With a search-based platform such as Google, we can hit people up who have super high intent. I.e. they are both problem and solution aware. They are actively searching for a solution. 

This is awesome, but actually, Google is not very scalable for B2B SaaS (mostly). 

For example, let’s say the problem a person has is that they are overweight and they have decided the solution is to join the gym. So they are actively searching ‘gyms near me’ 

But for B2B SaaS this becomes a little more difficult for two reasons. 

The first is that many B2B SaaS companies are in a new market segment so there is very little if any people searching for the solution. You may have an amazing solution, but people are not yet aware this solution even exists.  

The second issue for B2B more generally, is that often the keyword search volume is very low. So there is only so much juice you can get from search. 

This is why we have to use social to scale B2B demand generation.  

The problem and solution aware segment in your market is on average only 2-4%. This is great, but if you only focus on this you will hit a roof very quickly. 

The next part of the market is problem aware and not solution aware and is roughly 45% of your market segment. These people know they are overweight, for example, but they do not know if they should join the gym, get a personal trainer, or buy some supplements. 

They are not solution aware yet which means they are not searching for a solution. 

We need to approach this market segment in a very different way than we do with search and the only way to target them at scale is with social media (Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Tick Tok etc). 

We should speak to their problem and slowly educate them on our solution. Help them on their journey from problem aware to solution aware rather than asking them directly to buy something from us. 

This is why many google advertisers approach social ads in the completely wrong way. They are going straight for the ‘speak to sales’ type ad. But we must lead with value and educate them on how to solve their problems first. Build goodwill and brand awareness first. 

Although this sounds like a roundabout way to get sales, if we get a large number of prospects going through this system, we can hit up a large segment of your market (up to 50%) with this approach from social media. 

And for B2B businesses, Linkedin is most probably the best platform.

Now, when we went through the most important reasons why LinkedIn is better than any other network you might be eager to learn more about how to target your audience the best. Look no more, as you can sign up for my free course HERE that will teach you how to master LinkedIn targeting in no time!

The two most important questions to ask while crafting the perfect LinkedIn ads strategy.

Who are Linkedin ads for? Note, they are not for everyone, I tell more people that they should use another platform then sign them up as clients and push a LinkedIn ads strategy. Everyone thinks Linkedin would be great for them, but actually, it is a little more nuanced. 

The two questions I ask when I have someone on the phone with me who is considering Linkedin ads are:

What is your lifetime value (LTV)? 

With Linkedin, I would say you need to have at least a $10,000 LTV or deal size to make it work. The reason why is that the Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is higher. This does not mean your ROI is lower though, as we can reach bigger accounts with bigger deal sizes – but this depends on your business model. 

Who are you targeting? 

If you’re targeting someone who’s on another platform, it may be better to focus on that platform. However, if you’re targeting the C-suite to decision-makers, all the way up to the Fortune 500, then Linkedin may be the only place to reach these people at scale. 

In some cases, a company might have two market segments where they might be targeting SMBs which we can target on Facebook, and larger accounts, which we can use Linkedin for.