LinkedIn offers several options for targeting specific users with your content and ads. Here’s an overview of how to reach your ideal audience on LinkedIn:
Targeting Options for Organic Content
When posting organic content like articles, images, or videos on LinkedIn, you have a few options for targeting specific groups:
- Share content to your connections only
- Post content to your Company Page to reach followers
- Publish long-form posts to LinkedIn’s publishing platform to reach a broader audience interested in your industry/topics
- Join or start LinkedIn Groups related to your target audience
- Engage with content from other accounts your ideal customers follow
While you can’t specify the exact individuals who will see your organic posts, you can increase the likelihood that your content will reach the right people by being strategic with posting and engaging in relevant groups/with relevant accounts.
Targeting Options for LinkedIn Ads
LinkedIn’s advertising platform offers more advanced targeting capabilities to ensure your ads are shown to your ideal customers. Here are some of the main ways to target your ads:
1. Demographic Targeting
You can target LinkedIn ads based on user demographics like:
- Job title
- Job function
- Industry
- Company
- Company size
- Age
- Gender
- Location
For example, you could create an ad campaign that only reaches Marketing Managers at retail companies with 500-1000 employees, located in Southern California.
2. Interest/Behavior Targeting
Beyond demographics, you can also target LinkedIn ads by member interests and behaviors, such as:
- Groups they have joined
- Pages they have liked or followed
- Content topics they engage with
- Types of content they view (images, videos, etc)
- What they share and comment on
This allows you to reach audiences based on professional interests relevant to your product/service.
3. Connections Targeting
You can also target ads to 2nd- and 3rd-degree connections of specific LinkedIn accounts. For example, you could target ads to 2nd-degree connections of your company’s employees, reaching users who are connected to those who work at your company already.
4. Lead Gen Forms
LinkedIn now allows creation of customized Lead Gen forms for your ads. You can target these ads with the above options, then collect lead information from interested users. This is helpful for pinpointed outreach.
5. Website Retargeting
If users have visited your website, LinkedIn allows retargeting those visitors with ads based on pages they viewed and content they engaged with. This brings relevant users back to your site.
Targeting Individual LinkedIn Users
While LinkedIn’s ad platform offers precise targeting, can you target ads/content to specific individual users? There are a few ways to do so:
1. Connect with the user:
Once connected on LinkedIn, you can directly share content and messages with that user.
2. Share content to your connections:
When posting organically, choose the option to share only with your 1st-degree connections, which includes that specific user.
3. Mention the user in posts:
If you mention a user in a post or comment, it may show up in their notifications/feed.
4. Target by Company:
Create an ad targeted to people who work at that user’s company.
5. Retarget Website Visitors:
If they visited your site, you can retarget them based on that behavior.
6. Target by Group Membership:
If you know groups they have joined, target those groups.
7. Target by Shared Connections:
Target 2nd-degree connections of employees or others connected to the user.
Limitations on Targeting Individuals
While the above methods allow some individual targeting, LinkedIn does place certain limitations, including:
- Cannot target ads to 1st-degree connections only
- No option to input specific user profiles/IDs as a targeting factor
- Restrictions may apply when repeatedly targeting the same user
These limitations prevent harassment and over-targeting. Keep them in mind when strategizing your LinkedIn ad campaigns.
Optimizing Targeting for LinkedIn Ads
Here are some best practices for optimizing your targeting to reach the right people with LinkedIn ads:
- Leverage LinkedIn’s detailed targeting options for demographics, interests, and behaviors.
- Test multiple types of targeting to determine what works best.
- Analyze your current followers and engagement to inform targeting.
- Refine based on performance data – double down on what works.
- Expand your target audience slowly for a bigger reach.
- Target loosely at first, then narrow based on results.
With smart targeting and testing, you can achieve strong results from LinkedIn ad campaigns and organic content distribution.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I target individual people with LinkedIn ads?
There is no way to directly input specific LinkedIn users’ profile IDs as a targeting option for ads. However, you can target ads to reach specific individuals indirectly through options like shared connections, company, groups, and website retargeting.
Is it possible to send a LinkedIn message to someone who isn’t a 1st degree connection?
No, on LinkedIn you can only directly message users who are 1st degree connections. To message new potential connections, you first need to send them an invite to connect.
What are the limits on targeting LinkedIn ads?
LinkedIn does impose limits including: not allowing 1st degree connections only for ads, restricting repetitive targeting of individuals, requiring minimum target audience sizes, and not allowing uploads of specific contact lists. This helps protect user experience.
What are some LinkedIn targeting best practices?
Best practices include: leveraging LinkedIn’s detailed targeting options for demographics, interests, and behavior; starting with broader targeting then narrowing based on performance data; testing multiple target “personas”; and optimizing for conversions on your business objectives.
Is it possible to reuse audiences when setting up multiple LinkedIn ad campaigns?
Yes, LinkedIn makes it easy to save and reuse custom audience segments across multiple ad campaigns. You can build an audience once based on your targeting parameters, then simply select it for any new campaigns.
Conclusion
In summary, while LinkedIn does not allow directly targeting ads or organic posts to individuals by profile ID, marketers have many powerful options for targeting by demographics, interests, behaviors, connections, retargeting, groups, companies, and more. With smart targeting and testing, LinkedIn enables brands to engage their ideal audiences and drive results. But marketers should also follow LinkedIn’s limits on over-targeting individuals.