How to Run a LinkedIn Outreach Campaign for French SMEs Running Google Ads in 2026

Quick Answer: Got your list of French SMEs active on Google Ads from Origami? Now turn those leads into conversations — directly inside Origami. Its built‑in LinkedIn sequencer sends personalized connection requests and follow‑ups from the same dashboard where you built the list. No exports, no syncing. This guide walks you through refining your list, crafting a 3‑touch sequence that French business owners actually respond to, and launching the campaign.

If you haven’t built your list yet, first read how to find and enrich French SMEs Running Google Ads — then come back here once you’ve got 50‑100 high‑potential prospects.

Step 1: Refine Your List for LinkedIn Outreach

Your raw export from Origami will contain names, emails, job titles, company details, and (crucially) LinkedIn profile URLs. Before you start reaching out, spend 10 minutes cleaning and segmenting. A sharper list doubles your reply rate.

Filter to the real decision‑makers

In a French SME running Google Ads, the person who controls the ad budget is usually one of:

Le dirigeant / Fondateur (owner/founder) — companies under 20 people
Directeur Marketing or Responsable Marketing Digital
Growth Lead or Traffic Manager (more common in tech‑enabled SMEs)

Avoid titles like Assistant Marketing, Community Manager, or Stagiaire. Origami’s list view lets you filter by job title, department, and seniority. Select roles that have budget authority. If you’re not sure, keep the Fondateur + Directeur Marketing combination and remove the rest.

Segment by company size and ad maturity

A 10‑person e‑commerce brand that spends €5k/month on Google Ads has completely different pain points than a 50‑employee B2B manufacturer spending €1k/month.

Tier 1 (high spenders): Likely overspending on broad match terms. They’ll bite on audit offers.
Tier 2 (modest spenders): Often self‑managing, overwhelmed by the interface. They need simple, tactical advice.
Tier 3 (tiny budgets): Probably testing. Worth including only if your service is affordable.

Origami enriches company headcount, estimated revenue, and sometimes even the tech stack (you’ll see if they use Google Tag Manager, Shopify, etc.). Create segments by adding tags in Origami, e.g., "ecom-10-50" or "b2b-manufacturing". This lets you adjust the messaging in your sequence later — or just prioritize the tier most likely to buy.

Keep only verified LinkedIn URLs

Origami returns LinkedIn profile URLs alongside every contact. Scan the column and remove any rows where the URL is missing or points to an obviously inactive profile. You want 100% deliverability.

At this point, you should have a shortlist of 50–100 highly‑qualified leads ready for outreach. If your list is larger, start with the top 50 and iterate.

Step 2: Your 3‑Touch LinkedIn Sequence (Copy These Templates)

Now the part most people overthink. The messaging. French SME owners are busy, direct, and allergic to generic sales‑speak. They get ten “I’d love to connect” requests a week. Yours needs to land in the first five words.

The core insight: most French SMEs running Google Ads lose 20–40% of their budget on clicks that will never convert — poorly configured location targeting, missing negative keywords, and broad match terms eating their spend. That’s the pain you’ll talk about.

In Origami’s sequencer, you have two ways to build the sequence:

Paste your own templates — write the messages yourself and set the cadence. (I’ll give you the copy below.)
Let the agent generate them — tell Origami’s AI, “Write a 3‑day LinkedIn sequence for French SMEs running Google Ads, personalise chaque message avec le prénom, l'industrie et la taille de l'entreprise.” The agent will tailor messages for each lead, but I still recommend starting with the tested templates so you control the angle.

Here’s the exact sequence I’ve used to get meetings with owners of French SMEs advertising on Google. Copy these messages word for word, then adapt if needed.

Touch 1 – Connection Request (Day 1)

This is sent as the note accompanying your connection request. Keep it under 300 characters so it fits LinkedIn’s mobile preview.

Hi [First Name], I see you run Google Ads for [Company]. Most French SMEs I work with waste 20-30% of their budget on irrelevant clicks. Got a quick fix — worth connecting?

Why this works: It names a specific, money‑wasting problem, uses a number, and asks for permission lightly. No pitch.

Touch 2 – First Message (Day 3, after they accept)

Assuming they accepted your connection, send this as a direct message.

Thanks for connecting, [First Name].

Quick question: are you using location exclusions and negative keywords inside your Google Ads account? Most small businesses in France aren't — and that's the biggest silent budget killer.

I threw together a 5‑minute audit checklist that helped one client save €2k/month in three days. Happy to send it over if you're curious? No pitch, just the doc.

Why this works: It stays helpful, references a common oversight (French advertisers often forget to exclude overseas traffic or location‑mismatched clicks), and offers a high‑value, low‑commitment asset. The promise of “no pitch” reduces resistance.

Touch 3 – Last Message (Day 7)

Hi [First Name], last one from me.

I know managing Google Ads solo can feel like throwing money into a black box — especially for a [industry] business like yours. If you’re open to it, I’ll do a 10‑minute screen share, spot the top 2 leaks in your account, and hand you the fix. Nothing to buy, just value.

Sound useful?

Why this works: It acknowledges the headache, references their industry (which Origami can auto‑fill), and proposes a risk‑free, time‑boxed offer. French business owners respect directness — but only when it’s paired with genuine help.

If you’re A/B testing a French version

For many French SME owners, reading an opening message in French increases trust. I often run a split test: one half of the list gets English, the other gets the equivalent in French. Here’s the French version of Touch 1:

Bonjour [First Name], je vois que vous gérez Google Ads pour [Company]. Beaucoup de PME françaises perdent 20-30% de leur budget en clics non qualifiés. J’ai une astuce simple pour y remédier — on se connecte ?

You can adapt the other touches similarly. Origami’s dashboard lets you see which language drives higher replies, so you’ll know within a week.

Step 3: Launch the Sequence Directly from Origami

This is where Origami turns a list‑building tool into a full outreach platform. No Zapier, no CSV exports, no copy‑pasting into another sequencer. Here’s the flow:

From your refined prospect list, select the contacts you want to reach (or all).
Click Create Sequence.
Paste the three templates above into the respective touch steps. Origami’s sequencer automatically pulls the lead’s first name, company name, and industry — you can use variables like [First Name] or [Company] and they’ll resolve for each contact.
Set your delays. For this campaign I use:
- Touch 1: Day 1 (connection request)
- Touch 2: 2 days after acceptance (so if they accept on Day 1, message goes out on Day 3)
- Touch 3: 4 days after Touch 2 (Day 7 overall).
Hit Launch.

Origami sends the connection requests and follow‑ups directly through your LinkedIn account (once you’ve connected it).

What happens once it’s running:

Live dashboard shows opens, clicks, replies — all next to the same enriched profiles you used to build the list. You can see a contact’s reply and instantly recall their company size, tools, and industry without switching screens.
Auto‑unrollment: If a prospect replies, they’re automatically removed from the sequence. No more accidentally sending a “last chance” email after someone booked a call.
You only pay for the credits you used to enrich the leads. The sequencer itself is free on all paid plans (and Origami’s free plan gives you 1,000 credits to start, no credit card).

What Response Rates to Expect

With a well‑targeted list of French SME decision‑makers in Google Ads roles, you should see numbers like these over a 10‑day campaign:

Connection acceptance rate: 25–35%
Reply rate (out of accepted connections): 8–15%
Meetings booked (of total list): 3–5%

These aren’t guesses; they’re ranges I’ve seen across a dozen campaigns for similar audiences. If your reply rate drops below 5% after 50 touches, it’s time to test a new first message — the “audit checklist” offer might not be resonating, so try a different angle (e.g., “quick win” audit for a specific industry).

If your connection rate is below 20%, your list is likely targeting people who don’t feel responsible for Google Ads (too junior, or the profile belongs to an agency employee). Go back to Step 1 and tighten your filters.

When to Iterate Messaging vs. Iterate the List

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
Low connection acceptance (<20%)	List quality; reaching non-decision-makers or inactive profiles	Go back to Origami, re‑filter by senior roles, check LinkedIn activity, rebuild
High acceptance but low reply (<5%)	Messaging isn’t painful enough or offer isn’t compelling	Test a new Touch 2 (e.g., “I noticed 3 quick wins in your ad account” vs. “checklist”). Let Origami’s agent suggest alternative angles.
Good replies but no meetings	Soft close too vague	In Touch 3, be more direct: “I have 15 minutes on Thursday or Friday morning — pick one?”

Keep tweaking one variable at a time. Origami makes it easy because you can clone a sequence, edit a touch, and launch it to a fresh batch.

5 Quick FAQ for LinkedIn Outreach to French SMEs

1. Should I write my messages in French or English?
For French SME owners, a French opening almost always outperforms English in connection requests. But if your service is inherently English‑speaking (e.g., international performance marketing), a hybrid approach works: a short French connection note that pivots to English in Touch 2 once they’ve expressed interest. The best advice: run both and let Origami’s reply‑tracking tell you which converts.

2. What if they don’t accept the connection request?
Origami’s sequencer only sends follow‑up messages to contacts who have accepted your invitation. If they don’t accept, that lead simply stays in your list without ever receiving Touch 2 or 3. No damage done — you might retarget them in a few months with a different angle.

3. Three touches feels short. Should I add more?
For this audience, three is the sweet spot. French business culture values directness but not pushiness. A fourth or fifth message can feel aggressive, especially if you haven’t built a relationship first. Instead, if you get a reply, take the conversation off‑sequence and handle it personally.

4. Can I include a calendly link in the connection request?
Don’t. LinkedIn’s algorithm sometimes reduces the reach of connection notes with links, and it looks salesy. Keep Touch 1 link‑free. By Touch 3, you can gently ask for a time slot, but I’d still wait for a positive reply before sending a booking link.

5. How can Origami help me personalize at scale?
When you select the “Let the agent write it” option, Origami’s AI reads each lead’s enriched profile — job title, industry, company size, even technology signals — and crafts a unique opening line for each one. So instead of a generic “I see you run Google Ads,” someone in a Lyon‑based logistics company might get a message that references their specific niche. It’s the difference between feeling like a cold campaign and a thoughtful reach‑out.

Next step: Open Origami, load the list you already built, paste the sequence templates, and launch. Within a day you’ll start seeing connection requests turn into real conversations — without leaving the platform.

If you still need the raw list, head back to our guide on how to build a list of French SMEs Running Google Ads.

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How to Run a LinkedIn Outreach Campaign for French SMEs Running Google Ads in 2026