LinkedIn Ads Specialist | B2B Youtuber/Blogger | Rooftop Cinema Owner

I've been running B2B ads for 9 years, diving deep into LinkedIn Ads in 2020—that’s 5 years of laser-focused expertise on the platform. Since then, I’ve managed millions in ad spend for 150+ clients, helping businesses scale their demand generation, lead gen, and revenue strategies.

💡 What I do:
👉 I run Kiin, a niche LinkedIn Ads agency working with budgets up to $100K/month
👉 I help B2B companies own their demand, lower CPLs, and convert more pipeline
👉 I design and execute high-performing LinkedIn campaigns that drive real ROI

🔹 Want to scale your LinkedIn Ads profitably? Let’s chat. Book a call: https://calendly.com/phil-kiin/30min
🔹 Learn more at www.kiin.co

Philip Ilic

Most go-to-market strategies for sales-led SaaS are still broken.

They usually fall into one of two camps:

“Just run some LinkedIn ads and hope for demos.”
“Just do outbound harder/ more volume”

Both ignore how modern B2B buyers actually behave.

So we built a different GTM motion.

A LinkedIn-first GTM system for sales-led SaaS that combines:
→ LinkedIn Ads
→ Strategic content
→ Signal-based + warmbound

This is the exact strategy we’re using to book demos with:
Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle, IBM, HubSpot, McKinsey, Subway, and more.

What this GTM strategy actually does:
• Warms your ICP before outbound ever fires
• Uses LinkedIn Ads as a content delivery engine, not just lead gen
• Turns ad engagement, content views, and site visits into outbound signals
• Lets SDRs focus on people who are already aware, not cold strangers
• Works especially well for small ICPs, high ACV, long sales cycles

In short:
Demand gen + demand capture + outbound, finally stitched together properly.

I recorded a deep-dive video breaking down the full strategy step by step, including:
→ How to build the right account list (and segment it properly)
→ How we run middle-of-funnel LinkedIn ads for 180-day nurture
→ The exact content buckets that warm accounts fast
→ How we turn ad + content engagement into outbound signals
→ How warm outbound consistently outperforms cold
→ Where Google Ads fits (and where it doesn’t)
→ The outbound flows we’re deploying for clients right now

If you’re running a sales-led B2B SaaS and need demos, this will save you months of trial and error.

Comment “GTM” and I’ll send you the video + playbooks images.

LinkedIn Ads Specialist | Dm Me To Access My full LinkedIn Ads Playbooks👇 | Rooftop Cinema Owner🍿

I had a client last year where they pushed me really hard to run 80k a month on lead gen ads.

To my surprise, it worked really well… until it didn’t.

The pressure to keep performance meant I was always testing and pushing new audiences.

I could see the quality dropping and costs spiralling, until they eventually said LinkedIn ads stopped working.

My recommendation to them, pretty much every single week (in our weekly meetings), was that we needed to re-distribute budget heavily into the middle of funnel, especially thought leader ads.

We needed more budget on demand gen, not just capture.

One reason this worked so well for so long was that we went heavy on incentive ads.

But it ended badly in the end.
This is actually quite normal.

I often like to start with this kind of strategy where we mine for in-market leads.

But it always spikes… and then flatlines without investing in the middle.

The big issue, and the reason why companies don’t redistribute budget into content distribution/demand gen with thought leader ads, is that it’s super hard to measure.

This was before I started using Fibbler.
(we are now rolling this out for all our clients)

What Fibbler does really well is reporting on influenced pipeline (among other things).

This is super useful, as now we can show and tell a compelling story on how the LinkedIn ads, many of which are designed for zero click, or just content consumption natively, are impacting your pipeline. 

LinkedIn is an amazing content distribution channel.

It often does the heavy lifting, using LinkedIn ads a content distribution channel...communicating:
– who you are
– what you do
– your social proof

This is often done with thought leader ads (which, in my opinion, is the best way to deliver this content).

Then the lead comes in later, either through branded search, direct, unknown (or your lead gen ads)

What’s cool with Fibbler is that we can now see how much influenced pipeline and revenue came from the ads.

Having this clarity makes it much easier, not only for me to sell this strategy to clients, but also for the people I work with inside these companies to show it to their superiors.

It’s honestly a major win.

If you’re running mostly lead gen ads, I think you’ll win for a while, but in the long run it’s a losing battle.

You’ll burn through all your in-market buyers, and then one day you’ll be left scratching your head wondering why the ads stopped working.

Investing in middle-of-funnel content distribution and a proper demand gen strategy is key for long-term success.

p.s. This is why I started using Fibbler. If you want to see how LinkedIn Ads influence pipeline and revenue, you can try it free for 30 days at https://lnkd.in/er3uJ9d7

I’ve been building out a framework and SOPs/ playbooks for LinkedIn ads + a GTM outbound motion.

It is in my opinion the best GTM strategy for sales-led SaaS.

It combines LinkedIn ads with warmbound, signals-based outbound + cold outbound.

Watch the full deep-dive playbook video here:
https://lnkd.in/eAVnmQxE

LinkedIn ads warm up a list of prospects.

Outbound converts them.

Signals such as…
+ website visitors
+ thought leader ad engagement
+ topic listening
...help massively with the timing of the outbound message.

LinkedIn ads + warmbound is a major part of this system.

Outbound is an amazing way to reach in-market buyers, but when done cold, reply rates are often very low.

With LinkedIn, we mostly use thought leader ads to warm up a list of prospects, increase penetration rate, and get frequency high enough, then go outbound to those same people.

This is warmbound.

We also have other sources of warm audience, such as the Companies tab on LinkedIn, which shows engaged companies, both organic and paid.

All of this combined creates a much more efficient, more predictable outbound motion.

I’m releasing a deep dive video on this, likely tomorrow, where I’ll break the whole system down step by step.

Watch out for tomorrow’s post 🙌

p.s. if you want to watch the deep dive playbook video, you can do so here: https://lnkd.in/eAVnmQxE

Excited to be back. Generic post, I know.

But genuinely, I was a little nervous coming back, but now that I am getting started I am more excited than ever to get our 2026 plans underway.

We have some very big growth plans this year.

One of the main metrics Omar Aboushady (head of ops) and I look at is churn. 
We want this down to close to 0%.

Our plan to make this happen:

1) Just get real ridiculously good results for our clients. None of the other sh£t matters if we don’t get this right.

Late last year, we launched our full LinkedIn ads + GTM outbound motion for sales-led B2B SaaS.

This is by far the best go-to-market motion we know for sales-led B2B SaaS (or any sales-led B2B to be fair).

I will be releasing a ton of content around this in the coming days/weeks.

But it heavily leans on LinkedIn ads (thought leader ads specifically) and signal-based outbound / warm outbound.

The results we are getting for our clients are really insane. 

Send me a dm if you want me to walk you through this. 

2) Go above and beyond. This means if they expect something done in a few days, get it done quicker.

Make them feel we actually we give a sh*t. Which we do.

Luckily for me, I have a ridiculously amazing team who really do care.

We need more LinkedIn ads pros or demand gen managers to join our team as soon as possible.

DM me if you are interested.

3) Keep testing strategies. 
Test, test, test. 
It is an essential part of what I do. 

We run so many mini experiments and from that we come up with new playbooks.

It is clear that most people just run the same safe playbook over and over. 

I think things are changing so fast we need to keep testing and amending how we deliver the strategies.

Excited to get moving 😉

p.s. Photo in Thailand with my partner Daniela Gali, flying back to Bangkok. Miss the islands so much :)

We are hiring again 🥳

We’re hiring a Senior LinkedIn Ads Specialist with deep, hands-on experience on the platform.

This role is primarily focused on planning, running, and optimising LinkedIn Ads for B2B SaaS clients. You’ll work directly with clients, lead calls, explain performance, and build strong, trusted relationships.

Over time, we’ll train you to operate more like a demand gen / revenue partner, managing both LinkedIn Ads and the wider GTM motion alongside our team.

You must be fluent in English and confident in communicating with founders and senior marketers.

Please send an email to veneta@kiin.co

Thanks 🙏🏼

Super excited to be part of this amazing lineup👇

If you’re thinking of starting LinkedIn ABM in 2026 and waiting for a sign, this is it! 

I’m excited to be part of this great lineup for the LinkedIn ABM Bootcamp 2026, put together by ZenABM: 

💛 Tim Davidson - with Thought Leader Ads for ABM
💛 Patrick Spychalski- ABM with Clay
💛 Gabriel Ehrlich - Live Q&A: LinkedIn Ads for ABM
💛 Ali Yildirim🌲- Multi-Channel ABM: How to Combine Paid Media + GTM Engineering
💛 Philip Ilic (me🙌)- LinkedIn Ads + Signal-Based Outbound Strategy
💛 Tas Bober- Why Your ABM Campaigns Deserve Better Landing Pages
💛 Maximilian Herczeg - Campaign Setup & Avoiding Mistakes That Kill ABM Performance
💛 Kamil Rextin - Enterprise GTM Systems
💛 Casper Emil Sciuto Rouchmann - ABM in 2026: The Ups and Downs of the Old Dog
💛 Katya Tarapovskaia - From Segmentation to Signal: AI + ABM Workflows to Win Target Accounts Faster
💛 Emilia Korczynska - Building your first ABM Strategy - lessons from 7-figure B2B SaaS ABM program

The cohort consists of a hands-on core program of classes & workshops, supplemented with guest lectures on adjacent ABM topics.

🚀 Core sessions will walk you through:
 
👉 Target Account List Building Workshop
👉Campaign Strategy & Plan (LinkedIn Ads) - Building your first LinkedIn ABM Strategy without overthinking
👉Automatic Follow-Up Sequences for Most-Engaged Accounts
👉LinkedIn Ad Campaign Setup Review & Launch
👉Live Workshop: Your ABM Ads Teardown

📅 Cohort start: 26 January 2026

Seats are limited - 40% are already gone so hurry up!
 
 🙌Don’t wait to sign up. 🔗 in the comments!

Pretty solid early results for a LinkedIn Thought Leader Ad Engagement →Trigify.io → Clay → HeyReach.io

Just getting started really and will post way more of this as we get results in. 
Also launching this all internally and AB testing a bunch of things. 

Here, we are gathering all the commenters/engagers on our thought leader ads, then connecting with them and sending a message. 

It goes via clay to check if it is ICP or not. 
Then only ICP goes to automation. 

52% connection acceptance rate
27.3% reply rate

I am pretty happy with these results. 

The difficulty I have at the moment is scaling out the volume of engagement/comments on a post. 

So far the cost per engagement/ comment from thought leader ads is quite high. 

If you are running them anyway i would have this automation set up eitherway. but stay tuned as I am determined to figure out how to get the cost per engagement way down so we can scale this out. 

---
P.S. This is exactly how we build LinkedIn Ads + GTM outbound systems for our clients.
If you want to explore a hybrid setup like this for your b2b SaaS, feel free to reach out.

7 out of 10 of my scheduled calls this month came from our internal LinkedIn ads. 

The total cost per call is roughly $300
(well the results are still coming in)

Here is exactly how i run these ads...

+ Thought Leader ad driving to a landing page (clear CTA with link)
+ High-converting opt-in page, converting at 40%+
+ 6-email follow-up sequence sent to all leads, averaging ~52% open rates
+ All leads pushed into Clay for enrichment and qualification
+ Automated LinkedIn connection requests + helpful follow-up messages, focused on sharing relevant content (no hard sell)
+ Sales-led email with a soft CTA, 'if you need help, book a call'

I’ll be sharing the full breakdown in the next few days, including exact CPCs, conversion rates, and end-to-end funnel metrics for the month

I think running LinkedIn ads to gated content is gonna have a massive comeback. Here is why:

The main reason ppl don’t like gated content (or gated asset) lead gen is that 97% of those leads are not “in market”…

…so sales waste a ton of time trying to convert them into a demo.

But with an automated GTM outbound motion, we remove this friction:

We now flow all asset or content leads via Clay and then into HeyReach + Instantly for automated outbound messages.

The idea here is not to convert more than 3–5 out of 100 (3%–5%) into demos / sales calls.

But because it’s mostly automated, it makes a ton of sense now.

Whereas before, sales would get super frustrated because they’d get so few replies back.

Then they’d stop taking these leads seriously. This is why it failed.

Now with automated outbound, the numbers start making a lot more sense.

We personally get sales calls at about $300 per call from this flow (which, for us, makes a lot of sense as a business).

But what’s even better is that the other 97 out of 100 go into a nurture flow, and I have direct access to email them.

48% of these ppl read at least 6 follow-up emails, which warms them up to me, our brand, and what we do.

Some of these convert months down the line, so that $300 per sales call is just the directly attributable ones.

If I included the ones that convert later, this number would drop considerably.

Personally, we’re going hard internally on content lead gen, as we collect contact info at a much more affordable price than just running demo ads.

I think owning direct access to your ICP via email is really important. 
You never know when LinkedIn changes its algorithm, or ads stop working or something else changes. 

If you have a solid email marketing or newsletter follow-up, then collecting low-ish intent but super high-value leads makes a ton of sense. 

to me at least. 

----
p.s. if you'd like me to look at your LinkedIn ads + GTM strategy for 2026 then hit me up. Happy to walk you through how we run this for our clients.

It’s often the Linkedin ghosts that end up scheduling a call with me. 
no like. no comments. nothing.
then when i ask how did you hear about me they say…

‘your linkedin posts, been following you for ages’

Here is how i target them with Linkedin ads + Outbound…

1. go to the companies tab.
2. filter for organic impressions
3. turn that list into an audience.
4. Export it to clay, filter for ICP, then connect with the right ppl from these companies. 

Honestly this is a new test, so i do not have much data around it, but excited to see if it has any impact on anything at all. 

Long story short, the companies tab in LinkedIn campaign manager is full of super useful data worth some testing!

Here is the signals-based outbound flows we are building on top of our LinkedIn ads...👇

Background:
With LinkedIn ads and especially thought leader ads, we create a ton of signals, which could be a signal that someone is 'in market' for your service or product. 

We have found that these automations have increased the performance of outbound + squeezed out more juice by lowering the CPA from our ads. 

LinkedIn ads + outbound should work hand in hand in our opinion. 

Here’s what we are doing at Kiin.

1️⃣ Social Engagement → Outbound
Tools: Triggify → Clay → HeyReach/Aimfox → Instantly

What happens:
Your thought leader ads get a steady stream of reactions and comments (e.g. we got 38 this month just from one).

We’ll automatically collect all engagement via Trigify.

Clay will filter these people by ICP.

ICP contacts will be sent into HeyReach for a small connection + follow-up sequence.

If they don’t accept, they’ll receive a short email via Instantly.
Goal: Turn warm social signals into conversations.

2️⃣ LinkedIn Demo Request Leads → Fast Follow-Up
Tools: Clay/ HeyReach + Instantly
What happens:
Both “content download” leads and “demo request” leads require fast but slightly different messaging.

Each lead type will enter a tailored HeyReach sequence including:

LinkedIn connection request

InMail

Follow-up email via Instantly

All messaging will stay conversational, short, and friendly.
Goal: Increase reply rates and move leads into real conversations quickly.

3️⃣ Content leads → automated warm touch
 Content downloads aren’t dead, they just got misused.
 We don’t throw these to sales.
 We warm them up first.
 Auto-connect on LinkedIn.
 Send them more useful content.
 Follow up with a helpful email.
 3-5%+ conversion to call from this alone.

4️⃣ Website Visitors → Warm Outbound
Tools: Dreamdata → Instantly + HeyReach
What happens:
Anyone visiting your website (via your tracking tools) will go into:

A warm email sequence

A LinkedIn connection sequence
Goal: Capture intent from people already looking at the product.

5️⃣ Topic listening → signal-based cold

 Use Trigify to track people engaging with posts about your niche (e.g.,LinkedIn Ads).
If they’re liking/commenting on similar stuff, add to a list.
Outbound with relevance (not “I saw you liked…” BS).
Not warm. But not cold either.

----
p.s. if you want me to send you a link to the doc in the video comment asking for it below 🥳

I recently got told that I seem to be everywhere.

Cool thing is they are a new client.

They said, we want to be everywhere like you.

The truth is I am pretty much nowhere, but it feels like everywhere to a small group of people.

Here is how I make people feel like I am everywhere….

1 ) I invest significantly in retargeting on LinkedIn.

I make sure my thought leader ad posts hit anyone who has been…
 a ) on my website
 b ) engaged with any of my organic or paid posts (with exclusions)
 c ) been on my company page
 etc

2 ) I push lead gen to both cold + RTG audiences.

This collects emails.

Then I have a super strong follow-up email nurture sequence.

Email is underrated. 

Around 48% of the people who give me their email on average read all 6 emails over the course of 6 days.

They are just full of helpful content. No sales.

3 ) I go outbound to people who engage with me or give me their email.

Again, this is just with super helpful content.

Normally a longer Loom video, which is one of our playbooks.

So if you sign up for my lead magnet…

+ you end up getting retargeted with thought leader ads
+ you get a bunch of super deep-dive, helpful emails
+ you get sent a personal message from me linking to a deep-dive playbook video

So after a week or so, you feel like I am everywhere.

Also, retargeting people well, with enough content on LinkedIn, makes you feel everywhere, as every time someone logs in they see your post.

All of this is very marketing-led. I just bombard people with as much helpful content as possible.

Genuinely helpful. I do not hide how we run things. I am super transparent.

p.s. if you would like me to have a look at your LinkedIn ads, i run free LinkedIn ad audits for key accounts 🙏🏼

Account-based targeting on LinkedIn should be approached totally differently to bigger ICPs.

If you have a small, defined account list, think 500 to 1,000 companies, this is not a classic top, middle, bottom funnel game.

Example:
1,000 target accounts × 4 job titles = ~4,000 people.

With a list this small, the classic strategy doesn't make as much sense. 
Instead, with the list you go straight to the middle content delivery part.

For me, the middle is normally a 180-day retargeting and nurture layer where the goal is simple:

Get your ICP to...
+ know who you are
+ what you do
+ how you’re different
+ old way vs new way
+ you vs alternatives.
+ Social Proof

If you have a small ICP, you almost always have:
 • High ACV
 • Long sales cycles
 • Multiple stakeholders

That means it’s more important than ever to be consistently in front of the same people with a lot of content.

This strategy is about content delivery, not just lead capture.

The main metrics I care about here are very different:

+ Frequency
 Every piece of content should hit 5–10 impressions per person over time.

+ Penetration rate
 How much of the total account list are we actually reaching?

+ Engagement signals
 Engagement rate, clicks to site, landing page CPC, dwell time.

The goal isn’t immediate conversion.
The goal is familiarity.

Then, and only then, you layer on demand capture:
 • GTM outbound
 • Sales-led ads
 • Bottom-funnel offers
---
PS. I’m doing a few free LinkedIn Ads + GTM outbound audits.
If you want a straight-up breakdown of your ads and GTM motion with clear, actionable feedback, DM me.

I know email is boring, but this is actually one of our most important client acquisition channels we run.

Kiin.co - Linkedin Ads Agency now has 3,450 email subs 
(as if i check this 5 times a day…don’t judge me 🙄) 

I am talking about email follow-ups + our newsletter when i say email (not cold/warm outbound).

Here are some current stats:
+ 54% of people who sign up read at least the next 6 emails, sent daily over 6 days
+ This is up from 48% just a couple of months ago (updated the content)
+ We then send 1 email per week for the next 4 weeks (gonna grow this for the next 6 months)
+ Those emails still get 45–50% open rates
+ Nearly 50% of people are still reading email #10, almost 5 weeks later

Every email is packed with our best content, literally i try to pack it with our best, most useful, actionable content. 

You are only as good as your last email . 
so no bullSh%t emails. 
Each one has gotta be good. 

Each email also has a p.s. at the end which is the CTA (speak to me if xyz type thing). 
This is a soft CTA, not in our face. 

We get leads at $18/lead (vps of marketing/demand gen/growth roles in B2B Saas companies). 
Planning on scaling this out. 

I speak to B2B SaaS companies every day and their email follow-ups are either all sales or sales emails disguised as marketing. 
And they wonder why noone is opening the second and third email. 

i love email, because you acquire a sub once and then you have access to them for free for months after that. 

Also i don't trust LinkedIn or the social media platforms not to suddenly change the algorithm, and make my organic reach drop again. 

Or ad platgforms (looking at you linkedin) to keep increasing the CPMs year on year. 

Gotta own your own media not rent it as they say...

——
p.s. if you need some eyes on your Go-To-Market strategy, dm me. happy to help.

LinkedIn Lead gen forms can be a really powerful way to capture existing demand in your market. 

but there is a fall off from ppl submitting a form to actually booking into the calendar. 

Even with the Calendly integration, the conversion here can sometimes be low. 

The key difference i have found which gets this high is a really solid fast follow-up. 

This both means speed, and multiple channels (email/LinkedIn + maybe a cold call). 

We have had a couple of clients where this conversion rate was super low. 

Turns out they had quite a slow follow-up. And we all know a fast follow-up is super important here.

today we can just automate it in a super easy way. So this shouldn't never be an issue ever again.

Here is how we do it:

+ Demo Lead comes in but doesn’t book the calendar
+ Lead gets pushed into Clay, enriched, and checked for ICP fit
+ If it’s a fit, Clay pushes them into LinkedIn for an auto connection request
+ In parallel, they get a sales-led email with the booking link
+ If no reply, they get an InMail a couple of days later, plus one final follow-up, all automated

p.s. we are building out GTM motions for sales-led SaaS companies, which include LinkedIn ads with warm / signal-based outbound. If this is of interest, feel free to DM me.

Just released this article all about the full Linkedin ads GTM strategy we use with clients to get meetings with Oracle, Tesla, Microsoft and Meta. 

There is also 20 minute deep dive loom plauybook video in the article:

This is what's in it:
+ How to combine LinkedIn Ads + outbound into one coherent GTM system
+ How to use LinkedIn Ads to warm accounts at scale (so outbound stops feeling cold)
+ How signals-based outbound works, and which signals actually matter
+ How to run warm outbound using high-penetration account lists, not random scraping
+ How all three layers (ads, signals, outbound) work together to book more demos with less resistance

Have a read and let me know if it was helpful 🙏🏼

p.s. at the end of the article, there is a photo of me, do not judge the beard. I am in full founder mode :)

View newsletter: The B2B Advertising Newsletter

Hey friends 👋 I want to break down, clearly and practically, the strongest go-to-market strategy I know right now for sales-led B2B SaaS, meaning bus

Open article: How We Combine LinkedIn Ads + Outbound to Book Demos at Scale by Philip Ilic • 6 min read

How We Combine LinkedIn Ads + Outbound to Book Demos at Scale

Why is it when I upload a new list to my existing LinkedIn ads I get a flood of new sign ups?!

This has happened a couple times now. 

The list is super similar to the one that was there before. Massive overlap. 

Feels like just refreshing it gives gives it a little boost for a few weeks. 🧐

I've been using a list I got from Crunchbase as my main targeting for my LinkedIn ads recently

All I do is put some super helpful content in front of these ppl.
100% thought leader ads

basically a couple video posts. 
Mostly text posts. 
One or two image ones.

What is important for us as our budget is still pretty small (about 5k now/month) is that we do not have too big of a list. 

The list needs to match our budget. 

This is important to make sure we not only get max penetration rates but to make sure we get each bit of content hitting as many ppl as possible with at least 5 impressions. 

I normally work from about 5 bits of content times 5 impressions each at a minimum. 

the content is usually product-led, or for use how we help ppl, our specific systems etc. Some social proof. 

Once i see these accounts have reached a significant penetration rate/ enough impressions on each bit of content we then go outbound. 

a LinkedIn connection and then message + cold email. 

this been really effective to get some high reply rates. 

ppl know who i am when i reach out to them. 

and outbound is an amazing conversion channel. 

Will share deeper results and specific numbers to my newsletter subs first. 

will drop a link below, subscribe to get all my LinkedIn ad and GTM experiments before everyone else :)

p.s. Subscribe to the newsletter here to get deep dive breakdowns on all the tests i am running for both LinkedIn ads + GTM outbound :) 
https://lnkd.in/dxdn_zE8

I know a little about LinkedIn Ads | Head of Strategy @ Impactable 🧠

Most marketing teams don’t have a 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻 𝗔𝗱𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 -- they have a “ 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘬 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘶𝘥𝘨𝘦𝘵” problem.

If that feels familiar, you’re in the right place.

Because here’s the truth no one wants to say out loud:

You’re not being judged on “running ads.”

You’re being judged on:

– whether the targeting is signal-based (not spray-and-pray),
– whether your spend is defensible,
– whether your funnel isn’t Swiss cheese, and
– whether your campaigns make leadership feel safer, not more nervous.

That’s where I come in.

I’m JD — SVP of Revenue & Growth at Impactable, where we’ve managed $𝟱𝟬𝗠+ 𝗶𝗻 𝗮𝗱 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱, worked with 𝟲𝟬𝟬+ 𝗕𝟮𝗕 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀, and currently support nearly 𝟮𝟬𝟬 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 across multi-channel.

Me personally?

I’ve audited, fixed, or rebuilt 𝟯𝟬𝟬+ 𝗮𝗱 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝘀, overseen $𝟮𝟱𝗠+ 𝗶𝗻 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱, and on average save teams ~𝟱𝟬% 𝗶𝗻 𝘄𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗲𝘁 when I step inside their Campaign Manager.

Not because I’m magical.

Because I actually understand people.

And your pipeline isn’t an algorithm problem -- it’s a 𝙝𝙪𝙢𝙖𝙣 𝙗𝙚𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙤𝙧 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙗𝙡𝙚𝙢.

𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗜 𝗛𝗘𝗟𝗣 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗣𝗔𝗡𝗜𝗘𝗦 𝗗𝗢

If you’re a mid-market B2B org (SaaS, IT, pro services, cybersecurity, finserv, AI, etc.) and your ACV actually matters…

I help you:
• Build audience-first programs that target based on intent signals, not job titles
• Stop lighting money on fire with bad structure, sloppy segmentation, and guesswork
• Fix the funnel so retargeting actually works
• Run multi-channel the way real buyers behave (LinkedIn → Google → Direct, not fantasy journeys)
• Prove marketing impact without resorting to vanity metrics
• Look your leadership team in the eyes and confidently say:
“Yes — this is working.”

Impactable is a 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗱𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀, but the real secret sauce is our 𝙖𝙪𝙙𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚-𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙖𝙘𝙝 and 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙜𝙮-𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩 𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩. We don’t just “push buttons.” We help you avoid the political disasters that get marketers fired.

A little more human stuff
I’m married to an incredible woman.
We have 6 kids, 2 dogs, and I’m in the gym/sauna daily because… well, 6 kids.
Sour Patch Kids own me. No shame.

If you want to chat LinkedIn Ads, funnel design, or how to stop burning budget (without a sales pitch), I’m always happy to yap.

🌎 impactable.com
📨 jonathan.g@impactable.com

JD Garcia

"How much revenue will my $5k budget generate?"

I hate saying "it depends," so I made this:

--

To be fair, all of this still depends because I can't factor in things like - 

- % in-market audiences
- competition
- creative fatigue
- depreciation

But this is a hell of a lot better than a blind guess.

(and if you don't have these benchmarks to plug in? that's your first problem - go find them)

--

Anyway, here's some of the logic in this little calculator I built:

1. The "Active" Reality

You can target 5,000 companies.

But if your "Active User Rate" is only 60% (people who actually log in), your addressable audience is much smaller.

We have to account for the ghosts.

2. The Frequency Tax

Notice the Frequency in the middle: 5.1

Most people spread their budget too thin and hit a frequency of 1.2

That is the "Ignorability Zone."

This calculator forces you to see if your budget can actually support the frequency needed to drive action.

3. The Full Funnel Physics

We aren't stopping at Leads.

We are connecting the LP Conversion Rate (2%) all the way down to the SQL to Close Rate (40%).

This shows you exactly where the funnel breaks before you spend a dime.

4. The Leadership Love Language

Look at the bottom right.

CAC Payback Period: 2.4 Months
ROAS: 4.92x
❤️

--

This is how you get budget approved.

You don't pitch "Brand Awareness."

You pitch specific financial outcomes based on conservative inputs.

Stop hoping the math works out.

Model it out 👊🏽

--

I'm thinking about hosting this on our site and making it available for anyone to use - do you think it would be helpful?

Anything that's not on here that you think should be?
(I didn't include sales cycle, so I know that's one)

I know a little about LinkedIn Ads | SVP of Revenue & Growth @ Impactable 🧠

Your CFO isn’t wrong to hate #linkedinads

They look at the CPCs ($15+), compare it to Meta ($2), and then they ask why you're burning cash.

It’s terrifying to sit in that meeting without a defense.

--

I’ve seen budgets slashed so many times.

Usually because the poor marketer couldn’t articulate the value beyond "brand awareness."

Here are the 8 objections that kill B2B ad strategies, and exactly how to reframe them to save your budget:

1. "It’s too expensive."

Yes, the CPM is high.

But we aren't selling $20 t-shirts.

We're selling $50k ACV software.

We only need one closed-won deal to pay for the entire quarter’s spend.

Shift the metric from Cost Per (💩) Lead to Cost Per High-Fit Opportunity.

2. "We can't track the ROI."

Platform attribution is limited

If you rely on the dashboard, you’re flying blind.

You need to use multiple data sources to triangulate what's working.

Examples:
- Self-reported
- CAPI (Conversion API)
- Revenue Attribution Report
- Website Visitor Identification
- Attribution platforms like Fibbler, Dreamdata, Hockeystack

3. "We tried it and it failed."

Let me guess.

You ran a gated ebook to cold traffic for two weeks.

That’s not a strategy.

That’s a donation to Microsoft.

You either need a strategy to capture in-market demand.

Or you need a way to carve out your section of the market and nurture tf outta them.

4. "The audience is too small."

Good!

We don't need a million eyeballs.

We need the right 5,000 Champions at enterprise companies.

Narrow targeting is the only reason we pay the premium.

Waste is the enemy, not volume.

5. "Nobody buys on LinkedIn."

Correct.

They are scrolling.

They are bored in a meeting.

Our job isn't to force a transaction right now.

It is to rent space in their brain so when they are ready to buy, we are who they remember.

6. "Decision makers aren't on here."

Bruv - they are.

They just don't comment "Great post!" on your stuff.

They lurk.

They read.

They take screenshots and drop them in their internal Slack channels.

We call this the "Dark Funnel."

Just because you don't see them doesn't mean they aren't watching.

--

Don't let a spreadsheet kill your best growth channel.

Go get that budget approval, big dawg 👊🏽

Sending video DMs to strangers feels awkward

I honestly feel like a stalker recording these

--

But my inbox is a graveyard of automated text templates.

And in 2026, "scalable" is just a synonym for "ignorable."

I am betting that a good way to win right now is to do the things that AI can't do.

- Pick a tiny list of high-value accounts
- Record a 30-second video for each human
- Do the unscalable work

I’m testing this on a micro-list over the next few weeks.

I’ll share the open rates (good or bad) once the results are in.

Stay tuned 🎥

Here's a super quick #linkedinads tip that can save you thousands and takes less than 5 mins to do:

1. Go to your Campaign Manager dashboard
2. Click on your "Ad Sets"
3. Click on "Filter" and click on "Reset"
4. Select the "Active" checkbox
5. Check the box for all Active Ad Sets
6. Click on the "Bulk Actions" button toward the top left
7. Select "Export selection"
8. Once downloaded, open the CSV file
9. Check column M & N
10. Change all "Yes" to "No"
11. Save the file
12. In Campaign Manager, select "Import File"
13. Import the file you saved
14. Once done, ensure no errors happened
15. Pay yourself on the back

So many times when I audit an account that has dozens of ad sets, I find ones that accidentally had LAN or AE enabled.

This little workflow, which takes no time, will save you a ton of budget and headache.

"My product is too boring for LinkedIn"

I hear this excuse often.

Yesterday I spoke with a prospect selling middleware for the electronics supply chain.

We are talking about backend data integration for components that go into rockets.

It is technical
It is dense
It is "unsexy"

And he is going to absolutely crush with #linkedinads

--

Here is why "Boring" is actually a massive competitive advantage:

1. The Empty Feed Theory

If you sell Sales Tech or Marketing Tech, your buyer's feed is a war zone.

But if you sell supply chain logistics software?

Your buyer's feed is a competitive whitespace

When you show up with a specific solution to their specific Excel-sheet hell, you are the only signal in the noise.

2. The Volume Trap

This company doesn't need 10,000 leads.

They need 37 closed deals...

...annually

37 deals = $6M in MRR

When your ACV is that high, you don't need virality.

You need to saturate the Buying Committee at the 500 accounts that actually matter.

Champions
Influencers
Signers

Surround the account, not just the point-of-entry person.

3. The Expertise Gap

In unsexy industries, the "influencers" are usually retired guys sharing outdated advice.

There is a massive vacuum for a modern Operator to step in and own the narrative.

Be the one person talking about "Data Structure in Electronics Distribution" and you own the category.

Stop trying to be interesting to everyone.

Be indispensable to the accounts that actually sign the check.

In B2B marketing land, we deal with a little something called Schrödinger's ROI 🐈

You see, in the first 30 days of your campaigns, the ROI is in a state of superposition.

Both 💀 and alive at the same time.

--

The 💀 state:

- you've spent money
- you've used resources
- the ROAS cell says "#DIV/0!"

If you're only looking here, you're cooked.

The Alive state:

- you're saturating your target account list
- the "mental availability" is starting to build up
- you're generating ICP fit traffic to key pages on your site

Your campaigns are very much alive.

--

Look, I know I'm being over-the-top.

No reasonable company is going to expect actual ROI (revenue) from marketing in 30 days when their sales cycle is 90 days+

I'm being silly for a reason.

And that's because the lagging indicators are so well defined.

But many companies can't properly define the leading indicators.

Things like:
1. Target Account penetration
2. Content consumption
3. Increased ICP traffic

It's a long journey from first-touch to Closed Won.

Map out the touches.

It'll make it easier for you to know if you're heading the right way.

You upload 10k contacts and feel like a genius.

Then you watch poor Betsy here wither 🐄

--

Contact Lists are the one of the hardest asset to maintain with #linkedinads

Why?

Well, there's a few reasons:

1. The Decay Rate

People quit
They get fired (especially B2B CMOs 😔)
They get promoted

B2B data decays at about 30% per year

If you are targeting a static list of emails you bought six months ago, you are burning budget on ghosts.

-

2. The Match Rate Nightmare

This is the technical reality nobody talks about much.

You cannot upload LinkedIn Profile URLs for ad targeting.

You have to use First Name, Last Name, Email, Company, etc.

The match rates on personal emails are terrible (often <50%).

You think you are targeting 10,000 people.

You are actually targeting 4,000.

-

3. The Frequency Burnout (see the meme 🐮)

Because the match rate is low, the audience is smaller than you think.

You end up hammering the same few people with the same Lead Gen ads.

You aren't "nurturing" them.

You're annoying them, homie.

--

My recommendation is to default to Account Lists.

Preferably Dynamic Accounts

You then layer on Job Titles and Seniority using LinkedIn's native data.

LinkedIn knows who the current VP of Finance is better than your spreadsheet does.

(and when a new VP of Finance joins, it'll auto-magically switch to them)

#winning

---

To be clear: I'm NOT saying Contact Lists are dead

If you have a clean list of event attendees or current customers? upload it

But for cold prospecting, many marketers are over-milking the cow.

"We grew through referrals. Now we want to run ads to scale."

Is this you?

I have good news and bad news 📉

--

The Good News:
You built a real business.
You have revenue.
You have the infrastructure to handle volume.

The Bad News:
You probably don't have Product-Market Fit.

You have "Network-Market Fit."

And they are not the same thing.

When you grow through referrals, you view your marketing through rose-colored glasses.

1. You skipped the "Trust" Hurdle

Referrals buy the Relationship, not just the Solution

You walked through a VIP side door while everyone else was fighting in line.

2. You ignored the "Message" Test

Your messaging didn't have to be perfect because your reputation did the heavy lifting.

3. The "Cold Traffic" Reality Check

Strangers don't care about you. They don't care about your network.

If you throw a 4-digit ad budget at a "Network-Market Fit" business, you will likely burn it.

You aren't ready to scale. You are ready to validate.

--

My Advice:

Don't rush to spend

Treat this like a new startup inside your existing company.

- share content from your personal profile first
- connect with ICPs outside your referral circle
- see if your messaging resonates with people who don't know your name

Validate the message organically.

Then use #linkedinads to pour fuel on the fire.

Keep pushing 👊🏽

taplio

The Battle

Philip Ilic

JD Garcia

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taplio

The Battle

Philip Ilic

JD Garcia

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Philip Ilic's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJD Garcia's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScorePhilip Ilic's LinkedIn Performance