All of us are aware that LinkedIn is a valuable networking tool for establishing connections with like-minded professionals from all over the world. But it would surprise you to learn that LinkedIn has a great ad platform, which only a few of us know about.
If adding any other advertising platform to your network sounds daunting, there is no need to worry. Let us understand how LinkedIn ad campaigns run even if you happen to be a complete beginner. The need of the hour is to be aware of the various types of LinkedIn campaigns available to you.
LinkedIn ad targeting and its operation
LinkedIn’s ad targeting options help run a successful advertising campaign, as when you target the right people, it leads to better engagement and more conversions. With LinkedIn, the process of selecting an audience works in the same manner. The choice of an ad has no relevance.
When figuring out whom you are going to target, LinkedIn is known to provide over 20 different audience segments and targeting categories that you may select among the choices available.
How to advertise on LinkedIn
Advertising on LinkedIn is a two-step process. 1) setting up your LinkedIn ad campaigns and 2) creating your LinkedIn ads.
Creation of your LinkedIn ad campaign
Your LinkedIn advertisement campaign will thrive on a platform that is separate from the LinkedIn that you come across daily. This is the LinkedIn marketing solutions platform. You need to visit the page to get started with your ad campaign and select Create Ad. From there, a direction is given to your LinkedIn Campaign Manager account, and then you will be taken to your member dashboard.
The LinkedIn ad campaign objective is to be formulated
Secondly, LinkedIn ad campaigns’ objective is to be set up. The objective is helpful if you are able to achieve what you want people to do. LinkedIn is of the opinion that the choice of objective is helpful, customize your operations, and that, based on your stated goal, You are able to achieve the best ROI along with showcasing your relevant reporting. There are three overreaching campaigns: awareness, considerations, and conversions. Under these themes, various LinkedIn ad types are available.
Outline your LinkedIn ad audience.
Then you need to outline the parameters of your target audience. Targeting the audience for your ad will accomplish the campaign objective. The more specific and targeted it is for your audience, the better it will perform. LinkedIn specifies a few ad categories, and there is no need to use all the targeting options of the platform.
Decide on the LinkedIn ad format.
The next step is to select an ad format. When you toggle between the ad types, you will see that the forecasted results in the right-hand box change. As you choose LinkedIn ad types, keep an eye on the box. If you are just starting out, the type of ad you choose will be determined by your budget. You need to outline your priorities and then decide which type of work will suit your budget.
Choice of LinkedIn ad placement.
Then you need to decide if you want the ad to be displayed on the LinkedIn audience network, which gives your campaign more reach and exposure among the third-party sites and platforms of LinkedIn. A point to consider is that this option is not available for every ad type.
Set the LinkedIn ad budget and schedule.
The cost of advertising on LinkedIn is to be taken into account. You must create a daily budget based on what works best for your company’s marketing campaign. Then you need to choose a date when the campaign will be launched. The dates and time frame of the campaign can be set on your end.
Do not ignore conversion tracking.
For your LinkedIn ad campaign, you have the option of setting up conversion tracking, which will track and measure the actions that people take after clicking on your ad. It is an optional component of creating your LinkedIn advertising campaign, but it is beneficial to your company. If you choose to set up conversion tracking, click “Add conversions.”
Building a LinkedIn ad
The section is an indicator of what type of LinkedIn ad you want for your business. After you’ve set the basic parameters for your ad in a single step, you’ll be prompted to build it, with options for how LinkedIn will display and rotate the ad variations. This is based on the fact that you can create more than one. Create a new do to get started.
The types of LinkedIn ads
Deciding which type of LinkedIn ad is suitable for your business is dependent upon many factors like audience, budget, and campaign objective, to name a few. When you are building your LinkedIn ads, there are four main types from which you can choose. Among the formats, you can choose different format types based on the ad content and purpose.
Sponsored content
Sponsored content emerges in the audience news feed among organic LinkedIn content. They are ads similar to promotional ads, and this is a type of LinkedIn ad that has the highest average cost per click.
Message ads
They are ads that are delivered to the target inbox of your LinkedIn users. This is a type of content that you directly send across to your audience from a user account and better measure engagement based on the action and response of the receiver.
Dynamic ads
These are personalized ads that change content based on how an audience member is viewing them. This is a type of LinkedIn ad that uses a member’s personal data to tailor its creative content.
Text ads
These ads show up in the right column or on the top page of LinkedIn. This works out to a cheap cost of advertising on LinkedIn but is still effective for boasting and enhancing the reach of your audience. Pay per click or impression for text ads.
LinkedIn Ads Best Practices
Be aware of your audience and the customer journey.
Once the business grows, so does your audience, and it is all about the customer journey. It is important that you update the customer personas and map accordingly. This will allow you to target the right customer at the right time. Depending on the ad type, you must consider the customer journey. You are going to create and share every type of ad that is ideal for every part of the customer journey. In addition, you could use a sponsored LinkedIn ad to reach people who have previously engaged with your brand.
Customer segmentation.
Segmenting your customers is an effective way to prepare for tailored and effective target setting, be it on LinkedIn or any other platform. As soon as you segment your customers so that you are aware of the target audience on LinkedIn to enhance engagement and the scope of conversions. Besides, you may be aware that a specific target audience would require a certain ad in the buyer’s journey.
Refer to your competitor’s LinkedIn ads as well as your social ads on other platforms.
Obtaining messages from social ads on other platforms along with your competitor’s LinkedIn ads is a better way to navigate and share your ads on LinkedIn. Though LinkedIn is a unique platform, and your audience may be the same across all social media platforms, It is still important to draw inspiration from it, as well as other social media platforms such as Google or Facebook. This happens to be a good starting point from which you can plan LinkedIn ads.
The choice of content has to be precise based on the ad type that you are creating.
It is obvious, you would want to be precise about the type of content you are sharing with your target audience. Referring to the customer segments would help you formulate tailor-made content taking the needs of the audience into consideration.
To conclude, with the right strategy and patience, LinkedIn ad campaigns play an important role in the marketing success of a company. LinkedIn is known to possess a powerful advertising platform, so it is better that you do not leave it on your digital marketing list. If proper research and optimization emerge it has the potential to bring in thousands of leads and conversions.
