I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve suggested LinkedIn ads to a business, only to hear the same reaction: “But isn’t LinkedIn really expensive?” LinkedIn can be expensive—but it doesn’t have to be. According to Databox’s recent research on LinkedIn ads cost, the median cost-per-click (CPC) for LinkedIn ads is $5.78. While I don’t focus solely on CPC, one of my campaigns generated webinar leads for just $3.14 USD (CA$4.50)—lower than the average CPC many advertisers pay. And guess what? Those weren’t just cheap leads. They were profitable. For $875 USD (CA$1,250.46) in ad spend, the campaign brought in $2,949 USD in sales—from leads in the US, UK, and Canada, where clicks aren’t exactly cheap. If you’ve been avoiding LinkedIn ads because of “cost,” you might miss out. That’s why I’m sharing this case study—to break down how I achieved these results. LinkedIn Ads crushed Facebook Ads in performance—here’s why Not only was the cost per lead higher on Facebook, but the ROAS was significantly lower. With $519 in ad spend, Facebook generated just $697 in sales, whereas LinkedIn delivered $2,949 in sales from $875 in ad spend. While these results shouldn’t be generalized across all campaigns, they highlight LinkedIn’s advantage for B2B targeting. The campaign promoted a course helping SEO professionals become Tech SEO specialists. On Facebook, targeting by job title resulted in an estimated audience size of fewer than 1,000 people. In contrast, LinkedIn’s audience size for the same criteria was over 94,000. This highlights two major issues with Facebook’s B2B targeting: 1. Many users don’t enter their job titles—or they make them up Unlike LinkedIn, Facebook isn’t built for professional credibility. Many users leave job titles blank. Others? They just make something up. How bad is it? Facebook has 24,000 so-called CEOs working at Apple, Google, or Microsoft. A while back, I ran ads for a client who wanted real CEOs as followers. When I checked who was liking the page, I found one with this impressive title: “CEO at Making Love.” Not exactly the executive we were hoping for. 2. Facebook’s interest targeting is way too broad Many assume interest targeting means reaching a page’s followers or people genuinely passionate about a topic. In reality, it’s much broader. Explaining how Facebook’s targeting works could fill an entire blog post, so I wrote one on Facebook ads targeting myths. But to illustrate the issue here, let’s look at “search engine optimization” as an interest. A few years ago, a university made headlines for spending $175,000 on SEO to bury images of police pepper-spraying student protesters. Simply by engaging with that news article on Facebook, users can be targeted by the SEO interest even if they are not SEO professionals. I’m not saying B2B ads don’t work on Facebook. I still run them successfully. But if you want real precision? LinkedIn’s targeting leaves Facebook in the dust. The secret to creating high-performing LinkedIn Ads Data from Databox’s LinkedIn Ads Benchmark Group shows that the median LinkedIn Ads CTR is 0.5%. If your ads achieve a CTR 2–3 times higher than this average, it strongly indicates that your message resonates with your audience. A high CTR not only signals engagement but also helps you secure cheaper traffic. Below is a screenshot showing the CTR of some of my ads. Thanks to an above-average CTR, I was able to bid just CA$1.14 per landing page click—significantly lower than LinkedIn’s suggested bid of CA$18.87 at the time. In an exceptional case, one of my client’s ads achieved a CTR of 5.7%, allowing me to bid just $0.70 per click while still driving traffic. By now, you might be wondering: “This sounds great in theory, but how do you actually create high-CTR ads?” That’s exactly what we’ll explore in the next section. Crafting high-quality ad copy takes time—but it pays back big time Good ad copy is 90% research—reading and listening—and only 10% writing. Once you have enough strong content and compelling stories, the ad isn’t written; it’s assembled. For this project, the Tech SEO course was promoted via a webinar. I watched it twice, took detailed notes, and then followed up with the client, asking targeted questions to dig deeper and uncover even more content for the ads. Beyond that, I immersed myself in the topic—reading discussions in relevant Reddit communities, listening to podcast interviews featuring the client, and more. People are often surprised when I say I’ll spend two hours listening to podcasts on a topic—or interview 4 to 5 clients who’ve actually used the product—before writing a single line of copy. The alternative? Skipping the research and paying for it with higher LinkedIn ad costs. Up next: I’ll show you two examples of the ads I ran. Want your ads to stand out? Use storytelling and long-form copy to grab attention and keep it The ad copy below uses storytelling to address a common misconception: that you need to be a developer to master Tech SEO. Why storytelling? It’s the perfect tool for battling our short attention spans online. Our brains are wired to care about how a story ends. Even better, research from The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human by Will Storr shows that stories trigger the release of chemicals like dopamine and oxytocin in our brains, helping us stay focused. On the other hand, The 2nd ad tackled a key question: “Why should I care about Tech SEO? What’s in it for me?” It didn’t just tell people—it proved it, using data from trusted industry sources. Want to learn more about writing persuasive long-form ad copy? Check out Copyhackers’ long form ad copy blog post. It’s about Facebook ads, but the same tactics work for LinkedIn, too. Next, I’ll explain how to write hooks that grab attention, stop the scroll, and get your ad noticed. How to write engaging LinkedIn Ad copy with hooks When users scroll through their newsfeed, they’ll only see the first 140 characters of your ad before the “See More” button cuts off the rest of your text. That’s why I start my ads with a strong hook—to grab attention and make people click “See More” to keep reading. Hooks can take many forms, such as: A Story: Like the ad telling the story of crying when needing to upload a robots.txt file, stories with drama are good at capturing attention. An Analogy: Comparisons help people understand complex ideas. For instance, I once wrote an ad explaining that learning a foreign language is more like running a marathon than sprinting. A Statistic or a Fact: Hard data grabs attention, as in the Ahrefs survey, showing that Tech SEO professionals can earn $200,000 annually. If the statistic is surprising or unexpected, it’s even more impactful. I once started an ad with, “Did you know we now consume 15.2 times more sugar than people did in 1800?” A Misconception: Challenging myths makes people stop and think. In an ad for a language course, I tackled the belief that kids learn languages faster, pointing out that it’s really about their free time and persistence. A Vivid Description of a Problem or Struggle: Describe their struggle so well, they think, Are they in my head? Your hook isn’t just an opener. It’s the difference between an ad they scroll past—and one they must read. But aren’t LinkedIn ads limited to 600 characters? You might think, Wait—LinkedIn ads are capped at 600 characters. But the ones you shared look way longer. How come? Good catch. If you create an ad inside LinkedIn’s ad manager, you’re stuck with that 600-character limit. But there’s a workaround. LinkedIn lets you turn existing posts into ads, similar to boosting a post. So, I first publish the ad as an organic post on the LinkedIn page. Then, I select that post and run it as an ad. How I reduced lead costs by improving landing page conversions Below is a screenshot of the first landing page where the ads sent traffic. The landing page converted at 17.6%—which is good, but there was room for improvement. Kristina Azarenko, the genius behind the webinar and course, has been delivering exceptional content for years. Blog posts. Podcast interviews. Emails. Speaking gigs. People familiar with her work are highly likely to sign up for the webinar. But with ads, I was targeting a cold audience. They didn’t know Kristina yet, and they didn’t know why they should care about this webinar. So, I had to make the value crystal clear in the headline. So, we changed the headline to: “How to Become a Pro in Technical SEO and Charge $5k for a Tech SEO Audit—Without Becoming a Developer.” This headline clearly communicates the tangible benefit of becoming a technical SEO expert, and that change alone boosted the landing page conversion rate from 17.6% to 32.5%. In advertising, the headline above the fold is crucial. It’s the first thing people see, and it’s what drives interest or kills it, especially when you’re dealing with a cold audience that doesn’t yet have a reason to care. Conclusion When I started this post, I planned to cover ad settings that help prevent wasted budgets. But then I realized that everyone in the LinkedIn ads space already talks about avoiding the Audience Network and Audience Expansion. No need to repeat what’s been said. What almost no one talks about? Ad copy that actually sells. As a LinkedIn ads expert, I’ve seen too many companies overpay for ads simply because their copy doesn’t connect with their audience. That’s why I focused this post on writing ads that convert. A few weeks ago, I was on a coaching call with a renewable energy company in South Africa. They applied my copywriting tips—and landed two potential multimillion-dollar projects from companies that reached out directly on LinkedIn. Before that? LinkedIn had generated zero leads for them. Stories like this are why I’m passionate about copywriting. Ad settings stop you from wasting money. Good copy turns clicks into cash. And if you want to track how your LinkedIn ads are really performing—beyond just clicks—tools like Databox can help you visualize key metrics in one place and spot opportunities to optimize for better results.