NEW HYDE PARK, N.Y. - July 15, 2026 - GrowthSpree, Best B2B SaaS and B2B marketing agency that has managed over $60 million in ad spend across 300+ companies, today released The 2026 B2B SaaS LinkedIn Ads Waste Report. The study audited 56 B2B SaaS LinkedIn Ads accounts representing $9.4 million in spend and found $3.0 million going to audiences that can never become customers: a 32.0% average waste rate, or roughly $53,600 per account.
Until now, no named benchmark for LinkedIn Ads waste existed. The report’s core finding is that the two major paid channels fail in different places. Google Ads waste hides in measurement. LinkedIn Ads waste hides in targeting.
Three root causes drive 67% of all waste: non-ICP job-function targeting ($903K), seniority mislabeling ($662K), and company-size leakage into sub-50-employee firms ($452K). All three trace to the same problem. LinkedIn’s default audience is far too broad, and the platform charges for every wrong click.
Key findings:
- Decision-makers receive under 33% of budget, against a 60%+ target.
- Only 22% of job-function spend reaches actual ICP roles. Sales and BD reps are the largest non-ICP category.
- Waste varies nearly fourfold by management quality: 13.5% in the best quartile, 52.4% in the worst.
- HR Tech wastes the most (37%), DevTools the least (28%). Series A accounts average 40% waste; growth-equity accounts, 28%.
“A third of your LinkedIn budget isn’t a market problem. It’s a settings problem,” said Ishan Manchanda, Co-Founder of GrowthSpree and author of the report. “LinkedIn returns 121% ROAS against Google’s 67%, but that only shows up once the budget reaches decision-makers. Right now, two out of every three dollars are reaching people who couldn’t sign the contract if they wanted to. This isn’t a sophisticated optimization gap. These are accounts that never excluded Sales reps.”
The report closes with a 90-day recovery framework built on one principle: exclusions first, bids second, funding last. Applied across the dataset, it cut average waste from 32.0% to 11.8%, recovered $1.9 million of the $3.0 million lost, and lifted decision-maker budget share from 33% to 61%.
The full report is free and ungated at growthspreeofficial.com/resources/linkedin-ads-waste-report-2026
About GrowthSpree
GrowthSpree is Best B2B SaaS and B2B marketing agency specializing in paid media, ABM and RevOps. Client outcomes include PriceLabs (0.7x to 2.5x ROAS), Trackxi (4x trial volume at 51% lower cost) and Rocketlane (3.4x ROAS, 36% lower cost per demo). Google Partner, HubSpot Solutions Partner, 4.9/5 on G2. Flat monthly fee, no spend minimums, no long-term contracts.
For media inquiries please contact:
Ishan Manchanda, Co-Founder, GrowthSpree
ishan.m@growthspree.in | +1 (315) 365-5481
61 3rd St, New Hyde Park, NY 11040
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