Who sees it Anyone with “finance” in their job title
- Ad
- “Book a demo”
- Form
- Sales call
Cheap leads, few meetings
What it is
What does a LinkedIn Ads agency do?
A LinkedIn Ads agency plans and runs paid campaigns in LinkedIn Campaign Manager. It chooses the companies and roles to reach, writes the ads, picks the next step, such as a Lead Gen Form or a page on your site, and sets up tracking. A good one moves budget to the ads whose leads your sales team accepts.
A B2B payments company wants to reach finance teams at importers. Two ways to run the campaign:
Who sees it Controllers, treasury and payables teams at importers with 50–500 staff
First step An FX cost worksheet, then a demo offer to its readers
- Ad
- Worksheet
- Form with one question
- Sales call
Fewer leads, more meetings
We run paid ads from your company’s ad account. We don’t send connection requests or cold messages from your team’s profiles.
Step one
What we check in a free LinkedIn Ads audit
We check six things with view-only access, so we can’t change anything. Usually a few business days after access, you get a written review with the issues ranked by impact, then a call with Mike or Alex, our co-founders.
Our audit format, filled in for a typical security software company’s account
01 Who sees the ads
Whether your impressions go to the companies and roles you sell to.
Finding 01 · Who sees the ads
Fix now- What we saw
- The ads targeted job titles with “IT manager” in them. Many impressions went to help desk staff and to companies under 50 people. Audience expansion was on.
- Why it matters
- Your sales team only takes companies with 200 or more staff. Every impression outside them is spend that can’t become a deal.
- What to change
- Companies with 200+ staff, the IT and security functions, manager level and above. Audience expansion off.
- How we’ll check
- Share of impressions in the target functions and company sizes, four weeks before and after.
Check it yourself. In Campaign Manager, open the demographics report for the last 90 days and switch to job function and company size. Are most impressions where you sell?
02 Where the ads run
How much of the budget runs outside LinkedIn, and what it brings.
Finding 02 · Where the ads run
Fix now- What we saw
- LinkedIn Audience Network was on for every image and video ad. A large share of clicks came from apps and sites outside LinkedIn, and almost none became leads.
- Why it matters
- LinkedIn turns the Audience Network on by default. For lead campaigns aimed at a few industries, those placements rarely reach the buyer.
- What to change
- Turn it off in the lead campaigns. If you want reach outside LinkedIn, test it in a separate ad set.
- How we’ll check
- Cost per accepted lead in the lead campaigns, four weeks before and after.
Check it yourself. Break down your ad sets by placement. How much went to the Audience Network, and how many leads came from there?
03 Goals and formats
Whether each campaign asks for a step its audience is ready to take.
Finding 03 · Goals and formats
Test- What we saw
- Every campaign asked people who had never heard of you to book a demo. Few did, and sales turned most of them down.
- Why it matters
- Cold audiences rarely want a meeting after one ad. A lighter first step brings people your sales team can call with context.
- What to change
- A document ad with a security checklist and a short form for cold audiences. The demo offer goes only to people who engaged.
- How we’ll check
- Leads sales accepts per $1,000 spent, with a $3,000 spending limit and a review after six weeks.
Check it yourself. List your active campaigns by objective. Does any of them ask people who don’t know you yet to book a demo?
04 The lead form
What the form asks, and how fast a new lead reaches your team.
Finding 04 · The lead form
Fix now- What we saw
- The form asked only for details pre-filled from the LinkedIn profile, so anyone could send it in two taps. New leads sat in Campaign Manager for days before anyone saw them.
- Why it matters
- A form with no question about fit brings people sales can’t use, and a lead who waits a week has moved on.
- What to change
- One question about company size, hidden fields with the campaign name, and new leads sent to your CRM or inbox the same day.
- How we’ll check
- Share of form leads sales accepts, and hours to the first call.
Check it yourself. Open one of your Lead Gen Forms. Does it ask anything besides the profile fields? Where does a new lead go, and who sees it first?
05 Conversion tracking
What the account counts as a conversion, and for how long after an ad.
Finding 05 · Conversion tracking
Fix now- What we saw
- Visits to the demo page counted as conversions, and so did people who had only seen an ad in the past 90 days. LinkedIn reported far more conversions than the demo requests in your CRM.
- Why it matters
- The reports looked good while sales saw few demos, and nobody could tell which ads brought real requests.
- What to change
- Count only submitted demo requests, set the counting window with you, and send a test lead through the whole path.
- How we’ll check
- Conversions in LinkedIn against demo requests in your CRM, week by week.
Check it yourself. Compare last month’s conversions in Campaign Manager with the demo requests in your CRM. A big gap means something else is being counted.
06 Retargeting
Which audiences of people who already know you bring leads.
Finding 06 · Retargeting
Leave as is- What we saw
- Ads for site visitors and for people who opened your documents brought most of the leads sales accepted, at the lowest cost per accepted lead.
- Why it matters
- It works. Changing it on a hunch would put your best source at risk.
- What to change
- Nothing now. New ads each month, so the same people don’t see one ad for too long.
- How we’ll check
- Accepted leads from retargeting, in every monthly report.
Check it yourself. Which of your campaigns bring the leads sales accepts? If retargeting does, keep it running.
Every issue is marked Fix now, Test or Leave as is. We also check who owns the ad account and the Company Page, and who has access. After the call, you choose: make the fixes yourselves, ask us to quote them, or keep what works.
Setup and monthly work
What’s included in LinkedIn Ads management
Setup in 10 business days, then weekly work on audiences, bids, budgets and ads, and a short report every month. Ad creative is included in the agreed plan.
Setup · 10 business days
◆ You approve
Days 1–2 Access and tracking
We check who owns the ad account and the Company Page, and set up the Insight Tag and conversions.
◆ You confirm what a good lead is.
From you View access to start. Then the campaign manager role in the ad account, an ads role on your Company Page, and access to your site or tag manager.
Days 3–4 Target accounts and buyers
The companies you want as customers, the roles that decide the purchase, and what competitors run in LinkedIn’s public Ad Library.
From you Your list of target accounts or best customers, if you have one.
Days 5–7 Ads and forms
Two or three ads, each with a different reason to respond, and the form’s questions or the page each ad leads to.
◆ You approve the ads.
Days 8–9 Audiences and budgets
Audiences by company, function and seniority, the people to leave out, bids and daily budgets. A test lead goes through every form to your CRM or inbox.
◆ You approve the budget.
Day 10 Launch
Campaigns go live. In the first week we check who the ads reach and read every new lead.
From you Your sales team’s ratings of new leads.
The 10 days start once we have access and your inputs. On day 10 you have live campaigns, tested tracking and priorities for the first month.
After launch
- Every week
- Who the ads reach, frequency, bids and budgets. New leads checked against your sales team’s ratings.
- Every month
- New ads, each with a hypothesis, a spending limit and a review date. A report on what we checked, changed and fixed.
- Within 2 business days
- We act on rejected ads, a broken Insight Tag or lead sync, and spend off plan.
LinkedIn settings we control
- LinkedIn Audience Network
- On by default for single image, carousel, document and video ads. Off in lead campaigns unless we test it.
- Audience expansion
- On by default where available. Off for company lists and lead campaigns.
- Job titles
- Never alone. We add company size, function and seniority, and check the demographics report.
Formats
LinkedIn ad formats we use, and when
Five routes, each with its own measure: Thought Leader Ads build trust, Event Ads fill events, Document Ads with Lead Gen Forms bring leads, Conversation Ads or a page on your site book meetings, and company lists reach named accounts for ABM.
Build trust: Thought Leader Ads
- LinkedIn objective
- Brand awareness or engagement
- What people see
- A post by your founder or expert, promoted to the companies and roles you chose.
- Next step
- A lead offer to the same companies and roles, in a separate ad set.
- We judge it by
- Engagement from companies on your list, not likes from anyone.
- What it needs
- A person who posts and approves the promotion. A Thought Leader Ad can’t carry a Lead Gen Form.
Fill an event: Event Ads
- LinkedIn objective
- Brand awareness, website visits or lead generation
- What people see
- Your webinar or live event, hosted on LinkedIn or on your own platform.
- Next step
- Registration, reminders, then a follow-up for the people who attended.
- We judge it by
- Attendance from target companies. Registrations alone don’t count.
- What it needs
- A date, a speaker and a reason to show up.
Get leads: Document Ads with a Lead Gen Form
- LinkedIn objective
- Lead generation
- What people see
- A useful document. The first pages are free. The full version sits behind a short form.
- Next step
- A form pre-filled from the profile, plus one question about fit. Sales follows up the same day.
- We judge it by
- Sales-accepted leads.
- What it needs
- A checklist, guide or benchmark worth a form.
Book meetings: a page on your site or Conversation Ads
- LinkedIn objective
- Website conversions or lead generation
- What people see
- An offer to talk, shown to people who already know you: a demo, an assessment or a quote.
- Next step
- A page on your site with a short form, or a message with two or three clear choices.
- We judge it by
- Meetings held, not forms sent.
- What it needs
- A page that keeps the ad’s promise, and someone who replies within a business day.
Reach named accounts: company lists for ABM
- LinkedIn objective
- Any of the routes above, shown only to companies on your list
- What people see
- The same ads, limited to a list of up to 300,000 companies.
- Next step
- A report of which companies on the list saw the ads and engaged.
- We judge it by
- Companies on the list that engaged, and meetings with them.
- What it needs
- A list of at least 300 companies. LinkedIn recommends 1,000 or more.
Budget math
How much does LinkedIn advertising cost?
LinkedIn’s minimum is $10 a day. In 2025, B2B advertisers paid about $9 a click, and the median advertiser paid $376 a lead (Metadata). So $10 a day buys about 32 clicks and maybe one lead a month. By our rule, testing one offer takes about $50 a day.
| Daily budget | A month | Clicks | Leads | Accepted | Plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10 | $304 | 32 | 1 | 0 | Warm up first |
| $50 | $1,520 | 162 | 4 | 2 | One audience, one offer |
| $100 | $3,040 | 324 | 8 | 4 | One audience, one offer |
| $300 | $9,120 | 971 | 24 | 12 | Room for LinkedIn to learn |
Market benchmarks, not a forecast. The first months show your own numbers.
Source: Metadata’s LinkedIn cost benchmark for 2025. $9.39 a click is weighted by spend across 138 B2B advertisers. $376 is what the median advertiser paid a lead, and $202 is the spend-weighted figure. Your account may differ.
How the math works
Monthly budget = daily budget × 30.4. On a given day LinkedIn may spend up to twice your daily budget, but no more than seven times it in a week. Clicks = monthly budget ÷ cost per click. Leads = monthly budget ÷ cost per lead, taken from lead campaigns directly, not worked out from clicks. Accepted in two weeks = leads × the share your team accepts × 14 ÷ 30.4. The first two plans are our working rule. The last follows LinkedIn’s advice: five or more qualified leads within two weeks.
Why some guides say $2 to $3 a click: those figures come from surveys and author estimates. Ad account data puts a B2B click near $9: $9.39 in Metadata’s 2025 data and $8.99 for the US in ZenABM’s 2026 benchmark of 211 B2B companies.
Measurement
From lead to pipeline: how we measure LinkedIn ads
We judge LinkedIn ads by the leads your sales team accepts, not by impressions or form fills. Pick a step for the details.
Reach
- We count
- Impressions and engagement by company, job function and seniority.
- We leave out
- The Audience Network, reported apart when we test it.
- Source
- Campaign Manager’s demographics report. LinkedIn shows approximate numbers to protect members’ privacy.
Lead
- We count
- Each form and demo request, once. A test lead at launch and after any form change follows the whole path to your inbox or CRM.
- We leave out
- Duplicates, spam, and page views counted as conversions.
- Source
- Campaign Manager and your CRM.
Accepted by sales
- We count
- Leads your sales team rates as a fit, in your CRM or a shared sheet.
- We leave out
- Leads sales turns down. Their reasons shape the next audience.
- Source
- Your CRM or your team’s ratings. Where your CRM allows, the Conversions API sends accepted leads back to LinkedIn, so it can optimize for leads sales accepts.
Pipeline
- We count
- Meetings, opportunities and deals from leads the ads brought.
- We leave out
- Deals at companies the ads only reached. We show them apart as influenced pipeline, never mixed in.
- Source
- Your CRM. Leads sent through the Conversions API can count for up to 365 days after the ad, which fits long B2B sales. With Salesforce, HubSpot or Dynamics 365, LinkedIn’s Revenue Attribution Report adds influenced pipeline.
What you get every month
A short report on the work, not only the numbers.
Our report format, filled in for a typical month of a dental equipment supplier selling to clinic groups.
Monthly report
October
Checked
- Test lead through the form to your CRM
- Arrived, counted once
- Share of impressions at target companies and roles
- Checked every week
- Spend against plan
- On plan
Changed
- Left out dental students and job seekers
- New document ad: a chair downtime checklistReview on Nov 14
- Moved budget from single clinics to groups with 5+ locationsYou approved on Oct 9
Found and fixed
Leads reached the CRM without the campaign name. Fixed on Oct 12 with hidden fields, and earlier leads are marked.
Next month
A webinar for clinic group operations leads, if your clinical director can host it.
By business
Which companies and job titles should you target on LinkedIn?
Start with companies: a list of at least 300, or an industry and company size. Then add job function and seniority. Job titles alone miss buyers.
B2B software
- Who decides
- The team that will use it, IT or security, and finance.
- A good lead
- A demo request from a company that fits your ideal customer profile.
- First step that works
- A guide for the team that feels the problem, then a demo offer to people who read it.
- Who rates it
- Your sales team.
Manufacturing
- Who decides
- Plant, engineering and procurement, often at a few hundred named companies.
- A good lead
- A request for a quote, a sample or a site visit from a plant that fits.
- First step that works
- A spec sheet or buyer’s guide as a document ad, for engineers first.
- Who rates it
- Your sales or applications engineers.
LinkedIn needs a list of at least 300 companies. With fewer, we target by industry and company size instead, then check your named companies in the report.
Fintech
- Who decides
- The CFO, controllers and treasury, with IT and compliance at larger companies.
- A good lead
- A company with the payment volume or company size your product fits.
- First step that works
- A worksheet in a document ad, with one question about volume.
- Who rates it
- Your sales or onboarding team.
Your compliance team signs off on every claim about fees or savings before launch.
Healthcare
- Who decides
- Operations, clinical leads and procurement at clinic, hospital and dental groups.
- A good lead
- A demo or quote request from a group with several locations.
- First step that works
- A short playbook or webinar for operations leads.
- Who rates it
- Your sales team.
On LinkedIn you sell to healthcare organizations, not to patients.
Commercial real estate
- Who decides
- Operations, logistics or facilities leads, and the CFO.
- A good lead
- A tour request from a company that needs the space within a year.
- First step that works
- Floor plans or a site guide as a document ad, for companies near your site.
- Who rates it
- Your leasing team.
Team
Who runs your LinkedIn ads?
Pavel, our PPC Lead, runs your LinkedIn campaigns day to day. The founders set the direction, and one of them answers for your project personally.
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Every project has a founder on it and a team lead for each service.
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If your specialist ever changes, the plan, the account history and our notes stay with the project, and so does a founder.
- 2015founded
- 100+client projects
- 15+US projects
Most of our clients come to us through a recommendation. Meet the team →
Price
How much does a LinkedIn Ads agency cost?
At Wonderflow, LinkedIn Ads setup starts at $X. Management starts at $X a month plus 10% of actual ad spend, with ad creative included in the agreed plan. You pay LinkedIn directly, from your own ad account.
Free audit
$0
View-only access
- Six checks, including who owns the account
- A written review, usually a few business days after access
- A call with Mike or Alex to go through it
Setup
From $X
One-time · 10 business days
- Target accounts, buying roles and competitor ads
- Audiences by company, function and seniority
- Two or three ads, each with a form or a page on your site
- Insight Tag and conversions checked with a test lead
Management
From $X a month + 10% of ad spend
12-month contract, cancel with one month’s notice, no exit fee
- Audiences, bids and budgets every week
- New ads every month, with a spending limit
- A monthly report and next priorities
How the fee works
- The 10% is of your actual spend, not a planned budget.
- LinkedIn bills your company directly. We never handle your ad budget.
- We don’t raise the budget without your OK, and every increase has a reason and a review date.
If you leave
No exit fee, even before the year is up. You can remove our access at any time. The ad account, its history, audiences, forms, leads and every report stay with you.
- What moves the price
- The number of campaigns, markets and languages, and how complex your tracking is.
- Not included
- The ad budget and video production. Website development and custom integrations, such as a CRM connection, are quoted separately.
At three months we go through the results with you and agree on what to change.
Questions buyers ask
LinkedIn Ads FAQ
The short answer comes first. Open any question for the detail.
What does the free LinkedIn Ads audit include?Six checks, a written review and a call.
With view-only access, we check who sees your ads, where they run, your goals and formats, your lead forms, conversion tracking and retargeting, and who owns the account. Usually a few business days after access, you get a written review with the issues ranked by impact, then a call with Mike or Alex, our co-founders. The review is yours to use with any team.
What is the minimum budget for LinkedIn Ads?$10 a day, but a test needs about $50.
LinkedIn’s minimum is $10 a day for any ad format. At $376 a lead, the 2025 median for B2B advertisers in Metadata’s data, $10 a day brings about one lead a month. That can keep you in front of people who already know you, but it can’t test an offer. By our rule, testing one offer takes about $50 a day.
Is LinkedIn Ads CPC or CPM?Usually CPM. CPC only with manual bids.
With automated bidding, maximum delivery or cost cap, LinkedIn charges per 1,000 impressions. With manual bidding you can pay per click, per 1,000 impressions or per video view. Conversation Ads are charged per message sent. Whatever the model, we judge a campaign by the cost of a sales-accepted lead.
How long until LinkedIn ads show results?Leads in weeks, pipeline in months.
Campaigns go live on day 10, and you see reach and leads from week one. New ad sets need time to learn, so we change them in batches, not every day. Judge accepted leads over a quarter and pipeline over your sales cycle. At three months we go through the results with you.
Can I target specific companies on LinkedIn?Yes, with a list of up to 300,000.
Upload a list of companies, and LinkedIn shows your ads to members who work there. The list needs at least 300 companies and must match at least 300 members, and LinkedIn recommends 1,000 or more. We add job function and seniority, so the ads reach the people who buy, not everyone at the company.
Lead Gen Forms or a landing page?A form for a guide, a page for a demo.
Lead Gen Forms open inside LinkedIn with profile details filled in, so more people complete them. That suits a guide or a checklist. For a demo or a quote, a page on your site explains more and asks for more, so fewer but better leads come in. On a form, we add one question about fit.
Do Thought Leader Ads need the author’s approval?Yes. The author approves the promotion.
Thought Leader Ads promote public posts by your employees or other LinkedIn members, only after the author approves, and the author can stop the ad at any time. They support brand awareness, engagement and video views. They can’t carry a Lead Gen Form, so we collect leads in a separate ad set.
How much does a LinkedIn Ads agency cost?Often $1,000–3,000 a month, or 10–20%.
In our October 2026 review of US agencies that publish LinkedIn Ads prices, they ask from under $1,000 to about $3,000 a month to start, or 10–20% of ad spend, often with a setup fee. Our setup starts at $X, then $X a month plus 10% of ad spend, with ad creative included in the agreed plan.
Are you a LinkedIn Marketing Partner?No. Ask who will run your account.
No. Wonderflow isn’t a LinkedIn Marketing Partner and hasn’t joined LinkedIn’s agency certification program. Either way, ask who will work in your account every day and how they judge the work. At Wonderflow that’s Pavel, our PPC Lead, and he judges campaigns by the leads your sales team accepts.
Insights
Guides and tools for B2B advertisers
Ideal customer profile (ICP): a B2B template with examples
Nine fields, filled in for a typical B2B company. How to build your own from won and lost deals, how it differs from a buyer persona, and how it becomes a LinkedIn target list and Google Ads settings.CheckedMQL vs SQL: what counts as a qualified lead
Marketing and sales often mean different things by “qualified.” Here is one deal followed through both marks, a one-page agreement to fill in, and a way to teach Google, Meta and LinkedIn from the second mark.Checked
Start here
What should you fix in your LinkedIn ads first?
Get a free LinkedIn Ads audit: a written review of who sees your ads, where they run, your forms, your tracking and what happens to each lead. We rank the issues by impact, so you know what to fix first.
What happens next
- 01Tell us about your business and your ad account.
- 02We send simple steps to give us view-only access, so we can’t change anything.
- 03Usually a few business days after access, you get the written review, then a call with Mike or Alex.
Starting LinkedIn Ads from scratch? Tell us what you sell and to which companies. We call about your offer, your target accounts and a first budget, then send a proposal for the 10-business-day setup.