LinkedIn Ads: Is It Really the Holy Grail for B2B?

When it comes to LinkedIn Ads, especially in B2B, the expectations are often high: reaching decision-makers directly, generating quality leads, and boosting branding strategically. But is LinkedIn Ads the magic solution for all B2B campaigns?

The short answer: it depends.

LinkedIn stands out for its unique targeting capabilities, allowing you to focus ads on specific roles, particular industries, and even individual companies. However, it’s not a channel for quick results. LinkedIn is not a short-term lead generation engine. Instead, it’s a tool for building long-term relationships, educating your audience, and strengthening brand authority.

So, when does it make sense to use LinkedIn Ads?

Launching campaigns for products or services that require market education.

Promoting webinars and events that provide value to your audience.

Remarketing campaigns for audiences that have already engaged with your brand and are advanced MQLs.

By advanced MQLs, I mean those Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) that match your buyer persona, have interacted with the brand or its content, and show commercial interest because they’ve visited BOFU pages (product pages, offer pages, add to cart, etc.).

On the other hand, if your goal is immediate conversions, it may be better to consider other platforms. LinkedIn excels when you have resources for long-term investment and a focus on value-driven content.

Why is LinkedIn Ads still important for B2B businesses?

The true strength of LinkedIn Ads lies in its ability to target with hyper-precision: roles, industries, professional experience, and specific companies. This makes it an ideal channel when the goal is to reach highly specific and qualified professional audiences. However, this also comes at a price: the cost per click is usually higher than on other platforms like Google Ads or Meta Ads.

What can you really achieve with LinkedIn Ads?

Long-term demand generation and branding: LinkedIn is perfect when the goal is to educate your audience before selling to them. Think of informative content that solves specific industry problems, like whitepapers, case studies, or webinars that help to strengthen brand authority.

Smart remarketing: This is where things get a bit sophisticated. Retargeting on LinkedIn allows you to re-engage those who have already shown interest in your content or visited your site. That said, LinkedIn remarketing tends to work better for audiences already advanced in their buying journey, rather than cold prospects.

More complex offers require more elaborate creatives: Video ads can work quite well, especially when they feature participation from key members of senior management. This generates a more personal and trustworthy connection with the audience.

What LinkedIn Ads is NOT:

It is not the ideal channel for quick lead generation or direct sales if your audience is cold. LinkedIn requires patience and continuous investment in education and trust-building—something many brands overlook. If your product or service is highly disruptive and there’s demand, you could try direct conversion. Otherwise, it’s best to focus on building long-term relationships.

So, is LinkedIn Ads a good solution for B2B?

It’s a strong channel, but not a magic solution. Optimise for the long-term, educate your audience, and don’t underestimate the value of high-quality content. If used with the right mindset, it can be one of the best tools for positioning your brand and generating qualified demand in the B2B space.

What do you think? What’s been your experience with LinkedIn Ads in B2B?

Preparations Before Launching International Paid Media Campaigns

Before launching an international Paid Media campaign, it is crucial to assess whether the business is truly ready to take that step. One of the most common mistakes is overlooking technical and strategic aspects, which, if not addressed in time, can result in performance issues or high costs that are difficult to rectify.

The first step is to review key elements such as local competitiveness, logistical and financial capacity, and the payment methods available in the target market. Then, it’s necessary to analyse whether we are already present in that market or if we are entering for the first time. Do we have a physical store or presence on local platforms such as Google Business Profile? If not, is it really necessary?

We should also ask ourselves if we are already receiving traffic or customers from other countries. This gives us a clue about the market’s viability before making a significant investment.

Knowing your competitors is essential: What do they offer? How do they promote themselves? This includes not only those who are already internationalised but also those who have not yet expanded, but have the potential to do so. A detailed analysis of the competition can provide valuable insights into how to position ourselves and which strategies might work best in each market.

These considerations are basic but essential to ensuring that our investment in international Paid Media is effective and profitable.

Before investing in an international paid media campaign, another key step is to ensure that the product or service truly suits the target market. How can you know if you’re ready? The key lies in evaluating existing demand and the competitiveness of your offering in that specific context.

Entering a developed market with multiple competitors is a completely different challenge compared to entering an emerging market. In the former, it's about capturing existing demand; in the latter, you’re building from scratch. The complexity increases if there is no clear need that your product can immediately fulfil. You can use tools like Google Market Finder and Export Potential Map to measure whether there is really room for your offering, and then review what competitors are providing in that market.

Additionally, it’s essential to ask a tough but necessary question: If your company isn’t competitive in its local market, how do you expect it to be at an international level?

It’s not just about translating campaigns or adapting creatives. It’s an analysis of the product and its fit with the culture, purchasing power, and local preferences of the new market.

For those managing paid media campaigns, this prior analysis can make the difference between success and failure. Ensuring there is real demand before launching can save resources and time, avoiding costly mistakes.

And you, when evaluating new markets, what tools or criteria do you use?

Introduction to International Paid Media

Expanding Paid Media internationally: Why should you consider it now?

Reach is a necessity for businesses looking to scale. If you only focus on your local market (national level), you're missing out on significant opportunities in less saturated markets, where competition is lower and acquisition costs or CPC may be cheaper.

This is where many hesitate. International expansion sounds complicated: different languages, cultures, regulations… It’s easy to dismiss it. However, it’s a mistake to think that advertising internationally is more “difficult” or expensive than optimising your paid media solely for a competitive local market.

Three key factors to consider in international markets:

Cultural and linguistic adaptation: You need to translate and adapt the language of your campaigns, creatives, and landing pages to the cultural context. This increases relevance and can also reduce your acquisition costs, while maintaining brand consistency and coherence—something that is often underestimated in improving CRO. Users will feel a stronger connection when they’re spoken to in their native language.

Optimisation of the user experience (UX): I’m not just talking about the website, but also the local currency, the most common payment methods, and the preferred shipping options, all of which are crucial for achieving conversions outside your usual market. What’s the point of driving traffic from abroad if you can’t offer a smooth purchasing experience?

Less competition, more opportunities (even if it doesn’t seem like it): When we talk about less competition in international markets, many people assume I’m simply referring to the number of competitors. However, it’s more complex than that. If you already have the capability and competitiveness to lead in your local market at a national level, it’s very likely that you have the conditions to be competitive abroad.

What really makes the difference here isn’t just the number of competitors, but the fact that many businesses aren’t ready to take the leap internationally. Barriers to entry—such as infrastructure, a sufficiently good offer, cultural adaptation, and resources—limit many businesses to only operate in their local markets. In contrast, if you’ve already overcome these challenges, you have an advantage that many other competitors don’t yet have. In other words, although there may be many players in the market, the real competition might be less intense than it seems.

And of course, this is something that needs to be analysed on a case-by-case basis, but overall, the landscape suggests that businesses well-prepared for internationalisation often face fewer real competitive barriers outside their local market.

Tapping into these markets is a smart way to reduce advertising costs, generate more customers, and diversify risks.

Before you start, research which platforms dominate in that country: Bing Ads is more popular in some markets than others, and the same goes for Google. There are local platforms that dominate, such as Yandex in Russia.

In markets like Japan or Germany, where consumers are more loyal, if you have a competitive and high-quality offer, you’ll not only achieve conversions but also gain customers with higher lifetime value. And yes, we’re talking about a real competitive advantage here: not many businesses dare to cross borders, but if you’re the first to do so, and do it well, you can dominate international markets faster.

Taking advantage of these markets is a smart way to reduce advertising costs, generate more customers, and diversify risks.