LinkedIn has long been overlooked for its marketing opportunities and is regularly dismissed as a networking tool for business professionals. However, what could be more impactful than promoting straight to an audience of influential decision-makers? Although it might be intimidating working with yet another platform, here is a quick guide to get you started.
What are LinkedIn Ads?
LinkedIn Ads are a way for companies to utilize B2B, or business-to-business, marketing through different ad forms. Using a free company LinkedIn page, brands can build company awareness, generate leads, and drive website traffic through ads promoted through LinkedIn’s platform.
Types of LinkedIn Ads
Four main types of ads can appear on LinkedIn, each suitable for different goals.
Sponsored Content is ads that appear on a user’s feed through their homepage. Since the feed is where most professionals spend the majority of their time on LinkedIn, the ad is easily able to able to reach the target audience. Sponsored Content appears in five different ways: a single image, a document, a video, an event, or a carousel of swipeable cards. While single-image ads can blend in with organic posts more seamlessly, carousels and videos can deliver more information within a post.
If you want to reach your audience more personally, sponsored messaging might be your preferred method. With LinkedIn Message Ads, you can send direct messages to your audiences’ messaging inboxes. However, if you have multiple call-to-actions, consider opting for a Conversation Ad campaign, allowing your audience to engage with your ad through a choose-your-own-path messaging experience.
Dynamic Ads work by automatically personalizing the ad for the viewer. These ads reflect the user’s name and personal details, allowing for a more intimate experience. The two types of Dynamic Ads–Follower Ads and Spotlight Ads–work to build your following and highlight a certain brand feature.
While these ads might be less visually stimulating, Text Ads function as a budget-friendly pay-per-click option. These appear more like your standard desktop ads on the top and right-hand side of a user’s desktop feed.
How to Create Your LinkedIn Ads
Advertising on LinkedIn is, in short, a two-part process. You first have to create your LinkedIn Campaign Manager account where you’ll link your free company page before creating your ad experience. To do so, there are a few things to consider:
When you define the objective, LinkedIn can customize the campaign experience to fit your target needs better. There are three overarching objectives from which you can choose: Awareness, Consideration, and Conversions.
The more relevant an ad is to your audience, the more successful the campaign will be; this is why it is essential to define your target audience. LinkedIn allows you to establish your target through a few attributes including but not limited to company size, company name, member schools, interests, groups, and skills.
Depending on your objective, you can now select the right ad format for your campaign. Certain ad types allow you to select a placement to optimize audience exposure.
You can set a campaign budget based on your objective and audience. LinkedIn provides three models: cost per send, cost per click, and cost per impression. Your budget should also factor in how long you would like your ads to run.
Once your ad is live, LinkedIn’s Campaign Manager allows you to access the related analytics. The overall clicks, impressions, and social actions are available to view so you can edit your campaign as needed.
Access to effective advertising should not be difficult. With the right amount of planning, LinkedIn Ads can be a powerful tool to help your brand reach the right audience.