How to master thought leadership ads on LinkedIn

Thought leadership ads are an excellent way for B2B businesses to boost engagement and grow trust, and we’re going to uncover how you can master the art of them. 

What are LinkedIn thought leadership ads?

Thought leadership ads allow companies to sponsor posts from individual LinkedIn users, usually employees, customers, or subject-matter experts. By sponsoring the post, the ad seems native to others’ LinkedIn feeds. 

Instead of using the normal company tone of voice, structure and sales tactics, you’re promoting a real person’s voice and opinion, generating more trust for your brand, because as we all know: people trust people.

The ad type was launched in 2023, and if you’re looking to humanise your brand, share real expertise and generate authentic engagement, without pushing for a hard sell, you’re going to want to read on! 

Why LinkedIn thought leadership ads work better than you might think

Today, advertising is all about ‘stopping the scroll’, and it’s becoming increasingly challenging for brands to capture users’ attention. But posts from individuals; especially those with strong opinions, useful tips and industry insights, are what users actually go on LinkedIn to see.

Here’s where you can expect your thought leadership ads to excel: 

• High engagement rates – as always when ads don’t look like ads 
• Lower CPCs & CPMs – due to the higher engagement 
• Trust signals – great for warming up the users at the top of your funnel 
• Reaching decision makers – they’re blind to promotional fluff & want expert advice

How to smash your thought leadership ad content 

Truthfully, this is the hardest part of a thought leadership ad strategy, it will only work if the content is truly worth amplifying, we’re looking for insight, relevance and authenticity. Let’s go through some tried and tested strategies for success:

Case studies and wins 

It’s giving: ‘the proof is in the pudding’. In this scenario your team should be talking about the work, sharing behind the scenes context, lessons learned, and outcomes.

If we were going to do this at Hallam it could look like this:

Answering the questions that always crop up

FAQs exist on most websites for a reason (the reason is primarily for SEO purposes not PPC), but, as it already exists – let’s amplify it! 

Here’s how platforms like 6sense could do it to build trust among their pipeline & drive webinar signups, plus the fact that they’ve promoted from a partner, not an employee further pushes the authenticity.

Unique opinions on industry topics 

The definition of a thought leader is ‘a person whose views are taken to be authoritative and influential’, and so what would a thought leader be without their views and opinions. 

This example is all about showing your expertise, starting conversations and sparking debate.

Educational content 

If you have a complex idea, break it down into valuable takeaways or a step by step demo., Here’s an example of how Impactable have done it with their CEO Justin.

My favourite – but it’s rare! Good PR

If someone says something positive about your brand online, you want all the reach you can get out of it! 

Here’s how I’d do it if I wanted to amplify organic content from conference attendees to drive more efficient sales for the next conference.

How to create a thought leadership ad that performs 

Have a human approach

• Use an organic post that comes from a person with credibility and insight 
• You want a natural tone of voice, not a rigid post that’s gone through iterations of corporate sign off 
• Often, you may find that a post takes off organically and then you decide to sponsor it – sometimes the best ads are spontaneous

Make it worth the ad spend 

• No fluff, personal, valuable or opinionated posts 
• Hook attention in the first sentence to stop the scroll
• Break up text with line spacing, short paragraphs and emojis 

Relevance over perfectionism 

• A raw post is more relatable than an over-produced post 
• Substance beats slickness

Setting up your thought leadership ad in LinkedIn

You’ve done all the hard work by this point, now the setup and implementation is easy.

1. Go to LinkedIn Campaign Manager
2. Pick your campaign objective (I’d go with Brand Awareness) 
   • Tip: if the organic LinkedIn post contains a link, you aren’t closing the door to the possibility of traffic, even though your objective is awareness
3. Go to the ads section & select browse existing content, which should open the content library page
4. Select the posts tab and search by either member name or post URL.
   • Tip: you can boost posts from employees of your company as well as users who are 1st or 2nd degree connections.
5. Select the post you want to sponsor and click request approval to send a sponsorship request to them – the member will receive an email notifying them of your request
   • Tip: its always best to prewarn someone of your plans to sponsor their posts to create a frictionless approval process and ad launch
6. Once approved, you’ll be notified in campaign manager and can sponsor the post

Budgeting and targeting tips 

I wouldn’t be a very good paid media lead, if I didn’t teach you how to make the most out of your ad spend: 

• Focus on targeting high intent audiences, think decision makers, not entire industries 
• Layer in retargeting to build trust in audiences who are almost ready to exit the top of your funnel
• Test and optimise, try different authors, hooks, post types, CTAs, with images or without, the options are endless! 

Common mistakes to avoid

• Overly polished and sales-y content: users will scroll right past it 
• Not being relatable: content must reflect the users world
• Promoting posts from inactive employees 
• Forgetting to follow up: don’t put all this energy into brand awareness and engagement and leave it there

In conclusion

Thought leadership ads are for marketers who understand the full funnel, and the 95/5 rule. They’re for businesses ready to play the long game, building brand awareness and trust to get a spot on users day one list, way before they’re ready to buy.

Because of that, consistency is key, and having a human voice is a must. 

Want your brand to start mastering thought leadership ads on LinkedIn? We’ve got a team of paid media experts ready to make it happen, let’s talk.