LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 690 million users worldwide. As a professional social media platform, LinkedIn offers unique advantages for businesses looking to advertise to a targeted B2B audience. Some key benefits of LinkedIn advertising include reaching a concentrated professional demographic, precise targeting options, low cost per lead or conversion, and the ability to build thought leadership.
In this comprehensive guide, we will explore the following aspects of LinkedIn advertising:
Targeting Business Professionals
With over 690 million users spanning over 200 countries, LinkedIn provides access to the world’s largest professional network. LinkedIn members include executives, managers, directors, VPs, business owners, founders, recruiters, marketers, sales professionals, and many other business roles.
Unlike more broad-based social networks like Facebook or Instagram, nearly all LinkedIn members are there for professional reasons. They are actively looking to network, build their personal brand, seek new career opportunities, and engage with professional content. This makes LinkedIn the ideal platform for B2B companies looking to reach decision makers, influencers, and budget holders within their target organizations.
Precise Targeting Options
LinkedIn offers several ways to precisely target your ads to ensure you are reaching the right audience. Here are some of the main targeting options:
– Job title, seniority level, and job function
– Company name, industry, and company size
– Location by country, region, metro area
– Groups and group memberships
– Skills, knowledge, and expertise
– Interests and hobbies
– LinkedIn activity like shares, posts, follows
– Demographic data like age, gender, education
You can combine multiple types of targeting criteria to hone in on your ideal customers. For example, you could target directors and VPs in the software industry who are based in San Francisco and belong to relevant LinkedIn groups.
Low Cost Per Lead or Conversion
With precise targeting capabilities, LinkedIn advertising can help you generate leads and conversions in a very cost-efficient way. LinkedIn members are there to network, learn, and advance their careers – so they are primed to convert when presented with relevant content.
Typical cost per lead or conversion on LinkedIn is lower than other paid social channels. According to LinkedIn, the average cost per lead is $81, compared to $147 on Facebook and $362 on Twitter. For software companies, the average CPL is even lower at $62.
This efficiency means LinkedIn ads can achieve great ROI, especially for B2B companies who may have higher-value products or services.
Thought Leadership Platform
Unlike other social networks, LinkedIn is built around sharing professional insights, thought leadership content, and industry news. LinkedIn advertising provides a way to organically amplify your best content in front of relevant professionals.
Sponsored posts and content ads on LinkedIn have up to 4X higher engagement compared to other platforms. This presents a major opportunity to build brand awareness and shape perception among your target audience.
Using LinkedIn ads along with employee advocacy can establish your company and employees as trusted thought leaders. This also helps move prospects further down the sales funnel so they are primed when your sales team makes contact.
The Power of LinkedIn Advertising
Now that we’ve covered the unique advantages of LinkedIn advertising, let’s explore some key statistics that illustrate the power of tapping into the platform’s 690+ million members:
Unmatched Professional Audience
– LinkedIn has over 75M senior-level influencers and 63M decision makers as members
– 91% of LinkedIn members drive business decisions
– Decision makers are 9x more likely to engage on LinkedIn
Quality Member Activity
– LinkedIn members are 39% more likely to comment on content and 20% more likely to share versus other networks
– 1.7 million publishers actively posting content on LinkedIn
– 93% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn in their content distribution strategy
Proven ROI for Advertisers
– LinkedIn generated $3 billion in revenue from ads in 2021, up 57% YoY
– 97% of B2B marketers say LinkedIn ads are effective
– LinkedIn ads deliver 4X the ROI of other social platforms
– 65% of social traffic to corporate websites comes from LinkedIn
How to Create Effective LinkedIn Ads
Now that we’ve made the case for LinkedIn advertising, let’s look at some tips for creating truly effective LinkedIn ad campaigns:
Target the Right People
As we covered earlier, LinkedIn offers powerful targeting capabilities. Make sure to laser focus your ads on your ideal audience by targeting by job title, company, industry, location, groups, and more. Get as specific as possible.
Personalize Your Messaging
Even though you are advertising at scale, take the time to craft messaging that resonates with your specific audience. Use familiar language and keywords. Highlight the unique value you provide to them.
Highlight Social Proof
Peer recommendations and case studies are extremely influential on LinkedIn. Include testimonials, customer logos, and specific ROI stats in your ads.
Leverage Different Ad Formats
Experiment with different options: sponsored content, Text Ads, Dynamic Ads, Message Ads. Measure performance to see what resonates.
Retarget Website Visitors
Use LinkedIn’s Website Retargeting to keep your brand top of mind. Retargeting delivers up to 4X higher CTR vs. other targeting tactics.
Create Content Your Audience Wants
Developing truly helpful, insightful content that meets your audience’s needs will fuel their desire to learn more. Invest in useful educational content.
Optimize for Lower Funnel
While awareness has value, make sure to use keywords and optimize towards lower funnel objectives as well – like downloads, trials, demos, etc.
Types of LinkedIn Ad Formats
LinkedIn provides a range of ad formats, giving you options to achieve your specific marketing objectives. Let’s overview the main LinkedIn ad types available:
Sponsored Content
Sponsored Content places your posts, articles, and other natively formatted content in front of your target audience within LinkedIn’s feed. Ideal for thought leadership.
Sponsored Messaging
Sponsored InMail sends your targeted messages directly to LinkedIn members’ inbox. Great for personalized outreach and engagement.
Text Ads
Text Ads are short, eye-catching messages with up to 100 characters of headline text. Similar to Google Ads.
Dynamic Ads
Dynamic Ads automatically pull content from your website or blog to create customized ads for each viewer based on their profile.
Conversation Ads
Spark a conversation by posing questions, asking for opinions, or prompting comments with Conversation Ads. Engages viewers.
Best Practices for LinkedIn Ads
To maximize the impact of your LinkedIn ad campaigns, keep these best practices in mind:
Align Messaging With Buyer’s Journey Stage
Map your ads and content to the distinct stages of your target buyer’s journey to move them towards a purchase.
A/B Test Ad Elements
Continually test headlines, copy, visuals, calls to action, etc. to optimize your ads. Leverage LinkedIn’s built-in A/B testing.
Use Video Ads
Video ads on LinkedIn have up to 50% higher CTR compared to static image ads. Produce engaging videos.
Retarget Engaged Audiences
Create saved audiences of people who have engaged with your ads or visited your site to target them again.
Promote Top Content
Boost your best content – like popular blog posts and ebooks – via Sponsored Content for maximum exposure and leads.
Integrate with Marketing Automation
Connect your ads with your CRM and marketing automation to track leads and continuously optimize.
Driving Leads and Pipeline with LinkedIn Ads
One of the biggest benefits of LinkedIn advertising is the platform’s unparalleled ability to drive high-quality B2B leads and pipeline. Here are stats that prove it:
Industry Benchmarks for Lead Gen
| Industry | Cost Per Lead (CPL) |
|---|---|
| Software | $62 |
| Financial Services | $88 |
| Technology | $91 |
| Manufacturing | $98 |
| Consulting | $99 |
Benefits of Driving Leads Through LinkedIn
– 94% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to distribute content
– 45% of marketers say LinkedIn generates the best ROI
– 75% of B2B lead generation comes from LinkedIn
– 4X more conversions from LinkedIn content vs. other social platforms
– LinkedIn ads have 2X higher CTR than Twitter or Facebook
– 90% of marketers use LinkedIn to research and target accounts
– LinkedIn members are 50% more likely to convert than leads from other sources
Tips to Optimize LinkedIn Ads for Leads
Here are some proven tips to structure your LinkedIn campaigns for maximum lead generation and pipeline acceleration:
Target by Seniority
Going after senior-level roles (manager, director, VP, etc.) boosts lead quality. Adjust your targeting and content accordingly.
Personalize Campaigns
Tailor unique messaging, offers, and creative for each target account or persona for higher conversion rates.
Gate Your Content
Getting gated content (like ebooks, whitepapers, and webinars) in front of the right people fuels downloads and lead gen.
Sequence Your Nurturing
Follow up your ads with tailored nurture streams for your contacts to develop the relationship over time.
Promote Content Hubs
LinkedIn’s Content Hubs provide a way to group all your best content in one place to share via ads.
Measure Lead Quality
Assess the quality of incoming leads beyond just volume. Analyze metrics like lead to account conversion and pipeline influenced.
The LinkedIn Advertising Learning Curve
Like most marketing channels, there is a learning curve with LinkedIn advertising. It takes some upfront time investment to master the platform and see stellar results. Here is the usual progression for marketers:
Initial Testing Phase
When first getting started with LinkedIn ads, expect a period of trial and error as you test different formats, objectives, targeting, creatives, etc. Give new campaigns time to collect data and optimize.
Gaining Comfort with Platform
After running several campaigns, you will get increasingly comfortable with the LinkedIn Campaign Manager and gaining insights from reports. Optimization will become more intuitive over time.
Scaling & Growth
As you optimize campaign performance and structure based on learnings, you can allocate more budget to LinkedIn for increased reach and results.
Continued Optimization
Even once you are at scale on LinkedIn, you should constantly experiment and test new targeting tactics, content, offers, and creative to accelerate performance.
Mastery of LinkedIn’s Nuances
Each advertising platform has unique intricacies. Mastering the nuances of when, how, and why to use LinkedIn’s different ad products will maximize your ROI.
While it takes some ramp up time, the long term benefits of mastering LinkedIn advertising are immense given LinkedIn’s audience quality and engagement rates.
Top LinkedIn Ad Campaign Examples
Let’s look at a few real examples of successful LinkedIn ad campaigns from leading B2B brands:
Adobe
Adobe generated 50,000 impressions and over 5,000 clicks by targeting specific LinkedIn groups with relevant messaging about their Creative Cloud software products.
Drift
Drift targeted key accounts and contacts within them via LinkedIn ads promoting free t-shirts. This personalization resulted in 2X higher CTR.
HubSpot
Leveraging LinkedIn’s conversation ads, HubSpot drove over 6,500 comments by asking their target audience provocative questions like “What keeps you awake at night as a CMO?”
NordVPN
NordVPN focused LinkedIn ads on network security-related groups and advertised content offers. They decreased CPC by 32% and increased conversion rates by 24%.
IBM
IBM created 300+ unique pieces of LinkedIn content tailored to different audiences. By promoting this content, they generated 10X more leads at 33% lower cost.
These examples illustrate how precision targeting, personalization, and truly valuable content can lead to stellar LinkedIn ad results.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are answers to some commonly asked questions about getting started with LinkedIn ads:
How much do LinkedIn ads cost?
LinkedIn ads are pay-per-click, with average costs ranging from $2-$8 per click depending on targeting and competition. Average cost per lead is around $81.
What ad formats does LinkedIn offer?
Main LinkedIn ad formats: Sponsored Content, Sponsored Messaging, Text Ads, Dynamic Ads, Conversation Ads.
How do you measure LinkedIn ad performance?
Key LinkedIn ad metrics: Reach, impressions, CTR, cost per lead, website visitors, engagement rate, conversions.
How do I create a LinkedIn ad campaign?
In LinkedIn Campaign Manager, set your objective, target your audience, create ads, set bids and budget, launch campaign. Optimize based on data.
Can I retarget people who engaged with my LinkedIn ads?
Yes, you can create audiences in LinkedIn Campaign Manager based on ad engagement and website visitors for precise retargeting.
Conclusion
With LinkedIn’s unmatched professional audience, precise targeting options, and ability to drive high-quality leads, LinkedIn ads offer a major opportunity for B2B marketers. Following the best practices outlined in this guide will set you up for success. While it takes some ramp up time, making the investment to master LinkedIn advertising will pay dividends as you engage decision makers, accelerate your pipeline, and build your brand.
