24 Best LinkedIn Ads Strategies & Tactics for Growth (2025)

💬 So this checklist I've put together here is focused on LinkedIn Ads (and not much organic - that's a checklist or resource that I will create in the future) - and doing ads on LI is a different game compared to other social channels with their ad networks, and it certainly has its nuances to consider (especially with costs, ad formats and targeting).

With the below, I share commentary, notes, examples from top brands and tactics that I've seen work well from first-hand experience, and from brands that execute and do an amazing job with ads on the platform.

A range of different tactics/experiments and strategies to test with LinkedIn ads for SaaS/B2B brands (relevant to early-stage and 'scaling phase' brands)

💬 Alongside example of ads and top brands to check out, I also made sure to include references to further documentation on how to setup some of the ad formats properly (to learn more about specs, considerations for creative, messaging, offers, etc).

One of the main initiatives you need to do first before running any sort of ads (or create a new campaign), is be really dialed into understanding your ICP and target segments, and knowing the stages of the journey of where they sit. 

That means you need to line up:

• Know the attributes of your ICP - job titles, demographics, geography, company size, revenue, head count, etc - lots of them! 
• Challenges/pain points - understanding of what motivates them, what their problem is, “why” your solution? etc.
• CTAs/offers and objectives based on the funnel/CX stage
• Messaging and callouts based on the stages
• Buying behaviour - avg. cycles for decision-making/closing

When it comes to planning, there are two major initiatives I do. 

Initiative 1 - whiteboard CX planning

In terms of what I do - I setup either the likes of a Miro, Figjam or even the likes of a Canva whiteboard, and jot down the stages and the various stages.

In fact, the likes of Miro have some great templates available within their universe.

• Both Miro and Figjam are amazing
• I like Figjam mainly, but Miro is fantastic with the collaboration features

Initiative 2 - LinkedIn audience builder (and seeing various audience sizes)

• Playing with the audience manager within LI is great to see audience sizes and estimate costs/budgets required
• For targeting, two main types are ‘attributes’ (industries, job titles, etc) and ‘audiences’ (data from your site, lists, etc).

This is more for companies starting out or are in the early stages of their LinkedIn ads strategy. 

A key component for a solid LI ads strategy is ensuring you can setup dynamic lists, where audiences/users can sync ‘in and out’ automatically based on the triggers/targeting parameters you set. 

Whilst it can be tedious to set this up custom (although the likes of Zapier can certainly help with this regardless of what CRM or database you use), the good news is that many of the core CRMs have a native sync with LinkedIn Campaign manager. 

For instance, my favourite CRM Hubspot has a direct integration. 

• Check out more about the integration

Whether you’re starting out or seeing great success with LinkedIn ads, you want to keep tabs on what your top competitors are doing (if they’re running ads). 

And two of the best things you can do as part of your research and doing your own “auditing” are - going direct to the LinkedIn company page to see active ads they’re running, or personally one of my fave features, using the LinkedIn Ads Library. 

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Method 1 - The company page

• It’s easy and straightforward to use - just head to the company page of your competitor, and head to the “posts” tab. 
• Then, look to the right and you will see the “ads” tab (using Hubspot as an example in this case). 

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Method 2 - LinkedIn Ads Library

• It’s actually amazing and very helpful for inspo - just head to LinkedIn Ads Library (see below) and type in your competitor’s name. 
• Then voila!! You can see the various ads that are running - and sometimes depending on the brand, you can see other ads that mention the brand’s name.

And in conjunction with the above, you also want to get learnings from what other top-rated SaaS and B2B brands are doing on the platform. 

There are some amazing brands doing epic ads (in terms of creative and messaging) that I’ve seen that possess great ‘best practices’ - here are some of two of my favourites worth checking out:

#1 - Gong

• I’m a massive fan of Gong’s ads - who do a wide mix of creatives
• Clearly LI ads us working for them with the amount of ads they’re currently running (when I took this screenshot)
• They also do a wide range of lead magnet offers, creative formats, etc
• Even from the example from the screenshot, love the “vs” comparison ads
• Highly recommend studying their style of ads and creatives

#2 - Clickup

#3 - Zapier

• Another SaaS brand and platform I love is Zapier when it comes to their ads creative
• They do a great mix between social proof, feature-focus, promo videos, first-person UGC-type vids, etc
• Highly recommend looking through their library

Now you can run successful ad campaigns with LI Lead ads, but it really does come down to the context of where they sit within your ads strategy - and most importantly, it is dependent on what your offer is, and your targeting setup. 

In terms of the benefits of why LI Lead ads can work, I like them because:

• It’s a frictionless experience for users not to go off the platform
• Conv. rates can be good and typically lower CPL’s compared to other formats (where you take them to a LP)
• CPM’s can also be cheaper in terms of who you’re reaching

However, to really make them work, these are some key considerations to think about:

• You have to have a great email sequence post submission - otherwise, they will go cold quick
• You can get lower intent leads through, because it’s a more ‘convenient format’ - so you have to find a way through your email/follow-up sequence to quickly sift through and get the right signals 
• Based on the above, quality can be up/down in terms of who’s opting in - so whilst your CPL could be decent, what’s the “true” lead cost (those that actually qualify and there’s intent to signup/purchase/book a demo, etc). 

For me personally, they’re great for: 

• Lead magnets/resources for top-of-funnel ads to collect and nurture emails
• ICP hyper-targeted campaigns
• Remarketing audiences focused on key ICPs, with specific opt-in materials

Carousel ads I like particularly for remarketing audiences, for ICP-specific “ABM” type campaigns, and any specific campaigns focused on pushing key features. 

The primary reasons why I love carousel formats are:

• Visually have more room to “storytell” through creatives (visual storytelling) through the multi-card format
• Clear messaging and digestible way to communicate (especially as users are consistently scrolling)
• Use of consistent branding can help stand out on the feed
• Great ‘signal’ for the LI algo when users swipe across - great for engagement metrics and CTRs

The key thing to remember is to ensure you create hyper-targeted carousels focused on the ICP.

Plus, you can use carousels for the likes of case studies/customer stories, or other informational content too.

Here are a couple of great carousel examples I came across:

• This is a great carousel example from Kentik
• Beautiful visuals/statistics - certainly stands out in the feed to key ICPs

‍Key tip: To find more carousel examples, type in “carousels” into the “search by keyword” bar in the ads library

• Also really like this example from Atlassian 
• Great callout with the headline “due to done” and the annotations with the UI of the product

I’ve had “miss and hit” experiences with Sponsored Message/InMail ads - lots of learnings from over the years, but haven’t always found consistency. 

The main takeaway I will say to keep in mind is that it can work well for very specific ICP-focused campaigns - that means the right offer/resource, very specific CTAs, and keeping it as personalised as you can. 

They can be effective for these reasons:

• Great for open/engagement rates (just as good as the likes of Cold email)
• Fairly cost-effective to run, especially against other LI ad placements I’ve run
• Can be good for starting off new relationships, or some sort of conversation starter

In terms of my experience, it’s great for awareness/keeping top of mind for targeted remarketing or ICP-focused audiences, but it’s not the best in terms of immediate signups/uptakes. 

My key recommendation - you should be running these InMail placements as part of a cohesive “ABM” or targeted outreach strategy, where you have other LinkedIn, email, and even other channel approaches (i.e. omni-channel) - needs to be hyper targeted to the companies/titles you’re trying to get the attention of. 

Now Sponsored Message ads have their place as mentioned, but a “somewhat new” placement that LI has on offer are Conversation ads. 

Basically, they work like a quiz - when a recipient selects an option, then they will be served with extra info - it’s sort of like a ‘chatbot’ experience that you have with customer support. 

I quite like the format and have done a couple of tests, with reasonable results. 

For me personally, I’d choose this placement over Sponsored messages placement, but I’d still use it selectively for specific targeted ICP campaigns (like I mentioned in the prev. checklist point). 

Another “somewhat new” placement and option for B2B advertisers are thought-leader ads. 

I’ve seen quite a few startups and fast-scaling SaaS/B2B brands adopting this, particularly when it comes to influencers, and even the founders of the business sharing key info related to the product, or a ‘timely’ message to market (again, back to what they’re product offering is). 

Seen some get some amazing engagement numbers - how well it turns into conversions or desired objectives is another question, but it serves as a nice placement to run as part of your LinkedIn ads mix. 

They’re great for these reasons in my view (for at least testing): 

• Helps build trust and credibility of “who’s” behind the brand (as people love to hear from people, not just brands)
• In relation to this, it helps humanise the brand - especially for audiences/prospects who are deeper in the funnel
• Whilst it depends on the post/content, seen many get awesome engagement - plus, you can build on your top organic posts to keep the momentum up
• Great for fostering community/prospects

Again, you can do quite well with this as part of the B2B/SaaS sales cycle. 

For example, you can share helpful tips from a team member (founder or senior member) about something specific, and target these specific segment with messaging that you’ve communicated. 

‍It’s a great format to test and balance between brand vs human - it helps mix things up.

There’s not too much difference between lead or document ads to promote resource lead magnets, but it’s worth experimenting with. 

Seen many B2B and SaaS companies adopt this placement lately, and the experience for users is smooth - very similar to the UX of lead placements. 

• My fave CMS Webflow have been running great document ads that I’ve noticed on my feed

I’m a big fan of using Loom for a lot of things, and there are many use cases for using the software tool - and I believe one of those use cases can be for LI ads to highlight features - both new and announcing new features. 

Plus, it’s cost-effective and simple to produce them - you don’t always have to go for “super polished”. 

“Raw” formats and less polish can work quite well (gets to the point faster and feels more ‘organic’/authentic).

Here’s an example I found: 

• Really love the ads that Common Room do - big focus on video and using the likes of Loom to walk through the product
• Also do great review/social proof ads

• Another example of the Loom-based style ad here from Atlassian, talking about a specific feature/use case

Most of us are on the likes of Meta (FB/IG), and would see numerous eCommerce and DTC UGC-style ads on the platforms. 

And this is a format I’m starting to see more of on LI - and it makes sense as to why. 

Remember, B2B/SaaS consumers on LI, are also consumers of eCommerce and DTC products. So, they’re used to this style of creative.

And they’re effective as a format for these reasons: 

• More ‘organic’ content feeling - more authentic and ‘harder to fake’
• Helps ‘humanise’ the brand and switches up the ‘voice’
• Mimics “real-life” experiences when chatting with someone to understand the features of a tool/software
• If using influencers/creators (or thought-leaders) - it can emphasise credibility as using influencers/creators that have an audience (make sure to point out who they are) - at least use the tag of the name
• Internal team members - doesn’t have to be anyone external, you can use senior members from your own team as well

Here are some awesome UGC-style LI ads I’ve seen: 

• As mentioned earlier, Zapier do an amazing job with their LI ads creatives, especially with video
• When you scroll through their Library, they do plenty of first-person videos, using a mix of green screen, etc

This has really picked up with steam from a lot of brands, and also founders of companies too - and it’s a good strategic initiative in terms of content strategy worth doing. 

You don’t have to necessarily run a podcast either, but doing ‘podcast length’ video interviews with other thought-leaders in your niche, can be and effective way to produce multiple pieces of content. 

You can then use these snippets to focus on specific topics or opinions - and then of course, tag the person your interviewing. 

Many companies are doing this, and have seen some amazing examples, including these ones:

Any software recommendations to do podcast edits (fast and in a scalable way)?

• Yep, there is - in terms of software that can help with this process, check out OpusClip (which many are talking about) 
• Tested it out and it’s pretty impressive, and can keep costs low to get more video content out

I personally believe the “over polished” and high-production case study videos from companies are losing its effectiveness, especially when selling to other B2B audience prospects (you know the classic types of case study videos I’m referring too). 

Many people know they’re setup and scripted - plus, it’s the same “playbook” brands have used over the years. 

And as I mentioned earlier in terms of benefits, I personally feel that UGC-style and short-form snippets are best to get to the point faster, and are more authentic - plus cost-effective to produce.

And there are many companies starting to do this as part of their ads strategy - one of those companies is Paragon:

• I love this ‘case study’/review video format from them - also really love the frame design with the elements of the integrations, main headline, title of person and subtitles (stood out in my feed when I came across it).

A classic format which always works effectively for various stages of ad funnels are text-based testimonials. 

I don’t need to go deep into the reasons ‘why’ they’re important to do (it’s simple - they’re amazing social proof signals to remind audiences of your USP and product value). 

What to remember - the key thing to bring up here though is the importance of testing formats, and targeting based on the context of the funnel stage and the ICP. 

Here are some great examples I came across in terms of design (and why I think they work): 

• Love the vertical format from Common Room - good dimensions to have on mobile

• Beautiful designs from Zapier - love the two variants here 

• Like the simple callout, then using the accolade badge in the right hand corner

Everyone loves a good stat, right? And they work for LI ads for capturing attention - and they can be really effective for educating and nurturing prospects based on the various funnel stages. 

They’re effective and I like using them as part of ad strategies for these reasons: 

• They have visual impact and make digesting key information faster
• They’re attention-grabbing - in the sense that they spark curiosity, and numbers/stats are typically easier to remember
• Credibility/authority-building - when you provide stats that make contextual sense, you build trust with prospects (as it highlights that your business knows the importance of the problem) - it becomes even more effective when tied back to use cases that your product offering can solve
• Trust - with stats you should be sharing sources, and the source can back up the credibility of the point you’re communicating
• Great conversation/engagement starters 

Here are some great statistics ads creatives from some of my fave B2B SaaS brands:

• Powerful ad in terms of social proof from Monday, alongside a primary CTA
• Always encouraged to use customer/use case stats for conversion audiences (MOF/BOF)

• Hubspot have always been great with stat-based ads 

• Love the branding of the primary colour background here from Asana, with clear stat numbers

• Aircall have done awesome work with their stats-based creatives

Yep there are event ads on the LI network that you can run, and I’ve had some reasonable success with them for past events. 

You can promote ‘events’ that you set up on your company profile page, and then promote via the campaign manager, where you can get deeper insights. 

They can really build up momentum as I’ve found they can get some great engagement numbers, and even you see registration numbers start to go up, you tend to see ‘momentum’ in terms of signups (which leads to lower cost per event registration). 

So when you run your next event, it’s totally worth experimenting to boost signups through testing event ads.

I don’t have much experience with Follower ads for a specific campaign, but I certainly see their place for highly-targeted, ABM-style campaigns. 

It can be a great way to experiment with “lower commitment” opt-ins to drive ICP-target audiences to follow the page, with then the hope they will start to see other organic content. 

Just make sure to exclude all existing followers of the page so you’re not paying for existing followers.

Plus, it’s a great way to build up page followers to then increase chances for more organic eyeballs for future posts - there’s a ‘flywheel’ opportunity here if you can get the cost and mechanics right. 

Similar to the behaviour of follower placements, Spotlight ads can be used for dynamic placements to serve personalised CTAs at scale to key audience segments you’re targeting. 

You can run CTAs focused on specific events, resource offers, and many other things for lead gen efforts. 

My recommendation - run as part of a targeted ABM and ICP-focused strategy. I wouldn’t run them for cold/TOF campaigns (unless you want to test and have some budget leftover).

This ad creative style can be really effective, and it’s a popular one I’ve seen used by SaaS startups across the Meta network. 

When designed well, they can look awesome and help communicate the value prop faster for audiences. 

You can test “before vs after” for the likes of:

• Not having the tool vs having the tool
• Generic competitor comparisons (but I’d avoid any specific competitor callouts for legal reasons)
• Case study/customer story formats

Here are some great creatives I came across from top B2B SaaS brands:

• Monday, I’ve seen over the years, have done numerous comparison ads - they always look great 

• I really like Hotjar’s comparisons focused on UX/product teams
• And using different UI elements focused on the role looks awesome

Co-branded partnerships ads can be really effective for visibility and distribution volume goals. 

And with the right offering for both brands, there’s big potential for big lead gen numbers that can lead to respective commercial goals. 

In terms of what types of partnership offerings you can run, you can do co-branded initiatives such as: 

• White Papers/reports 
• Events/webinars
• Ultimate guide and documents
• Video guides and the likes of courses

• Hubspot have always traditionally done great partnership/co-branded ads and assets with complementary brands

As part of the ads mix, you want to keep delivering value and staying top of mind to audiences - and you want to mix things up from commercial-focused content. 

Providing information and tip-based content with softer CTAs is a good way to show your authority, and helps build trust without hard selling.

You can share content still relevant to your product, but you want to avoid “over doing” stronger intent CTAs all the time - i.e. “book a demo”, “sign up now”, etc. 

Optimising for conversions and ‘faster sales cycles’ should be a focus, sometimes you have to ‘give, give, give’ before you can ‘keep asking’.

Here are a couple of examples of the types of informational, value-lead content you can do: 

• Webflow has done it well in this case, highlighting the target ICP, alongside a key stat and making the offer to download a report

• Like this from Atlassian as well (love the design)

Offering free tools for people to download or access can be used as a big lever for lead gen efforts - and many brands have done this strategy. 

It’s a great way to bring enough value to audiences/prospects, that can be tied to some of the product offering and value. 

Plus, it’s a great offer outside of the usual resource/lead magnets which many brands do. 

An important consideration for anyone who runs ads overseas in different geographies, should ensure the ads are in the native language of the region/country. 

It’s more effective to have localised messaging for ads to ensure the right message is communicated, culturally relevant, and making sure it’s linguistically accurate.

Typically you should see better CTRs/engagement for this. 

• Here’s an example of myself picking a specific country when looking through Asana’s library

Important note: whilst many AI tools can help with translation, it’s recommended to double check with someone in the local region, as not all tools will spit out the right accuracy - best to get someone on the likes of Upwork (or equivalent freelance marketplace) to double check.