LinkedIn remains the go-to platform for B2B lead generation, but the big question for sales and marketing teams in 2025 is this: does organic LinkedIn outreach or paid LinkedIn advertising deliver better cost-per-meeting results?
The Current State of LinkedIn for B2B Marketing
LinkedIn now has 900M+ members and over 30M companies active on the platform. According to HubSpot, 89% of B2B marketers use it for lead generation. It also outperforms other platforms significantly, with Demand Gen Report showing LinkedIn is 277% more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined for lead generation.
Understanding Organic LinkedIn Outreach
Organic outreach means connecting with prospects and engaging them through messages, comments, and content without paying for ads. Done well, it feels authentic and relationship-driven rather than like a sales pitch.
Costs Involved
Though ad-free, it’s not cost-free. Common investments include:
- Time for research and personalised messaging
- Sales Navigator (£59.99/month) for advanced targeting
- Automation tools (£50–£200/month)
- SDR or outsourced staff costs
All in, campaigns usually cost £500–£2,000 per month depending on scale.
The World of Paid LinkedIn Advertising
LinkedIn offers Sponsored Content, Message Ads, Dynamic Ads, and Text Ads. The biggest advantage is reach—ads can target decision-makers instantly by job title, industry, or company size.
Advertising Costs
According to WordStream benchmarks (2023):
- Average CPC: £4.26
- Average CPM: £5.58 per 1,000 impressions
- Message Ads: £2–£8 per click
Budgets typically run £2,000–£10,000/month for meaningful campaign results.
Cost-per-Meeting Analysis
Organic LinkedIn Outreach
- Connection acceptance: 15–30%
- Response to follow-ups: 10–25%
- Meeting conversion: 2–5%
- Average cost-per-meeting: £75–£200
The key strength is scalability. Once your system is set up, incremental meetings cost very little extra.
Paid LinkedIn Ads
- CTR for Sponsored Content: 0.4–0.8%
- Conversion from clicks to meetings: 2–5%
- Message Ads: better engagement, but costly
- Average cost-per-meeting: £200–£800
Salesforce notes LinkedIn ads average £54 per lead, but converting those leads to booked meetings pushes costs much higher.
Quality vs Quantity Considerations
- Paid ads often attract higher-quality leads because of the platform’s credibility and targeting options. Prospects engaging with ads may already be considering solutions.
- Organic outreach builds stronger one-to-one relationships, often leading to higher-value opportunities despite lower volume.
Industry and Audience Differences
- Professional services, tech, consulting: perform better with organic outreach, where personal connections matter.
- Manufacturing, logistics, enterprise: ads work better for scale and credibility.
- High-competition sectors often face inflated ad costs, tipping the balance in favour of outreach.
Maximising Your LinkedIn Investment
The most effective strategy blends both:
- Use ads to build awareness and warm up prospects
- Follow up with personalised outreach to those who engage
- Run retargeting campaigns to stay top of mind
The Verdict: Which Wins?
For cost-per-meeting efficiency, organic outreach usually comes out ahead—especially for SMEs or those with SDR teams. Paid ads win on speed and scale, useful for bigger budgets and campaigns that need quick reach.
The best-performing companies in 2025 use both approaches strategically, often achieving 40–60% lower cost-per-meeting than those relying on just one channel (B2B Marketing Association).
At SendIQ, we see this hybrid approach consistently outperform. Combining automation-driven outreach with targeted ads produces meetings at a cost that keeps sales teams busy—and pipelines healthy.
