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What are LinkedIn Ads?
Why do companies use LinkedIn Ads?
Which LinkedIn advertising format is the best?
How much do LinkedIn Ads cost?
Who should use LinkedIn Ads?
How are qualified leads generated with LinkedIn?
How to optimize your LinkedIn Ads
How to reach your target group with LinkedIn Ads
Our expert tip
LinkedIn is the world’s largest social professional network, which was founded in 2002 in the USA. The impressive number of 830 million users (May 2022) makes LinkedIn attractive for a variety of companies to recruit professionals, promote their products and use targeted advertising in B2B.
LinkedIn runs a diversified business model and receives its revenue from: Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions, Sales Solution and Premium Subscriptions. The topic we would like to take a closer look at today falls into the Marketing Solutions area and is called LinkedIn Ads. LinkedIn has been part of the Microsoft group since December 2016. This information is especially relevant if you use Microsoft Advertising.
LinkedIn Ads make it possible to play out precisely tailored advertising on the most attractive B2B platform to one or more target groups. Thus, LinkedIn Ads are considered indispensable in the online marketing mix for B2B companies.
The biggest advantage of LinkedIn Ads is the ability to be played out on a platform that allows B2B audiences to be created and targeted. LinkedIn users have a vested interest in keeping their profile up to date and filled with the right information. Thus, LinkedIn knows about the exact job position, work experience, education, employer and industry. This allows LinkedIn Ads users to put all of these attributes into their target group and thus hire a high-quality B2B audience with little wastage.
LinkedIn Ads are indispensable for B2B companies nowadays and turn out to be true magic tools especially as lead magnets, brand awareness measures and in the business relationship context as well as for many other B2B objectives.
LinkedIn has developed specific campaign objectives for the different marketing goals. These include the following:
Which LinkedIn format you should choose depends on what exactly you want to promote. After you have selected the right target for your campaign, you can now also decide in which format your advertisement should be played out.
Sponsored content is basically one of your LinkedIn posts that gets more reach through paid advertising. This format is especially suitable if you want to increase your brand awareness or leads. There are different ad formats available to you for Sponsored Content:
This advertising format allows you to send potential customers a direct personal message in a professional setting. The advantage of Sponsored Messaging is on the one hand the personal contact and on the other hand the qualified results through the interaction possibility. For Sponsored Messaging you can choose between different ad formats:
Text Ads focus on the text. A meaningful slogan and a description as well as an optimal image bring your message to your target group and thus to your potential customers.
And last but not least, there are the Dynamics Ads. As the name suggests, these are automatically generated and personalized ads. According to LinkedIn, Dynamics Ads are considered a success driver when it comes to automatically scaling individualized campaigns. Another advantage is the ability to personally target your audience with little effort. Like all other types of ads, Dynamic Ads can be targeted according to different marketing goals. These marketing goals include, for example, brand awareness, traffic, as well as conversions and lead generation.
How much LinkedIn Ads cost depends on two factors. First, the campaign goal determines how much you have to pay for your LinkedIn Ads, and second, your target audience also plays a big role. You place a bid for each of your campaigns. Thus, it is certain with which bid you enter the auction. Since there cannot be an infinite number of advertising spaces for certain target groups, you have to compete against other advertisers so that you can reach your desired target group. How you are billed again depends on the specific marketing goal that was selected for your campaign. How exactly you will be charged for your selected target can be seen in this overview from LinkedIn.
So the question of whether LinkedIn Ads are expensive is not easy to answer. You pay as much as LinkedIn rates the attractiveness of your target and audience. Simply put, LinkedIn Ads are suitable for B2B companies that can afford high advertising costs. Compared to Facebook Ads or Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads are usually more expensive. Due to the high-quality leads that LinkedIn offers B2B companies through its targeting options, this brings LinkedIn’s higher prices back into proportion. In conclusion, the cost per lead or the cost per conversion should still be kept in mind to make the advertising costs profitable for your company.
LinkedIn Ads are primarily suitable for B2B companies that can reach their target audience on LinkedIn and have the necessary budget. Still, using LinkedIn Ads as your sole marketing channel is not the only path to success. The marketing funnel has become increasingly complex in recent years. This is because customers are spending more time in the Consideration phase than they have in recent years.
Therefore, it is recommended to be additionally present via other channels. Multichannel marketing is a new buzzword in marketing. So you should always think about whether the channels you currently have in your marketing mix are the right ones for you or your target group and whether they are sufficient to accompany the customer from the first touch point to the lead.
Generating qualified leads on LinkedIn is the ultimate goal for B2B advertisers. You can achieve this goal through well-defined target groups with little wastage, the right campaign objectives and engaging content that attracts the attention of LinkedIn users. In addition to these factors, you should use a multi-strand campaign structure that encourages your users to convert through multiple touchpoints. Last but not least, nothing beats testing. As we all know, practice makes perfect – and the same goes for perfecting and optimizing LinkedIn Ads.
The answer you probably don’t want to hear, but which is true, is “trial and error”. Of course, you can already do a lot of things right through best practices and LinkedIn guides, and you’ll be well-positioned for the first campaign setup. Nevertheless, what is inevitable for all other paid ads channels also applies here. You need to start a campaign first to see how the ad types work for your specific target audience. Which landing page performs best and which creatives are well received, you only know after you have tested them.
Testing is so important because without testing, we would not be able to gather certain empirical values. And this also applies to conscientiously set up campaigns with well-researched target groups.
If you have a LinkedIn profile yourself, you certainly have an idea of what information LinkedIn has about you. And to put it simply, LinkedIn audiences can include all the targeting options given by filling out LinkedIn users (e.g. professions, experience, skills, etc.). As mentioned earlier, LinkedIn has the clear advantage that its own users always want to keep their personal information truthful and up-to-date. So-called targeting options thus include demographic data as well as position, company, industry, career stage, work experience, degree and much more. Other interesting targeting options include:
So now you know that LinkedIn is not only relevant for recruiters, but that your potential customers also move on this platform and can be filtered out by you through various targeting options. Now it’s time for you to consider whether LinkedIn Ads can bring success to your company. For this, you need to test LinkedIn Ads for your purposes to see if they can complement your planned marketing efforts. For a holistic marketing funnel strategy, it is usually worthwhile to seek professional help.
And now we wish you a lot of fun testing out LinkedIn Ads. 😊
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