Does LinkedIn ads have Lookalike Audiences?

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 690 million users worldwide. As one of the major social media platforms, LinkedIn offers a powerful advertising solution called LinkedIn Campaign Manager that enables businesses to reach their target B2B and B2C audiences.

One of the key targeting options offered by LinkedIn Campaign Manager is Lookalike Audiences. Lookalike Audiences allow advertisers to reach new users who are similar to their existing customers. This helps expand campaign reach and find new prospects that are more likely to convert.

So in short, the answer is yes, LinkedIn advertising does offer Lookalike Audiences as an targeting option. In this article, we’ll take a deeper look at how LinkedIn Lookalike Audiences work and their benefits for advertisers.

What are LinkedIn Lookalike Audiences?

LinkedIn Lookalike Audiences use your existing customer lists and target similar users on LinkedIn based on attributes like demographics, interests, skills, education and more.

When you create a Lookalike Audience in LinkedIn Campaign Manager, you select a source audience, which is a customer list you upload. LinkedIn then analyzes this source list to identify common traits and patterns. It then finds a larger number of new users on LinkedIn who share similar attributes to your source list.

For example, if your source audience is made up of software engineers at tech companies, LinkedIn would find other members on LinkedIn who have similar profiles to become your Lookalike Audience. This gives you a new audience of prospects that resemble your existing customers.

How LinkedIn Lookalike Audiences Work

Here are the key steps for creating Lookalike Audiences on LinkedIn:

1. Upload your customer list – This is your source audience. You can upload a list of email addresses or LinkedIn IDs. The source list must have at least 300 members.
2. Select your audience size – You can choose 1x, 3x, 5x or 10x the size of your source list. The larger the size, the more broadly matched the audience.
3. Adjust targeting settings – You can narrow targeting by location, industry, job role, gender, age and more.
4. Review audience – LinkedIn provides details on the top traits of your Lookalike Audience.
5. Launch ads – Add the Lookalike Audience to new or existing ad campaigns.
6. Optimize over time – Measure performance and tweak targeting for better results.

Benefits of LinkedIn Lookalike Audiences

Here are some of the key benefits of using Lookalike Audiences for LinkedIn ads:

Find New Prospects

The main advantage of Lookalikes is they help you easily scale your campaigns by identifying new prospects that resemble your current customers. This allows you to expand your reach.

Improved Conversion Rates

Since Lookalike Audiences are more precisely targeted, they typically convert better than broad targeting options. You’re reaching users more likely to be interested in your products or services.

Cost Effective

Lookalikes have the advantage of being pre-qualified audiences. You don’t have to spend lots of time and money testing and researching new target segments. LinkedIn does the heavy lifting for you.

Flexibility

You’re not limited to using just one source audience. You can create multiple Lookalike Audiences from different customer lists to test new prospect pools.

Expanded Insights

Analyzing the traits of your Lookalike Audience provides valuable insights into your ideal customers. You can leverage these learnings to further optimize your targeting and creative.

Use Cases for LinkedIn Lookalike Audiences

Here are some examples of effective ways businesses can use LinkedIn Lookalike Audiences:

Increase Event or Webinar Registrations

Create a Lookalike Audience based on past event attendees to find more people like them to promote your next event to.

Boost Lead Generation

Turn high-quality leads into a Lookalike Audience to get in front of more prospects that are primed to convert.

Accelerate Deal Pipeline

Build an audience matched to your current customers to quickly expand your pipeline and shorten sales cycles.

Drive Upsells/Cross-sells

Engage existing customers with new offerings by creating Lookalikes from your VIP buyers or subscribers list.

Enter New Markets

Use a geographic filter to find Lookalikes from your brand advocates in a new region you want to expand into.

Lookalike Audience Limitations

While Lookalike Audiences are very useful, there are some limitations to be aware of:

Overlap with Customers

There may be some overlap between your Lookalike Audience and source list. LinkedIn tries to minimize this, but some overlap can happen.

Audience Size Limits

The maximum Lookalike Audience size is 300,000 members. Very large source lists may hit this limit.

Data Dependence

The quality of the Lookalike Audience depends on the source data. Incomplete or outdated source lists will result in poor Lookalikes.

Less Control

You don’t choose the exact members of the audience like you can with list uploads. LinkedIn algorithms determine the Lookalike matching.

Audience Expansion

As your Lookalike Audience gets broader, the targeting precision may become less stringent. Monitor performance closely.

Lookalike Audience Best Practices

Here are some tips to get the most out of LinkedIn Lookalike Audiences:

• Test Lookalikes against other audiences – Compare them to interests, job-based or uploaded contact targeting.
• Experiment with different source lists – Trying different bases like leads, accounts, or subscribers.
• Customize your audience size – Larger isn’t always better. Find the right expansion amount.
• Frequently update your source lists – Keep them recent to improve matching.
• Layer on additional targeting – Add job titles, company sizes, etc to refine your Lookalikes.
• Monitor performance – Check conversion rates to see if your Lookalikes are truly effective.

FAQs

Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about LinkedIn Lookalike Audiences:

How large can my Lookalike Audience be?

The maximum size for a LinkedIn Lookalike Audience is 300,000 members. You select the desired size as a factor of your source audience size (1x, 3x, 5x, 10x).

Can I create multiple Lookalike Audiences?

Yes, you can create different Lookalike Audiences from different source lists. This allows you to test multiple prospect audiences.

What data does LinkedIn use for lookalike modeling?

LinkedIn analyzes member attributes like job title, industry, skills, education, location and interests to find lookalike users.

How often should I update my source audience?

Ideally, you should update your source list every 1-3 months to ensure accuracy and relevance of the resulting Lookalike Audience.

How long does it take to create a Lookalike Audience?

After uploading your source list, LinkedIn typically creates the Lookalike Audience within 24-48 hours. Then you can immediately use it for ad targeting.

Conclusion

In summary, LinkedIn Lookalike Audiences provide an efficient way to reach new prospects that resemble your current best customers. They can help expand your campaign reach and improve conversion rates.

However, Lookalikes do have some limitations around audience control and overlap. Following best practices around source list quality, audience refinement and performance monitoring will ensure you maximize the impact of your LinkedIn Lookalike Audiences.

When used strategically, Lookalikes offer a scalable targeting option for B2B marketers and advertisers on LinkedIn looking to drive new pipeline and accelerate growth.