Why a nine-layer funnel
B2B SaaS decisions take 60, 120 days and involve 3, 7 people. A single LinkedIn campaign can’t move a buying committee. What works is a stacked system. each layer with a narrow job, a single creative format, and a single audience segment.
The payoff: when the thinking is separated, the creative output gets sharper, the budget allocation gets cleaner, and you can actually see which stage is the bottleneck.
The nine layers
Layer 1. Thought leadership (cold)
Single-image and document ads carrying the founder’s POV. Zero CTA beyond “follow the page”. Goal: page follows.
Layer 2. Video POV
30, 60 second vertical videos, speaker-to-camera. Same POV as Layer 1, adapted for video. Goal: video 50% views.
Layer 3. Insight content
Document ads. 6 to 10 slides of an opinion with data. Gated behind a soft CTA (“see more”). Goal: 60%+ read-through.
Layer 4. Benchmark or report
A downloadable PDF in exchange for email. Single-image conversion campaign. Goal: MQL at < RM 200.
Layer 5. Product explainer
Now the ad can talk about the product. Carousel or video, specific use-case. Audience: engaged with Layers 1, 3. Goal: micro-conversion (demo video view, feature-page visit).
Layer 6. Case study
Named customer, specific result, clean numbers. Single-image ad. Audience: engaged with Layer 5. Goal: SQL. qualified demo request.
Layer 7. Comparison
You vs the alternative (competitor, status quo, DIY). Use only when the comparison is defensible. Audience: recent demo requesters. Goal: second call booked.
Layer 8. Pricing and trial
Direct response. Trial CTA or pricing page. Audience: warm buying-committee members (comparison visitors + case-study readers). Goal: pipeline.
Layer 9. Account retargeting
Company-level retargeting for accounts stuck in pipeline. Ads are signed by the founder, addressed to the ICP role. Goal: unstick stalled deals.
LinkedIn Ads is a system, not a campaign. The brands that win here are the ones who stopped asking “which ad converted” and started asking “which layer is the bottleneck.”
Budget split
For a RM 30,000/month test budget, the split I run is:
- Layers 1, 3 (thought leadership, cold): 35%
- Layer 4 (lead magnet): 15%
- Layers 5, 6 (product + case study): 30%
- Layers 7, 8 (comparison + pricing): 15%
- Layer 9 (account retargeting): 5%
Cold (L1, 3) looks like a lot because it is. If you haven’t bought page follows for 90 days, the warmer layers starve. Expect L1, 3 to look “unprofitable” on attribution reports . it’s the input to the rest of the system, not a standalone channel.
Creative principles that compound
- One face across the funnel. Pick the founder or one operator. Every layer features them. The compounding comes from familiarity.
- Don’t launch pricing in month one. Let Layers 1, 3 run for 30 days before turning on Layer 8.
- Every document ad is an essay. 10 slides, each with one idea, one graph, one line of text.
- Ship weekly. LinkedIn ad creative fatigues at around 20% earlier than Meta. Ship a new concept every week for the first 60 days.
How to read the funnel weekly
One page, five numbers: page follows/wk (Layer 1, 3), lead magnet MQL (Layer 4), demo requests (Layer 6), second-call conversion rate (Layer 7), weighted pipeline from LinkedIn (Layers 8, 9). If any one number drops by > 25% week-over-week, that’s the layer to fix. don’t touch the rest.