Meta vs LinkedIn

· Isaac Bullen · 2 min read

Meta can drive B2B pipeline. But only if you stop expecting it to behave like LinkedIn. Most B2B teams hesitate on Meta, but a B2B buyer is still a B2C user at lunch, on the train, at night. The question is how you use Meta rather than whether it works. Meta works. It's how you use it.

Meta can drive B2B pipeline. But only if you stop expecting it to behave like LinkedIn.

Most B2B teams hesitate on Meta because it's seen as B2C.

But a B2B buyer is still a B2C user at lunch, on the train, at night. That part tends to get ignored.

If you compare Meta to LinkedIn apples for apples, the difference is obvious

Meta will give you far more delivery. We regularly see around 6x more raw leads.

And the cost per lead can be 10x lower than LinkedIn.

On the surface it looks great. Then you look at quality and it falls apart.

Qualification rates drop, and the junk that comes with the volume has to land in someone's inbox.

That's usually where teams stop.

But that's also where the mistake is.

If you follow it through properly, Meta can still contribute meaningfully to pipeline. In some accounts, it's actually been more efficient than LinkedIn when you look at what makes it through to sales.

We haven't really seen the inverse.

LinkedIn works well for B2B. B2C on LinkedIn is usually just too expensive.

So the question worth asking is how you use Meta, rather than whether it works.

Where most teams go wrong

  • Treating Meta like LinkedIn
  • Expecting high-intent leads upfront
  • Shutting it down when junk appears instead of filtering it

Meta is a wider net.

Targeting isn't as tight, even with tools like 6sense or Demandbase layered in. LinkedIn is still the better platform for getting close to an ICP out of the box. You're paying for that.

Meta needs more help.

What's worked better for us

  • stronger filtering downstream
  • feeding better audience signals back into the platform
  • regular asset testing and rotation
  • retargeting doing a lot of the heavy lifting
  • lookalikes (even if they need constant refinement)

Content also behaves differently

What works on LinkedIn often lands differently on Meta, because the mindset and the context are different - people aren't in work mode when they see it.

So expectations need to shift.

Meta will almost always look worse in-platform.

But if you only judge it there, you'll miss what it's actually contributing further down.

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