The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of LinkedIn Ads

This week, I was researching LinkedIn ad creatives for one of my upcoming marketing courses.

First, I scrolled my feed: only the bad and the ugly.

Defeated and bored, I resorted to the LinkedIn Ad Library and checked the high-growth B2B brands. What I found was the day to my LI feed's night.

What high-growth B2B brands do differently:

1. Experimentation ➡️ 50+ active ad creatives
2. Proven best practices ➡️ top-performing ad types
3. Irresistible validation ➡️ numbers, offers, social proof

Top-performing LinkedIn ad types

As I wrote in a LinkedIn post this Monday: B2B advertisers should stop saying "LinkedIn ads are expensive."

... and, instead, start doing: Launch new ad creative experiments 4x per month.

After creating LinkedIn ad strategies for 10+ brands, and designing 150+ creatives, here's what I've seen succeed:

1. Comparison v.s. competitors
2. Client & partner logos = 10x trust
3. Downloadable reports as Lead ads
4. Case studies, testimonials, ratings
5. Offers & numbers that prove efficiency
6. UGC-style videos w/ humane approach

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🪡 Needles in a haystack

Things that cut through the internet noise + what I've been reading, listening, watching, liking, thinking.

Alex Murrell wrote an excellent rant on The age of average and I couldn't agree more. It's dismaying – and yet fascinating – to see the image compilations by Alex.

"This article that argues that from film to fashion and architecture to advertising, creative fields have become dominated and defined by convention and cliché. Distinctiveness has died. In every field we look at, we find that everything looks the same."

The Atlantic article on Reddit's botched attempt to bring AI-generated answers to its platform (the redditors hate it).

A guy on LinkedIn went (sort of) viral after he attempted to get HubSpot's CEO Dharmesh Shah to accept his connection request "after 1+ year in pending limbo." Sometimes, even the wildest dreams come true...

Instagram is testing a dislike button for comments. My special request: a button for flagging AI-generated content.

Film recs: Anora & The Apprentice 
​I spent last weekend in recovery mode watching films. Succession being the only TV series I've given my time to in the past 5y, I enjoyed seeing Jeremy Strong in his NYC power broker role. The arts of the deal that Trump nicked from his mentor ("never admit defeat," "it's chaos out there") sadly also ring true in today's daily news.

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Thanks for reading!
Have a good one, and stay clear of AI.

Karola