A LinkedIn ad showed up in my feed this week.

It was from Vibe.co, a CTV (connected TV) ad platform.

The headline was clear: "Sendoso, it's time to run TV ads."

It's a sharp ad with a tight design, don’t get me wrong. A CTV vendor running 1:1 ABM directly at a SaaS company they want as a customer.

There's just one problem…😬

I don't work at Sendoso.

I'm an advisor. My LinkedIn profile says "Advisor at Sendoso," which Vibe's targeting read as "employee at Sendoso" and served me an ad meant for someone with budget authority over their demand gen strategy.

Vibe just paid LinkedIn for an impression that will never convert. Sorry Vibe.

Now multiply that by every advisor, consultant, intern, ex-employee with stale profile data, and part-time contractor across their target account list. You've got a 1:1 ABM motion bleeding budget on people who can't buy from them.

This is the part of 1:1 ABM most teams underestimate.

LinkedIn ad CPMs against tight audience lists run $40–$80. That's $0.04–$0.08 per impression, climbing to $1–$3 per click for high-intent ABM audiences.

When your audience size is small, every wrong impression compounds.

Sendoso’s employee size is around 400, and about 100 of those LinkedIn profiles are advisors. That doesn’t include consultants, or interns. They're probably spending 15% of their budget on people who can't sign a contract.

That's a Vibe problem (no pun intended) and a targeting problem most ABM teams have.

Here's the fix.

Before you run 1:1 LinkedIn ABM ads, audit the company in Campaign Manager and exclude these profiles from your audience:

Most ABM teams skip this work because it feels tedious. Spending 30 minutes building exclusion criteria feels like a waste when you could be running ads.

Trust me, it's not.

Vibe is actively targeting over 100 Sendoso advisors on LinkedIn right now. When you start doing the math that ends up being hundreds in wasted spend.

Could I influence someone at Sendoso for Vibe? Maybe. If I'd used the product. But that's not the same as being the decision-maker, and a 1:1 ABM motion can't afford the maybe.

So before your next 1:1 LinkedIn campaign, ask one question:

Of the people about to see this ad, are they part of buying committee?

Build for them and filter out everyone else. Because you could be bleeding money on “employees” who will never influence a decision.

Pro tip: If it the audience list is too small to run your 1:1 ads, focus on other LinkedIn ad formats that can scale 1:1 in LinkedIn like conversation ads, spotlight ads and others.

I'm taking on 3 new ABM consulting clients this quarter.

In 60 days together, you'll have:

Past clients have used this work to build $500K+ pipeline from churned accounts and double cross-sell conversion.

Book a 20-minute fit call →

Not a fit for teams without a defined ICP or under 50 employees.