Janhavi Nagarhalli

When you think of launching an ABM campaign, it’s natural to consider running LinkedIn ads. All you need to do is build and upload an audience list of your target accounts and launch your ads… right? Unfortunately, creating audience lists isn’t a walk in the park. 

Your ability to maximize the value of your ads depends heavily on how you target them. If you want to build the perfect audience list, you need to look through mountains of data across multiple tools and Excel sheets while manually categorizing it according to your campaign goals. 

Luckily, we have “Audience Builder” to prevent you from wasting your money.

In this article, we’ll show you how using Audience Builder is an effective way for you to target your audience on LinkedIn 🎯 

Audience targeting: why the old way doesn’t work 

Marketers typically build multiple audience lists for several different marketing initiatives, such as:

• ICP lists
• ABM lists
• Retargeting lists
• Webinar lists
• Intent data lists
• SDR lists, etc. 

You might rely on LinkedIn’s native targeting filters to build your target account list. However, this comes with a set of challenges, such as: 

• LinkedIn native targeting filters don’t include intent data, making it difficult to specifically target high-intent accounts 
• LinkedIn’s job titles and industry tags are still being updated, so you might unintentionally target accounts that don’t fall under your ICP. 

Of course, you can also build target account lists outside the platform via Apollo or Zoominfo and upload them to Campaign Manager. However, building out and vetting this list while sorting through different data sets would be time-consuming. Let’s say you want to build a list excluding your existing customers or those who have already signed up for a demo. It becomes tedious to scope out and filter every single account. Plus, you also have to continuously update this list every day according to when prospects book demos. 

Now that’s A LOT ☠️

Abhishek at Descope explains why they faced a challenge when creating audience lists for their LinkedIn ad campaigns:

“Most tech companies have very complex buying groups with multiple stakeholders where the decision-maker and influencer differ. We were looking for a scalable way to craft the right message for the right buyer role at the right organization size without blowing the company’s budget.” – Abhishek Iyer, Director of Marketing at Descope.

For all these reasons, you need a tool that consolidates and integrates all your account data across multiple tools and automatically creates an audience list of accounts interested in your solution. Fortunately, your search ends here!

Introducing Audience Builder 

Audience Builder allows you to build any audience from your Factors data and automatically sync these lists directly to LinkedIn. Let’s show you how: 

Segment your audience lists based on intent data

Let’s say you want to show your ads specifically to accounts who visit your pricing page. You can use the event as a trigger to add them to a LinkedIn audience. Now, you can show ads to product-aware accounts, aiming to engage them further after they've shown interest. 

You can skip the guesswork and leverage the power of intent data to target the accounts genuinely interested in your product. You avoid wasting ad spend and can have your GTM team prioritize the right prospects to meet your pipeline targets

Sync data from multiple sources 

Every marketing team uses various tools across their tech stack, each with different capabilities. However, syncing data across these tools to create an airtight audience list can be tricky. 

Let’s say you use Salesforce. Since Salesforce doesn’t have a native sync with LinkedIn, you have to manually sort and build the list before uploading it to Campaign Manager. Plus, Salesforce doesn't offer website intent data or G2 intent data, so you cannot filter accounts that are genuinely interested in your solution. That’s where Factors comes in. 

We help you unify end-to-end B2B customer journey data from G2, Linkedin, CRMs, and MAPs, giving you insights into every customer segment, their intent signals, and how to reach them effectively.

Here’s an example of how Descope uses the Audience Builder feature to build their lists:

“Factors provides granular visibility into accounts visiting our website as well as their engagement across G2 and other channels. Accordingly, we receive tons of insight into account activity without the need for form submissions or sign-ups. 

Based on this, we’ve created 3 audience segments: Top, middle, and bottom of the funnel. These audiences are pushed into LinkedIn campaigns and served tailored ads based on their sales cycle stage.”  – Abhishek Iyer, Director of Marketing at Descope

Audience Builder use cases

Now, you can leverage every bit of GTM data to create and activate the most relevant audiences. Here are a few ways you can use this shiny new feature to supercharge your LinkedIn ads:

• US-based software companies with 500+ employees that visited the pricing page >2 times and are not in the CRM: When ICP accounts visit a high-intent page like your pricing or demo booking page, they are far more engaged than just regular website visitors. You can create a list of such accounts in your CRM and launch a retargeting campaign where you can use ads to drive consideration for your product. 

• ICP accounts that clicked on a search ad but failed to convert: Suppose a set of accounts clicked on a search ad that includes a feature keyword. You can use this data to push these accounts to a list that shows ads related to the relevant feature. Plus, you can add a condition to exclude companies who booked a demo. 

• Enterprise Software and IT services companies that engage with more than 5 pages of your G2 category: When you notice accounts engage with your G2 page, they are evaluating your solution. Create a list targeting decision-makers and launch an ad campaign highlighting your best reviews and case studies. 

• ABM target accounts that viewed LinkedIn ads and then visited the website: Prospects that visit your site after clicking an ad are likely problem-aware, so you can create an account list and add them to a sequential ad campaign to move them further down the funnel. 

Once Descope used Factors to build audience lists, they saw positive results and could easily target their ICP accounts without sifting through loads of data across their tech stack:

“Factors is already playing a key role in helping us make our LinkedIn paid spend more efficient. Even if one person from a specific account visits our website, Factors helps us target decision-makers and the larger buying committee as a whole to ensure that all the right people from a target account see our ads. Ultimately, this helps our LinkedIn ad budgets go that extra mile.”  – Abhishek Iyer, Director of Marketing at Descope.

Join the waitlist today

Building a solid audience list is key to targeting your ideal prospects. With AdPilot, you can use data-driven insights to effectively target the right accounts at the right time and double your LinkedIn ROI. Speak to our experts today to learn how AdPilot can revamp your LinkedIn ads strategy.

When you run an ad campaign on LinkedIn, you expect all the accounts in your audience list to view your ad, right? However, our research reveals a shocking truth: 80% of your ads are shown to only the top 10% of the accounts 🤯

The best way to avoid losing pipeline due to such uneven ad distribution is to use a tool that allows you to control how your ads are shown to your prospects and evenly distribute impressions across your target account list.  

In this article, we’ll explain how our newest feature, “Smart Reach,” can put an end to your impression distribution worries ⬇️

The Challenge

“Control is an illusion”  – a quote that most B2B marketers relate to when they launch their ad campaigns and leave it all to the algorithms to show their ads to the right people and accounts. A couple of accounts may have viewed your ad too many times, whereas many may not have seen the ad enough. 

Here’s an example to help you understand how impression frequency works on LinkedIn:

Suppose you have a target account list of 500 accounts, including SMBs and large companies, with the top 10 accounts being enterprises with 1000+ employees. Since enterprise companies have more employees that match your ICP, LinkedIn will more likely show your ads to larger companies, neglecting the rest of your account list. 

This causes a handful of issues like:

• Ad fatigue and underexposure to your ads: Since your ads aren’t evenly distributed across your account list, some prospects would face ad fatigue, whereas others may not have seen them enough.

• Losing out on potential deals: If a sufficient number of ads are not shown to the majority of your accounts, you risk missing out on high-value deals and costing your company significant opportunities.

• Wasted ad spend: If 10% of your accounts consume 80% of the impressions, there is much room for improvement in marketing efficiency.

A lack of frequency capping becomes a major problem, especially when launching brand awareness campaigns, where your main objective is to maximize reach. 

You could maneuver this issue by creating smaller audiences across different campaigns. However, the smaller the audience size for a campaign, the higher the CPMs - which again results in wasted ad spend. Not to mention, it would get increasingly tedious to manage multiple smaller campaigns. 

💡Check out our research in detail here: LinkedIn Frequency Capping: Impact Measurement

So how do you possibly win in this lose-lose situation? 2 words: Smart Reach.

“LinkedIn budgets can scale very quickly — and if you’re unsure you’re reaching the right people, you’re essentially setting your money on fire. With Smart Reach, we’ve been able to reach the largest spread of accounts visiting our website without putting too much undue weightage on larger accounts.” – Abhishek Iyer, Director of Marketing at Descope.

Introducing: Smart Reach 

Our newest feature allows you to manage the frequency with which your ads are displayed to each account, ensuring maximum reach, lower CPMs, and impact. Plus, with intent-based impression control, you can ensure that your ads are only shown to relevant and high-intent accounts. 

Here’s an example of how Descope uses Smart Reach  to improve its ad distribution:

We analyzed Descope’s LinkedIn ad metrics to examine how Smart Reach affects campaign reach and ad spend. Our research revealed that without setting a frequency cap, the ads reached 8214 accounts, and the top 25 target accounts consumed 35% of ad impressions. This led to an ad spend of approximately $4700. 

We set up a cap of 2000 impressions at an account level across all campaign groups to analyze whether there would be an impact on reach. After a month, we noticed the following improvements:

• Impressions consumed by the top 25 companies have decreased by 17% within a month.
• Descope was able to redistribute around 158,841 impressions that were earlier consumed by the top 25 companies.
• Ad spend was reduced by 22% ($1,000 less!), with CPM going down from $7 to $4
• The reach was reduced by only 6% 

This proves that Smart Reach not only saves your ad spend but also ensures that your reach remains intact. 

3 key benefits of Smart Reach 

Better reach per dollar spent 

Imagine investing a good chunk of your budget on LinkedIn ads, only to realize your ads don’t reach all the accounts in your audience list. Well, with Factors, you don’t have to imagine. Smart Reach allows you to redistribute impressions to reach more accounts per dollar spent, helping you make the most of your ad spend.

Intent-based ad distribution 

Saying that all prospects are equal sounds good in theory, but in reality, that’s not the case. Ideally, sales-ready accounts should receive more ads than others. However, after analyzing 100+ LinkedIn ad accounts, we’ve found that most ads are distributed to large companies. With Factors, you can configure Smart Reach rules so that the high-intent accounts who visit the pricing page, engage with G2 pages, open emails, etc., receive ads more frequently than others. 

Conversely, accounts that have already booked a demo or expressed negative interest in a sales email should be shown fewer ads. Factors empowers intent-based ad distribution to ensure an appropriate ad frequency for each account based on intent levels.

Avoid over and underexposure

Just like Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, there should never be too much or too little of anything, whether porridge or LinkedIn ads. Your high-intent prospects shouldn’t have to deal with seeing the same ad over and over again, but they should also see your ads enough times to consider your product for their needs. Smart Reach ensures that your impression distribution is just right – automatically showing the right frequency of ads to the right accounts. 

“Within a month of setting up our frequency capping rules with Factors, we’ve saved 216,448 ad impressions and reached the largest spread of accounts per dollar spent. We’re excited to scale this up in the future.”—Abhishek Iyer, Director of Marketing at Descope.

Join the waitlist today

Every marketer launches their campaigns, hoping their ads reach all the relevant accounts at the right time. With Smart Reach, you can make it happen. Factors AdPilot offers a comprehensive range of features that ensures you make the most of your ad spend while increasing revenue via LinkedIn ads. Contact our sales team to learn how you can use AdPilot to take your LinkedIn game to the next level.

When you think of an ABM platform, Demandbase naturally comes to mind. Demandbase (also known as Demandbase One) has been around since 2007 and has served 10,000+ customers after its launch. 

But is it the right fit for your business? Get your answer as you scroll through our article and learn about the 5 Demandbase alternatives currently in the market ⬇️

Why look for a Demandbase alternative?

Demandbase offers a range of features such as:

• Account Identification: Identify high-potential accounts visiting your website or showing buying intent signals online.
• Account Targeting: Tailor marketing campaigns to specific accounts based on firmographics, technographics, and buying behaviors. (e.g., industry, technology used, website activity)
• Multiple Journeys: Create and manage personalized marketing journeys for different account segments based on product lines, business units, or other factors.
• Campaign Influence Metrics: Track and measure the impact of marketing campaigns on account progression within the sales funnel.

However, according to reviews across sites like G2, Capterra, and TrustRadius, users have stated that the setup process is tricky and the UI is outdated:

If you’re an SMB looking for an ABM platform, let’s examine what you must consider when making the purchase.

4 Factors to consider when looking for a Demandbase alternative

Cost-effective: Users have found that Demandbase's pricing is steep compared to other products that offer similar features. Find a tool that provides the best bang for your buck.

Easy to use: Choose a tool with an intuitive user interface that doesn’t have a deep learning curve. This will save you time and help you make the most of the tool.

Intent signals from relevant sources: Remember, there is such a thing as “too many signals.”  make sure you have the right data from channels that most contribute to revenue impact.

LinkedIn ads ROI: If you’re running LinkedIn ads, you must ensure you’re making the most of your ad budget. 

Top 5 Demandbase alternatives

Want to find the right tool and boost your marketing ROI? We’ve done the heavy lifting and compiled a list of the six best Demandbase alternatives you can consider:

1. Factors.ai

Factors is a marketing attribution platform that helps marketers streamline their GTM efforts and optimize their marketing spend. We offer multiple features like:

• Factors can pull intent signals from LinkedIn and G2, which gives greater visibility into high-intent accounts considering your solution. Plus, you can unify all your account-level data from multiple sources.
• Our account and engagement scoring features allow you to assign a value to every interaction an ICP account has with your website. You can now prioritize accounts with high scores to close deals faster. 
• Our segment insights feature lets you understand how different user segments resonate with your product. 
• Factors can also help you personalize your cold outreach based on intent data, thereby taking your sales strategy to the next level.
• Use Factors to create custom workflow automations to simplify your business processes across multiple CRMs
• Our new AdPilot feature can improve the way you run LinkedIn ads and help you get 2x ROI from your ad campaigns

Why Factors is a good alternative to Demandbase

• Demandbase doesn’t have many features that showcase the impact of paid marketing compared to Factors.
• Our IP database includes 4.6 billion companies, whereas Demandbase has 3.6 billion.
• You cannot conduct segment-wise analysis on Demandbase
• LinkedIn AdPilot gives a complete overview of how LinkedIn plays a role in generating revenue, a feature currently missing in Demandbase

Limitations

• Factors doesn’t offer deanonymization at a contact level

Pricing

💡Learn more about our pricing here

2. Albacross

Albacross is a well-established B2B marketing data platform that leverages advanced intent data to identify and capitalize on hidden opportunities from website traffic.

• Website Visitors: Turn website traffic into companies and capture accounts in the buying window
• IP Enrich API: Apply real-time buyer intelligence across your technology stack
• Account-Based Marketing: Target key accounts with customized ads on 90% of ad space globally
• Buying Signals: You can combine Bombora’s powerful intent signals with Albacross to uncover the buyer journey

Why Albacross is a good alternative to Demandbase

Albacross has contact enrichment within the same platform, so there would be no requirement to integrate with multiple enrichment tools

💡Also read: Top 10 Albacross Alternatives

Limitations

• Albacross doesn't allow custom engagement scoring 
• The platform doesn’t include LinkedIn view-through attribution

Pricing

3. Rollworks

RollWorks is an Account-Based Platform with ABM and advertising solutions that allow marketers to deeply understand their buyers and attribute revenue to marketing initiatives such as display ads, social ads, and triggered emails. 

Why Rollworks is a good alternative to Demandbase

Users have reported that it is a far more feasible solution than Demandbase, with a cost of $975 per month. 

Limitations

Customers have mentioned that running LinkedIn ad campaigns with Rollworks can get tedious, and they face issues when showing ads to the right accounts 

Pricing 

Rollworks doesn’t mention its pricing on its website. They have separate plans for Account-based marketing and Account-based advertising. 

4. Recotap

Recotap is an AI-driven Account-Based Marketing (ABM) platform that helps B2B Marketers run targeted ABM campaigns at scale. They break their offering into 3 categories:

• Data Hub: Account level, Contact level, Technographics, or Intent data. You'll find it all here
• Engagement Hub: Engage your accounts across multiple channels with personalized content
• Insights Hub: Let our AI crunch data from ads, emails, CRM, website visits & more to provide the right insights

Why Recotap is a good alternative to Demandbase

• Recotap is a better platform for brands aiming to leverage LinkedIn for ABM 
• It is a cost-effective solution 

Limitations

• Limited reporting options 
• It doesn’t integrate with G2 

Pricing 

Recotap doesn’t have its pricing on its website, but they offer 3 pricing tiers (Starter, Growth, Enterprise) 

5. Common Room

Why Common Room  is a good alternative to Demandbase

• Common Room focuses heavily on community management and engagement, a feature currently unavailable in Demandbase
• If you prioritize a seamless and intuitive user experience, Common Room might offer a more straightforward approach compared to Demandbase
• Common Room offers flexible pricing plans that might be more suitable for smaller businesses or startups compared to Demandbase

Limitations

• Common Room cannot derive intent signals from G2 
• It’s a relatively newer product, so many features are still under development
• Engagement scoring feature isn’t as advanced as other tools on this list

Pricing

Choose the best Demandbase alternative

Streamlining sales and marketing alignment is a cakewalk when you have the right ABM platform. You must invest in a solution that helps you make the most of your marketing effort without burning a hole in your pockets.Sign up for a free trial today to understand how Factors allows you to leverage intent signals and accurately measure the impact of your marketing campaigns.

Prospecting is never easy. The constant struggle to filter through contact data manually and find the right emails for outreach sequences makes every sales rep’s head spin. Now, it’s contact enrichment tools to the rescue!

Clay is a powerful data enrichment tool that allows you to scale your lead lists and personalize your outbound motion. But is Clay the right fit for you?
Read ahead to learn more about Clay and five other Clay alternatives you can evaluate to find the perfect contact enrichment tool for your needs ⬇️ 

About Clay: Pros, Cons, and Pricing

Clay is a data automation platform that helps you build enriched prospect lists. With over 75 enrichment tools and a built-in AI agent, it's easily the most powerful enrichment tool for sales teams of all sizes. The only downside is that it gets expensive if you don't use the credits efficiently.

Here’s a breakdown of Clay’s pricing:

What should you look for in a Clay alternative?

Cost-effectiveness: As mentioned above, Clay credits can become expensive and drive up your company's costs. You must find a solution that offers the most bang for your buck.

Intent signals: Along with contact enrichment, it is crucial to ensure your emails resonate with your target prospects. When you layer in signal-based selling, you can drive consideration quicker.

Learning Curve: While Clay has a user-friendly interface, mastering all its features can take some time. You must ensure you invest in a tool that is easy to use for all sales team members.

5 Clay alternatives you must consider

Now that you know what you should look for before investing in a contact enrichment tool, here are 8 Clay alternatives to review: 

Apollo.io

Apollo.io is a data intelligence and sales engagement platform with a vast B2B contact database of over 275M professional contacts. 

Why Apollo.io is a good Clay Alternative

• Apollo has comprehensive CRM capabilities, which aren't currently present in Clay. 
• Apollo also has advanced reporting features and detailed filtering options that allow users to build better-targeted lists.

Limitations 

• Users have reported that the Chrome extension sometimes doesn’t provide accurate phone numbers.
• The platform can be tricky to use since it has a vast range of features and multiple use cases.

Pricing

Cognism

Cognism is a sales intelligence platform specializing in machine learning to accelerate sales and recruitment leads. Their key features include international coverage and unrestricted access to people and company-level data.

Why Cognism is a good alternative to Clay

• Cognism is designed specifically for B2B sales, offering high-quality data that is essential for prospecting and lead generation. For businesses focused primarily on B2B outreach, Cognism offers a more targeted solution.
• Cognism’s emphasis on providing accurate data and maintaining compliance with GDPR and CCPA makes it a strong choice for businesses that prioritize data integrity and legal compliance.
• Cognism’s user-friendly interface and focused feature set make it easier for sales teams to deploy and use compared to Clay's potentially more complex setup.

Limitations 

• Clay’s ability to create custom workflows and automate a wide range of processes makes it a more versatile tool. It can be used across departments, not just for sales.
• While Cognism excels in providing sales data, Clay’s strength lies in enriching data from various sources, giving businesses a more holistic view.
• Clay’s strong integration capabilities allow businesses to create a more cohesive and efficient tech stack, which is particularly beneficial for companies looking to streamline multiple business processes.

Pricing

Cognism currently doesn’t offer pricing details on their website. However we did some digging and wrote it in our article here: Cognism Pricing, Alternatives & More | 2024

Instantly

Why Instantly is a good alternative to Clay

• Instantly is designed specifically for email outreach and lead generation, making it more effective and streamlined for this purpose.
• Instantly may offer a more affordable solution for businesses primarily needing email automation compared to Clay.com's broader, more complex feature set.
• Instantly’s specific tools to improve email deliverability, such as spam testing and email warm-up, can directly enhance the effectiveness of email campaigns

Limitations 

• Instantly’s lead management features are lacklustre when compared to Clay
• Instantly.ai’s performance speed has been flagged as a concern. Many users have experienced delays and sluggishness in executing tasks and accessing functionalities.
• Integrating Instantly.ai with other systems and applications has posed challenges for users. This has caused compatibility issues and disruptions in workflow integration.

Pricing

LeadIQ

LeadIQ is a prospecting and sales intelligence tool that simplifies the process of capturing, enriching, and engaging with leads. It is designed to help sales teams find contact information quickly and efficiently and use that data for outreach.

Why LeadIQ is a good alternative to Clay

• LeadIQ offers a more user-friendly experience for teams that must ramp up quickly without diving into complex workflows. 
• LeadIQ excels in capturing and enriching prospect data in real time directly from LinkedIn and other sources.

Limitations 

• Users have stated that the Chrome extension doesn’t work effectively on LinkedIn
• Multiple G2 reviews mention that the UX feels a bit cluttered

Pricing

Lusha

Lusha is a sales prospecting tool that has earned its reputation for simplicity and reliability. It’s particularly known for its extensive database of contact information, providing users with accurate direct dials and email addresses. 

Why Lusha is a good alternative to Clay

• Lusha offers a user-friendly interface for teams seeking a simple sales prospecting tool.
• The browser extension integrates directly with LinkedIn, instantly capturing prospect details.
• Best suited for smaller teams or those new to sales prospecting who need an efficient and simple solution.

Limitations 

• ​​Lusha's database, although extensive, may not cover all industries or geographic areas comprehensively.
• The solution has limited filter choices
• Sometimes it auto-populates the wrong information in the incorrect field, leading to multiple inaccuracies.

Pricing

Factors + Clay: A new era of outbound sales

What’s the one thing that can take your sales strategy to the next level? Two words: Intent data. When you combine Clay’s enrichment solution with Factors’ intent signals, you get a complete view of in-market accounts, thereby allowing you to refine your outreach strategy.

Check out our Factors x Clay playbook to understand how to make the most of both platforms and supercharge your outbound motion. 

Choose the best Clay alternative today

With so many tools in the market, finding the right contact enrichment tool can be tricky. You must ensure that you choose the right sales prospecting tool that offers accurate information and can be adopted by everyone on the sales team.

It’s no secret that LinkedIn ads work. You know it, I know it, every B2B marketer knows it. But most marketers have one burning question: “What’s the best ad format to promote our product?”

While some favor videos, others believe a simple text ad might do the trick. However, the answer is a little more complicated than that 👀

Scroll ahead to learn about the various types of LinkedIn ads and how you can use them in each stage of the marketing process ⬇️

Types of LinkedIn ads

Before you set your mind to using a particular ad type, let’s have a look at the different ad formats currently available on LinkedIn: 

1. LinkedIn Single Image Ads

As the name suggests, the LinkedIn single-image ad is just the basic type of ad you see in your LinkedIn feed. It has one image, a couple of lines of text above it, and a CTA. 

Usually, the best type of single-image ad depends on the funnel stage you’re targeting. You can use it to build awareness about your product or leverage it for your retargeting efforts. 

For single-image ads in the retargeting layer, you can use examples of case studies to build authority and differentiate your product from the market. 

2. LinkedIn Carousel Ads

Have you ever flipped through a little catalog that shows different products? That’s precisely what a carousel ad looks like. The LinkedIn carousel ad has multiple images that you can scroll through. Each slide has its headline and button that could direct you to something else. 

LinkedIn carousel ads are great for horizontal SaaS brands where you have a bunch of different offerings.

3. LinkedIn Video Ads

LinkedIn video ads are a compelling way to reach a target audience. We particularly like this ad type because it gives you more information than whether someone clicked or didn’t click your ad. By showing how much of the video someone viewed, you can see how interested or engaged the users were with the ad and retarget based on that.

LinkedIn video ads provide a great chance to humanize the brand. When you use video ads in the retargeting layer, you can show your team and what you do to users who visit your website to get to know and remember you better.

4. LinkedIn Event Ads

LinkedIn Event Ads are designed to promote events on users’ feeds. These ads focus on essential event details, such as the webinar title, company name, and event time.

Here are some compelling reasons to consider this ad type:

• Increased Social Proof: The more attendees an event has, the more attractive it becomes. LinkedIn Event Ads dynamically update the number of attendees, creating a sense of urgency and encouraging more people to join.
• Organic Reach and Engagement: Event ads can also boost organic promotion. When users sign up for your event, personal notifications are generated within their network, expanding your reach.
• Invitations to Personal Connections: Unlike other LinkedIn ads, you can invite your connections to attend your event, creating a more personalized approach.
• Retargeting Opportunities: Those who attend your event become a valuable retargeting audience, enhancing your marketing efforts.

LinkedIn events and event ads combine paid advertising with community building, making them an effective engagement and lead-generation strategy.

5. LinkedIn Document Ads

LinkedIn Document Ads are designed to share your content directly within the LinkedIn feed. These ads allow users to access and download documents without leaving the platform. Whether you’re sharing thought leadership pieces, valuable resources, or informative content, Document Ads can help you engage your target audience effectively.

Here are the key advantages of using LinkedIn Document Ads:

• Boosting Awareness and Building Trust: Share educational content and establish yourself as a thought leader within your industry, building trust and connections with your audience.
• Quality Lead Generation: Using LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms, you can turn curious clicks into high-quality leads, facilitating meaningful interactions.
• Understanding Audience Interests: Gain insights into document engagement to refine your marketing strategy at every stage of the funnel.

6. LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads

LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads enable you to sponsor personal posts from your LinkedIn ad account and target them to your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). These ads allow for specific audience targeting, budget allocation, performance monitoring, and user interaction retargeting.

What sets Thought Leader Ads apart is their authenticity. They resemble regular personal posts rather than traditional ads, which helps convey your message more effectively.

Here’s why Thought Leader Ads are a compelling choice:

• Authentic Appearance: Thought Leader Ads avoid the typical corporate or sales-oriented feel associated with traditional ads, making them more appealing and engaging.
• Humanizing Your Brand: These ads humanize your brand by presenting information from real people within your organization, fostering a deeper connection between your audience and the individuals behind the brand.
• Positioning yourself as an Expert: Thought Leader Ads showcase your organization's subject matter expertise, building trust and credibility among potential clients.

7. LinkedIn Message Ads

LinkedIn message ads are almost identical to conversation ads. The only difference between them is that a conversation ad has multiple choice buttons that you can have at the bottom, while a message ad is just a straight message.

8. LinkedIn Conversation Ads

Conversation ads involve sending a message to the person’s inbox that looks like it’s coming from a personal LinkedIn account. They show up as a sponsored InMail, which contains multiple-choice options for the prospect to choose from, with each option either sending them to a URL or delivering a reply.

So it could be like, “Hey, First Name. I noticed you were checking out our website…did you have any questions?” and then it could have three options, like “Take another look”, “watch a quick demo,” and “book a call.” Each button could either go to answer or send them to a website, a call booking link, or something like that.

LinkedIn conversation ads need to be hyper-targeted because you’re charged per send. You should get super narrow on a specific industry, company size, and even who within those companies you’re targeting so that your message could be super personalized, like “Hey Jeff, I notice you’re the CMO of a software company here in Texas...”.

If you want to use these in the cold layer, we recommend leveraging intent data. If you could get a conference list of everyone who attended a relevant conference, and you send out a cold email and say, “Hey, I noticed that you were at Inbound 2024. I’d love to get your thoughts on …”. 

You can also use conversation ads in the retargeting phase. After they visit your website, you hit them with a conversation ad, but it’s specific to an industry. For example, our retargeting message would sound like, “Hey, I noticed that you were checking out our website and that you run a marketing agency. I wasn’t sure if you saw this, but we offer white-label solutions. We’d be happy to talk more about x, y, and z.”

While it’s a great way to get your prospect’s attention directly, it can be costly. Because you pay per send, you can’t send a million of them, so you need to be much more targeted.

9. LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms

LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms serve as both ad types and objectives, specifically designed for lead capture. These forms can feature videos or images and include a prominent call-to-action button. Unlike traditional ads that direct users to external landing pages, Lead Gen Forms provide a seamless experience within the LinkedIn platform.

The primary goal of LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms is to encourage prospects to provide their contact information in exchange for valuable gated assets. These assets can include ebooks, checklists, industry trend reports, and case studies. Once users submit the form, they become a lead, initiating the lead nurturing process.

10. LinkedIn Spotlight Ads

This type of ad is relatively inexpensive. You can get 10x more impressions with the same spend as the in-feed ones, and I think it’s because they’re just underused.

Some ways to use spotlight ads were using those for webinar sign-ups or even advertising a video like, “Hey, want to learn how to do X, Y, or Z?” watch this quick video, and click send them to a YouTube link or a prerecorded webinar or a landing page.

The call to action button is customizable. Instead of “learn more” or “click here,” it can be “watch this three-minute video,” “subscribe to our channel,” or anything else you want.

11. LinkedIn Follower Ads

A LinkedIn follower ad encourages users to follow or visit your LinkedIn page. This is a little ad to the right of the home feed with a few lines you can customize. It’s a short text (like one sentence at the top) and pulls in the prospect's profile picture.

Each person viewing the ad sees a customized version. For example, if I’m viewing the ad, it might have my profile picture and say, “Hey, Janhavi,” followed by a quick message.

Unlike the LinkedIn spotlight ads, which are customizable regarding what you want the call-to-action button to say and where you want the CTA to take them (you could put any URL you want as the destination), LinkedIn follower ads provide a couple of default CTA options.

If the prospect is following you, the CTA will say, “Visit company,” if they’re not, the CTA button will be “Follow.” 

12. LinkedIn Text Ads

LinkedIn text ads are simple ads that can be placed at the top or right of the feed. They will not get a ton of clicks just because they go unnoticed, but they do a good job of peppering someone’s feed and staying in front of prospects for a really low cost.

Depending on your goals and the funnel stage, you can strategically use different destinations for the prospect. For example, we funnel our ads to the AdPilot landing page so our prospects know our newest offering.

Compare your ads with LinkedIn AdVisor

Once you’ve launched your campaign, it’s natural to wonder how your ads stack up to your competitors. Well, with AdVisor, you no longer have to wonder! 

At Factors, we’ve launched LinkedIn AdVisor as your ad campaign sidekick. It’s a tool that helps you compare your ad strategy with your competitors'.

From creatives, copy, and ad formats, AdVisor analyses their top 50 ad campaigns and tells you how to differentiate your offering from your competitors. 

Wrapping up

As you can see, there are plenty of ad formats to choose from. However, you must also ensure that your ads bring revenue to your organization and not just burn a hole in your pocket. With AdPilot, you can maximize your LinkedIn efforts and 2x your campaign ROI.

Book a demo today to save ad spend with AdPilot🧑‍✈️

Running LinkedIn ads isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. With the ever-changing algorithms and new updates, it can be hard for even the best marketing professionals to understand how to optimize their ads. Plus, targeting ads in Europe, where there is a wide range of linguistic barriers and time differences, can be complicated. 

That’s where LinkedIn ad agencies come in. But how do you choose the right agency for your business needs?

Not to worry; we’ve come up with a list of the top LinkedIn agencies in Europe that you can evaluate and partner with, to take your ad campaigns to the next level 📈

What to look for before investing in a LinkedIn ad agency

Before diving into the list, it's crucial to understand what makes a LinkedIn ad agency stand out. Here are some key factors to consider:

1. Proven Expertise in LinkedIn Ads

Look for agencies that specialize in LinkedIn advertising rather than offering it as part of a broader suite of services. Search for certifications, case studies, and client testimonials demonstrating their expertise.

2. Industry Experience

Different industries require different approaches on LinkedIn. Agencies with experience in your specific sector will better understand your target audience, messaging, and campaign strategies.

3. Customizable Service Offerings

A good LinkedIn ad agency should offer tailored solutions rather than one-size-fits-all packages. Flexibility is key when you need full campaign management or specific services like creative design or A/B testing.

4. Transparent Reporting

Transparency is essential in digital marketing. Ensure the agency provides detailed, easy-to-understand reports that track key metrics like CTR, conversion rates, and ROI.

5. Innovative Approach

LinkedIn’s advertising landscape is constantly evolving. Agencies that stay ahead of the curve by adopting new features, ad formats, and strategies will give your campaigns a competitive edge.

6. Client Communication

Effective communication is crucial for a successful partnership. The agency should be responsive, easy to reach, and proactive in providing updates and recommendations.

Top 5 LinkedIn Agencies in Europe

Now that you know what to look for, here’s our curated list of the top LinkedIn agencies in Europe, along with insights into their services and specializations:

1. Getuplead

Website: Getuplead

Overview: Getuplead is a digital marketing agency focused on driving B2B lead generation through various platforms, with a strong emphasis on LinkedIn. They offer a comprehensive approach to LinkedIn advertising, from account audits to detailed targeting and content strategies.

Why Choose Them: Getuplead's service is tailored for B2B companies looking to leverage LinkedIn's professional network to generate high-quality leads. They excel in creating customized ad campaigns that resonate with specific target audiences. Their methodical approach to campaign management ensures that every ad dollar is maximized for ROI.

Pricing: Specific pricing is not listed on their website, but they offer consultations to discuss potential campaigns and costs.

2. Eskimoz

Website: Eskimoz

Overview: Eskimoz is a leading LinkedIn Ads agency that focuses on helping B2B companies reach highly qualified audiences. Their services include precise targeting, ad creation, and continuous optimization of campaigns to ensure maximum ROI.

Why Choose Them: Eskimoz is known for its expert handling of LinkedIn's various ad formats, including Sponsored Messaging, Video Ads, and Dynamic Ads. They bring a deep understanding of LinkedIn's algorithms and targeting capabilities, making them a strong partner for companies aiming to improve their brand awareness and lead generation on the platform.

Pricing: Pricing details are not openly available, but they focus on providing value through performance-driven campaigns.

3. Fill My Funnel

Website: Fill My Funnel

Overview: Fill My Funnel is a specialized LinkedIn marketing agency dedicated to B2B businesses. Their services cover every aspect of LinkedIn advertising, from initial audits and strategy development to ongoing optimization and reporting.

Why Choose Them: Led by Tom Tigwell, one of the top 30 LinkedIn Ads experts globally, Fill My Funnel stands out for its deep expertise and proven track record in driving growth for B2B companies. They employ a holistic approach, integrating LinkedIn ads seamlessly into broader marketing strategies.

Pricing: They offer free consultations to discuss potential strategies and pricing based on the specific needs of your business.

4. Coseom

Website: Coseom

Overview: Coseom is a digital marketing agency with a strong emphasis on LinkedIn advertising for B2B companies. They provide end-to-end services, from strategy formulation to campaign management, with a focus on generating high-quality leads.

Why Choose Them: Coseom is particularly suited for companies looking for a comprehensive approach to LinkedIn marketing. They combine their expertise in digital marketing with a focus on LinkedIn’s unique strengths to create campaigns that drive engagement and conversions.

Pricing: Pricing information is typically discussed during consultations, tailored to the specific requirements of each campaign.

5. DGTL Base

Website: DGTL Base

Overview: DGTL Base is a digital marketing agency that offers specialized LinkedIn advertising services. They focus on creating targeted campaigns that help B2B companies reach their ideal audience on LinkedIn.

Why Choose Them: DGTL Base is known for its data-driven approach to LinkedIn advertising, ensuring that every aspect of a campaign is optimized for the best possible performance. Their expertise in managing LinkedIn’s ad formats and targeting options makes them a valuable partner for businesses aiming to enhance their LinkedIn presence.

Pricing: DGTL Base provides custom quotes based on the scope and objectives of the campaign.

Want to run ads in-house? AdPilot to the rescue

Choosing the right LinkedIn ad agency can significantly impact your marketing success. Whether you’re looking for a data-driven approach, creative excellence, or specialized industry expertise, the agencies listed above offer some of the best LinkedIn advertising services in Europe. Take the time to assess your specific needs, review each agency’s strengths, and select the partner that aligns best with your business goals.

However, if you want to take things in-house, look no further than Factors LinkedIn AdPilot! From intent based impression control to automated campaign management, AdPilot can help you save ad spend while doubling your LinkedIn ROI! Book a demo today to see how AdPilot can be a game-changer for your LinkedIn campaigns.