Every week, I advise founders on how to hit $10k MRR. On Tuesdays, I share my consulting notes from those private sessions. Learn from their mistakes so you don't burn your own cash.
LinkedIn ads are a trap and your campaign manager knows it
|
Hey Reader, A client came to me frustrated. They had the right targeting. The right demographics. E-commerce decision-makers, correct job titles, correct company sizes. Their LinkedIn ad campaign looked perfect on paper – and it was producing almost nothing. I wasn't surprised. Here's the thing nobody in your marketing agency will say out loud: LinkedIn's ad algorithm is years behind Facebook. It lacks the deep behavioral and intent data that makes paid social actually work. When you run a direct-to-website campaign on LinkedIn, you're essentially paying premium CPMs for a platform that can't tell the difference between someone actively looking for a solution and someone mindlessly scrolling between meetings. And the cost of that ignorance falls entirely on your runway. What actually works on LinkedIn – and what the platform was genuinely built for:
Even professional outreach agencies – the ones whose entire business depends on LinkedIn working – will quietly admit the platform is dead for cold direct conversions. They just won't say it in the sales call. The Clarity Filter Insight LinkedIn is a relationship channel pretending to be an ad platform – and early-stage founders are the ones paying for the illusion. [Share on LinkedIn] [Share on X] Before you renew that campaign or approve next month's ad spend, ask yourself: are you buying distribution, or are you buying the feeling that you're doing something? Build the content funnel first. Earn the audience. Then, if you must pay, pay to reach people who already know your name. Speak soon, P.S. Don't write code for a product nobody wants to buy. I built Traction OS to give you the exact 60-day roadmap, sales scripts, and validation templates you need to hit your first $10k MRR without guessing. From complete scratch or with an existing MVP. |
Clarity Filter
Every week, I advise founders on how to hit $10k MRR. On Tuesdays, I share my consulting notes from those private sessions. Learn from their mistakes so you don't burn your own cash.
Hey Reader, Alex had a great demo call with Billy, a marketing manager at an e-commerce brand. Billy asked good questions. Billy seemed interested. Then Billy went quiet. Alex assumed the product wasn't good enough. It was. The pitch was the problem. Alex was selling: "this tool does your email retention work for you." Billy heard: "this tool could do your job without you." That is not a sales pitch. That is a threat. Here is what most B2B founders miss when selling to employees rather than...
Hey Reader, A founder asked me last week how to respond to someone pitching a Shopify quiz app – 10x more expensive than existing competitors, no unique technology, no obvious edge. He expected me to help him dismantle the idea. Instead, I told him: I don't care about the idea. Here's the truth most early-stage founders don't want to hear: your product quality is almost never your real competitive advantage. You can have a worse product at a higher price and still win – if you have...
Hey Reader, A founder I spoke with last week put it bluntly: "Traditional marketing agencies are in complete denial." They're charging monthly retainers to press buttons in tools their clients already pay for, while the client does the actual thinking. And somehow, the clients keep paying. Here's what the agencies haven't figured out yet – and what most SaaS founders are also missing. The biggest AI opportunity right now is not a better dashboard, a smarter workflow tool, or another...