A quick chinwag with LinkedIn Ads expert, AJ Wilcox
AJ Wilcox is a LinkedIn Ads pro who founded B2Linked.com, a LinkedIn Ads-specific ad agency, in 2014. He's an official LinkedIn Partner, host of the LinkedIn Ads Show podcast, a Social Media Examiner contributor, and he’s managed some of the world’s biggest global LinkedIn ad accounts during his career.
AJ describes himself as ‘a ginger’ and a triathlete, and he and his wife live in Utah with their four kids. He tells me that his company car is a ‘wicked fast’ go-kart.
Get ready for some great insight into AJ’s career and experiences…
AJ Wilcox
Anyone who knows your name will immediately associate you with LinkedIn. How did you end up focusing your work around this one social channel?
“This was really interesting because when I first started my career, I started out as a search engine optimization guy, and I loved SEO. And I also understood that even though I was hugely passionate about this topic, there were so many other people who were equally as passionate about it. I felt like I just wasn't going to stand out.
”I understood that when you have a niché, it's far easier to get noticed. So I ‘nichéd down’ into technical SEO and local SEO at first, but I kind of lost interest in it. They were fun for me, but with SEO, you kind of get data too late and you don't get very much data when you do get it.
“Then, when I began working at a different company, they had just started running LinkedIn Ads, and I had been hired partly to help work on them. What I realised very quickly was that - only two weeks into running the first ads - the sales team was really pleased. They were telling me that these were the best leads they've ever got.
“And so what I did is I kept my focus on LinkedIn, and it led to me ignoring the organisation’s SEO - or at least, I spent far less time on it. Over time, I just continued to keep my time on LinkedIn because it was giving us the best leads and the best return on investment.
“After about two and a half years of running that account, I had grown it to become LinkedIn's largest spending account in the world. And I thought,, ‘wow, I've been trying to find some kind of niché that I can operate in for a long time in digital marketing, and now maybe I found it….’
“So I started a LinkedIn Ads agency, B2Linked, thinking that if it didn’t work out, it’s fine, I’ll just get another job. I had nine months of ‘runway’ that my wife and I had agreed on - time to make it work - and we decided to go all-in to see if there was enough of a market for it. And of course it turns out there was.
“Investing all of my time, effort and expertise into sharing on LinkedIn as often as I can too - that, over the last six and a half years, has really helped build up my own branding around LinkedIn ads.”
Did ‘putting yourself out there’ take some personal development and practice? And do you regard yourself as an influencer?
“What it comes down to for me is that I really love teaching. It’s my favourite part about what I do; sharing and teaching.
“When you get to share something and you watch someone's face light up because they get it, you know you just taught them something that is going to be really valuable to them. And I love that.
”I was definitely afraid of public speaking, and I was afraid of getting on stage. I like attention, but I don't like being the centre of attention. When I first started this company, I realised the best way to get myself out there was to get on as many stages and in front of as many people as possible. I started pitching to conferences, and I knew if I could force myself to get on stage and do a halfway decent job, it would calm my nerves a little bit, and become easier the next time.
”The first stage I got on was at a local event that had like 100 people there, and I did a couple of meet-ups with about 15 people, just to get some experience.
”Then I got to speak at a content marketing conference down in Vegas which had 500 people! And then at Hero Conf in the UK (I had applied to speak so many times at the US version of Hero Conf, but it was so hard because all the big paid advertising speakers pitched to that one).
“So I had to fly myself out to the UK for a one-hour talk! And it was way, way, way too much work. I knew that I was not going to see a return on that investment, but what it did do was position me in such a way that they now they invite me back every year for the US one! I got my foot in the door, so to speak.”
“I've now spoken at over 90 events, and when you start counting the ‘digital events’ too, well now that’s hundreds. I absolutely love it because I don't feel nervous anymore.
“Being on camera was quite another thing though. The first time I had to look at my camera and talk to the camera, I felt the nerves coming back again. It really has taken a bit of a journey for me, and the way that that journey looked is I just wasn't myself. I wasn't very good the first few times, but now I've gotten enough experience that I'm starting to get more comfortable with it all.
Above: Just one of the many events AJ has led over the past few years
”Do I regard myself as an influencer? This is a tough one because I don't see anyone else out there who is doing a really good job of sharing stuff about LinkedIn. I guess I would consider myself an ‘influential’ voice when it comes to LinkedIn advertising?
That being said, I have several friends who I consider to be influencers, and it can be exhausting to hang out with them, and constantly having to stop what you're doing, and take selfies, and record content! That's just not me.”
What's the main mistake you see the big brands making on LinkedIn?
“When an ad is just saying something so direct like ‘hey, talk to our sales rep’ or ‘buy x now’, that just screams to me that they don't get it and that they are far behind the curve. We know that kind of approach is not going to work these days (or if it does work, it won't work for very long/it won't be able to scale).
“The best thing is when I see a brand that is advertising really awesome content; something that you really want to know, and it’ll also help you solve a pain point.
“When I see someone approaching ads from a ‘content perspective’, I know they get it. And I know they're a more sophisticated advertiser.”
Who would you recommend others looking for useful content about LinkedIn and social in general to follow and connect to?
“If we’re talking about LinkedIn advertising, there are very few people who are even publishing at all, outside of the US. It’s a tricky one, but there is a channel on YouTube called, Paid Media Pros, and they handle all the different ads, but I've noticed that the ones that they do about LinkedIn tend to be really good.
“When you talk about the organic side of LinkedIn, oh my gosh, there are so many people who are so good at the organic part. I just learn from them all the time. The main one is Mark Williams (he is from the UK). He runs the LinkedInformed podcast, and that is where I learn everything about LinkedIn - because he is always on top of it.
”He doesn't do much with the ad side of things, which is great, because I do that just fine…! But I love listening to him.
“There are so many other organic experts out there though. I love Judi Fox and Michaela Alexis for video; ‘how video works’ and for searching and prospecting. There’s also Isaac Anderson.
“I know I'm going to leave someone out… I just have to stop talking because I have so many friends in that arena!”
What’s the hottest tip you can give readers about using LinkedIn in 2021?
“There is a big problem with spam on LinkedIn, and it's outreach spam. It's people who are just sending connection requests or trying to trick them into connecting so they can drop a sales pitch on them straight away. So, my biggest tip for LinkedIn is the furthest you can stay away from that, the better.
“Those who are doing authentic one-to-one communication; where you care about someone and what they might need - well, you can tell that they're not in this just for the numbers. They're in this because they want to be of benefit to others and receive benefits back from others - like real-life networking. The best thing you can do is to start a strategy of one-to-one, unique, well-researched outreach.
“So that's my biggest tip. I know it's not quite ‘hot’, but basically, stop spamming people. It hurts your brand, and it rubs people up the wrong way.
“LinkedIn is going to start clamping down on that more anyway. At some point, LinkedIn is going to start seriously penalising people for that. That's my best advice!”
=====
