LinkedIn ads can be an effective way for businesses to reach their target audience and generate leads. With over 810 million members worldwide, LinkedIn provides access to a massive professional network. LinkedIn advertising allows businesses to segment their target audience based on factors like job title, industry, skills, company size, and more. This level of targeting makes LinkedIn ads highly relevant to users, which can improve click-through rates and conversion rates compared to more generalized advertising platforms. However, to see success with LinkedIn ads, businesses need to understand how to best utilize the platform and create effective ads tailored to their goals. In this article, we’ll examine if LinkedIn ads work well, their advantages and disadvantages, types of LinkedIn ads, best practices, and more.
The advantages of LinkedIn ads
There are several key advantages that LinkedIn advertising provides compared to other platforms:
– Highly targeted audience segmentation: As mentioned, LinkedIn has over 810 million users and a wealth of member data that allows for precise targeting based on professional details. This helps ads reach the most relevant audiences.
– Engaged user base: LinkedIn members are there to network, look for jobs, promote their businesses, and more. This means they are primed to engage with thought leadership content and ads that align with their interests.
– Trusted platform for B2B marketing: Over 90 million senior-level influencers and 63 million decision-makers are on LinkedIn. This makes it a trusted platform for reaching executive-level and business-focused audiences.
– Flexible ad formats: LinkedIn offers Sponsored Content, Sponsored InMail, Dynamic Ads, Message Ads, Conversation Ads, and more. This selection allows businesses to choose the right ad format for their goals.
– Detailed targeting analytics: LinkedIn Campaign Manager provides robust analytics on ad performance, including demographics, engagement, clicks, conversions, return on ad spend, and more. This makes it easier to optimize ads over time.
– Retargeting capabilities: Just as with platforms like Facebook and Google Ads, LinkedIn allows advertisers to create target audiences and retarget ads to people who have already engaged with their brand. This can help improve conversion rates.
The disadvantages of LinkedIn ads
However, there are some potential drawbacks to weigh as well when considering LinkedIn ads:
– Smaller audience size: While LinkedIn’s audience is engaged and targeted, its user base is still significantly smaller than Facebook or Google’s networks. This can limit reach potential.
– Higher cost per click (CPC): Strong targeting capabilities come at a cost. LinkedIn ads tend to have a higher CPC than other platforms, which can make it more expensive to generate large volumes of clicks.
– Limitations on audience data: While targeting options are robust, LinkedIn does not provide the same depth of audience data and segmentation as Facebook. This reduces optimization capabilities.
– Steep learning curve: LinkedIn Campaign Manager has a less intuitive interface compared to platforms like Google Ads or Facebook Ads Manager. There is more of a learning curve to master it.
– Content dominance: The highly professional nature of LinkedIn means educational, thought leadership style content performs far better than promotional “hard sell” ads. This requires a content-focused strategy.
– Slow approvals for restricted ad formats: If you want to run retargeted ads, dynamic ads, or Sponsored InMail, LinkedIn’s approval process can take several weeks. This limits agility.
While these limitations exist, they can be overcome with testing and optimization. Next we’ll look at the types of LinkedIn ad formats available.
Types of LinkedIn ad formats
LinkedIn offers a variety of ad formats, each suited for different objectives:
Sponsored Content
– Found in the LinkedIn feed, similar to organic posts
– Best for raising brand awareness and driving traffic to your site
– Appear in feed on desktop and mobile
Sponsored InMail
– Direct messages sent to members’ inboxes
– Best for targeted outreach and personalized messaging
– Only appears in inbox on desktop
Dynamic Ads
– Automatically populate with content from company’s website or blog
– Best for retargeting site visitors with relevant content
– Appear in feed on desktop and mobile
Message Ads
– Appear at top of LinkedIn messaging inbox
– Best for starting conversations and engaging users
– Only appear at top of inbox on desktop
Text Ads
– Simple text-based ads with short headline and description
– Best for brand awareness and broad targeting
– Appear on right rail on desktop
Conversation Ads
– Show short conversation between two people below post
– Best for promoting UGC and social proof
– Appear in feed on desktop and mobile
This range of formats allows businesses to utilize the LinkedIn platform in different ways depending on their specific goals and target audience. Next we’ll look at some best practices to optimize LinkedIn ads.
Best practices for optimizing LinkedIn ads
To help LinkedIn ads perform to their full potential, keep these best practices in mind:
– Target based on member data: Leverage audience data like job title, industry, skills, seniority level, and company size for the most relevant targeting.
– Test different ad formats: See which ad formats (Sponsored Content, Dynamic Ads, etc.) perform best for your goals.
– Personalize ad creative: Personalized messages with the member’s name or company can boost engagement.
– Use videos for engagement: Short videos in Sponsored Content see 30% higher click-through rates according to LinkedIn.
– Retarget engaged visitors: Create audiences and target people who have visited key pages on your site.
– Write posts with value-first content: Educational and thought leadership content converts better than promotional ads.
– Monitor performance data: Review analytics frequently and optimize targeting, bids, creatives, landing pages, and more.
– Use A/B testing: Try different versions of ad creative, targeting, etc. to determine what resonates most.
– Follow up on leads quickly: Having an automated lead follow up system helps convert prospects generated from ads.
– Be patient: It takes time to refine an effective LinkedIn ads strategy. Stick with underperforming campaigns for 2-3 weeks before pausing them.
Mastering these best practices takes time, but can have a big impact on return on ad spend. Next we’ll look at real results from LinkedIn ads for different business types.
LinkedIn ad results by industry
Here are examples of LinkedIn advertising results from companies in different industries:
| Industry | Company | Ad Format Used | Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| SaaS | Drift | Sponsored InMail | 18% increase in SQLs |
| Ecommerce | Harry’s | Sponsored Content | 2x higher CTR than other platforms |
| Business Services | Slack | Sponsored Content | 50% lower CPC than other platforms |
| Marketing Agency | InboundJunction | Message Ads | 3x increase in sales meetings booked |
As you can see, LinkedIn ads have the potential to drive strong results for lead generation, traffic, and engagement across various industries. But success requires using the right formats and approaches tailored to each business’s audience and goals.
Should you use LinkedIn ads?
Based on the advantages, disadvantages, ad formats, and results discussed above, here are some guidelines for when LinkedIn ads are most appropriate:
Best for B2B lead generation – The rich professional data makes LinkedIn ideal for targeting decision-makers, influencers, and potential buyers at companies. LinkedIn ads can be a powerful driver of sales leads.
Best for recruiting and job ads – LinkedIn’s engaged audience actively searching for new job opportunities makes it very effective for recruiting efforts and job listings.
Best for thought leadership content – The audience craves content and insights. So an educational content marketing strategy with LinkedIn ads can raise brand visibility.
Best for targeting senior-level titles – There is no better platform than LinkedIn for reaching c-suite executives, senior VPs, directors, etc. due to the wealth of member employment data.
Not ideal for ecommerce ads – Unless you sell B2B products, more traditional ecommerce ads work better on platforms like Google and Facebook that allow promos, offers, and product ads.
Not ideal for localized targeting – Unlike Google and Facebook, LinkedIn doesn’t allow geographic radius targeting, making it less suitable for location-based conversion objectives.
Not ideal for large budget awareness campaigns – LinkedIn’s smaller audience makes other platforms better suited if your goal is maximum reach and impressions at scale.
As with any platform, there are situations where LinkedIn ads will be effective and also scenarios where other channels may be preferable. Test different approaches to see what achieves your unique business goals.
Optimizing your LinkedIn ads
To optimize LinkedIn ads, focus on:
Performance tracking
– Use LinkedIn’s analytics to evaluate performance and identify opportunities
– Track beyond just clicks and views to understand engagement and conversions
– Add UTM parameters to landing page URLs to track leads from ads in Google Analytics
A/B testing
– Test different versions of creative, targeting, landing pages, etc.
– Only change one variable at a time when testing
– Let tests run for 1-2 weeks before evaluating performance
Audience refinement
– Analyze which audience segments are converting best
– Expand targeting into additional potentially relevant segments
– Exclude segments that aren’t generating conversions
Following up on prospects
– Set up workflows to follow up on leads from ads quickly
– Personalize follow up messaging when possible
– Track conversion rates from prospects contacted
Being patient
– Don’t stop campaigns too quickly – they sometimes take time to optimize
– Let tests run their full duration before evaluating
– Maintain consistent spending levels and don’t pause/start too frequently
Continually optimizing your LinkedIn ads like this can help improve their results over time.
Conclusion
LinkedIn advertising provides a unique opportunity to target professionals and businesses in a specialized B2B environment. With the right execution and optimization strategy tailored to your goals, LinkedIn ads can drive strong ROI through lead generation, recruiting, content engagement, and brand awareness. However, to see success on LinkedIn you need to embrace the platform’s content-first, educational mindset in your approach – traditional direct response tactics will fall flat. While LinkedIn ads come with higher costs and a steeper learning curve, their high level of targeting precision and qualified audience makes it well worth including LinkedIn as part of your overall advertising mix.
