Wondering how to best integrate LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network, into your social strategy? LinkedIn advertising could be just the ticket, especially if you are a marketer.
The great advantage of LinkedIn is that it is a uniquely focused social network—it’s all business, all the time. This makes it the ideal network for B2B organizations in particular. And with LinkedIn ads, businesses can choose from a range of ads to target and reach the right people when they’re in a business-y frame of mind.
Find out how LinkedIn went from buttoned-up digital resume platform to content marketing rockstar, growing to 500 million users in the process. And learn why and how you can use LinkedIn ads to join the party… sorry, business meeting. (Don’t forget the doughnuts.)
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Bonus: Download a free guide to discover four time-saving tools to help you grow your LinkedIn network faster. Includes one tool that lets you schedule a week’s worth of LinkedIn updates in just three minutes.
Why use LinkedIn ads?
It hasn’t been easy for LinkedIn to find its place in the world. In fact, for a long time it was hard to get the point of the network. You signed up, tried to find a semi-professional looking photo, and added your coworkers. Then what?
Today, LinkedIn is a different, much more interesting and useful place for users—and marketers, especially with the help of LinkedIn ads, the ins and outs of which we’ll get to shortly.
What changed?
LinkedIn introduced some pretty significant feature and usability upgrades to help build its community to the point where 40 percent of users visit the site every day. These include:
- Better mobile apps.
- Slicker desktop version.
- Richer content features.
- Better spam management.
- Video.
The richer user experience now makes LinkedIn somewhere people want to hang out. According to LinkedIn’s stats, those people include 61 million influencers, 40 million decision-makers, and 10 million opinion leaders—in other words “the world’s professionals.” (Read our posts on LinkedIn demographics and LinkedIn statistics to dive deeper into the network’s user base.)
In an AdWeek article charting LinkedIn’s growth, Jessie Liu, senior analyst at Forrester Research, said: “More than most social networks, LinkedIn has very robust and deep user data. It’s collecting your location, educational history, professional history and interests. That makes it far more valuable than, say, Twitter.”
LinkedIn advertising lets marketers leverage this gold mine of data, offering several hard-to-ignore benefits:
- Multiple language options.
LinkedIn ads even offer guaranteed impressions. Before you pay a dime, you can create your LinkedIn ad and see exactly how big of an audience you are going to reach.
But does it work? Do people use LinkedIn to discover and engage with content? According to LinkedIn’s own data, content gets 15 times the interaction of job postings.
The benefits of LinkedIn and LinkedIn ads to marketers are clear. Let’s get into the nitty-gritty of how to advertise on LinkedIn, starting with our guide to LinkedIn ad formats.
Types of LinkedIn ads
Whether you want to target executives, influencers, or job seekers, there are various ways to advertise on LinkedIn through different ad types, including self-serve, partner programs, and other options. Each type of LinkedIn ad comes with its own benefits and best practices.
LinkedIn self-serve ads
You can create and publish your own ads through LinkedIn’s Campaign Manager. Campaign Manager allows you to schedule campaigns in advance, target the right audience, and see the industries, job functions, and seniority level of users who click your ads. If you have the time and resources to do that, this could be the easiest option for you. It’s also a great way to dip your toe into LinkedIn advertising.
There are currently three ad options to choose from, with video ads said by LinkedIn to be rolled out in 2018:
Sponsored Content
Sponsored Content lets you share posts to your Company Page with a targeted audience on LinkedIn. It helps you amplify company news, promotions, relevant industry articles, SlideShare presentations, and Vimeo and YouTube videos.
The ads appear in the homepage feed (on desktop, mobile, and tablet) and on the right side of the desktop homepage. For example, if you have a one-day-only sale or a video of a recent company charity event, a sponsored update is the best way to get that content out to a wider audience.
Why use Sponsored Content?
- Extend the reach of your content.
- Attract more Company Page followers.
- Capture eyeballs and clicks on desktop, tablet, and mobile.
View LinkedIn’s advertising specs and guidelines for Sponsored Content.
Text Ads
Text Ads let you advertise on LinkedIn to drive traffic to your LinkedIn Company Page or your website. This is a quick and easy desktop-only option that lets you feature a compelling headline, a description, and an eye-catching image in a variety of ad formats. Your ads may appear under “Ads You May Be Interested In” and as text link advertisements found at the top of the page. If you want to grab the attention of a busy professional browsing LinkedIn, including promoting a job opening, Text Ads are a good way to go.
Why use Text Ads?
- Fast and easy to get started.
- Set your own budget.
- Choose your audience with laser sharp B2B filters.
- Track conversions.
View LinkedIn’s advertising specs and guidelines for Text Ads.
Sponsored InMail enables you to send personalized messages to targeted LinkedIn users through LinkedIn’s email client, LinkedIn Messenger. Recipients only receive Sponsored InMails when they are active on LinkedIn to help them get noticed. It’s an effective option if you want to go for a more personalized approach to drive conversion rates.
Why use Sponsored InMail?
- Send personalized invites to webinars and other events.
- Target promotions to the right audience.
- Promote content, such as downloadable ebooks and white papers.
View LinkedIn’s advertising specs and guidelines for Sponsored InMail.
Video ads (coming soon)
In October, 2017 LinkedIn announced they were testing video ads. After a beta phase with a limited number of advertisers, the plan is to roll them out to everyone in the first half of 2018—initially on mobile and then desktop.
Video ads will be available through Campaign Manager, offering the same targeting, budgeting, and reporting tools as the other ad options. Watch this space for updates.
LinkedIn Display Ads
Display Ads is LinkedIn’s programmatic advertising solution. This means you can purchase ads through your preferred advertising platform or a private or public auction.
Display ads allow for a greater variety of media, including text, audio, video, and images, which makes them more eye-catching and interactive.
This is a good option to help you get your…
