Best Practice: From Intent Signal to LinkedIn campaign

A CRM provider generated 249 leads through this channel. The cost per lead was 50 percent below the LinkedIn B2B benchmark. Instead of running a broad campaign, this company targeted only accounts that were already actively searching for a solution on OMR Reviews. This article walks you through the setup step by step, from the Matched Audience to the first campaign launch.

In this article, you'll find the following content 👇

1. The ABM Workflow at a Glance

2. Two ways to build a Matched Audience

3. Option A: Sync an audience from HubSpot to LinkedIn

4. Option B: Upload directly in LinkedIn Campaign Manager

5. Set up a campaign on LinkedIn and use the audience

6. Which creative formats work

7. Frequency capping: What you can actually control

8. Landing page best practices

9. What this workflow actually delivers

The ABM Workflow at a glance

Before we dive into the step-by-step guides, here’s the workflow in its entirety. Seven steps from an anonymous site visit to an incoming lead:

1. A company visits your profile or a category page on OMR Reviews.

2. OMR Reviews decodes the anonymous IP address and identifies the company.

3. The list of companies is fed into your CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive) or an enrichment tool like Clay. See the integration article for details.

4. You match the visitors against your ABM target account list and qualify them.

5. From the qualified accounts, you build a custom audience on LinkedIn, either via HubSpot or directly in Campaign Manager.

6. You run campaigns targeting this specific audience.

7. Interested individuals land on a dedicated landing page, not on your homepage.

Complete ABM workflow, from the OMR Reviews profile page to the LinkedIn campaign.

The two ways to build a Matched Audience

A Matched Audience is a list you upload of companies or individuals that LinkedIn internally matches with its member pool. This specific audience then drives your targeting.

You have two ways to build a Matched Audience from OMRviewer data:

• Option A: HubSpot → LinkedIn Sync. If you use HubSpot as your CRM, you manage the list in HubSpot and automatically sync it to LinkedIn. The list remains dynamic, with new visitors continuously added.

• Option B: Direct CSV upload in Campaign Manager. If the data is stored in Clay or another tool, you export a CSV and manually upload it to LinkedIn. The list is static; each update requires a new upload.

Recommendation: Option A if HubSpot is your primary CRM (less maintenance, automatic updates). Option B for quick tests or if you’re working outside of HubSpot.

Option A: Sync an audience from HubSpot to LinkedIn

Step 1: Create a segment

Click CRM → Segments (Lists) to create a new company-level list that will serve as the basis for your ABM campaign.

When creating the list, search for “OMRviewer” and select the appropriate filter for your use case.

Step 2: Create an audience and link it to LinkedIn

In HubSpot, navigate to Marketing → Ads → Audiences. Click Create in the top-right corner and select Audience,

Select “Company Segment” here: this targets entire accounts.

Then select the segment you want to use for your campaign and choose your LinkedIn account as the advertising platform. Name your target audience and click Save.

LinkedIn Campaign Manager → Audiences: Uploaded account list from Clay after a successful match.

Step 4: Wait for the sync

HubSpot sends hashed identifiers (email, domain, company name) to LinkedIn. LinkedIn performs a match and builds the Matched Audience. Wait time: up to 24 to 48 hours. Afterward, the audience appears in LinkedIn Campaign Manager under Plan → Audiences → the “Matched” tab.

Which fields are transferred:

• For Contact Audiences: First and last name, phone number, email.

• For Company Audiences: Company name, domain, industry.

The audience updates automatically as soon as the HubSpot list changes.

Option B: Upload directly to LinkedIn Campaign Manager

If you’re not using HubSpot (for example, because you prepared the data in Clay and aren’t sending it to your CRM), upload the list directly to LinkedIn.

Step 1: Download the template

In Campaign Manager, click Plan → Audiences on the left. Make sure the Matched tab is selected at the top, then click Create Audience.

Select “Company / Contact,” then click “Next.” Under “List type,” choose either “Company list” (for account-based) or “Contact list.” Use the “Download a template” link to download the appropriate CSV template.

HubSpot Ads → Audiences: Synchronized Lists for LinkedIn ABM.

Step 2: Populate the CSV with OMRviewer data

Important: Do not change the header row of the template; otherwise, the upload will fail.

For a Company List, these are the useful columns:

• companyname (Required)
• companywebsite (significantly improves the match rate)
• linkedincompanypageurl (improves the match rate to 90+ percent)
• companyemaildomains , industry , country (optional, refines targeting)
  

For a contact list:

• email (Work email yields significantly higher match rates than personal email)
• firstname, lastname, companyname, title, country (optional)
  
  

When you export the columns from Clay using exactly this naming convention, the import will be conflict-free.

Step 3: Upload the list

Back in Campaign Manager: Name the audience, select the list type, click “Select list,” upload the completed CSV file from your computer, and confirm by clicking “Accept & Upload.”

Requirements that LinkedIn checks internally:

• The list must contain at least 300 rows.

• At least 300 LinkedIn members must be matched before the audience can be used for a campaign.

• Maximum size: 20 MB or 300,000 entries.

Step 4: Wait for processing

LinkedIn matches the entries with its member pool. Processing time: up to 48 hours, or longer in rare cases. You can then find the finished audience under Plan → Audiences → the “Matched” tab.

Realistic match rates you can expect:

• Account lists with domain and LinkedIn page URL: 90 to 98 percent.

• Account lists with company names only: 70 to 80 percent.

• Contact lists with business email addresses: 70 to 85 percent.

• Mixed contact lists with personal email addresses: 40 to 70 percent.

Set Up a Campaign on LinkedIn and Use an Audience

Whether you choose Option A or B: as soon as the audience appears as “Ready” in the “Matched” tab, you can use it for a campaign.

Step 1: Create a new campaign

In LinkedIn Campaign Manager, click Campaigns → Create Campaign. Select the objective that best fits your offer:

• Lead Generation: for demo requests or content downloads using a native lead generation form.

• Website Conversions: when you want the lead to convert on your own landing page.

• Brand Awareness: for pure reach during an early audience warm-up phase.

Step 2: Select an Audience

In the “Who is your target audience?” section, click on Audiences → Matched Audiences, then select the list you just created.

If needed, you can add additional targeting layers:

• Filter by Job Function and Seniority to target buying committee members (typically: managers and above in relevant roles).

• Filter by Job Title for very narrow targeting of specific roles.

• Don’t filter too narrowly: having fewer than 50,000 remaining members in the filtered audience often leads to high CPMs.

Step 3: Format, Budget, and Bidding

Select a format (Single Image, Document, Video, or Conversation Ad). Set a daily budget or total budget. Bidding strategy: The default is “Maximum Delivery,” but for ABM campaigns, “Manual Bidding” with your own CPC limit is often better.

Step 4: Upload creatives

Create at least three creative variations per campaign. LinkedIn rotates them and prioritizes the ones that perform better. The next section explains which formats work best for this workflow.

Step 5: Set a frequency cap

Before launch, configure the frequency cap under “Optimization & Delivery.” Recommendation: 3 to 4 impressions per member per week (details below).

Step 6: Launch

Activate the campaign. The first delivery typically begins within 24 hours.

Which Creative Formats Work

The content of the ads determines whether someone clicks or keeps scrolling. Three formats have proven effective for ABM audiences using OMR Reviews intent data.

Download Offers (Reports, Guides, White Papers)

A concrete, free offer works well as an entry point. Examples: State-of-Marketing Report, Marketing Automation Guide, comparison guide (“Why you should choose X over Y”). The offer needs to provide real added value – not a hidden sales pitch.

Example: Report download ad with clear added value:

Example: A stats-driven display that highlights a single data packet:

Review-Based Ads with Social Proof

Incorporate your OMR reviews and awards directly into your ad creatives. Real customer quotes, star ratings, and OMR badges (“Leader,” “Top Rated,” “Used by OMR”) build credibility, especially with audiences who are actively researching options in the market.

Example: Testimonial ad with the OMR Top-Rated badge:

Webinar and Event Invitations

If you’re hosting a webinar or a live event, this is a powerful strategy: low commitment for prospects, high information value for you.

Avoid direct sales messages during the first point of contact. The audience has shown interest but hasn’t made a purchase decision yet. Deliver value first; make the offer later.

Frequency Capping: What you can actually control

Without frequency capping, 80 percent of your budget goes to 20 percent of accounts because LinkedIn’s algorithm prioritizes showing your ads to people who have already interacted with them.

Since 2025, LinkedIn has allowed native frequency capping in brand awareness campaigns. Recommendation: 3 to 4 impressions per person per week. Ad fatigue typically sets in at more than 6 impressions per week.

For ABM campaigns using OMRviewer audiences, a reasonable heuristic is: 40 to 100 impressions per buying committee member per month during the consideration phase, and 100 to 120 during the active intent phase.

Landing Page Best Practices

The campaign drives traffic; the landing page determines whether that traffic turns into a lead. Don’t send visitors to your homepage. Dedicated landing pages convert at an average rate of 13 percent in B2B, while homepages convert at 2 to 3 percent—a difference of a factor of 4 to 6.

What works on high-converting landing pages for software providers:

Prominently feature OMR awards. Badges such as “Leader,” “Top Rated,” or “Used by OMR” are trust signals that have an immediate impact on DACH target audiences. Place them in a visible area, not in the footer. Slack, moinAI, and Brevo are prime examples of this: badges right next to the main CTA or below the headline.

Slack Landing Page: OMR “Used by OMR” and “Leader” badges right next to the CTA.

moinAI prominently features several OMR awards in the hero section.

Calltime combines four OMR badges directly below the main CTA.

A clear CTA with a low initial commitment. “Request a demo” is often too much to ask for in the early stages. “Download the guide,” “Reserve your spot in the webinar,” or “Get the free guide” convert better because they require less effort than a phone call.

Brevo: Dedicated landing page with a lead magnet and lead form above the fold.

Social proof through customer testimonials and logos. Genuine reviews, quotes, and company logos provide guidance. Your OMR Reviews ratings are ready to use.

A headline that reflects the ad’s offer. If someone clicked on “Guide to Marketing Automation,” that’s exactly what needs to be at the top of the landing page. No generic product descriptions.

What this workflow actually achieves

A CRM technology provider generated 249 leads using exactly this approach—leveraging OMR Reviews’ buyer intent data as the basis for LinkedIn ABM. The CPL was 50 percent below the LinkedIn B2B benchmark of 100 to 150 euros per lead. This was not due to the budget, but rather to the quality of the target audience.

To ensure this workflow works just as well for you, you need three things:

1. High-quality data in your audience. Account lists that include domains and LinkedIn page URLs match significantly better on LinkedIn than lists consisting solely of contacts or company names.

2. Creative content tailored to the stage of the buyer’s journey. Intent audiences are in the early evaluation phase, not in sales mode. Focus on value propositions before demo requests.

3. A dedicated landing page. This can increase the conversion rate by a factor of 4 to 6 compared to the homepage.

Want to set up this workflow for your business? Contact your Customer Success Manager. They’ll help you find the right integration path for your plan and set up the API key.