You’re probably wasting your LinkedIn ads budget (here’s how to fix it)

LinkedIn ads can be a goldmine for SaaS lead generation. But only if you set the right budget, monitor your reach and frequency, and optimise continuously. Otherwise, you’re likely burning through your spend without much to show for it.

In this post, we’ll break down the exact approach to budgeting and optimising LinkedIn ads that’s working for B2B SaaS companies right now. You’ll learn how to:

• Set your LinkedIn ads budget based on reach and frequency (not guesswork)
• Avoid the biggest retargeting mistake most SaaS brands make
• Track the right metrics while you wait for conversions
• Optimise underperforming campaigns with a structured approach

Let’s dive in.

Start with reach and frequency, not a random number

When planning your LinkedIn ad budget, the most common mistake we see is simply picking a round number. “Let’s chuck in £1,000 and see what happens.” That might work for testing, but it’s not a strategy.

A better approach is to base your budget on two key metrics:

• Target reach: What percentage of your audience do you want to reach each month?
• Frequency: How many times should each person see your ad in that period?

For example, if you’ve built a remarketing audience of 8,000 people, your monthly target might be:

• Reach: 70–80% of that audience
• Frequency: 10 impressions per person

Why does this matter? Because only a small percentage of your audience is in-market at any given time. If your ads aren’t reaching them often enough, you’re missing easy wins.

💡 On LinkedIn, use the “audience penetration” metric to check your reach.

Don’t starve your remarketing campaigns

A big mistake we see often is over-investing in cold campaigns while barely funding remarketing. The logic makes sense at first. Cold ads fill the funnel. But if you don’t reach your warm audience often enough, you’re leaving money on the table.

Here’s a good starting point:

• Spend 70 to 80% of your budget on cold audience campaigns
• Reserve 20 to 30% for remarketing

But it’s not about sticking rigidly to those numbers. Instead, calculate how much budget is needed to hit your target reach and frequency in each layer.

Remarketing audiences are usually smaller, so you’ll need less spend to reach them. But you still need to reach them enough times. Overfunding cold while barely touching remarketing is like inviting people to your house but never opening the door.

Monitor performance early, even before conversions start

You won’t get conversions in the first few days. Possibly not even in the first few weeks. But that doesn’t mean you’re flying blind.

Here’s what you should monitor in the early days:

If your ad is designed to be read and consumed in-feed:

Dwell time – How long are people hovering on your ad? (3 to 5 seconds is decent, more is great)
Engagement rate – Are people liking, commenting, sharing, or clicking?

These are great proxies for resonance. If your audience is stopping to read your ads and reacting positively, you’re on the right track. Even if conversions aren’t there yet.

If your ad sends people off-platform (e.g. to a blog or landing page):

• Click-through rate (CTR) – Is your messaging strong enough to drive clicks?
• Scroll depth / time on page – Are people actually engaging with the content once they get there?

If you’re seeing good signs here, conversions are likely to follow.

Understand what the money buys you

It’s easy to assume that more budget equals more conversions. But in reality, your budget is buying you reach and frequency, and that’s it.

Once you’ve hit your targets (say, 80% reach and 10 frequency for your remarketing audience), increasing the budget won’t magically get you better results. You’ll just end up showing the same people the same ad more often. That can lead to ad fatigue.

This is where most SaaS teams go wrong. They panic when conversions stall and throw more money at the same campaign, instead of diagnosing the actual issue.

Which brings us to the next point…

Follow a structured process for optimisation

When performance drops, it’s tempting to tweak everything at once. But the best marketers follow a structured, high-leverage process for improving underperforming campaigns:

1. Check your targeting
   Are you going after the right people? Targeting is one of the highest-leverage factors. You can have average ads with great targeting and still succeed. Great ads with poor targeting? Not so much.
2. Check your reach and frequency
   Are you reaching enough people? Are they seeing your ad often enough to remember you? Use LinkedIn’s audience penetration metric to find out.
3. Review your offer
   “Book a demo” might not be working. Could you test a personalised demo video, a free audit, a strategy call, or even a trial with an incentive?
   Offers don’t always need to be hard asks. You just want to create momentum.
4. Test creative last
   Only now should you look at your messaging and visuals. Don’t jump to this too early. It’s usually not the root cause of failure.

A good rule of thumb: If your reach and targeting are solid, and your offer is compelling, then (and only then) start tweaking headlines, visuals, and formats.

Bonus: Don’t ignore where you send the traffic

You’ve done the hard work of creating a great offer, designing a strong ad, and targeting the right audience. But what happens when someone clicks?

If your landing page is poor—slow, vague, overly salesy, or hard to navigate—you’ll kill conversions.

Some quick fixes:

• Add a problem section to your landing page to connect emotionally
• Use benefit-led language (e.g. “Generate invoices in 30 seconds”)
• Include social proof, pricing, FAQs and a clear call to action
• Test the form placement: top, middle or bottom. A/B test it to find the sweet spot.

If you’re getting the right clicks from the right people, and they’re not converting, your landing page is the problem, not the ads.

Key takeaways

To wrap up, here are the essentials to take into your next LinkedIn campaign:

• Budget around reach and frequency, not gut feel
• Don’t over-invest in cold—your remarketing needs love too
• Monitor dwell time, CTR and engagement early on
• Don’t throw money at the problem—fix targeting, offer, then creative
• Landing pages can make or break your results. Don’t neglect them

Done right, LinkedIn ads can be a consistent source of pipeline growth. Done badly, they’ll chew through your budget fast. Take a structured approach, and you’ll get compounding returns.

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By Ryan James

Founder of Rocket SaaS