How do LinkedIn followers grow with ads?

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 810 million members worldwide. For businesses and professionals, having a strong LinkedIn presence and large network of connections can lead to valuable opportunities. One way to quickly grow your LinkedIn followers is through LinkedIn ads.

What are LinkedIn ads?

LinkedIn ads allow you to target specific demographics and promote your LinkedIn profile and pages to them. There are a variety of LinkedIn ad formats you can use:

• Sponsored content – Appears in the LinkedIn feed similar to organic posts
• Sponsored InMail – Direct messages sent to LinkedIn members that appear as messages in your LinkedIn inbox
• Text ads – Appear on the right rail of LinkedIn pages
• Dynamic ads – Target LinkedIn members based on the actions they’ve taken on your website

With LinkedIn ads, you can choose to optimize for different objectives including website visits, conversions, video views, and most importantly – followers. This makes LinkedIn ads a powerful way to quickly grow your followers.

How do LinkedIn ads help gain more followers?

There are a few key ways LinkedIn ads can help you gain more followers:

• Increased visibility – By putting your brand and content in front of more people through promoted posts and text ads, you increase visibility and reach.
• Targeting capabilities – You can target your LinkedIn ads very precisely based on location, job title, company, skills, interests and more. This allows you to get your brand and content seen by the audiences most likely to follow you.
• Built-in “Follow” call-to-action – Some LinkedIn ad formats like sponsored content allow you to add a “Follow” button, enabling one-click following from your ads.
• Retargeting – You can create custom audiences and retarget people who have already engaged with your LinkedIn page or ads but haven’t yet followed. This reminds them to follow you.

By leveraging these advantages, LinkedIn ads make it much easier to get your brand, content and calls-to-action in front of targeted audiences and convert them into followers.

How to create effective LinkedIn ads for getting followers

Here are some best practices for creating effective LinkedIn ads optimized for gaining more followers:

• Use sponsored content ads to promote your best and most engaging posts. Include a strong call-to-action to “Follow” your page.
• Target your ads very precisely using job titles, skills, company sizes and other filters to reach your ideal audience.
• Test different types of creative, headlines and calls-to-action to see what resonates best with your audience.
• Analyze and refine your targeting over time based on performance.
• Set up retargeting campaigns for people who’ve already shown interest.
• Use compelling text and image ads focused on getting followers.
• Rotate creative frequently to combat ad fatigue.

What types of accounts tend to gain the most LinkedIn followers from ads?

Certain types of LinkedIn accounts and pages tend to gain followers more effectively through ads:

• Thought leaders/influencers – Accounts that showcase expertise, insights and thought leadership in a particular field.
• Brands/companies – Brand pages for businesses looking to increase brand awareness and connections.
• Publishers – Accounts sharing content like news, analysis, and insights that followers want to stay updated on.
• Recruiters/staffing – Recruiters and staffing professionals looking to connect with relevant candidates.
• Coaches/consultants – Coaches, consultants and professional services providers offering useful tips and advice.

These types of accounts tend to attract high-quality, targeted followers from ads due to the valuable content and engagement they provide.

What content works best for gaining LinkedIn followers?

To grow your followers with LinkedIn ads, you need compelling content to promote. Here are some types of content that tend to perform well:

• Thought leadership articles – Insights, analysis, tips and advice that displays your expertise.
• Industry news – Relevant news and analysis of developments in your field.
• Listicles/roundups – Lists and roundups focused on useful information for your target audience.
• Behind-the-scenes – Photos, videos and content showing your brand personality and culture.
• Slideshares – Presentation slides with in-depth takes on topics.
• Polls and quizzes – Engaging polls and quizzes people want to participate in and share.
• Job openings – For recruiters, promoted posts about available job opportunities.

Posting a mix of these types of engaging, valuable content will give you the material needed to attract followers through ads.

How many followers can you expect to gain from LinkedIn ads?

The number of followers you gain from LinkedIn ads will vary significantly based on factors like:

• Ad budget and duration of the campaign
• Audience targeting and relevance
• Quality of creative and messaging
• Engagement level of your content

Most accounts see a follower conversion rate from LinkedIn ads between 2-5%, meaning for every 100 ad impressions, you gain 2-5 followers. However, with very targeted audiences and highly relevant, engaging content, you may see conversion rates as high as 15-20%.

Here are some examples of potential follower growth from LinkedIn ads:

So in general, expect to gain hundreds to thousands of followers from LinkedIn ads depending on the factors above.

Tips for gaining followers from LinkedIn ads

Here are some additional tips to boost the followers you gain from LinkedIn ads:

• Promote your 3-5 best pieces of content, don’t just promote every post.
• Use video and visual content – these stop people scrolling and perform well.
• Have clear, simple calls-to-action: “Follow us now”.
• Target narrow, very specific audiences when possible.
• Test different headlines, images and creative.
• Monitor performance and double down on what works.
• Retarget people who engage but don’t follow.
• Complement ads with organic engagement and outreach.

What’s the best way to measure success of follower ads?

There are two key metrics to measure the success of LinkedIn ads for gaining followers:

• Follower conversion rate – What percentage of people exposed to your ads become followers? Aim for consistently over 2-5%.
• Cost per follower – How much are you spending on ads to acquire each new follower? Benchmark against your targets.

Beyond these metrics, it’s also important to look at follower quality – are they your target audience? Do they actively engage with your content? Are they the right type of connections?

Tools like LinkedIn’s analytics and third-party analytics platforms allow you to dig into metrics on your follower ads’ performance and optimize accordingly.

Mistakes to avoid when running LinkedIn follower ads

Some common mistakes to avoid with LinkedIn ads for gaining followers include:

• Targeting too broad of an audience
• Poor performing creative that doesn’t grab attention
• Promoting boring or irrelevant content
• Not testing different targeting and creative
• Not optimizing campaigns based on data and performance
• Focusing solely on lower-funnel conversion actions vs. followers
• Assuming short-term ads will sustain followers long-term

By avoiding these mistakes and running well-optimized LinkedIn ads, you can maximize your follower growth and build lasting connections.

Conclusion

LinkedIn advertising provides a major opportunity to grow your followers in a targeted, measurable way. By sharing compelling content, optimizing targeting, testing creative, and tracking performance – you can build an audience of relevant, engaged followers to boost your brand on LinkedIn. Used strategically as part of a broader organic and paid strategy, LinkedIn ads can take your follower count to the next level.