There was a time when television, radio, and print media were considered the most effective avenues for advertising. And plenty of money is still spent on these to promote services, products, and more. However, social media has rapidly overtaken these channels as the most cost-effective advertising venue. The pricing structure and ability to create messages that attract the attention of specific groups may make the costs of LinkedIn ads well worth it.
LinkedIn ads allow you to create a message that speaks directly to those you want to reach. This both expands and streamlines the lead generation process, allowing you to create different kinds of outreach for various niche audiences.
For business-to-business (B2B) advertising, LinkedIn ads have the unique ability to reach specific professionals in and around your sector, allowing you to engage in more focused and nuanced outreach.
Why Do LinkedIn Ads Work Best for B2B?
LinkedIn has over 706 million members and four out of five of those members are decision-makers in their companies. For LinkedIn B2B advertising, this means that your business can target influential people in a variety of fields.
LinkedIn ads are available in distinct styles that allow you to get the right message to the right people, and the platform’s unique pricing schedule makes it easy to try out different campaigns. If the ad’s message is ineffective, then the billable events are more minimal. On the other hand, an ad campaign that generates many leads will cost more but may also generate more revenue.
For instance, a company that makes foam stuffing may choose to cater its message to a company that makes teddy bears. They may use a video ad to show off the “huggability” of their product and choose to use the number of potential customers who filled out requests for more information, lead generations, as their billable event.
A freelance writer, on the other hand, might have more success with a follower ad that draws attention to their LinkedIn page. The billable event would be when a person reads the ad and chooses to become a follower of the freelance writer’s page.
What Can Your Business Do With LinkedIn Ads?
Successful advertising is not only about making money. It’s also about promoting brand recognition and building a positive reputation. LinkedIn ads are designed to accomplish both of these things while generating income.
Because LinkedIn Ads can be directly fed to those with the power to make decisions, you can tone down the promotional aspect. There is no need to convince the whole industry of the value of your goods or services. Instead, you can focus your endeavors on a few, thoughtfully chosen, professionals with the power to choose your brand.
This marketing practice appears to be paying off. LinkedIn is a top player in B2B advertising and is growing at a rate of 3% faster than other platforms in their category. This style of advertising, based seemingly on trusted word-of-mouth, has led to a 5% growth of LinkedIn’s advertising business. The multiple types of ads offered by LinkedIn have also fueled their success.
What Are the Types of LinkedIn Ads?
There are four basic types of LinkedIn ads, and each is broken down into several styles with different specifications.
Sponsored Content Ads
These are designed to get the message out to a highly targeted audience in the news feed:
- Single image ads: One image and text effectively convey the message.
- Video ads: These allow for a much more descriptive message but require that viewers stick around to see it all.
- Carousel ads: These are a series of images that can hold the viewer's interest while telling the story of the promoted service or product.
- Event ads: These promote a single event with the ability to click through and sign up immediately.
Message Ads
This type of LinkedIn B2B ad allows your business to strike up a real and direct conversation with its potential customers or clients:
- Conversation ads: The choose-your-path feature makes it possible to start a direct conversation with professionals in the appropriate field.
- Message ads: This style sends direct messages to chosen leads in hopes of striking up a conversation that will be valuable to both parties.
DIY Ads
These ads run on the LinkedIn right-rail and attract the attention of viewers without creating annoying disturbances:
- Text ads: These are the least expensive of the options provided by LinkedIn. This type makes it easy to attract attention by providing a self-service, pay-per-click (PPC) platform.
- Spotlight ads: A few more options are offered by these ads, including color backgrounds and photos, to help attract attention while still protecting the budget.
- Follower ads: These encourage viewers to view the advertiser's LinkedIn page and become a follower.
Lead Generation Forms
These can be added to any of the above-listed ad types to increase the likelihood that a viewer will follow through. Lead generation forms are pre-filled-out so a viewer can become a lead with minimal effort on their part.
How Do You Measure the Success of LinkedIn Ads?
LinkedIn ad stats use several benchmarks that make it easy to determine the success of your campaigns. You can monitor the ongoing results of your ads or even compare the success of your ads against those running similar types. These LinkedIn advertising statistics include:
- Engagement rate: This measures the number of times viewers engaged with an ad. It is mostly used to determine a brand or product’s awareness as it’s not dependent on the viewer taking further action.
- Cost per click (CPC): The average benchmark on LinkedIn is $5.58 per click. This can get very costly so it is best to use this billable event in very targeted campaigns to avoid curiosity seekers who are not likely to become a customer.
- Click-through rate (CTR): This is a measurement of chargeable clicks the ad generated. The rate varies widely depending on the type of ads being rated, from as low as 0.02% for text ads to 0.56% for sponsored content.
- Conversion rate: The conversion rate measures the number of times a specific, and predetermined, action is taken. Since the parameters for this rate differ from one campaign to another, it is difficult to give a general rate.
- Cost per impression (CPM): These are measured in increments of 1,000 impressions. The average cost of CPM on LinkedIn is $33.80 per 1,000.
- Lead generation form completion rate: This number is generated by taking the total number of lead forms opened and dividing it by the number that were filled out. A rate of 10% is considered successful.
- Cost per lead (CPL): This is the most important measurement for campaigns that hope to generate leads and can make or break your marketing budget. The cost varies a great deal, from $15 to $350 per lead.
- Message ad benchmarks: This is a set of measurable benchmarks, including open rates and rates of ensuing conversations, used to determine the success of message ads.
- Video ad benchmarks: This is a set of benchmarks, including view-through rate and engagement rate, used to judge the effectiveness of video ads.
How Can You Make Successful LinkedIn Ads?
Are LinkedIn ads worth the cost? Yes, but only if the ad campaigns meet your metric for success. For those who want to get involved with LinkedIn B2B ads but aren’t sure they have the know-how to get it done, Cleverly is here to help. Find how we can help you succeed with LinkedIn ads by scheduling a free consultation.
