When we look at LinkedIn advertising, the process may seem quite similar to other social media platforms. But, it is very different when we look at the end results. So, what makes LinkedIn stand out?
There are many informal advertising channels at our disposal today. These platforms are tailored mostly for our profiles. It is important for us to stay abreast of the latest advertising strategies for today’s business environment.
Here is precisely how LinkedIn offers an advantage over other social media and pay per click advertising platforms. It enables you to connect with a more professional audience, and even better, with targeted messaging.
A lot of B2B marketers look at LinkedIn as a platform for spreading brand awareness and driving quality leads. LinkedIn members typically keep their profiles very updated and recent. A B2B marketer can knock at an open door to a goldmine of updated demographics.
LinkedIn advertising has a lot of benefits. Based on your marketing goals, these ads can serve your business by attracting customers. Let’s check out the benefits LinkedIn has to offer us in more detail.
Benefits of LinkedIn Ads for Your Business
1. Target Professionals
Due to very high user activity, most of the social advertising platforms tend to bring in irrelevant audiences that could cause your campaign to fail.
LinkedIn grants access to a relevant and more professional audience. It enables you to connect with decision-makers, who will have the final say on purchases.
With LinkedIn ads, you can target by skill set, degree, industry, job title, job function, and many more demographics. You will also be able to exclude certain audiences to ensure your budget is protected from irrelevant clicks.
2. Unique Advertising
Like any other social media advertising, platform LinkedIn offers you many opportunities such as sponsored posts for gaining exposure, clicks, and conversions.
Sponsored Inmail, which is integrated into its internal mailing platform, is another great way to reach targeted prospects on LinkedIn. These email-like messages have proven to be successful in the past, with open rates and CTRs above what we see with regular email marketing.
3. Better Conversion Rates
Conversions are the holy grail when it comes to digital marketing. LinkedIn advertising gets your message across to the right prospects. When the message is delivered to the right people, the chances of conversion will logically increase.
LinkedIn is that it is more of a professional networking site. This stands as a benefit of using the platform for promotions, because this characteristic is not available on any other social platform.
Although you may have to pay a good sum of money for your ad clicks and impressions on LinkedIn, its advertising approach is focused on triggering quality interactions. This can in turn produce higher yields at a lower risk tolerance level.
4. Matched Audience Targeting
LinkedIn’s matched audience program is a lead-generating weapon for today’s digital marketing. This targeting feature lets you match your own business data with LinkedIn’s powerful user-generated content for better marketing outcomes.
With LinkedIn’s matched audience, you will be able to retarget your website visitors to further engage them . Also, it allows you to build customized audiences and run account-based marketing campaigns.
You will see good results with your advertising efforts only if you can get in front of the right audience. LinkedIn matched audience is all about that!
5. Lead-Nurturing
A lot of social media ads focus on generating leads and awareness. What happens to these leads once they get inside your database?
If you don’t nurture these acquired leads, you may fail to convert them all the way to paying customers. In the past, this capability was only possible using email marketing. Now, however, LinkedIncan serve that role as well!
Getting Started With Your Ads
Beginning your ad campaign and choosing your audience are two of the most difficult tasks while advertising on LinkedIn. But, once you get started with it, you will see that it is not as complex as you may have expected.
Like any other social media platform, LinkedIn provides you with different ad types and formats to get started.
Always choose your ad type according to the action you wish to drive. LinkedIn advertising can be used for lead generation, website conversions, website visits, engagement, and brand awareness!
The below Infographic, designed by TechWyse, an SEO agency based in Toronto, provides you with all the ad dimensions and specifications you need to know to get started with LinkedIn Ads..
If you’ve been interested in testing out the platform but not sure where to start, this will get you ready to go!
Best Practices for LinkedIn Ads
To get the most from LinkedIn Advertising, here are some best practices that will help you.
Set Your Goals
Be sure you know exactly what your your goal is before starting your campaign. After all, the structure of any type of marketing campaign depends on what you want to achieve. So, always think of what your goals are before initiating your campaigns.
Customer Journey
Every LinkedIn ad type is appropriate for a unique stage of the customer journey. Always take time to understand your company’s customer journey before jumping in on any ad platform, particularly LinkedIn.
Targeting Options
There are plenty of targeting options on LinkedIn. These features are available to aid advertisers in reaching people with a higher chance of converting.
After all, why spend money if you can’t reach people who are most likely to convert. Layering different LinkedIn targeting options can help you achieve this.
Test Your Ads
Once you’ve created and uploaded ads to the platform, plan to test everything. It is vital to experiment with different ad copy to discover which images and text resonates with the target audience.
Conclusion
You may find it pretty difficult to get involved in ads on LinkedIn. With the right ads, you can tap into the potential for immense success.
As for B2B marketers, LinkedIn is the best platform for yielding excellent returns. This is especially true if you are looking for long term benefits. LinkedIn can generate excellent results despite a higher initial investment.
All images provided by the author under his or her own license.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions stated in this post are that of the author, and Return On Now may or may not agree with any or all of the commentary.
This guest post brought to you courtesy of Return On Now, Professional Austin SEO and PPC Services Company.
Faiz Varghese
