The Art and Science of LinkedIn Ads Performance
For small businesses, advertising online is crucial for success. However, with the vast array of online advertising platforms, it can be difficult to decide which ones are the most beneficial for your needs. Keep reading to discover the art and science of LinkedIn Ads.
What is LinkedIn Advertising and is it worth it
LinkedIn Advertising is a platform that enables businesses to create and display ads, targeting LinkedIn’s professional user base. Ads on LinkedIn can take various forms, including:
- Sponsored content
- Message Ads
- Dynamic Ads
These ads are designed to reach specific business goals such as lead generation, brand awareness, or driving website traffic.
What sets LinkedIn advertising apart from other social advertising platforms is its sophisticated targeting capabilities, allowing advertisers to zoom into users based on their job, title, industry, company size, and even specific companies.
This precise targeting makes advertising on LinkedIn valuable for B2B marketing, where reaching decision-makers and professionals in relevant industries is crucial. While LinkedIn tends to be more expensive than other platforms, the quality of the leads and the professional context can justify the investment.
Why should you use LinkedIn Ads
Advertising on LinkedIn presents a unique opportunity for organisations wanting to connect with a more professional audience.
As mentioned above, the business element of LinkedIn’s unparalleled targeting options ensures your message reaches those who matter most to your business, driving a higher quality of leads.
LinkedIn’s professional environment means users are more receptive to the nature of business-related content, enhancing the effectiveness of your campaigns.
Let us look at some reasons why we believe you should be advertising on LinkedIn.
Reach specific market segment
LinkedIn ads excel at reaching a specific market segment, leveraging the platform’s rich professional data.
Advertisers can target their campaigns based on a multitude of criteria, including job title, industry, company size, seniority, skills and more. This granular targeting ensures your ads are displayed to the most relevant professionals, increasing the likelihood of engagement and conversions.
For example, if you’re looking to reach a decision-maker in the finance industry, you can combine audience targeting criteria to build your ideal persona in the finance sector.
LinkedIn’s Matched Audiences feature further refined targeting by allowing you to reach people you already know, using website, contact and account targeting. By utilising these sophisticated targeting options, LinkedIn ads can effectively enter the desired market segment, delivering your message directly to the professionals who are most likely to respond to your offering.
Reach to a professional audience
LinkedIn ads can be used as a powerful tool for connecting with a professional audience, offering a unique environment where business-oriented individuals actively seek to expand their networks and industry knowledge.
By tapping into this, you enter a community of engaged professionals who are more likely to engage and respond with content that aligns with their career aspirations and interests.
The platform’s sophisticated targeting options allow you to tailor your message to specific professions, job functions, and industries, ensuring that your ads resonate with a high-quality audience seeking to make informed business decisions. Whether you’re promoting thought leadership content, industry events, or professional services, LinkedIn ads provide the precision and context needed to effectively reach and influence the professionals most relevant to your business goals. With LinkedIn’s robust analytics, you can continuously refine your approach, ensuring that your advertising efforts curate meaningful connections and tangible results in the professional sphere.
Specifics of LinkedIn Advertising
LinkedIn Advertising offers a variety of ad formats and targeting options designed to meet a diverse range of marketing objectives. Advertisers can choose from sponsored content, which appears in the LinkedIn feed; text ads, which are displayed in the sidebar; sponsored InMail, which delivers personalised messages directly to users’ inboxes; and Dynamic Ads, which tailor content to each user.
Targeting capabilities are highly sophisticated, allowing you to define your audience based on parameters like job title, company, industry, seniority, skills, and more. LinkedIn also supports account-based marketing (ABM), enabling you to focus on specific companies and decision-makers within these organisations.
Additionally, LinkedIn’s campaign manager, which we will discuss in more detail later, provides robust analytics and reporting tools to track performance, optimize campaigns, and measure ROI (return on investment).
Directly message your target audience
A standout feature is the ability to directly message your target audience through LinkedIn message ads.
This feature allows businesses to bypass traditional advertising clutter and deliver personalised messages straight to the LinkedIn inboxes of their chosen recipients. By crafting tailored messages that address the specific needs and interests of your target audience, you can foster direct engagement and build more meaningful connections.
For example, LinkedIn Message ads are particularly good for promoting events, offering exclusive content, or simply initiating conversations with potential leads. This direct approach not only increases the likelihood of your message being seen and responded to but also enhances the overall user experience by providing relevant and valuable content.
Customizable campaign budget
LinkedIn’s customisable campaign budget is a powerful feature that allows advertisers to manage their spending with precision and flexibility. Whatever the size of your budget, LinkedIn provides options to set daily or total campaign budgets, ensuring that you maintain control of your money. This flexibility enables you to allocate your budget strategically across various campaigns, maximizing ROI and avoiding overspending.
Additionally, LinkedIn’s bidding options, such as cost-per-click (CPC), cost-per-impression (CPM), and cost-per-spend (CPS), allow you to tailor your bidding strategy to align with your specific campaign goals. By regularly monitoring and adjusting your budget based on performance data, you can optimise your ad spend to achieve positive outcomes.
How to track and analyze your LinkedIn Campaign?
Tracking and analysing your LinkedIn campaigns is crucial for understanding their effectiveness and optimising for future strategies.
To begin with, LinkedIn’s Campaign Manager is your go-to platform, providing a wealth of metrics such as clicks, impressions, and conversion rates. It’s essential to set clear objectives and identify key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with your goals, whether it’s increasing brand awareness or generating leads.
Utilise Conversion Tracking and Lead Gen Forms to delve into bottom-funnel metrics, capturing the actions users take after engaging with your ads. Regularly reviewing your insights allows you to adjust your content and targeting strategies, ensuring you deliver maximum ROI.
Drawbacks of LinkedIn advertising
While LinkedIn does offer numerous benefits for advertisers, we will cover a few of the drawbacks marketers should consider.
High costs
One of the biggest concerns to keep note of is the higher costs compared to other platforms; LinkedIn’s CPC and CPM rates are considerably higher, which can affect smaller budgets.
Low engagement
The platform’s professional focus means that casual browsing and engagement rates are typically lower than on a more entertainment-driven social platform like Instagram, leading to fewer impressions and interactions.
Sophisticated Targeting
LinkedIn has very sophisticated targeting options, while powerful they do require a very deep understanding of your audience and meticulous planning to avoid inefficient ad spend.
Reporting Tools
Lastly, although LinkedIn’s user interface and reporting tools are improving, they can be less intuitive and harder to navigate to newer advertisers, meaning a steeper learning curve is needed.
In conclusion, LinkedIn ads represent the perfect blend of artistry and analytical rigour, providing a sophisticated platform for reaching and engaging with a targeted professional audience. By leveraging LinkedIn’s robust targeting capabilities and insightful analytics, advertisers can craft compelling campaigns that resonate deeply with their desired market segments. Whether your goal is to build brand awareness, generate leads, or establish thought leadership, LinkedIn’s advertising ecosystem offers the tools and precision necessary to achieve measurable success. Embrace the art and science of LinkedIn ads and watch as your business connections and opportunities grow in this professional networking hub.
If you’re a marketing agency, head to our website to explore our Diginius Agency Partner Program. Meanwhile, if you are a business managing your paid advertising in-house and you would like our support, discover how our Diginius Insight Platform boosts your ROI.
