Hi! This is Moby.

This week, someone I respect asked: Are LinkedIn Ads Even Worth It?

Yes, but in under specific circumstances.

In this email, you can expect:

P.S. I want to learn what you’re stuck on in B2B marketing and paid ads, so I can write more relevant things for you. Up to share what you’re struggling with? Grab a time during Ads Office Hours. I would love to chat and be helpful.

LinkedIn ads are amazing for many companies, and work as people want. Leads. Opportunities. Revenue.

But they’re hard to get right. Here’s why:

LinkedIn Ads are expensive

Compared to all other platforms, LinkedIn charges users the most per impression, easily 2-8x more. I can have a conversions campaign on Meta that charges me $30 per 1000 impressions, and on LinkedIn that could be $180 per 1000 impressions.

LinkedIn’s default recommendations get you to waste your budget

It “recommends” you expand your audience beyond your existing choices, to only run lead gen forms, tells you to bid higher for results, and spend $$ on their “audience network”. All of those are complete wastes of money.

LinkedIn Ads has no AI you can rely on for conversions

The ads algorithm doesn’t learn. It’s basically a straight auction, i.e. you want to get in front of these 25,000 people? LinkedIn will do that, but will not optimize for who is more likely to convert.

Lead Gen ads only work well once the audience is warmed up and you have a compelling offer

I could turn on “Lead Generation” ads for a client from day 1, and get some leads that are expensive and don’t convert to a meeting. It’s a bad place to be, i.e expensive form fills and no meetings. Lead gen ads work well when the audience knows who you are, and the offer stands out (that’s why so many people offer gift cards in ads).

Campaign structure matters a LOT more than people think

You could have a really good offer, but still wouldn’t be able to get the most out of LinkedIn ads unless you run specific type of ads. You could get more leads from running more conversation ads, or have a bigger retargeting audience by using video, or tested lead gen forms after finetuning the offer.

Below, I share what makes LinkedIn ads great (for some people) despite all the problems with them.

P.S. Don’t worry, I’m sharing more LI ads playbooks in future editions to help you succeed.

Are LinkedIn ads worth the trouble?

I’m going to give you the answer my immigration lawyer gives me whenever I ask a question:

It depends 🙂

Here’s when LinkedIn Ads CRUSH, and you should consider them seriously for your business.

You have a niche B2B audience and you want to target very specific job titles/functions

You can’t accurately target industrial fleet managers in Texas, pharmaceutical scientists in London, or ecommerce accounting teams on Meta. But on LinkedIn, you can. LinkedIn ads can 100% be worth the premium if you want to target a specific list of job titles or job functions.

Or you want to target a specific list of companies

Want to target Ikea, YETI, Whoop or any specific company? LinkedIn lets you do that, whether that’s 20 companies or 7000. No other platform can do that.

You’re selling something that makes you $20,000+

The economics of a more expensive platform mean you must make more from each customer, because you’re likely going to pay more for each lead, booked call, and customer.

You’re posting on LinkedIn already because you know your audience is there

If you’re already active on LinkedIn because your audience is there and want to reach it, yeah LinkedIn ads is worth the investment. They amplify your efforts, and frankly promoting posts are the best ROI-ads right now

You’re doing LinkedIn outbound right now, or plan to

If you’re already doing outbound on LI, you can bump up your connection and response rates by showing up in front of prospects in ads and building trust before they receive a message from you.

But there’s cases you should NOT run LinkedIn ads. Read below.

I want to learn what you’re stuck on in B2B marketing and paid ads, so I can write more relevant things in this newsletter. In exchange, I’ll share everything I know that’s helpful to you.

If that’s of interest to you, grab a time during Ads Office Hours.

I would love to chat and be helpful!

Half my job is telling people not to run LinkedIn ads.

Sometimes ever. Sometimes not right now.

Here’s what you should NOT run LinkedIn ads:

You’re targeting SMBs (which means your market is likely on Meta)

You can target general accountants, dentists, ecomm companies, lawyers, general marketers pretty easily on Meta. Leads are cheaper, but you might have to add more friction to the form to get qualified leads.

You don’t see a need to be active on LinkedIn for your business

If you’re not already active on LinkedIn, that means you’ve concluded your market isn’t there. Good. Don’t run ads there.

You’re selling something under $10,000

Unless your LinkedIn ads are engineered for demos (here’s how) from the start, testing random tactics for a $10,000 payout doesn’t make sense.

You need cash immediately

If you need sales immediately, do NOT run ads. Instead - hustle, i.e. hit up everybody you know for a catchup and share what you’re doing. You WILL get referrals, and you’ll be out $0.

If you do decide to run LinkedIn ads, use this framework:

I go into more detail in How to Get More Booked Meetings from LinkedIn in 2026, and here’s the summary:

If you want help with LinkedIn ads, hit me up here and I’ll make some recommendations.