By Arianna Meader-Zand, Account Executive at The Flywheelers
If you’re looking to connect with people who matter to your business, LinkedIn is the place to be. With over 1.2 billion members globally and 1.8 million feed updates viewed every minute, it’s not solely a social platform. It’s where business happens. And for marketers, paid LinkedIn offers something other platforms can’t: access to high-value, professional audiences with targeting based on job title, industry, seniority, and even company size.
Whether you’re boosting brand awareness, nurturing prospects, or driving conversions, LinkedIn’s paid tools work best when aligned with clear funnel goals. Some brands may choose to build visibility first, while others might choose to skip straight to consideration. The key is knowing what you’re trying to achieve and tailoring your strategy accordingly.
Here’s how paid LinkedIn campaigns can support your marketing goals throughout the funnel and what to keep in mind to measure success.
Top of funnel: Building awareness where it counts
Paid campaigns are a powerful way to introduce your brand to new audiences and build recognition. Whether you’re launching a new product, repositioning your brand or simply looking to stay top-of-mind in a competitive market, brand awareness activity can help you reach the right people at the right time.
The focus here is on storytelling and delivering value that leaves a lasting impression – not pushing the ‘sale’. Video and document ads work well to educate and inspire, while carousel ads are ideal for storytelling and showcasing multiple value points
Success at this stage isn’t about clicks or conversions. It’s about visibility. Metrics like reach, impressions, and ad frequency help you understand how often your brand is being seen and whether it’s cutting through.
Mid-Funnel: Driving consideration with paid LinkedIn campaigns
Once you’re on someone’s radar, it’s time to turn visibility into action. Middle of the funnel campaigns focus on driving action and encouraging users to find out more (or, as LinkedIn calls it, consideration) about your business and take the next step. These campaigns are particularly effective for brands looking to boost event attendance, secure meetings or nurture engaged leads, whether through landing page clicks, resource views or meaningful content interactions.
Our work with AeroCloud is a great example of this type of consideration campaign. Ahead of its appearance at Passenger Terminal Expo (PTE), the goal was to drive landing page visits to encourage meetups at the event. We launched a targeted LinkedIn Ads campaign aimed at relevant personas attending the Expo, which delivered impressive results with a click-through-rate of 0.74% – well above the industry average of 0.44-0.65.
To measure performance, monitor metrics like clicks and click-through-rate (CTR) to assess how effectively your content drives traffic, and engagement rate to understand how users interact with your content.
Bottom of funnel: Converting interest into tangible leads
Finally, at the bottom of the funnel, it’s all about driving conversions or leads. This is where paid LinkedIn can turn your interest into results, driving the likes of downloads or demo requests.
Lead gen forms paired with strong calls-to-action and personalised messaging are particularly effective for brands looking to convert. AeroCloud’s Runway to Growth campaign is a standout example of this, where targeted promotion of a persona-driven thought leadership report led to a lead form completion rate of 23.56% – more than twice the industry average.
Key metrics to monitor include leads generated, conversion rate, cost per lead and lead form completion rate, helping you measure how effectively your campaign is turning interest into results.
Recognising the funnel is key to LinkedIn success
LinkedIn is a strategic tool for reaching professional audiences with intent. Whether you’re launching a product, driving event attendance, or generating leads, aligning your campaign with the right stage of the funnel is key to success.
By combining smart targeting, engaging formats, and clear measurement, brands can turn LinkedIn into a performance engine that delivers real business impact.
Want to turn LinkedIn into a performance engine for your brand?
To learn more about how we help startups and scaleups build paid social strategies that drive awareness, engagement, and leads, get in touch at [email protected].
