Remotion: LinkedIn Ads Agency

We've been around since 2016. But back in 2019, we decided to double down on LinkedIn Ads, and never looked back.

As a culture — we’ve chosen to be the best in the world at what we do.

In a world of mediocre marketers and so-so agencies — this goes against the grain.

This is what makes us renegades.

Founder and CEO

K Logic Future Marketing

K Logic is Israel's top digital marketing agency. We specialize in Paid and Organic Search, Paid Social, Content Marketing/Inbound Marketing, Lead Generation, Analytics & Optimization, Creative, Strategy & Planning.

Main point of contact for our Internationally facing clients including many of the country's top-tier start-ups and Enterprises, including: 

- Outbrain
- FeeX
- Cloudinary
- Clicksoftware
- NICE Systems
- Checkmarx
- Incapsula (Imperva)
- Nanorep
- Landa 
- Datorama
- Mysupermarket

Role includes (but certainly not limited to): 

Meeting and liaising with clients to discuss and identify their advertising requirements;
Working with agency colleagues to plan strategies that meets the client's KPIs and budget;
Presenting, alongside agency colleagues (particularly the campaign manager), the plan, strategy and ideas to the client.
On-going monitoring and reporting of the performance of campaigns.
Pitching (along with agency colleagues) to new clients to win new business for the agency.

International Account Manager

TokenAds

TokenAds (currently Woobi) is an in-game ad-network. 

As Head of Publisher Biz Dev, I was responsible for, and ran the team that; prospected for, contacted, communicated or meeting with and closed publisher relationships with worldwide publishers and developers of games, be they mobile, social or web.

Head of Publisher Business Development

Stats Horizon

Co-Founder

Remotion: The LinkedIn Ads Agency

We just do LinkedIn Ads for B2B tech. 

That's it. 

Getting LinkedIn Ads to work isn’t rocket science, but it does require expert knowledge.

We’ve been specializing in LinkedIn Ads, and B2B for SaaS, since 2016. 

From lead generation to B2B brand building and demand generation — whatever your strategy is — we’ve got the deep experience needed to help you scale.

Gabriel Ehrlich 

Going quiet here this week and next.

We finally made it to New England.
Our first two trips got cancelled due to war-related flight cancellations - but we're finally here! 

Got in to Boston Monday morning, had jetlag and shitty weather, but took the kiddos to the science museum which was rad.

Yesterday we drove up to New Hampshire and saw of that foliage I've heard so much about. Nice! 

Today we ate pancakes and did some hiking.

So far I can testify that new England in the fall is pretty damn gorgeous. 🍂 🍁 

Cathing up with some emails now, and happy to see how well my team manages with out me. We've come a long way since the days everything would fall apart without me.

On Wednesday we drive to Burlington and my two youngest kids will become US citizens 🇺🇸🦅

Didn't write any posts in advance this time, so you'll have to live without my wisdom for another week or so 😅

Just got back from our trip to New England (Boston, then NH and VT) 

Random stuff:

1. First off... y'all have been gatekeeping Autumn from the rest of us! 
Who else knew there were more than 2 seasons?? 
2. Lobster rolls are delicious, and my new favorite food.
3. The kids were not as excited about the color of the leaves as I was. 
4. However, I managed to drag them on several hikes. It helped that I told them I'd give them candy if they made it to the top without complaining. 
5. Driving in the states is so less stressful.
6. We went to a bunch of places that time seemed to have forgotten... including an arcade with the largest collection of vintage arcade games and pinball machines in the world. You could still smell the cigarette smoke in the carpet! 
7. I saw a porcupine, a chipmunk and flocks of wild turkeys!
8. I barely worked - and didn't really check out LinkedIn at all, which is unusual for me.
9. I forgot how spread out everything is in the US, how big it is, and less crowded. I often felt this sense that there was something really blessed about that land. 
10. On the other hand, something felt a bit lonely about life there. Maybe I'm projecting though?
11. We FINALLY, got the citizenship process done for the kiddos, and they are officially US citizens. 
12. And about that. The USA is still a fantastic country. I've been all over the place, and there really is something amazing about that land (physically) and the people who inhabit that land. As corny as it might sound to some, I really am proud to be an American, and proud my kids are too.

Starting an agency was one of the best moves I ever made, but at first I hated it. 

See for the first few years on my own, life was awesome. 

I had a handful of amazing clients, I got to do my own thing and didn't have to really do anything except make sure I had a steady flow of clients and deliver great work.

But in 2019 things really started to heat up with LinkedIn Ads. 

It's hard to explain what this platform was like before, but it was a lot less active, and LinkedIn Ads wasn't a huge priority for a lot of B2B SaaS marketers. 

But starting around 2018, it really started to pick up (note: startups raised $342B in 2018, compared to $176B in 2016, the year I started), and it felt like I'd stumbled across something amazing that I needed to grab by the horns.

In 2020, I hired my first people.
2020 was also the year of Covid - which turned out to be crazy good for B2B SaaS, and in 2021 startups raised over $621B. Budgets skyrocketed and so did our client base. 

I had to figure it all out at once. It wasn't easy. 
Somewhere along the way I became kind of miserable. 

I really hated managing people, giving feedback, firing people. It sucked. 

But in the last couple years that's really fallen into place. I have an incredible team and I've found the right balance for myself in terms of where I need to get involved and where I need to let go. 

Looking back, it's been - by far - the most rewarding chapter of my professional life thus far. 

It's not for everyone. I made a lot of sacrifices to make this happen, and there's no way, not in a million years that I'd be able to do all this - and have a family and be a dad to 3 kids - with the love and support of my partner Yael Klein Ehrlich ⚡

This is Remotion's 10th year, and next year we start a new decade. 
Hoping it'll be just as interesting and rewarding as the last one. 
🍻

I took my middle son camping this week with his two best friends.

It was not convenient timing for me. 

This year, the holiday season in Israel fell right at the end of Q3, and October started last week - and I'm in the middle of onboarding a new finance person.

On top of that, we're all flying to the states next week, so I just don't have a ton of time.

And I was reallllly tempted to cancel at the last minute. 
I knew I'd be stressed about payments and invoices, and was worried I would really be awesome on the camping trip. 

But I did a little mental math and realized that long run, the memory of this trip with him, at this age (he's just turning 6) was literally priceless - while everything else was just work. It could wait.

I'm really glad I made that decision. 
The little dude thrives in nature, and the smile didn't leave his face the whole trip. We kayaked, splashed around in the river, BBQ'd, marshmellowed, and he played with his buddies in the campground, which was in the middle of a pecan orchard. 

Yesterday morning, he woke me up in the tent with a snuggle, and looked at me with his bright blue eyes and asked me why I love him so much. 

I told him that when he was born, a light switched on inside my heart that made my heart so happy, and that he put that light in my heart. 
So obviously, I love him forever.

He said he loves grandma the most, because she buys him treats and hot wheels. I said that's cool, that's cool, that's a good enough reason to love grandma the most. 

On the long drive back, I had to keep him awake (parents, iykyk) as the sun started to set. 

Every 5 minutes or so, I'd tell him to look at the sky and tell me what colors he sees. 

At first gold, then pink, the purple... he got excited whenever he spotted a new color and that kept him awake. 

I asked him if he had a good time camping. 

He said no, that he was sad because he wanted to stay there for more days.
I said that's how you know you had a good time.

Since early this year, we have pivoted heavily into Thought Leader Ads. 

Not just for Remotion (though we now spend >80% of our ad spend on those), but for nearly all of our clients.

Why? 
It's working. 

It's working because: 
1. It's the most "native" form of advertising on LinkedIn.
2. It's the most "natural" way to tell your story.
3. People tend to resonate more with other people. 

Almost all of our "big wins" for clients this year have been with TLA. 

But not everyone has been seeing success with them. 

Here's the thing: 
For some companies, it's easy to press "launch" on a 7-page white paper campaign, than it is to tell your brand's story in plain language, directly from you or your CEO's profile. 

Writing a great headline and design a great banner ad is one thing. 
But not everyone is able to tell a great story.

That's why we've been stepping up our game in this regard. 
We've been guiding our clients - slowly but surely - to create TL posts that actually drive pipeline. 

And for those who still haven't been able to crack it - we've started to offer TLA-centric ghost-writing services. 

_______________
p.s., Want to find out if we think we could help you with your LinkedIn Ads generally, and TLA specifically? Drop me a DM, we'll schedule time to chat.

Should I hire an SDR? 
Serious question, and I'd love any advice/feedback from anyone...

I've never done much outbound... only the really occasional to someone if I really felt we could be of help, maybe once every 3 months. Nothing structured or anything like that. 

The story is I've traditionally relied heavily on word-of-mouth, organic and my own LI Ads, I want to diversify my channels to hedge a bit. 

But here's what I'm worried about: 
1. Will it damage our brand? Do you think less of agencies that cold outbound? 
2. How good a job will I do of managing an SDR if I've never really seen this done before. I'm so used to managing for stuff that I've done, that I get nervous about managing for stuff I haven't. 

Looking for real, honest feedback from anyone here.
Also, if this is something you'd be interested in - shoot me a message and tell me why.

99% of you are still doing LinkedIn Ads wrong. 

In the last year or so, the whole way LinkedIn Ads works has evolved...

We used to deal with two main campaign types: 
- Gated content
- Ungated content
- Demo Campaigns 

Each had their pros and cons.

Back in the day, CPCs were $10-$15, and you could reliably get leads from gated content - and if you knew how to work them, it worked. 

If you were able to crack Demo campaigns those worked too. 

But with the cost of CPCs skyrocketing, costs are increasing at the same time that conversion rates are declining. 

Thought Leader Ads are the wild card here. 

We've doubled down on using these with our clients - and we're seeing numbers we haven't seen in a long time. 

A big part of what we're doing differently these days, is we spend a lot more time working with our clients on these ads than before - we have a good idea of what works and what doesn't here...

So now we're running both top-funnel and bottom-funnel content with TLA - and it's really working. The top funnel stuff, when done correctly - gets engagement rates that are 10x a typical ad - allowing us to reach way more of your TAM. 

And the bottom funnel? 
We're using TLA to get actual hand-raisers from your website. 

If this sounds too good to be true, I get it. 
I didn't believe it first either - but it's real. 

So, if this is not what's happening for you right now - don't worry, you're not alone. But if you want us to help you figure this out - just shoot me a message and we can hop on a call and see if we can help.

The biggest mistake people make about LinkedIn Ads is thinking it's one of these things:

1. You either think LinkedIn Ads is a pure performance play, should be perfectly attributed and ROI positive way too fast. 

2. You take the opposite position. That LinkedIn Ads is all about brand awareness, getting in front your audience, and that it can't really deliver measurable pipeline so why bother trying.

The first way of thinking is a dead end. 
It will almost never work like this. 
You will be disappointed and stop after a few weeks or a few months.

The second way of thinking will also take you nowhere.
Yes, you can tell yourself a story about audience penetration and engagement, but when you can't attach it to pipeline, too often you end up making invisible mistakes that waste all your money. 

When everything is about efficiency - you will optimize your way to 0.
When nothing is about efficiency, you might get some happy accidents, but you won't understand what's actually working and what isn't.

Take a holistic approach. 
Strategically, from a ROI perspective - look at self-reported attribution, combined with regular attribution and CAPI to get a sense - imperfect as it is - of profitability. Consider that whatever you're doing will take time, maybe a long time, to work it's way into your pipeline - so widen your lens.

And then focus intensely on the following two things: 
1. Audience. Make sure you're getting in front of the right people. That doesn't mean excluding everyone that isn't 1000% your ICP. It means taking a maximalist view of your TAM and try to reach as much of it as you can. Make sure the right people are seeing you, even if that means that some of the wrong people are too. 

2. Message/creative. What are you actually saying/offering to your audience?
Are you building the memories in their brains that will get them to remember your brand when they need your product/service? 

The audience part is easy (for me at least) having spent nearly 10 years on this platform. 

The message part is hard. Very hard. 
Especially for startups. Especially B2B startups in tech. 

Most of you do not understand that saying "10X your Revenue" is not messaging, saying "Unlock your Growth" is not either. If you can't figure out what people need to hear in order to understand what it is you can offer them - things are going to be hard for you.

"Our current ads are failing! We need help to build linkedin ads that have more impact

Current spend is around £3k a month. There is no reason why we couldn't spend £10k+ if we could prove the ROI." - real message from a lead that came in last week.

This kind of message is surprisingly common. 
I get two or three of these per week.

B2B SaaS company is spending money on LI Ads, but it's not working. 
They're only spending a few grand per month. 
They can spend more, but only if ROI is proven.

- I go to their website. Company is 30 years old, yet sells itself as an AI-based solution. The copy is vague and uncompelling. The design is bland and outdated, with corporate design and stock images.
- Their content is also what you'd expect. Cookie-cutter topics and design. No personality, nothing that stands out.
- The creatve, more of the same. Bland. Template-y, paint-by-numbers ads.

I haven't spoken to them yet - and it's very likely that the campaigns themselves are totally off, maybe using LAN or other weird stuff with targeting, maybe bidding is too high, etc. So many things that could be wrong here, very easily, without it even being the low budget or weak creative.

Before even speaking with them, I already know two things: 
- They do not prioritize marketing. 
- They will only invest in something if they can prove it delivers ROI.

Problem is, you can't have one without the other. 
It's like saying you will only go to the gym more often if you see results, meanwhile you eat junk food, smoke cigarettes and drink too much beer.

There's no judgement on my part. 
Every business is different, and what works for one, might not work for another. 

Many, many, CEOs do not understand or really care for marketing - and have a real aversion to advertising in particular. 

I speak to these CEOs once in a while. 
They tell me how much their team wasted over the years on ads without ROI - as if that proves that it simply doesn't work - not that they're bad at it.

And if they've been bad at it for years and years, despite VPs of Marketing coming and going and coming and going, they assume it's just "marketing and advertising" that are BS. Not that they, as leaders of their organization, have sabotaged their efforts at every step of the way.

Again, no judgement. 
You do you, chief.

Happy Sunday to everybody - except the MarOps guy that forces my team to change the account's entire naming convention structure to fit with your weird BI tool that no one actually looks at.

taplio