For many companies, having a LinkedIn page is just the first step in a successful LinkedIn marketing strategy. It can take a lot of work to ensure that the right eyes are seeing your posts, and sometimes this just isn’t possible without ads.
According to LinkedIn, 89% of B2B marketers turn to LinkedIn for lead generation. These marketers say LinkedIn generates more than two times as many leads than other social channels. It’s 277% more effective than Facebook for B2B companies and blows other social media sites like Instagram and TikTok out of the water.
Today, we’ll give you a quick overview of LinkedIn ads, and help you learn enough to get your company’s ad strategy up and running.
The Pros and Cons of LinkedIn Ads
There are many benefits to using LinkedIn ads, but it’s important to understand potential drawbacks as well.
LinkedIn ads have a very low barrier to entry, making it easy for even a novice marketer to get started right away. You can choose from various types of ads, including images, text, messages, and video.
Plus, the ad format isn’t the only way that you can customize your marketing campaign. LinkedIn’s targeting is unmatched, allowing companies to segment their ads using tons of different demographic details, including past or present employer, years and type of education, industry, certifications, and more. One con here though is that unlike Facebook and Google, you can’t target on LinkedIn by zip code or radius.
However, there are some potential pitfalls that new LinkedIn marketers should be aware of before they get started.
There is a minimum daily spend requirement on LinkedIn, which could be a drawback if you’re working with a limited marketing budget. It’s only $10 per day, but that adds up to $3,650 per year. If you’re just starting out, this could be a potential barrier to entry. Also, the more detailed you make your ad targeting, you increase the potential to have a higher cost per conversion.
LinkedIn also doesn’t have the same custom reporting capabilities as other advertising mediums like Facebook or Google. They do have a reporting dashboard, where you can customize the metrics you want to see.
Which Businesses Should Use LinkedIn Ads?
While there are definitely pros and cons to using LinkedIn ads, the best way to determine whether it’s right for your business is to just try it out. You can stop after a few weeks or months if you don’t get the results you’re looking for.
Generally, the businesses that have the most successful LinkedIn ad experience are those that are marketing to other businesses or professionals. Since so many people are on the site looking for professional connections, it helps if you’re advertising a professional or business-to-business company, rather than one that’s more consumer-facing.
Creating a Successful LinkedIn Ad Campaign
There are many different types of LinkedIn ads available for use today. Depending on whether you’re running an ABM/ABX campaign or more straightforward ads, you’ll want to tailor your format differently.
Every campaign starts with the marketer logging into Campaign Manager and choosing a campaign objective. The three objectives are:
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Conversion
From there, marketers can create their target audience, then choose their ad format. There are a few different ad formats available.
- Sponsored Content appears in a person’s newsfeed like a regular post. You can choose from regular blog posts, videos, single images, and more.
- Sponsored Messaging is addressed directly to a prospect. They usually take the form of a message that’s customized to each recipient.
- Lead Gen Forms allow you to collect high-quality leads using Lead Gen forms that are already partially filled in, making it easier for people to connect with your company.
Text and Dynamic Ads take a few different forms including text and images. Their flexibility allows you to promote jobs, pages, or even events on individual prospect’s pages.
Measuring Success with Metrics
Even though LinkedIn’s reporting dashboard within the Campaign Manager isn’t as customizable as some of its competitors, it still offers a lot of tracking tools and analytics. It allows you to track your most successful ads with a few of their most useful metrics, including clicks, impressions, and click-through rate.
If you’re looking to drive leads, you can also take advantage of conversion tracking metrics, like conversion rate, cost-per-conversion, leads, and cost-per-lead.
By examining these metrics closely, you can evaluate your ad performance and optimize them in the future to ensure that you’re targeting your ideal demographic.
LinkedIn ads are just one part of an effective LinkedIn marketing strategy. The more you know about the various aspects of LinkedIn marketing, the easier it will be to create a personalized strategy that reaches all your customers.