moment they're looking. This is incredibly powerful and why it's usually the best place to start. I remember one campaign we ran for an HVAC company in a competitive area. By focusing only on high-intent keywords like "emergency AC repair" and ignoring broader stuff, we got them qualified leads for about $60 a pop. That sounds like a lot, but one job was worth thousands, so the return was massive. The pre-qualification happens with the keyword itself.

To help you visualise this, here's a simple way to think about keyword intent. You want to live at the bottom of this funnel where the money is.

I'd say you need LinkedIn Ads when your Ideal Customer isn't searching...

So what if you do your research and find that nobody is searching for your service? This can happen if you're selling something very new, very niche, or a high-ticket B2B service that people don't typically find through Google.

This is where LinkedIn comes in. Its power isn't search; it's targeting. You can get ridiculously specific.

Let's say you sell compliance software specifically for financial firms. On Google, it's hard to ensure your ads are only seen by people in that industry. But on LinkedIn, you can build an audience of:

• -> Job Title: "Compliance Officer" OR "Chief Financial Officer" OR "Head of Legal"
• -> AND Industry: "Financial Services" OR "Banking"
• -> AND Company Size: "51-200 employees"
• -> AND Location: "Aberdeen and surrounding area"

Now your ad is only being shown to the exact decision-makers you need to reach. This is impossible on Google. This precision is what you pay for on LinkedIn, and it is more expensive. A single click can cost £5-£15 or more. But if a single client is worth tens of thousands, it's a no-brainer.

One campaign we worked on for a B2B SaaS client using LinkedIn Ads managed to get leads from very specific decision-makers for about $22 each. They were thrilled, because their sales team had been spending months trying to get in front of these exact same people with cold calling and emailing with very little success.

The trick with LinkedIn is that you can't just run an ad saying "Buy Our Stuff". Remember, you're interrupting them. Your ad has to speak directly to a painful problem they're experiencing. This is where most people get it wrong. They define their audience by demographics ("CFOs in Aberdeen") instead of by their nightmares ("The CFO who's terrified of a regulatory fine because their team's compliance process is a mess of spreadsheets"). Your ad needs to describe the nightmare so vividly that they stop scrolling and think, "How did they know?".

You probably should fix your offer before you spend a single pound...

This is the bit that everyone ignores, and it's the number one reason campaigns fail. It’s not the platform. It's not the ad creative. It's the offer. By 'offer', I mean what you're asking the user to do when they click your ad.

For 99% of B2B companies, the offer is "Request a Demo" or "Book a Call". This is, frankly, an arrogant and terrible offer. It provides zero value to the prospect and asks for a huge commitment of their time. You're a stranger on the internet, and you're asking a busy professional to give you 30 minutes of their day to listen to a sales pitch? It's a massive turn-off. It screams "I am a commodity vendor and I want to sell you something".

Your offer’s only job is to provide a moment of undeniable value. It needs to solve a small part of their problem for free, to earn you the right to talk about solving the whole thing.

Instead of "Request a Demo", what if you offered:

• For an IT Support Company: A "Free 10-Point Business Cybersecurity Audit" that automatically scans their website and gives them an instant report on vulnerabilities.
• For a Financial Consultant: A "Cash Flow Projection Calculator" they can download and use to see their next 6 months' forecast.
• For a Marketing Agency: A "Personalised SEO Report" showing them the top 3 keywords their competitors rank for that they don't.

See the difference? You're giving before you're asking. You're demonstrating your expertise, not just talking about it. This builds trust and pre-qualifies them. Anyone who downloads the calculator or runs the audit is telling you they have the exact problem you solve. The sales conversation then becomes much easier. This is what we do ourselves; we offer a free ad account review where we find problems and opportunities. It gives potential clients a taste of our expertise with no strings attached, and it works far better than just asking for a call.

You'll need to understand the maths: How to Stop Chasing Cheap Leads...

The final peice of the puzzle is understanding your numbers. People get obsessed with 'Cost Per Lead' (CPL). They'll say "LinkedIn is too expensive, the CPL is £100!". But that question is meaningless without its counterpart: "What is that customer worth to me over their lifetime?"

This is called Customer Lifetime Value (LTV). If you don't know this number, you are flying blind and will always make decisions based on fear (chasing cheap leads) instead of opportunity (investing in valuable customers).

The calculation is pretty simple:

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

Let's break it down:

• Average Monthly Revenue: How much does a typical customer pay you each month?
• Gross Margin: After your direct costs of servicing that customer, what percentage is left as profit?
• Monthly Churn Rate: What percentage of your customers leave each month?

Once you know your LTV, a good rule of thumb is that you can afford to spend up to one-third of it to acquire a new customer. This is your target Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). So if your LTV is £9,000, you can spend up to £3,000 to get a new customer and still have a very healthy business.

Suddenly, that £100 lead from LinkedIn doesn't seem so expensive, does it? If you know your sales team converts 1 in 10 of those leads into a customer, you're paying £1,000 for a £9,000 return. You'd do that all day long.

Here's a calculator to play with. Adjust the sliders to match your own business numbers and see what your LTV is, and what you can afford to pay for a customer. This is probably the most valuable exercise you can do before you start advertising.

This is the main advice I have for you:

So, to bring this all together, here is the step-by-step process I would recommend you follow before deciding where to spend your advertising budget. This framework forces you to get your strategy right first, which makes the platform choice much easier and more likely to succeed.

This all might seem like a lot of work before you even launch an ad, but getting this strategic foundation right is the difference between a campaign that profitably grows your business and one that just burns cash. There are a lot of nuances to getting the targeting, copy, and optimisation right on these platforms, and it can take a lot of time and testing to figure out.

If you'd like to chat through your specific situation in more detail, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation. We can take a look at your business, your goals, and help you build a tailored advertising strategy that actually makes sense for you. It's a good way to get a second pair of expert eyes on your plan.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh