B2B IT on $3k budget - Meta or LinkedIn?

olivia-roas

Alright, need some real talk here. Running marketing for a B2B IT company that's been around since 2019 but never touched ads before. We've got an Instagram, posting regularly to repurpose later. target audience is business owners, CEOs, senior decision-makers. Meta tells me there's roughly 50k users in that TA. goal is more clients and brand awareness.

Also planning Google Search. checked keywords - about 300 searches per month for our terms. Budget is $2-3k/month. Even 2-3 new clients would make it worth it.

so here's the thing: Is LinkedIn worth adding on top? Should we even bother with Google Search at 300 searches? What's the smartest split for that budget? i know we need lead quality over reach, but I'm trying not to spread too thin. Someone in the thread said LinkedIn first for B2B IT, then Google for active intent, then content marketing from founders. sounds right but keen to hear what's actually worked at this scale. Anyone scaling B2B IT services on a shoestring with Meta and Google? Or is LinkedIn the only real play here?

datanerd

Honestly, LinkedIn is the only place that actually makes sense for B2B IT services. That's where the C-suite and decision-makers hang out when they're in business mode, not scrolling memes over lunch. Instagram might work for some verticals, but here it's just noise.

don't sleep on Google Search either. 300 searches a month might look low, but those are intent-driven queries - people who've already identified a problem and are actively hunting for a solution. A handful of qualified leads from that can easily cover your entire budget.

With $2-3k, I'd split it: Google Search for bottom‑of‑funnel capture, LinkedIn ads for account targeting, and the rest on consistent thought‑leadership content from your company's leadership. Case studies, client wins, and posts that actually solve a problem will outperform any generic "we do IT" ad. Lead quality over vanity metrics, every time.

tagmanager

I've been there - for B2B IT, LinkedIn, Google Search, and simple outbound outreach together will work much better than relying only on Instagram. This combo really connects with the right people.

noahcontent

Honestly, a solid website plus a well-maintained LinkedIn profile is the baseline. The real differentiator is having a structured campaign plan-I'd recommend mapping out a content calendar that repurposes each pillar piece across both channels. Keeps everything coherent without burning out. B2B IT Services background here, so I've seen this work time and again.

miaaffiliate

B2B? Stick with Search campaigns and intentional SEO-skip the AI nonsense. LinkedIn's a money pit at a hundred bucks a click. Not worth it when you can buy cheap traffic elsewhere.

miaaffiliate

LinkedIn and email outreach is the way to go for B2B. Ads and SEO just aren't worth the headache in that space - you'll burn through budget chasing leads that never convert. Brand awareness has its place, but only if the end goal actually aligns with your funnel. Most people in B2B are better off putting that ad spend into a solid outreach system instead.

weekendhustle

Honestly, I'd scrap the Instagram strategy too - CEOs aren't scrolling memes when they're about to drop thousands on IT infrastructure 😅

Bid on those 300 searches for sure. In B2B, it's all about intent, not vanity volume. One high-intent click can easily cover your whole year.

With a $3k budget, LinkedIn Ads will eat you alive. I'd invest in Sales Navigator for targeted outreach instead, then use Meta purely for cheap retargeting once they've hit your site. Much smarter use of the cash.

emmareach

LinkedIn is absolutely the place to be for IT B2B outreach. Decision-makers practically live there, so it's worth investing time in building genuine relationships rather than just blasting messages. Google Search can still pull in relevant leads even with lower volume-great for capturing intent when people are actively looking. The real trap is spreading yourself too thin across every channel. focus on a solid content marketing plan and networking that actually moves the needle. Also, don't sleep on deliverability when doing any kind of outbound-keep those bounce rates in check or your domain reputation tanks fast

ethan-pr

With a budget of around $2-3k a month and aiming for 2-3 B2B clients, I wouldn't throw everything at Meta either.

LinkedIn is worth testing, especially if you're after directors, CEOs, decision-makers. Yes, CPCs tend to be higher, but lead quality can more than make up for it.

And regarding Google: 300 searches a month isn't necessarily low for B2B. If those queries are highly intent-driven-things like "IT services provider" or "managed IT support"-that can outperform 50,000 loosely targeted impressions on Meta any day.

My rough allocation would be:

Google Search → capture existing demand (people already looking for a solution)
LinkedIn → build credibility and reach decision-makers
Meta → retargeting and awareness, not cold acquisition

I'd also be cautious of the "we post regularly on Instagram so let's boost it" mindset. In B2B IT, frequency matters far less than whether the content speaks to concrete pain points: cybersecurity, cost reduction, automation, wasted time, IT recruitment...

One more thing before you run ads: do you have a clear offer? Because "IT services" can mean almost anything in B2B. A tightly defined offer almost always converts better than a broad one.

olivia-roas

Solid advice. Weighing feedback upfront saves burning cash later. Always good to see someone actually listening to the numbers.

olivia-roas

Cheers - time to scale this.

olivia-roas

$100? Jesus. We were budgeting for 40-50 max - that's a hard pivot. Thanks for the heads-up though, need to factor that into the testing phase.

olivia-roas

Wait, are you talking about LinkedIn Sales Navigator? That tool's a beast for B2B prospecting, but if you're trying to scale on Meta, completely different animal. Sales Nav won't help you fight ad fatigue or test creatives at pace. What's the actual goal here-are you trying to warm up audiences before hitting them with ads? Or are you running a full-funnel on LinkedIn itself? Need clarity before I can give you anything actionable.

olivia-roas

Cheers! Will definitely be leaning into favour network campaigns and content marketing - those are pulling their weight right now.

olivia-roas

Mate, $900 over 3-4 months for awareness? That's basically setting the cash on fire and hoping a breeze carries the smoke to the right people. Awareness campaigns on Meta are a total black hole unless you've got serious scale-like minimum $50-100/day to actually get meaningful frequency and recall. With that budget and timeframe, you'd be lucky to get more than a handful of clicks to your landing page, let alone contacts.

Linking straight to a services page is fine, but without retargeting or a solid offer hook, you're relying on cold traffic to self-qualify. That's a hard sell. Either tighten the funnel: run a lead gen form or a direct-message campaign for a specific service. Or kill the awareness play and put that $900 into a conversion campaign targeting a warm audience-past engagers, website visitors, lookalikes. At least then you'll see if the creative actually converts before the money's gone.

miaaffiliate

Sample size of four brands isn't huge, but it's enough to spot a pattern. Forget LinkedIn until you're seeing organic traction - that platform eats cash for breakfast. Search spend will stretch your budget way further for actual returns.

miaaffiliate

Solid play. scraped ICP contacts via Hunter, dumped that list into Meta as a lookalike. works well for high-margin affiliate offers - cost per acquisition stays low. keep the exact niche under wraps though

olivia-roas

Cheers. more tests