Meta or LinkedIn for B2B leads? How to choose

Choose LinkedIn if your buyer can be defined precisely by job title, sector or company and a customer is worth a lot. Choose Meta if your B2B audience is broad, such as freelancers or tradespeople. Don't decide on click price but on cost per qualified lead: Meta wins as soon as enough of its cheaper leads qualify.

LinkedIn costs roughly ten times more per 1,000 impressions than Meta ^[1][2], but reaches decision-makers directly. Anyone who asks a LinkedIn Ads agency about it deserves an honest answer: sometimes Meta brings in the same buyers for less.

Four questions to choose

Mostly left: start with LinkedIn. Mostly right: test Meta first. Mixed: a combination is probably strongest.

Calculate which channel wins per qualified lead

Take €3,000 per month on each channel. For LinkedIn we use the median CPM and click-through rate for lead campaigns from Merkelijkheid's Western European benchmark ^[1][3] and LinkedIn's own form completion rate of 13% ^[4]: together about €172 per lead. For Meta we take €30 per lead, a rounded example value between LocaliQ's average of $27.39 and the $35.87 in the Industrial & Commercial category ^[5].

Here, Meta wins. If only 5% of your Meta leads qualify, you pay €600 per qualified lead and LinkedIn wins comfortably.

The break-even point is calculated like this: share qualified on LinkedIn × (cost per lead Meta ÷ cost per lead LinkedIn). Here: 50% × (€30 ÷ €172) = 8.7%. If more than 8.7% of your Meta leads qualify, Meta is cheaper per qualified lead.

Two caveats. With a LinkedIn lead you know straight away who it is, which company they work for and whether that person decides. And with a long sales cycle, you judge channels on what became a customer after three to six months, not on what came in after three weeks.

What each channel does well

LinkedIn lets you target by job function, seniority, skills, company name, industry, company size and revenue ^[6], and by a list of target companies ^[7]. The price is high: in 2025 the median CPM was €73.83 ^[1]. The full cost breakdown is in what advertising on LinkedIn costs.

In Europe, some things are also off the table. Groups have no longer been a targeting attribute since 15 May 2024 ^[6], and message ads only reach members who opted in ^[8]. LinkedIn also recommends at least 50,000 members per audience ^[9], which isn't always possible in a Belgian niche.

Meta draws its strength from reach and price. At the end of 2025, Meta's advertising tools reported a reach of 6.20 million people on Facebook and 5.10 million on Instagram in Belgium ^[10]. According to Lebesgue, the CPM for e-commerce accounts in Belgium was $7.96 ^[2]; Lebesgue and LocaliQ don't state a sample size.

What Meta can't do is target by job title or company: detailed targeting revolves around interests, behaviours and demographics ^[11], and Meta treats that selection as a suggestion ^[12]. You can't upload lists of companies, but customer lists with email addresses or phone numbers are possible ^[13]. How to work back from your margin to a lead price is covered in what advertising on Facebook and Instagram costs.

Three typical B2B situations

An expensive solution for a narrow audience, such as software for finance directors. Your buyer can be described precisely and is hard to tell apart from everyone else on Meta. Start with LinkedIn, and build the audience as in LinkedIn targeting for B2B.

An offer for a broad business audience, such as an accounting package for freelancers or a training course for tradespeople. The customer value doesn't allow €172 per lead. Test Meta first, with an ad that says straight away who it is for.

Recruitment and employer branding. LinkedIn works for experienced profiles by job title, Meta for broad or regional vacancies.

Combine them: LinkedIn for who, Meta for when

For many B2B companies, a division of roles is the strongest setup. LinkedIn reaches the right people by job title and company. Meta repeats the message more cheaply to those who came to your website via LinkedIn and accepted cookies, with a custom audience of website visitors ^[13].

Two settings improve the quality of Meta leads. An instant form of the "Higher intent" type adds a review screen, and Meta recommends it when every lead needs follow-up ^[14]. With the Conversions API for CRM you send back which leads turned into something, so Meta optimises for quality instead of volume ^[15].

Record in your CRM which channel each lead came from and what happened to it. If your buyer actively searches for a solution like yours, include search ads as well: Benjamin explains what they cost in what Google Ads costs.

Set up a fair test

The technical minimums are low. LinkedIn requires 10 dollars per day and a 100-dollar lifetime budget for a new ad set ^[16], and Meta publishes no fixed minimum but warns you if your budget is too low ^[17]. Learning takes more: a Meta ad set only exits the learning phase after about 50 results per week ^[18].

• The same offer on both channels: the same guide, demo or quote.
• The same definition of a qualified lead, agreed with sales.
• LinkedIn without default settings: Audience Expansion and the LinkedIn Audience Network are on by default and take your ad outside your audience ^[19][20].
• Source on every lead: channel, campaign and ad, via hidden fields and UTM codes.
• Decide on cost per qualified lead, after six to eight weeks, and later on cost per customer.

Want to know whether LinkedIn pays off for your offer? The free LinkedIn Ads audit looks at targeting, audience size, Insight Tag and conversions, Lead Gen Forms, creatives and bidding strategy.