The LinkedIn Ads Setup Mistakes Killing Your ROI with Katia González
June 9, 2026
In LinkedIn, as in life, if you don’t get your foundation right, you won’t get much else right either. This episode of LinkedIn AdWise explores why poor setup, strategy and attribution models are the leading cause of failed LinkedIn ad campaigns - not the platform itself. Host Justin Rowe sits down with Katia González, co-founder of GetUpLead, to unpack the common mistakes that drain LinkedIn budgets, why audience size and time zones matter more than most teams realize and how B2B marketers should rethink attribution beyond HubSpot dashboards. This conversation offers a playbook on creating LinkedIn strategies that match your actual SaaS business model.
B2B marketers need to stop focusing on whether LinkedIn is too expensive. Because the real issue is whether your campaign setup, offer, audience and attribution model are strong enough to make the channel work. In this episode of LinkedIn AdWise, host Justin Rowe sits down with Katia González, co-founder of GetUpLead and former CMO, for a practical conversation on why LinkedIn campaigns fail before they ever have a chance to perform. Katia explains why agencies often fall into one of two traps: moving too slowly because they over-research, or moving too quickly because they force every client into the same template.
What You'll Learn:
- Why agencies often fail by choosing either speed or strategy instead of balancing both
- How audience size mistakes can quietly destroy LinkedIn campaign performance
- Why mixing geographies and time zones in one campaign can burn your budget unfairly
- Why the wrong campaign objective can hurt SaaS companies pushing free trials too early
- How to think about LinkedIn as a strategic growth lever, not just an ads channel
- Why HubSpot attribution should not be your only source of truth
- How Reddit can help uncover unfiltered audience pain points and content ideas
- Why enterprise SaaS, mid-market SaaS, and product-led SaaS all need different LinkedIn strategies
Tune in for a practical conversation on fixing the fundamentals behind LinkedIn ad performance.
Episode Resources:
Episode Highlights
00:52 The Agency Sweet Spot: Balancing Speed and Strategy
Katia explains that one of the biggest frustrations she experienced as a CMO was working with agencies that failed to balance speed with strategic understanding. Some agencies spent too long learning the business before launching anything, while others moved quickly but relied on generic templates that ignored the company’s product, audience, and industry context. For Katia, the solution is learning the business quickly while still launching campaigns fast enough to generate real market feedback. This approach allows teams to avoid both paralysis and generic execution.
Katia explains that one of the biggest frustrations she experienced as a CMO was working with agencies that failed to balance speed with strategic understanding. Some agencies spent too long learning the business before launching anything, while others moved quickly but relied on generic templates that ignored the company’s product, audience, and industry context. For Katia, the solution is learning the business quickly while still launching campaigns fast enough to generate real market feedback. This approach allows teams to avoid both paralysis and generic execution.
10:32 The LinkedIn Setup Mistakes That Burn Budget
Katia breaks down one of the most common reasons LinkedIn campaigns fail - poor setup. When marketers do not understand the platform, the campaign structure often suffers from the start and as she points out, one of the major issues is audience sizing. Some teams try to target extremely narrow audiences that cannot generate enough volume, while others go too broad and lose relevance. Strong LinkedIn strategy requires finding the right middle ground where the audience is focused enough to matter but large enough to optimize.
25:11 Why HubSpot Shouldn’t Be Your Only Source of Truth
Katia explains that HubSpot can be helpful, but it should not be treated as an unquestionable attribution tool. Conversions can be misattributed as direct, duplicate ads can create tracking issues, and platforms often disagree with each other. When companies rely too heavily on HubSpot, they may end up optimizing for what the software can track rather than what is actually creating revenue. For LinkedIn especially, this can push teams toward short-term lead generation tactics that miss the bigger influence of the channel.
31:21 Mining Reddit for Raw Audience Language
Katia shares how she uses communities like Reddit to understand what audiences are really saying when they are not being filtered through formal surveys or polished marketing language. Reddit allows marketers to see raw pain points, frustrations, objections and industry debates. She then uses those insights to create LinkedIn thought leader content that feels more relevant and less generic. When these posts spark engagement or debate, that is often a sign that the message has touched a real audience concern.
35:23 SaaS Strategy Depends on Business Model and Maturity
Kattia explains that there is no universal LinkedIn strategy for SaaS companies. Enterprise SaaS companies with high ticket sizes and long sales cycles usually need a demand generation approach. Mid-market SaaS companies may need a mix of demand generation, demos, retargeting and nurture. Product-led companies with strong onboarding may be better positioned to push free trials. So, the right strategy depends on the company’s maturity, product readiness, sales motion, ticket size, and onboarding experience. Applying the wrong strategy to the wrong SaaS model is one of the fastest ways to waste LinkedIn budget.
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