Do I need a LinkedIn business page to run ads?

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 722 million users worldwide. It’s a great platform for establishing your professional brand, connecting with other professionals, finding jobs, promoting your business and running ads.

One of the key things you can do on LinkedIn is create business pages to represent your company or organization. Business pages allow you to showcase your products/services, company info and job openings to the LinkedIn community.

Many businesses are interested in running ads on LinkedIn to reach their target audience. This raises the question – do you need a LinkedIn business page to run LinkedIn ads? Or can you create and run ads directly as an individual user?

Can individuals run LinkedIn ads?

The short answer is yes, you can run LinkedIn ads as an individual user without a business page. However, there are some limitations versus having a business page:

– As an individual, you can only promote your personal brand, services offered by you, or content you have created. You cannot promote a business or commercial products/services.

– Your targeting options are more limited compared to having a business page. For example, you can’t target by company name, industry, job title etc.

– Your ads may be perceived as less professional or authoritative since they are not tied to an official business.

– You miss out on the benefits of a business page for brand building and connecting with your target audience.

So in summary, individuals are able to run LinkedIn ads pointing to their personal profile, services or content. But to advertise a business, commercial products/services or leverage advanced targeting options, you need a LinkedIn business page.

Benefits of having a LinkedIn business page

Here are some of the key benefits of having a LinkedIn business page for running ads:

– You can promote your business, commercial products/services, job openings and website/blog content.

– Access to more precise targeting options e.g company, job title, industry, interests, etc. This allows you to really hone in on your ideal customers.

– Business pages develop authority and trust for your brand on LinkedIn. Your ads will perform better when tied to an established business profile.

– Visitors can easily follow your page to stay up to date with your new products, content and job postings. This builds valuable followers.

– Advanced analytics provide insights into your audience and engagement with your ads and content.

– You can integrate with tools like Google Analytics for tracking website conversions.

– Employees can publish posts and engage with followers to extend your reach.

– Showcase important info like company description, mission, contact details, jobs and Career Pages.

How to create a LinkedIn business page

Creating a business page is simple and free. Here are the steps:

1. Go to your LinkedIn profile and click on “Work” in the top menu bar.

2. Click on “Create a Company Page” – It should be on the right side of your screen.

3. Choose to create a new page from scratch or convert your existing Showcase Page.

4. Select your company name. LinkedIn will check to see if a page already exists for your company.

5. Choose a page category e.g Software Company, Marketing Agency, Retailer.

6. Upload a cover image and logo that represent your brand.

7. Write an overview showcasing what your company does. Include details like founding year, location, size, mission, etc.

8. Click publish and your page will be live! You can now start posting content and inviting followers.

It’s that easy. Once your page is up, you can run promoted posts and Sponsored InMail campaigns directly from the page. For more sophisticated ads like Sponsored Content and dynamic ads, you’ll need to associate your page with a Campaign Manager account.

How to link your business page to Campaign Manager

To run the full suite of LinkedIn ads and access powerful targeting features, you need to connect your business page to a Campaign Manager account. Here’s how to do it:

1. Go to the Campaign Manager homepage and click Create Account. Choose Business Account and fill in your details.

2. Under account assets, click on Pages and select to associate your existing business page.

3. Search for your page name and click connect. Your page is now linked to your Campaign Manager account!

4. Under account assets, add your ad accounts, payment method, pixel and other assets.

5. You can now create ad campaigns with precise targeting and advanced functionality like dynamic ads.

With Campaign Manager, you have access to powerful analytics and optimization capabilities to get the most out of your ad spend. And your ads will perform better when targeted through an established business page.

Tips for optimizing your LinkedIn business page

Here are some tips to optimize your LinkedIn business page to support your advertising efforts:

– Craft an appealing, optimized page title and description – this is displayed in ads.

– Ensure your page is completely filled out including overview, contact info, logo, cover image, employee info etc.

– Use relevant keywords in your page content but avoid keyword stuffing.

– Add a call-to-action button to drive visitors to take action.

– Publish regular updates including articles, images, videos and thought leadership content.

– Engage followers by responding to comments, questions and messages.

– Run periodic polls and questions to generate engagement.

– Share content published by others to extend your reach.

– Promote your page proactively by sharing the URL on other channels.

– Analyze follower demographics and interests to inform your content strategy and ad targeting.

– Install the LinkedIn pixel to enable retargeting of visitors to your page.

By investing in your business page, your ads will perform better thanks to increased authority, relevance and engagement.

Conclusion

While individuals can run some limited LinkedIn ads, to fully unlock its advertising potential you need a LinkedIn business page. Business pages allow you to promote commercial products/services, access precise targeting options and establish your brand’s presence on LinkedIn.

Be sure to optimize your page completely with engaging content, employee profiles and messaging to develop connections with your LinkedIn audience. Integrate your page with Campaign Manager to run sophisticated ads and retarget visitors.

With a complete and optimized LinkedIn business page as your foundation, you can run highly effective ad campaigns to reach your ideal customers and climb to success.