Running an effective LinkedIn ad campaign requires strategic planning and preparation. Unlike other social media platforms, LinkedIn users tend to be focused on professional content and networking. This means LinkedIn ads need to be optimized specifically for a business audience.
The time it takes to run a LinkedIn ad can vary greatly depending on factors like your campaign objective, target audience, and budget. On average, plan for 2-4 weeks to run a LinkedIn ad from start to finish. This includes the key steps of:
- Researching and identifying your target audience
- Developing ad creative and messaging
- Setting up your LinkedIn Campaign Manager account
- Configuring campaign settings and bidding
- Launching your ads
- Monitoring performance and optimizing
Proper planning is crucial for LinkedIn ad success. Rushing through the process without thoughtful targeting and messaging often leads to poor results. Investing sufficient time upfront to understand your goals, ideal customers, and follow best practices will set your LinkedIn ads up for maximum visibility and engagement.
Step 1: Identify Your Target Audience
Defining and researching your ideal target audience is one of the most important steps in running effective LinkedIn ads. With over 850 million members worldwide, LinkedIn has a massive professional network. But spreading your ads too thin across the platform will dilute their relevance.
To identify the right target audience for your LinkedIn ads:
- Outline buyer personas – What are the key demographics, interests, and pain points of your ideal customers? Create one or more hypothetical persona profiles.
- Analyze existing consumer data – Look at customer analytics from your sales and marketing efforts to date. Identify trends in who is already engaging with your brand.
- Conduct LinkedIn profile research – Search for profiles on LinkedIn that match your target personas. Browse Groups related to your industry. Observe what content and topics resonate most with these audiences.
- Refer to LinkedIn Audience Insights – Use LinkedIn’s free planning tool to analyze audience demographics, interests, and engagement metrics across the platform.
This upfront research should guide you in setting detailed targeting parameters for your LinkedIn ads such as:
- Job title
- Company name or industry
- Geographic location
- Age range
- Gender
- Skills and interests
- LinkedIn Groups and Pages they follow
The more precise you can be in defining whom your ads should reach, the better your campaign results will be.
Step 2: Develop Ad Messaging and Creative
With your target audience and goals clarified, the next key step is developing ad messaging and creative assets that will resonate.
Some best practices for LinkedIn ad messaging include:
- Highlight pain points and desires of your audience
- Communicate what makes your brand or offering unique
- Use concise, scannable copy and bulleted lists
- Focus on professional value more than product features
- Write in a genuine, approachable tone
For ad creative, you have options of single image ads, multiple image carousels, or short video ads. High-quality images and video tailored to LinkedIn tend to see the best engagement. Some tips include:
- Optimize images for the LinkedIn feed with minimal text overlay
- Show real professionals using your product or service
- Leverage short explainer or testimonial videos
- Ensure any text is large and readable on mobile
It’s recommended to develop 2-3 sets of ad variations to test different creative approaches. You can A/B test ad variations within the same campaign to optimize messaging and creative.
Step 3: Set Up Your LinkedIn Campaign Manager
LinkedIn Campaign Manager provides the platform to set up, launch, and monitor your LinkedIn ads. All paid advertising on LinkedIn must run through this interface.
To get started, you’ll need to:
- Confirm your LinkedIn business page is published
- Sign up for a LinkedIn ad account by going to the Campaign Manager homepage and clicking “Get Started”
- Choose your campaign objective such as brand awareness, leads, etc.
- Input payment details
Within Campaign Manager, you can create multiple campaigns for different initiatives and objectives. For each campaign, you’ll define the associated ad sets, creatives, and target segments. This organization lets you structure accounts effectively for ongoing LinkedIn advertising.
Take time to navigate Campaign Manager and its options fully before launching ads. The platform guides you through the setup process step-by-step.
Step 4: Configure Campaign Settings
With your account established, the next step is inputting all the campaign details and ad configurations:
Campaign Targeting
This is where you’ll apply the audience targeting parameters identified in Step 1. LinkedIn allows you to layer criteria like job title, industry, age, and interests to hone in on your ideal customers.
Ad Placement
You can choose to have your ads show up in the LinkedIn feed, LinkedIn messaging inboxes, or both. Feed placement generally sees broader reach while inboxes enable more focused nurturing.
Bidding and Budgeting
LinkedIn advertising is auction-based, meaning you’ll need to bid against other advertisers vying for audience attention. You’ll input a maximum Cost Per Click (CPC) bid to set the amount you’re willing to pay.
You’ll also set an overall budget for each ad set, which can be scheduled based on your campaign duration. Monitor spend closely to stay within budget.
Ad Scheduling
Determine the best timeframe for your ads to achieve your goals. You can schedule ads to align with events, promotions, or times your audience is most active on LinkedIn.
Conversion Tracking
To measure LinkedIn ad results, you’ll need to implement conversion tracking. This involves placing pixels on your website to track actions site visitors take after clicking your ads.
Step 5: Launch Your Ads
With your LinkedIn campaign fully set up, it’s time to launch your ads!
Best practices for the launch process include:
- Start with smaller daily budgets, then scale up as you test performance
- Activate one ad variation first before introducing others
- Launch new campaigns and ad sets in a staggered sequence
- Review ad content guidelines and ensure approvals
Activation can take up to 24 hours for ads to start serving. Monitor new campaigns closely at launch to confirm ads are displaying as intended.
Step 6: Monitor and Optimize Your Campaigns
Ongoing optimization is crucial for LinkedIn advertising success. You should expect to actively manage campaigns on a daily basis.
Key metrics to track include:
- Impression volume
- Click-through rate
- Engagement rate
- Cost per click and conversion
- Conversions and conversion rate
Use LinkedIn’s reporting dashboards to diagnose underperforming ads. Troubleshoot issues by adjusting targeting, bids, budgets, creative, landing pages, and more. Leverage A/B testing for improvement ideas.
Continually optimize your ads to improve relevance, reach, and ROI over time.
Conclusion
While timeframes vary, plan for an average 2-4 week timeline to execute LinkedIn ads successfully. Dedicate sufficient time upfront for audience research, thoughtful creative development, meticulous campaign configuration, and proactive optimization. With the right preparation and management, LinkedIn advertising can drive impressive results and ROI for B2B brands.
LinkedIn Ad Execution Step | Average Timeframe |
---|---|
Audience Research | 1-3 days |
Ad Message and Creative Development | 3-5 days |
Campaign Manager Setup | 1-2 days |
Campaign Configuration | 2-3 days |
Ad Launch and Testing | 5-7 days |
Ongoing Optimization | Continuous |