LinkedIn has emerged as a crucial platform for businesses targeting professionals in nearly every industry. Running LinkedIn ads effectively offers a chance to engage with high-quality leads, hone your audience targeting, and capitalize on B2B marketing. In this blog post, we'll explore how to run LinkedIn Ads efficiently, from getting started to advanced tips and best practices.
Why Use LinkedIn Ads?
Before diving into the technical details of setting up LinkedIn Ads, it’s worth understanding why LinkedIn advertising is incredibly powerful for marketers, especially those targeting B2B audiences:
- Professional Audience: Unlike other platforms like Facebook or Instagram, LinkedIn is predominantly used for career networking, meaning its users are actively employed professionals with a business mindset.
- Highly Targeted Advertising: LinkedIn allows you to target users by profession, job title, company, industry, educational background, and more, ensuring that your ads reach the people most relevant to your business.
- High Engagement for B2B: Many studies show that LinkedIn delivers a higher conversion rate for B2B businesses compared to other social platforms.
- Brand Awareness and Lead Generation: Beyond merely driving traffic to your site, LinkedIn Ads can help increase brand awareness and generate quality leads.
Types of LinkedIn Ads
LinkedIn offers various ad formats depending on your objectives. Here’s a breakdown of the available options:
| Ad Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Sponsored Content | These are native ads that appear in the LinkedIn news feed. You can choose from single image ads, video ads, or carousel ads containing multiple images or videos. |
| Message Ads | Direct messages sent to a user's LinkedIn inbox. These are highly personalized ads and often work best for lead generation purposes. |
| Text Ads | Simple, pay-per-click or pay-per-impression ads that appear in the right sidebar or top banner. They consist of a headline, description, and link to your landing page. |
| Dynamic Ads | These custom ads are generated dynamically by LinkedIn using data from members’ profiles. They often include the user's name or profile image to increase engagement. |
| Lead Gen Forms | These forms are integrated with other ad types (especially Sponsored Content or Message Ads) and allow users to submit information directly on LinkedIn’s platform, avoiding the friction of external landing pages. |
Step-by-Step Guide to Running LinkedIn Ads
Ready to set up your first LinkedIn ad campaign? Follow these steps to get started:
1. Create a LinkedIn Campaign Manager Account
The first step is to log in to LinkedIn and create a LinkedIn Campaign Manager account if you don’t already have one. LinkedIn Campaign Manager is the platform where all your ad campaigns are managed. You’ll need to associate a company page with your ad account, as LinkedIn only allows businesses to advertise.
2. Set Your Campaign Objective
Once in Campaign Manager, choose your campaign objective. LinkedIn offers several options depending on your goals. For example, you can aim to generate website visits, collect leads, increase video views, or promote job applications. Choosing the correct objective optimizes how LinkedIn charges you and delivers your ads.
LinkedIn provides the following choices for campaign objectives:
- Awareness: Increase awareness of your brand, page, or products.
- Consideration: Encourage people to visit your website, engage with your content, or watch your videos.
- Conversions: Drive specific actions such as website conversions or lead collection.
3. Define Your Target Audience
LinkedIn offers robust targeting options, which are one of the platform's biggest advantages. You can specify a range of characteristics, including:
- Location
- Industry
- Job title
- Company size
- Years of experience
- Education background
- Specific skills or professional interests
Make sure to refine your audience as much as possible without becoming too narrow. A well-targeted audience maximizes your ad performance by reaching the most relevant individuals.
4. Choose Your Ad Format
Once you’ve set your target audience, choose the ad format that best suits your campaign. Your options include Sponsored Content, Message Ads, Text Ads, or Dynamic Ads, as listed above. The format you choose will depend on your overall marketing objectives. Sponsored Content tends to work well for higher engagement, while Message Ads are excellent for personalized, direct messaging.
5. Set Your Budget and Schedule
LinkedIn ads are typically more expensive per click than other platforms, but the quality of leads often balances this out. You can choose from different bidding strategies:
- CPC (Cost-per-click): Pay each time someone clicks on your ad.
- CPM (Cost-per-impression): Pay each time your ad is shown 1,000 times.
- CPV (Cost-per-view): This applies to video ads when you pay based on the number of views.
Set your daily budget, total budget, and the duration of your campaign. LinkedIn will not charge more than the daily (or total) budget you set. You can also choose when your ad starts and ends, or leave it running continuously.
6. Create the Ad
This is where creativity comes into play. Depending on your chosen format, decide how your ad will look. For example:
- For Sponsored Content: Pick engaging images or videos, write attention-grabbing headline copy, and provide a strong call to action.
- For Message Ads: Tailor your message to make it feel personal. Since Message Ads land directly in users' inboxes, write the message as if it were a personal invitation.
- For Text Ads: Focus on clarity and conciseness. Since these tend to get less visibility, it's important that the message is direct and to the point.
Regularly test different visual elements, copy, and calls to action to see what resonates best with your audience.
7. Launch and Monitor Performance
Once everything is set up, all you need to do is hit "launch." After the campaign is live, monitoring its performance using LinkedIn's built-in analytics tools is critical. You can track impressions, clicks, conversions, and other key metrics right from Campaign Manager. Constantly review your metrics and adjust your targeting, budget, or creative if needed.
Best Practices for LinkedIn Ads
Here are some advanced tips to ensure your ads are as successful as possible:
- Test and Experiment: Use A/B testing to tweak different elements of your ads. Try various images, headlines, and targeting options to see which perform best.
- Use Retargeting: LinkedIn provides retargeting features to target individuals who've previously engaged with your website or content, leveraging solutions like Lead Gen Forms.
- Leverage LinkedIn's Insights and LinkedIn Analytics: Periodically check the demographics of those engaging with your ad. Use LinkedIn Insights to optimize targeting and ad efficacy.
- Keep an Eye on KPIs: Keep close tabs on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) like CTR (click-through rate), conversion rate, and ROAS (return on ad spend). Adjust your campaigns based on these metrics.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
LinkedIn Ads can be tricky, and there are a few common mistakes that can undermine your efforts. Avoid these pitfalls:
- Poor Message Clarity: Ads should have a strong, clear call to action. Avoid jargon or overly complex messaging that may confuse your audience.
- Undifferentiated Targeting: If you set your target too broad, your ads may perform poorly. LinkedIn thrives on precision targeting—don’t miss this opportunity.
- Low Budgets: LinkedIn ads cost more than other platforms, so lowballing your budget often leads to inaction or low visibility.
In conclusion, while the cost-per-click on LinkedIn is comparatively higher than other platforms, businesses typically experience a higher return on investment when targeting professional audiences. If you understand how to craft clear and engaging ads, use advanced targeting, follow A/B testing strategies, and continuously monitor performance, you can generate highly qualified leads and achieve your marketing goals with LinkedIn ads. For additional help, LinkedIn's own Ad Solutions page offers many insightful resources to help refine your advertising strategies.
