January 26, 2025 • 33 mins
If you've been thinking about using Linkedin ads but you're worried about it costing too much or worse - wasting money - then listen up 'cause it's not every day that you get to hang out with a LinkedIn Top Voice all about LinkedIn Ad strategies!
If you've been active on LinkedIn at all recently then you've heard a lot about the need to post content regularly and engage with the platform - but that can be super time consuming.
So the question we're taking a look at is: Could linkedIn ads be a good solution for your business to get your message in front of exactly the right audience - and get your business to stand out from your competition?
Get ready for a great discussion with Joshua Stout, Director of Advertising at Influent Social, and maybe one of the most prominent LinkedIn Ads experts.
Josh is going to walk us through his strategies for running a successful Linkedin campaign even if you're a little guy
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Because when you start showing up with clarity, confidence, and the right content—your ideal clients won't just notice you. They'll choose you.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Joshua Stout (00:02):
You already have an audience that knows who you
are, they know your brand, theyknow your messaging and they're
already much higher in theprocess of wanting to enroll,
versus just a cold audience orpeople that just saw you, maybe
once or twice.
So it's a way to engage yourcold audience and then stay in
front of them with the post thatyou think is most beneficial
(00:24):
for them to hear and ultimatelyhave the audience to use for
whatever you want.
Brad Powell (00:32):
Welcome to the Standout Business Show, where
it's all about making a biggerdifference by doing business
differently.
I'm Brad Powell, your StandoutBusiness Coach, and for our show
today.
If you've been thinking aboutusing LinkedIn ads, but you're
worried about maybe it costs toomuch or, worse, it's going to
waste your money, then I wantyou to listen up, because the
(00:55):
question we're going to take alook at is could LinkedIn ads be
a good solution for yourbusiness to get your message in
front of exactly the rightaudience and get your business
to get your message in front ofexactly the right audience and
get your business to stand outfrom your competition?
So get ready for a greatdiscussion with Joshua Stout.
He's the director ofadvertising at Influence Social
(01:17):
and he may be one of the mostprominent LinkedIn ad experts
that we could get a hold of.
So stay tuned, because Josh isgoing to talk.
He's going to walk us throughhis strategies for running a
successful LinkedIn campaign,even if you're a little guy.
And with that, let's start theshow.
(01:41):
Before we get started, I want toannounce that, after three
years and over 160 interviews onthis show, I've just created a
self-assessment tool that I'mcalling the Standout Business
Scorecard.
The scorecard lets you rankyourself on how much your
business stands out and willgive you personalized
recommendations based on yourscore from several of my past
(02:04):
guests.
So to find out your standoutbusiness score, just go to
awesomevideomakerscom slashscorecard.
I'll say that againawesomevideomakerscom forward
slash scorecard.
It's quick, it's free and youcan thank me later.
And now back to the show.
(02:27):
All right, joshua, welcome tothe show.
Joshua Stout (02:35):
Thank you.
Thank you, I'm happy to be here.
Brad Powell (02:37):
Yeah, so to start us off, let's take a sort of a
big picture.
Look at LinkedIn ads andLinkedIn ad space.
There've been some prettyinteresting updates and changes
that have come down the pike.
One of the most prominent thatI know about is the ability to
thought leadership type of ads,and so part of the approach that
(03:03):
I'd like to take is for thefolks who are they're running
their own business and whatthey're feeling like is not only
do they want to get theirmessage out, but they want to
humanize the business.
Linkedin is actually a greatplace to be a human instead of a
corporation, because the wholelook and feel of LinkedIn has
been very corporate, and so oneof the ways that you can stand
(03:26):
apart and be quite unique on theplatform is to just show up and
be a person, and now that youcan do these thought leadership
ads, you can take anything thatyou've done in the past,
particularly if it's a video,and turn it around, boost it,
kind of the way you could do iton Facebook, and turn it into an
ad campaign.
That is now putting you likeyou, the person in front of
(03:51):
exactly the target audience youwant to reach.
So give me a little bit of yourperspective of like.
You've been doing this for awhile.
You've seen sort of a shift inboth the platform in terms of
its features, but also in thedesire of people who are
thinking about doing adcampaigns.
Joshua Stout (04:10):
Yeah, yeah, it's been quite an evolution.
Watching how Farlington hascome.
I think even a few years ago,pre-covid, a lot of people still
considered it a job platform.
You know, you go on, you lookfor jobs.
Recruiters were using it a lotto find talent for businesses.
But after COVID there was aparadigm shift of really kind of
(04:31):
like what it was as a go-toplatform in the professional
space, and the reason for thatwas people couldn't go to
conferences, they couldn't godoor to door, they couldn't go
to events, you couldn't networkyour business in person anymore.
And so LinkedIn was sittingthere waiting for everybody and
they said, hey, we've been morethan a recruiting platform.
We capabilities of their adplatform and then the best
(05:06):
practices on how to use theplatform to brand yourself,
brand your company and get newbusiness.
Specifically, I mean, even thewhole idea of really promoting
thought leader posts is prettyrecent.
You know, back when I startedreally focusing on LinkedIn ads
about five, six years ago, itwas still company-based and you
(05:28):
run ads from your company page.
We'd always recommend postingon your company page.
That was the important part.
But, just like you're saying,there again has been a shift,
because it is hard to trustcompanies.
There is a lot ofcompetitiveness out there.
There's a lot of competitorsfor people to choose from, and
if you're not able to establishthe right trust and credibility,
(05:49):
people aren't going to chooseyou.
So when it comes to thoughtleadership, you have to consider
that there's some maincomponents there that are
lacking outside of your adcampaigns.
And what it is is that peopletrust people.
It's much easier to trust thevoice of somebody or an expert
at a company than just to trustthat a company is saying that
(06:10):
they're the best.
Every company is going to whatmakes them the best.
It's much easier to influencethe prospects that are
considering that as a service oran offer.
(06:31):
And the other part is brandequity.
When people are posting andthey're sharing their expertise
and they're establishing thesethought leader posts, you're
building a lot of brand equity.
And once you even get to adcampaigns or you're running ad
campaigns, you can't ask forthat direct, close or direct
call to action without havingthat brand equity out on the
market.
So the best way to utilize itis one yes post about your
(06:55):
expertise.
Absolutely Never worry aboutlikes or engagement posts.
Whenever you see the amount ofimpressions you're getting,
understand that those are peopleseeing what your posts are.
Now, the way that you enhancethat and I think this is more
specifically to your question,brad is through an ad campaign.
So you can boost it.
(07:16):
You can boost it from yourcompany page, but don't just do
that, don't just boost it.
Go into your campaign managerand put a campaign to
specifically target the ICP thatyou want, and then also, what
that'll make sure to do is, aspeople engage with your post,
you can then retarget them later, and that's how you're going to
(07:38):
maximize your efforts, getpeople interested and ensure
they stay in your bucket so thatyou can then hit them with
additional ads that are going tobuild that trust and
credibility.
Brad Powell (07:47):
Yeah, Okay.
Well, let's talk about that ina little more detail from the
point of view of, let's say,someone.
I could use myself as anexample.
Like, I have a ton of videocontent.
I've been making video contenton LinkedIn for I don't know how
long, but ever since I couldlike.
The moment they allowed livestreaming, I signed up for it
(08:08):
and I got in really early and soI've got this really big
archive of this kind of contentlike a live production.
But I also have, ever sincethey have sort of shortened and
shrunk and now they have a shortforms feed that's separate.
I've been making lots of shortform content.
So I have an archive of stuffany which could be turned into
(08:31):
an ad and because it's on myprofile, it could be turned into
a thought leader ad.
So if I want to set up acampaign, that number one
positions me as the authorityfor what I do and showcases some
of the expertise that I haveand is also just genuinely
helpful to the people who I wantto serve.
(08:52):
But then I also want to buildlike a group of people so that
when I'm ready to make an offer,when I have something to invite
them to, in this case.
Let's say, like later thismonth, I'm doing a webinar, so
my overall goal is I want awhole bunch of people to attend
this masterclass that I'm doing,and so I want to build a
(09:14):
campaign that will ultimatelydrive folks to have the desire
to come to my masterclass andfeel like, oh, this is totally
for me.
So how would you design and Ithink this is a typical thing
for lots of people who are doingany kind of online marketing
this is the kind of path orfunnel or customer journey
(09:35):
they're wanting to build.
So what would you advise tothem in terms of how they would
structure a campaign so thatthey would get the outcome that
they're looking for?
Joshua Stout (09:45):
There's different approaches here, and I think
this play specifically is thebrand play right Really
solidifying your brand in frontof the target audience, or ICP,
that you know would beinterested in hearing about you
and getting your recognition outthere, but then also ensuring
you're using those same kind ofposts to stay in front of those
(10:05):
people, and I'll discuss whyhere in a second.
But you know you said tworeally strong things in this
podcast already which LinkedInis completely bullish on right
now, and you will see thempromoting this with their own
budget when they see these postscoming out.
Is that?
You know, brad, I think thatyou believed in Netflix as soon
as it came out, right?
You knew Blockbuster was likeheading out the door, because
(10:28):
that's what video is now, andyou'll see them really talking
about how thought leader is theway and how videos are the best
medium to use.
And it makes sense, right?
We have shorter and shorterattention spans.
I said this just the other dayin another podcast that I am
equally guilty of this thoseshorter and shorter videos and
(10:49):
I'm scrolling through them andI'm just consuming doom
scrolling, I think they calledit, but I'm part of that.
We have short attention spansand you have to appeal to people
.
So, very specifically, the waythat you would want to build out
a campaign like this becauseyou want to retain those people
that are engaging.
So, at a very specific level,when you go into campaign
(11:09):
manager, you set up a campaignwith the engagement objective.
What that means is when youbuild your audience of the
people that you know make upyour either total addressable
market or specifically your ICP.
Those are the people thatyou're promoting your content to
and engagement says I want thepeople that engage with ads
right, that engage with posts.
(11:29):
That means that likes, comments, shares, any kind of engagement
you get with it.
That's the people it's going totarget in your market.
As you get that engagement, youwant to make sure that you go
to your audiences on thecampaign manager and set up an
audience for single imageinteractions.
So that means that anybody thatinteracts with that post or any
(11:53):
of the posts and I say one post, but you obviously want to put
multiple posts in there.
If you're using it top of funnelcold audience, you're building
it in the platform probably fiveto 10 posts you want to include
in there and then when youbuild that matched audience
anyone that engages with thoseposts they're going to go into
that audience.
You then want to use those postsagain to retarget that same
(12:17):
audience.
So what this is doing it'ssolidifying you and your brand
as an expert in their minds.
And when you are ready like youhave an event coming up you
already have an audience thatknows who you are, they know
your brand, they know yourmessaging and they're already
much higher in the process ofwanting to enroll to go to an
(12:38):
event like that, versus just acold audience or people that
just saw you maybe once or twice, right?
So it's a way to engage yourcold audience and then stay in
front of them with the post thatyou think is most beneficial
for them to hear and ultimatelyhave the audience to use for
whatever you want Now keep inmind for, like a regular, intent
driven ad campaign.
There's additional strategiesyou want to use with that, but
(13:00):
in this play that you're talkingabout specifically, it's about
building your brand, solidifyingthat in their minds and keeping
the audience available foranything else you might want to
send them to.
Brad Powell (13:09):
Okay, I just want to underline a couple of things.
You said, so that people whoare totally new will go oh yeah,
okay, I got it now.
So main thing I heard was thisengagement, and I know that,
like when you're doing a thoughtleader type of post, you only
have two types of objectives Oneis brand awareness and one is
engagement.
So the idea here is you pickengagement, and what that does
(13:33):
tell me, if I'm wrong, is thatnow the algorithm is going to
put your content in front ofpeople like continually, who are
engaging, looking, hunting forpeople who do something like,
react to it in some way.
They either click more to readthe post, or they click like, or
they do whatever they do, andthat's just a signal that oh,
(13:54):
here's a person who isinterested in this content.
So we want to show this kind ofperson more of this kind of
stuff.
Joshua Stout (14:03):
That's exactly right.
So I think a lot of people readtoo deep into like how
algorithm optimizes.
But what you're saying isexactly right.
It's looking for people.
If they've engaged with postsin the past, they're most likely
to engage with your posts now,and so they want to show them
your ad to get them to engage,or your post, excuse me, to get
them to engage with it.
Brad Powell (14:22):
Right, and so, and the other thing I heard which is
really interesting is thatinstead of just throwing up a
single type of post or whateveras as your ad, you put in a
group of them, like maybe asmany as 10 within a single
campaign, and those will, Iguess, go in a kind of rotation.
Is that right?
Joshua Stout (14:40):
Yes, exactly.
Brad Powell (14:41):
Okay, so now a single person who you've
targeted in your audience mightsee more than one of the ads
from these campaigns and they'llgo.
Oh, I saw this person and I saythem again, like in that
campaign that you're running forhowever long they may see a few
pieces of content instead ofseeing the same thing multiple
times.
Joshua Stout (15:02):
Right and where the real differentiator is is
when it's your cold audience,top of funnel, when you put
people in that don't know aboutyou.
You're going to use that datato optimize which posts get the
most engagement and you needstatistical significance so you
let those run for three to fourweeks.
You say which of these posts,when people see it once or maybe
(15:23):
two different posts which postsare they engaging with?
Because keep in mind biggeraudience, cold audience they're
only going to see one or two ofthese posts.
So you're using that for datapurposes.
Start stopping the posts thataren't getting as much
engagement, top of funnel or inyour cold audience.
When you retarget that matchedaudience and again use your
(15:44):
posts, use engagement objectiveagain for your retargeting
audience.
Now you're still going to usefive to 10 posts, but now
they're going to see thesedifferent posts all the time.
Consider this your coldaudience.
It's to optimize for whichposts resonate the most with
your target audience and you'regoing to use that data to kind
of whittle down to the maybe two, three or four that are most
(16:06):
effective.
But in that retargetingaudience you're going to keep
all 10.
And that means every monththey're probably going to see
three to five different postsfrom you.
So you want that variation ofyour different content to keep
them engaged and reallyestablish your expertise.
Brad Powell (16:22):
Oh, that's so interesting, all right, well,
let's go back Now.
One thing that you mentionedvery early on in our
conversation was ICP.
Yeah, and for those that don'tknow, that's ideal client
persona or customer persona Isthat.
Joshua Stout (16:37):
Yeah.
Brad Powell (16:37):
Ideal customer profile, the profile.
Okay, there we go, and so whenI'm again like starting from
scratch and I'm going on theplatform, there are a lot of
choices in terms of how to pickwho you want to put your
campaign in front of the contentyou're posting.
So talk a little bit about that, and what are the choices that
(16:57):
people have when they'rechoosing this sort of narrowing
down and getting a nicheaudience that is much more
accustomed to who would be agood fit for the content that
they're making?
Joshua Stout (17:10):
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, one of the mostpowerful things about LinkedIn
is the targeting right.
It's the professional filtersthat you can use.
So it's already the mostup-to-date professional network
in the world, so it has the bestdata when it comes to
professionals.
And then it gives youprofessional filters like no
other platform has to be able totarget with.
(17:30):
So you can get as granular aspossible with who you want to
target.
Now the reason I kind ofdifferentiate your total
addressable market from your ICPis you can put in everybody
Right.
So let's say, for me, I thinkthat SAS IT services, business
services and consulting andmarketing agencies is all the
(17:52):
different industries that I wantto target, anywhere from
manager to CEO.
That's not focused.
Now I could target all of themand run general types of posts
and content and in fact I canlook at the data a month later
and see who engages the most tofigure out my most active
audience on LinkedIn and who inthe market is currently the most
(18:13):
interested in my type ofservices.
But you might already have thatdata or your posts already
might be geared to a specificICP within all the different you
know total addressable marketthat you can target, in which
case.
Again, you can drill that down.
So I know that SaaS right nowis a heavy need for advertising
(18:34):
services on LinkedIn, so that'sa good industry for me to target
.
So I'm specifically going totarget computer software and
software development and I mightspecifically target the
executives at companies betweenyou know, two to 200.
And then maybe I'll even put inlike a revenue target for where
I want those companies to be.
(18:54):
So you can get as granular asyou want.
If you already know that yourcontent is going to resonate
more with the specific industryor specific target audience, put
them in.
If you want to start broaderand figure out, hey, who's going
to engage with this the most,you can do that as well.
Let it run for a month.
Go to your demographics, breakit down by different industries,
(19:18):
job titles, job seniority, jobfunctions, company sizes and see
who's engaging the most.
You can then edit that campaignto specifically target that
audience.
Because if you're going to puta little bit of money behind
this and it doesn't have to be alot if you're going to put some
money behind it, target thepeople that are most interested
in what you're saying right now.
Brad Powell (19:37):
Yeah right, all right.
So when it comes to retargeting, does LinkedIn, when LinkedIn
is storing things like how manypeople engage with this, how
many, how many video views did avideo get?
That kind of thing is that?
And the same thing with likewebsite visits?
Is that data coming just fromthe ads that you're posting?
(20:00):
Like?
They saw this ad and theyengaged with this ad, but not
any of the previous content Like?
Is it only the ad reactionthat's being measured, or do
they also store and measure justthe broad amount of content,
the organic content that you'realso posting?
Joshua Stout (20:20):
So it's only engagement with the ads once
you're running those ads.
Keep in mind, though, thatanything on LinkedIn is
retroactive, so it goes back 365days.
So if you ran, you know if youpromoted your thought leader ads
three months ago, you can stillget that data on anybody that
clicked like or comment or share, and you can still retarget
(20:42):
them.
The only one that's notretroactive is website visits,
and remember that website visitspicks up people from other
sources as well, so could havejust been referral based.
People found you some other way.
Maybe you're in Google or someother channel.
Your website visits will pickthem up, but you have to have
the matched audience built inthe platform.
(21:02):
So make sure your insight tagsinstalled on your website, make
sure your website visitsaudience are built so it's
collecting data.
Outside of that, your companypage visits your single image
interactions, and you can pickwhat percentage of a video
people watch.
I like to make sure there'ssome intent there.
So, depending on the length ofthe video let's say it's a
minute I'd probably use either50 or 75% or higher.
(21:24):
Let's say it's less, like 30seconds I'd probably only use
like 97% or higher.
But regardless, all that'sretroactive, the only one that
you want to make sure you havein right now is website visits,
and you can use the others youknow as you see fit, kind of
like.
For me, the best practices iswebsite visits, company page
visits and anyone who interactedwith the ads, whether they
(21:45):
clicked on you know a regularpost post or they watched a
certain amount of a video.
Brad Powell (21:50):
Right.
Okay, but you can combine these.
If you're doing a singlecampaign, I could target all of
those.
Is that right?
Joshua Stout (21:59):
Absolutely.
So, yeah, you can put as manyas you want.
I also suggest putting so Ibuild multiple matched audiences
.
You look at my matched audiencelist.
It looks ridiculous but I liketo have enough there to be
prepared if I want to use it ina certain way.
So 30, 60, 90, and 100 dayaudiences.
Maybe you have a webinar comingup.
Okay, 160 days right, if it wason platform, you can go back
(22:21):
365 days.
Website visits only goes back180.
Or maybe you have a campaignand you're doing some kind of
trial for your offer somethingand you want to hit a hot, warm
audience.
I might use the 30-day visits,but when you build that campaign
, you simply or them in thereWebsite visits or company page
or image interactions or videoviews, and it's going to include
(22:43):
them all within that targetaudience.
You can even get reallygranular if you want to.
If you want people to onlyvisit certain pages, or, let's
say, you want to retarget yourGoogle traffic, you can set up
the parameters to do that andyou can get as granular as you
want with it.
So you can use them all.
You can get very specific.
There's just a ton of differentways that you can get creative
with your matched audiences.
Brad Powell (23:03):
Yeah, that's cool.
Well, I'm just wondering.
Okay, so for the ongoing, like,if we look at the long-term
picture of this, it sounds likeone of the keys here is that you
should always have some kind ofad running.
Whatever that is Like, it wouldbe a good practice Tell me if
this is a good idea a goodpractice to have the maybe top
(23:24):
of funnel campaign with 10different pieces of content in
that campaign and just keep itrunning, even at a low budget,
because that's always going tobe picking up new people and
going into one of these matchedaudiences that you can then
retarget when you need to.
Joshua Stout (23:40):
That's exactly right, and this is something I
think is overlooked even byother LinkedIn professionals
that I've had this conversationwith, or even just general
marketing professionals, becauseeveryone thinks that they know
where your budget should bespent.
Right, it should be spent onSEO.
It should be spent on yourwebsite you know there's a
million places that you couldspend your budget, but this is
an easy way to spend low budgetand make sure that you're not
(24:04):
only getting consistent brandawareness and post engagement,
but the data.
The data you're getting and, ifyou're, you have that
consistently running.
At any point you can go assessthe data and see where that
shift in the market has beenthat you're getting the most
interactions from.
So I think that in and ofitself, is very important and
helps with how you might want tocreate your content or or ads.
(24:25):
If you're doing ads, becauseyou know a certain segment is
engaging the most, starttailoring some content for them,
right?
But that's something you canhave continuously going,
continuously adding to thatfunnel and just kind of slow
burn.
Brad Powell (24:38):
So you get the data , you get the engagement and you
continue building matchedaudiences for whatever you might
need them for.
Yeah, I think just the value ofknowing what's interesting to
your people.
We're constantly needing tolearn from our audience, learn
from our ideal customers outthere.
(24:59):
They are the ones who havetheir own desires and their own
desired outcome and the thingthat they're trying to go for
and the thing that they'restruggling with, and they will
tell you, based on theirresponse to how you're speaking
to them and if you're sayingsomething to them that is a
complete miss.
Well, using these tools, you'regonna know fairly quickly that,
(25:21):
okay, let's not do this kind ofthing anymore, let's lean over
here, because clearly this iswhat's getting the better
response.
Joshua Stout (25:30):
Absolutely 100%, and I even say that for ad
campaigns, and even if it's alow budget ad campaign, you know
you use a variation of painpoints and benefits to appeal to
people.
They'll tell you what's mostinteresting to them.
You, you might think that youknow right, but every company
out there is also a lot of timesputting these like regular pain
(25:50):
points and benefits on howtheir service helps.
But it's the audience that willtell you what they're actually
interested in and what'sgrabbing their attention.
So, whether you're using thatfor your thought leadership
posts to continue making contentthat's most relevant right now,
because it might be differentin a month or two, things change
, the market changes, people'sneeds and wants changes, but
(26:10):
you'll see what's relevant nowand be able to continue
optimizing, creating more forthat Same on the ads campaign,
you'll see what kind of benefitsresonate the most with people
and then you'll be able tooptimize for that.
And so that's such a big keypart to running these campaigns,
as well as just staying on topof what's relevant.
Brad Powell (26:27):
Yeah, Okay.
Well, last question when you'retalking about a low budget,
what does that actually looklike?
What is, what's the parametersfor a low budget?
Joshua Stout (26:36):
Yeah.
So I'd say in an example likewe were talking about, just kind
of like a slow burn to keep outthere, low budget is 300 bucks.
You can run a budget as low as300 a month.
Now, typically, if I say lowbudget for like an ad campaign,
because I do like to if you'redoing Thought Leader, we can run
that in tandem with an adcampaign.
(26:57):
To me that's the most powerfulcombination Because then you're
covering the aspect of thecompany selling its services and
promoting its services alongwith the experts and you know
probably a low budget aroundthere is like $1,500 to $2,000.
Overall $1,000 to $1,500, youcan still put a funnel into
(27:17):
place that can be effective foryou.
So it just depends on whatyou're trying to do and what
your goal is.
Ultimately, even with the$1,000, you can have a top of
funnel thought leadershipcampaign running and you can
have a retargeting thoughtleadership campaign running, so
really solidifying your brand infront of these people.
So it doesn't have to be tooexpensive to get a lot of value
from it.
Brad Powell (27:38):
That's great, that's awesome, that's actually
really accessible for just aboutany business.
It's sort of you know, here'sthe here's.
The advice here is that ifyou're not doing this, what are
you thinking Like this?
First of all, I just want to,you know, put like get on the
softbox for LinkedIn a littlebit.
Linkedin is where exactly yourideal right fit people are there
(28:01):
.
This is where the businessworld is hanging out, Especially
if you're a B2B, if you'redoing any kind of service that
is for a business, you reallywant to engage on LinkedIn.
However, the idea of doing itall organically, man, like who
is going to do that?
Like who signed up to get onthere every day and like answer
(28:22):
Like.
I see people who are in thismode of they're doing great,
Like it appears like they'redoing great, they post stuff and
they get 500 comments on asingle post, you know, but but
half of those comments are themreplying which.
I don't know how many hours ittakes for them to sit there and
do all of that, you know, or howhow much of their day is spent.
(28:42):
Oh, I got to reply again, youknow.
All of a sudden, it's like this, this interrupt pattern,
interrupt all day long.
It's like when do they get anywork done and when do they
actually do the thing that theydo?
And so it makes me wonder andmarvel and it's like, oh, who
has time for that?
And not just the time.
It's like who wants?
Like, this isn't the businessthat I wanted to be in.
So using campaigns like thisfor a mere like the minimum of,
(29:09):
let's say, $1,500 a month, oh mygosh, like what the heck?
If you have a service and yourlifetime value for customers in
tens of thousands of dollars ormore, why wouldn't you be doing
this?
Joshua Stout (29:20):
100%.
That's exactly right.
And yeah, and you're right,it's like a full-time job
writing posts, writing content.
You have to respond to otherpeople's posts and respond to
comments people's posts andrespond to comments on your own
posts.
That can be a full-time job andit's a lot.
So one is you can set up amethod to try to promote it and
keep it burning there with theposts that you do put
(29:41):
semi-regularly.
And two, it's something that alot of times nowadays is getting
passed either to the marketingteam or third-party agencies and
it's still authentic becausetypically they're based on
interviews with them and theycan take those interviews, break
that down into content in theirvoice, get them to sign off on
it.
So that's one approach.
(30:02):
Or the other approach is youtry to put in the time, when and
where you can, along with yourother responsibilities, but you
try to make them as impactful aspossible.
Brad Powell (30:12):
Yeah, I'm a big believer in that.
I actually feel like if you'rean expert, the thing that you
want to be doing is showcasingyour expertise, but you do not
want to become a content creator.
Joshua Stout (30:23):
Right.
Brad Powell (30:25):
So do the thing that you do like consult with
people and whether you do itfrom a stage or you do it on a
podcast or you simply just do itone on one with your client
Record, that record your side ofthose those kinds of
presentations and turn that intowhat we're talking about today.
Turn that into thoughtleadership ads.
Joshua Stout (30:46):
Exactly.
Brad Powell (30:47):
Yeah, and you're done.
Like that's, like you're nothaving to do an extra job,
you're doing the thing thatyou're here to do.
And now you can take advantageof these tools to just amplify
the showcasing of how good youare at what you do.
Joshua Stout (31:03):
Yeah, exactly.
Brad Powell (31:05):
All right.
Well, this has been really coolconversation.
I could talk quite a bit longerabout this.
Joshua Stout (31:10):
Oh, me too I usually have to censor myself,
because I usually can't stoptalking.
Brad Powell (31:16):
Right.
So if people are inspired andthey're going, ok, I'm
interested in this, but I wanthelp and this Joshua guy with
the cool hat seems like a goodguy to talk to.
How would they best reach outto you?
Like a good guy to talk to?
How would they best reach outto you?
Joshua Stout (31:30):
Yeah, so the best way it will there's.
There's three different ways.
So you can find me on LinkedIn.
I shoot me a connection request.
Just look me up, joshua Stout.
You should find me and my mypicture on there.
So shoot me a DM, connect withme.
The other way is you can shootme an email, joshatinfentco.
Or, of course, visit ourwebsite, go to the advertising
(31:53):
tab and schedule a call with me,happy to give advice free of
charge.
Schedule a call, shoot me amessage, happy to give you my
thoughts and, of course, if itis something that you might be
looking for help in or need apartner to help you do the
creative and post and come upwith strategies around your
content, we can help with thatas well.
So either reach out on LinkedIn, shoot me an email or go to our
(32:16):
website and schedule a call.
Brad Powell (32:18):
Well, I'll make sure that links to all your
stuff are in the show notes and,josh, thank you so much for
coming on today.
This has been fantastic.
Joshua Stout (32:26):
Yeah, it was my pleasure.
I was really excited to be here.
I'm happy we got to talk someLinkedIn with people.
Brad Powell (32:34):
For those listening at the end.
I just want to remind you ifyou want to go and binge the
entire archive of the StandoutBusiness Show, just go to
standoutbusinessshow.
It's all there, all the audioand the video, plus the special
stuff that I put in there justfor my listeners.
We go live every Tuesday.
(32:55):
Cool way to join is to join uslive.
Please subscribe, follow theshow so that you don't miss
another episode and until thenext time.
So long, everyone.
You already have an audience that knows who you
are, they know your brand, theyknow your messaging and they're
already much higher in theprocess of wanting to enroll,
versus just a cold audience orpeople that just saw you, maybe
once or twice.
So it's a way to engage yourcold audience and then stay in
front of them with the post thatyou think is most beneficial
(00:24):
for them to hear and ultimatelyhave the audience to use for
whatever you want.
Brad Powell (00:32):
Welcome to the Standout Business Show, where
it's all about making a biggerdifference by doing business
differently.
I'm Brad Powell, your StandoutBusiness Coach, and for our show
today.
If you've been thinking aboutusing LinkedIn ads, but you're
worried about maybe it costs toomuch or, worse, it's going to
waste your money, then I wantyou to listen up, because the
(00:55):
question we're going to take alook at is could LinkedIn ads be
a good solution for yourbusiness to get your message in
front of exactly the rightaudience and get your business
to get your message in front ofexactly the right audience and
get your business to stand outfrom your competition?
So get ready for a greatdiscussion with Joshua Stout.
He's the director ofadvertising at Influence Social
(01:17):
and he may be one of the mostprominent LinkedIn ad experts
that we could get a hold of.
So stay tuned, because Josh isgoing to talk.
He's going to walk us throughhis strategies for running a
successful LinkedIn campaign,even if you're a little guy.
And with that, let's start theshow.
(01:41):
Before we get started, I want toannounce that, after three
years and over 160 interviews onthis show, I've just created a
self-assessment tool that I'mcalling the Standout Business
Scorecard.
The scorecard lets you rankyourself on how much your
business stands out and willgive you personalized
recommendations based on yourscore from several of my past
(02:04):
guests.
So to find out your standoutbusiness score, just go to
awesomevideomakerscom slashscorecard.
I'll say that againawesomevideomakerscom forward
slash scorecard.
It's quick, it's free and youcan thank me later.
And now back to the show.
(02:27):
All right, joshua, welcome tothe show.
Joshua Stout (02:35):
Thank you.
Thank you, I'm happy to be here.
Brad Powell (02:37):
Yeah, so to start us off, let's take a sort of a
big picture.
Look at LinkedIn ads andLinkedIn ad space.
There've been some prettyinteresting updates and changes
that have come down the pike.
One of the most prominent thatI know about is the ability to
thought leadership type of ads,and so part of the approach that
(03:03):
I'd like to take is for thefolks who are they're running
their own business and whatthey're feeling like is not only
do they want to get theirmessage out, but they want to
humanize the business.
Linkedin is actually a greatplace to be a human instead of a
corporation, because the wholelook and feel of LinkedIn has
been very corporate, and so oneof the ways that you can stand
(03:26):
apart and be quite unique on theplatform is to just show up and
be a person, and now that youcan do these thought leadership
ads, you can take anything thatyou've done in the past,
particularly if it's a video,and turn it around, boost it,
kind of the way you could do iton Facebook, and turn it into an
ad campaign.
That is now putting you likeyou, the person in front of
(03:51):
exactly the target audience youwant to reach.
So give me a little bit of yourperspective of like.
You've been doing this for awhile.
You've seen sort of a shift inboth the platform in terms of
its features, but also in thedesire of people who are
thinking about doing adcampaigns.
Joshua Stout (04:10):
Yeah, yeah, it's been quite an evolution.
Watching how Farlington hascome.
I think even a few years ago,pre-covid, a lot of people still
considered it a job platform.
You know, you go on, you lookfor jobs.
Recruiters were using it a lotto find talent for businesses.
But after COVID there was aparadigm shift of really kind of
(04:31):
like what it was as a go-toplatform in the professional
space, and the reason for thatwas people couldn't go to
conferences, they couldn't godoor to door, they couldn't go
to events, you couldn't networkyour business in person anymore.
And so LinkedIn was sittingthere waiting for everybody and
they said, hey, we've been morethan a recruiting platform.
We capabilities of their adplatform and then the best
(05:06):
practices on how to use theplatform to brand yourself,
brand your company and get newbusiness.
Specifically, I mean, even thewhole idea of really promoting
thought leader posts is prettyrecent.
You know, back when I startedreally focusing on LinkedIn ads
about five, six years ago, itwas still company-based and you
(05:28):
run ads from your company page.
We'd always recommend postingon your company page.
That was the important part.
But, just like you're saying,there again has been a shift,
because it is hard to trustcompanies.
There is a lot ofcompetitiveness out there.
There's a lot of competitorsfor people to choose from, and
if you're not able to establishthe right trust and credibility,
(05:49):
people aren't going to chooseyou.
So when it comes to thoughtleadership, you have to consider
that there's some maincomponents there that are
lacking outside of your adcampaigns.
And what it is is that peopletrust people.
It's much easier to trust thevoice of somebody or an expert
at a company than just to trustthat a company is saying that
(06:10):
they're the best.
Every company is going to whatmakes them the best.
It's much easier to influencethe prospects that are
considering that as a service oran offer.
(06:31):
And the other part is brandequity.
When people are posting andthey're sharing their expertise
and they're establishing thesethought leader posts, you're
building a lot of brand equity.
And once you even get to adcampaigns or you're running ad
campaigns, you can't ask forthat direct, close or direct
call to action without havingthat brand equity out on the
market.
So the best way to utilize itis one yes post about your
(06:55):
expertise.
Absolutely Never worry aboutlikes or engagement posts.
Whenever you see the amount ofimpressions you're getting,
understand that those are peopleseeing what your posts are.
Now, the way that you enhancethat and I think this is more
specifically to your question,brad is through an ad campaign.
So you can boost it.
(07:16):
You can boost it from yourcompany page, but don't just do
that, don't just boost it.
Go into your campaign managerand put a campaign to
specifically target the ICP thatyou want, and then also, what
that'll make sure to do is, aspeople engage with your post,
you can then retarget them later, and that's how you're going to
(07:38):
maximize your efforts, getpeople interested and ensure
they stay in your bucket so thatyou can then hit them with
additional ads that are going tobuild that trust and
credibility.
Brad Powell (07:47):
Yeah, Okay.
Well, let's talk about that ina little more detail from the
point of view of, let's say,someone.
I could use myself as anexample.
Like, I have a ton of videocontent.
I've been making video contenton LinkedIn for I don't know how
long, but ever since I couldlike.
The moment they allowed livestreaming, I signed up for it
(08:08):
and I got in really early and soI've got this really big
archive of this kind of contentlike a live production.
But I also have, ever sincethey have sort of shortened and
shrunk and now they have a shortforms feed that's separate.
I've been making lots of shortform content.
So I have an archive of stuffany which could be turned into
(08:31):
an ad and because it's on myprofile, it could be turned into
a thought leader ad.
So if I want to set up acampaign, that number one
positions me as the authorityfor what I do and showcases some
of the expertise that I haveand is also just genuinely
helpful to the people who I wantto serve.
(08:52):
But then I also want to buildlike a group of people so that
when I'm ready to make an offer,when I have something to invite
them to, in this case.
Let's say, like later thismonth, I'm doing a webinar, so
my overall goal is I want awhole bunch of people to attend
this masterclass that I'm doing,and so I want to build a
(09:14):
campaign that will ultimatelydrive folks to have the desire
to come to my masterclass andfeel like, oh, this is totally
for me.
So how would you design and Ithink this is a typical thing
for lots of people who are doingany kind of online marketing
this is the kind of path orfunnel or customer journey
(09:35):
they're wanting to build.
So what would you advise tothem in terms of how they would
structure a campaign so thatthey would get the outcome that
they're looking for?
Joshua Stout (09:45):
There's different approaches here, and I think
this play specifically is thebrand play right Really
solidifying your brand in frontof the target audience, or ICP,
that you know would beinterested in hearing about you
and getting your recognition outthere, but then also ensuring
you're using those same kind ofposts to stay in front of those
(10:05):
people, and I'll discuss whyhere in a second.
But you know you said tworeally strong things in this
podcast already which LinkedInis completely bullish on right
now, and you will see thempromoting this with their own
budget when they see these postscoming out.
Is that?
You know, brad, I think thatyou believed in Netflix as soon
as it came out, right?
You knew Blockbuster was likeheading out the door, because
(10:28):
that's what video is now, andyou'll see them really talking
about how thought leader is theway and how videos are the best
medium to use.
And it makes sense, right?
We have shorter and shorterattention spans.
I said this just the other dayin another podcast that I am
equally guilty of this thoseshorter and shorter videos and
(10:49):
I'm scrolling through them andI'm just consuming doom
scrolling, I think they calledit, but I'm part of that.
We have short attention spansand you have to appeal to people
.
So, very specifically, the waythat you would want to build out
a campaign like this becauseyou want to retain those people
that are engaging.
So, at a very specific level,when you go into campaign
(11:09):
manager, you set up a campaignwith the engagement objective.
What that means is when youbuild your audience of the
people that you know make upyour either total addressable
market or specifically your ICP.
Those are the people thatyou're promoting your content to
and engagement says I want thepeople that engage with ads
right, that engage with posts.
(11:29):
That means that likes, comments, shares, any kind of engagement
you get with it.
That's the people it's going totarget in your market.
As you get that engagement, youwant to make sure that you go
to your audiences on thecampaign manager and set up an
audience for single imageinteractions.
So that means that anybody thatinteracts with that post or any
(11:53):
of the posts and I say one post, but you obviously want to put
multiple posts in there.
If you're using it top of funnelcold audience, you're building
it in the platform probably fiveto 10 posts you want to include
in there and then when youbuild that matched audience
anyone that engages with thoseposts they're going to go into
that audience.
You then want to use those postsagain to retarget that same
(12:17):
audience.
So what this is doing it'ssolidifying you and your brand
as an expert in their minds.
And when you are ready like youhave an event coming up you
already have an audience thatknows who you are, they know
your brand, they know yourmessaging and they're already
much higher in the process ofwanting to enroll to go to an
(12:38):
event like that, versus just acold audience or people that
just saw you maybe once or twice, right?
So it's a way to engage yourcold audience and then stay in
front of them with the post thatyou think is most beneficial
for them to hear and ultimatelyhave the audience to use for
whatever you want Now keep inmind for, like a regular, intent
driven ad campaign.
There's additional strategiesyou want to use with that, but
(13:00):
in this play that you're talkingabout specifically, it's about
building your brand, solidifyingthat in their minds and keeping
the audience available foranything else you might want to
send them to.
Brad Powell (13:09):
Okay, I just want to underline a couple of things.
You said, so that people whoare totally new will go oh yeah,
okay, I got it now.
So main thing I heard was thisengagement, and I know that,
like when you're doing a thoughtleader type of post, you only
have two types of objectives Oneis brand awareness and one is
engagement.
So the idea here is you pickengagement, and what that does
(13:33):
tell me, if I'm wrong, is thatnow the algorithm is going to
put your content in front ofpeople like continually, who are
engaging, looking, hunting forpeople who do something like,
react to it in some way.
They either click more to readthe post, or they click like, or
they do whatever they do, andthat's just a signal that oh,
(13:54):
here's a person who isinterested in this content.
So we want to show this kind ofperson more of this kind of
stuff.
Joshua Stout (14:03):
That's exactly right.
So I think a lot of people readtoo deep into like how
algorithm optimizes.
But what you're saying isexactly right.
It's looking for people.
If they've engaged with postsin the past, they're most likely
to engage with your posts now,and so they want to show them
your ad to get them to engage,or your post, excuse me, to get
them to engage with it.
Brad Powell (14:22):
Right, and so, and the other thing I heard which is
really interesting is thatinstead of just throwing up a
single type of post or whateveras as your ad, you put in a
group of them, like maybe asmany as 10 within a single
campaign, and those will, Iguess, go in a kind of rotation.
Is that right?
Joshua Stout (14:40):
Yes, exactly.
Brad Powell (14:41):
Okay, so now a single person who you've
targeted in your audience mightsee more than one of the ads
from these campaigns and they'llgo.
Oh, I saw this person and I saythem again, like in that
campaign that you're running forhowever long they may see a few
pieces of content instead ofseeing the same thing multiple
times.
Joshua Stout (15:02):
Right and where the real differentiator is is
when it's your cold audience,top of funnel, when you put
people in that don't know aboutyou.
You're going to use that datato optimize which posts get the
most engagement and you needstatistical significance so you
let those run for three to fourweeks.
You say which of these posts,when people see it once or maybe
(15:23):
two different posts which postsare they engaging with?
Because keep in mind biggeraudience, cold audience they're
only going to see one or two ofthese posts.
So you're using that for datapurposes.
Start stopping the posts thataren't getting as much
engagement, top of funnel or inyour cold audience.
When you retarget that matchedaudience and again use your
(15:44):
posts, use engagement objectiveagain for your retargeting
audience.
Now you're still going to usefive to 10 posts, but now
they're going to see thesedifferent posts all the time.
Consider this your coldaudience.
It's to optimize for whichposts resonate the most with
your target audience and you'regoing to use that data to kind
of whittle down to the maybe two, three or four that are most
(16:06):
effective.
But in that retargetingaudience you're going to keep
all 10.
And that means every monththey're probably going to see
three to five different postsfrom you.
So you want that variation ofyour different content to keep
them engaged and reallyestablish your expertise.
Brad Powell (16:22):
Oh, that's so interesting, all right, well,
let's go back Now.
One thing that you mentionedvery early on in our
conversation was ICP.
Yeah, and for those that don'tknow, that's ideal client
persona or customer persona Isthat.
Joshua Stout (16:37):
Yeah.
Brad Powell (16:37):
Ideal customer profile, the profile.
Okay, there we go, and so whenI'm again like starting from
scratch and I'm going on theplatform, there are a lot of
choices in terms of how to pickwho you want to put your
campaign in front of the contentyou're posting.
So talk a little bit about that, and what are the choices that
(16:57):
people have when they'rechoosing this sort of narrowing
down and getting a nicheaudience that is much more
accustomed to who would be agood fit for the content that
they're making?
Joshua Stout (17:10):
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, one of the mostpowerful things about LinkedIn
is the targeting right.
It's the professional filtersthat you can use.
So it's already the mostup-to-date professional network
in the world, so it has the bestdata when it comes to
professionals.
And then it gives youprofessional filters like no
other platform has to be able totarget with.
(17:30):
So you can get as granular aspossible with who you want to
target.
Now the reason I kind ofdifferentiate your total
addressable market from your ICPis you can put in everybody
Right.
So let's say, for me, I thinkthat SAS IT services, business
services and consulting andmarketing agencies is all the
(17:52):
different industries that I wantto target, anywhere from
manager to CEO.
That's not focused.
Now I could target all of themand run general types of posts
and content and in fact I canlook at the data a month later
and see who engages the most tofigure out my most active
audience on LinkedIn and who inthe market is currently the most
(18:13):
interested in my type ofservices.
But you might already have thatdata or your posts already
might be geared to a specificICP within all the different you
know total addressable marketthat you can target, in which
case.
Again, you can drill that down.
So I know that SaaS right nowis a heavy need for advertising
(18:34):
services on LinkedIn, so that'sa good industry for me to target
.
So I'm specifically going totarget computer software and
software development and I mightspecifically target the
executives at companies betweenyou know, two to 200.
And then maybe I'll even put inlike a revenue target for where
I want those companies to be.
(18:54):
So you can get as granular asyou want.
If you already know that yourcontent is going to resonate
more with the specific industryor specific target audience, put
them in.
If you want to start broaderand figure out, hey, who's going
to engage with this the most,you can do that as well.
Let it run for a month.
Go to your demographics, breakit down by different industries,
(19:18):
job titles, job seniority, jobfunctions, company sizes and see
who's engaging the most.
You can then edit that campaignto specifically target that
audience.
Because if you're going to puta little bit of money behind
this and it doesn't have to be alot if you're going to put some
money behind it, target thepeople that are most interested
in what you're saying right now.
Brad Powell (19:37):
Yeah right, all right.
So when it comes to retargeting, does LinkedIn, when LinkedIn
is storing things like how manypeople engage with this, how
many, how many video views did avideo get?
That kind of thing is that?
And the same thing with likewebsite visits?
Is that data coming just fromthe ads that you're posting?
(20:00):
Like?
They saw this ad and theyengaged with this ad, but not
any of the previous content Like?
Is it only the ad reactionthat's being measured, or do
they also store and measure justthe broad amount of content,
the organic content that you'realso posting?
Joshua Stout (20:20):
So it's only engagement with the ads once
you're running those ads.
Keep in mind, though, thatanything on LinkedIn is
retroactive, so it goes back 365days.
So if you ran, you know if youpromoted your thought leader ads
three months ago, you can stillget that data on anybody that
clicked like or comment or share, and you can still retarget
(20:42):
them.
The only one that's notretroactive is website visits,
and remember that website visitspicks up people from other
sources as well, so could havejust been referral based.
People found you some other way.
Maybe you're in Google or someother channel.
Your website visits will pickthem up, but you have to have
the matched audience built inthe platform.
(21:02):
So make sure your insight tagsinstalled on your website, make
sure your website visitsaudience are built so it's
collecting data.
Outside of that, your companypage visits your single image
interactions, and you can pickwhat percentage of a video
people watch.
I like to make sure there'ssome intent there.
So, depending on the length ofthe video let's say it's a
minute I'd probably use either50 or 75% or higher.
(21:24):
Let's say it's less, like 30seconds I'd probably only use
like 97% or higher.
But regardless, all that'sretroactive, the only one that
you want to make sure you havein right now is website visits,
and you can use the others youknow as you see fit, kind of
like.
For me, the best practices iswebsite visits, company page
visits and anyone who interactedwith the ads, whether they
(21:45):
clicked on you know a regularpost post or they watched a
certain amount of a video.
Brad Powell (21:50):
Right.
Okay, but you can combine these.
If you're doing a singlecampaign, I could target all of
those.
Is that right?
Joshua Stout (21:59):
Absolutely.
So, yeah, you can put as manyas you want.
I also suggest putting so Ibuild multiple matched audiences
.
You look at my matched audiencelist.
It looks ridiculous but I liketo have enough there to be
prepared if I want to use it ina certain way.
So 30, 60, 90, and 100 dayaudiences.
Maybe you have a webinar comingup.
Okay, 160 days right, if it wason platform, you can go back
(22:21):
365 days.
Website visits only goes back180.
Or maybe you have a campaignand you're doing some kind of
trial for your offer somethingand you want to hit a hot, warm
audience.
I might use the 30-day visits,but when you build that campaign
, you simply or them in thereWebsite visits or company page
or image interactions or videoviews, and it's going to include
(22:43):
them all within that targetaudience.
You can even get reallygranular if you want to.
If you want people to onlyvisit certain pages, or, let's
say, you want to retarget yourGoogle traffic, you can set up
the parameters to do that andyou can get as granular as you
want with it.
So you can use them all.
You can get very specific.
There's just a ton of differentways that you can get creative
with your matched audiences.
Brad Powell (23:03):
Yeah, that's cool.
Well, I'm just wondering.
Okay, so for the ongoing, like,if we look at the long-term
picture of this, it sounds likeone of the keys here is that you
should always have some kind ofad running.
Whatever that is Like, it wouldbe a good practice Tell me if
this is a good idea a goodpractice to have the maybe top
(23:24):
of funnel campaign with 10different pieces of content in
that campaign and just keep itrunning, even at a low budget,
because that's always going tobe picking up new people and
going into one of these matchedaudiences that you can then
retarget when you need to.
Joshua Stout (23:40):
That's exactly right, and this is something I
think is overlooked even byother LinkedIn professionals
that I've had this conversationwith, or even just general
marketing professionals, becauseeveryone thinks that they know
where your budget should bespent.
Right, it should be spent onSEO.
It should be spent on yourwebsite you know there's a
million places that you couldspend your budget, but this is
an easy way to spend low budgetand make sure that you're not
(24:04):
only getting consistent brandawareness and post engagement,
but the data.
The data you're getting and, ifyou're, you have that
consistently running.
At any point you can go assessthe data and see where that
shift in the market has beenthat you're getting the most
interactions from.
So I think that in and ofitself, is very important and
helps with how you might want tocreate your content or or ads.
(24:25):
If you're doing ads, becauseyou know a certain segment is
engaging the most, starttailoring some content for them,
right?
But that's something you canhave continuously going,
continuously adding to thatfunnel and just kind of slow
burn.
Brad Powell (24:38):
So you get the data , you get the engagement and you
continue building matchedaudiences for whatever you might
need them for.
Yeah, I think just the value ofknowing what's interesting to
your people.
We're constantly needing tolearn from our audience, learn
from our ideal customers outthere.
(24:59):
They are the ones who havetheir own desires and their own
desired outcome and the thingthat they're trying to go for
and the thing that they'restruggling with, and they will
tell you, based on theirresponse to how you're speaking
to them and if you're sayingsomething to them that is a
complete miss.
Well, using these tools, you'regonna know fairly quickly that,
(25:21):
okay, let's not do this kind ofthing anymore, let's lean over
here, because clearly this iswhat's getting the better
response.
Joshua Stout (25:30):
Absolutely 100%, and I even say that for ad
campaigns, and even if it's alow budget ad campaign, you know
you use a variation of painpoints and benefits to appeal to
people.
They'll tell you what's mostinteresting to them.
You, you might think that youknow right, but every company
out there is also a lot of timesputting these like regular pain
(25:50):
points and benefits on howtheir service helps.
But it's the audience that willtell you what they're actually
interested in and what'sgrabbing their attention.
So, whether you're using thatfor your thought leadership
posts to continue making contentthat's most relevant right now,
because it might be differentin a month or two, things change
, the market changes, people'sneeds and wants changes, but
(26:10):
you'll see what's relevant nowand be able to continue
optimizing, creating more forthat Same on the ads campaign,
you'll see what kind of benefitsresonate the most with people
and then you'll be able tooptimize for that.
And so that's such a big keypart to running these campaigns,
as well as just staying on topof what's relevant.
Brad Powell (26:27):
Yeah, Okay.
Well, last question when you'retalking about a low budget,
what does that actually looklike?
What is, what's the parametersfor a low budget?
Joshua Stout (26:36):
Yeah.
So I'd say in an example likewe were talking about, just kind
of like a slow burn to keep outthere, low budget is 300 bucks.
You can run a budget as low as300 a month.
Now, typically, if I say lowbudget for like an ad campaign,
because I do like to if you'redoing Thought Leader, we can run
that in tandem with an adcampaign.
(26:57):
To me that's the most powerfulcombination Because then you're
covering the aspect of thecompany selling its services and
promoting its services alongwith the experts and you know
probably a low budget aroundthere is like $1,500 to $2,000.
Overall $1,000 to $1,500, youcan still put a funnel into
(27:17):
place that can be effective foryou.
So it just depends on whatyou're trying to do and what
your goal is.
Ultimately, even with the$1,000, you can have a top of
funnel thought leadershipcampaign running and you can
have a retargeting thoughtleadership campaign running, so
really solidifying your brand infront of these people.
So it doesn't have to be tooexpensive to get a lot of value
from it.
Brad Powell (27:38):
That's great, that's awesome, that's actually
really accessible for just aboutany business.
It's sort of you know, here'sthe here's.
The advice here is that ifyou're not doing this, what are
you thinking Like this?
First of all, I just want to,you know, put like get on the
softbox for LinkedIn a littlebit.
Linkedin is where exactly yourideal right fit people are there
(28:01):
.
This is where the businessworld is hanging out, Especially
if you're a B2B, if you'redoing any kind of service that
is for a business, you reallywant to engage on LinkedIn.
However, the idea of doing itall organically, man, like who
is going to do that?
Like who signed up to get onthere every day and like answer
(28:22):
Like.
I see people who are in thismode of they're doing great,
Like it appears like they'redoing great, they post stuff and
they get 500 comments on asingle post, you know, but but
half of those comments are themreplying which.
I don't know how many hours ittakes for them to sit there and
do all of that, you know, or howhow much of their day is spent.
(28:42):
Oh, I got to reply again, youknow.
All of a sudden, it's like this, this interrupt pattern,
interrupt all day long.
It's like when do they get anywork done and when do they
actually do the thing that theydo?
And so it makes me wonder andmarvel and it's like, oh, who
has time for that?
And not just the time.
It's like who wants?
Like, this isn't the businessthat I wanted to be in.
So using campaigns like thisfor a mere like the minimum of,
(29:09):
let's say, $1,500 a month, oh mygosh, like what the heck?
If you have a service and yourlifetime value for customers in
tens of thousands of dollars ormore, why wouldn't you be doing
this?
Joshua Stout (29:20):
100%.
That's exactly right.
And yeah, and you're right,it's like a full-time job
writing posts, writing content.
You have to respond to otherpeople's posts and respond to
comments people's posts andrespond to comments on your own
posts.
That can be a full-time job andit's a lot.
So one is you can set up amethod to try to promote it and
keep it burning there with theposts that you do put
(29:41):
semi-regularly.
And two, it's something that alot of times nowadays is getting
passed either to the marketingteam or third-party agencies and
it's still authentic becausetypically they're based on
interviews with them and theycan take those interviews, break
that down into content in theirvoice, get them to sign off on
it.
So that's one approach.
(30:02):
Or the other approach is youtry to put in the time, when and
where you can, along with yourother responsibilities, but you
try to make them as impactful aspossible.
Brad Powell (30:12):
Yeah, I'm a big believer in that.
I actually feel like if you'rean expert, the thing that you
want to be doing is showcasingyour expertise, but you do not
want to become a content creator.
Joshua Stout (30:23):
Right.
Brad Powell (30:25):
So do the thing that you do like consult with
people and whether you do itfrom a stage or you do it on a
podcast or you simply just do itone on one with your client
Record, that record your side ofthose those kinds of
presentations and turn that intowhat we're talking about today.
Turn that into thoughtleadership ads.
Joshua Stout (30:46):
Exactly.
Brad Powell (30:47):
Yeah, and you're done.
Like that's, like you're nothaving to do an extra job,
you're doing the thing thatyou're here to do.
And now you can take advantageof these tools to just amplify
the showcasing of how good youare at what you do.
Joshua Stout (31:03):
Yeah, exactly.
Brad Powell (31:05):
All right.
Well, this has been really coolconversation.
I could talk quite a bit longerabout this.
Joshua Stout (31:10):
Oh, me too I usually have to censor myself,
because I usually can't stoptalking.
Brad Powell (31:16):
Right.
So if people are inspired andthey're going, ok, I'm
interested in this, but I wanthelp and this Joshua guy with
the cool hat seems like a goodguy to talk to.
How would they best reach outto you?
Like a good guy to talk to?
How would they best reach outto you?
Joshua Stout (31:30):
Yeah, so the best way it will there's.
There's three different ways.
So you can find me on LinkedIn.
I shoot me a connection request.
Just look me up, joshua Stout.
You should find me and my mypicture on there.
So shoot me a DM, connect withme.
The other way is you can shootme an email, joshatinfentco.
Or, of course, visit ourwebsite, go to the advertising
(31:53):
tab and schedule a call with me,happy to give advice free of
charge.
Schedule a call, shoot me amessage, happy to give you my
thoughts and, of course, if itis something that you might be
looking for help in or need apartner to help you do the
creative and post and come upwith strategies around your
content, we can help with thatas well.
So either reach out on LinkedIn, shoot me an email or go to our
(32:16):
website and schedule a call.
Brad Powell (32:18):
Well, I'll make sure that links to all your
stuff are in the show notes and,josh, thank you so much for
coming on today.
This has been fantastic.
Joshua Stout (32:26):
Yeah, it was my pleasure.
I was really excited to be here.
I'm happy we got to talk someLinkedIn with people.
Brad Powell (32:34):
For those listening at the end.
I just want to remind you ifyou want to go and binge the
entire archive of the StandoutBusiness Show, just go to
standoutbusinessshow.
It's all there, all the audioand the video, plus the special
stuff that I put in there justfor my listeners.
We go live every Tuesday.
(32:55):
Cool way to join is to join uslive.
Please subscribe, follow theshow so that you don't miss
another episode and until thenext time.
So long, everyone.
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