LinkedIn – Paid Advertising Best Practices

With more than 500 million users, LinkedIn has become one of the most important social entities for B2B (business-to-business) interaction. Like other social media channels, paid advertising has become a valuable feature on LinkedIn to gain attention and reach more viewers. Below are a few tips for you to take into consideration as you move your advertising to LinkedIn.

Set Goals

As with any good marketing campaign, setting goals is incredibly important to ensure you do not waste both time and money. When setting goals for advertising on LinkedIn, ask yourself “What do I want to achieve?” Is your end result to increase brand awareness, obtain new leads, expand your contact list, promote a service, ect.?

Determine Who Your Target Audience Is

Knowing your target audience is always important in your marketing decisions. Thankfully, LinkedIn offers a variety of options in order to reach the right target audience. You can set your targets towards the following:

• Demographics: Specified targeted audience of the ad towards location and age
• Company and Job: Focus advertisement on a user’s company and job information, including name, title, industry, and company size
• Email List: Advertisers can target LinkedIn users that match up with their company’s email list
• Remarketing List: You can select your advertisement to target those who have already interacted with your site in the past

Select the Best Advertisement Type for your Goals/Needs

LinkedIn offers three different types of ads for you to choose from: Sponsored Content, Text Ads, and Sponsored InMails. Each has its own benefits to fit with the message you want to get across and the audience you want to reach.

Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content advertisements can be found on LinkedIn’s newsfeed. This form of advertisement is good for those with a goal to build their contact list. When constructing this type of advertisement, it is important to keep your headlines under 150 characters. A shorter headline will not only look more visually appealing but will also lead to more engagement. Larger visuals also tend to result in a higher click-through rate. When forming your descriptive copy, keep your character count under 70. Lastly, providing a call to action also increases engagement rates.

Text Ads

Text Ads generally contain a small message and a business logo. They are helpful if you have set a goal to increase brand awareness. When developing this form of advertisement, make sure to address your audience directly and provide a strong call to action. Include an appropriate image, like your logo. Add a direct link to a corresponding landing page to direct traffic directly to your site.

Sponsored InMail

This form of LinkedIn advertisement allows you to use LinkedIn’s internal messaging to send personal messages to your target audience.  This form is beneficial to those who want to be more detailed and direct with their audience. When utilizing this advertising form, be sure to keep your messages short and concise; keep the body of your text under 500 characters. Be sure to use friendly, no-pressure language. Develop a message that is both personal and relevant. Increase your engagement from the message by providing a corresponding hyperlink.

Test Your Advertisements

It is important to always check your advertisements. This means more than just double checking to make sure all your links work properly. When investing in these ads, it is a good idea to test multiple messages or versions from the campaign to see which connects better with your audience. Developing 3 to 4 versions of an ad can lead to a higher audience reach. Every 1 to 2 weeks, pause the ad with the lowest engagement results and develop a new one.

LinkedIn has proved to be a powerful source for business-to-business communication and connections. Knowing how to properly utilize its advertisement features will help you reach your marketing goals as a business. For more information on successful marketing via LinkedIn and other social platforms, contact our Stellar Blue team today!