Does your business work with businesses or corporates? If so, maybe it’s time to consider LinkedIn Ads.
LinkedIn Ads is one of the most effective ways to connect with your prospective clients when you have defined target audience and messages. It can work very effectively, it not only helps you get more leads but also increases your brand awareness.
Why LinkedIn?
Today, the Internet is flourishing with social networks you can use to advertise your business and its products. They’re endless. In an article by eMarketer, it was found that ⅔ of businesses advertise on these channels, with 67% reporting a ‘yes’ in effectiveness of the advertising campaigns. Of these sites, LinkedIn ranked alongside Facebook as most effective network.
LinkedIn’s a significant force because it connects professional networks together, from companies to business owners, employees, and job seekers. LinkedIn has reported that 4 out of 5 members drive decisions by businesses.
So what are the types of ads you can use on LinkedIn? How does it all work? Keep reading…
How to run LinkedIn Ads?
LinkedIn Ads platform is called campaign manager which has been re-designed recently and become more user friendly. More so, it has added more features to track the campaign performance such as website demographics.
Types of LinkedIn Ads
There are three types of ads you can employ on LinkedIn: Sponsored Content, Text Ads and/or Sponsored InMail. LinkedIn gives you the option to choose them, like below:
Sponsored Content
This type of content blends in with a person’s timeline while they’re on the LinkedIn main page. You can distinguish it with ‘Promoted’ written on the post. Here’s an example:
Sponsored Ad Example
Sponsored Ad Example
Your Targeting Options
To create Sponsored Content, you’ll need to fill in the following details on LinkedIn:
- Name of Campaign
- Company
- Company Updates or Direct?
In this third part, you’ll have the mentioned two options from which you’ll need to choose one. Company Updates means you’re using content that is already existing. You have 600 characters to play around with on your post, as well as can include an image. The Direct option means you’re making a post from scratch. You only have a 160 character limit, and the post won’t show up on your company page.
- Targeting
This is where you need to be specific, and carefully choose your target audience. In this section, you’re filtering the people that will come across your Sponsored Content. You’ll have a choice of the following:
- Location
- Company/Category (e.g. job function, job title, job seniority, education)
In the company/category sections, you can pinpoint which type of individual in particular you will expose your advertisement to. This means you can target managers specifically, CEOs specifically, or content marketers specifically, for example.
- Group
LinkedIn groups work a lot like Facebook groups, where people with similar interests, or of similar professions and industries, gather. Being in a group means the members feel strongly enough about a certain topic to want to be there and get updates on the issue, and on related events, etc. This is a great opportunity to make use of, since the member-base is active.
In the same way that you can add these groups of people into the target, you can also eliminate them. You may want to choose this option if that profession, for example, is completely unrelated and irrelevant to the offer – there’s no point in them viewing your ad if they’re not going to respond to them.
Also note that you have a lot of variety in Sponsored Content in terms of what type of content you want to post. Video, images, articles are all available to you. So it’s important to have the copy of your ad stimulate interest in your viewers, and have them click on what you have to offer.
Lead Gen Forms
For sponsored ads, you can also use lead gen form instead of landing pages.
This is a great option to target mobile users.
Retargeting
When running your sponsored ads, like Facebook Ads or Google AdWords, you can also run a retargeting campaign whether uploading your email list or targeting your site visitors.
This is a great strategy to complement other traffic strategy you run whether it’s within LinkedIn or other channels such as Facebook, Google, Twitter and etc.
Text Ads
These types of ads are perhaps the closest we’ve seen to the ‘traditional’ ad. Here’s an example from the LinkedIn homepage:
You can create a text ad by developing the following:
- Name of campaign
- 50×50 pixel image
Like a profile picture on LinkedIn or Facebook, images are crucial for making instant impressions about the brand and products, and directing the reader to the written content and offer. They should not only be eye-catching, but also relevant.
- 25 character headline, 75 characters worth of subtext to advertise the product
- Ad destination, e.g. company website
- Audience options
LinkedIn allows you to make 15 variations of 1 advertisement. By making certain tweaks in the images, headings, ad copy, or destination, you can determine what ad your audience enjoys and responds to.
Sponsored InMail
InMail is an ad type that is relatively flexible in terms of personalisation (since you’re sending a message directly to another person), character limit (there is none), as well as is highly targeted.
Here are other beneficial elements to Sponsored InMail, provided by LinkedIn:
For InMail, it’s important that you have a compelling subject heading, introduce yourself, and keep your message to the point. Also be conversational (and not obviously ad-like).
Since you’re sending messages directly to potential customers, you need to clearly define who you’re recipients are. A great way to do this is by creating a customer persona, like below:
With InMail, you have the option of sending messages from your company profile, or your personal one. Choose the profile that corresponds with the message you’re sending and the end goal of your ad (i.e. what are you hoping for the reader to do? Download something? Or pay for something?).
In saying this, the presentation of your profile is crucial. It builds your sales profile and will shape the image and impressions of you and your offerings.
InMail Example
Wrapping Up
Now, you get to discover what options you have to run your LinkedIn Ads. An important note to take from this would be, have a plan. Have your campaigns planned, and fine-tune the details of your target. HubSpot reminds us to have a holistic view of your marketing strategy, and use multiple advertising channels where possible to create brand awareness (at the very least).
Invest in testing and experimentation, and learn what advertising works and what doesn’t. LinkedIn is an avenue with plenty of potential for B2Bs, and is a form of exposure and advertising worth considering.
LinkedIn Campaign Management
We can also assist you with your LinkedIn Ads campaign whether you need help with strategy advice or complete done-for-you services. We can help.
Just give us a call +61-2-8067 8495, contact us online or email us hello@vivaresults.com to find out more.
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