Short answer: Give every LinkedIn Conversation Ad one offer and one button. Keep the copy under 500 characters, send it from a real person (a Director or VP in customer success works best, never sales), and give it three to four weeks before you judge it.
Conversation Ads are one of the best direct response formats on LinkedIn. For things like demo and contact-us requests, they get 3 to 5 times the form fill rate of sponsored content. They're also really easy to overbuild. LinkedIn lets you add a bunch of buttons and branching paths to one message. Please don't.
Why only one CTA?
Every extra button is a reason not to click. Your ad lands in someone's inbox next to messages from real people. Offer a demo, a guide, a webinar and a case study and it reads like a menu. The easiest choice on a menu is to close it.
Branches split your data. Each path cuts your opens into smaller groups, and most of them never get enough clicks to tell you anything.
You can't see which button got clicked. Campaign Manager doesn't show you which CTA someone picked. Only your LinkedIn rep can pull that. One button means you always know what the conversion was.
The only time I'd use more than one button is if you're deliberately building a choose-your-own-adventure flow.
Who should send your Conversation Ads?
The sender's photo, name and headline show up in the inbox before anyone reads a word, so the sender matters a lot.
Use a real person, not a brand page.
Customer success wins. Women with Director-level titles or higher in customer success get the highest open and response rates. A VP of Customer Success or VP of Customer Service is the ideal sender title.
Never use a sales title. People get InMails from sales reps all day. "Sales" in the headline tells them they're about to be sold to.
Pick someone who looks credible and approachable in their profile photo.
The sender doesn't have to answer anything, either. Recipients can't reply directly to a Conversation Ad.
How should you write the message?
Open with them, not you. Name their role or the problem they own.
One sentence on what they get and why it's worth their time.
State the offer plainly. A demo, an asset, an event seat. One thing.
Make the button say what happens next. "Get the ROI calculator" beats "Learn more."
Keep it under 500 characters. 700 is the absolute max.
How do you bid on Conversation Ads?
Conversation Ads are priced per send, not per click, so the rules are different from sponsored content. Start at the lowest bid LinkedIn allows. Most of the time you'll still hit your daily budget there. If you don't, raise the bid 10% at a time. Watch for the tipping point: sometimes one small bump unlocks 30 to 40% more spend because you just reached a new pocket of the audience. You can always pull it back.
How long before you judge a Conversation Ad?
Three to four weeks, minimum. Week one always looks bad because people haven't opened yet. Open rates catch up as earlier sends get opened. Here's what normal looks like once they settle:
Open rate: 40 to 50%. Below 35% usually means your audience doesn't spend much time on LinkedIn.
Open to click: about 1%.
Form fill rate: 10% or more of the people who open the form.
Conversation Ads rotate evenly, so A/B testing is easy. Test one thing at a time (sender, first line or offer) and call the winner on qualified leads, not clicks.
FAQ
How many CTAs should a LinkedIn Conversation Ad have?
One, unless you're deliberately building a choose-your-own-adventure flow.
How long should a LinkedIn Conversation Ad be?
Under 500 characters. Don't go over 700.
What's a good open rate for LinkedIn Conversation Ads?
40 to 50% is normal once the campaign has run three to four weeks. Below 35% is a red flag.
Written by Trey Buchanan, founder of TB3 Digital. Trey has spent nine years in B2B paid media and has twice been selected for LinkedIn's Customer Advisory Board. This is one of the seven things we do on every account. See the full list in How TB3 runs LinkedIn Ads, or book a strategy call and we'll look at your account with you.