#113: 10 reasons your LinkedIn ads aren’t working

In this episode, Ryan is joined by Joe McLaughlin, Rocket SaaS’s Director of Strategy, for a run through the ten things they most often see going wrong with LinkedIn ads. Plenty of B2B SaaS brands have tried the platform, seen no return, and switched it off, while others are seeing a great ROI. Ryan and Joe work through everything on what not to do, from budgets, to targeting, all the way down to the creative that doesn’t convert. If you fix all ten things mentioned in this episode, your LinkedIn goes from a channel you gave up on to one of the highest ROI channels.Takeaways:Poor budget allocation is the most common problem. LinkedIn is expensive, and a large audience with a small budget means you don’t show up regularly. It’s time to shrink that audienceLinkedIn’s native filters are too broad, so build an account list from the companies actually buying from youTargeting the wrong decision makers wastes budget. Check your CRM for who actually requests demosToo much bottom-of-funnel activity limits you to the 5% of your audience that are ready to buy. What about the other 95%?Busy creative kills performance. People spot an ad instantly, so aim for ten words or less, a big header, and no clutterPoor messaging is causing your audience to leave. Name the problem you solve in plain language and skip the buzzwordsThe wrong ad format costs you. Carousels take ten times the effort and rarely stop the scroll. Single image ads drive pipelineNo retargeting means leaving the fastest conversions to fade away. Sploit your budget roughly 70% cold audience and 30% retargetingWhat happens after the click decides everything. The landing page is where the conversion happens.

In this episode, Ryan shares that LinkedIn Ads are not a lead generation channel. Google Ads is, because people go there actively searching for a solution. Nobody scrolls LinkedIn hoping to find a B2B SaaS vendor. LinkedIn is a place where people consume content, and it should be treated as a content amplification channel.Takeaways: LinkedIn ads are not a lead generation channel. Leads come off the back of them, but that is not what they are forGoogle Ads is where people are actively searching for a supplier. So LinkedIn and Google Ads should never sit in the same categoryTreat LinkedIn as a content amplification channel, and it changes how you approach it, how you measure it, and what you createTargeting on LinkedIn is the whole point. Focus on industry, headcount, revenue, location, job title, even hand-picked companies, so your content reaches exactly who you wantThis is a demand generation play. 95% of your audience are not in market and nothing will force them, so build familiarity now and be the name they think of when they are

In this episode, Ryan is joined by Joe McLaughlin, Director of Strategy at Rocket SaaS, who now oversees all Rocket SaaS clients and spends half his time on Rocket SaaS’s own marketing, to walk through exactly how an expert reviews a marketing strategy from top to bottom. Joe starts with reporting and attribution, because until you can see what is really driving pipeline, you are just guessing. From there it becomes a simple exercise of deciding what to scale, what to fix, and what to kill. Along the way they cover the outbound rethink that dramatically lifted conversions at Rocket SaaS.Takeaways:Until your reporting and attribution are right, you are guessing. HubSpot is what let Rocket SaaS see which touchpoints actually produced dealsGood attribution shows you where the funnel leaks, so you know whether the problem is lead quality, the sales deck, or the sales team, rather than guessingRun a simple exercise on every campaign: what do we scale, what do we fix, and what do we killKill what cannot be meaningfully differentiated. Fix what is close but underpoweredEvery campaign should earn its budget, and that means a time allocation as well as a spend allocationNew markets and bigger clients are tempting, but there is usually more room in the ICP you already win inDo more of what already works. Attribution showed events, webinars, podcasts, and LinkedIn thought leadership drove almost every deal for Rocket SaaSPut process behind thought leadership. Have a dedicated testing campaign for promoted posts, and a recurring task so the weekly post always gets boosted rather than occasionallyIf the business is plateauing, it’s time to carve out dedicated time and people to grow your business through marketing efforts.

In this episode, Ryan runs through 8 key things that you need to consider and change so you can go more upmarket and sign bigger clients. A year ago, Rocket SaaS set out to win clients in the 50 to 500 headcount range. Going upmarket changes almost everything, from your pricing and brand to your messaging and the way deals reach you. Ryan walks through all eight, ending with one deceptively simple habit that got him into a room full of ideal clients.Takeaways:Start with research. Interview the bigger clients you already have, or invest in a tool to survey the upmarket buyers you want. What large companies care about is often the opposite of what smaller ones doRevisit your pricing. If an enterprise buyer lands on low pricing, they assume you are not for them, and “why are you so cheap?” is rarely a complimentBigger buyers subconsciously judge your credibility based on how your site looks, so a dated design will most likely cost you those larger deals. Rewrite the messaging to speak to what larger teams are missing. Smaller companies want you to be their department; larger teams need to know how you fit into their current systemOffer a free audit. Bigger brands already have a supplier or an in-house team, so lead with the problems they are still struggling with rather than your productYou need to have an ABM strategy in place. Start with podcast invites, founder-to-founder connections, co-hosted events, and direct mailBig deals need a door opener, and partnering with a well-known consultant or advisor is one of the most powerful plays availableAnd the last key takeaway? That one's Ryan's best-kept secret. Listen to the full episode to find out

In this episode, Ryan sits down with Sam Gocher, Head of Content at Rocket SaaS, to make the case for top-of-funnel (TOFU) content: the kind that grows pipeline by reaching the 95% of your market who aren’t ready to buy yet. Ryan credits top-of-funnel content as arguably the single biggest reason Rocket SaaS scaled from $1 million to $7 million ARR in two years, and yet it’s the part of the funnel most businesses under-invest in.Sam and Ryan break down where to start (your ICP and the problem that keeps them up at night), how to decide what you want to be known for, and how to find your topics by mining your own sales calls. If your growth relies too heavily on the 5% ready-to-buy-today audience, this episode shows you how to widen the top.Takeaways:• Top-of-funnel content targets the 95% of your market who aren’t in-market yet, so that when they are ready to buy, they already know you, like you and trust you.• Ryan credits top-of-funnel content as arguably the biggest driver behind Rocket SaaS scaling to $7 million ARR in two years.• It all starts with your ICP: if you don’t know who they are and the problems they’re facing, you can’t create content that resonates• Decide what you want to be known for and tie it back to your offering, without ever pushing your product at the top of the funnel• Build ‘big rock’ campaigns: one deeply-researched pillar asset and then repurpos it into video, social clips, blogs, events and posts that all link back• Don’t gate your top-of-funnel content: gating drags it down to bottom-of-funnel. Top of funnel is about giving, not extracting• Find your topics by mining demand: survey your audience, add top-of-funnel questions to sales calls, then use AI to transcribe and an LLM to surface the common themes• A podcast is one of the best top-of-funnel investments you can make• CEOs often resist top-of-funnel because it doesn’t attribute leads immediately, but a wide top of funnel is how you scale pipeline fast

In this episode, Ryan makes the case for content frequency over the one big campaign that you think makes an impact. He used to spend months building towards a single webinar, guide or exhibition, hoping it would deliver a wave of leads. Now he knows that it’s the weekly rhythm that makes those big campaigns work at all. The simple saying of ‘consistency is key’ is a true testament to your marketing. Your content needs to be going out there everyday and help lead up to the one big campaign. Ryan walks through how to build that rhythm, from the six-month content calendar and the thought leaders who feed it, to the data that tells you what to double down on. Don’t just wait for the one big win. Compound your work every week and see constant results.Takeaways:• Frequency beats intensity. One brilliant session a month gets you nowhere, but showing up every week compounds.• Quality will dip when you first raise the output, and that’s fine. Expect around ten run-throughs before it feels slick, and get your thought leader critiquing every piece• Build a six-month content calendar rather than a twelve-month one. One main topic per month with four subtopics gives you a fresh topic to work with every week• Find those topics in your sales calls transcripts, conversations with clients, feed them to an LLM and draw out the pain points.• Assign a thought leader to each topic. It can be someone internal, a partner or even a paid influencer, but get their buy-in on the topics before you start• Find your golden egg of content. Take that 15-minute interview, or podcast episode and turn it into various content pieces. Social clips and posts, blogs, newsletters.• Let the data choose your big campaigns.Get your most popular podcast, turn it into a webinar, the best webinar into a guide, and the best guide into a live event• Put ad budget behind it. Organic-only rarely works for B2B SaaS brands without a large following

In this episode, Ryan sits down with Director of Strategy, Jamie, to talk about website CRO’s, conversion rate optimization and how to get more leads from the traffic you already have, without a costly rebuild. Most B2B SaaS companies pour budget into the next campaign, the next funnel, the next ad, and completely overlook the shopfront every prospect actually lands on. Ryan and Jamie break down how to diagnose whether your site is a problem, the handful of pages that move the needle most, and the specifics that turn browsers into booked demos. If you’re getting the right traffic but not enough leads, this episode shows you where to start.Takeaways:Don’t rebuild, optimise: unless your site is a genuine disaster, CRO beats a £20–30k, 4–5 month rebuild you probably don’t needDiagnose first: if you’re getting the right ICP traffic but few conversions, CRO is the fastest, most organic route to more leads (use Google Analytics, Lead Forensics and your LinkedIn ads data to check)Your hero headline is the most important real estate on the site: ten words or less covering who you are, what you do and the benefit — spend hours on it and test multiple versionsMessaging beats design: cut the buzzwords and say plainly what you do, who it’s for and the problem you solve (frameworks like Fletcher’s or April Dunford’s help)Write headings that tell the whole story on their own, because people skim and read the headers first — validated with heat-mapping tools like HotjarMake the product shine: don’t dump raw UI screenshots — strip out detail, enlarge the fonts and use short looping animations (Slack’s site is the gold standard)Social proof needs numbers: case studies with hard stats and percentages convert far better than vague testimonialsLook beyond the home page: your pricing page (anchoring and tiering), mobile experience, niche use-case pages and book-a-demo page are all high-leverage CRO winsRule of thumb: if your website CRO isn’t at least a 7/10, fix it before you spend a penny on ads

In this episode, Ryan tackles the problem most businesses come to him with: “We are not getting enough leads.”His advice is to stop reacting to the noise and look at the business as a simple funnel, then fix it backwards. Most advice in the market says that you should start at the top of the funnel with awareness and brand building. Ryan starts at the bottom, because the 5% of your market who are ready to buy today skip all of that and land straight on your website, your demo page and your sales deck.If they do not convert with your bottom of the funnel assets, nothing you do at the top will save you. Ryan walks through a simple framework on exactly what to fix and in what order.Takeaways:Treat the business as one simple funnel: top, middle and bottomFix it backwards. The 5% who are ready to buy skip straight to the bottom, so if that does not convert, nothing above it mattersStart with messaging: get people to read your homepage and to tell you what they think you do and who your business serves. If they get it wrong, that’s your first problem to fixThen work on the rest: dated design, thin social proof, vague case studies, and demo page that is just a form instead of selling the demoDo not overlook the sales deck. Redesigning, rewording and restructuring it lifts sales on its ownOnly turn on your Google Ads if all of your bottom of the funnel assets have been fixed. Then the leads should flow. If not, check on your pricingMiddle of the funnel is case studies and lead magnets.Top of the funnel comes last, and only pays off once you have somewhere to send potential leads

In this episode, Ryan sits down with Sam Gocher, Head of Content at Rocket SaaS, to talk about subject matter experts, or SMEs, and how to turn the experts already sitting inside your business into a content engine. Most of your competitors are pumping out generic AI slop that nobody engages with. The advantage goes to the brands whose real experts show up and share genuine thought leadership. Sam breaks down who your SMEs should be, how to actually get busy senior people into a posting rhythm, what to do when they go quiet, and exactly what they should be posting about. If your content relies entirely on the founder, this episode shows you how to widen it out.Takeaways:Your subject matter experts are already in the business: the founder, head of sales, head of product, senior marketers and any real expert with useful knowledge in their headAn SME does not need to be charismatic or great on camera. They just need genuine expertise. Your job is to extract it and turn it into contentA recurring project management task (Rocket SaaS uses Asana) plus a clear SOP is how you turn good intentions into a consistent posting rhythmBusy senior people have two or three minutes a day, so give them everything: the topic, the transcript, the templates, the examples. Lead the horse to waterGhost writing tends to strip out authenticity, so it is usually better to enable people to write in their own voice than to write for themIf free methods fail, incentives can work: paying per post, or running a competition for the most engaged post that monthSell it to your team on career growth, not just company benefit. A strong LinkedIn presence is one of the best things anyone can build for themselvesFollow the 80/20 rule: 80% helpful, educational, top-of-funnel content and only 20% bottom-of-funnel promotion

In this episode, Ryan shares one of his favourite LinkedIn tactics: using thought leader ads to boost posts from other people who say genuine, positive things about your brand. A testimonial posted from your own company page gets skipped over. The same praise coming from a real customer with a real voice is far more believable, but it usually dies in the feed because that person only has a few hundred followers. This tactic fixes that, letting you put real budget behind authentic advocacy and get it in front of exactly the right audience. Quick to listen to, easy to apply, and genuinely effective.Takeaways:Thought leader ads let you boost an individual's post to a precisely targeted audience, not just their own followersPraise from a real customer in their own words is far more credible than a testimonial posted by your brandBuild a list of happy customers, partners and advocates, then ask them to post (a small incentive like an Amazon voucher can help)Let people write the post themselves so it sounds genuine, but offer to draft it if they are short on timeAlways get a fact or a stat in there, and keep it snappy rather than a long essayCheck whether people are already tagging you with positive posts, because those are ready to boost right now