Navigating LinkedIn Ads and When To Use It
LinkedIn is just like any other social media platform where you engage with like-minded people and interact with their posts through likes, comments, reposting, and sending posts to individuals you’re connected with.
Profile customization, discovering and connecting with new people, as well as chatting can all be accessible on LinkedIn and available for both in-app or website use.
You might be wondering why is LinkedIn still relevant despite having competitors like Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, etc.?
What’s unique about LinkedIn is that it is a social networking site designed and focused on the business community or professionals to connect, share information and ideas, exchange resumes, find jobs, and establish a career.
Advertising on LinkedIn
In 2005, LinkedIn Ads was introduced offering marketers to not just reach their professional audience organically but through sponsored content as well. Over the years, LinkedIn Ads have gradually improved and provided other options and tools for marketers to fine-tune their ads and achieve optimal results.
LinkedIn Ads allow marketers to:
- Target Demographics (age, gender, and location)
- Target Job Function (Job title, Job Function, and Seniority level)
- Target Industry
- Target Company size and Company Name
- Target Education, Skills, Groups, and Interests
- Retargeting – those who have previously engaged with your brand (website visitors, existing emails, company list, etc.)
Over 740 million users, many are professionals and decision-makers in their respective industries, which is an advantage for B2B marketers. LinkedIn has become an important platform for these marketers as it enables them to reach and connect with their desired professional target audience.
LinkedIn Ad Objectives And Ad Formats
LinkedIn Ads provide marketers with a range of ad objectives to help them create campaigns according to their business goals.
Awareness Ads – designed to put your brand to many people. It is optimized to get you more reach and impressions on LinkedIn which can also boost your followers and engagements on your account.
Consideration Ads – designed to drive engagements, traffic, and video views. For people who somehow are aware of your brand and want them to drive actions like visiting the website, viewing videos, etc.
Conversions Ads – designed to generate leads and make a sale through your website. You want to drive actions like filling out a lead form, making a purchase on the website, or applying for a job.
LinkedIn has also introduced multiple ad formats for marketers to try and A/B test.
Sponsored Ads – this ad appears on the newsfeed and is marked as “sponsored content”. They are also called native ads.
Message Ads – this ad allows marketers to forward direct messages to their target audience and is accompanied by a CTA button to encourage the target audience to take action.
Lead Gen Ads – this ad allows marketers to collect their target audience data. For example an ad for a course, a lead form will be presented in the ad to let audiences input the necessary data to get the course. Marketers will then download the leads from the LinkedIn ads manager.
Text Ads – this ad appears at the top or bottom of the LinkedIn page. Consists of a headline, description, and a small image.
Video Ads – this ad allows marketers to promote their ad in a video form. This ad will appear on the LinkedIn feed.
Carousel Ads – this ad allows marketers to showcase 10 images in one ad either in static image form or video. Target audience can swipe through each. This is a great way to present multiple products in one ad.
Job Ads – also called work with us ads. This allows marketers to promote job openings by highlighting the job position and a CTA button to redirect applicants to the application page.
Display Ads – this ad appears on the right-hand side of LinkedIn pages. Includes headline, description, and image.
Follower Ads – this ad allows you to promote your LinkedIn page with a CTA button to encourage them to like or follow.
LinkedIn Ads Best Practices
LinkedIn being a platform for professionals is a great place to go for B2B networking to do ads and promote. Here are some best practices you can apply to ensure you get the most out of LinkedIn ads.
- Set clear goals by defining your ad objectives and important KPIs to measure the success of your ads.
- Create your ideal customer profile and understand their behaviors and needs. See to it that you can create more value with your services and offer them what they need.
- A/B testing ad formats to see which of them resonates well with your target audience. Either video format, static images, carousels, etc. Ensure to match as well the content of your ad to your ad type—how can you deliver the ad message more effectively if in static form, text, etc.
- Use compelling ad creative and copies. Highlighting the value of your service/ product.
- Analyze market industry and competitors. Advertising on LinkedIn can be expensive so being aware of the market condition and being able to set realistic budgets based on that can help you allocate your budget wisely while also getting the results you want.
Should You Start Using LinkedIn Ads?
Facebook, Tiktok, Twitter, etc. each has a unique audience and the way they interact within the platform somehow varies. With different types of community engagement, ad strategies and optimizations can as well vary.
LinkedIn ads being a social networking site is a great place to network with professionals and business owners. Businesses in a B2B model can take advantage of the platform as LinkedIn allows you to connect and reach your ideal audiences.
Running ads on LinkedIn can be expensive but with the right strategy, you can attain a return on investment given the audience you’re selling to. Value-based offers are a must highlighted offer as well as the uniqueness of your brand to stand out against competitors.
If you see that LinkedIn has a potential market for your business that allows you to maximize your leads, let us help you reach the right customers by clicking here: https://digital.emerge.com.ph/lp/free-marketing-plan
