Maximum Delivery vs Other Methods

Google reps (deservedly) get a bad rap. We’re not saying there aren’t good ones out there, but anyone who spends enough with the platform to have one, it seems, will have a steadily growing list of complaints and awkward anecdotes. From annoyances like too-frequent emails (with the client on CC, of course), to potentially even more damaging faults like an insistence of handing all control to Google’s AI, this bad reputation is not entirely undeserved.

The lesser known LinkedIn rep, on the other hand, can be downright helpful in comparison. Perhaps it’s the smaller volume of advertisers that gives them more time to help individual advertisers; treating them like humans, taking time to answer questions, giving useful advice, and just generally being transparent (not a word often applied to Google).

But does that mean you can trust them fully?

Well, if you want to make the most of the platform, you’re going to have to, to some extent. But it pays to be wary that ulterior motives may be at play, or at least that conflicts of interest may arise. The primary interest of a good rep, after all, is to sell ads — generating leads for you (or your clients) is something of a byproduct. There’s one topic in particular where this sort of thing tends to become an issue, in our experience: maximum delivery.

Firstly, a quick overview: Maximum delivery is a bidding strategy that aims to “maximize the efficiency of your advertising budget,” which is true, in the sense that it more efficiently transfers it to LinkedIn’s bank account. It automatically, and aggressively, optimizes your campaigns for the highest possible number of impressions, or whichever other metric you choose. The “automatic” part is where the  problems lie — you’re giving up the ability to optimize things yourself on the basis of cost per click or cost per impression, for example. 

The algorithms aren’t necessarily bad. Maximum delivery certainly can work, and if you’re starved for time or resources, it might not be a bad option. But “not bad” can sometimes conceal faults or inefficiencies. We found that out the hard way. 

We had (and still have) a client, who will remain nameless for now. Several years ago, we were running a highly successful LinkedIn campaign for this particular client using maximum delivery. The results were great, and the cost per lead stayed low — so why change anything, right? In fact, so successful was this campaign that we decided to apply our learnings from it to a new client’s account. This time, we were less successful. Cost per lead began to spiral.

We quickly put the brakes on things and paused to reflect. Why wasn’t maximum delivery delivering? 

Well, as it happened, it hadn’t really been delivering in the first place — or at least it hadn’t been pulling its weight. That first client’s campaign content, we realized, was just that good all by itself. The copy was great. The visual assets were beautiful. The brand was on point. Maximum delivery worked brilliantly, but so several other bidding methods would have worked equally well. 

Some methods, it turned out, would have been significantly better. And by controlling bids on a cost-per-click basis, we were not only able to turn around the underperformance of our new client’s campaign, but create even better results for our original client. Actually, we doubled their return. 

The lesson here? You can certainly get good advice from your LinkedIn rep, but you’ll have to put the work in and test things for yourself if you really want the best possible results. 

Here’s a quick overview of the some of the other bidding methods available on LinkedIn, and why you might want to give each one a go.  Note that these options do change slightly based on the type of campaign you are launching.

Cost cap

This functions similarly to maximum delivery, with one crucial change: you set a maximum cost per click. This doesn’t allow you much more control than maximum delivery, but it does allow you to prevent costs from spiraling. We’d recommend this only if you’re pressed for time — it’s maximum delivery with a basic safety mechanism to avert any major disasters. 

Manual bidding

Manual bidding gives you the most control possible. If you have the time, expertise, and patience (or excellent agency support 👋) to manage your campaigns this way, it’s always the option we’d recommend. You set your goals, you control cost per action, and you stay under your budget every time. LinkedIn may make automatic recommendations, but you call the shots. 

Manual Bidding: High Value Clicks Enabled

An extension of manual bidding, this option allows your manual bids to be algorithmically extended higher if Linkedin determines that this click is for a highly qualified individual.  This is likely working on using some kind of lookalike modeling for high converters.  We’re currently using this for most campaigns but in full disclosure we haven’t thoroughly AB tested it against vanilla manual bidding.

Should you trust it? Only as much as you’d trust your LinkedIn rep.