LinkedIn is a networking site designed to give people from various industries a way to expand their careers and network with others. The professionals who join LinkedIn are often looking to build business relationships, so this makes them much more likely to respond to a relevant ad on the platform. For professionals who work in the B2B (business to business) space, launching an ad campaign on LinkedIn can create connections, generate leads, and promote sales.
Because the profiles on LinkedIn often include a person’s industry and title, it’s easy to target your message to a chosen audience. The ability to cater your messages, along with LinkedIn's multiple ad formats and performance tracking software, makes B2B ads on LinkedIn both simple to launch and track.
6 Best Practices for LinkedIn Ads
These are the steps you should take to create, rate, and perfect your LinkedIn ads campaign:
- Define your objectives
- Choose the right ad format
- Target the right audience
- Create a compelling ad
- Track your ad’s performance
- Leverage knowledgeable support
The following article will explain these steps to help you fully understand how to create a LinkedIn ad campaign step-by-step.
1. Define Your Objectives
To maximize the benefits of your LinkedIn ads campaign, you must first have a firm understanding of what you hope to accomplish. Your business goals for the ad campaign should be clear and concise.
LinkedIn ad campaign objectives fall into three basic categories:
- Generate conversions: You may want an ad campaign that generates leads to boost sales or to receive applications from your job posting.
- Build brand awareness: You may simply be looking to raise brand awareness in hopes that it can be the starting point for future marketing.
- Earn viewers consideration: You may want the campaign to drive visitors to your website or blog to offer them more information or raise the chances of your business appearing in searches.
Regardless of your objectives, you must define them before you go any further into the process of creating your marketing campaign.
2. Choose the Right Ad Format
As you begin to build your LinkedIn ad campaign, you will see there are four basic types to choose from. Each type can be formatted in several different ways.
Sponsored Content Ads
Sponsored content ads are the most popular choice for B2B ad campaigns. They’re also the most expensive, depending on the format and billing actions you choose. They’re ideal for generating leads and it is easy to add LinkedIn’s auto-fill lead gen form to your ad.
You can choose from four formats in this ad type:
- Single image: These ads show a single, stationary image of your choosing and related text.
- Video ads: Use these to tell the story of your company, product, or service. For best results, keep them short and interesting.
- Carousel ads: These tell your story in a slideshow of stationary images and related text.
- Event ads: These are designed to advertise and increase attendance at your upcoming LinkedIn events.
Sponsored content ads are most effective at generating leads, building awareness and trust with your target audience, and showcasing your products and services.
For best results, follow these guidelines for sponsored ads:
- Use concise headlines: Sticking to less than 150 characters is recommended.
- Use larger images: Thumbnail images are easy to ignore. Use bigger, brighter images to attract attention.
- Choose a specific audience: However, don't make the demographic too small.
- Include a clear CTA (call to action): Add this at the end of your ad copy.
Message Ads
Message ads are designed to give the receiver the impression that you are connecting with them personally. Using direct messaging to get your message out makes it possible for you to tell your audience a story without worrying about character limits.
Unlike an email campaign, these messages are delivered to LinkedIn message boxes. Without the clutter of other emails, your ads are much more likely to be noticed and opened.
Like an email campaign, the trick to a successful LinkedIn message ad campaign is creating a great subject line. It has to generate interest, pique the reader’s curiosity, and encourage them to open the message and learn more.
For best results, follow these guidelines for message ads:
- Create a short, dynamic subject line: Use 60 characters or less.
- Write a clear, concise message: Introduce yourself and your product or service in 500 characters or less.
- Include hyperlinks: Make it easy for the readers to find out more or sign up.
- Choose a banner image: The banner image can help direct a reader's eyes to your ad.
Dynamic Ads
Dynamic ads allow you to connect to individuals based on their LinkedIn profiles. The ad shows up on the right-rail of their page which increases the likelihood that they’ll engage with the ad.
This ad type is available in three formats:
- Follower ads: These attract visitors to your LinkedIn company page to get more followers and increase the size of your audience.
- Spotlight ads: These share insights, leadership ideas, and other valuable content with your targeted audience.
- Job ads: These attract more of the right applicants to your posted job openings.
For best results, follow these guidelines for dynamic ads:
- Include each receiver's photo, name, and company: These details can personalize the ad.
- Use concise ad copy: Include a clear message and a CTA.
- Trim your list of recipients: Unselect those who are already followers from the list.
- Upload a custom background: An excellent image helps make it appealing and unique.
Text Ads
Text ads are the least expensive of the LinkedIn ad choices. You can choose PPC (pay per click) or PPI (pay per impression) so you pay only when you get the desired results. They are text-only and can be placed either in a banner on the recipient’s page or their right-rail. They are the easiest of the ad types to create and monitor.
For best results, follow these guidelines for text ads:
- Define your target audience
- Speak concisely and directly to your audience
- Include an image and a CTA
- Create multiple versions to keep ad viewers interested
- Turn off ads that aren’t being clicked on
3. Target the Right Audience
LinkedIn ads are not meant to be mass mailings. They’re intended for a specific audience. This allows you to cater the message directly to the recipients which will increase both interest and results.
LinkedIn makes it easy for you to choose the audience you wish to reach. You can target specific demographics based on age, gender, income level, and other factors. You can also choose your audience based on their industry or the information contained in their profile.
4. Create a Compelling Ad
Regardless of who you are targeting with your ad, you must be sure that the content is worth their while. Content that's not interesting or informative will not get them to take further steps.
Be sure that all images, videos, and copies are relevant and accurate. Claims that seem too good to be true will be ignored or blocked.
5. Test Your Ad’s Performance
LinkedIn offers you many ways to track the performance of your ad through its campaign manager. These include:
- Number of total clicks
- Clickthrough rate
- Engagement measured through metrics including likes, comments, shares, and followers
- Number of total conversions
- Conversion rate
- Total number of leads generated
- Cost per lead
The campaign manager software uses analytics to analyze this data and presents it in graphics that are easy to monitor and understand. This helps you to hone in on your target audience, remove underperforming ads and increase circulation on the successful ones, and improve the overall success of your marketing campaign.
6. Leverage Knowledgeable Support
Following the best practices for a LinkedIn ad campaign will get you started on your way to a successful ad campaign. However, figuring out the right ad type and format for your message, finding your target audience, and getting your content produced may take more time and energy than you have to spare. To be truly successful, you need to understand the nuances of each type of ad and which format is best suited for your audience or objective.
Want to start a LinkedIn ad campaign but aren't sure you have the experience or know-how to reach your goals through the platform? Allow Cleverly’s expert team of marketers to take care of all the details — including targeting, creative, and bidding to maximize conversions and cost-effectiveness.
