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Thought Leader Ads vs company ads: which works better?
Lucas Bakx · Founder
Short answer
A Thought Leader Ad is a post your founder or salesperson published that your company's ad account sponsors. In the feed it looks like a normal post from a person, so it gets read, commented on and remembered. A company page ad announces itself as an ad and gets scrolled past. We use personal ads to reach new people, and company ads mostly in retargeting.
LinkedIn Ads are the best way to reach your exact target audience. But traditional company ads feel like ads and get ignored. People buy from people, so we advertise through your people, not your company page.
Side by side
| Thought Leader Ad | Company page ad | |
|---|---|---|
| Who it comes from | Your founder or salesperson | Your company page |
| How it looks in the feed | A normal post from a person | An ad |
| What people do with it | Read it, comment on it, remember it | Scroll past it |
| Engagement and clicks | More engagement, cheaper clicks | Less engagement, more expensive clicks |
| Where we use it | Reaching people who do not know you yet | Retargeting people who already know the person |
| Our numbers | [to fill: cost per click and cost per lead from your own campaigns] | [to fill: the same for company ads] |
What a Thought Leader Ad is
It is an official LinkedIn format. Your company’s ad account sponsors a post that your founder or salesperson published themselves. The post keeps their name and face, so the people you target see useful content from a real person instead of a company logo.
Do company ads still have a place?
Yes, mostly in the retargeting campaign. For top of funnel awareness we run personal ads from your founder and salespeople, because they get more engagement and cheaper clicks than company page ads. Once people know the person, company ads work well to keep your brand and offer in front of them.
What if the person in the ads leaves?
Everything lives in your company’s ad account: the campaigns, the content, the retargeting audiences and all the data. If someone leaves, the next person starts from everything you already built instead of from zero. More in what happens when the salesperson leaves.
Want this running from your own people?
A strategy call is where we map it out for your market.
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