Digital MarketingService
B2B advertising without LinkedIn
Where to reach business buyers when LinkedIn costs more than your deals can support.
Kaelo Global is a Dubai company licensed in Meydan Free Zone, with over 100 clients served so far.
At a glance
What it is
If your deal size cannot absorb LinkedIn's cost per lead, a different channel usually helps more than a bigger LinkedIn budget.
A principal, Kaelo Global digital marketing
LinkedIn is the default B2B advertising channel, and for some businesses it is simply too expensive to work. If your deal size cannot absorb LinkedIn's cost per lead, trying harder on LinkedIn rarely solves the problem. The better question is where the same buyer can be reached at a price your economics support. Many businesses ask it, and few sources answer it clearly.
B2B advertising without LinkedIn usually starts with search. A buyer looking for a solution to a specific problem is often better qualified than one who simply has the right job title. From there, trade publications, newsletters, community platforms and Microsoft Advertising can each reach business buyers at a lower cost, depending on who they are and how they research.
This comes up often in logistics. A freight forwarder with modest margins on each shipment often cannot afford LinkedIn's lead costs, while search campaigns on lanes and services, trade newsletters and supply chain publications reach the same shippers far more affordably.
What's included
Six areas of scopeChecking whether LinkedIn is really the wrong channel
Sometimes the channel is fine and the targeting, the offer or the landing page is the problem. It is worth finding out which before leaving the platform.
Search intent as the core B2B channel
For many B2B businesses, search campaigns on the problem the buyer is trying to solve do better than social targeting by job title, and they usually cost less.
Community and technical platforms
Reddit and Quora reach considered B2B buyers, particularly technical ones, at a much lower cost than LinkedIn, with far less patience for marketing language.
Trade press and newsletters
In specialist B2B markets, a trade publication is often a better buy than any social platform, because its readers are already qualified by the fact that they read it.
Microsoft Advertising for corporate audiences
Often overlooked in B2B, even though its audience leans towards corporate users searching from desktop computers at work.
Retargeting and email
Reaching people who have already visited your website or downloaded something useful, which often converts better than any cold audience and costs far less.
How the work runs
Economics check
Your deal size, your sales cycle and what a lead can realistically be worth to you.
Channel shortlist
Two or three candidate channels, chosen for your buyer instead of for what is fashionable.
Well-measured tests
Tests sized to give clear answers, with the success criteria written down first.
Focus on what works
Scaling the channels that work and reporting clearly on the ones that did not.
When to come to us
- 01LinkedIn's cost per lead does not fit your deal size.
- 02Your buyer is technical or specific to one industry, and hard to reach by job title alone.
- 03You sell into an industry with an established trade press.
- 04You are a logistics, freight or trade business with many smaller customers instead of a few large contracts.
What we do not do
- Leaving LinkedIn before finding out whether the channel or the campaign was the problem.
- Replacing one expensive channel with five thinly funded ones.
- Promising the same targeting by job title that LinkedIn offers. Other channels reach buyers in different ways.
Related reading
The less familiar advertising channels, and when they are the right choice.
A regional picture that global commentary often misses.
A sceptical audience that notices marketing language straight away.
Common questions
