Finding the right audience is crucial for running effective LinkedIn ads. With over 850 million members worldwide, LinkedIn offers a vast potential audience for your ads. However, sifting through all those profiles to identify your ideal customers can be daunting. The good news is that LinkedIn provides powerful targeting options to help you find audiences tailored to your campaign goals.
Use LinkedIn Audience Targeting
The primary way to target your LinkedIn ads is by using LinkedIn Audience Targeting. This allows you to target your ads by location, demographics, interests, skills, company attributes, and more. Here are some of the main ways to target audiences on LinkedIn ads:
- Location – Target by country, region, city, ZIP code
- Company – Target by company name, industry, size, seniority level
- Job – Target by job title, function, skills, seniority
- Interests – Target by LinkedIn member interests
- Demographics – Target by age, gender, education, ethnicity
- Connections – Target connections of other LinkedIn members
- Behavior – Target by LinkedIn activity and website visits
You can combine multiple targeting options to further refine your audience. For example, you could target HR managers at mid-size companies in the healthcare industry. LinkedIn Audience Targeting gives you the flexibility to get very specific with who sees your ads.
Location Targeting
Target your LinkedIn ads geographically to reach audiences in specific countries, regions, cities, or postal codes. This allows you to geo-target prospects where your business operates or tailor messaging by location.
Company Targeting
Target your LinkedIn ads by company attributes to reach decision-makers at relevant organizations. You can target by company name, industry, size, seniority level, and more. For example, you could target directors at hospitals with 500-1000 employees.
Job Targeting
Target your ads by job title, function, skills, and seniority level. For example, you could target software engineers with Java skills. This allows you to reach professional audiences relevant to your offerings.
Interest Targeting
Target audiences based on LinkedIn member interests, such as topics they follow or groups they join. Interest targeting helps you connect with audiences passionate about subjects related to your business.
Demographics Targeting
Target your ads by demographic factors like age, gender, education level, ethnicity, and more. For example, you may want to target college educated individuals above age 30.
Connection Targeting
Target connections of specific LinkedIn members, such as your employees or followers. This allows you to extend your messaging to relevant audiences connected to your company.
Behavior Targeting
Target audiences based on their activity on LinkedIn and other websites. For example, you can target people who visit certain pages on your website after being on LinkedIn.
Use Matched Audiences
Matched Audiences allows you to target your LinkedIn ads to reach audiences from your external data sources, such as website visitors, leads lists, and more. You upload your external data to LinkedIn and they match it against LinkedIn member accounts.
For example, you could upload a list of leads from a recent webinar and target them with LinkedIn ads. Matched Audiences is a powerful way to engage your outside audiences.
Target Your Own Followers
An easy way to start with LinkedIn ads is by targeting your own LinkedIn followers. These are people who already know your brand and likely represent your target audience. Even if you have a small follower base, it can be useful for initial testing.
Simply check the “Followers of Specific Companies” option when setting up your campaign. Make sure you select your own company page as the page to target followers of.
Use Website Retargeting
Retarget website visitors with LinkedIn ads by installing the LinkedIn Insight Tag on your website. This allows you to target audiences who have already shown interest by visiting specific pages on your site.
For example, you could retarget everyone who visited a pricing page but didn’t sign up. Website retargeting helps you re-engage audiences who recently interacted with your brand.
Utilize Recommended Audiences
LinkedIn Recommended Audiences provides suggested target segments based on your campaign objectives and selected targeting criteria. It uses LinkedIn’s data and machine learning to recommend additional audiences likely to engage with your ads.
Review the recommended options when building your campaign. The suggested audiences can help you expand your reach to relevant prospects.
Analyze Your Followers List
Analyze which companies your own LinkedIn followers work at using LinkedIn Audience Insights. You can see a breakdown of their associated companies and industries. Use this to identify what types of organizations you want to target.
For example, if half your followers work at tech startups, you can intentionally target similar small tech businesses.
Conclusion
LinkedIn offers robust targeting capabilities to help you find the right audiences for your campaigns. Take advantage of location, company, job, interest, and behavior targeting to reach your ideal customers. Analyze your existing followers and website traffic to inform your targeting strategies. Test and optimize your audiences over time to drive maximum results from your LinkedIn ads.