Hi there,
Thanks for getting in touch. I've had a look over the issues you're facing with your B2B advertising, and it's a really common problem. So many businesses find it tough to get B2B ad copy right, and it's easy to burn through a lot of cash without seeing much in return. Happy to give you some of my initial thoughts and a bit of guidance based on what we've seen work for our clients.
The whole thing is a bit of a different beast to B2C, and what works for selling products to consumers rarely works when you're trying to reach other businesses. Tbh, it usually comes down to a few core areas that need fixing.
We'll need to look at who you're *really* targeting...
First off, the biggest mistake I see is targeting that is way too broad. You mentioned "key decision-makers", but that's a label that covers a huge range of people. The ad copy that speaks to a CEO is going to be completely different from what resonates with a Head of Marketing or an IT Manager. They have different pains, different goals, and different levels of technical understanding. You need to get way more specific.
I remember one B2B software client we worked with. They were adamant that their target was CTOs. They spent a fortune trying to get in front of them with high-level messaging about ROI and strategic advantage. The results were pretty poor. After we looked into it, we realised the people who actually felt the pain their software solved were the engineering managers. These were the people dealing with the day-to-day frustrations of outdated systems. So we switched the entire strategy. We started running ads on LinkedIn that talked directly to those managers about their specific, everyday problems. The engagement went through the roof. Those managers then became the internal champions who took the solution up the chain to the CTOs. You have to find the person with the headache, not just the person with the wallet.
So my first piece of advice is to map this out. Who *exactly* are you trying to reach? Not just their job title, but what's their role in the buying process? Are they the initial researcher? The end-user? The budget holder? For each of these personas, you need a seperate ad campaign with copy tailored specifically to them. On a platform like LinkedIn, you can get incredibly granular with this. You can target by:
- -> Job Title (e.g., 'Chief Marketing Officer', 'Head of Sales')
- -> Company Size (e.g., 50-200 employees)
- -> Industry (e.g., 'Marketing and Advertising', 'Financial Services')
- -> Specific Company Names (you can upload a list of target accounts)
Getting this right is half the battle. If you're showing the perfect ad to the wrong person, you're just wasting your money. We saw this with one campaign where we managed to reduce a client's cost per lead by 84% mainly by refining their audience targeting on LinkedIn and Meta before we even touched the ad copy in a big way.
I'd say you should rethink your ad copy angle...
Once you know exactly who you're talking to, writing the copy becomes easier. The natural instinct is to talk about your product or service, its features, and how great it is. This is almost always the wrong approach in B2B. Nobody cares about your company or your solution, not at first anyway. They only care about their own problems.
Your ad copy should be about them, not you. It should reflect their world, their frustrations, and their ambitions. Instead of leading with "Our revolutionary platform does X, Y, and Z", try leading with a question or statement that hits a nerve. "Tired of manual data entry slowing down your sales team?" or "Is your current software creating more problems than it solves?". This approach does two things: it qualifies the audience (only people with that problem will care) and it makes them feel understood.
We've run quite a few campaigns for B2B SaaS companies, and this is a lesson we've learned over and over. One client was selling an accounting system. Their main headline was "Where business meets privacy." Tbh, while privacy is good, it's not the burning issue that makes a finance director switch their entire accounting system, which is a massive, painfull undertaking. They care about efficiency, compliance, saving money, and reliability. We helped them change their messaging to focus on those core benefits, and the quality of leads improved dramatically.
Don't be afraid to test really direct, pain-point-focused copy. Here are some angles that often work well for B2B:
| Copy Angle | Example Headline Idea | Why It Works |
|---|---|---|
| The "Questioning Their Current Method" Angle | "Still using spreadsheets to manage your projects? There's a better way." | Calls out a common but inefficient practice and immediately positions your solution as the upgrade. |
| The "Specific Frustration" Angle | "That feeling when you spend an hour finding a client file. We fix that." | Relatable and focuses on a single, highly annoying moment. It shows you 'get it'. |
| The "Statistic/Data" Angle | "Companies like yours waste 20% of their time on admin. Get that time back." | Uses a surprising stat to grab attention and frames the benefit in a quantifiable way. |
The goal of the ad isn't to make the sale. For most B2B products, especially high-ticket ones, that's impossible. The goal is simply to get them to take the next small step. Which brings me to the funnel.
You'll need a solid funnel, not just good ads...
This is where it all falls apart for so many businesses. You can have the best ad in the world, perfectly targeted, with amazing copy. But if it sends people to a homepage that's cluttered, confusing, or doesn't have a clear call-to-action (CTA), you've lost them. The ad spend is completly wasted.
For B2B, the sales cycle is long. No one is clicking an ad and buying a £10,000 software subscription on the spot. You need to think about the entire journey. Your ad's job is to earn a click. Your landing page's job is to earn a lead. Your sales process's job is to earn a customer.
Your landing page needs to be ruthlessy focused on one single action. What is the most logical next step for someone interested in your ad? It's probably not "Buy Now". It's more likely:
- -> Book a 15-minute demo
- -> Start a free trial (this is huge for SaaS, we got 5,082 trials for one client with this offer)
- -> Download a case study or whitepaper
- -> Get a free quote/audit
The offer has to be low-friction and high-value. A free trial is often the best offer for software, as it lets them experience the product without risk. That same accounting software client I mentioned earlier? They didn't offer a free trial, only a demo. Their competition offered 3-month trials and big discounts. It's a no-brainer which one a prospective customer will choose to explore first.
Your landing page should have persuasive copy that expands on the ad's promise, show social proof (testimonials, logos of clients you've worked with), and have a very clear, unmissable button for the CTA. Remove all other distractions. No navigation menu, no links to your blog, no social media icons. Just the information they need and the button to take the next step. A bit of proffesional copy and design here can make a massive difference to your conversion rates, and therefore your cost per lead.
I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:
To pull this all together, here's a more structured look at what I'd suggest focusing on to make your B2B ads actually work and stop wasting spend. This is the kind of framework we use when we start with a new client to get things moving in the right direction.
| Area of Focus | Actionable Solution | Why It's Important |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Audience Targeting | Stop targeting "decision-makers". Create detailed personas for each role in the buying process (e.g., end-user, manager, budget holder). Build seperate campaigns on LinkedIn/Meta targeting these specific job titles, industries, and company sizes. | Generic targeting leads to generic, ineffective copy and wasted ad spend. Specificity allows your message to resonate deeply with the right person's actual problems. This is how you acheive a low cost per lead, like the $22 CPL we got for a client targeting B2B decision makers on LinkedIn. |
| 2. Ad Copy & Messaging | Shift the copy from being about your product's features to being about the customer's pain points. Lead with a question or statement that identifies a specific frustration. Test different angles: pain, gain, fear of missing out, etc. | B2B buyers are problem-aware, not solution-aware. Your ad must first prove you understand their problem before they'll ever trust you have the solution. This builds instant rapport and qualifies your audience. |
| 3. The Offer (CTA) | Your primary Call-To-Action should not be "Buy Now." It must be a low-risk, high-value offer like a free trial, a live demo, a free audit, or a valuable downloadable resource (e.g., a case study). | The B2B sales cycle is long and requires trust. A high-commitment CTA kills conversions. A low-commitment offer gets your foot in the door and starts the conversation, moving prospects into your sales funnel. |
| 4. The Landing Page | Create a dedicated landing page for each campaign that is 100% focused on the single CTA. Remove all site navigation and other distractions. The copy must be persuasive, and you should include social proof (testimonials, logos). | The ad only does part of the job. The landing page is where the conversion happens. A weak landing page will destroy the ROI of even the most sucessfull ad campaign. A 1% increase in landing page conversion rate can significantly lower your overall cost per lead. |
As you can see, getting B2B ads to work isn't just about writing a clever headline. It's about a complete, well-thought-out strategy from targeting to the final click. Each piece has to work together, and getting one part wrong can undermine the whole system. It requires a lot of testing, analysis, and experience to know which levers to pull.
This is where working with an expert can make a real difference. We've spent years in the trenches, running campaigns for dozens of B2B companies, making the mistakes, and learning what truly drives results. We can help you shortcut that learning curve, implement a proven structure, and start generating qualified leads rather than just clicks.
If you'd like to go over your specific business and advertising accounts in more detail, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation. We could have a proper look at your setup and give you some more tailored advice. Let me know if that's something you'd be interested in.
Regards,
Team @ Lukas Holschuh
