How do I create a lead generation ad on LinkedIn?

LinkedIn ads are a great way to generate leads for your business. With over 722 million users, LinkedIn is the largest professional social network and an ideal platform for B2B lead generation. LinkedIn allows you to target your ads very precisely based on information like job title, company, industry, skills, groups, and more. This results in highly targeted leads interested in your products or services.

One of the best ad formats for lead generation on LinkedIn is the Lead Gen Form ad. This type of ad allows you to collect lead information directly within the ad unit, making it easy to capture and follow up with prospects. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll walk through how to create an effective Lead Gen Form ad campaign on LinkedIn step-by-step.

Step 1: Create Your LinkedIn Lead Gen Form

The first step is to create your Lead Gen Form, which will live inside your LinkedIn ad and allow you to collect lead information from interested prospects. Here’s how to create your form:

1. Go to the “Campaign Manager” section of your LinkedIn ads account.
2. Under the “Assets” tab, click “Forms”.
3. Click the “+ Create Form” button.
4. Choose “Lead Gen Form” as the objective.
5. Give your form a name.
6. Customize your form fields. You can include fields like:
   • First name
   • Last name
   • Email address
   • Company
   • Job title
   • Phone number
7. Specify if fields should be required or optional.
8. Add a privacy policy and customize your call-to-action button.
9. Preview your form and click “Save”.

Your Lead Gen Form is now created and can be used in your LinkedIn ad campaigns. The form should be customized to collect all the lead information you need to qualify and follow up with prospects.

Step 2: Set Up Conversion Tracking

Before running your ads, you need to set up conversion tracking. This allows LinkedIn to report how many leads your ads are generating from form submissions. Here’s how to set it up:

1. Go to the “Tools” section of Campaign Manager.
2. Under “Measurement”, choose “Conversion Tracking”.
3. Click the “+ Add Conversion” button.
4. Select “Lead Gen Forms” as the conversion event.
5. Give the conversion a name like “Lead Gen Form Submission”.
6. The “Value” should be set to 1 for each conversion.
7. Save your conversion tracking.

Now your account is set up to track lead gen form submissions. This will allow you to monitor the number of leads your ads generate and calculate your cost per lead (CPL).

Step 3: Create Your LinkedIn Ad Campaign

With your form created and conversion tracking implemented, it’s time to set up your LinkedIn ad campaign. Here are the steps to create your campaign:

1. Go to the “Campaign Manager” in LinkedIn ads.
2. Click the “+Create campaign” button.
3. Select your objective as “Lead Generation”.
4. Name your campaign.
5. Enter your target URL or select the lead gen form you created.
6. Set your daily budget and duration.
7. Expand targeting to customize your audience:
• Location
• Age
• Gender
• Job title and company
• School
• Interests and Groups
8. Set your bid strategy – “Cost per click” or “Cost per thousand impressions”.
9. Enter your max bid.
10. Select the placement type, either “Feed” or “Right column”.
11. Review targeting suggestions from LinkedIn.
12. Create your ad creative with compelling text, images, etc.
13. Click launch campaign.

After following these steps, your lead gen ad campaign will be live on LinkedIn. Be sure to monitor performance and optimize the campaign as needed.

Step 4: Monitor and Optimize Your Campaign

Once your campaign is running, you’ll want to closely monitor performance and continuously optimize. Here are some tips:

• Check your cost per lead (CPL) and aim to reduce it over time.
• Review your form submission conversion rate – look to improve quality of traffic.
• Analyze results by audience segments to find your best prospects.
• Refine your targeting to increase relevance.
• A/B test different creative and ad variations.
• Monitor leads by quality and follow up promptly.
• Watch impression share and outrank share to find missed opportunities.

Continuously optimizing your targeting, bids, creative, landing pages, and more will help improve your LinkedIn lead gen results over time.

Best Practices for LinkedIn Lead Gen Ads

To maximize the quality and quantity of leads from LinkedIn, keep these best practices in mind:

• Target a narrow, specific audience for the best relevance.
• Highlight benefits specific to your target audience in ad copy.
• Use strong, attention-grabbing visuals in your ads.
• Personalize your ad creative dynamically to improve CTR.
• Make your Lead Gen Form short with only essential fields.
• Test different headlines, images, copy, and placements.
• Ensure high-quality landing page experience post-submission.
• Nurture and follow-up with leads quickly when they’re hottest.
• Monitor Lead Quality Score and optimize when needed.

Example LinkedIn Lead Gen Form Ad

Here is an example of what a performant Lead Gen Form ad could look like on LinkedIn:

This ad uses dynamic personalized headlines, compelling imagery relevant to the target audience, urgently focused copy, and clear call-to-actions to drive high-quality leads.

Conclusion

Setting up an effective LinkedIn Lead Generation campaign takes some upfront planning, targeting optimization, creative testing, and result monitoring. But it can generate a consistent flow of quality leads for your B2B business. By following the steps above and incorporating best practices, you can get more prospects to raise their hands and convert directly within your LinkedIn ads.