LinkedIn is the world’s leading business oriented social networking channel. Since launching in 2003, LinkedIn has grown to have over 700 million users in more than 200 countries worldwide.
Mainly used for professional networking, LinkedIn is an online contact book, curriculum vitae and publishing platform for anyone wanting to establish their professional online social media presence. If you are not yet using LinkedIn, see our article on the top tips for making LinkedIn work for your business, and be sure to set up a free LinkedIn company page.
As well as being an effective online networking tool, LinkedIn has also become a highly-targeted online advertising platform. A key benefit of LinkedIn advertising compared to other social networking channels are that 4 out of 5 LinkedIn members drive business decisions. LinkedIn also has double the buying power of average web audiences. Thirdly, LinkedIn has actually been rated the #1 platform for B2B lead generation.
How it Works
LinkedIn is often the go to platform when recruiting or hiring, but it can also be an extremely useful targeting tool for businesses whether the objective is to build brand awareness, generate leads, or drive website traffic.
- Choose your campaign objective and ad type
- Set your targeting options
- Control your advertising costs by setting a budget
LinkedIn offers four marketing solutions with the right ad formats to drive results. Simply create your campaign manager account, determine your objective and launch your campaign.
Sponsored Content
Sponsored content on LinkedIn can be set up using a single image, video or carousel and will appear as ‘promoted’ posts, displayed in the LinkedIn feed. These ads look just like regular LinkedIn posts and can include a lead gen form to collect qualified leads.
Sponsored Messaging
Sponsored messaging delivers direct messages to your audience in their LinkedIn messages or can be used to start conversation ads with your audience. When using these types of ads, you choose a ‘sender’ from your business who’s relevant and credible to serve as the face of your brand. Sponsored messaging can be more successful than traditional email marketing and work well for increasing event registrations, promoting a free product trial, or educating users about your offerings.
Text Ads
LinkedIn text ads appear in the top right-hand box and top banner on desktop, with a short headline, blurb, and image. These ads work on a pay per click (PPC) or pay per impression application. Text ads are best used to get in front of audiences who matter most and drive them to your website or landing pages.
Dynamic Ads
Dynamic Ads also appear in the top right-hand box, however these ads are personalised, featuring each professionals own LinkedIn photo, company name, job title & more. These ads are great for building brand awareness, gaining followers, promoting events or specific content you want to share with your audience.
Targeting
LinkedIn provides great targeting options, including the ability to target by job title, employer, role, and skills and interests, in addition to the general demographic and geographic options. Because LinkedIn users add more detailed and up-to-date “professional” information you can have more confidence that you are actually reaching your desired audience.
There are also matched targeting options to reach people you already know with website, contact and account targeting.
Costs
Because of its highly targeted advertising options LinkedIn Advertising is slightly more expensive in comparison to Google or Facebook paid advertising. There is a $15 minimum spend per day.
However as with other platforms, you can control your advertising costs by setting a budget and with certain types of ads, such as text ads, you will only pay for the clicks or impressions that you actually receive.
Setting up ads on LinkedIn is a straightforward process, so there is no reason why you can’t start advertising on LinkedIn now. If you are still unsure if LinkedIn advertising is for you or if you would like help setting up your personal and business profile on LinkedIn please contact the Dubzz team.
For more information please see these helpful links.
