As a business looking to advertise on LinkedIn, you may be wondering if you should enable the LinkedIn Audience Network. This expanded network allows your ads to be shown not just to people on LinkedIn, but also on partner sites like Microsoft News, MSN, and Outlook. There are pros and cons to consider when deciding whether to opt into this network.
What is the LinkedIn Audience Network?
The LinkedIn Audience Network (LAN) is an advertising option that expands the reach of your LinkedIn ads beyond just members of the LinkedIn platform. With LAN enabled, your ads can be displayed on premium partner sites like Microsoft News, MSN, Office.com, and Outlook.com.
This means your ads have the potential to be seen by millions more readers and users beyond just those actively engaging on LinkedIn. LAN gives access to external professional audiences in a brand-safe environment. However, it does come at an increased cost per click versus standard LinkedIn-only advertising.
What are the benefits of enabling LAN?
There are a few key potential benefits to opting into the LinkedIn Audience Network:
Expanded reach
By far the biggest benefit is the expanded reach your ads can achieve. According to LinkedIn, LAN gives access to over 100 million additional monthly active users beyond LinkedIn’s member base. This means a much larger potential audience to see and engage with your ads.
Advanced targeting capabilities
LAN allows you to take advantage of enhanced targeting based on Microsoft Graph data and LinkedIn profile data. You can target your ads using professional demographic data from LinkedIn as well as Microsoft data like workplace, job function, industry, and more. This allows for highly customized targeting.
Brand-safe environment
The sites your ads will appear on through LAN, such as Microsoft News and MSN, offer premium, brand-safe content. This can give peace of mind that your ads are supporting legitimate news and information sites.
Reporting across channels
With LAN enabled, you can view consolidated reporting that includes both your LinkedIn ads and off-LinkedIn ads through Campaign Manager. This unified view makes it easier to optimize your efforts.
What are the potential downsides of LAN?
While the expanded reach is very enticing, there are also some possible drawbacks to weigh when deciding on enabling LAN:
Higher cost per click (CPC)
One key downside is that clicks garnered through LAN typically come at a higher average cost per click. The CPC on the Audience Network is higher because you are accessing premium external audiences rather than just users already within LinkedIn.
Less relevant audiences
Though you can use customized targeting, some experts argue the audiences on LAN sites like MSN and Outlook may be less professionally relevant than engaged users on LinkedIn. The relevancy depends on your targeting, but can be less precise.
Metrics spread across channels
With clicks and metrics aggregated across LinkedIn and external sites, it can be trickier to parse how well your ads are performing specifically on LinkedIn versus LAN sites. This makes optimization more difficult.
Lower click-through rates
Some advertisers see lower click-through rates when enabling LAN because casual site visitors on MSN or Outlook may be less likely to click versus active LinkedIn users. But rates can vary significantly based on targeting.
How much does it cost to advertise on LAN?
The cost of advertising on the LinkedIn Audience Network varies based on factors like your targeting settings, bid amount, and current auction rates. On average, the cost per click on LAN tends to be around 30-50% higher than the cost per click for LinkedIn-only ads.
Here are some estimates for average CPC rates on LAN:
Audience | Average CPC |
---|---|
Targeting U.S. audiences | $1.50 – $3 |
Targeting U.K. audiences | £1.30 – £2.50 |
Targeting Canadian audiences | C$2 – C$4 |
These rates can go up or down significantly depending on factors like your bid amount and audience targeting precision. It’s a good idea to A/B test different bid amounts and target settings to find the optimal balance of reach and conversion value.
How does LAN bidding work?
Bidding on the LinkedIn Audience Network works on a second price auction model. For each auction, the highest bidder wins the auction but pays only slightly above the bid of the second price bidder.
You set a max CPC bid, and LinkedIn automatically lowers your bid in each auction to try to minimize your costs while still winning the auctions you want. You only pay the minimal needed bid price to slightly outbid the next advertiser.
The key when bidding is to find the sweet spot between maximizing impressions volume and optimizing conversion value. Set your max bid high enough to win your target auctions but not overpay per click.
How to enable LinkedIn Audience Network
Enabling the LinkedIn Audience Network for your LinkedIn ad campaigns is simple to do right within Campaign Manager:
- Open Campaign Manager and select your LinkedIn campaign
- Click “Edit campaign” to open campaign settings
- Under “Advanced options,” toggle on “Enable LinkedIn Audience Network”
- Targeting settings can also be managed in Campaign Manager as usual
- Monitor your expanded campaign analytics to optimize
It’s also important to set your daily budget appropriately when first testing LAN, as enabling it can significantly increase traffic and costs. Start conservatively and scale up budget as you optimize.
Should you use LAN for awareness campaigns?
The LinkedIn Audience Network can work well for branded awareness and traffic driving campaigns, as it expands your reach to a huge passive audience across publishing sites. The lower relevancy may matter less for early brand visibility goals.
LAN delivers:
- Massive scale for impressions
- Brand safety
- Low CPC compared to programmatic networks
If done right, LAN can drive tons of impressions, views, and traffic to your site and content at a reasonable CPC. This supports top-of-funnel branding and awareness.
Tips for optimizing LAN for awareness
- Use 100% share of voice for greater visibility
- Focus on wide reach rather than narrow targeting
- Measure brand lift and site traffic as key metrics
- Use remarketing to re-engage audiences
Should you use LAN for direct response?
For conversion-focused campaigns, the lower relevance and higher CPC of LAN audiences may make it less optimal. LAN can still work but may require more testing and optimization.
Factors to consider for direct response & conversion goals include:
- Lower click-through rates
- Higher CPC vs. LinkedIn-only ads
- Less relevant audiences
You’ll want to closely measure conversion value generated and optimize for converting users. Target settings are crucial. Still, with testing, LAN can be made to work for lead gen and sales with a positive ROI.
Tips for optimizing LAN for conversions
- Tightly define your target audience
- A/B test ad variations
- Lower max bid to control CPC
- Measure conversion rate and cost per conversion
- Retarget converters
Should you use LAN for remarketing?
The LinkedIn Audience Network can be very effective when using it specifically for remarketing campaigns. This is when you target ads to people who have already engaged with your brand in some way.
You can create Custom Audiences within LAN including:
- Website visitors
- Page viewers
- Email subscribers
- Leads/customers
Then you can serve ads across the Audience Network specifically to people within those remarketing lists. This allows you to re-engage past interested users when they are consuming content on Microsoft sites.
Benefits of LAN remarketing
- Enormous potential reach for your remarketing lists
- Continue conversations with your audiences
- Highly relevant messaging to past engagers
- Cost-effective relative to open ad exchanges
With a remarketing-focused strategy, the LinkedIn Audience Network can be a powerful channel for optimizing your ad spend and impact.
Conclusion
The LinkedIn Audience Network opens up exciting new possibilities for reaching vast professional audiences and driving branding, awareness, and conversions beyond just the LinkedIn platform. But it requires thorough testing and optimization.
Make sure to closely analyze conversion value and dial in targeting when using LAN for direct response. For brand awareness and remarketing, the wider reach and lower CPC can be advantageous.
Consider starting with a small daily budget and limited LAN activation when testing. If you see positive momentum, you can scale up over time. With smart management, LAN can significantly boost your LinkedIn advertising impact.