Are you looking for an engaged professional audience? Do you want to boost your brand’s visibility, gain more traffic, and generate new leads? There is a simple answer to those questions: “LinkedIn ads ”.
If you don’t plan carefully, you can feel as though you’re shouting into the air (or throwing money straight into the shredder) when you advertise on social media.
If you use LinkedIn ads with a bit of foresight, however, your brand’s message will reach the right people—audiences that are influential decision-makers. 😉
A LinkedIn ad has the potential to reach 808 million people among its 875 million+ members. Even better, four out of five members can influence business decisions; and these movers and shakers also have twice the buying power as typical online users.
So, how can you do it right?
Why should I advertise on LinkedIn?
Well, there are many reasons to run LinkedIn Ads and, as always, the truth lies in the numbers.
- Two new users register every second 📈
- 65% of B2B (Business To Business) businesses and 43% of marketers have acquired at least a customer through LinkedIn.
- LinkedIn generates 3x more conversions than Twitter and Facebook.
- 59% of businesses on LinkedIn say it sends them leads
- 61 million LinkedIn users are senior employees and 40 million are in decision-making positions.
- 2 million posts, articles, and videos are published on LinkedIn every day
- 80% of all social media B2B leads come from LinkedIn.
- Lead costs on LinkedIn are 28% lower than those on Google Adwords.
Best LinkedIn Ads Practices for Beginners
Let’s start with the basics!
- Include 4–5 ads in each campaign. For single-image LinkedIn Ads and video ads, you can create up to five ads at once by uploading or selecting five images or videos during campaign creation from the media library. Campaigns with more ads usually reach more people in your target audience.
- Keep ad headlines to 150 characters or fewer; Concise headlines are more engaging.
- Don’t go over 70 characters; on desktop, anything over 100 will be truncated.
- Embed larger images instead of standard thumbnails. An image size of 1200 × 627 pixels is recommended. Content with larger visuals tend to get up to 38% higher CTR (click-through rates).
- Feature a clear CTA (call to action), so your audience knows how to act on their interest.
- Your ad creation should be guided by Sponsored Content ad specs.
- Choose smart targeting criteria (and always include location), and follow ad targeting best practices. Be specific with your ad targeting, but not so specific that you narrow your audience.
Creating the Perfect LinkedIn Ad
Choose your Objective
With objective-based advertising, the first step is to pick your objective; this helps you streamline and customize your campaign.
From awareness to conversion, objectives describe what you want your clients to do after seeing your ad.
They are separated into 3 categories:
- A brand’s share of voice is maximized through awareness campaigns.
- Customers who take part in consideration campaigns are encouraged to take action, such as clicking on a landing page or engaging through social media.
- Lead generation campaigns focus on capturing leads and tracking actions such as brochure downloads and lead generation on your website.
💡 Pro Tip: You’ll be tempted to start picking your objectives right away — but, remember to name and assign your campaign a name first.
Select your group budget and schedule
Campaign Manager offers advertisers the option of optimizing their budgets for group campaigns, rather than individual campaigns, using Dynamic Group Budget.
You can use Campaign Manager to set up a central campaign group budget, which is then used to optimize the objective-based return on investment (ROI) across all campaigns within the group continuously.
Target Audience: Choose it Wisely
You can target users for jobs, companies, industries, or personal interests based on job titles, company names, and industry type. With over 1 billion members in over 200 countries, LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network.
Using Matches Audiences, you can also add your data to target users-for example, by retargeting, contact targeting, or account-based targeting.
💡 Pro tip: Don’t forget to call out your audience in your ad copy.
What will your LinkedIn Ads Format Be?
In your first campaign, you’ll have to choose an ad format based on your audience. Note that Sponsored Content (carousel ads, documents, events, single image or video ads in LinkedIn feed), Message Ads (ads appearing in LinkedIn messages), and Text Ads can all be chosen depending on your objective.
- Sponsored Content (Carousel, Document, Thought Leader, Event, Single Image, and Video Ads)
- Message Ads (Ads that show in LinkedIn Messaging)
- Text Ads (Right rail and Top Banner Ads)
- Dynamic Ads (Follower, Spotlight and Content Ads)
💡 Pro tip: Don’t forget to set up conversion tracking
How to Fully Take advantage of your LinkedIn Video Ad?
- Your subject should be clear: The average attention span of your users is 1–5 seconds; this is the timeframe in which you need to grab their attention.
- Make your ad …flashy: Use graphics, images, sounds, and more to extend the attention span of your users.
- Video length matters: Keep brand awareness videos’ duration less than 30 seconds, and extend the duration of your informative videos.
- Subtitles are a must: How many times have you found yourself in a situation where the “sound on” option seemed impossible? Always include subtitles in your videos.
How to fully take advantage of your LinkedIn Image Ad?
- Invest in original and eye-catching images: Don’t be afraid to experiment with them.
- Take advantage of fame: Use well-known logos and/or public figures (if you’re authorized to do so). They both grab users’ attention.
- Feature people: People …love people. More than any image or graphics.
- Showcase your product or service: Present its key features and usage.
- Don’t forget about mobile users: Make sure all text is large enough for mobile devices.
How to fully take advantage of your LinkedIn Text Ad?
- Original content: Provide original, engaging, and well-written content. Don’t be afraid to be creative and sincere.
- Text length: Your text should be 100–220 characters long.
LinkedIn Ads: The Future of Your Business
LinkedIn offers a unique opportunity to connect and grow your brand with its huge professional user base, precise targeting options, and impressive conversion rates.
By following these steps, you can create the perfect LinkedIn ads campaign that will increase visibility for your brand as well as generate valuable leads.
Don’t let your business miss out on the future and don’t be shy about contacting Growthgirls CEO, Effie Bersoux, for expert advice on LinkedIn Ads.
