Yes, you can promote videos on LinkedIn to increase their reach and engagement. LinkedIn provides several options for promoting video content to your target audience. Videos can be a highly effective type of content on LinkedIn that helps showcase your brand, engage your audience, and drive more views and traffic.
There are a few key ways to promote videos on LinkedIn:
- Publish the video natively on LinkedIn’s platform either through LinkedIn video or by uploading it directly in a LinkedIn post. This allows the video to show up directly in the LinkedIn feed and leverages LinkedIn’s algorithm to show it to more of your audience organically.
- Sponsor the video as a Sponsored Content ad. This is LinkedIn’s advertising platform that allows you to pay to boost the reach and visibility of a specific piece of content.
- Share the video in LinkedIn Groups related to your target audience. Engaging in group discussions and posting relevant video content is a great way to connect with an interested audience.
- Include links to the video in other pieces of content and communications like articles, newsletters, and email signatures.
When posting a video natively on LinkedIn, you want to utilize best practices for video content to make it as engaging and shareable as possible. This includes:
- Having a compelling title and description that makes it clear what the video is about.
- Adding relevant hashtags to help surface it to your target audience.
- Captioning the video so it can be understood without sound.
- Using eye-catching preview images to capture attention.
Sponsored video ads enable more control over who sees your video content. You can target specific demographics, job titles, companies, and more to ensure your video gets in front of relevant audiences. Some benefits of sponsoring a video campaign on LinkedIn include:
- Increased views – You can pay to drive more views of your video content.
- Expanded reach – Get your video in front of a larger, more targeted segment of your audience.
- Awareness and engagement – Promoted videos drive greater awareness about your brand while encouraging engagement.
- Lead generation – Add a call-to-action like “Download Now” to capture leads from interested viewers.
When running a LinkedIn sponsored video campaign, you want to optimize it for objectives like video views, clicks, or lead generation. You can analyze performance data to see what messaging, targeting, and creative performs best.
Overall, videos represent an impactful content medium on LinkedIn that helps demonstrate expertise, engage your audience, and move prospects through the sales funnel. By proactively promoting videos through organic posting, social groups, inclusive content, and paid advertising, you can maximize the value of your video content.
Best Practices for Promoting Videos on LinkedIn
Here are some top tips and best practices for effectively promoting videos on LinkedIn:
- Optimize video for LinkedIn’s platform – Keep videos short (under 5 minutes), post natively using LinkedIn video, and add captions.
- Leverage your existing audience – Share new videos with your current followers to capitalize on your established audience.
- Use compelling visuals – Create custom preview thumbnails that capture attention and convey what the video is about.
- Align videos to audience interests – Understand your audience’s challenges and needs, and create videos that provide solutions.
- Promote videos across channels – Share video content on additional platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and your own website.
- Make videos discoverable – Include relevant keywords, hashtags, and descriptive titles so your videos surface in searches.
- Publish consistently – Post new videos on a consistent basis to stay top of mind with your audience.
- Retarget engaged viewers – Remarket your videos to people who have previously viewed or engaged with your content.
- Collaborate with influencers – Partner with relevant influencers to help promote your videos to new audiences.
- Advertise video content – Use LinkedIn’s promotional tools like Sponsored Content and Sponsored InMail.
The most effective video promotions on LinkedIn combine organic and paid distribution strategies. Focus on crafting high-quality, valuable videos tailored specifically for LinkedIn’s professional audience. Then ensure those videos are made discoverable through keywords, descriptions, and visuals.
Types of Videos that Perform Well on LinkedIn
Certain types of videos tend to resonate especially well with LinkedIn’s audience of professionals. Some top-performing video styles include:
- Expert interviews – Sit-down talks with industry experts that provide valuable insights and perspectives.
- “Listicle” videos – Videos that provide lists or step-by-step explanations of topics.
- Case studies – Showcasing customer success stories related to your product or service.
- Demo videos – Walkthroughs of how to use a particular product, tool, or service.
- Live events – Recordings of conferences, webinars, and other events.
- Video posts – Authentic videos directly addressing your audience about relevant topics.
Videos that teach and inform tend to stand out on LinkedIn. Stats, data, tips, and tactical advice also perform well when presented clearly through video.
Shorter videos are ideal, especially if you can break up longer recordings into multiple short segments. Treat video content as an opportunity to provide valuable education and demonstrate thought leadership in your industry.
Avoid overly promotional videos that seem more like advertisements. Content that feels like an authentic, organic tutorial or discussion will drive more genuine interest. Think about how to address pain points and unanswered questions your audience cares about through video.
LinkedIn’s Built-In Video Tools
LinkedIn provides a few built-in tools to make it easier to share and distribute videos effectively:
- LinkedIn Video – You can natively upload and share videos up to 10 minutes direct to LinkedIn instead of linking out to external sites.
- Live Streaming – Go live or share pre-recorded videos using LinkedIn’s live streaming capabilities.
- Sponsored Content – Pay to promote video and other content to your target audience as Sponsored Content.
With LinkedIn Video, you can directly upload mp4 files up to 5 GB in size and 10 minutes in length. This provides a built-in video player right within the LinkedIn feed for a more engaging viewing experience.
LinkedIn Live allows you to stream video broadcasts to followers in real-time. You can also share replays of Live videos to continue reaching audiences long after a live event ends.
Sponsored Content is LinkedIn’s flagship advertising tool that lets you pay to boost the visibility of posts. By sponsoring video posts, you can ensure wider reach and viewership across LinkedIn.
These tools make it simple to not just post video natively on LinkedIn but optimize distribution too. Focus on repurposing existing high-quality video content through these built-in LinkedIn products to maximize promotional opportunities.
When to Promote Videos on LinkedIn
Certain times and situations provide ideal opportunities to promote videos for maximum impact:
- When launching new products or services
- Around major industry events, conferences, and speaking engagements
- During awareness months or days related to your industry
- When releasing reports, data, or news related to your expertise
- For branded holidays, like anniversaries and occasions that tie back to your company
- To highlight customer success stories and case studies
- To accompany blogs and other content used for lead generation
- When moving prospects through a conversion funnel
- To educate audiences during trends and viral conversations
- To position executives and thought leaders as industry experts
Promoting videos aligned to specific initiatives, events, and company milestones can significantly boost engagement. Time video content around existing marketing calendars, outreach efforts, and moments that resonate with your target audience.
Videos allow you to increase awareness and shape brand perception during key moments when audiences are most receptive. Plot relevant video content on editorial calendars and promote accordingly to take advantage of those opportunities.
Metrics to Track
To assess the performance of your video promotion efforts on LinkedIn, keep track of these key metrics:
- Impressions – how many times your videos were seen
- Reach – the total number of unique accounts that saw your video
- Views – how many times your videos were opened and watched
- View rate – views divided by impressions (i.e. what % of impressions turned into views)
- Engagement rate – how much engagement videos received through likes, comments, clicks, shares, etc.
- Video completions – what % of started video views were watched to the very end
For sponsored video content, also monitor:
- Cost Per View (CPV) – how much you pay on average for each video view
- Conversion rate – the % of viewers taking a desired action like downloading content or filling out a form
Analyze this data over time to see how your video strategy is performing. Try testing different video styles, lengths, thumbnail images, captions, and calls-to-action to see what content resonates best with your audience.
The highest performing videos can then be repurposed into future content and promoted through both free distribution and paid advertising.
Video Marketing Case Studies
Here are some examples of brands seeing success with video marketing on LinkedIn:
Dell
Dell created an animated video series called “Tech Reached” explaining technology concepts through pop culture metaphors. Short, entertaining videos like “Cloud Computing Explained by Using Geese” went viral. Dell generated over 4.5 million video views in just a few months.
GE
GE promoted videos of real employees talking about their work to highlight GE’s mission and culture. Videos like “Meet the Man Behind the Music at GE” drove up to half a million views each. The campaign reached 60% of GE’s target audience.
Google Cloud
Google Cloud sponsors video ads on LinkedIn around topics like security, analytics, and infrastructure. Videos auto-play in feeds with CTAs to learn more. Google Cloud drove over 8X more leads at 33% lower CPL from LinkedIn video ads.
Salesforce
Salesforce created a video campaign targeting IT decision makers with a series of short, animated videos. The #1 B2B software vendor generated over 30 million impressions and nearly 300,000 clicks. Their video view rate was 89% higher than the LinkedIn benchmark.
Oracle
Oracle promoted video content integrated into long-form blog posts on LinkedIn. Adding videos to blogs led to a 55% boost in click-through rates. Oracle’s videos also had view rates exceeding 90% on LinkedIn.
Conclusion
Promoting video content on LinkedIn can significantly expand your reach, increase engagement, and drive measurable business results. The platform makes it simple to share videos natively as organic or sponsored posts. Align video content to your audience’s interests around topics like thought leadership, product tutorials, and company culture. Track performance using key metrics like views, completion rate, and conversion rate. Videos that provide value and insight to LinkedIn’s professional audience offer an impactful way to achieve marketing objectives. With the right video strategy, you can build relationships with your community and promote your brand effectively on LinkedIn.
Video type | Examples | Benefits |
---|---|---|
Expert interviews | Q&A’s, fireside chats | Thought leadership, authority |
Product demos | Software, app walkthroughs | Educate, highlight capabilities |
Brand stories | Company history, values | Humanize, make emotional connections |
Customer testimonials | Client success stories | Build trust, social proof |
Key Takeaways
- Post videos natively using LinkedIn’s tools like Video and Live.
- Sponsor video content to reach wider audiences.
- Match video topics to audience interests and pain points.
- Leverage organic and paid distribution for maximum impact.
- Track engagement metrics to understand performance.