Prior to Microsoft’s $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn in 2016, the platform was virtually useless. LinkedIn now has over 310 million active monthly users in 2021, with 40% of monthly users signing in on a daily basis.
As a result, businesses have a plethora of chances to reach their target consumers.
Many B2B organizations, believe it or not, find LinkedIn to be the most successful marketing channel around.
Follow along with my guide to LinkedIn ads to learn about the many sorts of advertising available and the goals they may help you achieve.
There aren’t specific clever LinkedIn marketing tips for determining whether your target demographic is on the platform.
However, by asking a simple question and putting it to the test, you’ll be able to discover the answer.
The question I’m talking about is: “Would a professional on this platform, in a day-to-day mindset, be interested in my product, service?”
As far as LinkedIn goes, the answer is almost certainly affirmative if you sell something that assists business owners or working professionals who use this site to advance their careers, discover new job opportunities, network, and connect with business contacts.
Who can you target?
While social media platforms like Facebook offer a wide range of personal demographics, LinkedIn focuses on career-related filters that aren’t available anywhere else.
When it comes to customer targeting, you can get fairly clever. Targeting by company size, title, industry, and location is possible.
LinkedIn gives you a lot of options for reaching out to the professionals who need to know about your product or service.
Types of LinkedIn ads
Advertisers can choose from a variety of ad placement options on LinkedIn.
- Sponsored Content
Sponsored Content appears in your audience’s LinkedIn feed, whether they’re scrolling on a mobile device or a desktop computer. To distinguish these adverts from ordinary content, LinkedIn marks them as “promoted.”
- Sponsored Messaging
You can advertise directly to LinkedIn members in their inbox with Sponsored Messaging (formerly known as Sponsored InMail).
Just keep in mind that the number of subscribers who will see a Sponsored Message ad per month is limited. For example, a member of your target demographic will not see your adverts more than twice in a short period of time.
Take a look at LinkedIn ads example:
- Text Ads
If you’re trying to create solid leads with a professional demographic, Text Ads appear along the top and right-hand side of LinkedIn’s desktop feed.
Given that enhancing lead generation is one of the top digital marketing goals for 58 percent of marketers, LinkedIn Text Ads can be a cost-effective approach to cast a wide net.
- Dynamic Ads
Dynamic Ads appear on LinkedIn’s right rail and speak directly to audiences through personalization.
Members can alter their settings to hide these details if they deem these ads to be overly intimate.
Dynamic advertisements are divided into two categories: Follower Ads and Sponsored Ads.
- LinkedIn ad objectives
LinkedIn employs objective-based advertising, which allows advertisers to create ad campaigns that are tailored to certain business objectives.
The three most common sorts of objectives are listed below.
Awareness ads on LinkedIn
Begin with an awareness campaign to get your brand on people’s minds. These advertisements encourage people to talk about the products you offer, services, and your brand.
You can also attract more followers, increase views, and stimulate more engagement with this impression-based marketing.
Consideration ads on LinkedIn
If you want to qualify leads who are already familiar with your business, go with a consideration ad.
These commercials are designed to assist advertisers to achieve the following objectives:
- Increase the number of visitors to your website and landing pages.
- Encourage visits to other social networking platforms and websites, as well as likes, comments, and shares.
- Use video to tell your company’s story, show off your latest product, or show day-to-day life in your company.
Conversion ads on LinkedIn
Consider a conversion ad if you want to create leads or close a sale.
They can assist in achieving the following three goals:
- Generate leads on LinkedIn by filling out forms that are pre-filled with information from your LinkedIn profile.
- Increase website conversions by encouraging more users to download an ebook, subscribe to a newsletter, or buy a product.
- Spread the news about your company’s latest job opening.
LinkedIn ad formats
The format of your LinkedIn ad depends on the type of ad.
For the text ads, you’ll want to keep the image simple and to the point. Since you only have 50×50 pixels for the image (and it’s optional), keep it simple. Use a person when possible, and only use your logo if you want to raise brand awareness.
You have more options when it comes to sponsored material. You’ll want to write an engaging piece that resembles the site’s genuine, organic content. Case studies happen to be the most effective at converting leads into customers.
You’ll be able to write a headline and some material for the introduction. Make sure to include a destination URL and an image after that. The recommendation is 1200×627, so a larger one will suffice.
Finally, for sponsored messaging, you should compose the ads as though they were pleasant emails. You can be more casual because they aren’t exposed as advertisements. Most importantly, since you’ll be targeting a very specific group of people, employ a lot of personalization.
If you don’t feel like doing it on your own, the platform offers a helpful “LinkedIn Ads Manager” which is only a simple Google search away.
How much do ads cost on LinkedIn?
The cost of contextual CPC (cost per click) advertisements is determined by your targeting parameters and competition. CPCs have ranged from roughly $2 to $4 or $5 per click, with the higher end often coming into play when click-through rates aren’t great.
LinkedIn has a reasonable click-through rate of 0.025 percent, but laser-targeted advertising with intriguing writing and a colorful photo can go better.
A decent rule of thumb is to aim for a click-through rate of between.08 and 0.1 percent. This means getting as close to one click per 1,000 impressions as possible.
A question you might ask yourself at this point is – Are LinkedIn ads worth it? The answer is short and simple – Yes, especially for the long-term effect they can have on your business.
You can find the entire chart on LinkedIn’s site, but here’s a peek at their pricing strategies:
How should I capture the leads?
After you’ve got people to look at your ads, the next step is simple: convert those impressions or clicks into customers and sales.
You have two options for collecting leads from LinkedIn Ads, and I advocate using both of them at the same time.
The first is self-explanatory: your landing page. Consider giving something up for free, such as great information that is relevant to your audience, or conducting a campaign. People are drawn to free, useful material.
What about the other option? It’s a function called “Lead Gen Forms” on LinkedIn. Someone might be interested in your ad and answer virtually instantly using auto-populated fields.
This type of ad reaction could be a game-changer for your company.
Tracking your ads
LinkedIn has a number of tracking tools for data, analytics, and ROI evaluation.
You may be wondering why you should keep track of your advertisements in the first place? The most important reason is so you can determine whether the channel is profitable for your company.
As a result, you’ll have a clear picture of how the improvements you choose will affect your business.
If you don’t already have Google Analytics installed on your landing page, I recommend doing so.
To figure out how long LinkedIn ad visitors stay on your site, look at engagement data like time on site, page views, bounce rate, and so on.
If your stay on site is frequently lower than 5 seconds, your offer isn’t engaging, your landing page needs updating, or your ad copy is “too appealing” for the effort required to convert.
To get an idea of the quality of these visits, look at the pages these users are visiting. Are they doing any research on your organization, or are they merely landing on the page and leaving?
What happens on the other side of the click counts the most, just like it does with any paid media outlet.
Conclusion
LinkedIn advertisements may be the way to go if you’re seeking additional prospects in a certain target market or want to branch out into an entirely new field.
The excellent thing about these advertisements is that if you’re selling a consumer product that appeals to business-minded or affluent buyers, they can be very effective.
To begin, decide what type of advertisement you want to run. Choose between the different types and don’t restrain from utilizing the ads manager if you feel like you need it. To attract the correct people, you’ll also want to define the exact parameters.
Choose your targeting requirements, measure your results, and get started once you’ve designed a great ad that adheres to LinkedIn’s guidelines.