LinkedIn advertising can be a valuable way to promote your business. LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network, with more than 500 million members in over 200 countries and territories. It’s also one of the most powerful social networks for B2B marketing.
LinkedIn has become the go-to platform for marketers looking to find new leads and drive sales through targeting specific organizations or job titles.
LinkedIn ads are text-based, meaning you can’t include images. But this means you have unlimited space to tell your story and highlight your products or services. This guide will teach you everything you need to know about LinkedIn advertising, including how it works (and how to set up your first ad), why it matters, and how to build a winning campaign that really works for your business.
What is LinkedIn Advertising?
LinkedIn advertising is a way to promote your business on the LinkedIn platform, by paying to have your ads shown to people who are most likely interested in your products or services.
LinkedIn ads are different from other social media posts because you can’t include images. This means you have more space for text and can highlight your products or services.
In order to create a successful LinkedIn ad campaign, you need to consider the goal of the campaign, what your audience looks like, and how you’ll measure success. You’ll also want to make sure that your ad is compelling enough that people will stop scrolling past it.
LinkedIn advertising is an excellent way to reach organizations and job titles as well as individuals with a connection to those groups. This makes it a great tool for B2B marketing!
Here’s how it works:
- Companies set up an account with LinkedIn by creating a profile and filling out their company information
- They then choose which type of ad they want to create—text-based ads or image ads
- Text-based ads offer more space for writing about their company and highlighting their products or services than image ads do
Why LinkedIn Advertising Is Worth It
LinkedIn advertising can be a valuable tool for your business. LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network, with more than 500 million members in over 200 countries and territories. It’s also one of the most powerful social networks for B2B marketing.
By investing in LinkedIn ads, you can help your business grow by reaching out to new leads or driving sales through targeting specific organizations or job titles.
LinkedIn ads are text-based, meaning you can’t include images. But this means you have unlimited space to tell your story and highlight your products or services. This guide will teach you everything you need to know about LinkedIn advertising, including how it works (and how to set up your first ad), why it matters, and how to build a winning campaign that really works for your business.
How LinkedIn Advertising Works
LinkedIn advertising is a form of online advertising that allows you to promote your business through targeted ads on LinkedIn’s website and in its mobile app.
LinkedIn ads are text-based, meaning you can’t include images. But this means you have unlimited space to tell your story and highlight your products or services.
You’ll need to set up an account with LinkedIn, but when you do, there’ll be two main ways you can advertise:
1) Targeted ad campaigns
2) Sponsored updates
Targeted ad campaigns allow you to create ads that target specific audiences with the goal of driving traffic to your website or landing page. You can define custom audiences based on demographics, skills, education, company size, and more. This is the best option if your ultimate goal is to drive traffic to your site.
Setting Up Your First Campaign
The first step to setting up your LinkedIn ad is telling LinkedIn who you are and what you do. You’ll enter your company’s name, industry, and logo to get started.
LinkedIn will immediately generate a handful of headline ideas for you based on your input. These headlines are pulled from the content in your profile so they should be unique and interesting.
You can also add a short message about what makes your company different or what products or services it offers. This message will show up below the headline when people visit your page.
If you want to add more information like a photo or video, simply upload that file into the text field provided.
Choose your campaign type
When you create a LinkedIn ad, you can choose from four different campaign types:
1. Sponsored Content – your ad will show up in the right column of LinkedIn pages and look just like other posts on the network.
2. Sponsored InMail – you’ll reach your desired audience by sending them an InMail message, which is similar to a LinkedIn message but with a higher level of engagement and better click-through rates than email marketing.
3. Sponsored Updates – these updates will appear in members’ newsfeeds, making it easier to get your message across to more people at once
4. LinkedIn Lead Gen Ads – these ads are specifically designed for lead generation, meaning you pay when someone clicks or views your ad
Create a Target Audience
Whatever your marketing goals are, LinkedIn advertising helps you get there by targeting the right people.
LinkedIn allows you to choose your target audience based on job title, company, industry, and more. This helps you find potential customers who match the needs of your business. Whether you want to reach thousands of CEOs or just one CEO at a time, LinkedIn advertising makes it possible for you to customize your message and connect with the right leads.
For example, if you’re looking for new leads in the finance industry but don’t know where to start, start by selecting “Finance” under “Industry.” You’ll then be able to select other criteria like “Company Size.” If you want to reach 500+ person companies in the finance industry, simply click “500+ employees.”
Choose your budget and schedule
LinkedIn advertising is a cost-effective way to promote your business. You can select from a range of budgets and time schedules, depending on your needs. First, set a budget by choosing the daily budget amount, campaign duration, and how many people you want to reach. Next, choose a start and end date for your campaign.
Keep in mind that LinkedIn advertising has competitive pricing options for budget sizes of $2 per day all the way up to $2 million per day.
Now it’s time to create an ad that will resonate with your audience! You can use two types of ads: ads that appear as sponsored content (text only) or as banner ads (text and images). Let’s walk through both types below:
Set up conversion tracking
One of the first steps you’ll want to take is to set up conversion tracking.
Conversion tracking lets you see how well your ads are performing. The main goal for any ad campaign is to generate conversions—i.e., leads, signups, purchases, etc.—so it’s important that you know how many people are converting as a result of your LinkedIn ads.
See: LinkedIn Marketing: Everything You Need To Know
To set up conversion tracking, head over to the lead generation tool and click “set up conversion tracking.” Follow the three steps listed on this page, and make sure to enter your cost-per-acquisition (CPA) goal if you have one.
Once you’ve completed these steps, a “conversions” section will appear in your lead generation tool dashboard. This section includes information about how many leads have been generated from each ad campaign as well as the number of conversions from those leads.
Advanced Strategies to Improve Your Campaigns.
LinkedIn is a powerful network for B2B marketers. But it can be difficult to find success if you’re not sure what you’re doing.
Here are some advanced strategies to improve your campaigns.
Targeting LinkedIn Ads
The best way to reach business professionals on LinkedIn is with an ad that targets them specifically. This is the only way to ensure that they’ll see your message when they’re scrolling through their feed. One of the best ways to create a targeted ad is by narrowing down the job title you want to reach. For example, if you are a company that sells accounting software, targeting “accountant” will help drive traffic to your page and increase your chances of conversion.
You can also target keywords within specific industries in order for LinkedIn’s algorithm to know who should see your ad based on their job function, interests, and skillset. This feature also allows you to exclude certain keywords or industries so that people who don’t fit your target audience won’t see your ads.
Addressing Concerns People Have When They See Your Ad
The most common concern people have when they see an advertisement on LinkedIn is whether or not the company has been endorsed by someone they trust and admire. You can address this concern by including
Optimizing Your Campaign for a Winning Campaign
In order to have a successful ad campaign, you need to optimize your message. This includes tweaking your design, copy, and targeting.
Your design is the most important aspect of your ad. You want it to stand out from the other ads on LinkedIn and really grab your audience’s attention. Make sure that your design includes keywords for which you’re targeting so that it will be easy for people looking for those products or services to find you.
With regard to copy, keep it simple and concise. The first sentence should be the main point about the product or service mentioned in the ad—this should be eye catching! Your second sentence should briefly mention what the company does, but don’t go into too much detail at this stage.
See: Facebook Marketplace Ads – Ad on Facebook Marketplace
Keep in mind that people are scrolling through their feed quickly, so they want information fast! Include one CTA (call to action) about why someone should click on your ad instead of just scrolling past it.