What makes a successful LinkedIn ad?

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 722 million users worldwide. With such a large audience, LinkedIn ads present a major opportunity for businesses looking to reach relevant professionals and decision makers. However, creating a successful LinkedIn ad campaign takes strategy and planning. In this article, we’ll explore what goes into an effective LinkedIn ad by answering key questions around objectives, targeting, creative, and optimization. Follow these best practices and you’ll be poised to get the most out of your LinkedIn ad investment.

What are the key objectives and KPIs for LinkedIn ads?

As with any marketing initiative, the first step is identifying your objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs). Common goals for LinkedIn advertising include:

– Generating leads and conversions
– Driving website traffic
– Increasing brand awareness and reach
– Engaging your target audience
– Recruiting new employees or talent

Relevant KPIs based on those goals include:

– Cost per lead
– Click-through rate
– Conversion rate
– Impressions
– Engagement rate
– Apply rate for job ads

Set benchmarks and targets for each KPI to properly measure performance. For bottom-of-the-funnel goals like lead generation, optimize for lower cost per lead and higher conversion rates. For top-of-the-funnel goals like reach, focus more on lower cost per thousand impressions (CPM) and higher engagement.

Who is your target audience and how can you reach them?

One of LinkedIn’s greatest strengths is its wealth of member data and targeting options. Take advantage by tailoring your campaign to your ideal audience:

– **Demographics** – Target by criteria like age, gender, education level, and more
– **Job titles and functions** – Target specific roles like IT managers or financial analysts
– **Skills and expertise** – Target members with skills relevant to your offering
– **Companies** – Target employees from specific companies you want to reach
– **Interests and groups** – Target members interested in relevant topics or part of relevant groups
– **Location** – Target by geographical location like country, region, or city

Layer on multiple targeting criteria to reach your ideal customers or prospects. Test different targeting approaches to see what resonates best.

How can you create compelling ad creative?

Your visuals, copy, and messaging must catch attention and prompt clicks from your target audience. Follow these best practices for LinkedIn ad creative:

– **Lead with a strong, relevant headline** – Get your message across quickly in the limited headline space

– **Highlight value props and benefits** – Focus copy on how you can help solve problems or provide value

– **Leverage visuals** like logos, products, or people – Images help capture attention on LinkedIn’s vertical feed

– **Use copy that speaks to professionals** – Tailor tone and messaging to a B2B audience

– **Adapt ads for mobile** – Majority of LinkedIn usage is on mobile so adapt creative accordingly

– **Test different creative** – Try different approaches and copy to see what resonates

– **Call to action (CTA)** – Use CTAs that match your objectives like “Get Quote” or “Apply Now”

Types of ad formats

Take advantage of LinkedIn’s range of ad formats:

– Sponsored Content – Appear in feed like organic posts

– Sponsored InMail – Send targeted direct messages

– Text Ads – Promoted search ads with headline, image, body text

– Dynamic Ads – Automated customized ads based on member activity

– Conversation Ads – Promoted chat conversation starters

– Message Ads – Highly targeted with 100 characters of text

What bidding types should you use?

LinkedIn offers bidding options to suit different goals and budgets:

– **CPC bidding** – Pay per click, great for driving website traffic or conversions

– **CPM bidding** – Pay per 1,000 impressions, great for brand awareness or reach

– **CPV bidding** – Pay only for video views over 2 seconds, ideal for video content

– **CPCV bidding** – Hybrid of CPC and CPV, balanced option good for various objectives

Test different bidding strategies and set appropriate bids based on the value of your goals and historical performance data. Adjust over time as you optimize.

How can you optimize campaign performance?

Continuously optimize your LinkedIn ads over time to improve performance:

– **Analyze performance data** – Review metrics across devices, campaigns, ads, audience, etc

– **A/B test ad variations** – Test different creatives, bids, targeting, placements

– **Refine targeting** – Add/remove targeting criteria based on best performing segments

– **Adjust bids** – Increase/decrease bids in line with performance and changes in competition

– **Expand top performing ads** – Allocate more budget to better performing ads

– **Stop poor performers** – Pause/remove poor performing ads or elements

– **Apply learnings to future campaigns** – Build on what works to make continually better ads

Regularly assess data and iterate to optimize both new and existing campaigns over their lifetime.

Conclusion

Creating successful LinkedIn ads requires identifying your goals, thoroughly targeting your audience, developing compelling creative, utilizing the right bid strategies, and relentlessly optimizing performance. Follow these best practices to boost results from your LinkedIn ad campaigns. With over 722 million professionals, LinkedIn advertising presents a major opportunity to connect with decision makers and drive leads, traffic, and brand awareness. By tapping into LinkedIn’s highly targeted capabilities and leveraging performance data, you can achieve great returns on ad spend.