The Counterintuitive Answer: Yes, Run Them
Most LinkedIn ads advice says you need to warm up an audience before asking for a meeting. Run awareness content for weeks, build retargeting audiences, then launch conversion campaigns. In theory, this is correct. In practice, you shouldn't wait.
Conversation ads with a $100 Amazon gift card incentive generate real SQLs from completely cold audiences. People who've never heard of you, never seen your content, never visited your website. You're a stranger in their inbox — and some of them will still book a demo.
The cost is higher than warm audiences. But the SQLs are real, they book on your calendar, and they show up to meetings. For a company that needs pipeline now, cold BoFu ads are a legitimate starting point.
The Cost Difference
First interaction is the demo ask.
Already recognise you and your founder.
The gap is significant — roughly 2–3× more expensive to generate SQLs from cold audiences. The reason is straightforward: someone who recognises your founder's face, has seen five pieces of your content, and knows what you do is far more likely to accept a demo offer than a stranger. Demand gen makes demand capture cheaper.
But even at $154–$388, cold BoFu SQLs on LinkedIn are often cheaper than what most B2B SaaS companies are paying through other channels. If you're spending $500+ per SQL on Google Ads or paying SDR salaries to generate meetings through cold email, LinkedIn conversation ads — even to cold audiences — can be cost-competitive.
When Cold BoFu Makes Sense
- Day one of LinkedIn ads. You have no retargeting audience yet. You need pipeline while your demand gen builds. Run cold BoFu alongside TL ads from the start — don't wait 4-6 weeks for awareness to build before launching conversion campaigns.
- New market segment. You're expanding into a new ICP or vertical where you have zero brand recognition. Cold BoFu tests whether the audience converts while demand gen builds awareness in parallel.
- Budget pressure. The board wants SQLs this quarter, not in six months. Cold BoFu delivers measurable results immediately, even if the cost per SQL is higher than it will be once demand gen kicks in.
- Large TAM. If your target market is large enough that you'll never fully saturate it with demand gen, cold BoFu provides incremental SQLs beyond what retargeting can deliver.
The optimal approach is not "cold BoFu first, demand gen later" — it's both from day one. Launch thought leader ads (demand gen) and conversation ads (demand capture) simultaneously. The TL ads build awareness that reduces your BoFu cost over time. Within 4–8 weeks, your retargeting audience is large enough to see the cost difference. Your blended SQL cost improves every month as the demand gen compounds.
The Three Problems with Cold-Only
Running cold BoFu without demand gen works in the short term but creates three compounding problems:
- Permanently high SQL costs. Without demand gen building awareness, every SQL costs $154–$388 forever. You never benefit from the cheaper retargeting SQLs because you're never creating the retargeting audience.
- Small addressable pool. Only 2–4% of your market is in-market at any time. Cold BoFu only reaches this tiny slice. You saturate it quickly, and there's no pipeline behind it because nobody else knows you exist.
- No compounding. Demand gen creates inbound over time — DMs, direct website visits, referrals, people who remember you when their need becomes urgent. Cold BoFu produces SQLs when you pay for them and nothing when you stop. There's no flywheel.
We recommend 60% demand gen, 40% demand capture as a starting split. At £10K/month, that's ~£6K on TL ads and ~£4K on conversation ads + lead gen forms. The demand gen portion stays relatively stable (your ICP audience is a fixed size). The demand capture portion can scale as your retargeting audiences grow and SQL costs drop. Don't cut demand gen when budget gets tight — that's when you need it most.