Being the best answer for your customers starts with understanding those customers through data. But in the last ten years, B2B marketers have watched reliable data signals start to fade into the background. Thanks to privacy mandates like GDPR and CCPA, plus tech shifts such as third-party cookie retirement and Apple’s App Tracking Transparency, the targeting and optimization playbook has been rewritten.
With fewer breadcrumbs to follow, B2B brands that want to deliver optimal content and advertising experiences to their customers have had to double down on first-party insights, and adopt fresh measurement models that can deliver insights in an environment with a lot less signal to draw from.
While the challenge is real, so is the opportunity to reimagine how we gather, interpret, and act on data so that B2B brands can deliver experiences on platforms like LinkedIn that are both buyer-centric, relevant and actionable across the customer journey – exactly what Best Answer Marketing is all about.
What better source to learn about full funnel campaigns and optimizing performance on LinkedIn than from the pros at LinkedIn itself?
I had an opportunity to do just that with a presentation at Adobe Summit from Jessica Cross, Senior Partner Marketing Manager, Measurement at LinkedIn and Baaber Malik, Lead Customer Solutions Engineer at LinkedIn. Drawing on my notes from their presentation plus a bit of research from LinkedIn Marketing, here’s how B2B marketers can better understanding B2B signals, how LinkedIn Ads and Adobe’s Real Time Customer Data Platform (RTCDP) integrate and 3 winning plays for full funnel success on LinkedIn.
Signals are fading: What it means for B2B marketers
The signals we use to power our marketing have been disappearing over the past decade. The change is hard to perceive, but with regulations and changes to tracking technology, we have less signals to use to optimize our marketing.
For B2B marketers to better prove the impact of top of funnel brand campaigns, optimize their middle of funnel campaigns for meetings and opportunities and win back churned customers with bottom of funnel targeting, marketers are turning to key integrations between Adobe Real-Time CDP with LinkedIn Ads to stream the data that matters. The resulting integration helps B2B marketers run full funnel campaigns and optimize advertising spend despite the loss of signal.
The B2B marketing and advertising opportunity on LinkedIn
According to the LinkedIn Economic Graph:
- 1 billion+ members
- 68 million companies have a LinkedIn page
- 14 million job postings at any given time
- 41k skills
- 136k schools
What we see on LinkedIn is a representation of the economy.
There have been a 42% increase in public conversations on LinkedIn with 2 billion members interacting with a company page very month. There are 2.45m queries per second on LikedIn’s economic graph – people are searching LinkedIn, A LOT.
LinkedIn offers a lot more than a place for your digital resume and job listings. There are many other aspects to the platform including LinkedIn Learning, Sales Navigator and LinkedIn Marketing which offer B2B advertising and targeting solutions.
Why is the B2B buying journey so complicated?
The buying journey is long – an average of 192 days. Attributing revenue to campaigns takes time. Only 30% is attributed in the first quarter. It takes 6 months for 50% to be attributed. If you’re measuring at an interval less than that, you’re not getting accurate data. Full results attribution can take about 2 years.
LinkedIn Ads represent half the touch points a buyer has during the journey, which includes both online and offline events. For example:
- Ad impression
- Key page view of a landing page
- Ad impression
- Newsletter sign up
- Event attendance
- Demo booked
- Trial sign up
- Sale
Evolving privacy changes and customer behavior is making tracking the buyer through this journey more difficult. In 2025, 8 U.S. states are set to enact new privacy laws. These changes make targeting more difficult.
What can B2B marketers do? Focus on first party data. From website, CRM or any marketing automation platform being used now.
Why first party data? Enhanced targeting precision, a comprehensive customer journey view and improved attribution.
Achieving these tactics can happen through Adobe real time CDP and integration with LinkedIn offering matched audiences and a conversions API.
The LinkedIn Conversions API is a more reliable way for B2B brands to track the effectiveness of their LinkedIn Ads. Traditionally, pixels were used, but due to changes, pixel based tracking can be less effective.
How the Conversions API works:
- Prospect engages with the brand
- Activity is logged on your server
- Adobe sends signals to LinkedIn
- LinkedIn’s Ad is delivered
Benefits of Conversion API: Advertisers saw an average 31% increase in attributed conversions, 20% decrease in cost per action, 21% decrease in cost per action.
Full Funnel Marketing on LinkedIn: 3 Key Marketing Plays
1. Prove top-of-funnel impact with Document ads
Audience & Objective: Start with a Matched Audiences upload of your target-account list or a predictive look-alike segment. Keep the audience at 50K+ members to protect delivery and cost efficiency.
Optimize to an “MQL” or “Content Download” conversion to create a through-line into your mid-funnel metrics.
Creative: Promote a research report, ebook, or “Best Answer” slide deck via Document Ads so prospects can preview in-feed, then gate the full asset with a LinkedIn Lead Gen Form. Best practices call for 3-4 preview pages, a mobile-friendly layout, and a compelling cover page.
Why It Works
- 90% of Lead Gen Form pilot customers beat their CPL goals versus standard Sponsored Content.
- LinkedIn lead campaigns run 28% lower cost-per-lead than Google Ads on average.
- You can see exactly how many pages were read or downloaded-giving you a built-in “interest” score to pipe into nurture flows.
2. Accelerate mid-funnel momentum with Live/Event ads
Audience & Objective: Retarget visitors who hit high-intent pages in the last 30 days or anyone who engaged with the TOFU asset. Set the conversion to “Demo Requested” or “Meeting Booked.”
Creative: Launch LinkedIn Event Ads (or LinkedIn Live if you’re streaming) to promote a product demo, fireside chat, or customer panel. End with a strong CTA that pushes straight to a calendar link.
Why It Works
- Event Ads can cut cost per registration by up to 40%.
- In a recent case, coupling a poll with a Live webinar hit a 53% registration-to-attendee conversion rate.
- Add LinkedIn’s Conversions API (easy via Adobe RTCDP or GTM) and campaigns see a 31% lift in attributed conversions and 20% lower CPA-a privacy-proof way to keep the data flowing.
3. Win back & upsell with dynamic “Win-Back” ads
Audience & Objective: Build a Matched Audience of churned or downgraded customers from your CRM. Define success as “Closed-Won Renewal” or “Upsell Purchase” within 30 days.
Creative: Run Dynamic Ads that auto-pull each member’s name, photo, and company-add a personal greeting (“Welcome back, Alex!”) plus a one-click CTA to book a success call or claim an incentive.
Why It Works
- Personalized Dynamic Ads have produced CTRs up to 475% above the 0.1% benchmark when the member’s own name/photo is featured.
- The same Conversions API uplift (31% conversions, 20% lower CPA) applies here when online and offline signals are stitched together.
A full funnel, best answer continuum
Best Answer Marketing isn’t only about organic and owned content. Buyers discover and consume a substantial amount of content on LinkedIn through ads and these options shared provide a full funnel opportunity to engage very specifically with buyers in the best answer spirit. Document Ads spark qualified interest, Event Ads convert hand-raisers into meetings, and Dynamic Ads can revive dormant revenue. Now layer in LinkedIn’s first-party targeting, Lead Gen Forms, and Conversions API, and you can get a data-rich funnel that lines up with TopRank’s Best Answer Marketing ethos of meeting buyers with the right content, in the right context, at every stage.
*LinkedIn is a TopRank Marketing client
About the author
Lee Odden has been recognized as a top B2B Marketing professional by Forbes, The Economist and the Wall Street Journal. For over 20 years he’s worked with his team at TopRank Marketing to help elevate the B2B marketing industry through creative marketing programs that deliver more authentic, experiential and inclusive content for brands like LinkedIn, Dell and Adobe. Lee is the author of Optimize and has published over 1.4 million words on his agency’s B2B marketing blog. As a trusted marketing thought leader, he has given nearly 300 presentations in 20 different countries on B2B content, search and influencer marketing. When not marketing, Lee is probably running, cooking or traveling.
